Bonus year

Last night at bedtime I said to the Man, "Wow, tomorrow I'll be 48!"

"No you won't," he said.  "You'll be 47."

"Oh...yeah!"

Best birthday present ever.

And I'll tell you how I've begun my bonus year...yawn...another day.

Neat

Quite a day of cleaning and tidying, we've had.  I finally prevailed upon the kids to tidy up the back room so that I could vacuum - and gosh, I remember now, there's carpet back there! 

The Boy is anxious to turn the basement into his own personal music and video studio, so he also did some "tidying" downstairs.  It's hard to see yet exactly what he has achieved, but he can be quite determined about this kind of thing, so I'm hopeful the space will be clear before the summer is out.  He has already requisitioned my basement "sewing room" (aka dumping area for fabric) and turned it into a home for his drums.

Speaking of cleaning and tidying, the Girl worked hard at the rink today putting he final polish on her skating routine.  Just one more practice session to go, then show-time. ..

Embracing cultural differences

My Karen friends aren't much into hugging.  It's just not something they do.  Back when I was still getting to know the mother of the family that I visit, she told me, in broken English and elaborate mime, just how awkward she finds it that Americans often seem to want to hug her. 

So the other week when I took her and her mother to sign up for some English classes, she really surprised me.  They had to fill out some forms (which was challenging) and take a spoken English assessment.  The administrator at the assessment centre was kind and friendly.  When, at the end of the proceedings, she told my friends that they had been accepted into a class, they jumped up and...hugged her.

It was actually rather touching.  My friends were no doubt thinking, Americans are huggy people, we should hug this one!  The administrator clearly wasn't expecting to be hugged (it wasn't a situation that particularly called for hugging) but seemed to be charmed.  She probably thought, what nice, huggy people these Karen are! 

It was a sweet example of cultural misunderstanding working out just fine. 

Appliance reliance

A day of relentless drizzle - which was actually quite a nice change.  We didn't achieve a whole lot, though we did manage to order a dishwasher.  We knew what we wanted before we got to the store, which was just as well because the assistant freely admitted that she knew nothing about dishwashers.   Sigh.  Sometimes I miss John Lewis.

(However, we once got a good bargain in Comet just by standing there endlessly umming and aahing until the assistant offered us twenty quid off just to get rid of us.)

The kids are on a sleepover roll - last night the Boy, tonight the Girl. Now if only they could coordinate their calendars, the Man and I could use those Spectrum cinema tickets I got him for Christmas.

Fruity notes

The Man and I had a Five Rivers related job to do this morning, which involved spending an hour at the house of some friends copying up a long list of names and addresses - a dull task made much more enjoyable by the setting, as we sat out in their screened porch. 

The friends also have a very respectable vegetable patch, and fruit trees, including a peach tree that was nearly doubled over with ripening fruit.  We were slightly reassured to note that their raspberry seemed a bit sad and wilted - just like ours, which has not produced much fruit despite looking promising earlier in the season.  Maybe the combination of endless rain followed by relentless heat was just too much for raspberries this summer.  Anyone else got home-grown produce tales to share?

Moose try harder

The other day on our way up to Lake Placid we stopped briefly at the High Peaks Welcome Center.  While my family availed themselves of the snack dispensers (primarily sugar, salt and caffeine) and other facilities, I homed in on this poster:

 

Oh, for goodness sake.  

I spot a moose!  So I grab my nearest internet device and breathlessly...

1. try to recall which New York State department acronym I'm meant to be reporting to.
2. Ooh, lucky! Got the right one!  Er, what do I do next?
3. Sorry, Office of the what-was-that?
4. Now I have to start following instructions?

Was it really beyond the wit of anyone in the Department of Transport to come up with www.seenamoose.gov? 

Spamalot

I'm not a Monty Python fan.  There, I've said it.  It's not quite as clever as it thinks it is, and really, what is it with posh blokes and all that toilet humour?

However, free seats are free seats, and when a friend suggested meeting up to see the Park Playhouse production of Spamalot in Albany's Washington Park, I was happy to say yes.  The whole family attended, and we had a jolly time.  After we'd staked out a place to sit there was time for a picnic and a play on the swings before the show began.

It was a slick production, and I was impressed by the cast's well-executed British accents. The songs were silly but rousing, including - of course - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (the UK's alternative national anthem?).  This is the twenty-fifth year of free productions in the park - bravo Albany for providing the Capital District with this annual summer gift of entertainment.

Not doing the dishes

At home for the day, which was not as exciting as being in Lake Placid: a lot less boating, and a lot more ironing.  Also some dishwasher research, as ours (after an extended period of minor glitches) has given up completely and now just gushes water all over the kitchen floor.  Which - looking on the bright side - makes for a clean floor, but does leave us with a lot of washing up.

It's a buoy!

Sorry, the Man insisted on that one (and it doesn't even work for American readers, who'll be wanting to pronounce that word "bu-i").  Is Britain managing to cope with the excitement of a new royal heir?

We woke to an unpromising morning of driving rain.  The Man went out for a run around Mirror Lake and came back drenched.  Ah well, a good excuse to stay in and make use of the hotel pool, and by the time we'd finished enjoying that the sky was clearing.  We moved onto the lake beach and messed about in a variety of boats.

After lunch the Boy was keen to go and visit the Olympic ski jumps, so we all did that - they are terrifyingly high.  It was fun to ride up and down on a ski lift on a bright summery day, and to admire fantastic views of the Adirondack peaks.  

We finished our visit to the site by watching ski aerialists doing impressive manoeuvres off dry slopes into a swimming pool.

Then the journey home again.  It was rather a short and sweet trip to Lake Placid, but we do like it there and I'm sure we'll be back.

Placid pastimes

We're beating the heat with a little trip to Lake Placid.  So far we've had fun on/in Mirror Lake, and been out for dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended by the Boy (he'd been there before with his buddy's family) where miraculously (given our family's challenging combination of vegetarians and fussy eaters) we each found something we were very happy to eat.  Yay!  And we've spent some time in the very lovely independent bookstore which we always like to visit when we're here.

Now, time to enjoy the hotel pool...

Artistic Nature

The heatwave has finally broken, and today we enjoyed temperatures in the comfortable 80sF - pretty nice.

We spent a large part of the day trying to wrangle travel arrangements for an upcoming trip, but we did take a little time out at Five Rivers, admiring painted turtles and a bullfrog orchestra.  A couple of the little turtles only had three legs a-piece.  I don't know what that was about.

Can you spot the lake in this picture?

Here are the Boy and his buddy, taking it easy on a viewing platform:

Solar heating

We don't heat our pool.  Thanks to the recent heatwave, there's no need:

We were very happy that the entire family of Exiles came round to help us enjoy the bath-like water this afternoon.

Hot spot

I don't know exactly how hot it got today, but it was certainly high 90sF, and it felt like over 100...  The pool has been very much the most comfortable place to be, and though it still embarrasses me to have such a thing in the backyard, we've all been glad of it today.

I had lunch out with a friend who has just got back from Kenya.  The Boy had a friend over, and has since gone out for a sleepover at another friend's house.  The Girl has mostly been lying on the couch - all her friends seem to be away or at camp.

Kudos to our friend the Exile, who was out and about running in all this heat.

And another...

Another short post.  I was up at dawn to take a friend to an out-of-town dental appointment, and then I somehow ended up spending the rest of the day driving all sorts of people, related and not, to all sorts of places.  I did manage to sneak a little nap at the ice rink in the afternoon, stretched out on the bleachers...but now I'm really ready to catch up properly on my...zzzz

Short post

Meetings, eh?  Like the proverbial London bus, you don't see one for days, then three come along at once.  An hour and half of Fair Trade this afternoon, and back-to-back meetings at Five Rivers this evening that came in at just over three hours in total - a bit of a marathon.  So it's a short blog tonight.

Spins, dives and roles

The Girl's next skating competition is in a couple of weeks, so she's practising hard.  Today her coach had her skate in costume, just to check that everything is all in good order, which it is.  Her programme is coming together nicely, and her coach (who is seldom lavish with praise) seems happy with how she's doing, so that spurs us on as we repeatedly make the trip to and from the rink in Troy.

The Boy continues to enjoy the summer social whirl, with a friend over for swimming this morning (I've got to say, the pool is just perfect at the moment - when it's 90+F, there's no better place to be), and some sort of video making project with another friend this afternoon.

Lately for our family evening viewing we've been catching up with an old UK comedy series Outnumbered, which we found on Hulu. It's entertaining, but unfortunately our kids seem to have adopted the TV kids as role models.

Friends like these

I'm proud to be associated with Friends of Five Rivers, as a volunteer and Board member.  Here's a new five minute video that will show you why.

(People who know me might think they recognise me in a still picture about halfway through.  I thought I recognised me too - until I realised I'd never even seen that shirt before, let alone worn it.  I need to quiz some of the old-guard volunteers and find out who my doppelganger is...).

By the way, if the video inspires you to join Friends of Five Rivers, go here to find out how.

Cedar Hill Schoolhouse

More than three years ago, out on my travels, I first noticed the red schoolhouse that is home to the Bethlehem Historical Association, and vowed to return one day during opening hours.

Today we finally made it!  And it was a lovely treat.  It's a tiny and very charming museum, made the more special because we were shown around by a lady who had attended school there in the 1960s (shortly before it was turned into a museum).  When she was a pupil there, it was a two-room school only for 3rd and 4th Graders.  Her mother had attended before her, and her grandmother before that, right back when it was a one-room schoolhouse for students up to Grade 8.

The exhibits are interesting and well displayed.  At the moment there's a collection of 1890's dresses on show, and a range of old-fashioned toys and books from the last two centuries.  The Man was taken by the history of ice-harvesting in the area, which was explained in a book of photos assembled by the Historical Association.  Ice was cut from the Hudson during the winter and stored in the many huge ice-houses beside the river, using hay as insulation.  During the summer, blocks of ice were shipped down-river to New York City.

The museum's hours are short and few. But I'd say it's definitely worth making a little drive through the countryside to go and see it, if you happen to be in the Bethlehem area on a Sunday afternoon in June, July or August.

Bang on!

The Boy might be spending a fair bit of time in the basement from now on.  And the rest of us might be going out a lot...

Any old iron...

While I took the Girl to what turned out to be a rather time-consuming trip to the hairdresser, the Boy and his buddy worked hard and finished creating their Pokemon-inspired "Pokeopoly" board game.  They made a nice job of it. 

And the hairdresser made a very nice job of the Girl's hair.

Next time, the Boy (maybe?):

Around dinnertime I got a call from Scrapster.com.  I'd got in touch with them a few days ago.  It's an excellent service - for no charge they turn up and take away your scrap metal and defunct electronics.  In our case we had a fine assortment of scrap, including a ripped fly screen, some rusty garden chairs, various broken lamps and toasters, a computer monitor, a useless scooter, some bashed up tomato cages and a faulty sump pump.  For some reason we've been hanging onto this stuff for several years.  It was good finally to see it all cleared out of the garage, packed into a van and taken away - thank you Scrapster! 

Another obstacle, of course

So, another morning of goats and chickens for the Girl, followed by skating in the afternoon. Meanwhile the Boy accepted a friend's invitation to go and swim at a local country club, don't you know.  He was very impressed that bar person almost (accidentally) offered him an alcoholic beverage.

This evening, a water obstacle course in the increasingly warm pool.  Most of the obstacles were inflatable, but the Man also had a key role as... (see title):

Be your own blogger

Our lives this week - while perfectly enjoyable - are not spectacularly bloggable.  There's only so much you can say about the Girl and her goats, the Boy and his Monopoly games (though he and his buddy have been busy creating their own version this afternoon, which is a different way to enjoy it) or me and my various activities (a bit of Five Rivers-related work today, and a refugee visit).

So, anyway, if your own day has been more remarkable, feel free to drop us a line.

Eggs etc

Around midnight last night the heavens opened and spilled everything that was up there directly onto our roof - at least that's what it sounded like. They put out an emergency robotic flash flooding warning on the radio.  There was thunder and lightning, too.  You'd have thought it would have got a bit cooler after that, but it hasn't done yet - by this morning you wouldn't have thought much had happened at all.  By this afternoon it was up to about 92F outside, and it even felt warm inside the ice-rink.

But hark at me, moaning about the heat again.  I wouldn't last 30 seconds in Death Valley, would I?

Some don't like it hot

I know I really shouldn't moan about all the hot weather we're having, but honestly, a freak cold day would make a nice change now.

The Girl is back at the farm every morning for the rest of the week.  And the Boy, I'm sure, will have no trouble rustling up friends to amuse himself with him every day (he played a four hour game of Monopoly with his buddy this afternoon).  So the summer rolls along.

Murray - mint!

ESPN coverage of Wimbledon opened this morning with just the barest hint of hyperbole:

The streets will empty, the fields will lay barren...hoping to turn a waking nightmare into a dream shared by every breathing British soul...

But then again - how exciting was that match?!  And - woohoo! - finally a British Wimbledon Men's Singles champion, after 77 years.  Go Murray!  We're all Scottish now (did you know I was actually born in East Kilbride.  No, seriously...)

The rest of the day proceeded hot and thundery.  The thunder never amounted to anything more, but made pool swimming a bit iffy, and when the Man took the Boy and his buddy mini-golfing they were called off the course halfway round because of the vague threat of lightning (at least they came home with free passes for another time).

This evening I have cooked up an Indian vegan storm in the kitchen - turmeric rice, spicy lentils and even spicier chickpeas.  The Girl, continuing her adventures in food, tried everything and gave it all a thumbs up.

While cooking I thought I'd treat myself to a cooling non-alcoholic beer, my occasional tipple of choice (I'm such a party animal).  But I accidentally grabbed and opened a bottle of IPA - yikes, the real alcoholic thing!  Needless to say it went straight to my head and made for a cheery dinnertime.  But, hey, Murray is Wimbledon Champion - finally!  That's worth getting a little bit pizzled for, isn't it?

Summer scoops

Down to the Farmers' Market this beautiful morning.  It was rather quiet, with many regulars away taking post-4th July breaks.  But still the Girl ran into a couple of her friends and the Boy ran into a whole herd of his, so it was worth the visit for that alone.  Add to that sociability the bounty of veg that we bought (resulting in a tasty dinner featuring fresh lettuce, new red potatoes with garlic scapes, and deliciously sweet sweetcorn) and it was definitely a morning well spent.

The day got hotter and hotter, so when a bunch of the Boy's pals turned up in the afternoon they naturally decided to spent most of their time in the pool.  Later they persuaded me to take them to the nearest Stewarts [roadside grocery chain, famed for its ice-cream] because we had a stack of free scoop coupons.  The servers in the store were laughing as we came in, because they'd watched us pull into the parking lot "and suddenly, like, a hundred kids poured out of the car!"

I was laughing, too: ice-cream for six, and it didn't cost me a dime!

Bright shiny show-day

The Boy had is last day of diving lessons, and it was "Show-Off" day.  Parents stood by to watch and applaud as the kids performed the dives they have been practising.  The Boy, often quite a show off, was a little reluctant in this case. However, he did what he had to do (and looked pretty good doing it).

The Girl was away all day at her sleepover venue.  The rest of us went out for a slap-up lunch at the shiny diner.  Because it has been very hot and sultry, the pool has had some good use, too.

Tour de 4th

 

Happy 4th!  Even though it's most likely the 5th when you're reading this.

It has felt like a Saturday all day, even though it's only Thursday.  And it has been a stonkingly sunny day, with no rain for once.

The Man and I spent part of the afternoon with some other not-really-Americans - our Indian friends, (with whom we have left the Girl for a sleepover).  We were looking through photos of their recent visit to Europe, a massive 6000 km road trip, starting in London, taking in at least seven countries and ending in Paris.  They were particularly wowed by magnificent cathedrals, and by the grandeur of the Alps.  They travelled with an Indian tour company, in a bus followed by a caravan in which all their meals were cooked, enabling them to eat proper spicy vegetarian food wherever they went.

Later in the afternoon we took the Boy and a friend down to the Town pool complex.  Half the town was there, including many kids that we know, all enjoying the sun-warmed water, and the delights of the snack bar (which still features those noteworthy cheese-covered fries from six years ago).

"Soccer mom"

Even though neither of our kids have any interest in playing soccer, the Man sometimes refers to me as a "soccer mom", since so much of my time seems to involve driving one or other child to one of their activities.  This seems to be especially so this summer, with the Boy pursuing interests as well as the Girl (in previous years he has mostly just hung out and built boats).

So today: diving for the Boy, skating for the Girl, drumming for the Boy.  Add in dropping off and picking up the Man from work, and you begin to get the idea - when I'm not on the road, I'm preparing for the next journey. 

But that's ok.

I also fitted in a nice skype with a whole lot of relatives - yo, Ilkley!

An idea with broad a-peel?

Earlier this year I was invited to join the national steering committee of Fair Trade Towns USA.  This feels like something of an honour, especially considering that my town is still not an officially designated Fair Trade Town.  However our campaign is active, and I think we can be proud of some of our events.

So far my duties for FTT USA have not been onerous at all - I've participated in some phone calls.  I daresay more will be asked of me as time goes on. 

I took part in a conference call today.  If that sounds remotely grand, picture me hunched over my phone in a cinder-block side-room at the ice-rink (the Girl was there for a lesson), one finger jammed in my ear to eliminate the sounds of the country music station being piped through the arena.  Not so grand, huh.  Other participants were dialling in from as widespread locations as Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Oakland CA etc...so that bit was quite exciting.

As was the news that an idea our local campaign came up with - for sending in "bananagrams" to supermarkets to request that they stock Fair Trade bananas - will be going national during Fair Trade Month in October.  I'm rather chuffed about that!

Vinyl scores

Two guys came and cleaned the house for me today.

Not the inside.  The outside.

First they sprayed soap over all the vinyl siding, then they hosed it off with a great long Way cool!
pressure washer.  It was just like going through a car-wash - but in a house.

And now the whole exterior of the house (which had been getting pretty grubby, with some interesting patches of green stuff growing on it) is sparkly clean!  And it only took an hour!

I must admit, my architectural snob-self rather despises me for living in a house made of plywood and plastic.  But my tightwad self is very impressed by how fast and relatively cheap it is to wash a house, as against repainting one.