Alien Spouse

Happy New Year's Eve!

It's snowing in Boston, and so our only trip out today was to the cinema to see "Young Victoria" (Emily Blunt was very good as the Queen, and Mark Strong is apparently set on cornering the market for Victorian/Edwardian villains this week) as we are staying at our friend Bob's house, we have made plans to stay in this evening.  We have bought hummus, pita bread, cake and wine, ordered Thai food and sourced a deck of cards.

Texas Hold 'Em and a fine selection of carbs shall ring in 2010.

More Food In NYC And A Shirt.

I know that I am scarcely the first to say this, but it remains the truth: I love New York.  This is mostly to do with the fact that I love to eat good food, and I like to shop at good (not necessarily expensive, but good) shops.  I've been looking for a black-&-white check shirt for a while, and UNIQLO in NYC provided a range of different checks to choose from, all in the perfect texture of warm brushed cotton.  Happy sigh.

Last night Doc C had to go and do conference things (Oh, did I not mention we were here for an actual reason?  Yep, Philosophy Conference.) so we agreed to have a late dinner when he got back.  Which turned out to be around midnight.

Fortunately, I had happened to browse the cookery section of a bookshop yesterday and found Bubby's Brunch Cookbook, which had some delicious recipes in it.  Then I noticed that Bubby's Pie Company, the restaurant the book was based around, was in Tribeca.  Back at the hotel I just happened to wander onto their website, and immediately decided that was what I wanted for dinner.  Which was extra specially good, because it's open 24 hours (except Mondays) and was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel.

Where else, but New York, can you get a perfect Macaroni Cheese in the middle of the night?  Hmmm?  And follow it up with a slice of fresh coconut cream pie?  SO happy!

Ice Storm Christmas.

 So the Christmas day blog post.

I woke up really early on Christmas morning and it was cold, so I didn't feel like getting up and I just curled up and went back to sleep. When I woke up properly, I reached for my iPod and was annoyed to find there was no internet connection and it was really freaking cold.

Doc C and I realised that there had been a power-cut, fortunately we'd bought an apricot brioche so we could at least have breakfast.  Because we couldn't cook anything, or have a shower, or turn the heat on, or do bloody anything.  It turns out everything in our house is run on electricity.  Everything. So we piled blankets and cats on the bed, and opened our presents from my Mum which included books which we could read whilst waiting for the power to come back on.

When we looked out of the window we realised that the predicted ice storm had hit, which makes things looks beautiful (see the above picture of hideous sculpture covered in ice) and knocked out our power.  Of course it being Christmas Day, the power did not come back on, because I'm betting there weren't enough people working that day. 

This is totally understandable, but it didn't help us to warm up much, and we had to get ready to go to the cinema.  So we called Randy and Laura, and asked if we could use their shower, which they very kindly let us do.  This may or may not have been because we were going to the cinema with them, so they were really saving their own noses. (The movie was "Sherlock Holmes" by the way and it was really fun - I'll post about that later!)

It was extremely lucky that we had made plans to leave the house, because the power was still not back on when we got back from the film.  We had to go to bed by torch (American Translation: Flashlight), and it was really really cold.

Yes, so Christmas Day 2009.  It was absolutely bloody freezing.

Still, a tree fell on one of our neighbour's car, so at least the ice storm made us laugh.  Because they are ever so slightly annoying and because we are evil.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. And Books!

This morning I had a bowl of porridge for breakfast, whilst I finished off the detective novel I've been reading on this trip.  Then I walked around the corner to The Mysterious Bookshop on Warren Street, and they had, not one, but two Mrs Bradley Mysteries by Gladys Mitchell; neither of which I had previously read.  Score!

Then Doc met me for lunch, and we went to Le Pain Quotidien, for a simple rustic lunch.  And a teeny tiny raspberry custard tart.  So adorable, and so delicious.

This evening we are going to get a curry.

New York.  I bloody love it!

 

Three Nights in Tribeca.

Can it be? Is it true? Yes! Doc C has found a hotel on Manhattan Island with free wi-fi in the rooms! It's incredible, but true.  Do you know that the hotel in Washington wanted $12 for a day's worth of internet?  Outrageous!  I think we need to stand firm on these sorts of charges, and work towards making hotels understand the importance of being able to browse the internet in the comfort of one's own room.  This is ofcourse the only reason that I broke my run of daily blog posts, I managed over a year but in the end that's what got me.  Ah well!

Fortunately, our hotel in Tribeca is much more progressive on the internet front; AND they have a cafe downstairs.  They thoughtfully provide a copy of the menu in the rooms, which I have perused carefully and tomorrow morning I intend to eat a breakfast of porridge with maple syrup & fresh fruit, most likely with a pot of tea. Lovely.

Oh, and there is a detective novel shop just round the corner.  This place is perfect.

p.s. I will be posting my Christmas Day report at some point soon, hopefully before the start of the New Year but we will see.  You can't rush comedy.

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! We are currently celebrating with a festive power cut!

Mincepies Will Be Ours!

After dinner I whipped up a batch of pastry which is in the fridge chiiling overnight, and I'll make mincepies tomorrow. It is the traditional food of Christmas after all!

The Tradtional Christmas Journey to A Galaxy Far Far Away.

Damn it!  I can't believe it's 8:35pm on Christmas Eve!

I was fully intending to spend the day baking gingerbread and mincepies, but then I noticed Spike was screening "Star Wars: A New Hope" so we watched that as we ate breakfast, and I thought I'd just whip up some pastry after that.  Except that Spike then showed "Star Wars: Empire Strikes back", which is probably my favourite of the original trilogy, so I had to watch that.  Do I even need to tell you that Spike then screened "Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi"?  And who can resist Ewoks?  sigh.

So I have baked nothing.

When I was watching the epic battle between The Force and The Dark Side, I did crochet a pair of fingerless mittens and a hooded wrap, which was pretty good.  Maybe Christmas Day will be better for gingerbread and mincepies.

Three Lots of Litter.

Feel free to skip this post; but I feel that there may be a cat owner out there who needs to know they are not alone. 

To them I say:  Cat litter.  Let's talk. 

We currently have three different types of cat litter on trial.

1. Swheat Scoop (which is wheat based - Hence the name)
2. Feline Pine (Which is pine based - Hence the name)
3. Feline Pine Pellets (See #2 - And why are cat litter brands all named through the magic of puns and/or rhymes?)

We originally supplied the cats with an environmentally friendly, clumping litter that was really light, but was quite bulky so it didn't get everywhere.  Then the supermarket just stopped selling it without any notice whatsoever, and now I forget what it was called.  It had a picture of a cat on the box though.  I think possibly it was a cat with blue eyes.

Anyway, we tried to find the closest match we could to that litter, but clearly we didn't do very well because that was when Edith really started her pee protest in earnest.  Somehow it still took me months to realise that Edith, once she'd been treated for a UTI, was really unhappy with the litter.  I think this was because I was shopping for litter from a human perspective instead of a cats, which sounds ridiculous I know; BUT I was buying litter that was easy for me to fill the trays with and didn't require more than scooping twice a day and replacing every two weeks.  I didn't think about how it would feel to a cat's paws or the different scent requirements cats have to people.

It wasn't until Doc C was really at the very end of his tether, that I called the Humane Society to ask for help.  They told me that they used Feline Pine in the cat shelter, so we ran to stock up on that.  That apparently solved everything instantly, and both cats have been happily using that.  Oh, and also the tray with the Swheat Scoop in it. Because why make things easy for the Humans to understand?

Of course I am delighted that both cats seem content with the Feline Pine, but it's a very soft, very fine pine sawdust and it gets ALL over the bathroom floor.  So this is satisfying the cat perspective, but not the human perspective; because as soon as I clean the floor it looks like the circus came to town five minutes later. Now the question is how to compromise?  What exactly is it that our very particular cats require in a litter?  Is it a textural thing, or an aroma thing? 

So most recently we brought the Feline Pine Pellets into play; because it has the smell of the pine, but the pellets are a much more robust size and shape, so they stay securely in the tray. I think I'm right in saying that the cats have now moved almost entirely from the Swheat Scoop to the Feline Pine Duo (Do not ask me how I know this); but this may just be because it's new and exciting.  I don't want to make a snap judgement and find I've made a terrible error in judgement.  Plus I'm too nervous to rely on just one brand, I think mainly because I am getting used to not having to clean the floor every morning before breakfast, and I'm loath to endanger that.

This means that at present I am scooping three trays with three different types of litter, which is bound to end up being a logistical nightmare at some point or other; I'm just waiting for the supermarket to stop selling all three on the same day.  Can you imagine?

p.s. I have spared you my review of the corn-based cat-litter.  Just no.  I know that it works very well for some cats and their owners, but it was not for us.

Winding Down.

Oh hey! Yeah, I've been asleep for most of today but I did manage to wash two loads of laundry, and tidied up the spare-room-slash-study. Then I started crocheting a möbius wrap in a slate grey Rowan wool; I'm also thinking about crocheting a hood in the same wool, and I may try felting that! It's been none stop.

Digging Our Way Out.

This morning Doc C managed to push open the back door just wide enough for him to be able to get to the snow shovel, and dug a path from the front door to the car. Then he dug around the car, before finally getting the snow off the car itself.

He gave the car a snow mohawk, which I had to get a photo of because you can see exactly how much snow the car was covered with. 

And, oh yes, once again we were delighted with our decision to get a car with heated seats.  Toasty!

The Scratches of Luxury.

There is a television commercial that I've seen several times now for a product I find bizarre, which is a shower gel with diamond dust in it.

As a girl who loves shiny things, of course I like diamonds, so I'll grant you that it sounds good; but isn't diamond one of the hardest materials known to man?  Why would you want that in a shower gel?  Is there a slightly less expensive gel with powdered glass in it?

The commercial perplexes me anew every time I see it.

Snowed In (Not Really, But What The Hell!)

So, did you hear that it snowed?   

It really did!  A lot!  In fact we got snowed into our house; well, ok some spoilsport did actually snowplough our road, so technically I think we could get out with a bit of effort.  However, I studiously avoided noticing that; and did my best to distract Doc from noticing either, so we stayed inside all day today.  Yay!

We slept late, Skyped my lovely Mum, ate very well, watched Hulu ("Dollhouse" is so rocking, I still cannot believe that Fox cancelled it.  Damn you Fox! *shakes fist at sky*) and allowed the cats to spend the entire day alternating between our laps.  I also did a lot of knitting, whilst Doc C did a lot of reading.

I did take photos, of course, and I particularly loved the shots I got of the birdfeeder in use.  We're weren't 100% sure what this bird was, but our best guess is a woodpecker; what say you?

Christmas Snow Day

It started snowing at 8:06 this morning, and it hasn't stopped since; so there's now well over a foot of snow on the ground. Doc and I left work early because we knew the roads were going to get bad  (AND the heat had been turned off in my building, and if turning the heat off during a snowstorm doesn't say the management think you should go home now, well, I don't know what does) but we still had to change our usual route to get to our house because we couldn't get up one particularly hill.  There was a tense moment when we wondered if the other road would actually be any better, but the little car got us home!  Yay!

Then I called my Mum to wish her a happy birthday before settling down to one of the best naps ever, ever, ever.  It was like three hours of comfy dozy goodness.

Now I'm sitting drinking ovaltine with a healthy slug of brandy in it, and eating a slice of fresh stollen from our favourite bakery.

The Christmas holidays are officially here.

Academia Zombie Chic.

One of the best parts about working at a University is the dress code of "smart office wear" is very ambiguous. I'm not able to get away with Threadless T-shirts, but apart from that it's fairly easy to have some fun with my wardrobe.

For example, I felt the combination of a neckerchief with a cardigan was looking a bit twee, so I pinned my faux-silk scarf with a badge that said "I Love Brains" with a little cartoon brain in the middle (Nut and Bee, of course!).  It was mainly because the colours worked well with the pattern on the scarf, but also because I like zombies.

My manager spotted the badge the moment I walked in the door, and said "You should give that to me!", because she's a neuro-scientist.  Well, this brain is mine; but I may have to order more Nut and Bee goodies, so I'll probably get one for her then.

Green Card for a Green Queen.

As you may remember I had my appointment to capture my biometrics, back in September, and it was a very swift process on the day.   Since then I've just been waiting for my new Permanent Resident Card, and it arrived yesterday!

It's pretty much the same as the temporary visa, except the new one is a IR1 and the expired one is a CR1, but the difference in the pictures is hilarious.

On the original my photo somehow become stretched and seemed to have a rosier skin tone to it; the more recent portrait is much better but oddly yellow.  It's unfortunate that maintaining my secret identity precludes me from showing you the actual photos; so instead I've approximated the effect with head-shots of the Green Queen.

 

It's uncanny!

Ugh.

Back to bed. I did make it into work this morning, but I came home before lunch and I've been watching police procedurals in between naps all afternoon. The most productive thing I've done is transfer my knitting onto circular needles, whilst watching "Slapshot". So it's been a weird day.

Status Report

I woke up this morning and felt awful.  I'm guessing I could have coped with one social event this weekend, but three was just too much and I got over-tired which Mono does not like.  I thought I'd been really careful, but I suppose the weekend is when my body has been stocking up on sleep so I can get through the working week.

So I called work and went back to sleep, which helped a lot.  I'm feeling better now, but but I'm just going to chill for the rest of today.

These three Nut and Bee badges (American Translation Which I Still can't Get Used To: Pins or Buttons) seemed appropriate.  As you can see my status for today is: A little bit poorly, curled up on an armchair and knitting.

Christmas Tree '09

OK, FINE.

I'll decorate the Christmas tree.

This year I'm keeping things very simple - Lights, gold beads and a Union Jack paper-chain.  The paper-chain was a birthday present from my Mum, and it makes me very happy!

 
 
 

Human Cat Sleeping Positions

It's definitely getting colder at night, because both cats are electing to sleep on our bed at night.

Nancy is still not sure about all this, so she tends to curl up on the bottom left corner of the bed, meaning I have to be very careful with my feet. 

On the other hand, super-confident Edith really prefers to sprawl across myself and Doc C, thereby declaring herself Queen of the Humans.  If she isn't able to do that, then Edith will snuggle up in the crook of my knees, which makes rolling over tricky.

Doc C is actually warmer than me, but he will shove the cats off if he's uncomfortable.  I'm much more of a sap, and I'll try not to disturb them once they've settled down.  I suspect that Edith at least is well aware of this.

It's Canapé Time!

This weekend appears to be the official start of the party season. I had a brunch reception this morning, cocktails this evening and there will be a wedding tomorrow afternoon. When is a girl suppossed to doze? And all three events require totally different looks, plus the temperature has plummeted; so now it has to be glamorous AND warm. Thank goodness for fake fur.

Full of Glee.

It's ok, I've caught up now. We can discuss the last four episodes of "Glee", without me having to stuff my fingers in my ears to avoid spoilers. Although, I don't know why I was worried, like there was ever any doubt they wouldn't get through Sectionals!

Muffler with Chopsticks.

I finished my short wool muffler, and then I realised that I don't have a plain kilt pin.  I have one that's covered in diamante and another that's dripping with buttons and charms; neither of which were what I had in mind.

So I found the lovely wooden chopsticks that my boss brought back from Japan this summer, and stuck them through the weave of the fabric. It worked well, the chopsticks didn't get in the way and I liked having less scarf to deal with.  It was like wearing a really cozy cravat.

The only question remaining is: Does it look totally insane?  Doc C liked my outfit today, and he tells me very frankly if he thinks I'm wearing something crazy (I don't always listen though, sometimes I like a bit of crazy in my wardrobe!); however no-one else mentioned it.  All day.  So either it fits in so effortlessly with my look that no-one at work noticed; or they were nervous to mention it because, Hello, Nutter.

Christmas Is Not Quite Cancelled. Almost, But Not Quite.

This Christmas we were planning to go home to England and see my Mum, but Mono has put paid to that.  I don't have enough leave left, and I can't imagine what mono multiplied by jet lag would be like, but I suspect it wouldn't be good.

So I don't get to go home.  And it's been three years now. 

Quite honestly, it's very depressing, and I am horribly disappointed. Still "Keep Calm and Carry On".

The plan now is to watch "Sherlock Holmes" at the cinema on Christmas day, so I'll see something of London I suppose.  Plus Doc C realised that if we weren't going to the UK, then we could go to American Philosophical Association's Eastern Division Meeting instead.  woot.

But wait! 

The meeting happens to be in New York this year, so it is somewhat of a consolation.  Now all we have to do is find somewhere to stay in New York between Christmas and the New Year, which is proving to be a bit tricky at this short notice.  Any suggestions, Internet?

The Many Faces of Alice.

As a child I never really liked "Alice in Wonderland", it was just too surreal for me at the time; which is so weird, because I adore dream-like books and films now.  When I was a children's bookseller I came to appreciate the opportunities the story gave to illustrators, so you get utterly different images from John Tenniel or Helen Oxenbury (I particularly loved the Oxenbury pictures, because they looked exactly like my cousin Alana when she was a little girl).  Then I read "Automated Alice" which thoroughly re-mixed all of the concepts in my mind, and now I can really get behind Miss Liddell.

There are also several film and television versions of the story, which are usually opportunities for fabulous casts, gorgeous costumes and beautiful mise en scene.  I am really looking forward to Time Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" next year, for all of those reasons, and this weekend SyFy had a two episode mini-series adaptation of "Alice". 

My favourite part of the SyFy version (apart from Andrew-Lee Potts's artfully dodging Hatter, who I thought was charming), was a sequence that was reminiscent of the classic chase through the forests of Endor in "Return of the Jedi", but instead of speeder bikes it was flying motorised flamingo scooters.  They were so... PINK... like sci-fi hovercraft as seen through the eyes of a drag queen.  I WANT one.

***Post Script***

I managed to find a picture of the Flamingo Scooter!  For some reason none of the production photos or wallpapers on SyFy feature them, or for that matter the fabulous casino and it's dancers.  You'll just have to imagine these flying through a forest with Suits firing shotguns from them.  Fun!

 

Festive Food Binge.

When we got home this evening, I whipped up a dozen mincepies. We ate all of them, warm from the oven, with large cups of tea.

Now neither of us is particularly hungry, and I think that may just turn out to be our dinner this evening.

Do you think that at least counts as one of our portions of fruit for the day?  Yes?

Twinkle, Twinkle, Pastry Stars.

I made mincepies for my office's Christmas party, ummm, Team Building on Friday and that used up the only jar of Crosse and Blackwell's mincemeat that I'd found here.  I think it was worth it, everyone made appreciative noises at least!

So, yesterday, I made my own mincemeat!  With like raisins, and currants, and apples, and zest, and stuff!  And a hefty shot of rum!

Then, tonight, I made my first set of totally home-made mincepies.

I followed the recipes from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", and by way of an experiment on my part I zested the orange before I juiced it for the pie crusts; so that's what the curly stuff under the stars is.  It makes them smell amazing.

Casting for Pods.

Whilst Doc C was seeing his doctor this morning, I sat in the waiting room knitting and listening to some hastily downloaded pod-casts.

I'm not sure I really understand pod-casts, are they like verbal blogs?  And how do you tell which ones you want to listen to?  I gave up a minute or two into a pod-cast by a British stand-up comedian that I used to like, but listened enthralled to three episodes of an Aussie bloke's adventures in knitting.

Am I doing it wrong?

Shelling Out Blame.

Doc just accused the cats of peeing on his washing because of a musty smell; but then, as he was doing a very thorough sniff-through for firm evidence of this, he discovered a mussel that had been thrown in the machine with his towels.

We had mussels for dinner two weeks ago.

Never Forget.

Another US/UK difference.

Americans know who Robbie Williams is; but haven't heard of Take That.  How weird is that?

"If You Want to Be A Record Breaker!"

Doc C has to go to the doctor on Monday, and for reasons we needn't go into here, he can't eat anything on Sunday except for blue or yellow jello.  We were talking about that on the way into work this morning, and I said that I quite like jelly (as long as I don't think about the actual gelatin of course).  Doc looked at me and said "Jelly or Jell-O?", and I explained that in England we call Jell-O Jelly.  So Doc asked if that meant we make Jelly moulds, which yes we do; but we'd just call it Jelly, and the shaped mould part would usually be assumed (My Mum had a mould shaped like a rabbit for example.  Or it might have been a cat.  Hmmm).  Actually, a few days ago, a British archaeologist we were watching on a documentary about Pompeii described something as having held it's shape, like "a Jello Mould", and I thought it was really odd because it was so Americanised a way of phrasing it.

The UK Vs US thing still crops up occasionally, not in a confrontational way but sometimes something that was just an ingrained aspect of my childhood will pop into my head and no-one will have the slightest clue what I'm talking about.  For example, when I started singing the theme tune to "Record Breakers", which I know wasn't shown over here, so then I tried explaining what it was to Doc C and he was just bemused by the whole thing.  Possibly my explanation was a little garbled -

"Well, it was a kid's TV show and it was always on.  The presenter was Roy Castle and he sang the theme tune, and played the trumpet on the theme tune, and lead record breaking tap dance routines on that fountain at BBC Television Centre.  Oh, and they had Norris McWhirter, who was a proper adjudicator from the Guiness Book of Records, and people would, um, break records.  Which is why it was called 'Record Breakers'.  Anyway... "Dedication. Ooh Dedication.  Dedication!  That's what you need! If you want to be the best, and if you want to beat the rest, Oo-Oh Dedication's what you need!'"

Doc's used to that sort of thing every now and again, but it's a damn catchy theme tune to inflict on a poor unsuspecting husband.

AND - I found out this week that they don't really do Advent Calendars in the South!  I still can't quite get my head around that one.  No tiny piece of chocolate shaped like an elf?  No little plastic toys that are almost certainly a choking hazard?  No pictures of mangers and stars?  But how did you know when it actually was Christmas?

Gingerbread Jen.

How much do you love it when you have colleagues at the office who unexpectedly bake gingerbread people and write everyone's names on in icing?  Oh, and there were red and green gumdrops on the plate too.

I especially love that my name (Yes, I'm "Jennifer" in the office) was hyphenated on mine, and she's got cute bunches (American Translation: Pigtails).

Edith's Entrepreneurial Streak.

As a special treat for having been so good for a whole week (!), Edith got to play in the big cardboard box.

We played jump-into-the-box, jump-out-of-the-box, attack-things-on-top-of-the-box, Jack-Nicholson-in-The-Shining-in-the-box, and, finally, lemonade stand.

Except, of course, Edith had her own ideas on what business she wanted to open.  She's yet to make any money.

Edith - It All Becomes Clear.

I have some really exciting news. Are you ready?  Ok, then...

Edith hasn't peed on the floor in one week! That's seven whole days!  I know!

What happened was that last Wednesday I came down to feed the cats and found that she hadn't peed in the hall or on the bathroom floor, success at last!  So then I scooped the trays and when I went to wash my hands I discovered that Edith had peed in the bathroom sink. I was flabbergasted, but I have to admit to finding it quite funny.  When I told Doc C about our little Napoleon of Urine's latest escapade however, he was not amused.  At all.  He said very seriously that we might have to start thinking about whether we could keep Edith. Well, I couldn't have that, but equally I could see Doc's point; so I did some research and found a cat behaviour expert who had written some books on how to re-train adult cats which I ordered immediately. 

Then I called our vets to ask if they had any advice (I didn't speak to Dr. Parrish, but the receptionist suggested doing a google search for helpful tips.  Way ahead of you there Lady), and then I called the Humane Society we got the cats from to ask them the same question.  Again, they suggested googling, but then it occurred to me to ask what litter they use in the cat room and we went to get some of that brand before the long Thanksgiving weekend. I had just changed the litter in the two large litter trays, so I just filled up the smallest tray with the new stuff and put it in the bathroom. 

And she hasn't had any little accidents since.

Edith simply prefers pine based litter to wheat or corn based litter.  I have to admit she's right, it smells a lot nicer actually.

Cat & Book.

There really is a book for everything.

Edith already likes this one because it advocates weekly catnip parties, and she's sleeping off her nip buzz right now.

New Nap Routine.

I've got into this Mono routine of going into work for a few hours in the morning, and then come home at lunchtime, so I could sleep on the sofa for the afternoon. Today my manager suggested that I try going to Doc's office and having a nap at 11 to see if that helped me to work for longer.

Doc was teaching when I got there (he left the door unlocked for me) so I just listened to a relaxation app on my iPod, made a nest on the sofa in Doc's office and slept for 3 hours.  I'd even found a fleecy blanket in my office to take with me, and Doc didn't even ask me about where I'd got that from.  Clearly he's just used to my ability to magically producing soft furnishings.  The only things missing from my usual nap set up were a police procedural to watch when I woke up and a fluffy cat purring away on top of the blanket.