Bangs to right

We finally got the Boy's hair cut today. As usual, I had trouble making myself understood by a hairdresser. 'Not too much off the bangs (fringe), but layered and short round the back and sides,' was what I asked. Somehow she interpreted this as 'he's growing it long, so barely an inch off all round, please'. She was almost shirty with me when I explained again what he really wanted. Then she went and cut the fringe much shorter than the Boy had planned (after the first chop it wasn't worth saying anything, she wasn't going to glue it back on) and he came out sulking - but not too bad-looking.

Mammo mia

Male readers may prefer to skip this episode. It's about mammograms.

So, today saw installment three of my never-ending routine medical examination. It took place at a local hospital. When I booked it, a few weeks ago, they'd given me some instructions which of course I promptly forgot. So this morning I was wracking my brain: did they say eat a big breakfast? Or don't eat anything? Can I drink coffee? But it turned out all they'd asked me was not to wear deodorant.

I'll spare you the full details, suffice it to say that it wasn't that bad, but they squish the relevant parts of you in a kind of vice so afterwards I felt a bit like I'd done five rounds with a breadmaker. I asked the radiographer how men get checked if they need to be. She said they are mammogrammed in just the same way, but they complain more.

Nuisance Geographic

With email and skype being our main means of communication these days, we don't get a whole lot of use out of our mailbox except for bills and the occasional letter or parcel from home. One guaranteed source of regular correspondence, though, is National Geographic - we hear from them at least three times a week.

It all started when we moved to this house. I guess they got hold of our names through our mortgage provider. Anyway they gave us a free year's subscription to their magazine. Now National Geographic is a nicely produced magazine with lovely pictures etc, but it's strangely unreadable. Is this because of the very thin pages which stick together? Or the tight binding which means you can't open it up properly? Or is it because the articles are a bit... dull? Whatever, the magazines would turn up and lie around sadly neglected, unless put to use by the Boy as a base for a railway layout.

A couple of months ago we started receiving invitations to continue the subscription. They came in shouty envelopes stamped with 'Act now!' and 'Last chance!' Of course, we ignored them, and looked forward to not getting the magazine anymore.

But here's the thing: we've had about sixteen of these 'Last chance!' letters. Seems they're just kidding about the 'last'. We keep ignoring them. And why not - they're still sending us the flaming magazine.

Snow news day

It started snowing overnight, and carried on until early this afternoon. Then it turned to freezing rain. It was officially a snow day.

By mid-afternoon we were all a bit stir crazy. We drove carefully to our local shops. We'd hoped the book/giftshop would be open, but it wasn't. Instead we called in at the small supermarket where I treated the kids to chocolate and we said hi to some friends from school who were also foolishly out in all this weather. Then we bundled ourselves back into the car, which was already coated in a slick of ice, and drove slowly home again.

The kids will be glad to get back to school tomorrow, I should think, with all that fresh snow to sled on and lots of friends to sled on it with them.

Ice pics

Some more images from our day out with the Exiles on Saturday:

Look carefully and you can see tears freezing on baby E5N1's cheeks...

The Boy and Exile #3 polish up an extra-large Fox's Glacier Mint.

Am I destined to become a 'hockey mom'?

Track record

This morning I did the second part of my Five Rivers instructor training - an observation session. I joined a party of 5th graders (10 & 11 year-olds) on a snow-shoeing/tracking expedition. They fell down a lot, which I took to be mucking about on their part, but one of their teachers kept falling over too so perhaps they just genuinely couldn't get the hang of snow-shoes.

Anyway, we saw a great many tracks - deer, squirrel, mouse, skunk - and an actual rabbit, so that was pretty good. We were trekking round for more than an hour, but though the temperature was low the sun was bright and there was no wind, so it was really pleasant to be out.

I skyped with my parents this afternoon. Apparently there are snowdrops in England already. Grrr - it'll be months before we see any flowers here. It looks like there'll be good weather for us tomorrow, but there's a winter weather watch for Wednesday - more snow is on its way.

Material girls

After yesterday's chilly adventure, I for one was more than happy to spend today at home in the warm. The children had friends round in the afternoon. The Boy and his best buddy from school spent three hours down in the basement with the Hornby railway. The Girl and her friend divided their energies between playing, sledding and discussing how much money they'd like to spend on American Girl merchandise ('a lot' seemed to be the consensus).