I haven't written much lately because I simply haven't had the gumption.  It's not that nothing has happened, in fact a lot has happened, but I get home and just feel like vegging with a book or TV show.  We have had a lousy spring with rain, thunderstorms and hail almost every afternoon or evening.  It has hampered our outside eating experience which is a great rite of spring for us.  GP gets all excited come April when it's time to bring the BBQ up from the garage.   The outside table and chairs go up and the little garden gets cleaned.  We've probably eaten out a dozen times max since then.  It's been either too cold or too wet.  At school we are going into our last week.  Yippee!  Our fearless leader, the great white sloth, has announced his retirement.  It's a big joke as he hasn't been at school since the 12th graders graduated and his protector , the head of the board of directors and father of one of grace's classmates, announced he'd be leaving.  Sir Sloth has been pushed out.  We know it, he knows we know it, it's all a big farce.  Whatever.  This weekend I'll be packing and cleaning and generally getting ready to fly home on Friday.  I am most impatient.  Today after school I'm going to a "baby shower" for Rosie, our little she-devil of a Pilates instructor.  The baby shower is to be held at the home of one of her Brazilian compatriots and will be attended by the entire South American clan from the school (lots) who will be mostly watching the soccer game between Italy and Sweden for the European Championships.  I expect it will be less baby talk and more booze and cheering.  I'll be happy with an exotic rum drink and some sunshine!  These days the news here is either about football or Brexit.  The UK votes next Thursday whether or not to stay in the EU.  Just our luck they may leave the Union the year our daughter will be attending university there as a EU citizen at a reduced rate.  I very much doubt it will change much for us right away but you never know.  So off I go to do some errands.  xxoo me

It has been a while since I wrote last and I have had all sorts of inane things to say, like how my husband dragged me off to yet another hike up a mountain and this time we were in the clouds and climbing past glaciers and I froze my ass off (alas not literally) and we saw a small herd of Fallow Deer (looked that up) who are MUCH better scurrying over the snow and ice than I am.  Or how I have been filling my non working time since Grace returned to the States with museum visits ((fantastic Asian Art) and trying new cuisines (Persian - yum).  But then Grace messaged me about Orlando.

What the Hell?  He was on the FBI watch list and yet was allowed to buy an automatic weapon???  He was described as "unstable and violent" but was given a license to carry a gun.  There is something so wrong with our country.  How many people need to die before we get guns off the market?  Yes this guy was nuts, a terrorist, whatever, but if he hadn't been able to buy a frickin' AR15 or any other automatic weapon, like soooo many others who have committed mass murder in the US, it would have been just that much less deadly.  There will always be crazies.  Do we have to make things so easy for them to do so much harm?  Sad sad day.  xxoo me

We are having torrential rains.  There is massive flooding in France and Germany and parts of Italy.  The only thing protecting us a bit is the Alps that seem to be holding some of the weather back.  I'm glad it held off until after graduation.  It is a good thing that's raining actually because I've had to be on the phone all afternoon with the IRS.  AGAIN!  Every frickin' year!  No one knows what the hell is going on in that place.  I was sent from office to office with no one answering my questions.  Excuse me for my lack of sensitivity but one woman was an immigrant with such a heavy accent I could barely understand her, (when I got angry about being sent to yet another office she told me maybe people would help me if I were more polite), the next person was a woman with a bad speech impediment!  I kid you not.  She stuttered so badly I was chewing on my sleeve to stop myself from screaming, "Shut up!!!"  And the worst part is NO ONE was giving me any answers.  The stutterer told me to fill out a form that I know for a fact is the wrong one and didn't know the difference between a citizen and a resident!  WHERE do they FIND these people?  If everything in the States functioned like the IRS we'd be in ruins.  They tell you to use their web site to fill in forms but don't provide the information you need on such web site.  As in it's actually blank.  The line beside Italy's  tax treaty exempt number is BLANK.  But I need it.  They can't give it to me.  I need to go to the web site.  AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRREGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!  I'm going to call my accountant who has just returned from a vacation in Alaska hunting mosquitoes or something.  God give me strength.  xxoo me