Alien Spouse

A New Year's Day Wish.

Doc C has had a nasty cold this weekend, and he's been super-paranoid about passing it on to Eva; so he slept on the sofa for a couple of nights and he's still too worried about germs to pick her up.  Naturally Eva decided that this was the perfect time to be a weeny bit needy, so I've been catering to her every whim and trying to persuade the Doc to let me occaisionally make him a cup of tea.

The saying that doctors make terrible patients is very true, in the case of my Doc (Phd) it's because he tries really hard to be no trouble at all.  It makes it very difficult to look after him, because he will insist he doesn't need to be - even when he can barely open a can of chicken soup for himself.

Anyway...

Happy New Year and let's hope that 2013 brings a wave of incredible good health to us all!

Woolly Amsterdams.

Having been at home for most of the past few months I've come to know the routine of the house fairly well, so I usually expect the post (American translation : Mail - Reminder of my observation that the US has a Postal Service, whilst the UK has a Royal Mail) to arrive at 2:30 and I listen out for it.  If our post-lady (Same as a "mail-woman" Americans!) climbs the stairs then either we or our neighbour, Jack (he's a very polite musician), have got a parcel.  Exciting!

Today we got the knock on the door, and when I saw the stamps were from Germany I knew my Christmas present from Moth had arrived (she's not in Germany though, just the company she bought my present from!).  You see, rather than going the driftwood route, my Mum decided to do something really avant garde: She bought something that she knew I wanted.

I have been eyeing up these felted wool Birkenstock clogs for years, but never felt justified in buying them when I already had slippers.  Of course those slippers, including my most recent bunny slippers, had a foam sole and so offered no support whatsoever.  After an hour or so of carrying a crying baby up and down the hallway you begin to really begrudge that lack of support, believe you me.

The Amsterdam Birkenstocks did not disappoint, they are comfortable and warm, AND they have the trademark Birkenstock footbed.  So the arch support is fantastic, and it has extremely good shock absorption.

My feet are just revelling in their new petrol blue homes - All the more so for my noticing that colour seems to have been discontinued, so Moth got them for me just in time!  Squee!

Thank you Moth!

Driftwood for Christmas.

I mis-spoke when I said that Eva hadn't had a Christmas gift from my Father-in-Law - He actually sent her a lovely illustrated book of fairy tales last week.  I regret the error (Additionally I note that my own Dad has yet to acknowledge her existence, much less sent her anything for Christmas. So. Father-in-Law is ahead on points here.)

Doc C and I got our presents yesterday:

That's one rather nice piece of driftwood, and a bit of palm tree that has had a glittery green pompom and a pipe cleaner glued to it.  Both of these were given to us along with very specific details of where they were found.  I think we're going to keep the driftwood but maybe we can return the bit of palm tree.  Of course we don't have a receipt for that, so maybe we can get credit instead of a refund.

Father-in-Law Christmas.

Ah, Christmas -  It's just not the same unless there is some sort of family drama, is it?

Doc C told me that his Dad had mentioned that he might visit sometime between Christmas and New Year's Eve... By which he clearly meant he'd be arriving on the 23rd!  Otherwise unannounced! Ta-Dah!

I'll be honest, we really didn't have anything particular planned, but it's still thrown me off my holiday stride.  I've been assured by Doc that his Dad won't expect us to do anything special like cook a turkey, and it's not like he brought presents for anyone (*cough* Brand new grand-daughter *cough*) so maybe I should try to relax.

After all, as I said, he arrived yesterday and has so far actually only visited us for about an hour this afternoon.  I had just started making molasses cookies when he arrived, and I was pulling them out of the oven when he left for the day.  He said he'd be back tomorrow, but who knows when?

A Teeny Tiny Napoleon.

It's been quite cold today, so I decided to dress Eva in this fleecey footy jumpsuit that Doc's sister sent us; which was good because it'll be too small for her in the next few days.

Doesn't Eva look adorable in these pictures?  Almost angelic in that full length one, right?  In fact this was a brief respite in a day of shouting, not crying or grizzling, just really loud yelling at us.  It felt like we were being berated by a very small dictator.

She has been a horror today, a HORROR.  Still, she's asleep now and tomorrow is another day.

 

Under The Tree.

"A present?  Is for Edith?"

Christmas 2012.

Here is our Christmas!

Our (clearly fake!) tree is the tree from "A Charlie Brown Christmas", which we've had for a couple of years now.  It fits in nicely with the very simple decorations for this year, and I also like the juxtaposition of the sad little tree with the Queen's portrait in that corner.

One of the inspirations for the ornaments was our atomic clock, and I am pretty happy with how that wall looks as well.  I do sort of wish that first green ball in the photo was a touch more over to the right, but I'm not bothered enough by that to get the steps out again.

Bedecking on a Budget.

Today I decided to put up Christmas decorations, this necessitated a trip to the storage unit to collect our baubles and a visit to Target to buy a packet of ornament hooks.  

Every year I like to decorate differently to the year before, and this used to be much easier because I used to be able to just walk into Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road, get inspired and probably buy something fun (Actually I'd usually go nuts in the January sales and then hoard my new shinys for next year).  Doc C isn't against decorating for Christmas, but he is against spending "too much money", which I'm not 100% sure there is a specific figure for, but I am certain that this year I am well within it.  The total outlay for our festive flourishes this year was $1 for the ornament hooks.  Yes!  I win at frugal holiday trimming!

This year is additionally tricky because I decided against putting up fairy lights.  I love little white twinkly lights, so this was a tough choice, but we live in a small space with only a few electrical points in any of the rooms, and on top of that if you put some toast on all the ceiling lights in the flat dim slightly.  So no lights this year.

On the other hand we do have a really elegant picture rail around our living room, so I decided to just hang ornaments from that.  I wasn't sure if that was going to work to be honest, because I couldn't remember how many ornaments we had in storage; fortunately a couple of years ago we bought a pack of 48 baubles in four acid colours, and each colour has two different finishes (shiny, matt and glitter).  I hung them in colour sequence (pink, blue, green, silver), but put the finishes up in random order, if that makes sense.  (Clearly I will need to post photos, but by the time I put these up it was dark so I'll take pictures tomorrow)

It's starkly fun, and there is absolutely no chance of Edith knocking any of them down.  Although, now I've said that she will probably find a way.  Edith is resourceful.

Happy Thanksgiving Baby!

 

We still haven't got her to actually laugh yet, but as you can see from this video she is pretty close and it's probably going to be one of us blowing a raspberry that finally gets her.  Because clearly fart jokes are absolutely hilarious.

A Quiet Halloween.

This is the first halloween since I moved to the States that I haven't had a costume, but I just didn't have time to make anything for myself this year because Eva's costume took priority!

It's a very very simple costume, just a brown hoody with ears (Thanks Moth!) with a little blue fez and a pair of tiny wings tacked onto it. I crocheted the fez and wings, and I'm really pleased with how the fez turned out but the wings really aren't as good as I'd like.  Fortunately Eva is carrying the costume off with charming aplomb, so I don't think the wings are too glaring an issue.

As for Trick-or-Treaters, we haven't had any so far.  I was looking out of the kitchen window as did the washing up earlier and I saw a lone Egyptian Mummy with a plastic pumpkin walking down our street, but that seems to be it, no other diminutive ghosts, ghouls or goblins have made an appearance unfortunately.

With Doc C being away this evening I don't want to watch anything too scary, so I chose to spend the evening in the company of Vincent Price.  I decided on watching "Theatre of Blood" because it's got such a ridiculously camp plot, with such a fabulous cast, that I don't think I'll be scared too badly by it.  One of the central roles is played by a young Diana Rigg, and I do wish I'd seen the stage version which was on a few years ago with Miss Rigg's daughter, Rachel Sterling, in the same role and Jim Broadbent in the lead.  Damn it, that looked like it was SO much fun!  Oh well!

Costumes.

With ten days to go until Halloween I still have no idea what I'm going to be this year; I was a "Suburban 50's Witch" last year, so I'd like to do something different this year but I'm not sure I'm actually going to have time to pull anything decent together.  I do have an unworn purple wig that I bought two years ago as a back up option for my Coraline costume, just in case the blue wool wig I was making didn't work, so I might wear that this year.  If I whip up a witch's hat fascinator and sew it at jaunty angle to the purple wig, then I could easily just throw on something black and be a "Punk Rock Witch" this year.  Actually, I quite like that idea!

The reason I am so behind on my own costume is because I've been much more focussed on Evalyn's first Halloween costume, because clearly that is a defining moment in a child's life.  

Eva is going to be a Flying Monkey!  

Moth bought her an adorable brown hoodie with little round ears, so I've made a tiny blue-and-red fez, and all I have to do now is make some wings; seeing as they are integral to the whole "flying" aspect of the costume (not that I'm expecting her to actually fly, obviously.  She's a baby, she can't even walk yet, flying is just far too ambitious).  It's going to be very simple, but hopefully still rather cute.

The Halloween Tree.

We got the Halloween decorations out of storage last weekend, which is always a treat for me.

My favourite of the decorations is my minature black christmas tree with the small faux-vintage Halloween ornaments.

This year I haven't put up as many spooky frills and flourishes as I've done in other years - Mostly because when I tried to Miss Eva objected quite vocally, I suspect that it was more to do with my timing than her dislike of festive spangles.  At least that is what I hope, because a daughter of Doc C and I cannot possibly dislike Halloween!  It's genetically impossible!

 

Sunny Philadelphia.

We are in Philadelphia! Yay!

We were in town for no more than three hours before we found ourselves a cup of coffee, a park bench and then a really good second-hand bookshop (I cleaned them out of Nero Wolf mysteries and Doc bought a couple of philosophy texts). Doc C doesn't start conferencing until tomorrow morning, so we spent the afternoon strolling around some beautiful sunny parks, full of flowers and leafy trees. For dinner we had curry, which was delicious.

Tomorrow I intend to go to a huge book sale which the nice lady in the bookshop gave me a flyer for, as well as the obligatory visit to Lush and maybe H&M. I have also just discovered there is an old fashioned soda fountain just around the corner from the hotel, so I suspect there is a banana split in my future.

As for as my plans for Saturday, I got really excited when I saw that both "The Artist" and "We Need To Talk About Kevin" were playing, but the first ended it's run this afternoon and the second is only screening across town. The cinema around the corner is a really good art house cinema with five screens, but I just don't fancy any of the films they'll be playing this weekend.

So far the only disappointment has been that the fantastic deli diner I found last time we were here has closed, and I was planning to take Doc there on Sunday! Oh well! Still, it's just so lovely to be in a beautiful and historically rich city. An urban setting is simply my true mise en scene.

A Good Friday.

Long Weekend!!! I've already had a three hour nap!!!

On the Last Day of Christmas.

It's the last day of my Christmas holiday, and I'll be back in the office at 8am tomorrow. Brutal, isn't it?

Still I got some things done today ( doctor's appointment, flu shot, picked up my old shades with new prescription lenses), before coming home and totally vegging out in front of a "CSI: Miami" marathon. It remains my very least favourite CSI, but, just sometimes, it fits the bill perfectly.

2012.

Happy New Year!

We spent yesterday evening at Randy and Laura's house with a small grop of friends. It was a very nice way to end 2011, and start 2012.

Today I slept late; finished playing "Arkham Asylum"; got half-way through "Genius Wars" and had a most satisfactory afternoon nap.

Doc started playing "Arkham City" (Catwoman! Squee!); made vegetable stock form the HF-W cookbook; looked on-line at houses for sale and has now settled in for a "Star Wars" marathon.

2012 is off to a cracking start!

The Dragon and The Unicorn.

Boxing Day is part of Christmas that I have come to appreciate more as a grown-up; because obviously as a kid the day after Christmas is merely the furthest possible day from next Christmas and is therefore rather a disappointment after the frenzy of Christmas itself.

Now I think I prefer it! It's so much calmer (well, not that Doc and I actually did anything exciting for Christmas this year) and there are still all sorts of little treats to still be enjoyed.

We went to Randy and Laura's house to play board games, and were introduced to "Chaostle" which is sort of a simpler version of Dungeons and Dragons. Not that I would notice any major differences having never played actual DnD, but this was pretty fast moving and I enjoyed it a lot.

I took loads of photos of the epic battles - Then when I looked at them later, it seemed that almost all of them featured either the Dragon or the Unicorn, so I thought I'd use the only skirmish that was between these two mythical brawlers (I believe the Dragon won here).

'tis The Season!

Christmas Day!

We celebrated with a late breakfast followed by the traditional playing of video games (Doc C - Arkham Asylum, normal mode); a long walk followed by coffee and cherry pie; the traditional playing of video games (Me - Arkham Asylum, easy mode) and now we are watching "Metropolis" whilst I cook risotto for dinner.

It's practically Dickensian, isn't it?

Coffee Morning.

There must be something about me that suggests that I enjoy home-made baking, because for Christmas I was given a dozen banana cherry chocolate chip muffins and a gift basket of assorted cookies. We finished off the last of the biscotti this morning, so I'm going to have to try out a recipe so we can make more of them.

Tasty little devils!

Just Ducky.

For Christmas the Assistant Chair of my department gave me a spa set, which is bubble bath, body cream, an eye mask and DUCKY SLIPPERS - I hadn't previously thought of Ducky Slippers as being a staple of a good spa, but now I shall demand them!

I'll give you two guesses which of the cats is a bit freaked out by these, and is very much on her guard whenevr I'm wearing them.

On the First Day of Christmas.

We have enjoyed the first day of our Christmas holiday, celebrating by on Doc's side by finishing his grading and on my part by watching several films of varying quality. Then we went out for lunch to reward Doc C's having submitted the grades by today's deadline. Yay!

Christmas Break.

Today was the last day of exams; more importantly it was my last day of work for two weeks. Squee! I have a very very limited number of plans, mostly it's going to be a lot of sleeping, video games and home-made mince pies.

The Festive Season.

Last week was the last week of classes, so whilst there are still a week of exams to get through before the Winter break, there is a distinct scent of festivity in the air. Last week I went to a drag show, my department's Christmas drinks and the annual Christmas party of some friends of ours - These events, plus our usual Wednesday pub night, meant that we were out four nights out of seven and that is a lot for me. I felt distinctly unsociable and headachey by Sunday, so I wanted nothing more than to play "Arkham Asylum", read about animal communication and get my Doc Martens ready for winter.

When we were invited out to the cinema on Sunday, it sounded fun but it also sounded like I'd have to wash my hair and get dressed.  I really needed some quiet time at home, so we declined but it's so nice to have friends who understand that sometimes you just have to power down.

This week we've got Doc's departmental party, a haircut in Asheville and a Torchwood viewing party; so far there's nothing else on the calendar and that sounds just about perfect to me.

Surprise Finger Monster.

One of the joys of on-line shopping is when you get an unexpected bonus item, and this is all the more true when it's something fun. I received a small box of daft gifts* today and, when I opened the box, a finger monster was on top of a heap of bio-degradable packing peanuts.

I particular appreciate that who ever it was that put him into the box was thoughtful enough to give him a snack; don't worry, the packing peanuts are made from potato starch, so it's probably safe for monsters to nom on.

*Since moving to the US I almost dread the annual office gift exchange, because it is so tricky to gauge what might be a good gift for a colleague. I can't fall back on that standard of impersonal British gift giving - A nice bottle of something.

Toning Down Christmas.

It occured to me this morning that I had not yet decorated the house for Christmas, but at the same time I'm right in the middle of reading "Miss Minimalist" (on my Kindle) and it just feels wrong to glitter the whole house.

So I compromised and hung up the faux vintage ornaments I bought in Boston last year on the twig arrangement from Halloween, then I added in a couple of other ornaments to balance those out and that's that.  

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 I love the faux vintage ornaments almost more then I did when I bought them last year, they are delightfully tacky and rather adorable in their own very plastic way. Doc C is a particular fan of the angels, who are all holding their hands out in front of them in the manner of fisherman describing the one-that-got-away. They also all have black eyes, which gives them quite a creepy alien-being ambience.

Finally, on the dining table, I've put up the sad little Christmas tree beloved by Charlie Brown and all those who get a bit tearful when watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) ...*cough*Doc*cough*...

Halloween 2012 - More Photos!

 Halloween may be over for another year, but I still have photos to show you!

Bwa-ha-ha!

The Dessert Buffet of Halloween! Quake with fear at the coconut macaroons, almond cupcakes with chocolate icing, pumpkin tarlets, spiced butter cookies and chocolate frogs!

The Flamingoes of Halloween! In plastic champagne glasses no less!

The Dozen Battery Powered Candles of Halloween!

The Sweet Silence.

Last night we had all of the lights on, left the front door open (we have a glass screen door, so the cats were in no danger of getting out), and ran to the window every time we thought a car was about to stop at our house because we were really hoping to see small children in costumes. We were usually disappointed to realise it was just someone turning round in our driveway (our driveway is the favourite place for people to turn around in our cul-de-sac, also I'm pretty sure the Fedex guy stops there every weekday afternoon to do his mid-point inventory).  

Despite our vigilance, the front porch was only approached once by ghoulish sugar fiends. There were two of them, presumeably a pair of siblings, gender unidentifiable under the surprisingly gruesome costumes and totally silent. We assumed they came to our house to get free confectionary but they actually didn't say that. Or "please", or "thank you" for that matter.

I will happily admit that I'm not very familiar with Trick-or-Treating as a tradition, because we just don't really do it that much in England; however I was given to understand that an integral part of the whole thing was the phrase "Trick or Treat!" being yelled in a exuberant manner by the children demanding sweets.

Still, that just means all the more chocolate and lollipops for Doc's Philosophy class today.

Cocktail Party Weekend Summary: Yay!

Yesterday we spent the whole day preparing for our Halloween Cocktail Party, we needed to buy a few things, finish decorating the house, plate all the food and put on our costumes.

It turns out that having university professors over for a cocktail party is far more civilised than hosting a party for university students. There was so much less mess to tid up, no furniture got broken, nobody threw up and no bands gatecrashed (although admittedly having a band gatecrash your party to play a set is really cool); plus we now have several nice bottles of wine and we were able to comprehensively taste-teste two delicious cocktails!

I think everyone had fun, and there were some great costumes. I particularly liked that two people turned up in very different costumes that happened to both involve integral mugs.

The absolute star of the party was Edith Cavell-Cat, she clearly thought people had come simply to admire her and had a lovely time wafting around the room being fussed over. She also took the opportunity to climb into the fireplace whilst Doc and I were distracted, but the stupid cat then couldn't work out how to get back out through the chain mail fireguard. I'm just glad I spotted her before the gas fire flared up again, that would have ruined her beautiful fur.
Nancy, on the other hand,spent the whole party hiding under our bed and only cam downstairs after everyone had left. Considering her name-sake, Nancy Wake, was an incredibly courageous and resourceful spy, I'm sorry to say that never was a cat given a less fitting name.

Today we have tidied up the party debris, not tha there was a lot to do, and then grazed on left-over party snacks (also I discovered this morning that brushing your teeth straight after eating a handful of wasabi peas induces a minty burning sensation) whilst catching up on the TV shows that Doc C missed whilst he was at his conference.

All in all, I have had a really great weekend! Hooray for Halloween!

Halloween: Baking and Decorating.

The house smells like cookies and cupcakes, and it's draped with streamers and cobwebs.

I'm knackered.

Making Halloween, Making Halloween - La, la, la It's almost here!

Last week I bought some very elegant willow branches to arrange in a vase with a few whisps of cobweb, but it really didn't have much of a visual impact. Yesterday it occured to me that I wanted to make it a much bigger, and wilder.

 So I went outside to collect small fallen branches from the maple tree at the front of our house, and added those to my arrangement. It looks as though I have a winter tree growing out of my bookcase now.

That's much more what I was hoping for!

Halloween Costume Decisions.

Today we cleaned the house, and I did a whole bunch more decorating for our Halloween party. Doc C has been persuaded that being a mad scientist would be a great costume, especially as we are going for a 50's / 60's feel. I'm tweaking my costume a bit to be a witch, along the lines of "Bell, Book and Candle" or "Bewitched", so it's a mid-century atomic witchcraft mash-up! Squee! There will be strange mutant experiments and half-completed spells jostling for space on the work surfaces, as well as a distinct culture clash in the decorating.

As ever I find myself wishing for a smoke machine, but then who doesn't want their own smoke machine? In the absence of that, I think the bare minimum requirements is a large number of glow sticks. I am kicking myself for not grabbing two dozen when Woot.com had them on special offer two weeks ago. I knew the would come in handy, but I fought the impulse. When am I going to learn to trust my instincts?

You are Invited to a Suburban Nightmare.

This is one of our Halloween Party invitations, in fact I do believe this was the first card off the production line.

Let me walk you through my process.

Step One) I hand coloured the flamingo, because I didn't have any card in the right shade of pink; so I used a sickly shade of lilac and cross-hatched it with a hot pink gel pen. Then I used my iPod to find an image of a plastic flamingo, and traced the outline onto greaseproof paper; I used that tracing to make a template which I drew around. Finally I cut out ten flamingoes, by hand, from the now pink card and hot-glued cocktail sticks onto the back of them. 

Step Two) I used a round cookie cutter as a template to draw ten circles of the same diameter onto the mottled grey card stock, and then I hand-cut those out too. They were then stuck onto the invitations, trying to get them all in roughly the same position.

Step Three) I cut out ten strips of white card, and used a Martha Stewart paper punch to get the fence cut-outs. I folded the strips in half and stuck the back half onto the card so that the fence folded around to the front of the invitation.

Step Four) Having not found any suitable grass (I was really hoping to find bento grass food dividers, but then I remembered I live in a tiny town on top of a mountain in North Carolina), I was going to cut it out of green card. Then I found a packet of acid green shredded paper which I bought at Easter to pack cupcakes in boxes with and then never used - It's the perfect colour, and, hello, it says "Easter Grass" right there on the bag! Perfect! So then I had to pull out individual clumps from the tangle inside the bag and comb it out using my fingers, line it up and cut it in half before hot-gluing it to the card. Once in place I trimmed the grass, so it wasn't covering the moon.

Step Five) I hot-glued the flamingo to the card so it was silhouetted by the moon.

Step Six) I folded the fence up over the bottom of the grass and the base of the flamingo's stick, and hot-glued it into place.

Step Seven) Place in a row on the mantel piece to check quality control and uniformity across the production line.

Step Eight) Force husband to admire the damn invitations you've spent hours making.

And I still have four to finish.

Decorating for the Holidays.

Sorry! Can't blog - making Halloween!

The First of October.

It being the first day of October Doc C has allowed me to kick off the Halloween decorating - It also helps that we got paid yesterday, because I needed one or two things to get this party started!

I'd already arranged the dried rosebuds, assorted foliage and ribbon (which all came from the lovely bunch of flowers I was given by a colleague who does weddings - So this is a recycled bridesmaid's bouquet!) onto the vine wreath, but it needed more. Specifically it needed moss, fake cobwebs and plastic spiders. The plastic spiders are rings that come in packs of 50 from the dollar store, but I had to get 2 packs because they ar a mix of the black spiders that I wanted and bright orange spiders which did not really work for this particular project. I wanted to make this look like a really lush wreath had been left on the door for years and was disentegrating, but was still just about being held together by the cobwebs -Actually the rosebuds kept falling out when left to their own devices, so the cobweb really is integral to this project.

With Edith's help (how do people manage to do any sort of DIY craft project without a cat around to helpfully try and eat everything?), it took me about forty minutes to get the whole thing finished and now it's on our front door.

I then spent a couple of hours watching old episodes of "CSI" and cutting the rings off the backs of the orange plastic spiders that I deemed totally unrealistic for the wreath. I then poked a whole in the back with my handy bradle and then stuck a cocktail stick in each one. I now have orange spider cocktail sticks, perfect for my Halloween party snacks and drinks! Thanks Martha!

White (Chocolate) Bones.

Today's plans to stay in my pajamas and play "Portal 2" all day were modified slightly when it became clear that I needed to get more baking soda and vinegar to unclog the drain in the bath, so I got dressed and we went into town. Now if we were forced to go into town for boring things, then we were also going to look at Halloween stuff. I know it's barely even September, but the Halloween goods are on display already and I need to get the good stuff before it runs out. I've learnt from previous years that leaving the Halloween shopping until the day before results in a disappointing amount of orange plastic junk, and none of the good chocolate.

This year we are having a cocktail party with the theme of Suburban Nightmare, this only requires a very simple costume for me which I already have pretty much got together, and so now I'm focusing on the menu. I definitely want to make cupcakes with something poking out of them, and I think that something is going to be a miniature bone or two. I bought the mold this afternoon, and have successfully made two white chocolate skeletons.

I also got mini-cookie cutters to make hors d'oeuvres of grave stones crackers and cheese slice ghosts; as well as a baking tray which is supposed to make molded bone-shaped cookies, although I'm thinking of using that to make bone-shaped cheese straws.

Doc C is also getting into our theme, and has had some really good ideas for the decorations and ambiance of the house. This is going to be such a fun project to work on with him!

Weekend Status Report.

The Good: I am reading Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and loving it. It's sort of a murder mystery with academic overtones, but whodunnit is never any sort of a puzzle. It's gripping.

The Bad: The weather this weekend has been really humid and sticky, my least favourite kind of weather personally. I cannot wait for Autumn proper to kick in with some nice crisp mornings.

The Ugly: The cream that the dermatologist prescribed causes a rash to flare up on my chest, and so it suddenly feels as though every single t-shirt I own has a scoop neck to it which hits me in just exactly the wrong spot. Yesterday I discovered that wearing a scoop neck backwards creates a boatneck at the front which conceals and protects the itchy bumpiness. This will look intentional with most of my tops; the exception being henleys, so if you should happen to notice that I have a row of buttons down my back, can we just pretend it's a new fashion trend from Europe or something?

The Fabulous: Monday is Labour Day, it's like Bank Holiday Weekend, and I have finally treated myself to a copy of "Portal 2" so I intend to be spending several hours of my day off in my pajamas playing that, with occasional breaks for coffee and toast.

Pre-Halloween Jitters.

I'm already thinking about Halloween, as ever; particularly this year thought because we are seriously considering having a cocktail party. I already have a theme in mind, so I've pulled out my Martha Stewart Halloween specials to find suitably spooky nibbles and drinks that would work with that.

First and foremost we are going to need black vodka to make all the drinks look inky and forbidding, and there are so many cookie cutters and cake trays available that my head is already spinning from all of the options.

That's just the refreshments, we also need to decorate the house and come up with co-ordinating costumes. Now I'm starting to worry that I've let this too late, and two months just won't be enough time!

The Miniest of Breaks.

At about lunch time yesterday I spontaneously decided to take the afternoon off, because there was really nothing happening in the office and Doc C has had a paper provisionally accepted by a journal that is, like, a really big deal in his field of philosophy so I wanted to celebrate that with him.  It was a lovely day, not too hot but with beautiful blue skies; so we went for a walk around a lake, had some from frozen custard and then went home for a cup of tea and a nap. It was very pleasant indeed!

What with one thing and another it's not been a particularly great summer (Note to Self: A great summer involves me having at least a week off from work for starters), so I am very pleased that I decided to take three hours of my holiday time on the spur of the moment to actually do something nice.

Of course I still wish I'd had days and days and days of walking around lakes whilst chatting with my husband and eating delicious food before having a nap in the afternoon, but one takes what one can get and tries to preserve that nice afternoon in mental amber to be enjoyed again later.

Half Awake.

This is, I think, the first summer when I haven't taken a week or two off, and that, combined with it being blatantly too warm, is really hitting me hard - in other words I am sodding knackered!

Yesterday I felt very tired and headachey, and I tried to just push through it, but even after a shower and breakfast I felt no better; so I called in sick (well, e-mailed) put in ear plugs, and promptly went back to sleep for 5 hours. Today I went in, and somehow dragged my carcass through the day but I am very tired now.

I am still dressed for some sort of exercise though, some pilates and at least 20 minutes of Zumba will get my blood circulating and maybe then I'll feel less sluggish. It's worth a go, right? Besides, I am determined to lose ten more pounds, and sitting around just isn't going to accomplish that goal.

More's the pity.

cough *Charter* cough

Please allow me to vent for a moment about the deplorable lack of internet this holiday weekend. Essentially our wifi router is the same one we've had since we moved to North Carolina in 2007 - so it's at least four years old, and it's been fine for pretty much all of that time.

Right up until Friday evening actually, when our internet access started to become erratic and it just got worse through out Saturday. According to the tech that Doc spoke to on Sunday our wifi router model was black-listed, which meant that it couldn't cope with the higher speed internet that was now available.

My question is this; clearly something actually happened on Friday to speed things up. Why do that on the Friday before a long weekend? And, if there is a really really good reason to do it on that particular day, might it not be polite to contact those cutomers who might be effected by this so they can make alternative arrangements in advance? Hmmm?

Third Day of the Weekend.

Today I did a zumba routine, cleaned both bathrooms, battled gladiators (and won! Roar!), washed three loads of laundry, played petanque with Doc C, read half a book, "walked" the cats, and helped to recapture the cats after they both escaped in separate prison breaks.

Not bad considering it was the first day we've felt the need to turn the ceiling fan on, because it was the first warm summer day and I do not do well in heat.

All in all, an memorable Memorial Day -slash- Bank Holiday Monday.

Seis De Mayo.

Yesterday after work we went to our friend David's house for an end of Semester slash day after cinco de mayo party. Everyone was bringing south western food with them, so sort of, kind of, mexican-ish.

I made tequila lime cupcakes with a lime and sour cream frosting, and Doc C made chilli chocolate fudge. Doc very much liked my cupcakes, but thought the fudge was too spicy so he almost didn't bring it with us; I however thought it was delicious so the fudge came too. David had invited everyone for six, so I thought I'd be home by ten and planned to post then. Isn't it funny how after three beers and two margaritas you suddenly realise it's midnight, and you've been giggling like a loon at YouTube videos for at least an hour?

It was a very fun Friday evening.

A Longish Good Friday.

It being Good Friday the University was closed for the day, so Doc C and I had the day off. Or did we?

The day started well with a nice long lie in until around 11, then we went out for breakfast before going to our respective offices on campus. Doc C had grading to do and I had to transcribe the departmental meeting from yesterday. Usually I simply have to minute the meetings, and that just needs to be done in time for the next month's meeting; this required a much more thorough write up as soon as possible. I tried working on it that afternoon, and couldn't get more than a minute or two into it without being interrupted.

So I went in to an unusually empty and therefore quiet building on my day off, and spent 4 hours listening to a horribly patchy recording to try and capture every last word as accurately as possible (I still got interrupted though! The faculty always find me!) I do not think I will ever become a court reporter, but I did what I could.

Then we came home, I cooked experimental tofu and we watched "In the Heat of the Night", so it was a pretty good day after all.

A Day Out in Aldburgh.

We got a whole bunch of things ticked off my "To-Do whilst in England" list today! This included some of the more important items, such as a visit to a Norfolk beach, have fish and chips on said beach, go for a walk and then have a cream tea in a proper tea-room.

The picturesque seaside town of Aldeburgh provided all this and more, and it was a lovely place to go for a stroll with my parents. The tea-room was even having a tea-cosy beauty contest, but fortunately they were a bit too busy to press us for our votes because it would have been a very difficult decision.

I also managed to track down a Vivian Westwood t-shirt printed with a picture of Blackadder's "absolutely divine and regal, and yet and at the same time very pretty and rather accessible" Queenie, and a Liberty print silk scarf; both of these delightful items are on sale to raise money for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day next week. I'll definitely wear the scarf, but the Queenie t-shirt is going to be stretched on a canvas frame and hung on the wall when I get home.

Speaking of Elizabethan beauty, here is Aldeburgh's cinema and gallery which happens to be housed in a gorgeous Tudor house. I've always liked the incongruity of that.

 

 

The Past in Boxes.

This afternoon Mum suggested that I look over the stuff that was put in storage in the attic when Doc C and I left for America. It's all those things I haven't seen for three years, some of which I've missed desperately (all of my earrings!), some of which I frankly had forgotten I owned but have fallen in love with again (a pair of trays decorated with girly playing cards!), then some stuff that could immediately be put in the charity shop pile (I love Calvin and Hobbes, but they are big books to pack and imminently replaceable) and still more stuff that I was bemused by (I found three odd socks carefully packed in a lovely gold box. What was I thinking there?)

It was definitely a good thing that I looked over what I already owned before I went shopping in earnest, because I already have more belongings than I can carry onto the plane, so adding to it seems like a fool's errand. Being an ex-bookseller it is hardly surprising that my biggest problem is my beloved collection of books, some of which I've read and re-read a hundred times since I was a kid, and I've done well to reduce it down to just one medium size box - but in all honesty I can't actually close the lid on that already, and there are more books that I still want to bring. Mum's point about the usefulness of a Kindle is well timed, because I can see the benefit of having everything reduced down to a compact tablet. That still wouldn't be entirely sufficient, because a lot of my books are second-hand copies with great covers, or books that have fallen out of publication, or they've been signed by the author and how can you get that type of thing on a Kindle?

Anyway I have some time to further curate the collection before I go back to North Carolina, so in the mean time I've arranged it around the bedroom; so I can look at it at my leisure and make some difficult decisions. I suspect the framed photo of the 38 bus might just have the edge over the framed photo of seagulls on the Palace Pier, but we shall see.

Two Hours in Norwich.

Mum had a meeting this morning so she took me into Norwich with her, and turned me loose for two hours. It's always disconcerting to realise how much a city has changed, but I could still find my way around without too much difficulty.

One of my first stops was Waterstones, where they had a Dalek plonked next to the escalator apparently browsing the Classics section. He was suitably grumpy, and threatened to exterminate me, which was thrilling. There was a sign taped to the front saying to please be gentle with him because he was very old, but I don't know why he was there or if he was an original cast member or anything really. Still, a DALEK!

Then I went to the bank to see if I could remember what the PIN for my cashcard might be. Now sometimes when one is writing a blog one has to consider the likely audience, and I know this week that Doc C will be reading this, so I'm almost reluctant to blog about this... But I thought it was funny, so bugger it!

I put my card into the ATM, and typed in the PIN that I thought was most likely. The machine happily brought up the screen asking how much money I wanted, I decided on £50, whereupon it told me by card had expired and spat the thing out. Oh. Hmmm. Good thing Doc C gave me his cashcard and PIN before I left, eh? That worked beautifully, so I do have access to British currency whilst I'm here. Hoorah! Iknow that Doc will now fret about what i would have done had he not lent me his card, but I'd have been fine. If necessary I was thinking I could have transfered the money into Mum's account and she could get it out for me. No problem, just a touch more complicated.

Johnny Lu-Lu.

I woke up at 4 this morning, and very strictly told myself to go back to sleep again. So I did, until about 10. Then I got up and had breakfast with my Mum, which included rhubarb yogurt! Oh, rhubarb yogurt how I have missed you!

Then I did some Pilates, before we went into town to have a look around John Lewis.

John. Lewis.

It was fabulous, and everything was so very very lovely. Happy sigh. I didn't buy anything today, because if I had done I would have come home with half a ton of Cath Kidston merchandise, a Union Jack tea cosy and a gorgeous brightly coloured throw. As Mum said it was a fact finding mission, and I shall let all the nice stuff I looked at today percolate for a few days before deciding if I really need any of them. The Union Jack tea cosy is pretty much a given, obviously.

Back Home.

I'm back home at my parent's house! Actually "home" is a relatively fluid concept, because they have moved house 5 or 6 times since I left for University - But they moved back to the village that I went to primary school in, so this feels very familiar indeed despite it being the first time I've been in this house.

The flight was fine, I didn't sleep of course, but I did try to and I didn't spend the entire eight hours watching crappy films. Just the three hours.

I'd promised Mum that I wouldn't sleep in the car on the way to her house from the airport. That's about a three hour drive, and towards the end of it I was going a bit cross-eyed from the effort of keeping my eyes open and my responses relatively lucid. But I did it! Yay! It is possible, it's just not at all pretty.

As soon as Mum had finished the tour of the new house, I climbed into bed and slept for five hours.

And relax. With a glass of wine.

Tasty Tasty Sacrilege.

"Chocolate crosses? Yep - Aisle five, middle shelf, in between the Winnie-the-Pooh Marshmallow Pops and the Snickers mini filled eggs. I think the bubble gum pooing chickens are on the next shelf down."

I just do not understand.

Over-Excited.

This evening I am doing the last of my laundry, so that it's dry before Saturday. Because I need to pack a suitcase. Because I'm going home to see my Mum.

That's pretty much all I can think about right now.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!