Day 7.086: A cake-off

This morning we completed our goodbye-filled weekend with a send-off at church. We've only been going there for about a year and a half, but we were so welcomed that it feels like much longer.

It seems all-too-recently that they had a cake after the service to celebrate our membership, today we had another one to mark our departure.

A piece of it made it to Maine with me

Actually, it was a bit more than that as you might be able to discern.

Day 7.085: Partly party

The first half of the day included some chores related to the move, but then our friends started arriving.

It's probably a good sign that this was the only photo I took from the moment the first person arrived until after everyone had gone:

In between, there were lots of great conversations, kids charging around inside and out, food, drink and general merriment.

I had a blast - but of course it's a reminder of all that we are leaving behind this week.

Day 7.078: Now who would like some cake?

We have a pretty crazy couple of weeks ahead. Tomorrow, I go back to Maine. After a week of work I come back here for a final chance to get the house ready for the packers who arrive on Tuesday - which happens to be E5N1's birthday. So, with all that in mind, Exile #2 smartly decided to schedule his birthday party for today (and not at the house).

He and his friends seemed to have a blast. Here is the blowing-out-the-candles moment, a view of the homemade cupcakes and E5N1 after the party sorting through the loot:

And this is how we were forewarned not to have E5N1's seventh birthday at the house (and perhaps some cake decoration inspiration):

Day 7.060: Pretty good

I had a pretty good run this morning, a pretty good day at work, a pretty good dinner, a pretty good time watching multiple episodes of Between Two Ferns but now I'm missing these guys:

and that's that.

Day 7.044: While we were reeling

When the call came in that we would not be buying the house we had just spent the last hour doing paperwork for, we were on our way out to dinner at what turned out to be a fairly posh Chinese bistro (although not too expensive).

E5N1 walked in (and out) wearing this:

You have to choose your battles sometimes. And it made us smile.

Day 7.041: They might be dinner

Look who turned up, making themselves comfortable in my Maine apartment today:

With someone finally wanting to buy our house in New York (fingers still firmly crossed that it all goes smoothly), they are here so we can look for a new one.

After a quick couple of viewings, it was dinner time - and where would we go, but a restaurant called Silly's?  We had a great meal - selected from the rather silly menu.  We didn't sample "Empire Strikes Mac" or "Eggy Pop", but we did have these:

at the bottom Exile #2's "Imperial Thai Fighter" and up top my, "Birdhouse in my Soul".

Day 7.021: Book of Yum Cooking

Exile #2 stumbled across this recently - one of E5N1's early-morning creative endeavours:

Book of Yum Cooking

Egg pie Recipe

4 eggs

A half cup of raisins

A whole cup of chocolate

A quarter cup of raspberries

And a pie pan

--

Mix up 2 eggs with chocolate

When you mushed up the chocolate, put it in the pan.

When it is done, put raspberries and eggs on the pie.

Also put the raisins on.

And then, nestled amongst the "Yum Cooking" comes a moment of E5N1 fantasy:

Exile #2 (in E5N1's thought bubble): You can do screen.
E5N1 (out loud): Can I Mom?

Day 7.001: Happy Birthday (NY)

What could be more appropriate than combining the anniversary of our first day as residents of the US with the anniversary of my birth (observed).

Yes it was birthday part 2 today. It included presents and cards, cleaning and tidying and leaving the house for a viewing, Doctor Who cupcakes, The Hobbit part 2 (without E5N1) and lots of hugs.

And so begins the eighth year of the Exile.

Day 6.349: Cardboard World

I hope you all had a great day whether you were celebrating Christmas or not. Our morning went something like this:

"Woah!"

"Ah!"

"Argh!"

"Cardboard World!"

After which we had a delicious lunch and the kids smiled like this:

There were also Skype/Face Time conversations, a game, lots of jokes from E5N1's joke book and two of us watched Doctor Who - the rest will catch up tomorrow!

Day 6.319: of The Doctor, The (3D)

On Saturday, after my visit to the beach, I was in need of a late lunch, so I drove to Brunswick (as you do) and fell on my feet when I wandered into The Little Dog Coffee Shop.  They were running low on lunch things but they had the makings of this fantastic salad - just what the doctor ordered.

Talking of The Doctor, I was back in Brunswick this evening with a whole lot of other people (at least three screens' worth) - some of whom were wearing fezzes and stripy scarves and bow ties.  Whovians one and all to see The Day of The Doctor.

My showing was in 3D and very excellent it was too - with a very nice making-of documentary to follow with an appearance by one more former Doctor!

Day 6.258: What's the matter - too corny for ya?

I spotted this while out for my long run on Sunday:

I wondered what these five stalks of corn had done wrong (or right) to be left behind by the harvester.

Which in turn reminded me of this:

Day 6.255: Envisionfest Hartford

On Saturday after lunch, we drove the two hours to Hartford, Connecticut where the Envisionfest festival was taking place. We arrived as the event was winding down but we were in time to have some unhealthy -but tasty and freshly-cooked - food-truck food and watch some strange passers-by while we ate it:

Then we walked through Bushnell Park where we saw a large bird and a friendly stone mermaid - and even witnessed an interaction between them (there's also a big arch there):

And we saw this excellent drum troupe:



It looks like the festival was a great event - even the small part we saw was thoroughly enjoyable.

Having walked the length of the park, we sat down between the high-rise of Hartford's downtown and the state capital:

and waited for the real reason we had made the trip...the last event of the festival (and I'll tell you about that tomorrow!)

Day 6.250: At the service area...

On my recent road-trip, I stopped at a service area on the highway to buy coffee. As well as the normal items you could buy these:

I wonder if there is more than one state where you could see such a thing? I suspect maybe not.

Day 6.249: All running and no play...

...makes this a dull blog. But I've got to play the hand I'm dealing myself...

For the last few weeks I've been running a little over 50 miles a week. This is how I do it:

(example data from the week before last)

Observations:

• I run five times a week. Sunday is a blessed lie-in without running or work to get up for!
• In the week I start my runs early - before dawn these days.
• I don't spend any time naming my 'activities'!
• That Saturday was a marathon pace run (14 of the 18.5 miles at goal marathon pace) - I don't run most of my long runs that fast.
• I get to consume more than 5000 extra calories without gaining weight!

The downsides are - not enough sleep, no time for reading and less energy for writing interesting blog posts.

The upsides are: I get to consume more than 5000 extra calories each week without gaining weight (did I mention that?), I'm getting a lot fitter and...oh yes...I hope to have a good marathon in a few weeks!

Day 6.246: That s'more - like it?

Well, it safe to say my Lego treasure hunt didn't exactly set the comments stream on fire, but nevertheless, here is the big reveal of my favourite of all the items...

The grill with a Lego s'more:

Less messy but nearly equally nutritious as the real thing!

(I also quite like the photograph!)

Day 6.239: A Lego treasure hunt

The kids (and maybe Exile #2) have been making some cool models out of Lego this week. I photographed a few of them (generally in fading evening light) and so did they.

Have a look at these:

Can you spot:

1. People waiting for food in a restaurant;
2. A delivery driver taking a nap;
3. A chef making Chinese food;
4. A pizza oven;
5. A grill including a s'more;
6. Some spare chef's knives?

What else catches your eye?

Day 6.229: Do you want chips with that?

Our lighthouse visit back on Day 6.220 was to the Nauset Light. It was moved back from the rapidly eroding sea shore in 1998 and members of the preservation society who arranged that move were available to give us (and several other people) a quick tour.

The outside is the familiar image of the lighthouse from Cape Cod Potato Chips packets.  In fact, they recently paid for its smart new paint-job!  Inside is the impressive spiral staircase, a small watch room and you can climb the stairs to see the rotating light above.

The bottom left picture shows the staircase taken through a small hole in the metal floor of the room.  The bottom right picture shows Exile #4 with her "blinky pin" souvenir.

Day 6.226: Old Stone Fort

Back to the present day...

I ran a little over 20 miles this morning before breakfast. After that, I went to pick Exile #4 up from her friend's house where she'd had a sleep-over and after that I collapsed for a little sleep.

It was, therefore, just before lunch by the time we'd decided to visit the village of Schoharie and so we made our way directly to the Bluestar Cafe for a very nice diner lunch - very friendly, basic food cooked well and some much needed coffee.

Refuelled, we headed a couple of minutes down the road to the Old Stone Fort Museum.

The old stone fort of the name is a church that was fortified during the Revolutionary War and attacked by British forces.  This British invasion was less dramatic - only involving a small exchange of currency (a little less than $20 for a family of five with a AAA discount).

The museum spans several buildings towards the end of a dead-end street in the village.  Here are a few of the things we saw:

From top: the old stone fort itself with a remarkable monument with a stone stars-and-stripes "draped" over it - amazing stone-craft!  The final building on our tour a pre-Revolutionary war barn - relocated to this site and filled with farming related historical artifacts. Inside the upper floor of the "fort": a museum within the museum featuring an eclectic collection including - this "Albany Ales & Steamed Clams - Oysters in Every Style" lantern, and some very scary looking dolls.  The bottom two pictures are from the other buildings - a room filled with historical TV and radio exhibits and Schoharie's first car - a chain driven vehicle from the early 20th century that was driven from New York City after being purchased for $750.

Most of the museum is a do not touch kind of place, but the exceptions were popular - as ever.  A table of toys and other historical items and a one-room schoolhouse with a dress-up clothes etc.   We all also loved the kid's treasure hunt sheet for the upper-floor collection - quite challenging for all ages!

It's always slightly strange as members of the losing team to visit Revolutionary War locations in the area - but this little museum is a gem - and extremely wide-ranging as you can see.  My guess is that we were there for about three hours - we all learned something (one of mine was that a riddle is a farm implement!) and we all had fun doing it.

Day 6.203: PvZ Live!

Thanks to my nephew who introduced it to his cousins during our visit to the UK, we've become a Plants vs Zombies household. Only Exile #2 has resisted completely. E5N1 is the most obsessed - regularly (when he has not got access to the iPad or iPhone version) enticing Exile #4 into playing a live-action version of the game in which plants defend a suburban home against an attack of potentially brain-devouring zombies. Today, E5N1 and Exile #2 apparently spent some time making PvZ models out of Lego.

At dinner time yesterday, E5N1 was showing off his zombie walk. After eating some cherries for dessert, it was even more effective:

At least we'll be ready when the zombie apocalypse comes - if we can prevent the local wildlife eating all our plants!

Day 6.176: Dinner and a bounce

We said goodbye to my sister and family this morning and travelled first to Birmingham to meet a friend of Exile #2 who is a year and a half on from moving from the Capital Region to the UK - fascinating to hear the reverse of our story playing out in many ways.

From there it was down to Oxfordshire where we are staying with Exile #2's parents. Her brother and his wife are here too and we all went to a local pub for dinner.

E5N1 was excited to find a bouncy-castle (as they call them over here!) and enthusiastically threw himself around whenever someone was willing to accompany him. Eventually, while we were hanging around after the group photo, the girls were inspired to join him.

Not something I'd be tempted to do after a big meal, but they didn't seem to suffer any ill-effects!