It's spring break this week. We can't go to the country because there is no one to heat it before we arrive, and the water pump is broken. So we are at home in Riga. I can't get the boys out of the house no matter how hard I try. They are totally enamoured with hanging out in their pyjamas, playing Star Wars Lego and Star Wars on the Wii, pushing each other over, tickling each other and laughing hysterically.  Gotta love those dudes. They have recently discovered Weird Al Yancovic and his myriad songs about Star Wars: "Yoda" instead of "Lola" and "Be a Jedi" instead of "American Pie". Oh, Lordy, Lordy. Here's a word of warning for any parent of kids even vaguely interested in Star Wars: don't play them these songs. Unless you want to spend a few excruciating weeks listening to the choruses being belted out anywhere and everywhere.

In honor of living in this house for almost a year, we thought we should start painting the rest of the unpainted walls. Should have started around 12 months ago. We did the first wall on the weekend: a blackboard wall in the kitchen. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm not so sure.  We now have a big black post in the middle of our kitchen.  Huge. And. Black.  Dividing up the whole kitchen and making it look smaller and fussier.  Oh well, we're going to have to live with it for a while and see if it grows on us.  Lucky that we have budding artists at home to decorate the post with... Star Wars pictures.  Oh, yeah.  That's going to make the wall SO much more palatable.

Ironically, Tiss is being interviewed by some British filming team tomorrow - for a doco about kids around the world and their traditional cultural interests.  Tiss looked stumped, and a little crestfallen when I told him he couldn't list "playing Star Wars computer games" as a traditional cultural interest.  And that reading "The Wimpy Kid" books did not make for a scintillating account of what he likes to do on the weekends.  Or does it?  Depends on who you ask, I guess.