Ice-cream Monday

A walk is, of course, a reward in itself...

...but ice-cream is a great motivator. Just a fifteen minute stride away from our new home there is a wonderful 'creamery', and that's where the Girl and I headed for this afternoon.

The Boy was at school and the Girl really should have been too, but she was poorly again (again!) at the weekend which prompted me to take her to the doctor this morning. She was given a clean bill of health and pronounced simply 'unlucky' (you're telling me!) to have been got three times by the same bug. I could have taken her on to school, but since she hadn't really eaten for a couple of days I decided to allow her some time off to recuperate instead. After a sedentary few hours at home she felt she might be able to struggle along the road and force some ice-cream down...

It's not going to be an everyday treat - the homemade ices are made with whipped cream and come in the obligatory dauntingly massive helpings, even the children's portions. Oh, but it's good though. And GREAT that we can get there on foot.

Teetering on the rink

The Man writes...As discussed before, National Public Radio has a lot of virtues, but one of its enduring disappointments is that while it relays BBC World Service through the night during the week, at weekends it treats us to eight solid hours of aimless jazz.

Personally I would rather listen to somebody proclaiming the end of the world, which is lucky as that is what the local talk radio station apparently specialises in. "Tune to Doom" Albaniana calls it. Last night it was powerful solar flares that are sure to get us in the next few years. The night before we were told civilization would inevitably break down any day soon due to bird flu, and that we should start storing up tins of baked beans now (and getting some guns to defend them with).

Which is all rather bad news, but on the plus side the weather's looking up. We are predicted temperatures in the mid 50s by Tuesday, which is an improvement on last Thursday's high of 10F, but not as good as the Jan 6th record high of 71F (set in 2007). I can also tell you we've had 34.1 inches of snow this winter, but I fear it may not be around much longer. I shall be sorry to see it go.

By the way, we went skating again today.

Bowled out

We returned as a family to the scene of yesterday's bowling - the kids were keen to share the experience with their Dad.

Here are a few shots of the Boy in action, though they don't fairly represent his trademark (surprisingly successful) 'drop and slow roll' technique.



Alas, sometimes playing to win against members of your own family can cause tempers to fray (I'll mention no names) and we may just stick with school bowling for the next little while.

Bowling along

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, winters here in the northeastern States are long and hard. In recognition of this fact, the kids' school has created the tradition of 'winter Fridays'. For the next six Friday afternoons schoolwork will be put aside in favour of a choice of more exciting activities. Skiing and snowboarding are on offer, but our Girl and Boy have opted for ice-skating alternating with ten pin bowling. I tell you, every kid should go to this school!

Today it was bowling. I was one of the parent drivers so I got to witness the merriment. The Boy was on top form. Notwithstanding the fact that he could barely lift the lightest bowling ball (which weighed almost as much as him) he threw himself into the game with gusto. Almost literally threw himself, a couple of times. He took great theatrical run-ups, and was as enthusiastic at making 'gutter-balls' as he was when he actually hit any pins. He was a joy to watch. Or 'an embarassment', if you happened to be his sister.

In the car going back to school one of my passengers, a boy of about nine, was asking me if I found it hard to remember to drive on the right. I related the story of my little freeway adventure, adding 'But it's one of those things you only do once and never again.'

'Yes,' he said, nodding sagely, 'Like sticking your tongue to a really cold post.'

Indeed.

Tip off

Yesterday, during the playdate, conversation in the kitchen turned to haircuts. A couple of the kids had just been for a trim.

Mom #1: So, which hairdresser cut their hair? The bald one or the English one?

Mom #2: (wryly) The blind one.

She showed us the gash on the back of her son's neck. There'd been blood and everything.

Mom #1: So, did you tip him?

Mom #2: (sighing) Yeah, of course I tipped him. Somehow when they do bad stuff you end up tipping them extra.

Albaniana: Ohh! I thought that was just a British thing!

We laughed. It's a relief to find that American women can also feel intimidated by bad service.

Winter drawers on

The children had just one day left of the holidays. They weren't feeling ill and it wasn't snowing (much) so we decided to pack as much into this single day as we possibly could, to make up for the last fortnight.

First we dropped the Man off at work, which left us handily placed for breakfast in a cafe. We followed this with a visit to a paint-your-own-pottery studio (where they expressed their creativity on a tiara money bank and a 'cute cat'). Home for a quick lunch, then ice skating: this time the Boy had a go and found out how much fun it is. The Girl managed to skate eight times round the rink all by herself and was ecstatic. They both had the sense to wear snow pants, which softened the inevitable bumps.

A little later the kids had a playdate with a couple of sets of friends from school, and I sat in a kitchen drinking tea and chatting with the two other mums (sorry, moms). A very happy way to spend an afternoon.

The temperature has dropped sharply. By early evening when we went to collect the Man it was 13 degrees Fahrenheit - that's about minus 10 in English money - and falling (the Man just popped outside for a second to check how cold it is and has come back in with frostbite). So if you're feeling a bit chilly over in England today (I understand you have 'snow'), spare a thought for us here!

Snow it goes on

Oh, you're all going to be so sick of snow-pun titles by the time the winter's out.

It snowed on and off all day, so we didn't venture far from home. The Man and the kids made a snowman in the front yard, which paled into insignificance compared to a six foot effort round the corner from us.

For once no-one was ill, although I lost half a tooth. It doesn't hurt, but has plunged me into gloom contemplating my decrepitude.

In celebration of the realisation that we can play DVDs on our computer (we still don't have a telly) the children organised a 'movie night' this evening. We all piled onto a little two-seater sofa in the little study and watched on a little screen a film about geese called 'Fly Away Home'. Luckily we are all quite little ourselves, so the scale of everything suited us just fine.