Day 6.049: There's a double meaning in that!

E5N1 brought this home today. No words of mine are required!

Day 3.169: Three happy campers

This morning I took all three kids up to the girls' (old) school for camp.  It seems they had a very good day and we are particularly pleased for E5N1 who has been in and out of the school since birth and is delighted to be able to attend (even if just for a week of camp).  He did really well by all accounts.  For the girls it's a bonus week with some of their friends - well stimulated and learning and having fun in a familiar environment - what's not to like?  The picture is from just after their happy return.

The reason for this off-loading of our parental responsibilities is that we are having an intensive few days of tidying the house ready to put it on the market.  The future is still uncertain for us, but we can wait no longer to get moving on the default plan which is to return to the UK in August.

Our first task was to tackle the basement - it needed a major tidy up and a clean so that it could be used as a temporary storage place to allow the de-cluttering of the rest of the house.

As well as reorganising and cleaning, we disposed of a few items at the local dump.  After putting the metal items in their allotted space, we were instructed to put the rest of the things 'on the conveyor belt'.

As we arrived, a large CRT TV was arriving at the top and then plummetted into the skip below with a gratifying crash.  None of our items were quite so dramatic, but that didn't stop me doing my best to capture some drama with my phone camera.

Anyway, the day was quite successful:

(The drawings predate us and the drums are E5N1 size)

We celebrated by watching Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet this evening after the kids were in bed.  I really loved it all over again - it's so full of energy and raw emotions.  The guy who wrote the play is one to watch out for I think.

Day 3.164: 'Tis said they eat each other...!

Hours dreadful and things strange...

First there was the England football team, contending 'gainst obedience, remembering how to play and, what's more, actually winning a match.

Then as I dropped the girls off and headed into work, leaving still ailing Exile #2 with 'only' E5N1 to supervise, a building, towering in her pride of place in Albany was being evacuated due to a 5.5 earthquake with its epicentre near Ottawa, 250 miles away in Canada.

Then it turned out that a bear turn'd wild in nature, broke its stalls and led the local animal control team on a chase through suburban yards (actually as far as I know it was actually wild and never in a stall!)

Finally, back in the homeland at Wimbledon, two men refused to lose a tennis match and having played 118 games in one set lasting the whole day today, I suspect that this sore night hath trifled former knowings.

Day 3.102: Idiom addict

After a busy day at work, I dashed up to the school for the annual all-school Shakespeare performance. This was our fourth one.

Both the girls did Shakespearean-idiom-related performances. Exile #4's whole class did a piece entitled 'A feast fit for a king' and Exile #3's line in her class's multiple-idiom extravaganza was 'I think he's a little tongue-tied'. The older kids had a go at The Tempest and did a rather good ten-minute version of Romeo and Juliet. I know it was ten minutes because they told us it would be in the prologue - Willm.'s version professes to be two hours.

All in all very satisfactory. Shame I found myself camera-less apart from my phone, but maybe that allowed me to appreciate it more.

Day 2.337: Muchas dough (de nada)

If I'm willing to murder my own language for a corny pun - why not someone else's?

This morning I managed to persuade E5N1 and Exile #4 into attempting some backyard sledding. E5N1 didn't stay out for long, but Exile #4 and I had a really good time. It probably looked something like this (although that was Exile #3 nearly a year ago).

Around lunchtime it started to snow - with promises of sleet (ice pellets) and freezing rain to follow. It was of course, time for me to get on the road - to take Exile #3 and Exile #4 to a Lucia party organised by our Swedish friend - whether the cookie cutting and decorating and pizza are the traditional way to celebrate is not clear - but it was fun. We went straight on from there to our church gathering, which started early with a meal - including many more cookies. By the time we were finished it felt like the girls had been decorating and eating cookies all day. E5N1 managed to put a few away too. The Christmas healthy-eating season is upon us.

Day 2.110: Shakespeare (sans teeth...)

The Annual Shakespeare performance at school came a little late this year.  Last year and the year before it was in January.  Once again, it was a great fun night.  Seven days of preparation, six different performances, everyone in the school involved, just one man to bring it all together.  Quite an achievement.

Exile #3's remaining front tooth came out at school today, it may mean she is growing up, but not quite ready for 'second childishness' as yet.

Day 2.103: Edwin Edwina Erika...

...or "TomKat vs Brangelina" or perhaps "The Curious Case of Mr/Ms Salt"

It seems that Tom Cruise is in town. Or maybe Angelina Jolie. Or maybe Brad or Katie? Actually I have no idea if any of them are here, but if any of them is - it would most likely be Ms Jolie. She is the star of a film currently in production called Salt, taking on a slightly-adapted role originally intended for Tom Cruise.

This gender-switching drama seems particularly appropriate for the anniversary of Shakespeare's death. One of my colleagues greeted me, with his heart on his sleeve, informing me that we should try to use as many of his phrases as we could today. I gave him short shrift and sent him packing informing him that that way madness lies.

This is where they will be filming. Apparently this atrocious interchange is a reasonable stunt-double for some rather busier roadways in Washington D.C. Who knew that bridges have stand-ins?

The yellow crane just visible in this shot is probably part of the film-crew's equipment. It would seem that if you want to make movies, you come to Albany...

Day 1.320: Tooth will out

"Daddy, do you want to see how much my wobbliest tooth moves now?"
"Not really no."
"Why not?"
"I don't really feel like it just now."
"Oh...OH!...My tooth came out - like that!"

And so another rite of passage (I already made that joke) comes for Exile #3 and, as Exile #2 pointed out, for us as well.

There was a first for Exile #4 today as well, when she suddenly discovered she could skip (not the with-a-rope-kind, the step-hop-step-hop-kind) - "You're skipping!" Exile #2 proclaimed. "I am?!" She did a very competent demonstration for me when I got home.

I wonder if the tooth-fairy is still in business in such trying financial times. I suppose we'll find out tomorrow. If so, that will be something else to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Day 1.224: Once more unto the beach

We decided to go over to Grafton Lakes State Park - where we have visited several times in cold and warm weather. Today was only the second time we had been between Memorial Day and Labor Day when the beach is 'open'. Once again we found ourselves and others bemused by the rules - more than one parent was pondering why it was OK for their small child to play in the water as long as they were not wearing any sort of flotation device - but not if they were (unless it was a US coastguard approved one). Also, there was a sign saying 'no balls on the beach' even though there were volleyball nets set up. My sister suggested that maybe they were for badminton - which needs no ball!

After some initial sand-play, we had lunch at a shady table, conquered the 2.5 mile circular walk around the lake (it has previously beaten us), hired a couple of rowing boats for an hour and then returned to the by-then 'closed' beach where the kids got on with their own things:

Exile #3 and her cousin got lost once again in a world of their own invention:

Exile #4 built some late-in-the-day sandcastles:

And E5N1 made one more attempt to make sense of all those rules:

Day 1.120: All's well that ends well

We've had a mixed day - nice breakfast time, bad mid-morning (multiple breakdowns for the girls as they tried to play together), nice late morning/lunch at the birthday party of one of Exile #4's classmates, OK afternoon, grumpy tea-time.

Fortunately we managed one more day-redeeming activity with a trip to the Albany Tulip Festival. We arrived just as most people were starting to leave - how many of them had been watching the headlining Spin Doctors set I don't know. This timing had the welcome side-effect that we were able to park within a couple of miles of the action unlike last year. We had quite a nice time for no particular reason and felt tired but reasonably positive about the day when we put the kids to bed.

Day 1.090: It is the East

Sometimes the picture says all that needs to be said.

Day 1.026: Much ado about...

...not very much. This is the aftermath of a road accident. The white car ran into the back of the red SUV and smashed itself up quite badly. The SUV was apparently unscathed.

Let me take you through what happened next (approximate timings in minutes/seconds):

00:30 - driver gets out of white car and goes to talk to other driver.
01:00 - both drivers seen standing between the two cars (in lane 2 of a four lane approach to the junction)
03:00 - one driver seen with a cell phone
07:00 - one of my colleagues calls the police to be told they're on their way
10:00 - police car arrives to find both drivers and both vehicles still in the middle of the road
10:10 - fire truck arrives
10:20 - second police car arrives
11:00 - police put a flare burning in the lane behind the accident (cool!)
12:00 - driver of white car put in a neck-brace (still standing in road)
13:00 - driver of white car lies down on a back-board in the middle of the road and is covered with a blanket.
13:10 - second fire truck arrives

At this stage - if I had arrived and seen a person lying in the road covered in a blanket with multiple emergency services attending - I would have guessed this was a fatal crash - not a shunt.

13:30 - second fire truck leaves
20:00 - ambulance arrives
25:00 - ambulance leaves with driver of white car
30:00 - tow-truck arrives to tow the white car and (inexplicably) the SUV too.
35:00 - fire truck and one police car leaves
40:00 - tow truck driver finishes by sweeping the road and leaves as does other police car.

All that fuss and disruption over a shunt in which everyone got out of their cars to have a calm conversation afterwards??

This is a strange place at times.

Day 1.014: Motley crew

One of the advantages of not having just called today "Day 379" is that it is immediately obvious that it is the anniversary of my one and only totally missed day since this blog was started (Day 14). The other anniversary (adjusted for day-of-the-week) is of the annual Shakespeare performance at the school. Last year Exile #3 had only done about 5 days of school thanks to a string of illnesses and this year she nearly missed it too. Twice. Yesterday, she was sent home at lunchtime with a fever. That's that, we thought she can't go to school tomorrow. In the end Exile #2 took her in at lunchtime when she went to collect Exile #4. About half an hour before I was due to leave work to go up to school this evening, I got a phone call to say that Exile #3 might be sick again and this time we were almost certain that she would miss out.

In the end, for better or worse, she was granted a reprieve and allowed to perform. She did really well, holding her own with her first-grade class mates in a dramatised reading of Nothing by Jon Agee.

Exile #4 was also on good form as the 3 and 4 year olds - motley hats and all - performed some vaguely Elizabethan dancing and my favourite song from Exile #3's performance last year (complete with actions):

I'll build a teapot big enough for two,
Big enough for two, my darling,
Big enough for two.
I'll build a teapot big enough for two,
Under the greenwood, under the greenwood tree.

I'll be T.H.I.N.E. thine if you'll be M.I.N.E. mine
And I will L.O.V.E. love you all the T.I.M.E. time.
When we are married happy we will be
Under the greenwood, under the greenwood tree,
With tea.

The rest of the school all did some Shakespeare-related items. The 2/3s featured him in The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard, the 4/5s did a Shakespeare-themed "Are You Smarter than a 4/5th Grader?" and we had (edited for length) Macbeth from the 8th Grade and an (edited for length and political-incorrectness) Taming of the Shrew from the 6/7s. Top stuff.

Exile #2 said she thought it was better than last year - then she elaborated - "I didn't understand a word of it last time." From a graduated student of English Literature that's sad really. Of course, she said it was because last year she wasn't tuned into the local accents yet. Forsooth.

Day 347: Motion, poetry and songs

Here is E5N1 trying to will the block closer to him earlier. I think he realises that the real trick is to move himself closer to it, but his efforts mostly result in rotation on the spot or the occasional shuffle backwards rather than the forward movement he desires. He was very patient with it for some time today - even though I was taking photographs rather than helping.

Later, after a minor argument with Exile #3 about something I bumped into Exile #4 as she retreated upstairs to the comfort of her towel to calm down. After she told me the error of her sister's ways, she was lying on the floor 'snuggling'. I picked up a copy of a book of the nation's favourite poems and started reading some to her (from Shakespeare sonnets to Betjeman and plenty in between). She seemed to quite enjoy it, sometimes asking me to repeat one, sometimes requesting a different one. After a while she requested a Winnie-the-Pooh story which was fine too. Apparently she mentioned this little Daddy-time to Exile #2 during bedtime - I suspect that it takes being away from home and a break from the normal routine to make these things happen sometimes.

The reason I missed her bedtime was that I was at a Carol Service with Exile #3 and her grandparents. Exile #3 had been very keen to go after our family trip to the morning service there this morning (in which the girls had stood-in as last-minute Magi in the Nativity). She did very well despite being falling-down tired by the end.

From time to time I look to see what web-searches have resulted in visits to this site. Some are as expected, but there are surprises - recently I suspect this site had disappointed searchers for "words with multiple a's" and "hel'la translation". So I apologise to you if you came here searching for the words of the Poet Laureate and have had to make do with mine.

Day 15: All the world's a stage

And so it begins...the keen followers of the exile will have noticed that yesterday was the first post-free day since Day 0 (moving day). OK, the really keen will have noticed that the Day 1 and Day 2 posts were actually posted on Day 3...but no-one is that obsessive I hope. It turns out that yesterday was a big day for myself, involving doing 3-5 minute interviews with about 50 prospective new employees at a job fair, one colleague pointed out that this relentless exercise bore more than a passing resemblance to speed-dating.

Tonight was Exile #3's moment in the spotlight as her new school put on an all-school Shakespeare evening. In fact, only the 12-14 year-olds actually attempted the Bard, the 3 and 4 year-olds did some Elizabethan themed songs and dances and this is the moment when the player returned (triumphant) from strutting and fretting to enjoy the rest of the show from the cheap seats.