What to do when the Pope won't make time for you

Last weekend the Pope came to town.

He arrived on Friday afternoon & headed straight to visit the Infant of Prague- in a modest church which sits almost directly on the road- causing the re-routing of all the trams & traffic that head down that side of the river.  People love that.  Lily really thought we should head out to see him, but, sadly (?), after we promised her that we would, he left for other parts of the Czech Republic.  I guess we dodged a bullet there- the crowds were ridiculous everywhere he went, with people getting there at 4:00 am for an afternoon appearance.  Just like Madonna.  Or the opening of a Wallmart.

So, to alleviate the crushing disappointment, we decided to take the kids skating in Letna- a big park at the top of the city with beautiful views-  which connects to one end of the castle grounds.  The day was sunny & warm (one last hurrah before in came the cold & the wet that we are now enjoying) & we are able to get there with one tram & very little pain- always a good start to an outing.










(And lastly, of course, one should end any successful outing by doing Burpees on the tram...)

Some of the best things come in a Bundt

Monkey Bread.

The. Best. Thing. Ever.  Everyone loved it "better than cinnamon rolls".  Lily declared that it would be her birthday cake this year & Antonin was sad that his birthday was already over & therefore, too, his chance to have a Monkey Bread birthday cake.  I'd never made it before & so, having very little white sugar in the house & unable to make cookies (but needing to bake), I thought I'd give it a shot.  It was a little  bigger job than I'd first anticipated, having to make a batch of "simple dough" & then go forward with the recipe- but not hard.  (I made more than the intended 36 uniform balls & I believe that just made it better- more ffrequent caramelly goodness.)  I used the recipe from my favorite baking book (thank you Erin) "The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book"- the cookbook put out by the Cook's Illustrated people.  I love Cook's Illustrated- so interesting & informative- but my only complaint comes with their assumption that I have every appealing cooking tool on hand.  I'm happy to hear about these tools & machines that would make my life easier.  I'm not happy to be following recipes that assume I have them & don't even allow for the thought that I may be doing things by hand- ie without this fabulous tool you'll need to use more flour/time/etc...  Humph.  Like recipes that give me "a box of cake mix" or a "can of soup" as ingredients.  (Although that is an unforgivable crime.)

Procházka

If you set off in one direction from our apartment, you can walk to the castle.  Last weekend, we decided to walk the other way- & between our place & Hvězda, there are places almost village-like (probably at one point were villages, now, simply, Prague).

We wandered until we found a sweet playground & settled there for awhile.

Everyone was exhuasted by the time we returned home- Miss Lily, of course, rallied in time to go out (as the boys prepared for War).

It was the 007 40th anniversary party &, as we didn't have a sitter, Lily got to go instead of me.  She had a great time (& I watched much of season #1 of Dexter) & so everyone was happy.

Creepy Aside:  At 007 when someone offered our Lulu a beer, Zdeněk explained that she's his daughter & only 12 (so, no beer).  Creepy Beer Offerer:  "Oh, I didn't think that she looked like your wife."

Toothsome update

Still have the tooth.  After (finally) locating the suddenly-missing tooth on the floor near the bed, Antonin was, once again, unable to part with it just yet.  He is considering writing a very nice note for the Tooth Fairy, explaining how much he'd like to keep the tooth- but that he'd also really like his gift- & seeing if she'll be understanding.

Riverfront

On Tuesday Lori & I spent the last part of a beautiful, sunny afternoon enjoying a few beers down at the river, directly below the National Theater.  It was nice to get out for awhile & appreciate our setting.
 From there we walked up to U Sudu, where neither of us had been for a very long time- from a tiny little wine bar it has really grown into something of a monster- we were a bit apprehensive.  As soon as we walked in, we ran into Olda, the owner, he recognized us immediately (couldn't believe we'd been back already two months & we haven't been by (Zdeněk hasn't been by!) & showed us out to the "garden".  (Lori: Is this new (To je nové?) Olda: Five years (pět let)).  Okay, so it's been awhile.  It's a large, lovely courtyard, full of candlelight.  When our initially abrupt waitress returned, she suddenly started speaking to us in English & told us that we were VIPs & she'd been "told all about us" & she heard that Zdeněk used to work up the street at the Ice Cream Store.  Yes, she wanted us to know, she used to go there as a child.
We had ourselves a little pitcher of Burčák (young wine).  All in all, a successful evening.

Toothsome

Antonin lost a tooth last night. 
He decided not to put it under his pillow because he wanted to spend another day admiring it.  Tonight he is going to say goodbye to the tooth (although he is a little uncertain, not having have any firm evidence that the tooth fairy comes to Prague).

FAMILY MEMBER OF EU CITIZEN

So the hours spent yesterday at the Foreign Police were well-spent.  I now have, once again, my Permanent Residency.

Such a relief.  With that, Zdenek was able to go today get me my health insurance (the real reason that permanent residency permit is so important).  Cost: FREE- until my kiddies leave home (& this includes dental & vision, because really, what is your health without it?).  Of course, my favorite benefit of the day was the stamp in my U.S. passport that says I belong to EU residents which should get me through the shorter line at the airport.

Yeah!  (Of course, Frankfurt International Airport is stocked with frightening people & they'd probably turn me back to the other line, regardless.  I hate to battle with scary airport-Germans.)