In the picture

Another day, another film-screening.  Only half a dozen people made it to the chocolate movie at the library, but given the horrible weather tonight I was pleased with the turn-out.  One of the Middle Schoolers from yesterday's presentation brought his grandmother along - good on him. 

On getting home I was pleased to find a guest from the UK.  Not a surprise guest, we knew he was coming, but it's always lovely to have a visitor.  He's over from the UK, staying with us on his (indirect) way to Princeton. Since he is a climate scientist, we will be happy to answer your climate change questions for the next three days.

We have also received information about the kids' school photo (picture day is coming up soon). There are 29 different portrait-pack combinations, some featuring mouse pads and "beverage mugs", and 25 different backgrounds to choose from including aurora borealis, school lockers, the stars and stripes and even one that looks very much like the Ready Brek glow.   Basic retouching, in case of acne, is an optional extra.  What about retouching in case of scowling? That would be a useful service.

Brightest and best

It's been a busy day, with two fair trade presentations this afternoon.  One was the follow-up to last week's film-show at the High School.  Then I had to hot-foot it across town to the Middle School to talk to about fifty kids there.  In each case the audience seemed pretty engaged and asked good questions.  Tomorrow night I'll be showing the chocolate movie at the public library - it'll be interesting to see if any of these kids' friends or family turn out for it.

On a lighter note, I also had to go out shopping for giant carrot materials - more of that in a day or two.

And, having been impressed by the trees outside school when I walked the children there this morning, I made time to pop back and take a photo or two.  With more bad weather in the forecast, I thought I'd better grab the chance while the colours are still at their finest.

Pita luck

The Man writes...usually lunch for me means a trip to a chain sandwich shop in a local strip mall, but today my colleague/lunch taxi driver suddenly declared "I feel like a falafel".

Soon after we were making the short trip across the Hudson to the historic city of Troy.  We found a great little Middle Eastern cafe in the Antique District serving a delicious lunch. For some reason, every time I visit Troy I'm surprised again by how attractive parts of it are.  There are any number of unique cafes and stores, spilling on to the street on a sunny day, among splendid Victorian buildings which remind us that a hundred years ago this was once one of the most prosperous cities in the country.

Although it was lunchtime and the weather was perfect there were very few people around. Of course the strip mall is quick and convenient, but if you have the time this is sooo much better...

Small blogworld

It's that time of year again when friends of ours always hold their daughter's birthday party in their backyard and by some miracle it never rains.  It didn't rain again today, and the kids enjoyed each others' company, a performance by a ventriloquist and an enormous inflatable slide, while parents stood around in the autumn sunshine, eating and chatting and catching up with each others' news.  There was more news than usual for our family to share this time, after our kids change of school. 

The Girl was happy to be reunited with a bunch of her girlfriends, the Boy teamed up with his old buddy, and I was very happy to see many friends too.  The Man, meanwhile, had decided not to take Columbus Day off and had gone into work, which he rather regretted.

Before we set off for Lake Placid on Saturday I'd spent the morning at the local farmers' market, promoting an upcoming public screening of the Dark Side of Chocolate, the film I wrote about the other day.  I tell you, you feel like a right old prophet of doom standing in a sunny marketplace telling cheery shoppers that their chocolate is tainted by slavery.  But anyway.  I was quite startled when someone came up and asked me if I was Albaniana.  The first time that's ever happened!  Turns out it was someone I was also already aware of in the blogosphere - a certain Profussor...

Ten out of ten out of ten

We're home again from our short stay in Lake Placid.  Breakfast overlooking Mirror Lake, more boating, dips in the hotel pool/hot tubs, a visit to Ben & Jerry's and another trip up Whiteface Mountain were the highlights. 

It was cold and clear at the top of the mountain, with views for 80 miles around - pretty spectacular.  We could just about see Canada to the north. 

We saw the best Fall colours on the drive home.  Not many glorious reds this year, but stunning stretches of gold - alas, not captured on camera.

Awayday

Just a brief post tonight.  We're out of town again, at a favourite haunt: Lake Placid.  We're checking out some Fall colour and getting a preview of colder conditions - it's woolly hat weather up here.

And so to bed

After several days of rain (we've really made up for the dry summer now, I think), today was lovely.  I made a brief visit to Five Rivers between errands, and I also managed to plant some daffodil bulbs in the front garden. I just hope they don't suffer the fate of the crocus bulbs I planted last week, most of which turned into expensive squirrel-feed.

The children have done very well at school this week, and as a reward we made a trip to the local gift shop where they (sigh) picked out stuffed animal toys (because you can never have too many, as I'm sure you know).  The good news was, they were on special offer.  The Boy chose a little polar bear, while the Girl went for a cuddly Rottweiler - read into that what you will.

Earlier in the week a guy came and did his part in closing up our swimming pool (making sure the pipes won't freeze etc), but tonight the Man and I had to finish the job by scooping out the last of the leaves and fixing on the safety cover.  Though nobody has swum in the pool for a month, it still felt like an end-of-season-marking task.