Candyland

The Girl's girl scout troup had organised a gingerbread house-building competition for other local girl scout troups, and it all happened this evening at the Town Hall. 

Wow!  More sugar and sweeties than you could shake a candy cane at!  Five teams entered, and (God bless America - and the Town Supervisor, who was judging) everyone won a prize or got an honorable mention.  Accolade for Most Creative house went to none other than our friend Exile #3 and her team, with special mention going to the dog biscuit wreath on the door (nice touch!).  When I saw there was a Most Architecturally Interesting prize I rather wished someone had thought to re-create a Frank Lloyd-Wright or some such - a gingerbread reproduction of the Guggenheim would have been something to behold.  Or at the very least, a gingerbread eco-house would have been very cool, with a foil-wrapped bar of chocolate as a solar panel... Mmmm, I could be onto something...

Anyway, it was a nice idea and a lot of fun, as all the slightly wild-eyed, sugared-up girls in the room seemed to agree.

The roof, the whole roof...

Among other things, I called in at Five Rivers today and admired the "green roof" recently planted on top of the new Guided School Program building.  They are cladding the skylights with copper, and when it's done it should all look quite spiffy.

Indian winter

Periodically I get into cooking in quite a big way - I've blogged before now about my flirtations with breadmaking.  Over the summer I fell in love with a cookbook the Man bought for me at the Moosewood Restaurant, called Cooking for Health - it has introduced me to the joys of kale and chard, and has - to my surprise - converted me to Brussels sprouts (roasted and tossed in lemon and mustard dressing, yum yum).  Discovery of this book happened to coincide with the Man beginning a health kick (you'll have noticed how slim he is these days) so that was all very timely.

The other day we picked up an Indian cookbook at the library, and suddenly I'm drawn to exotic spices.  Yesterday I dropped in on the Indian grocery in town.  Fantastic to see spices sold in bulk, for people who use them daily and in quantity, rather than in those tiny expensive pots you get at the supermarket.  I came away equipped with packets of turmeric and cumin seeds, and mango powder (which I hadn't heard of before) and black salt (likewise).  Also gram and chapatti flour, raw cashews and fresh coriander [cilantro].

We ate samosas and spicey sweet potato last night.  Tonight, chickpea poppers and a vegetable masala.  We bought this house from an Indian family - I expect it feels happy to be filled with warm curry cooking smells again.

A better Best Buy experience

I have a "things to do" list as long as my arm.  This week I'm making a concerted effort to shorten it. 

Several of the to-dos involve working on the computer.  A couple of them, until today, involved fixing the computer.  Again.

Since having it mended a few weeks ago (after the hard-drive failed) we'd become aware that the anti-virus system had switched off, but the disc for it wouldn't let us reinstall it.  Also the battery (it's a laptop) had completely failed.

Sigh.  Back to Best Buy with a heavy heart, expecting a long wait and and an argument.

But no - total satisfaction!  Having tried and failed to reinstall the anti-virus from our original disc, the guy gave me a new one and installed it from that.  And he ordered a new battery for us, over and above the once-only-per-lifetime replacement battery offered by our warranty.  So yay, Best Buy are back in my better books.  Though I think I'd like them even better if they'd sold us a computer that worked in the first place.

Geek-love

The other night I was, as so often, listening to the radio when I should have been asleep, and my favourite BBC World Service show, Witness, came on.  Often the programme is rather sombre, but this episode really tickled me.  It's about the invention of the webcam and should gladden the heart of any geek or person fond of geeks.  Here it is.  It runs to about 10 minutes - you might want to make yourself a fresh cup of coffee before you settle down to listen to it.

Day of rest

The last few days have been full and busy, so today we all had a day off.  The kids stayed at home all day barring a brief trip to the library.  The Man and I at least made it as far as the Normans Kill Preserve for a modest hike.  It has been chilly and sort-of-nearly snowy.

FYI, we have resolved our technical difficulties and added photos to this recent post. 

Fair finish

A cold day today - we even saw some snow.

We had another great day at the Fair Trade Market.  Stallholders kept having to rearrange the goods on their tables to hide the empty spaces left by selling so much - a problem they were glad to have.  One vendor sold out altogether and was thrilled that she'd be able to send several hundred dollars to Vietnam to support a project that rescues girls from prostitution.  Friends who sell crafts made in the Kenyan slum of Kibera did a roaring trade, and will be sending more than $2,000 back to that community. 

The Kibera Crafts team were very touched that some young boys at the Market came and sought them out especially, bringing money to spend at their stall because they remembered from last year what they'd learnt about the lives of slum-kids.  For the organizers, the education piece of the event is just as important as the quantity of sales - I think our vendors do a pretty good job with both.

Of all the things I'm involved with out here, the Fair Trade Market is probably the one that pleases me the most.  A lot of people put in a lot of work to make it happen, but it always feels worth it, and I'm rather sorry now that it's over for another year.

Super Market

A few hours after the excitement of the Turkey Trot yesterday we went out to celebrate a relaxing, low-key Thanksgiving with good friends (such good friends, in fact, that none of them said a thing when I fell asleep for half an hour after dinner. Told you it was relaxing).

This morning saw the opening of the Fair Trade Market.  As usual everything looked wonderful, and there was a great atmosphere.  Customers came through steadily most of the day, and appeared to be spending enthusiastically.  As usual, I heard many complimentary remarks, the best being from a woman from New Jersey who told me she comes back to Bethlehem for Thanksgiving especially to attend our event.  The Times Union (our main regional newspaper) sent a photographer, so we hope his pictures will bring us some extra customers tomorrow.

The vendors all seemed happy with the day's sales when we closed at 3:00pm.  Everyone's looking forward to getting together again in the morning...

And the winner is...

The Man and I took part in the Our Towne Bethlehem Turkey Trot this morning.  The Man ran the 5K course, and I walked it...dressed as the Five Rivers owl (that was kind of a last minute decision).

It was a beautiful crisp morning for a run or a stroll round the quiet Delmar neighbourhood - with a couple of thousand fellow participants.  This is only the Turkey Trot's third year, but it's already established as a popular Thanksgiving tradition.  Really friendly, really fun, and all in aid of the food pantry.  At $20 a head entry fee it must have raised a whole lot of money for that good cause.

I was happy (relieved, in fact) to quickly come across a friend who seemed unphased by my appearance and who was willing to walk the course with me (she was herself wearing a hat shaped like a pilgrim turkey, so she was already beyond embarassment).

I received many compliments on my "turkey" costume.  After the sixteenth or so "Look at the turkey!" I gave up correcting people.  What the heck, on Thanksgiving everyone just assumes any big fat bird has to be a turkey - who was I to disappoint the American public?

The Man completed his run in a good time.  I took a great deal longer, but didn't use quite as much puff.  And guess which of us came home clutching a trophy?  Oh yes, only a Best Costume Golden Turkey for yours truly!

Busy busy world

OK, just a very quick blog tonight.  It's been a full-on kind of day, a lot of it spent preparing for the FT Market.  As I'd hoped, our table difficulties resolved themselves - somehow we've even managed to end up with a spare... 

It looks like it should be a great event.

But before that, Thanksgiving, a Turkey Trot, all kinds of fun...

And...panic

Ah, that's better - at last I'm in full panic mode about the weekend's Fair Trade event...

We discovered today that the church doesn't have enough tables for our extended market.  Yikes - have we grown that much?  Well, no doubt we'll work something out, but I won't properly relax until we do.

And this morning I find myself on the front page of a local paper quoted as saying "Some people prefer to shop in a way that is not ethical..."

Whaaat?  Really?  I think people prefer to shop unethically?  I surely didn't say that. Urgh. This really doesn't represent how I feel!  However I don't see there's much I can do about it except hope that today's front page quickly becomes tomorrow's hamster cage lining.  It's a great shame because otherwise it was a lovely, positve article about a lovely, positive event.

Urgh, urgh, urgh.

Going large

The annual Fair Trade market is coming up at the end of the week, and it will be even bigger this year so this morning was given over to room-planning (room-plus-corridor-planning, in fact, to enable us to accomodate everyone) and other logistical juggling.  Everything's looking fine - I'm beginning to worry that I should be panicking more...

The rest of the day was spent as it often is, to-ing and fro-ing.  Kids to the library, one of them to dance class, grab some bread from the supermarket, collect the dancer etc etc.  The Man went to another Nanovember talk, about what's going on with the absolutely enormous new nanoscience building that has gone up this year at the university - apparently it's a 4.8 billion dollar partnership between a consortium of semiconductor manufacturers and New York State aimed at making chips more cheaply by starting with a larger (450mm) silicon wafer.  A "cheap as chips" project, then?

Over-sleepy

Most of the sleepover boys survived the night - one developed a headache and bailed out at midnight, before any of them had even tried to fall asleep.  The others kept going (quietly) for another hour I think, but they were definitely all tucked soundly in sleeping bags at 5:30am...when the rest of us got up and crept around getting the Girl ready for a skating test.

The Man drove her up to Saratoga Springs - she had to be at the rink there by 7am, so that was quite heroic for a Sunday morning.  This is not the glamorous end of figure skating - fifteen minutes alone on the ice in a silent and empty rink, going though a series of compulsory moves.  The test went smoothly however and the Girl passed with a nice comment from the judge.  Yay!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I'd gone back to bed, and the boys all surfaced before I did.  But apart from me throwing some breakfast their way at some point they looked after themselves for the morning.  The last of them left at noon.

The rest of the day has been fairly quiet.  The Man and I took in a quick hike at the Normanskill Preserve.  The Girl had a meeting with her Scout troop.  Man and Boy cycled down to Tollgate for a home-made chocolate ice cream. Tonight no-one has much energy for anything, and if we are wise we will all be heading up to bed early.

Manic Saturday

So often our Saturdays start slowly and sort of putter along.  Today, though, has been non-stop activity.

We made our usual visit to the Farmers' Market in the morning.  From there, straight on to the annual Day of Simple Giving at St Sophia's Church, where we made gift bags out of unwanted T-shirts and very much enjoyed assembling packets of bean soup ingredients - the Man claims he could have done it all day.

However, we didn't have all day.  We next had to rush along to a Winter Sports Mart run by a Boy Scout troop at the local High School.  Though we'd never been before, it's clearly a much anticipated event - just before opening time we joined a queue to get in that snaked all around the school corridors.

We made a few bargain purchases (ski goggles and socks, a hoodie for the Girl and a secondhand bike for the Boy).  But then we had to dash along to get the Girl to a skating session, cramming in a quick trip to the library en route to pick videos for later viewing.  And then the Boy claimed an urgent need to shop for balloons, and by the time we'd done that the Girl was ready to be picked up again...

And then, even before we got home, loads of the Boy's friends started turning up at the house (the Girl had a mass sleepover a couple of weeks ago, and now it's her brother's turn).  As they crashed around as only ten year old boys can do, blowing up and bursting balloons, the Man slipped out and attended the NY's Capital Region Vegetarian Expo.  Here he encountered more than sixty exhibitors, from veggie food vendors to environmental activists and committed animal rights campaigners.  Products and literature were actually more vegan than vegetarian, and the final speaker was a strong proponent of the health benefits of an entirely plant-based diet.

Solar, so good

I have never visited Germany, and until the weekend had not even flown low enough over it to have seen it from above.  But en route to Poland and back I had stopovers in Munich, and had good views of the German countryside as we flew in and out of the airport.

I grew up with a set of those little wooden houses that you can use to build your own mini village.  They were made in Germany (the old GDR, I'm guessing).  Looking out of the plane window as we neared Munich on Friday, I was completely charmed to see that German houses really do look like the little wooden ones - simple shapes, symetrical windows, red roofs.  Only now, thanks to government subsidies, quite a lot of the red roofs have had shiny solar panels added.

So tonight, in recognition of Germany's solar power endeavours, I bring you...

Positively Poznan

At the heart of Poznan is the "old town" - a large square built around the old town hall.  It does all look convincingly old, although in fact much of it was destroyed or badly damaged during the war and what is seen today is mostly reconstruction.

On my first evening in Poznan I joined other conference delegates for a short tour of the main sights.  We saw the brightly painted fish merchants' houses - some curiously thin, as permission was only given to build them to the original width of each merchant's stall. 
 

We were shown the town's whipping post (once the main source of entertainment for townspeople, and still a popular meeting place).  We were introduced to a little German girl, representing a long-established German population in the city.

The old city hall is rather magnificent, decorated with depictions of Greek gods, saints and Polish kings.  Its clock tower has a unique feature - when the clock strikes midday, two mechanical goats appear and butt horns twelve times.  The goats have become the symbol of the city and can be found in other forms here and there (including on souvenir T-shirts, which has made the goat-loving Girl very happy).

Star performer

Life rushes on and the weekend's experiences already seem weeks ago.  I have more to say about Poznan, but for now I'm going to talk about going to Five Rivers tonight.

I'd forgotten it was the Annual Meeting this evening (well, I'd written it in the wrong box on the calendar, in fact).  So it was a good job I ran into the Friends' administrator earlier today, who set me straight.

The speaker tonight was Alan French, an amateur astronomer.  Now, I know that everyone should spend good portions of their time looking at the night sky in order to keep the problems of the world in perspective etc etc.  However, I can't say I do, and I've never been as interested as I feel I ought to be in constellations and the like (how can you possibly say that such and such a grouping of shiny dots in the sky looks like a man or a bear or whatever?).

I didn't, therefore, have very high hopes of enjoying a talk about astronomy.  How wrong I was!  Mr French gave an excellent presentation, covering all the basic information a person might need to get into space (not literally).  Best planispheres (star maps) and sky calendar, best websites and apps. If you are at all interested, let me know and I'll pass on the details.  Special mention goes to a fun sounding website called www.heavens-above.com which lets you know when satellites and other cool stuff in the sky will be passing over your house.  No telescope?  No problem - find your nearest local amateur astronomy group (for us it's Albany Area AAs) and they'll very likely invite you to a star party where you can try out OPTs (Other People's Telescopes).

Fairly global

So, Poland. 

The Fair Trade Towns conference was great.  Around 130 delegates representing 24 countries - it was a lot of fun meeting people from all over Europe and even from as far away as Japan, the Philippines and Brazil.  Trying to be a Fair Trade advocate can sometimes feel a bit of an uphill struggle.  It was good to be among others from around the world (it really is a global movement!) and pick up some of their ideas and energy.  It was also an honour to attend the ceremony to celebrate Poznan becoming Poland's first Fair Trade Town.  Go Poznan!

When we weren't conferencing there was time for socializing.  I dined out with other delegates a couple of times.  Being the crowd we were we did a good share of putting-the-world-to-rights, but there was a lot of joking around too.  I'm not a drinker myself, but others certainly made up for me in that respect.  I was surprised and impressed by Polish food - good, hearty stuff and really tasty.  Poznan has hundreds of bars and eateries, to cater for some 150,000 students (many from abroad) attending more than 20 universities and colleges in the city.

On Sunday afternoon, after the conference, we had time to catch some of the St. Martin's Day celebrations - a special festival in Poznan.  Crowds packed the streets.  We missed the traditional procession, but it was interesting to wander around the street stalls.  Most were selling rogale świętomarcińskie - croissants iced with sugar and stuffed with something like marzipan. Yum (see the last photo in yesterday's post). 

That'll do for now - I'll tell you some more tomorrow.

Home, but not all there

Yes, I'm back.  It has taken me a while (about 24 hours in transit) so right now I'm feeling a bit fragile, though of course it's good to be back home with the family (perhaps in my honour there seems to be a moratorium on Christmas music, so I'm not yet regretting my decision to return). 

As the Man has already told you, I had an excellent time in Poland. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.  For now, here are a few pictures to whet your appetites:

Blue is the colour

The Man writes...a glorious day in the Capital District, with dark blue skies and temperatures in the high 60sF.  I remarked to someone at a party this evening about the oddity of driving around with the air conditioning cranked up and non-stop holiday classics on the radio. He had just come back from taking his family skiing at Jiminy Peak, where their opening weekend, on snow freshly made on the recent cold nights, had turned into a bit of a soggy affair.

After shooting a few hoops in the yard, the kids and I enjoyed a short, relaxed hike at Five Rivers:

Then it was on to the party I mentioned, which was at the house of some Hindi friends, and in celebration of Diwali, the Festival of Lights.  The highlight was an all-vegetarian feast of sumptuous Indian food.

Albaniana is flying back tomorrow, when - jetlag permitting - normal service will be resumed, and your stand-in will stand down.

Albaniana abroad - Day 3

The Man writes...our local Farmer's Market has moved indoors to a school cafeteria until the end of the year.  With over forty vendors, live music and lots of hot food on offer, there is a pleasant, lively atmosphere.

I took the Boy and Girl there this morning, but this crowd is very much Albaniana's home turf (where I usually go by the name of Albaniana's husband) so several people asked where she was. "In Poland" I said. "Poland where?" they said*. "Poland, Poland" I said, rather tautologously.

The cafeteria is adorned with advertisements for milk featuring various young stars, who are so famous they don't apparently need their names by the the photos.  Back in the UK I considered myself a student of popular culture, but I have been out of the loop for a while now so I only knew one out of about six. The Girl reckoned she knew none of them. I worry I am failing as a parent.

This evening I called a phone number with country code "48" and Albaniana answered, so it seems she really is in Poland.  She told us that the city of Poznan is a really interesting place, apparently prosperous and full of students, that the food is surprising and excellent, and that the conference she is attending is great. In fact she would like to stay longer and travel around Poland seeing more of its sites and learning about its complex history and culture.  We will have to wait and see if she does.

In unrelated news, the Boy and Girl have discovered two local FM stations (95.5 and 98.3) that are now playing non-stop 24/7 holiday (i.e. Christmas) music, which they have on at every opportunity.  Which is not the type of news likely to make Albaniana rush home sooner, I can tell you.

*There are two towns in New York state alone called Poland.

Paws for thought

The Man writes....it seems like no-one wanted to play the Where's Albaniana? guessing game yesterday? Here are some further clues in today's brief dispatch from her:

" Had a good dinner out with a few people - pierogi (a bit like Cornish pasties).

It has been dark most of the time I've been here so far, but will aim to take photos tomorrow going and to and from the conference.  Lots of old buildings - really very pretty in the old town."

And a further poser: remember our hike up Big Slide in the Adirondacks a couple of weeks ago? At one point we crossed a log bridge across a stream and came across this freshly made, wet paw print:

Can anyone say what animal it is from (and hazard a guess about how much danger we were in?)

And from Polls to Poles

I'm off on some travels (can you guess where?).

I'll be in transit overnight, and relying on the kindness of strangers and hotels for internet access for the next few days, so chances are the Man will be doing most of the blogging until I get back.

The Man adds...there were just a few minutes at Albany "International" to take in the fun and diverting More or Less exhibition.  Here is Albaniana with a large plastic flower arrangement:

 

At the other end of the day we all went to the Boy's school for "Eat, Shoot, Read", an event which combined a "Turkey Shoot" (actually, shooting a few basketball hoops) and a book sale. Here is the Boy, making up in style for what he lacks in inches:

Result!

So, a slam dunk for Obama.  Thank goodness for that.  But with the Senate and House still much as they were before, how likely is a sudden break out of cross-party cooperation, versus no-business-as-usual?  The odds don't look good.  Gotta hope though, haven't you.  It's all about hoping.

With the call coming rather early, I managed to be in bed before midnight, though the Man stayed up longer to watch as the results from more states came in, and I listened to the President's acceptance speech on the radio at some silly hour.  We're feeling a bit blurry today. 

The schools have used the election to introduce the kids both to the process and to some discussion of policies.  A mock election was held, Kindergarten through High School, in which Obama won by about 2:1.  There, Romney, that's what comes of threatening to axe Sesame Street.

We've had a fair bit of political discussion at home, too, which has been quite invigorating.  Though our kids have had about enough of politics for now (well, hasn't everyone?) we're glad they're beginning to engage with it.  After all (to paraphrase that speech I was listening to in the small hours) messy and unsatisfactory though it can be, politics matters...

Even for domestic animals...

Election night

Not enough results in yet... My fingers are still crossed so I'll keep it brief tonight.  Back to the election coverage, and perhaps in the morning we'll know for sure what's what.

Here's hoping...

Radical thinking

There was a full house for the penultimate HILL lecture about the general election - and a certain jitteriness in the room, on this day before the election itself, which our lecturer sought to allay.

The media is enjoying the narrative that the election is too close to call.  However, statistical analysis of the polls (by Nate Silver and others) suggests it's not quite that close, and that Obama should win. 

In my head I feel somewhat reassured, but my heart is superstitious so just in case I'm going to keep my fingers crossed until the results are squarely in.  This makes typing the blog rather challenging, so I will hand over to the Man who has also been to a lecture today...

The Man adds...the lecture I attended was part of the NANOvember (gedit?) public lecture series at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.  Around 100 people (mainly seniors) gathered to listen to Dr Andres Melendez discuss how nanotechnology could be used to halt the aging process.

The argument goes as this: aging is caused (at least in part) by free radicals (highly reactive ions) and slowed by antioxidants. Studies where people have taken large amounts of Vitamins A and E have been unsuccessful in prolonging life because the antioxidant has to be targetted. Therefore the aim is to develop nanoparticles that release antioxidants in the exact location where free radicals are being generated.

The idea seems fairly speculative at this stage. The only study cited was one where feeding rats with olive oil and buckyballs doubled their lifespan. But Dr Melendez added that feeding the rats just olive oil had almost the same effect. As did putting them on a low calorie diet...

There is also a proposal for us all to have a microchip implanted that can then continuously transmit all our body's parameters and state of health over the internet to a physician. Clearly there would have to be some pretty strong data privacy safeguards.

Sleptover

The Girl's slumber party seemed to go off without too much incident. Inevitably, without too much sleep either, but I didn't have to have much to do with that. We waved the last visitor off at noon and the Girl more-or-less remained slumped in a chair for the rest of the day..

The Boy, at his buddy's house last night, also had less sleep than usual but it didn't stop him and his friend playing a 5-hour marathon game of Monopoly today followed by roller-skating at Guptill's.  He should by rights be a wilted and exhausted creature by now, but he seems cheery enough and wide awake even though it ought at least to feel like bedtime (the clocks went back this weekend, so our sense of time is a bit off kilter). 

The Man and I took time out this chilly afternoon to visit Thacher Park and made probably our last hike along the Indian Ladder Trail before it shuts for the winter on November 16th.  Fall colours are definitely on the way out up there.  All those bare trees would look pretty under a covering of snow...

Oops, I did it again

I've caved in to the Girl having another mass sleepover.  What possessed me?

She has five friends round already and another is on her way.  Loud, loud, loud they are.  The Boy has made arrangements to sleep elsewhere tonight.  The Man is thinking of joining him...

But (cunning plan) however late they decide to stay up, it should in fact be possible for us adults to get some kip tonight.  The girls are going to be in the basement for the night - yay, two floors away!

In other news, we have put up a squirrel-proof birdfeeder.  Amazingly, it does seem to work (it has a spring mechanism that shuts off the seed compartments when anything heavier than a bird steps on the perches).  

However, we discovered today that spring-loaded gizmos do nothing at all to deter a much larger animal...

Categorically bad

I was sorry to learn today that Saugerties Lighthouse, which we recently visited, was flooded out earlier this week and will be closed until further notice.  Yet another victim of Sandy (such an inappropriately cheery name, that, given the awful destruction it has wreaked).

I've been trawling around putting up lawn signs (with lawn-owners' permission, of course) to advertise the annual Fair Trade Market happening later this month.  I can't believe it's already November (though the chill in the air - not to mention talk of snow - hints that it really is).

The Girl saw out October on Wednesday with some late evening homework.  The Science teacher, bowing to the inevitability of Halloween, had set her students the task of categorizing 25 pieces of trick-or-treat candy.  Well, that was soon done.  How quickly the Girl will be able to demolish the couple of hundred other pieces remains to be seen.

Worst Buy

I have spoken to some pleasant people at Best Buy today, and to some equally pleasant people on the helpline for ASUS computers, in my attempts to get our new laptop fixed at no cost to us BECAUSE IT IS STILL UNDER WARRANTY AND WE HAVE A FULL SERVICE CONTRACT ON IT.  And yet, try as I might, I have not found a way of achieving a repair without spending at least $50, either to ship the damn thing back to the manufacturer (Best Buy won't do it for me) or to buy a set of recovery discs (not provided by the manufacturer when we bought the computer, and not held by Best Buy for the repair of broken computers they are contracted to service). 

So, you can imagine, I have spoken rather harshly to these pleasant people (acknowledging, even as my voice rose, that I wasn't blaming them personally, but their hopeless employers).  The pleasant people replied calmly, pleasantly...almost as if they have had to deal with angry, frustrated customers many, many times before.

Ngggrh.