Day 2.202: Team beat

Some time ago, I invited my team to come over for dinner, in the end this was the day that everyone could make.

We ate Indian Food (not known as 'curry' here!) drank some beer and wine (and water) and then played some Rock Band (it is Friday night after all).

Some were keen instrumentalists:

a few were willing to pick up the mic.,

and some were happy to ponder the meaning of the songs from a safe distance*:

All in all, we had a good time - hopefully that goes for everyone, other-halves and all.


* Not everyone pictured here!

Day 2.201: Angel Duck, ...

Exile #3 spotted this fancy rubber duck amongst others in the window of the cafe where we had lunch back on Day 2.174. She declared it to be 'Angel Duck'.


Not too surprisingly, this was next to it:


More surprisingly, she declared it to be 'Cow Duck'.

I just saw my favourite and least favourite of the top-six go through to the final of "So You Think You Can Dance". Although, after today's recap I felt less strongly than I had yesterday about the guys' result, so I'm reasonably happy about it and looking forward to next week's grand finale.

Day 2.200: Trick or tree-t?

Here's one more from MASS MoCA - testing phototropism to the limit.

It's pretty amazing which ever way you look at it.

Day 2.199: Old-fashioned CD player

Exile #3 was rather pleased with herself when she got this record player to play some music. "I made the old-fashioned CD player work!" she declared. Yes she really did - way to make your Dad feel old!

Today was day two of the girls' latest round of swimming lessons. Exile #3 is really gaining confidence and seems on the edge of a breakthrough that would get her swimming sustainably without floatation aids (she is limited to about 20 feet at the moment) and Exile #4 is also doing very well. One more lesson tomorrow and then three next week. While they've been doing that and Exile #2 has been needed pool-side to be on hand for her 'pre-schooler', E5N1 has been in the crèche having a ball (or a car) by all accounts.

All of which reminds me that their Exile-names come so naturally to me know that during a conversation about the kids at work today I thought twice about using their real ones. If anyone catches me making that mistake please feel free to slap me! Gently.

Day 2.198: Pressing the right buttons

The other day, E5N1 picked up the little Canon camera and started fiddling with the settings. When Exile #2 discovered him, he had the camera in a never-before-used mode. This is the picture that she took of him SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) as they say. You may need to expand it to enjoy its full not-black-and-whiteness.

Today he came to find her again after having a minute or two at the computer desk and said "Press button - all gone now!". It was some relief to discover that he had found the power switch on the monitor rather than anything more terminal.

To celebrate, here's an easy quiz - well it seems easy to me now, but I did take some time to recognise these items in the junk-art exhibit on Saturday. I'm sure you'll all be much quicker to work it out.

Day 2.197: This: aim, deep water, at you

We had fun at a little pool-party this afternoon with our church friends. Hopefully this week we will finally get our permit to use the new building for our gathering. Exile #3 decided that now she can swim (a few yards at least), she might as well learn to fly:

It didn't go too well, but at least she can swim!

E5N1 had fun with this pump-action water gun:


His wicked look made it clear that he knew exactly what he was doing when he could otherwise have pleaded the two-year-old exemption.


As it was, he got as well as he gave:


I was shocked to see that the last pop pun to be solved was number 96. that means the last five in a row have gone unanswered. Can't you see I try - writing these pop puns is hard. I wonder how this one will go...yes it's pop pun 102 for title watchers: I don't see and I don't feel but tightly hold up silently my hands.

Day 2.196: Art Nintendeau

Once again, we managed to spend six happy hours at a museum today. This time however, we had no need to get our money's worth as our trip to MASS MoCA was virtually free thanks to a family pass checked out from our local library on our way out this morning.

We did invest some time in travelling there - through the corner of Vermont to get to northern Massachusetts. We also spent some money in the cafe (resulting in the happy smiles) and made a contribution for our visit to Kidspace - an art gallery crossed with an art class for kids which was marvellous. Their current exhibition is of art made from other people's junk.

The main exhibits were a hit too. We all enjoyed Sol LeWitt's wall paintings and Guy Ben-Ner's film art including some epic movies filmed in his kitchen. Exile #2 singled out the Nanjing Particles and I loved the emotional roller-coaster of These Days: Elegies for Modern Times - especially Sam Taylor-Wood's works.

Here's a wonderful moment from Kidspace, when the little drummer boy encountered a load of Nintendo 64 game controller rumble-kits wired together to play an old drum in the corner of the exhibit.


At first he's not too sure, but he can't resist for long.

Day 2.195: Fire, earth, water

It's been a harrowing week. Not because of any turmoil at home or at work, nor because of incidents like the deafening crack of thunder that made us think the house was falling down a couple of hours ago. No, because we have been watching Torchwood: Children of Earth on BBC America - a significant improvement on early experiences of the channel. I like it when a show like that has a bit of ambition, and there was no shortage in this 5-part miniseries. Altogether rather good - but not exactly light entertainment.

So, in order to turn the corner - here are some pictures of our aquarium trip from nearly two weeks ago that I uploaded to Flickr. I think that they're more 'Flickr' than 'Exile' because I like them as photos, but they don't particularly tell our story. I hope you don't mind my online worlds colliding for one day.

Day 2.194: Sign of the times

While I was back at Day 2.174 in my photo collection looking for spot-the-differences opportunities, I happened upon these pictures. I'll let you make your own story of either urban decay or receding nuclear-threat depending on your mood.

Day 2.193: The camera never lies

...but the photo editing toolkit lies 8 times - can you spot them?

Exile #2 and the kids had what sounds like a great day - visiting the park and then getting Exile #4's pass (she wasn't old enough to need one last year) and going along to the outdoor pool at the town park to enjoy a genuinely summery day (these have been sporadic to say the least so far this summer).

I was at work, but that's OK too in its way.

Day 2.192: Mystery of the deep

At the aquarium on Day 2.183, we visited an exhibit about deep-sea exploration and in particular about how unmanned remote-control/virtual-reality submarines had transformed the process.

Then this happened:

At first it was E5N1 but later his sisters each joined in for a while.

What happened was this - as we were walking through the exhibit, E5N1 disappeared into a thigh-high hole in the side of a rough model of a boat. Inside was a tiny room with mirrors on all the walls and the ceiling and a projection of various short video clips of undersea creatures playing on the floor (presumably projected from below).

Mysterious, but quite captivating!

Day 2.191: What's he drinking?

Exile #2 tells me she missed the best of E5N1's karaoke-with-the-radio session today.

Frankly after more than 12 hours at work, I was happy to have anything to use for today's post - and these are definitely a lot better than nothing!

Part 1

Part2

And so to bed.

Day 2.190: Only one

Numbers are featuring heavily in E5N1's world at the moment. Yesterday a man asked him how old he was and he happily held up five fingers. After a little discussion, he acknowledged that he was two, but could not work out how to hold two fingers up.

Later on the walk at Five Rivers he walked up to some other trail users and held up ten fingers, saying "I'm two!" presumably he was only counting thumbs. Come to think of it, when asked to actually count something he tends to just say "two, three, four, five," without undue (or even due) reference to the objects in question.

None of this relates to today's title. Rather I was musing on the ease of blogging on days when I only have one presentable picture from the day's activities. Too many and I have to decide what to use, none and I have to dip into the back-catalogue - which is even more to choose from. I actually took four pictures to preserve this piece of my driveway artwork, but in the other three E5N1 had his finger up his nose. I thought I'd spare you that.

Day 2.189: Do with a view

What goes around, comes around. Today Exile #2 was out from 9-5 at a MOPS committee planning meeting and I was therefore in sole custody of the kids.

The morning was pleasantly interrupted by us all helping load up a pick-up truck with a load of equipment that had been stored here while the church has been homeless for the last few weeks. At around lunchtime we had a birthday party (one of Exile #4's classmates) to go to. The weather was changeable, but managed to smile on the party which was mostly spent in bathing suits in and out of paddling pools and on and off an impressive swing-set/club-house-on-stilts structure.

The house was a new one on a fairly young development - a fairly common pattern in these parts, but it did have a spectacular view out towards the Berkshires across the Massachusetts border.

After we were reunited, we went for an evening walk at Five Rivers, saw a beaver (almost certainly) and the girls unintentionally and ill-advisedly offered their fingers to a snapping turtle. After Exile #3 had probably sparked its interest, Exile #4 followed her sister's lead and dipped her finger in the pond. She immediately spotted the large head looking up at her from just below the surface. She retracted herself rapidly from the snapping zone and we enjoyed a safer but still fairly close encounter with the giant creature before continuing our walk.

Day 2.188: Friday Haikus #3

Yesterday was wet
Really really really wet -
Ten weather alerts*

This day was Friday
We assembled for Rock Band
Even Exile #2

* This was the only previous day to have triggered so many.

Day 2.187: Anything will do...

...but someone called Club may wish to check your coat.

We saw these signs in Glens Falls back on Day 2.174. It would seem that any ID will do really - a drivers license or a non drivers license - that seems to cover all possibilities.

Maybe since Tilly gave the place up standards have slipped a bit?

Or maybe I'm JUST WILFULLY misunderstanding!

Day 2.186: Sub-continental?

At some point today Exile #4 was explaining her game to Exile #2:

"We don't have a car, I ride my bicycle."
"I wash my clothes in the river."
"We don't have a kitchen, we cook and eat outside."
"I walk to the river to collect water."

Already wondering where she gets her ideas from, Exile #2 was floored by Exile #4's finale. Gesticulating down the side of the house she invited:

"If you want to come to India too, just come down the passage."

Seriously...it's a passage to India?

The picture is a taste of the 19th century from Mystic Seaport on Saturday - so it's more Connecticut than Calcutta.

Day 2.185: Seal eye on show

It was Exile #2's parents' last full day here. I think they've had a good trip, at least we were on better form than last year when Exile #2 was ill and they ended up doing a lot of childcare and not a lot of vacationing. Not that they have got away without some child-minding this time. We are very grateful for our chances to escape for dinner and dancing.

Here's a picture from the aquarium. It's not a seal - it can lift its body on its flippers you know.

Day 2.184: Could have been worse

I can't claim these bottles look exactly alike, but they're not too dissimilar. In the dark and in a hurry to get to work, I topped up my oil with antifreeze this morning. Exile #2 got me out of trouble, first by sending me off to work in the van and secondly by arranging for a tow from AAA and a local garage to do two oil changes to sort the problem out.

Meanwhile, we had meetings at work to discuss our new plans and reporting structures following the job-cuts and reorganisations of last week. Which kept me busy and prevented too much beating myself up for the stupidity.

Oh yes, and our immigration status has been extended, so we shouldn't be being escorted out of the country by the immigration service around the time our next visitors are expected.

Day 2.183: Miss Aquatic Ream

After checking out of our rooms, we ventured just down the road to the town's aquarium (I'll give you another day - are none of you 1980's Julia Roberts fans..?). Favourites were sea-lions, belugas and penguins, but we saw a shark or two too.

Mid-afternoon we packed ourselves into the car to drive across the Rhode Island border, turn around and return to the gas-station next to the aquarium to refuel before heading home. We didn't really plan it that way, but it just seemed like we should head north - we really wanted to go west, but setting off on the highway going south seemed all wrong (but was in fact right). What a mix-up (a bit like today's title)!

Once again I have several pictures, this time I'm only disturbing Exile #2 as everyone else has somewhere else to sleep, but I have a work-day tomorrow to think about - so I'll leave you with this and the promise/threat of more pictures later.

Day 2.182: One even had pizza...

Come on now, no-one got the state competition yesterday, so how am I supposed to keep the mystery locations rolling?

We spent the day at the sea-port in this small town today. It's part museum, part antique boat-yard, part 19th Century village recreation, part boat-based theme park (without any roller-coasters). We were there for a good six hours and so made the best of our slightly pricey admission (even though our two five-and-unders were free).

It was Exile #4 who had pizza at the end of the day. It's a clue - slightly less cryptic than yesterday's, but more obscure I suspect.

I've got loads of pictures, but no time to do anything with them - we're in a hotel room and the kids are asleep in the dark so I've crept off to church to write this. Well you know how it is with church - when you've got to go, you've got to go!

Day 2.181: Cleave? I cleave!

Our original plan for our weekend away would have had us arriving at our hotel around now having driven through the evening. Instead, I took the day off work and we set off late morning and spent the afternoon on the beach. It is the sea, but not really the ocean. Pictures:
The Merdaddy, Two washed-up mermaids, jumping over waves, a walk on the boardwalk, treasure found on the beach, treasure turned into a mermaid, turtle rides and the longest-legs-on-the-beach competition.

The weather was perfect - I think we made a good choice to come a day early.

Talking of competitions - can you guess which state we're in this time? The title is a clue!

Day 2.180: It's left/right brain...

When I first saw an advert for Radio and Juliet, I emailed it to Exile #2 with the words 'must be a no-brainer'. Today we went back to Jacob's Pillow by way of a birthday treat to see some more contemporary dance. This time it was, as the BMW advert has it, a decidedly left-brain/right-brain production Orbo Novo which is based on a book describing a brain scientist's experience of her own stroke. Nothing about the inspiration here, but if you have the time this three minute video will give you some idea of the extraordinary dancing we saw this evening.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui - Orbo Novo process from Caleb Custer on Vimeo.

Just before the wonderful and mind-bending performance, we visited the store where we saw Radiohead CDs alongside ballet DVDs - not their normal location I imagine.

Day 2.179: Engineering!

Two little engineering videos from our day at Explore! last week. I had a horrible day today, with redundancies and reorganisations at work, so it's nice to remember some happier activities.

Day 2.178: Happy Birthday GF!

After we had been married for about 3 or 4 years, Exile #2 referred to me as her boyfriend to someone when I wasn't around. It's been nearly 15 years now and I'm not making the same mistake.

Exile #2 is currently gluten-free. It started with an experiment to see if gluten was triggering her migraines - it would seem not, but several of her other recent health issues have responded well to her new diet - and badly to her occasional wheat-based indiscretions. So for her birthday, we had sushi and smuggled-in GF soy sauce and followed it with coffee and 'Rawcaroons', well I also had a non-GF caviar danish* as you can see.

This morning I scored some good-husband points by having organised cinnamon buns for breakfast including some from Sherry Lynn's Gluten Free Cafe. The fact that I bought them on my way home from work yesterday need not count against me as, of course, I just wanted them to be fresh!

*actually blueberry

Day 2.177: Beach tidings

Exile #2 took everyone else to enjoy some pool time with Albaniana and family today. I was at work of course so here are some more pictures from our Independence Day beach trip to tide us over. Talking of tides, this hilltop-lake's beach may be tide-free, but there were pretty good waves when we were first there thanks to a speedboat towing tubers up and down the lake. It's quite amazing how an activity so far away out in the middle of a large body of water affects things at the shore. I resisted the temptation to try explain the physics of tsunamis to the kids and instead settled for discussing whether lining the bottom of Exile #3's moat with pebbles would help to hold the water in for longer.

Day 2.176: Family portrayed

It's not the best group picture I've ever taken, but I'm secretly quite pleased with it. Oops there goes that secret. We had a nice walk along this hiking/bicycle trail near the river/canal in Niskayuna and then went on to park with a playground further along the river in Schenectady (yes those are real place names near here). We think that the last time we went to that playground Exile #4 was younger than E5N1 is now.

With all this river-proximity, we saw quite a lot of messing-about-in-boats.


All this having fun is quite exhausting. Time to get back to work!

Day 2.175: Ridge with a view

Our Independence Day did not get off to a great start. We arrived at our chosen picnic spot (a beach at a nearby state park) to be handed a leaflet informing us that there were no picnic facilities. Also the weather, which was supposed to be clearing, was actually rolling in black clouds.

In fact, we had a very nice time, the sun shone for some of the time, the picnic was fine without 'facilities' and I even had a swim in the lake.

On the way back we stopped to look at the view from the overlook on the ridge.

Exile #4 stood on the edge*.

Exile #3 found it a little hair-raising (mouseover or click).

And the view down to downtown Albany gave us an idea.

So at 8.30pm, Exile #2's parents, Exile #3 and I went back up to the overlook to watch the fireworks from a very safe distance. It was crowded up there but well organised with lots of police and park rangers in attendance. The view was fine, but it was a little cold (especially for the past-bedtime little girl in the party).

Here's a taste of the view we had (partly because we happened to wander up to the part of the wall where a colleague of mine was waiting to see them with his family):



The pictures were taken with my Pentax resting on a coat on a low wall with a 200mm lens.

* she didn't really - she was a very safe distance from the edge!

Day 2.174: Let's Explore!

Seven of us climbed in the van and drove up the Northway to Glens Falls today. We had a pleasant walk around, a quick lunch and then settled down to a good few hours of child-centred fun at Explore!. It's not an easy place to describe, so I will try to give you a taste of it through some pictures.

E5N1 at the water-play area:

All three on (or near) the climbing tower:

Two pirates on the pirate ship (note the tunics!):

Two damsels in distress in the castle tower:

A close encounter with a painted turtle:


...and something fishy:


It was fantastic! By the time we left we were all quite tired.

I have a couple of videos to upload as well as some pictures from around the town but they will have to wait for another day.

Day 2.173: Weekend surprise

Hey E5N1, Hello? Anyone there?

Dear reader, Could you give me a hand with a bit of mouse-over action (or click if you're RSSing) please?

That's better. E5N1 - Nan and Granddad are here!

And the other surprise is that today was the last day of the working week - I found out on Tuesday that tomorrow is a holiday because July 4th falls on a Saturday. I don't follow the logic myself - what's so special about July 4th...?!

Day 2.172: The 'head at the Pillow

As usual, we spent our Wednesday evening watching dancing - but this week we were not at home watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV but in Massachusetts at the ballet.

About a week ago I saw an advertisement for this dance event - the combination of contemporary dance and the music of Radiohead could have been designed just for us - I certainly doubt that there are many people in the area who have much more of a combined appreciation for these things. So, we booked up a babysitter, booked up some tickets and waited for today to come around.

The venue was 60 miles and about an hour's drive away (mostly on the NYS Thruway and the Mass Pike) and was quite unusual and spectacular both inside and out.



We were very happy to be there and both the dancing and the music were wonderful. 'Juliet' was a huge presence (even when just walking across the stage) but the six guys were also fantastic - especially when they all danced together.



And since we had such a nice time (and such a multimedia experience). I will share a little of it with you through the magic of YouTube. First my clothing dilemma and then two clips of the ballet.







Wonderful - as some of you may agree!