Visitors from another world

One very underslept Girl was returned to us this morning, so I guess that rates as a successful "no-sleepover".  She didn't manage to muster any visible energy for the rest of the day.  I hope she catches up with herself tonight because she has a New Year's Eve sleepover tomorrow.

We had visitors in the afternoon.  Yesterday at the dentist, her son interpreting for her, my refugee friend offered to come and clean my house.  When I told her no, no she didn't need to do that, she admitted that really she just wanted to come and see where I lived.  Fair enough.

So this afternoon I collected her - and several other members of the family - and brought them over for a visit.  It was fun, even though the dog - still on loan from next door - scared the toddler (simply by virtue of being a dog - he didn't do anything scary and he's scarcely bigger than a guinea pig).  We looked through some photos and books about Burma, while the kids played with toys (including the dolls' house and the singing Christmas penguin).  Then we piled back into the car and I drove them home again. 

What people who have spent most of their lives in a refugee camp in Thailand make of an average American suburban home, I can't really imagine.

Dog days of winter

It has been a funny old day, with different combinations of us to-ing and fro-ing, and the Man slightly feeling that he's running an exceedingly cheap taxi service.

The kids were up early - the Boy's buddy had stayed overnight and was spending the day with us. I took the Girl for a skating practice first thing.  Then later in the morning I was called out to take my refugee friend and her son to the dentist.  After lunch the Girl needed a ride across the river to visit a friend, and the Man went on from there to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles for an eye-test to renew his licence ("Would you like to try reading the chart first without your glasses? Go back to the third blue floor tile and no cheating now!").

Soon after getting home from that he went out again to fetch the Girl and get her to her evening skating lesson, and himself to the YMCA for a run.  Then we all scarfed down some dinner before I set off to deliver the Girl to a sleepover (her first teenager's birthday party. Yikes.), calling in on the library on the way home to pay off my final fines of 2011.  And now the Man has gone back to the Y to take the Boy swimming...

The most restful presence in the house today has to be next-door's dog, who is with us again for another overnight stay.  He can hardly be bothered to go out, never mind take a ride in the car.

No-show snow woe

It has been much colder today, with a biting wind.  Not at all nice to be out in.  It even tried to snow a bit this afternoon, but nothing has stuck.  I'm pining for white scenery - compared to our other winters here this one is freakishly unsnowy.  This time last year, for example, we were up to our knees in the stuff.  This was the scene at Five Rivers on Christmas Day this year.  

A this-and-that day for us, then - the children seeing friends and the adults odding about.  The Man tried to take the Boy and his buddy to play glow-in-the-dark minigolf, but discovered it was closed for the winter this year, which about limits indoor diversions to museums, skating and ten-pin bowling until further notice.  As for outdoor pursuits, well, if it doesn't start snowing soon skiing isn't going to be much fun...

Could be a long, long winter.

Out of the closet

In our bedroom the Man and I have a spacious walk-in closet (what in other cultures might be a called a "room").  Inevitably, because it's behind a door that closes, all sorts of junk ends up in there.

Today I emptied it out and sorted through everything.  It was very satisfying.

There are things that do rightfully belong in a closet - the sort of things that are useful occasionally, like sleeping bags and extra quilts, suitcases and wind-up gramophones.  Also a small stash of emergency gifts in case of unexpected birthdays.  I've now made space for some of my fair trade campaign materials (posterboards and such-like) which until now had just been propped against a wall.  I haven't quite managed to part with the unpacked box of books, or the stack of pictures which we clearly don't love all that much or we'd have hung them up by now.  But I have made the space cleaner and tidier and altogether less appalling, and that's a good thing.  Also, I found a favourite sock that has been missing for months.

Now just the rest of the house to deal with...

Going cold tofurky

You will of course be wondering what a tofurky really looks like (we were).

Voila! 

And as for the flavour?  Well, let's just say that it tastes as it looks - not very much like a turkey.  The Man thought it was OK.   I wasn't too convinced - though surprisingly it's not bad cold.  Just a couple more days of torfurky sandwiches ahead of us now...

Happy Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas - we hope you did too.  Thank you to those who sent gifts, they are all much appreciated.

A while ago we suggested to the kids that they might like, ooh I dunno, a cruise in the Bahamas for Christmas?  But they weren't interested.  What they really, really wanted was to stay at home in their pyjamas all day, and...

..a singing penguin.

Result!

Seasons greetings

The house is tidy, the presents are wrapped and the tofurky is plucked and in the fridge.  The children aren't quite in bed, but at least they are in their pyjamas.  I think we may actually be ready for Christmas.

The Girl declared today that she has a new favourite seasonal song - we share it here as our novelty festive gift to you.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa to all!

Special delivery

The kids still had school, but the Man had the day off today.  That gave us the chance to make a joint shopping expedition, and also to have lunch out.  We went to "Sushi X", where the Man and colleagues had dined yesterday, and enjoyed munching our way through some tofu dishes, spring rolls, edamame and veggie sushi.

When we got home and looked in the mailbox we were surprised to find a Christmas card from some neighbours.  Not that we don't have a Christmas-card exchanging sort of relationship with them (they are a friendly family, good company, and they've often been kind enough to help us out in various ways these past four years).  No, what surprised us was that they'd sent their card via the mail: stamp, postmark, US Postal Service delivery-van and all.  And though it's true suburban American houses are generally more widely-spaced than British ones, even so - these are our next-door neighbours. Our mailbox is actually only eighteen paces from theirs. 

We were promised snow last night, but it didn't happen, just drizzly rain.  We haven't seen any of the white stuff since that freak snowfall at the end of October.  It hasn't even been especially cold most of the time - the kids have yet to wear their winter coats.  Dream as I may, I'm not convinced the children will be listening for sleigh bells in the snow this Christmas.

It must be nearly Christmas...

... the school bus drivers are wearing Santa hats.  As was the venerable Director of Five Rivers Environmental Education Center when I called in there this morning on an errand. 'Tis the season to be silly.

The Girl got to eat buche de Noel (log-cake) in French class, in an event billed as a "cultural tasting", which was really a Holiday party.  The Boy brought home a little bag of goodies from his teacher - a candy cane and a sachet of "snowman soup" (aka hot chocolate).  You'd think it was the last day of term, but no - they have one more full day of school tomorrow.

I was in town doing last minute shopping.  Jo-Ann's, the big box craft store, has a 70%-off sale going on all its Christmas goods.  And of course in the next aisle along, the Valentine's Day stuff is already on the shelves...

When Life gives you lemons...

Could there be a better example of American positivity?  I found it in the long letter from the school nurse advising of an outbreak of nits in the Boy's grade.  In amongst the detailed descriptions of critical ten-day treatment schedules and directions to boilwash all our belongings was this cheery sub-heading:

Park and pray

The Man writes...soon after arriving in the States I remarked to a local work colleague about the number of Drive-thru ATMs here. "Yes," he agreed, "it's one of those things, once you have them you wonder how you ever managed without." Which wasn't where I was going at all.

Of course, should you wish you can cash cheques (banks often have Drive-thru tellers as well), pick up fast food, collect prescriptions or watch a big screen movie without leaving the driver's seat. And the historic First Church in Albany even offers another service:

  

Sayonara

You've probably been wondering how my dentist is getting on.  Well, very nicely thank you, especially having had yet another extensive (& expensive) go at my teeth this morning.  I've had so many crowns by now I'm practically royal, and I feel almost relaxed lying back in that reclining chair.  Almost.

This afternoon I said goodbye to my Japanese friend.  She and her family are returning to live in Japan, flying tomorrow.  I think she's happy about moving home - although they'll be settling in a new city, so it might not seem exactly like home for a while.  It might be tough for her sons who have come to enjoy being here and have made many friends. 

In other news...bowing to cultural pressure (and at the insistence of the Boy, who even included this on his Christmas list) we have finally put up outdoor "holiday" lights.  Before you get too excited, no, not an inflatable Santa.  Just this restrained but twinkly acknowledgement of the season.

Wild tofurky hunt

Bagged us some Christmas dinner today...

Hide and sleep

I'm blogging rather late tonight - we've just got in from a party a friend's house.

It was fun, a chance to catch up with friends we don't see often, and to meet some new people too.  While the adults ate, drank and chatted, numerous kids (including our own) first watched a movie, then played out in the backyard for way too long considering tonight's sub-freezing conditions (half of them came in looking slightly blue), then played an endless game of hide-and-seek around the house.

As the adults started to flag and think about heading home, the children seemed to reach their peak of energy - fueled no doubt by a generous intake of caffeinated fizzy drinks.  We did eventually persuade ours to leave, and the Boy will just have to try out his "perfect hiding place" another time.  And now - to bed!

Great rep

The Man and I loaned out the children and went to the theatre tonight.

We'd been given tickets for Man of La Mancha at the Capital Repertory Theater, better known as Capital Rep.  From the outside it's the least attractive theatre I've ever seen - it looks like a multi-storey carpark.  In fact, the theatre is kind of tucked within a parking lot (which ironically you aren't allowed to park in at night when you might conceivably be going to, I dunno, the theatre?). 

Anyway, once inside, Capital Rep is a wonderful theatre space.  It's small, what they call "an intimate setting", so everyone in the audience is pretty close to the stage and almost in amongst the action.  Tonight's sold-out performance was excellent, with a talented and versatile cast.  The Man and I will no doubt be whistling To Dream the Impossible Dream for weeks to come.

More furtive than festive?

Although I'm generally pretty busy with things going on here, I do still like to keep up with the hot topics of conversation back in our UK hometown.  So I check in on the forum page of linton.info from time to time (ok, daily), to find out what's goin' down on the mean streets of our favourite South Cambridgeshire village.

Reassuringly, not too terribly much it seems.  There's still occasional sniping about the infant school field being designated a village green; someone recently got very hot under the collar about the signage for this year's Guy Fawkes Night fireworks display; there's been a verbal punch-up going on for weeks about whether or not a junction out of the village onto the A1307 is badly designed or not; and there's endless comparison of the three village pubs (seems like the Wagon and Horses is currently on the ascendant, while the Dog and Duck may have lost its way...).  Well, you get the drift. 

Most of the people who comment do so anonymously.  I do actually know who a couple of them are, and can take a guess at a couple more.  But most of them I can't identify.  They may or may not be people I'd recognise if I ran into them on the High Street.  Anyway, one of them has just suggested online that they all meet up for "festive drinkies". 

It's quite a funny concept, and I'm interested to know how it all works out.  Some of the forum regulars are enthusiastic, but others are more wary - perhaps not wanting to shrug off their anonymity cloaks.  But the latest comment I've read on the thread, which picks up on an earlier comment, suggests a solution (and a potential West End-quality modern farce):

I like Numbnut's idea of loitering in order to check out the suspects before making yourself known. What if most people say they can't make it, but are actually there?

BTW, if there's anyone out there still reading this blog, do feel free to use the Albaniana comment section to organise your own seasonal get-together (and then let me know if you choose to ignore each other or not).

Fun with Friends

A long session at Five Rivers this evening - the monthly Board meeting, preceded by an extra meeting to discuss plans for celebrating the 40th anniversary next year of both the Environmental Education Center and the Friends of Five Rivers. 

There's to be an event for each season: a fundraising gala in the spring, a family fun day in the summer, Fall Festival (of course) in the autumn, and rounding off with a winter carnival.  A lot of work, a lot of fun, it should all be good.  A much-needed new building for the Friends-sponsored "Guided Schools Program" (the scheme I sometimes teach on) is also scheduled to open sometime in 2012.

More immediately for me, I'm working on selecting some student photos of Five Rivers to display at the visitor centre, and putting together a sort of diorama to go on show at the local library next month. 

How did you/would you celebrate your fortieth?

Birthday blessings

The children and I were invited out to a birthday party tonight, hosted by my refugee friends. 

Although it was only the actual birthday of one child in the family, they were holding the celebration in honour of all four childen.  Not having been given much hint about what the party would entail, I was a bit surprised when it turned out to be a church service in their sitting room.  Less surprised that it was all in Karen (one of Burma's many ethnic languages).

Now, having done a six month stint in a convent in Burma (as I've mentioned before) I have quite a high threshold for religious services in languages I don't understand.  At the convent I always enjoyed the hymns - belted out in four-part harmony - and the crowd gathered in the small apartment tonight sang with similar gusto.  But the sermon was long, and the prayer was long and once it dawned on me that we were probably set for an hour-long session I did wonder how my own children (not much accustomed to church in any language) were going to hold out.

They did me proud - sat still, no complaining.  Although they have no religious leanings themselves, they appreciated that for the people gathered in the room this was a special occasion - and they rose to it.  After the final Amen, they fully deserved to tuck into birthday cake with the rest of the guests. 

Firther remarks

Until we started looking into it (where else but online?) we hadn't realised just how many varieties of Christmas tree there are to choose from. 

As I mentioned yesterday, we opted for a Douglas Fir, although the farmer did his best to steer us towards the Canaan Firs, commending their strong, well-spaced branches for hanging heavy ornaments, and superior Christmassy scent.  But we are swayed more by shape, and we just liked the look of the one we chose.

How do you select your tree?  Or do you spare yourself the bother, and just drag one out of the attic every December?  (Assuming you put up a tree at all.)

While we're on the subject of Christmas, I got started on some gift-shopping today.  Browsing in the very lovely Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza, someone suddenly thrust a TV camera in my face. "Don't take any notice of me," he said, improbably.  It was a local news network doing a piece about an Amazon app that's undermining sales in independent bookstores.  Blimey, though - it seems like there's no stepping out of the house these days without ending up on the telly...

Fir from the madding crowd

We collected up some friends today and set off in search of a Christmas tree.

At the first tree farm we came to, the guy said sorry but he was all out of trees.  We could, in fact, see trees - however he was saving them for next year.  But he directed us up the hill and along a bit to another farm: "Tell 'em Earl sent you."

There were, thank goodness, a few trees left for sale at the Pretty Penny Tree Farm.  We tramped off into the field and inspected them.  Happily for indecisive us, there were few enough to choose from that picking one wasn't very hard.  Not that you pick a tree, of course - you saw it down.  The Man did the honours, and then the children kid-handled our Douglas Fir back to the car.  The proprietor, who has lived there for forty four years, cracked open some black walnuts for us to try and showed us photos of the farm's friendly wild coyote.

The tree seemed rather small on top of the car, but became much bigger inside our house.  Even so, with a spot of teamwork we had it decorated in no time.

Bobbing along

We've had a cheerful but not particularly bloggable day (though the meal with a friend at the Hidden Cafe in Delmar was fun and we enjoyed visits with the kids to the last-but-one Farmers Market and a second hand book store).  So, since we haven't posted any pictures for a while, here's a caption comp:

or indeed:

Screening off the world

Waiting for the Girl to change after skating at the YMCA the other day I suddenly realised that everyone else sitting in the waiting area was looking at a screen.  Laptop, i-Pad, i-Phone, DS...  No books, no knitting, no passing the time of day with an acquaintance or stranger.  Just everyone locked in and interacting with a gadget.  It was...disturbing somehow.

Now obviously I'm interacting with a gadget as I write, and you are as you read this, so it's not that I'm completely averse to screens.  In fact far from it.   I love the fact that computers allow me to keep in touch with friends around the world, and catch up with people I'd lost touch with.  Email really does make planning events and whatever very much easier and...oh, so many things are more efficient and convenient because of technology. 

And yet...  As much as we're gaining, I think we're also losing skills.  I don't think this is an entirely good thing.

What are your thoughts? 

Here today and gone today

Great disappointment this morning - the merest dusting of snow on the ground, not enough to cause so much as a snow delay, and all gone by lunchtime.  Yet friends less than twenty miles away, the other side of the Hudson, were snowed in and had the whole day off.

The Girl was performing in a concert tonight (she's in the 6th Grade choir).  I read through the programme notes and registered the message from SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions, a school club where I guess the kids sit around not drinking and smoking) - they wanted to encourage parents not to drink and drive over the holiday season.  Can't argue with that.

I mention all this because, before the concert kicked off, a special announcement was made to draw the audience's attention to this message, with the added inducement that one lucky programme-holder would find a smiley face on the SADD page and therefore win a prize.

Well, I'd already looked at the page of course and hadn't noticed a smiley face...or had I? 

I looked again.  OMG!  It's me!  I'm the winner!  Look!  Look!  I've got the smiley face!  I murmured internally as I strolled up to the stage to receive my prize...

Since you ask:  two holiday mugs with complimentary sachets of drinking chocolate.  Will go very nicely with a hot toddy and a cigar between seasonal parties... 

I'm kidding, lovely SADD students, you know I am. Thank you for the nice prize.

Beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

It has been a nasty cold rainy day here, and according to the forecast it's going to turn into a nasty cold snowy night.  Since it is December now, that does at least sound about right - more right than temperatures in the 50s and even 60s that we've been having lately.

Anyone ready for Christmas yet?  Not us (ho ho ho), despite the kids' efforts to get us in the Holiday spirit by playing 95.5, "the official Holiday music station" at every possible opportunity.  It's like living at the mall - Santa Claus constantly coming to town, the little drummer boy paruppa-pum-pumming like there's no tomorrow, and Mariah-bloomin'-Carey yodelling her Christmas wish-list (all I want for Christmas is youuuuuuuuu).  Or (the kids' version) "all I want for Christmas is a Wii".

Silent Night?  I wish.

Margin notes

Involvement with refugees in Albany has introduced me to a whole different world. 

I've found myself in interesting neighbourhoods I'd had no reason to visit before.  I've had bemusing encounters with the Department of Social Security, and dealings with agencies I never knew existed.  In a few short weeks I've already learnt a lot (not least, how much more I've still got to learn) about life on the margins.

Most of all, I've been meeting good people facing bewildering and frustrating problems, and other good people willing to spend every day trying to address those problems.  I'm endlessly impressed by the resiliance of the former, and by the patience of the latter. 

The Empire skates back

It's a funny place, the Empire State Plaza.  Great location for watching fireworks, achingly bleak place to wait for them, or even just to take a walk.  It could be a lovely, liveable downtown area (I've been getting to know nearby neighbourhoods lately, and they either are or have potential to be very attractive) but instead they bulldozed all the houses and tried to make it iconic.

I suppose the Egg is iconic, sort of - but really only if you live round here.  Because who, honestly, mentions the Empire State Building, Hoover Dam, Golden Gate Bridge and...the Egg in the same breath? 

However, a little life will be breathed into the Plaza this winter with the return of the open air ice rink.  The rink has not been available the whole time we've lived here - since 2007 - due to state budget cuts.  But this year (we learnt last night) Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Committee is sponsoring the rink operations.  From early January and throughout the rest of the winter there'll be free skating for all every afternoon and evening.  Yippee!  And how nice of them to hold off  a few years until we'd learnt to skate a bit, so we'll be able to enjoy it properly.

Plaza palooza

Every year since we moved here the Boy has attended the annual Train Show at the Empire State Plaza. This year was no exception.  The rest of us came with him, as well as his best buddy.


To be honest, he's not the train fanatic he used to be and today's visit was more about maintaining a tradition than feeding a passion.  However he came away with a bag of track and a piece of rolling stock to add to his basement collection, so evidently railways haven't been totally overtaken by Pokemon in his affections.

Controversially (in the view of some family members) we then stayed around for an hour or so after the show closed for the annual lighting of the Plaza's Christmas tree.  This was billed to happen at 5:15pm, but in fact we first had to wait a full quarter of an hour in the freezing cold listening to various dignitaries telling us how excited they were to be there.  A chill, brisk wind whipped across the Plaza, and the audience grew restive. As yet another speaker took the mic a disgruntled man near us spoke for everyone when he fumed "Just light the damn tree already!" 

In fact there was a real spirit of camaraderie building by the time - at last - the tree lit up.  Fireworks followed immediately, and I must say they were worth standing around getting cold for - especially the final explosive barrage.

Christmas comes but once (sometimes twice) a year

The Girl had a friend sleep over last night.  They decided they were celebrating Early Christmas, so spent the evening making and wrapping little gifts for each other.  This morning they woke up and opened them, and ate a lot of sweets, and that all seemed to be very enjoyable.  However I don't believe it lets the rest of us off celebrating the real thing when the time comes.

Then another schoolfriend rang and invited both girls to join her on a Christmas tree hunt.  The friend's dad gamely took the giggling three of them off on a long car journey to a distant Christmas tree farm to cut down a fresh tree.  By the time they all returned the same dad looked a little less game, and was thinking longingly of a reviving glass of wine.

Meanwhile the Boy was reunited with his best buddy.  He has been away visiting his 81-year-old grandma in California, who took him on a glider flight as her birthday treat!  That rather throws down the gauntlet to grandparents everywhere...

With both kids occupied, the Man and I had a wander at Five Rivers, where there was no need to go on a wild turkey hunt - they were out in force at the birdfeeding station.

Advent ritual

I met for lunch with my two fellow Fair Trade Market organisers, for a quiet celebration of our success.  We haven't quite counted every last penny, but we do know that total takings exceeded....$24,500.  A tidy sum.

Then some fun in the evening, with the annual Holiday Parade.  Previously the local FT supporter turnout at this event has been modest (and, let's face it, mostly related to me), but this year a whole lot of Middle Schoolers - plus their teacher, his wife and their two enormous dogs - came along with hand-drawn banners to wave (and before you ask, OD, no - the dogs weren't waving banners).  So we were actually a decent-sized team.  And halfway along the route we received cheers and applause from a group of people I didn't even recognise!  It occurs to me now that they may have been the parents of the schoolkids - but still, it was very gratifying.

Disappointingly, we were rather far behind the sewer truck and didn't get to take its picture.  But at least we got to see it in the distance.  For some people it might be snowflakes or tinsel, but to many folks around here it really is the sight of that sewer truck that tells us Christmas will soon be here.

The Science Fair

The Boy took part in his school's Science Fair tonight, trialing an experiment to do with smell recognition.

Elsewhere around the school kids were demonstrating tornadoes, displaying giant spider models and identifying unusual fruit;  explaining the science of cookie-baking, demonstrating static electricity by rubbing balloons on their hair, blowing bubbles, summing up nano-technology...you name it, really - it was there.

I learnt a few new things (pennies are no longer made from copper;  some rabbits eat bananas), but most of all was reminded that science is in everything.  My hypothesis is that that is the main point of the whole Science Fair exercise, so I believe tonight's event proved my theory to be correct.