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2024 Holiday Films And Shows
We took a break from blogging for a few hectic weeks around Christmas and New Year’s, but are back to share how we spent some of our holiday season. Regular readers may remember that December is my month to dominate the watchlist with romantic comedies and other holiday schlock, helping me recover from Michelle’s horror…
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Our First Thanksgiving In The North
It was our third Thanksgiving in Portugal, but the first in our very own house. Experiencing a very American tradition is a bit of an odd thing when living in a different country, not to mention that some expats’ relationship to holidays and their homeland can be a bit complicated. Some are homesick and missing…
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Andrew’s Belated Birthday
With our move to Urgezes impending and our focus on packing and preparing we decided to put off my birthday celebration until September. I must admit that we made a late night order with Uber Eats and had a boatload of sushi dropped off for an impromptu dinner. Portuguese restaurants don’t skimp and it was…
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Urgezes House Tour
We had the very best of intentions. The plan was to film a post remodel house tour before the never-ending unpacking began. Andrew, myself, and the pets arrived after 9:00 pm on Wednesday August 28th and by 8:00 am Thursday August 29th our property started arriving. I am not a morning person on the best…
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The Small(er) Trip
We wrote about the challenges and excitement of our move from Medford, Oregon to Olhão, Portugal in the summer of 2022. There was an international shipment of our property, an emergency passport pick up in Seattle, a FlixBus trip to Portland, car trips, airport shuttles, and long flights with 3 pets and 6 massive suitcases…
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Olhão: We’ll Miss…
We’ve talked a lot about why we decided to move to Guimarães but wanted to take time to go over some of the counterarguments. We weighed each of these ten things (and more) as we made our decision. In no particular order here are ten of the things we know we will miss that won’t…
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Suika Game
Once or twice a year Michelle and I sink our teeth into a video game that we play individually but simultaneously. We almost always have a game we are playing cooperatively, but Suika Game is a separate type of play where we each do our own thing. The two experiences lead to very different conversations…
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Goodbye Dear Neighbor
I have been totally neglecting my cross stitching hobby. I purchased a couple of cross stitch magazines at a bookstore within months of moving to Portugal and unfortunately they sat on a shelf untouched. Maybe I am dedicating more time to playing piano and more frequently saying yes to social engagements. Maybe the arrangement of…
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About That Wedding Dress…
While sifting through our massive international shipment of belongings from the States in August 2022 we discovered two items that definitely didn’t belong to us. One was a small container of expensive looking technical cords which looked as if they belonged to a TV camera person or a sound and lighting specialist. The second was…
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UEFA: 3 Ways
UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) is the European branch of FIFA that hosts a European Championship tournament every four years. This tournament is the second most popular in the world with only the FIFA World Cup ahead of it. Football (soccer for our readers in the United States) is extremely popular throughout Europe, but…