EMP in the US

So our trip to the Ice Cream factory was totally great. It was actually quite short, even including an ice cream lunch! We had a really good crowd in the end, our neighbours, our next-door-but-one neighbours and our friends from Germany. We took a scenic route back via a graveyard which is famous for it’s incredibly huge granite gravestones. They were spectacular, and some were quite massive. Interestingly some of these graves hadn’t been filled yet, as in the birth date was given, but no end date… We also stopped at a “floating bridge” that has since been closed to traffic. Then to end it all, our neighbours and next-door-but-one-neighbours procured a fantastic barbeque, seemingly from nowhere, which was a really great way to end a really good day. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to publish the photos. I’m not keen on iWeb, I briefly tried Jalbum, and in the end resorted to flickr:
Ben & Jerry’s, Floating bridge and BBQ .
I miss “Galrey” that I used on my linux machines. I may yet put it on my mac book and use it!

On Saturdays we often have waffles or pancakes for breakfast:

…and then have to walk it off later in the day. This is the road that leads to the school and the childcare centre, just to prove that even small U.S towns have “sidewalks”.

Thomas and Ollie are getting to walk a lot lately, and Thomas even managed to walk all the way into town today – good 30 minute walk (more like 50 minutes with him needing to read every sign along the way…). Thomas is now capable of reading a Level 1 reading book by himself. (actually he can read some level 2 books as well). He sometimes needs reminding to start on the left-hand side when he turns the page.

Tomorrow, David and I are planning to drive down to Concord (New Hampshire’s capital city) to sort out our driving licences – we even have to take a test! The boys are already sporting their new licence plates, courtesy of a couple of exciting parcels from the U.K!

I just signed up for the Onlive Beta testing: onlive.com . I remember being excited about this back in the UK, and it being an extra reason to move to the U.S (one of the conditions of being a beta-tester) . I’m not sure if I’ll meet the criteria, but it’s at least as exciting as buying a lottery ticket!

We are watching more online episodes and films via Amazon (which now does grocery shopping apparently) and Hulu and Netflix etc etc. We just downloaded something called “Boxxy” which I’ve not been overly impressed with so far. We’ve installed our Mac mini, which I will always refer to as the minimac. I’m still waiting on my Wii->component cable, and we haven’t plugged in the Eye TV dongle yet, so we are still without a PVR – you can really get used to pausing the tv you know! I’m loving the Halo 3 so far, though grumpy-chops makes sit down and do boring grown-up things like accounts, when we should be alien-blatting, in my opinion…

On the up side, we hope to visit the Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream factory tomorrow with our newfound German friends.

The story I’m about to relate, is one that I heard happen to someone else once, and for some reason didn’t believe it would happen to me.

The kids were in bed. David and I embarked on our next mission in Halo3 (Xbox 360). The boys were playing up, as usual, causing us to occasionally shout “Go to sleep please!” while splatting aliens. Eventually David grudgingly left me to save the world on my own while he went to check on the boys. “I’m going to need a hand here!” I heard him call.

We should have taken a photo, but were too busy remaining calm and trying to keep the situation as unexciting as possible… Ollie had decided to paint the room with Sudocreme. It was all over his face, hands and bed. For 2 years and 4 months Ollie has had access to the Sudocreme, lulling me into a false sense of security that he wouldn’t touch it. Still, a change of bedclothes, pyjamas and frantic wiping down of the furniture later, we were soon back splatting aliens again, the creme firmly on a high shelf out of reach.

Then yesterday, our new mac arrived, making the boys all very happy:

Though maybe this was a leetle over-the-top…

I wonder what David was saying at this point…

We haven’t plugged it in yet, as (and can you believe our luck?!) our back-up drive has also failed. We are waiting for a new drive to back up the iMac, so we can transfer our stuff onto the mini mac.

Also, because Thomas has started “school” (another post to come) Ollie and I are having some fun together. Yesterday I walked into town, browsed, had lunch, and still had the energy to walk home again. (When I walked in with both of them, I had to get the bus home! (which, have I mentioned, is free?). Anyway, today is a Friday, so energy is lacking, so we did something far less demanding, and much more rewarding. We made blueberry muffins. I was a bit concerned that Mary Berry’s muffin tin fits 12 muffins, and mine only fits 6, so I thought mine might be raw in the middle, but the actually turned out ok! Thanks again to my marvellous, online-recluse, benefactor Viv!

morgenkaffe / morgenmælk med muffins

So today, the schools started back, and it was the first day at kindergarten for my next-door-neighbours’ oldest, and first day in an english-speaking school for our German friends. Interesting that even though I’ve only known these people for less than a month I felt genuine excitement for both of them! I even went out with my neighbour to greet the school bus, when her daughter was dropped home – it was really cool! It is sometimes like living in The Simpsons here!

I’m busily sewing and ironing name-tags on for Thomas’ start tomorrow.

I’ve got a new trick! When I go to the supermarket, I’ve started hanging around other people to hear how they converse! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before! I now know, that when you go up to the deli counter you say, “I’ll have half a pound thin!”. See!? Once I’d figured this out, I started doing it for other things too: a mum with two kids playing up, “now, Michael, did you think about how your sister would feel if you did that?”

Also, all this “newness” is making me reflect on how things have changed in my life. Eating is very different nowadays. There wasn’t any such thing as food-labelling protocol when I was young, it normally told you roughly what was in the packet, without listing the chemicals that laymen wouldn’t understand anyway, and that was good enough. And coffee. I’ve been drinking coffee since before I can remember! If someone popped over, we’d have coffee. Nowadays, coffee just isn’t very healthy, so people don’t drink it so much, so it’s not the “normal” thing to offer any more. I think with so many people moving and settling elsewhere, and the internet allowing access to more information than ever before, there’s no such thing as normal any more.

Anyway, I’m currently trying to compile a list of activities, by which I mean things we fill in the time between sleeping and eating. One of the things mums do is get an old sheet or blanket, tie it between two things and call it a “camp”. We did this today and ate some “Bunny Grahams” in it. The boys don’t look amused, but I assure you, they were.

Also exciting is the prospect of finding out the intricacies of the american electrical systems. WHOOPEE! I hear you shout. Well, contain your excitement while I show you the innards of a power bar that I was trying to “understand”. For the dedicated among you, I did promise this picture earlier!

I was actually looking for some sort of fuse in it, as the plugs here don’t contain fuses, as far as I can tell. I have since replaced this one with a power bar with a trip switch, as I often forget not to put the toaster and microwave on at the same time. Now I can just flick the switch back on.

So a quick post about what we’re all into at the moment. Firstly the boys, they really like morning telly – especially “Sid the Science Kid” and “Super Why”. Ollie absolutely adores “Little Einsteins” though we have only bought 3 episodes, but this means Ollie can now sing the main theme to Swan Lake, Beethoven’s 9th, and 5th symphonies. (short short short LONG, short short short LONG – this really happens in our house.)

Thomas really enjoyed me reading “Charlotte’s Web”, a chapter per night, so I thought he’d also enjoy “The SheepPig” though it is called “Babe” on the edition we got out of the library. He doesn’t seem so enamoured with this. He quite enjoyed “Fantastic Mr Fox” though I think the chapters were too short for his liking.

We found a great book at the library called “Tanka Tanka Skunk!” the author of which lives in the U.K. It’s really good fun.

Thomas went to see his new “school” which is what we’re calling the Child Care Centre he’ll be going to. He loves it, and can’t wait to start, a week tomorrow!

I’m now reading my New Scientist every week, which takes me 2 or 3 nights, and then I can get back to “London – a Biography” by Peter Ackroyd, which I’m loving, though it’s heavy to lift off the pillow! I am missing home a lot, and while I keep reminding myself of the dog-poo and broken glass of our Uxbridge neighbourhood, it’s hard not to get wistful looking at all my friends’ facebook pics of their shenanigans in the city. Still, it’s only normal to feel that way – it’s only been just over a month, and we’re still not fully settled in. I’m starting to formulate some ideas about me and what I might get up to for the next 3 years, though I won’t write til I’ve got a better idea. I will hopefully get a bit more time to work on things once Thomas starts, though I intend to make the most of my time with Ollie too.

I have to mention, that as I type, we are watching “Lie to Me” with Tim Roth. ” We,” I am told excitedly, “are watching 1080HD television straight off Amazon’s servers!” Pretty cool broadband is one of the pros of being here right now. We are really enjoying being able to buy-and-watch things at the moment, the saving grace of otherwise notoriously awful US tv.

So today I got to take a solo roadtrip up to IKEA.  It was a beautiful day, actually a bit too beautiful so I had to put the air-con on around noon, as even with the windows down it was passing-out temperature.   I really enjoyed myself!  The slight mar on the journey was the crummy sound system in the SUBARU. Even cutting out all my usual tunes and listening to strictly middle-of-the-road stuff still caused it to “phuht” in some of the louder and bassier moments.  Driving through Appalachia, I thought it appropriate to listen to the Cold Mountain soundtrack, and sang along heartily (which I was able to do without embarrassed exclamations of “Muuuum” from Thomas).    IKEA itself was pretty busy – lots of prospective students with their mums, and the usual troop of pregnant women (I remember THOSE Ikea trips!).  Thrice I had to ask for help, and thrice I was met with knowledgeable, coherent and accurate answers.  I found myself whistling all the way round, having no kids to force my hand or to invoke the dash-and-grab that is the usual supermarket routine.   I even knew before I got to my car that everything would fit in easily – breaking the ultimate in Ikea traditions of ramming flatpacks and people into every nook and cranny, and holding all 5 doors shut with string.  It was a truly unique Ikea experience.

I had a bit of a problem with filling up on the way home.  The first gas station I stopped at didn’t say “unleaded” anywhere.  I felt a bit stupid, because it was a well-known company, so I was frustrated that I couldn’t understand the pumps.  I went in and asked “is the petrol unleaded?”  The young chap behind the counter looked at me and said, “you have to pay before you pump”.  I said, “yes, ok, but is the petrol unleaded?”  he said “well, probably”.  I said, “I can’t put leaded petrol in a car that takes unleaded, so is it or not?” he said “well, I don’t know”.  Now I began to feel like I was in the twilight zone, and said “do you have a supervisor?”  “no, it’s just me here today”.  Thank you and goodbye.

I found another gas station, and was about to phone David and ask whether all the U.S petrol is now unleaded, when I saw the unleaded mentioned on the large roadside advertising board, but not anywhere on the pumps.  I think now that this is the case – to assume unleaded unless specified.  It’s these little lessons!  Incidentally, this pulled in to fill up next to me:

too long to capture its full length!

On the way home, with cruise control in action I took a couple of photos.  Actually, as I was busy looking at the road, I took quite a few, of the dashboard, the air vents and even my finger, but here are a few of the mountains.  This is the highway between Boston and Hanover (I93 and I89).

Oddly, when I dragged David out to see the Big Dipper / Plough / Karlsvogen again the same time the next day, it was back to normal size, meaning it was the same size as in the U.K. I would have thought I had gone bonkers if David hadn’t also seen the same thing. We are either both bonkers, or there is some kind of lens effect caused by the mist. Answers on a postcard please…

I’ve just found a few minutes to put up some pictures from the last week or so.

Firstly, the Montshire Museum of Science, which I have mentioned before.  Ollie sends pennies round the gravity simulator, and then plays in the water outside:

Then we went to a “Touch a Truck” day in Lebanon!  The boys continue to be totally uninterested in Fire Engines – I don’t know what’s wrong with them?!  All those buttons, levers and sockets!  Anyway, Thomas was interested in lots of the other trucks.  Interestingly, Ollie seems to have a similar aversion to sudden loud sounds, just like me!  (I now put earplugs in when there’s a thunderstorm and it reduces the anxiety to 0!  It’s not the storm I’m afraid of, just the loud noises, in fact I remember once nearly falling off my chair in an electroacoustic concert at a sudden dynamic jump!) I digress, Ollie didn’t like the horn on the bus, which of course all the other kids were pressing insistently, with delight.

silly hat day

no I WON'T pose with the fire truck...

And finally a picture from our walk in the woods:

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I’d lost momentum.

I’ve also got a backlog of video I keep meaning to post, which needs seeing to, so it’s hard to blog without feeling a little guilty that I haven’t done that yet.

A couple of jolts to the system, one was unexpectedly bumping into an old schoolfriend which was an amazing experience, but detailed on Facebook, so I won’t cross-post.

Secondly, I popped out to see the meteor shower last night, but as it turns out I was looking in the wrong place, when I turned to go back in, I saw the Big Dipper / The Plough / Karlsvognen in the sky, but it was so different that I nearly fell down with a panic attack there and then!   It was enormous, which of course made my brain think it was a lot closer, which made me think either the sky was falling down (from my viking roots obviously) or that we were in the wrong place in space (Lost in Space)!  I had to avert my eyes and run inside.  I know people have had a shock sometimes looking at so much sky, in places like the mid-west, or even in Norfolk, UK, but this was quite a heart-stopping scare.  I will take David out with me tonight to hold my hand and get used to it.   Also, it’s too dark here – not enough light pollution! :-p

In other news, Ollie has mostly been peeing on the floor.  It’s not because I’m trying to potty train, but because he’s had bad nappy rash, so I’ve been airing his bottom!  I think we’re on top of it now, and the pharmacist has given me a cream which is zinc oxide, just like Sudocreme, but at 40% instead of 15%, so we see how we go.  I think Ollie can make the potty for number 2, just number 1 that he has no idea is happening until he looks at the spreading puddle around him!  In my vast experience of talking to potte-trainers, you can do it early and deal with lots of accidents, but get it over with early, or do it late, and have it sorted within 5 minutes.  Our next door neighbour said that at about 1-and-a-half, it just clicked with her daughter, but that was after 6 months of accidents!  I think the UK leave it very late compared to most of Europe.  I would like to get it done before the winter hits, as I can’t face the whole “accidents” stage with 10 layers of clothing too.

Speaking of winter, some neighbours’ friends’ neighbours from Sweden reckon the winters here are far worse than Swedish winters, which scares me a little.

I will try and get some video sorted, and also post you a picture of the insides of our power bar adaptors – I know you can’t wait for that!

Learning to sleep in a bed properly takes a bit of practice…