A slice of Pi

It's Pi Day.  Though maybe only in America, where for reasons I have never fathomed they always put the month before the day in dates.  In the UK I daresay it's a nothing-special-day, just 14/3.

Anyway, here it is Pi Day and someone shared this with me - so now I'm sharing it with you...

Haul the deck?

I was in the backyard, doing something or other, enjoying the warm weather etc.  Heading back into the house, as I walked up the steps of the deck I vaguely sensed something fall (out of my pocket?)...but kicked it with my foot before I'd had a chance to see what it was.  When I looked, I couldn't see a thing.  Whatever it was, I'd obviously kicked it through a small gap in the step, right under the deck.

Oh well, I had things to do, places to go.  Off I went and forgot all about it...

Until hours later when I saw myself in a mirror, and realised my rather nice painted bead necklace was no longer round my neck.

So that's what it was.  I tried squinting under the deck from various angles - nope, couldn't spy it.  There's no way I can fit under the deck - what to do?  The Girl suggested inviting round next door's dog - he really likes it under there.  I'm not convinced of his retrieving skills, however.  The most obvious candidate was...the Boy.

It had rained by then, so under-the-deck was all muddy.  No matter.  With a remarkable feat of memory, the Boy recalled where in the basement we'd stowed the waterproof ponchos from our trip on The Maid of the Mist.  Nicely covered in plastic, he got about halfway under...then found a beam in his way.

It's too bad.  I guess the only way we'll actually recover the necklace is by tearing up the deck.

Unlucky for some

Alas for our Girl.  We should never have started her out as a vegetarian.  Now she loves to eat meat when she gets the chance, but has very low resistance to anything nasty that lurks in it - especially when the meat has been reheated from frozen.  Like yesterday's burger at Willard.  The poor thing was heaving half the night.

So, a quiet day at home for her.  She was much better, just tired.  I left her for a bit and took myself for a walk outside, where the temperature was into the 70sF - wow!  I've had windows open all over the house, too, letting the spring air drift in.

The Man and I received a card in the post.  Thank you, R&B, for remembering that it's our wedding anniversary tomorrow (we hadn't).  Married on the thirteenth, and now it's been thirteen years...

Lucky for us!

Water skiing

Well, ok, not quite.  But it was very slushy in places.

We'd decided to squeeze in one last trip to Willard (minus the Boy, who opted to hang out with his buddy instead).  Yesterday had been freezy, but today we had warm sunshine - too warm, really, for the snow.

The slopes were pretty quiet, so although the conditions didn't make for great skiing we had a good time and made many descents.  People were shedding jackets and gloves, not necessary today (a friend tells us that in California the girls ski in bikinis when the weather gets warm like this.  I wasn't sorry to find that upstate New York girls are a bit more modest - but we did see shorts and t-shirts).

With a warm spell now in the forecast, that's probably the end of skiing at the little resort for this year: in anticipation, the cafe staff were selling off donuts today at a quarter a piece.  It has been a fun season for us - and let's face it, without it we'd hardly have seen snow at all this winter.  Thank you Willard Mountain!

Good sports

The kids had commitments today.  The Girl was detailed to sell Girl Scout cookies (a national institution in the US) at one of the local shopping plazas.  She did a three hour stint with her friends in the freezing cold.  Like the Middle Schooler she is, she didn't take an adequate jacket with her, so I ended up lending her mine before we left her.  Which prompted the Man to lend me his jacket - very chivalrous of him.  Shiverous, too.

The Boy had a birthday party to attend, so first we had to go shopping and choose a present.  Among other things he selected a "Brain Fart", a brain-shaped piece of plastic that makes *ahem* noises when you squeeze it.  As it was a gift for a fellow 10-year-old boy, something tells me we were onto a winner with that.  Then off to Afrim's Sports for the high-energy activity party - dodgeball, kickball, soccer and bouncy castles.  Just the job.

And now, even though it hasn't been me or the Man standing around in the cold or running about like crazy things, it feels like time for a good old slouch-on-the-couch sort of evening.

Click - light!

I'd been stuck in front of the computer all morning, working on something, so when I noticed one of my neighbours striding past the house I dashed out and joined her for a walk.  In the end we were out for nearly an hour, walking briskly because (in spite of yesterday's record high temperatures) it was really chilly again (in fact later in the day we had a brief but impressive snowstorm).

So, that was good - caught up on some chat.  Not long afterwards I headed out for a meeting with my friends who are involved with FUNHO - the community school in the Dominican Republic which I've mentioned before (and of which I'm now a board member).  A couple of them had been down in DR for a few days last month and had much to report.  Although currently only able to offer the most rudimentary education with untrained teachers, it seems as if some of the FUNHO kids that go on to the local public school are the star pupils - so something's going right.

I was especially interested to hear about a project involving bottle lights.  Through a friend I'd seen this clip on the web - showing how to make sunlit ceiling lamps out of recycled soda bottles - and had passed it along.  Now a couple of local guys in DR associated with FUNHO are setting up in business installing these amazingly simple light fittings into tinned roof buildings.  At the school they finally have a light in the previously pitch-dark toilet.  It's cool to see how a simple act of click-and-share can literally help bring light to a community.  Kudos to the social entrepeneur in the Philippines who has pioneered this light-fitting, and shared the idea on the internet. 

Best-ish of British

It has been weirdly warm all day.  The morning was beautiful with blue skies and sunshine - we said a final goodbye to the remains of last week's snow.  From mid-afternoon clouds started to roll in, and before dusk fell they were looking bruised and threatening - rain tonight.

Thanks for all your food suggestions yesterday.  As a vegetarian I'm afraid I have to rule out anything meaty, as well as trifle with jelly (and as a borderline food snob I have to say no to jelly in a trifle, anyway).  As a tightwad I'm also going to rule out the rich fruit cake.  Victoria sponge isn't that far off cupcakes, really, and Eccles cakes are vetoed by the Girl, who doesn't like anything raisin-y (or scones, regrettably, given that I was once Linton Garden Show's Queen of Scones - ah, happy days).  To narrow down the specs, then:  finger food, easy to prepare, can be served cold, doesn't cost much, tastes good and doesn't involve raisins or jam.

Hmm. What have we got left?