Owls of disbelief

My life has somehow started to revolve around owl pellets. The Girl took hers in to 'share' at school the other day, and everyone was wild for them so her teacher asked if I could get hold of some more to use in a science class. I thought Five Rivers would have scads of the things, but they could only sell me five. BUT they gave me the name of their supplier.

So, I looked up Pellets, Inc. Wow - a whole business devoted to supplying owl pellets! I though it was all a bit of a joke at first, then I found myself reading the 'About Us' section of their website and was completely moved by the passion and sincerity of this enterprise. I'm a sucker for anyone who has found their passion in life.

Though maybe I'm just a sucker. Maybe this Pellets guy really runs a barn owl battery farm, feeding the owls on the produce of his vole cloning factory. How would I know? He lives in Washington State, I can hardly just drop in and check.

Is it better in this world to have a trusting heart or a cynical soul? Discuss.

So good I'm writing about it twice

Thought you might like to see the views from the apartment we stayed in. We were on the 15th floor (though strictly speaking the 14th since there wasn't officially a 13th).

The large building at the end of the street is the Museum of Natural History. Just behind it are the trees of Central Park.


The turreted building on the far right is home to various celebs, such as Madonna. I'd have waved to her, but I think she was away adopting Malawians this weekend.

Manhattan project

We set off on Friday lunchtime, the Girl and I, with friend J and her daughter. J drove us in her hybrid car, all the way into Manhattan. We were staying in her good friend's apartment on the Upper West Side - and since he happens to be a millionaire it was a very nice apartment, not big but beautifully furnished and very handy for Central Park.

As far as the girls were concerned, the sole purpose of the trip was to visit the American Girl Place, an emporium of dolls and doll-gear. So that's where we went first and my English Girl indulged in a spending frenzy (she'd been saving up her pocket money since Christmas for this).

We also had formal tea in the cafe, a fancy affair of tiny sandwiches and cakes and an endless supply of pink lemonade. Accompanying dolls had their own chairs and miniature cups. OK, I know it might not appeal to everyone, but for certain girls at just the right age it was all very special.

Over the course of our day and a half in NYC we took in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Little Italy, Central Park and the Museum of the City of New York. Also a diner round the corner from the apartment, where the girls raced in ahead of us, sat themselves at the counter and announced 'We're not with them, they're just gonna pay'. The Mexican waiters seemed to find them adorable, and J and I got to eat a civilised meal together, so it was an ideal arrangement for everyone.

It was just a fleeting visit to New York, New York - but enough to remind me that NYC is its own planet and that there's a reason Albany is known to Manhattanites as 'Smallbany'.

Man and Boy

The Man writes...a glorious sunny day in Albany, with temperatures reaching 67F. Only four days ago the daytime high was barely above freezing. I suppose that's Spring for you.

This afternoon, the Boy and I did a little light yard work in the sunshine, before exploring a new model shop, and then moving on to see the newly released Monsters vs. Aliens, which we both enjoyed. We got home just in time to welcome the girls back from...well, I'll let Albaniana tell that story herself after she's caught up on some sleep.

Gunk and Junk

The Man writes...one final image from last Sunday's trip to the Shawangunk Mountains (or "the Gunks"). This is Lake Minnewaska. At one time there were two large hotels around this mountain lake. Being two thousand feet above sea level, the area boasts spectacular views, but the water was still half-frozen.

With the girls off on their road trip, the Boy went out to dinner straight after school with his best buddy. I understand this consisted of three packets of crisps, a fizzy drink and ice-cream with raspberry flavour sprinkles. What would Albaniana say?

For lunch a couple of days ago, some colleagues and I went to a Chinese restaurant. As usual the meal ended with "fortune cookies", complete with slogans that were uniformly poetic, but quite weird and largely unintelligible. By contrast, on my previous visit my fortune had read: "You will soon be $6.95 poorer ($8.95 if you had the buffet)". Rather prosaic maybe, but eerily accurate as it turned out.

Golden syrup

I had another teaching assignment at Five Rivers this morning, unsupervised for the first time. It went pretty well, especially the bit at the end when the kids all got to sample the maple syrup. They always clamour for more, but we can only afford to give them a tiny amount to taste: genuine maple syrup is liquid gold in more than just colour. Even local people are shocked at the prices this year. With global warming reducing the harvest time it will become an ever more rare and expensive treat.

This evening the children were watching a bizarre DVD called The Adventures of Milo and Otis. It's a live-action movie from the 1980s about a kitten and a pug dog. I'm pretty sure real animals were hurt (or at least traumatized) in the making of it - dogs and cats getting nipped by crabs and lobsters, dropped down pits, half-drowned in the sea etc. It was originally made for TV in Japan. It was all very odd, but the kids liked it.

Tomorrow the Girl and I are off on a little adventure, so you'll get to visit the Man's world for a day or two...

It's a knock-out

Another day, another dental appointment. Today I had some quite heavy-duty work done which required a cocktail of drugs, including a tranquilizer. Not my favourite pill, that one. I did indeed feel fairly tranquil, but I didn't like the way it made all my thoughts sort of slide together and fall over. When I got home (a friend drove me) I dropped into bed and slept heavily for two hours.

I then wondered if the effects of the drugs had completely worn off while chatting with the Boy this evening:

Boy: Mum?

Me: Yes?

Boy: Know what feels funny?

Me: Tell me...

Boy: Pouring rocks on your head. Some always end up in your underwear.

No, I didn't enquire further. Sometimes it's best not to ask.