Alien Spouse

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!

It's Thursday!

Doc C will be home from NYC tomorrow!

"Project Runway"!

There is a branch of H&M opening in Raleigh! 

It's only 6:30 and I'm already in my pyjamas!

Girly Monkey with a Mohawk Jazz Hands!

Tie a Yellow Ribbon.

The storms this winter have wreaked havoc on the trees around here, and we have quite a lot on campus.

Over the past few days the landscaping crew have been assessing the trees and putting yellow caution tape on any tree that looked particularly badly damaged with dodgy branches still hanging on.

Which gives the appearance of an active crime scene after a tree-hating psychopath has done their worst.

Well, it does if you've been watching far too many cop shows recently.

Tree Car - Month Three.

The tree car art installation is still evolving, it's now a tree car snow drift.

And here is the artistic process in gif form:

Make your own animation

Escape to Bakery.

Doc C and I actually managed to leave the house today!  The escape was momentarily jeopardised when the front screen door wouldn't push open because of all the snow drifted up against it, but Doc and I shoved at the same time and managed to get it open.

I'll be honest.  I was mainly pushing that door to get to the Valentine Bread before it sold out again.  We got to the bakery in good time and I am very much looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Blooms in Winter.

There are more snow storms predicted for the next couple of days, and we've still got a couple of feet from the weekend.

Fortunately Doc C planned ahead, and his window boxes are inside.  These flowers are gorgeous little bursts of colour against the monochrome winter landscape.

LAX-ATL-CLT

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport."

Douglas Adams - The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

So true. 

Let me reconstruct our journey through the non-pretty...

LAX - Nothing really momentous happened on our way through check-in and security, apart from discovering that the TSA actually don't give a toss if the liquids and gels in your hand luggage are in a one quart clear plastic bag; ours certainly weren't, and no-one blinked an eye at us.  So then we went to our gate to sit and wait.  Boring.  Except it was a pretty busy lounge in the terminal, and when a seat opposite us became free a man sat down who I immediately recognised.  Doc C and I have got to get some sort of subtle code going, because I couldn't think how to alert him to a quite excellent celeb spot without being totally obvious and uncool about it.  Fortunately the actor in question stood up to make a phone call, and I could mutter at top speed "Have-you-seen-"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"?-Because-there's-a-serial-killer-sitting-opposite-us!"  Doc C thought I was unusually rude about the gentleman in question for comedic effect, but soon realised what I actually meant and I have to say I was particularly pleased that Doc knew who he was too and we could both geek out.  I delights me to be able ton confirm that Michael Rooker is my first celeb spot since October 2008, and I was starting to worry that I'd lost my celeb spotting knack from lack of practice, so this was very reassuring.  And damn cool too!  The man has had an amazing career!  I have no idea where he was going though, he wasn't actually on our flight.

ATL - We had a stopover in Atlanta, and that felt like the longest part of our journey.  I just hate hanging around at a half-way point like that.  Plus there were no celebs to spot, and instead we had two groups of rednecks in quick succession on the seats opposite.  I wouldn't normally stoop to using a derogatory stereotypical description like that, but one woman was incredibly rude to Doc C and frankly I hope her team loses at the Super Bowl today.  There!  I said it!  I'm sorry Colts, but at least one of your fans is a very poor ambassador for your team, so I shall be rooting for the Saints.  In a vague "I don't actually care" way.

CLT - Finally we landed in Charlotte, I hope no-one wanted a coffee because Charlotte airport, supposedly a travel hub, had not a single concession stand open.  Fortunately we only had carry-on bags, so we could just sprint off the plane to our car and away.  I was wrong when I said we'd get home at 11, it ended up taking a little bit longer than that because we actually landed at 11pm so there was no way we were getting home before 1am.

Chocolate for Breakfast.

We have over a foot of snow now, but we still have power; so everything is fine.  As long as I can make tea and have a hot shower I'm quite happy really, oh and internet access is nice too! 

Best of all I impulse bought a loaf of kulacs chocolate bread yesterday.  Would you LOOK at that...  Yes, that is bread swirled with dark chocolate drops.  It's like a very intense chocolate croissant, but with a lovely spongey bread instead of the flaky pastry of the croissant.  Delicious.

Any day that starts off with a couple of slices of chocolate bread is pretty good, but a Saturday with chocolate bread for breakfast? As Stacey London* would say, "Shut Up!"

* For British readers she is one of the presenters of the US version of "What Not To Wear".  I've been avoiding watching it, but I have to say that honestly I far prefer Stacey and her co-host Clinton Kelly to Trini and Susannah.  They are just a lot nicer.

Waste of a Saturday.

There are some days that I enjoy living in North Carolina less than others - Today was one of those days.  We went shopping in Hickory where we encountered awful customer service, terrible food and we didn't manage to get the thing we actually left the house for.

The only ones who actually got anything out of it were the cats, because we bought them a really cool feather toy and a cardboard scratcher re-fill.

Ugh.

First Ice Storm of 2010.

We got out of work early today because another ice storm has been silently encasing the town.  So now Doc and I are at home, wearing multiple layers, covered in fleece blankets and using the cats to keep our feet warm.

I really hope this storm doesn't knock out our power again.  Thursday night is my weekly Tim Gunn fix.

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.

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!

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?

How I Slept Through Saturday.

This morning I was woken up by the pitiful mews of a hungry Nancy, so I got up to feed her and Edith.  The sun was shining through the morning mist, and the leafless black trees so it all looked gorgeous and ethereal.  I love Autumn!

So then I had breakfast and played with the cats for about an hour, before curling up in a patch of sunlight on the sofa and sleeping for 3 hours.  Then Doc took me out for lunch, and a quick trip to the yarn shop.  After that we came home, and I went back to sleep again on the sofa.

Yeah, Mono is apparently called the Kissing Disease, because that's one way the virus is spread, but that name gives the mistaken impression Mono is fun.  Actually it should be called the Cat Nap Disease, because I definitely slept as much, if not more than, Edith and Nancy today.

Remember, Remember The Fifth of November.

Happy Guy Fawkes!

Doc made me a jacket potato with baked beans and sausages, and took this photo of me playing with the sparklers we had saved from the Fourth of July.  The choice of t-shirt was unintentional, but doesn't it look like the face of Big Ben has flame bursting out of it?

And those flappy things at either side of the sparkles, those would be my hands.  Apparently, I still get very excited about sparklers.

And Now The Weather.

Look a picture!  And I even edited it and put in those fun cloud graphics!

So when I was last in the office it was in the 70s, and the sky was blue.

Today it has been misty.

This weekend there is snow predicted.

Exactly how long have I been asleep?

Shopping.

Don't you just love the first Saturday after payday?  The endless possibilities?  The things you've been putting off buying that are suddenly within your grasp?  Love it!  I'm not talking about desperately exciting stuff even, I just needed to spend some time browsing denim and stationary for my classes, I'm very easily amused.

This morning I had an appointment to get my hair cut, and buy hair styling product. Straight after that we drove off the mountain in search of jeans and other necessary things. 

Doc particularly likes American Eagle jeans, and there is one in Hickory so we went there.  He quickly found a stack of stuff to try on, but I don't find AE jeans very flattering on me so it took me a while.  Once I did make it into the changing room things didn't really improve much. Call me crazy, but I don't like ultra low rise that seem to be so very fashionable.  For one thing, I have a long body, so finding tops that are long enough to meet normal jeans is challenging enough thank you!  Plus there is the small matter of there not being enough waist-to-hip ratio difference to keep the stupid jeans up, so you have to spend the whole day tugging at the waist band as it creeps down your hips.  Annoying. Anyway, all of the AE jeans seemed to be distressed in various unconvincing ways that I'm not convinced do anything at all for a girl's thighs; so I didn't buy any there. 

I did try on a short grey-and-pink tartan pleated skirt, which I liked, but I think my days of getting away with pleated tartan mini-skirts are behind me.  It looked quite good on (The Doc said so!), it's just, well, where the hell would I wear something like that?  To work?  Ha!  Clearly I am becoming more sensible, because that strikes me as vastly inappropriate for the office.  So I didn't buy that either. In fact all I did buy was a pair of grey cable knit tights, which looked nice and warm.  Sensible.

So we went to Old Navy, where I was confident I could find something that would work.  I bought a new pair of painter jeans, and another pair of the flirt jeans I've been living in for the last two months.  It's time to move on and accept that belted in size sixteens just look silly on me now.  I also bought a skull-and-crossbones water bottle, and some more knitted tights, it is going to be a toasty winter if I have anything to do with it!

The main problem with this shopping trip was the mall we went to, which was the hellish polar opposite of the swish one we visited after my biometrics appointment.  Perhaps it was that all of the shops seemed to be blaring out really bland rock music, or that each place seemed to  use a different overpowering air-freshner, but I pretty soon had a headache and the desire to make it all stop.

We drove back up the mountain (well, Doc did, I slept the whole way), stopped off to buy chemist stuff, house stuff and school stuff, then called it a day.

Tree Silhouettes.

Today the weather was bright, but cold. It was lovely!

Soon the leaves will be turning red, and falling off the trees.

Autumn is pretty much my favourite time of year.

Another happy sigh.

"This, I take it, was not purchased at Tiffany's?"

The shopping mall that the nice police lady at the USCIS office gave us directions too was really quite a surprise.  It was by far the swishest shopping environment I've seen in North Carolina.  The just about adequate food hall, and Barbie pink fountain not withstanding.

We walked around window shopping for a while to just let it all the stylish consumer goods wash over us. As you can see from the photo, there was even a Tiffany's.  I was particularly taken with the posters for Tiffany Keys, not least because one of the designs I had considered for my wrist tattoo was very similar to the large silver key on the left (the one that looks sort of like a clover leaf). I am clearly an uncannily accurate barometer of style and taste.

We also visited a few shops to have a nice browse. I discovered Anthropologie, which seems to be a very nice shop indeed if a bit pricey, and Doc was ecstatic to find a branch of Crate and Barrel.  The man loves his kitchen.

Despite all the fabulousness available, the only thing we actually bought was cookie cutters.  I have been looking for skull shaped cookie cutters for ages, and Sur La Table impressed me by having two different designs.  Do you want just skulls, or skulls-and-crossbones?  Because I have both, plus a very nice cat-head and a good basic tombstone.  I'm really looking forward to a really major Halloween baking frenzy now!

Biometrically Sound.

My Biometric Capturing Appointment was at 11am this morning, and we got to the USCIS office at about 10:15.  I took my camera. phone and iPod out of my hand bag to leave locked in the car, because it quite clearly said on the letter that all such recording devices were not allowed.  I don't know why I still believe that when I read, no-one checked my bag or anything.

There really weren't many other people there, so it was all very quick, I filled out a form with all of my information for the nine millionth time and handed it in.  I was then given a number, just like the delicatessen counter at the supermarket, and there were only three people ahead of me.  Yay!

When my number was called I walked up to the front desk where I was met by a very sweet Spanish lady.  She took me over to this, um, photocopier thingy to take my finger prints electronically.  There was a little monitor that you could see the finger prints appearing on as my finger were rolled over the scanner.  On the side of the screen the scores for my fingerprints came up, and I know that this wasn't a test or anything, but it was still pleasing when a print got a good mark.

Then I had to sign my name on an electronic pad, again, just like at the supermarket.  Finally I had my picture taken.  And that was it.  The nice Spanish lady gave me a customer survey to fill out and I was free to go.  We asked the police lady at the door for directions to the nearest mall, and we were on the road by 11:08.

It seems almost too easy somehow.

Biometrics Day.

Today is Biometrics Day!

We are in the car and on our way to the USCIS office in Charlotte for my appointment this morning.

Details later.

Fuzzy and Autumnal.

Furry White Caterpillar with Crazy Black Markings!

Pretty Red Autumnal Leaf!

Yay!

Tea and Banana Bread.

Doc brought me home a little bit early because I'm feeling a bit under the weather, again.  I'm beginning to think that I must be allergic to North Carolina, because this is ridiculous!  When am I going to build up an immunity to the local germs?

I'm sure that I will be fine tomorrow though, because when I got home I made myself a pot of tea and had a slice of banana bread.  The skull-shaped plate is entirely optional of course, but I felt like really treating myself.

Tiddlers and a Dragonfly.

After breakfast this morning we went for a walk around one of the local lakes, and I noticed loads of little fish in the water.  They were just floating around, minding their own fishy business and weren't keen on posing for photos.

Unlike this dragonfly, who flew past me to sit on this log and basked in the sun whilst I took photos of him (or her?  I have no idea) from several different angles and with the camera on different settings.  Aren't the wings amazing?

Red Boots.

On Monday I was cold, so yesterday I wore jeans with socks and converse and today? I broke out my red DM boots! 

It was so nice to have my lovely comfy stompy boots back on.

I hereby declare it to be Autumn and the segue into my cool weather wardrobe has begun.

This makes me happy.

Really Important Bits of Paper.

This afternoon I hand-delivered documents to Human Resources and the Graduate School that confirm which courses I'll be taking for my MA and request a fee waiver because I'm a university staff member.  Yay for free university courses!

At the same time I also took the letter I recently received from the Immigration Service, which acknowledges receipt of my application for my visa to be extended.  This is because my initial visa was for two years, and it runs out at the end of October.  To extend my visa I had to apply 90 days before the expiration date, but not earlier than that.  The letter of receipt is important because it is also an extension of my visa.  The really crucial thing being that it allows me to work and travel for another year, whilst I'm waiting for another letter which will give me an appointment time for biometric processing.  I wanted to make sure that the University had copies of the letter in a couple of different places, so that there are no problems in October with either my paying gig or my continued education.

Funnily enough the graduate director for the English department sympathised with me this week about all of the red tape that I needed to deal with to get onto the English Lit MA program.  Really though that seemed like almost nothing compared with getting and maintaining my alien spouse visa.

Evening Classes.

Guess where I am right now? Well, ok not right now because I'm setting up a timer delay on this post, but the time that this will be posted? Is this confusing?  Anyway...

This evening I'm taking my first MA class in English Literature, um, Squeeeee!

Wednesdays (6pm - 9pm) will be "Seventeenth Century British Literature" which is being taught by my friend David and Mondays (6pm - 9pm) will be "Bibliography and Research" which is being taught by my friend Jill.

If you're really lucky there might be a photo post after the class (I haven't seen any unusually sized insects today, so don't get too excited), but Edith woke me up at 4 o'clock this morning, damn her, and let us not forget that Wednesdays are also a gym day, so I am predicting I will get home and promptly fall asleep because this will be a v-e-r-y l---o---n---g day. 

Good thing I've had coffee.  Really strong coffee actually, and I might make some tea to take with me to the class.  And I should probably eat something as well, maybe a veggie burrito?

Point being, I am both really tired and over caffeinated, and that means I am barely coherent and I can't work put how to end this post without it just abruptly stopping. 

Sort of like a Neal Stephenson novel, much though I love Neal Stephenson's novels, the way the story just stop drives me crazy.  Have I mentioned that before?  "The Diamond Age", for example, is a rocking good sci-fi novel for the entire way through and then has an ending that annoyed me SO much the first time I read it I was proper cross.  When I re-read it, I was braced for the ending, so it didn't seem that terrible, but the first time I was totally deflated by it.

The End.

HUGE Insect Photo Segues into Children's Literary Allusion.

On the way to the car this evening we encountered a large caterpillar when Doc nearly trod on it.

I'm used to caterpillars in England being relatively small, but this thing was ENORMOUS.   To give you some idea, I took a photo with my hand in the shot for scale and it's only slightly smaller my index finger.  I'd have posted that shot, but this was a bug on a mission and he was moving so fast that I didn't have time to position my hand next to it and get a nice clear picture before the insect undulated out of focus.

This was definitely the best picture I got, but it doesn't convey the sense of urgency with which the caterpillar was moving.  It was as if the Caterpillar and the White Rabbit had swapped roles for the day, and that meant that our Caterpillar friend was late for an important function, whilst the White Rabbit got to chill out on top of a toadstool with a nice hookah pipe for once.  I know, I know, it's a bit lazy to immediately reach for the Lewis Carrol reference, but this thing was so over-sized I could easily have imagined Alice having quite a long chat with him.

Very Small Moth.

Usually I'm surprised by how big the insects are round here, but today I saw a teeny tiny moth in the bathroom.  It was so small that the auto focus on my camera couldn't work out what I was trying to take a photo of, so all of my shots were a bit blurry.

Still, you can see that it's about the same size as one of the polka dots on the shower curtain.  My thumbs in there to give the camera something to focus on, and to provide another size comparison.  I didn't squish the little guy, he's still flitting around the bathroom, doing his mothy thing.

Fresh Blood.

Today was Move-In day for the freshman students.

Based on my research, conducted whilst assisting carrying loads of stuff to dorm rooms, I would estimate that the campus levels of yoga mats has been increased by 25%, flat screen TVs by 65%, well loved childhood bunnies by 15% and really short shorts exponentially. 

It's also at least five times louder, and our studies indicate most of that is really terrible music.

A Mini Pregnancy. (No, I'm not annoucing anything, calm down)

So yesterday was a very long day, and we spent all of it either driving or at the Mini dealership.  The forecourt of the Mini showroom is so much fun, it's covered in Minis as far as the eye can see.  Every colour and optional extra is represented, and it's like being in a sweet shop for Mini fans.  Our appointment was for 11, and Dana (The sales woman who sold us the black Mini) had got some cars lined up for us to look at. We looked at a cream Mini with heated seats, an "Oxygen Blue" (sort of a smoky sky blue, I loved that colour!) with sun roofs, one in the front and one in the back, and a silver Clubman, which is the biggest car Mini makes and has much more room in the backseat and the boot. They were all nice cars, but really if we were going to be tempted away from our black Mini we wanted something with heated seats and sunroof.  Those might sound like cosmetic concerns, but believe you me, on a frosty Monday morning a cold car seat really adds insult to the injury of having to get up for work. As it happened Dana had a "Chili Red" Mini on hand, which had the toasty seats and the breezy sunroofs.  We quite liked that.

Then came the negotiations part, which was dull but necessary.  I won't got into all of the details, because it's snore-inducing, but eventually we came to an agreement that allowed us to drive away a brand new red Mini with ten miles on the clock, and pay less per month on it. It was at this point that Doc posted a Facebook status that said he was, and I quote, "...freaked out, but also excited.", then we went to lunch, before coming back to hang around until we could sign all of the paperwork and finally drove our new car off the forecourt at 5:45.

It wasn't until we got home at about 9 that I logged onto Facebook, saw Doc's status and also that about half of our friends on Facebook took that to be a baby announcement.  The comments section was practically suggesting names already.  We swiftly issued official denials, because really People no I'm not, which in turn lead to my lovely friend Jonny leaving what I suspect will be my choice for best Facebook comment of 2009, "I've already started knitting the bonnet."

I know people say LOL all the time on-line, but seriously that is comedy gold Jonny!

Grasshopper.

I was at my desk this afternoon when I heard a distinct thud against the window, when I looked up I saw a huge grasshopper staring in at me.  I used Picnik to boost the colour and texture, so you can really see the... What the hell are those?  Scales?

Then, to give you an idea of how big, I took a photo with my hand in the shot.  You can clearly see that the thing is as big as my thumb.

It was sort of surprising that it didn't start talking to me frankly.

Written Driving Test: Success!

I took this morning off work so that we could go to the DMV office and I could take the test to get a driver's permit.  That would allow me to drive with a licenced driver over 18 years of age in the car, so in other words I still wouldn't be going anywhere without Doc C for a while but at least I could be driving.

We decided to go as soon as the office opened today, which is 8, and there was no one else there so I went straight in and got on with it.

As far as I'm aware I didn't get anything wrong on the sight test, or the traffic signs quiz.  The officer would have told me, right? Then I had to sit at a touch screen terminal and take a multiple choice test.  I had heard many stories about how ridiculous the questions are, and you have to get 20 out of 25 right to pass.  I've been practicing using an app on the iPod, of course there's an app for that, which meant I got comfortable with only answering if I knew I knew the answer and skipping any I would just have been guessing on.  The ones you skip come up again at the end of the quiz anyway, so you get another chance to answer those.
I answered nineteen questions in a row correctly, and the twentieth question was about the exact punishment is for allowing an underage person to use your driver's licence to buy alcohol.  I know the State frowns on that, as indeed they should, but I wasn't sure how severe the punishment was.  I decided to skip that one, and the next question was one I knew, so that was fine!

And that's how I passed the NC DMV written driving test!  First go!  With no wrong answers!

I was extremely glad at that point to have had my haircut on Saturday, because then I had my photo taken for the official learner's permit card.  Doc had assured me this wouldn't happen, so I didn't put any make-up on this morning, but at least my hair wasn't totally embarrassing.

Doc C had already told me that I was not to pretend to have failed if I had passed, so I went straight back to the waiting room with a big smile on my face and brandishing my temporary permit.  Then Doc drove me to an empty car park and I drove around a little bit.  It was most exhilarating, even if I didn't go about first gear.

All Publicity is Good Publicity.

One of the local car dealerships has had a skip outside, with a car dumped in it, for a couple of weeks now.  I noticed that they changed the car recently for a much larger jeep.

I guessed that it was a promotional stunt, but I was slightly confused by the fact the original car in the skip had a vanity plate with the dealerships name clearly displayed on it.  What are they trying to say?  "Come on in! Our cars are rubbish!"

When I took this picture Doc told me there is also an accompanying television commercial, and this is supposed to be promoting the "Cash for Clunkers" programme.  Still I'm not sure it's exactly the image I'd want people to remember when they thought of my business frankly, but that's just me.

Too Damn Hot.

The weather is ridiculously hot again, so the cats and I are wilting and even Doc C is fairly wiped out.  I have been meaning to post all day, but I had to wait for the evening so that the laptop didn't actually set my lap on fire as I typed.  It is hot like the sun.

Still, ice cream for dinner was an acceptable trade off.

Emergency Broadcast.

There have been some ridiculously heavy storms today, and it appears to have knocked out our cable tv reception.
Fortunately the Internet is still with me, or who knows how I'd survive the evening.

Update: We have TV back! I had to sit on the phone with an automated help desk for ages to get it done. I have earnt this episode of "Bones".

Asheville Sunday.

Yeah, well I don't think I'll be going to the gym today.

For one thing I can't work out where the hell it is, this hotel is in three buildings and the signage is terrible, and I just don't fancy wandering around aimlessly in my gym gear in a strange place.  Call me picky.

Besides, we have got a lot to fit in today.  We are going to the eleven o'clock showing of H.P., so that we get out by 2 and have plenty of time in Asheville.  I need to buy craft supplies, sports gear and maybe some new clothes that actually, you know, fit.

Last night we went out for curry, I had this amazing lentil crepe filled with spiced potato and crab and Doc had a lamb korma.  Then we caught a few minutes of a free open air screening of "Tarzan" with Johnny Weismuller, before going to see "Moon". I've been studiously avoiding reading anything about it to avoid spoilers, so no IMDB link for you, suffice to say it is good.  Sam Rockwell on the Moon for 90 odd minutes is a good evening's entertainment, if you like paranoia driven sci-fi thrillers.  Which I do.

Asheville! We Love You!

We're in Asheville for the evening! Yay!

Our plans are simple.  Tonight we have curry, tomorrow we shop and see "Harry Potter".  In between I'm intending to find the hotel gym and/or do some pilates.  We shall see how that intention pans out.

Weekends.  They rock.

Still Not Permitted.

I went to take the written driving test today, and as the testing centre closes at 4:30 we had to go before my doctor's appointment.

Naturally there was a queue of people waiting when we arrived, and my number was going to be next up when we had to leave.

Still that gives me slightly longer to revise for the thing, so I'm not very unhappy about it. The plan now is that we are on the doorstep waiting for them to open on Tuesday. I will be ready.

Water and Lilies.

More water lilies!

That is all.

Flowers on the Water.

I checked my iPod for this week's weather forecast when I woke up, and what I saw was this:

That is thunderstorms every day for the next week.  Ok then, note to self: Do not leave the house without an umbrella for the foreseeable future.  Although, the temperature will be much more in my comfort zone, and I am happy about that!

It was still fairly sunny after we'd had breakfast in town (I had the most delicious wholewheat waffles with yogurt and fresh fruit, tasty yet not outrageously unhealthy.), so we decided a walk would be a good idea before the predicted thunderstorms rolled in.  We headed off to one of our favourite local lakes, whereupon we discovered half the town seemed to have had the same idea.

It was particularly lovely out there today, because about a third of the lake is currently covered in water lillies. I had a great time taking photos, which is always a good way to spend a Sunday morning.  The only thing more fun then taking loads of pictures is then playing with them in Picnik to get an interesting effect.  I've darken the leaves and water a lot in this one, so that the flower looks much brighter.  I didn't really have Doc leaning out over the water with a lighting rig, just so I could get a pretty picture of a flower.  That is mainly because I don't actually have a lighting rig, but that isn't my point here.

You might well get more water lilly pictures this week, I did go a little bit snap happy.

Driving Test Preparation.

This will be the summer that I learn to drive on the opposite side of the road, it's not the wrong side of the road it is just differently orientated and that's fine.  To get my learner's permit I have to pass the DMV's sight test, sign recognition test and computerised multiple choice test on the highway code; or whatever it's called here, that won't be one of the questions will it?

I have been doing some on-line research to prepare myself, and one of the websites that I looked at had the following dire warning:

"Failing your DMV exam has some harsh consequences.

• You have to make a new appointment at the DMV.
• Take more time out of school or work.
• Waste more time studying the DMV handbook.
• Then waiting in line at the DMV to do it all over again and hope for the best.

Passing is way better. So, make sure you practice!"

So let me understand this.  There is a possibility that I might have to wait in a queue?  To get the opportunity to demonstrate that I will be safe behind the wheel of a car?  And that I will have to waste my time reading the DMV handbook?  When you consider that traffic accidents are only the sixth highest cause of preventable death in the US, that seems draconian.

Insects Sharing A Flower.

This is another picture from our trip to Winston Salem. 

I find insects and flowers don't need any air brushing, but they do benefit from being cropped, before doing some slight alterations in exposure and colour.

Some Off Mountain Time.

There's a TV advert for a local pet shop which has become somewhat of standing joke between Doc and I, because of one key line of dialogue "Why leave the mountain when you can get everything you want right here?" Why indeed?  Doc and I are generally agreed that leaving the mountain is occasionally necessary in and of itself for the sake of our sanity, and besides you cannot get everything you need here.  I've tried.

Yesterday I decided that I needed to go to a bookshop, a halfway decent bookshop, as a matter of some urgency.  So we hopped in the car and drove to Winston Salem.

Our first stop was Borders.  Now in the UK Borders would not be my first choice of bookshop, mainly because I worked for Waterstones for three years and there was a friendly rivalry with the branch of Borders around the corner, but in the US it has several advantages.  They have books, DVDs, CDs and quite often a whole section of Paperchase products.  Heaven!

The books I bought today were:

• "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss
• "The Pilates Body" by Brooke Siler
• "Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters"
• "Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems"
• "The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book" by Bill Watterson
• "How to Have Style" by Isaac Mizrahi

The first two titles were precisely what I went to buy, so that was very satisfying; all of the others were from the sale section which was a great bonus.

The additional items I purchased were:

• A Gaiam Reformer Resistance Band, with DVD
• A set of badges with multi-coloured skulls
• A set of badges with embroidered roses and polka dots on different shades of pastel
• A roll of wrapping paper decorated with skulls and stars

And then, and then, we went across the road to Krispy Kreme to have doughnuts and coffee for lunch!

Our original plan was to go for a curry for dinner, but first we went for a walk around Old Salem and the campus of Salem College, which is gorgeous.  The doughnuts weren't going anywhere, so we decided to skip the curry and just come home instead. All in all it wasn't even a day trip, it was just six hours off the mountain, but it was psychologically invaluable and we scored a whole bunch of cool stuff. 

Actually, I hope that pet shop is open tomorrow because we do need to pick up a couple of things from there and it is pretty handy.

Fireworks, Friends and Smores.

Yesterday evening ended up being totally different to my initial plans, but we had a lot of fun!  The weather turned out to be really nice, so our friends called to say they were going to come a bit later so they could watch the fireworks from the parkway.

Well that sounded like fun, so we decided to join them.  We sat in the middle of a meadow, watching coloured explosions rocketing over the tree line on the mountains, which was very pretty.  I just wish I'd put on a few more layers, because by the time the display was over my toes felt like ice cubes.

Then we came back to the house and made smores, lots of smores!  Yay! Happy Fourth indeed!

Fourth of July Lounging.

Today being the Fourth of July we invited some friends over to barbecue some burgers, and then play poker.  Somehow though I got the impression that today's weather was supposed to be bad, so I called everyone to cancel the BBQ part and come a bit later for the card game.

Well, naturally the weather is gorgeous today and we could have cooked a treat out there.  Grrr.

Still, that does give me more time to laze around reading Agatha Christie short stories and trim the cat's claws.  Edith wasn't exactly keen but acquiesced because with all her fur she's just too warm to kick up a stink at the moment; unfortunately Nancy was convinced I was trying to kill her and complained like hell.  I only managed to do Nancy's front paws, so we have to go through all that again to get her back claws too.  sigh.

A Fan of Fans.

 As I mentioned in my previous post, I do not do well in hot weather, and I never have done; but at least this year my tolerance does seem to be better than last year. I think this is because I have developed a couple of coping strategies.

These include skirts, a paper parasol, lunchtime naps and, most importantly, my lovely new desk fan.

Here it is in action, silently pushing a lovely cool stream of air straight at me.  I positioned it in front of the latest bouquet that Michael brought in from his garden, so not only is the air cool, it is also delicately scented.

Gorgeous.

I've Run Out of Cat Post Titles.

I am well aware that I need to write a post about something other than my cats, this blog is in imminent danger of becoming "The Edith and Nancy Show, _{with special guest stars Doc C and Jen}" but you can blame two things for this increase in feline observational comedy.

1. It's getting warmer, and at temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (that's about 21 degrees Celsius) my brain slows down and frankly my creativity levels become negligible.
2. The cats are for some reason particularly hilarious at the moment.

The hummingbirds are well and truly back now, and they remembered our balcony had a feeder on the living room window.  I put it back exactly where it was last year, Edith in particular finds this irresistible.  She glances over to the feeder roughly every ten seconds, and if she sees a humming bird she has to get as close as possible. 

There is nothing as amusing as seeing a cat trying to recover it's dignity after she's thrown herself at a window, and fallen gracelessly to the floor. 

How did this effect the humming birds?  Quite honestly, they seem to find it amusing.  Doc said when Edith was sleeping by the window earlier today that they hovered down to have a good look at her, and now they really don't seem at all bothered by her.  This is clearly all the more humiliating to the cat so I threw Edith a crinkly mouse a couple of times to make up for it, and she relieved her feelings by rabbit kicking the hell out of that for a while.

Smores are Tasty.

After dinner this evening I made smores. To an American no further explanation is necessary, but I'd never had one before we moved here so I thought I'd write a brief how to guide.

1. Carefully toast a marshmallow on a skewer.
2. Sandwich the warm melted fluff with a square of chocolate between two halves of a graham cracker (which is sort of like a oblong digestive).
3. Eat it.
4. Repeat.

It's the most fun to make them with a group of friends after a nice meal, but today felt like a particularly long Monday at work so I decided to make a couple. Whilst Doc watched back-to-back episodes of "Star Trek: TNG", I went out to the balcony to make myself two smores.  It was nice to eat a crunchy gooey sweet messy thing, whilst I listened to the frogs bellowing at each other and watched fireflies flitting around the trees.

Lovely.

A Good Night's Sleep and A Desk Fan. That's ALL I Want. sigh.

The weather is getting warmer, and I now spend most of my lunch hour curled up on the sofa in Doc's office because I'm not sleeping enough during the night, and when I do I'm having exhaustingly hectic dreams.  Now that I am relying on this seista more and more I tried to convince my manager that we should swap Doc's two seater sofa for one of our offices three seaters, but she didn't go for it.  Ah well, I somehow manage to squish myself into the small space and I usually fit in a nice half hour zizz most days.

Tonight we are going to try sleeping on a futon mattress on the living room floor, which should be a lot cooler, because we'll be right in front of the balcony screen door.  I have no idea what the cats will make of this.

My other problem is that my office has no air conditioning at all, so I am totally reliant on wide open windows and that is just not enough on some days.  Last week I ordered a small desk fan, and I've started obsessively checking the FedEx delivery tracker.  I just cannot wait to have a gentle breeze at my command when I'm at work.  Imagine that.  sigh.  It's also my first purchase from "Woot!", which essentially sells one item cheaply for one day only (there's also "shirt.woot!", which sells t-shirts and "wine.woot!" which sells, well, wine on the same principle), it was actually a third of the price of exactly the same fan on Amazon and that is including the delivery fee.  It's also going to be cherry red, which is particularly pleasing.

"Peel Me A Grape Human!"

Today has been entirely dictated by animals.  Our first stop of the day was Lowe's to buy a new hummingbird feeder and some nectar.  Whilst we were there I also perused the cleaning equipment aisle...

At the Humane Society we walked three gorgeous dogs; Bea, Snoop and Speckles, who were all incredibly friendly dogs with sad histories.  Sometimes it's better to walk the dogs without knowing the details, because some people do not deserve a pet of any sort frankly.  We also saw Nicole, and had a chat with her about how our cats had behaved when she was cat sitting for us.  She said they had been really good, but that she noticed that Cairo had sprayed our front door and that was when Edith started peeing in the hallway.  Ohhh!  That makes more sense now!  Edith's trying to warn Cairo off, but in a really stinky way!

When we got home I set up the new birdfeeders, but so far we haven't had any customers.  Sigh.

After lunch we headed over to our friends Randy and Laura's house to check in on their cats whilst they are away.  Asha and Varti were both absolutely fine!  So we played with them for a bit, before coming home to our girls.

Before dinner I got out my cleaning stuff, and went to work in our downstairs bathroom.  The floor has lovely white tiles on the floor, but they are tiny and there is SO much grouting that I just can never seem to get totally clean.  This is where the cats' litter trays are, so it's particularly important that I get the floor totally clean.  My new tool from Lowe's was a grout brush to scrub with, so I took that into the bathroom with my new secret weapons: a lemon and a packet of baking soda!  I got down on my hands and knees to scrub the hell out of that floor, and I was very pleased with how it scrubbed up.  I even got out the ultra violet light to make sure this had worked.  It totally did!  Yay!

So we've been at the beck and call of various creatures all day, I am exhausted now.