Economic Recovery: Personal Greenshoots

I found myself trapped inside a micro-economic koan these past few weeks. I really wanted to buy a new tie. But Karine said I had to wait for a job interview to buy the tie. I couldn't get a job interview because we are in a slow growth cycle and consumer spending is low. But I am a consumer and what I really want to consume is a new tie. But because no one is buying ties (not even me) the economy is stagnant and no one is hiring. I want to participate in our economy. I want to be the change in economic growth that is going to ultimately result in some business hiring me to expand their workforce. So I figure maybe if I buy the tie first it will be the fluttering tremor of hope that leads ultimately to an earthquake of economic recovery. But Karine says no. We are practical people and we don't buy ties in an effort to move markets and create jobs.

So I just had to wait. Until now. Tie shopping today. Real tie shopping. Not pretend tie shopping like last week. Because I have a job interview.

Omaha + Grain Silos + Art = Stored Potential

Omaha is marketing itself these days as an oasis of whimsy in the heart of America. Omaha is actually a Sioux word that means across the current or upstream. We're just a bunch of up stream paddlers here in Omaha.

That's why projects like Stored Potential make perfect sense here. Here's the plan: Cover a colossal set of unused grain silos near downtown Omaha with art. Then serve dinner to 500 people at the base of the silos. It's happening October 3rd.


This project is so breathtakingly awesome I can't believe it's not on the front page of the Omaha World-Herald every day.

Find more info, artists renderings, and blog here.

Having Twins

We went to Target last night to do some shopping. That's right. Saturday night. Shopping at Target with the whole family. It was awesome!

We went there for a number of reasons. High on the list was a new pair of sandals for Zeke. I didn't realize that baby-size feet can develop adult-size foot funk. If you can smell your child's feet when they are sitting on your lap, you have a problem and you need to find a solution. We had no luck at Target, couldn't find size six. We're going to head to a bowling ally this afternoon and see if we can borrow some of that spray they use on the bowling shoes.

But we still had fun. I like to touch as many products as possible when we shop. Last night, I touched a pink fuzzy baby blanket and realized that we haven't announced the final verdict on the twins. Everything is going exactly as we planned it One boy, one girl.

We had an eight hundred dollar sonogram the other week. (They bill you for two!) The same procedure in Honduras cost us twenty-two dollars. But I'm pretty sure our sonogram here was more detailed. We learned that both babies are healthy and our little girl likes to kick our little boy in the face. The sonogram technician assured us that probably this would not harm the little boy. If they stay in their current positions, the boy will be born first. Due date: November 8th.

Roy Roger's Horse Trigger to Find New Home in Omaha

Trigger, probably the most famous dead horse in the world, was purchased by an Omaha business man for $266,000. The horse died of natural causes in 1965 after starring in over a hundred western films with the legendary Roy Rogers. Now the stuffed horse is going to live in Omaha. This place just keeps getting better.

Household Goods

We like to call them HHGs. They are on the way. They were picked up in Gulfport sometime this afternoon. The last time we saw them we were freaking out trying to get everything packed and protected for the trip home. Then, for a long time, it seems like some key people in Honduras sort of forgot about them. But then Karine told them that we really needed them and the baby's crib was in there and she is pregnant with twins and that got the ball rolling again. Now they are on the way.

We've just got to figure out where we're going to put them when they get here.

Sweet Boat

This is my brother-in-law Jon's boat. It's pretty sweet. He took me wake boarding one day and it was great except that I couldn't really walk or lean over and pick stuff up for two days after. Jon is really nice about giving all the little nieces and nephews rides in his sweet boat. The lake is called Long Lake and it is outside of Park Rapids, Minnesota.

The sky is courtesy of God. No charge.

Minivan Shopping in Arkansas

We looked at some sweet minivans yesterday. That's a sentence I thought I'd never write, a thought I thought for sure would never exist in my head. Well, times change. We are old, we are dorks, we will join the cavalry of minivans and, if we are lucky, we will drive them to Dairy Queen.

We didn't plan on needing a minivan. Maybe no one plans on needing a minivan. It's just something that happens to you.

We visited three dealerships, sat in a bunch of minivans, drove some other minivans, spent a surprising amount of time wondering whether or not a certain used minivan smelled like urine, talked numbers, and said no about eighty-five times. Then we went home without a minivan.

It's hard to buy something when it's really expensive and you don't want to buy it, but you sort of need to buy it. Here's what we want to buy:

2010 GMC Terrain. We talked to Todd at the GMC dealership and he was just the coolest salesguy we talked to all day. He was selling what we wanted to buy, and he was the guy we wanted to buy it from, except that what we wanted to buy was something that just doesn't work for a family of five with two infants and two-year-old. We found ourselves in the classic WANT versus NEED conflict. Which, I don't know about you, but me, I go with what I want like 85% of the time. But in this case....

We asked Todd if he could help us: of course he could! He showed us the GMC Acadia, which is only slightly less awesome than the crucially awesome GMC Terrain. You can definitely fit three car seats in an Acadia. Only problem is that you pretty much would have to squeeze them in sideways to access the third row seat. Maybe even rotate them upside down. Which, to some people, is like a deal-breaker.


Some unknown organ behind my sternum activated itself in sympathetic vibration when Todd fired up the 3.6 liter V6 on the moderately-pimped Acadia he was showing us.

With great personal sadness we walked away from the friendly and knowledgeable Todd and put our dreams of owning either of these finely-crafted machines in a small and sturdy box near our hearts.

We are still in the hunt. For a minivan.

28 Days: Moving Possessions from Honduras to USA

On May 31st, a Dole banana truck is going to pull up in front of the house. Into that truck some guys will load whatever possessions we wish to take back home. The truck takes our cargo to one of the busiest fruit ports in the world. The Lewandowski family banana container will then be nested snugly with all the other banana containers on the banana boat. The boat, company people call it a vessel, will then navigate the probably oil-slicked waters between Puerto Cortez, Honduras and Gulf Port, Louisiana, USA.

That task that lies before us, like a steaming pile of, we'll say, nachos, is determining what goes on the vessel. There will be disagreements. Karine threw a shoe at my face with intent to injure one time as we were deciding what to take home for the summer.

Wish us luck.

New Furniture

We've had our eye on this special type of Guatemalan hand-carved furniture for the past 3 years. Several of our friends have had different types of this furniture around their homes and we've always admired it. Each year, a couple of guys arrive in La Ceiba and park along the side of the road selling their furniture for just a week or two. The style is characterized by thick carving in heavy pieces of cypress wood. The pieces are then finished- not with a normal wood stain, but with shoe polish. The effect is a unique, ornately carved piece of furniture.


We had heard rumors that it was possible to bargain for a good deal, but for the past 2 years have had no luck locating these guys. Finally, for the past two weeks, we've noticed the guys were camped out in their truck selling their wares on the side of the road, just a 3 minute walk from our front door. Yesterday we pulled out all the stops and bought all of our dream pieces. Two hours later, the big truck parked in front of our house and unloaded our purchases. We now have grown-up matching furniture, all for a very affordable price.


How affordable can 8 pieces of beautifully hand carved furniture be, you might ask? Well, individually, the asking price came to about $700 for everything we dreamed of buying. Tom's bargaining skills (and the fact that the men are packing up and leaving town tomorrow) brought the price down to $425. Now I know this may sound like a lot to spend on a random afternoon whim (Merry Christmas, Tom!), but here's what we bought:

6 foot tall bookshelf,
3.5 foot tall accent bookshelf
giant cabinet-type thing (we'll use for our stereo and board games)
hope chest/trunk
2 matching end/accent tables
large picture frame


AND the best thing of all...
this awesome rocking horse! (to be tied up with a red bow and put under the Christmas tree for Zeke- don't tell him!)


It seems like people living abroad should try to think about going light on the furniture, since you have to move it around. Luckily, our employer is in the big banana boat business, and we get free shipping for our household goods when we're on our way out of here someday. What a fun day!

New Pants Alert

Karine and I got some new pants. We'll post pictures later.