Rick & Kate are here!

Having a great time with Brian's bro Rick and his wife Kate! Visiting London, Blenheim Palace and the changing of the guard at the Queen's Windsor Castle. Museums and theatre tomorrow in London!

Update on Brian's Dad

Overall, things are progressing as well as they can be in Tom's current state. The best news is that he's been transferred now from St Mary's Trauma hospital in Duluth, down to a regional hospital in River Falls, WI. So closer to home for him, which is really great for both him and Karen. Probably best if I just pass along the words from Karen for the update:


Hello all! It has been a while since I updated everyone on Tom's progress - - they really keep us hopping with all the physical therapy, respiratory therapy, tests, x-rays, etc.

Tom is doing well. He had a bit of a scare with pneumonia, but the doctors at St. Mary's were watching for it and jumped on it right away. His breathing is doing much better these days.

On Monday, he was stabilized enough to be moved from Duluth to River Falls - a bit closer to home! Yeah! He is excited at the prospect of being able to go outside to the patio area and have me bring the dogs to visit him!

St. Mary's is a leading trauma hospital in the midwest and they provided excellent care and got him through some very touch-and-go moments. We are excited at the prospect of a smaller, home-town hospital, with less staff turnover, and a less hectic pace, however. We have learned the importance of continuity of care - - it will be nice to have the same nurses each day, and the same physical therapists, who already know his case, and what he is capable of doing.

In the River Falls hospital, he is in what they call a swing bed. Basically, they take care of him and teach him how to function independently in spite of his vast injuries. Once he can transfer himself from bed to wheelchair, dress himself and get himself into/out of his TSLO (a hard plastic brace that he has to wear whenever he is not in bed) by himself, he will be sent home to finish his recovery. And here I thought the days of a having a hospital bed in my living room ended when he quit racing! WRONG!

We are seeing daily improvements in his condition and his ability to move around. He has his cell phone with him, but honestly, they don't give him much time to hang out and chat.

Thanks for all the prayers, cards, texts, voice mails, etc. It is comforting to hear how many people are worried about him!

Attempt at Halloween

Well Halloween just isn't quite the big deal in the UK as in the US. The little kids do put on fancy dress (costumes), and kinda trick or treat. But commercially, it's hardly noticeable as a holiday amongst all of the Christmas stuff already out in the surpermarkets and shops! I'm not even such what people would hand out for candy on Halloween, I've never seen bags of mini-candy bars in the supermarkets. So not really sure what the kids get!

I asked my English girlfriends, if they ever trick or treated when they were little, and none of them had. It's only a recent thing, but they do remember carving turnips! Folklore has it that some Irish guy did something bad, and was stuck in-between heaven and hell, and so had to roam the earth at night. So he carved a face in a turnip and stole a light of fire from the devil, and used it as a "lantern" to light his way. So that is where we ended up getting the "jack o' lanterne" carving idea from (they say).

Brian and I weren't much in a large celebratory mood, but did want to enjoy the nice autumn weather and hang out with our friend Jo for the day. So we took a short drive to Millets Farm, where we figured it might be the closest thing to a UK pumpkin patch. It was a far stretch, but there were a few bales of hay where they were selling some pumpkins. So there we go! The largest pumpkin I've seen in this country is the one behind Brian on his right.

They also had a corn maze with scary monster actors, which the older kids could go to when it got dark.

We settled for afternoon tea looking over the farm land and lake!

News on Brian's Dad, Tom Smith

If you are family, you have probably already heard that Brian's dad Tom was in a bad car accident two weeks ago. He is now on the road to recovery, but it's going to be a long one. Long story short, you all in MN received some unseasonably cold/wintery weather at that time, which left icy roads up in Northern MN. Tom was driving home from his cabin in CA, so just north of Duluth, and his truck flipped on ice. There are no life threatening injuries at this point, but many broken bones and lots of rehabilitation to come after 4 surgeries.

Bri and I went to MN right away, and spent the time up at St Luke's Hospital in Duluth with Tom's partner Karen, Rick & Kate, and Tom's sisters, Anne and Beth. It was a scary time and Tom was incapacitated over that entire first week/weekend. I was there from Wed through Sunday. Brian stayed on until just today (the following Sunday) while Tom was weened off his breathing tube, and other drugs that kept him "out". Sounds like there has been many small drastic changes for the better for Tom, in this last week. So we are very happy and fortunate to have him with us and already the entire fam is pitching in and taking turns spending time with Tom and help keeping him company, encouraging him, serving as advocates at the hospital, etc. Within the week or so, he should be moved to another hospital that can help with rehabilitation and take him closer to home in Wisconsin. He has been talking with everyone since last weekend, and he's got a good determination and is being as positive as he can. He's doing well and making great strides.

It's sure been an eye-opening experience dealing with the insurance world for such a situation. I don't care whether people are republicans or democrats. I don't think which side of politics one is on, should have anything to do with the obvious need that something drastically needs to change the American health care/insurance system. No one needs to be worrying about costs, or who can take care of what, or where insurance will cover this versus this - when a loved one is in a serious state of health. Insurance coverage should be the last thing people should have to worry about. It really puts things into perspective when it's your own family that is experiencing the entire system. I couldn't even imagine what a family would have to do if this happened to them, and didn't have health insurance in America.

Brian turns 3-2!

Well Brian definitely celebrated in style for his B-day this year - or I should say, in Brian style! There should be no surprise to hear we were at the pub. But we did do a few more things to help him celebrate . . .

The wife got up early to bake the B-day boy fresh blueberry muffins



Went to the pub for pre-dinner pints, then all 18 of us enjoyed mezes, beer and ouzo at the Greek Taverna


Back to the pub for more post-dinner pints

The remaining few (still standing!) at our flat for late night celebrating

Summer Visitors 2: The Bjork family!

Our good friend's Elin & Magnus and their two kids, Rebecka and Lukas came back to Oxford for visit in September. We had just gotten to see then in July/August when we went on our trip to Norway. If you recall, we became great friends in 2007, the first year we lived in Oxford. We were neighbors from across the hall, and it was a fantastic year we will all never forget. Now we live in a different flat of course, but it was just big enough to add a family of 4 for a visit! Good thing kids are little!


The weather wasn't so great, but they remembered typical English summer weather and were well prepared. The great thing for us was that E&M already know Oxford very well and didn't need us to show them around. So Brian and I could carry on with work during the day, and the Bjorks could visit their favorite Oxford places. We would then all meet up for dinner at the flat - and play with the kids! Good practice . . . :)


We did take a weekend trip to the southern coast (well north part of the southern tip of the UK). We drove through the small city of Wells and visited the gorgeous cathedral. (A place is the UK isn't called a city unless it has a cathedral. Wells is the smallest city in the UK.) We then drove to Weston-super-mare and stayed in a B&B right across from the coast. There wasn't much for super warm, summery weather, but we just enjoyed visiting a new place.

On the drive back, we drove through the Cheddar Gorge. It's a beautiful natural gorge carved out of the Sommerset hills. It's also where cheddar cheese was first made. There is a lot of farmland and pastures in the area as well. And the caves within the gorge, was the perfect dark, damp place to store the cheddar cheese rounds while it matured.

We had a great time with the Bjorks visiting and we hope to see them again next year, probably in Sweden - especially with their expanding family and new house! :)

Summer Visitors: Nelson & Amanda!

I need to wrap up our summer events on the blog so I can move on to the autumn! BTW, the Brits don't use the word fall to describe a season, so I'm using consciously using autumn.


Anywho, already way back in August, our good friend Nelson from GAC and his fiance Amanda came to visit. They lucked out with great weather and great friends as tour guides of course!


Mainly, the goal was to enjoy catching up, touring around Oxford and taking it easy. Many pub stops were of course on the agenda as well.

We did get out for a day trip to to beautiful Georgian town of Bath and another trip to the must-see Windsor Castle. I think I could speak for all of us by saying the best afternoon was punting on Oxford's Cherwell river. There is always great entertainment along the river - this time - pirates!

We had a blast with N&A visiting and we look forward to seeing them again soon!