Day 1.277: At your connivance...

This morning I did my first raking of the season - it seemed that the trees had decided - literally overnight - that there was no reason to hold on to their leaves any more.

Yesterday I had a request by email at work: "Please complete this form and send it back at your earliest connivance." I managed to resist (just) the temptation to comment on this odd turn of phrase in my reply, but not here.

Odd phrases are everywhere at the moment, not least in the 'Celebrate every day' column in our local monthly newsletter. It tells me that today was 'National Dessert Day', but we've also missed:

October 2: Name Your Car Day,
October 7: National Frappe Day,
October 9: Moldy Cheese Day,
October 11: It's My Party Day,

and, my favourite:

October 12 (if only we'd known): Moment of Frustration Scream Day.

That's only the highlights of course - there really is one for every day of the month. Which also means there are still many joys ahead:

October 18: No Beard Day,
October 20: National Brandied Fruit Day,

and if you overdo the brandy you can get straight on with:

October 21: Babbling Day.

Later in the month is the not-to-be-missed Sylvia Plath Day. "First, are you our sort of person..?"

But, if you're of a more adventurous persuasion, may I suggest you join with us in celebrating:

October 25: Punk For A Day Day?

"...do you wear a glass eye, false teeth or a safety pin through your nose?"

Day 1.276: Home alone

So our guests have gone. Hopefully well on their way across the Atlantic by now. We have had a great couple of weekends with them. More time than we have spent with them in several years - but gone by all too quickly. I suspect the kids will be missing them by tomorrow (if they're not already) - they had lots of fun - much of it involving running.

With no more visits in the diary, we are preparing to face our first full winter here on our own (having arrived part way through one and visited the UK during the next). Not that we are friendless here by any means - we have good friends both fellow ex-pats and voters locals.

We will have plenty to do over the next few months - raking, shovelling and staying warm for three, but first thing is to get the girls up and off to school in the morning, so I best be getting to bed.

Day 1.275: Pie over two

Ever since the arrival of C & B over a week ago, there has been talk of Pumpkin Pie. This has been a favourite of C's for many years (and I've known him for more than 25!). Finally this afternoon after a lie-in, a lazy morning by the fire and out in the warm sun and a shopping trip to buy the ingredients, C made his pie with help from Exile #4 (and a little from Exile #3).

We left it baking while we went to the church gathering and on our return everyone had a taste. Exile #4 wasn't too keen (although she enjoyed the crust and the whipped cream) and E5N1 seemed much more interested in his milk, but everyone else declared it to be good and Exile #3, C and myself even managed a little second helping. We didn't quite finish it though as you can see.

After the kids went to bed, we had returned to our alter-egos Phyloxera in the wonderful world of Rock Band 2 and for one last night (for now at least) we were the kids in America (oh-woah-oh).

Apologies for being a bit angular tonight (at least I wasn't too obtuse).

Day 1.274: More o' leaves

This afternoon we visited Moreau Lake State Park - it's one of those places that has previously been only a sign at a highway exit for us. It is a beautiful place and we had a warm sunny day to enjoy it. The kids were all on good form - something of a relief after a fragile morning (we suspect that Exile #3 as well as the rockers had failed to get enough sleep).

We had a very satisfactory leaf fight, a short hike and some time on the playground and the beach by the lake. Oh, and did I mention the foliage?


We had a nice dinner on the way home, now a pleasantly outdoors-y tiredness has caught up with us all.

Day 1.273: Fall at the lake

It was work today followed by a very good Rock Band night that was still going strong after 1am - oops. If only the kids wouldn't wake up at normal time on weekend mornings! C&B have made it back safely from their trip to the biggest city in the state (so good they named it twice) - hopefully we'll find something good to do for their last couple of days with us.

Here are some pictures from our time at the lake yesterday: