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 7.054: Ashes ashes, I nearly fell down

If yesterday's sunrise was the Mardi Gras, maybe today's was the Ash Wednesday of sunrises.  I was out at 5am to fit in a two hour run before work.  What I wasn't expecting was some fairly convincing snowfall.  There was a coating on the roads when I left, by an hour and a quarter later with the sun just coming up there was a good layer on the sandy beach (and the off-shore rocks):

and, by the time I was finishing there was a good layer (maybe a little less than an inch) - more than enough to hide a frozen puddle that nearly caused my comeuppance as I stepped off the sidewalk to cross the road.

Incidentally, in the UK it goes "A-tishoo, a-tishoo, we all fall down", in the US, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down" which is much more ominous sounding.  However, the US first line "Ring-a-round the rosie" is much more jolly-sounding than the admittedly rather strange "Ring-a-ring o' roses".  At least we can all agree on the middle line!

Day 6.325: A tradition in four parts

When I suggested that, if pushed for time, we might just buy a Christmas tree rather than cutting our own today, I was met with widespread dismay. I hadn't realised that it had become such a tradition but looking back I see that we have done it the last three years in a row - with the added bonus of a pop reference that - including this reveal - has spanned four posts separated by nearly three years:

Day 3.328: The first cut (won't hurt at all)
Day 4.328: The second only makes you wonder
Day 5.327: The third will have you on your knees

Fortunately today there was no bleeding and a minimum of screaming. If you don't remember Propaganda's 1985 hit Duel - here's a clip.

Here's the tree after we had hauled it back from the field.

It's now "up" in the house although resisting the vertical apparently since my departure back to Maine. We didn't get to decorating it - maybe Exile #2 will send me a picture when it's done!

Day 6.320: I like these signs (and I cannot lie)

These are from the beach on Saturday.

First, if you go swimming in the woods - you do so at your own risk.

(there was no water in that direction as far as I know).

And then there's this:

And so, after nearly two years absence, we welcome back the feature that says: that was pop pun 122 for title watchers - you other brothers can't deny.

Day 6.300: He's my only friend...

...he's not my only friend,
but he's a little glowing friend,
but really he's not actually my friend
but he is...

blue canary in the outlet by the light switch (who watches over me!)

Day 6.294: Jumping someone else's train

We drove around the corner so the kids could trick or treat with sisters who are Exile #4 and E5N1's friends and their little sister and one of their neighboring families around their neighborhood. You can see their costumes properly here.

We had a great time despite the light rain (at least it was mild tonight) and there were certainly no complaints about the candy-haul - which was overflowing our biggest serving bowl when we got home.

P.S. If you pick up on it quick, you can say you were there:


The Cure - Jumping Someone Else's Train (Original Video) from martindebaser on Vimeo.

Day 6.286: She's a-getting ready to be-a for sale

This ole house:

Day 5.336: Christmas trees (and unicorns)

The main reason we drove to Pittsfield at the weekend was to see the Festival of Trees at the Berkshire Museum.  As we drove over there we were listening to some of our seasonal music.  Our "Christmas" playlist is comprised of Sufjan Steven's five volumes of Songs for Christmas along with his new 58 track Silver and Gold compilation, Sonos - December Songs, Tori Amos - Midwinter Graces, Putumayo's Family Christmas and Over The Rhine - Snow Angel.  Not exactly what they are playing on the 24 hour holiday music radio stations!

This track accompanied our traversal of the New York/Massachusetts border:



(it's 12 minutes, but once you get the idea you can read on).

Maybe if I'd read the theme of the Festival of Trees I'd have been a bit less surprised by the number of Christmas Unicorns we encountered in the museum:

I think there were probably more than these three!

Here are some of the trees in all their glory (including my favorite overall - the Alice in Wonderland one).

Although honorable mention goes to the hanging bat tree:

Here are some details from a few of them.  I loved the decorations on the Ben and Jerry tree and always happy to spot a chicken in a basket!

I was however a little disappointed that neither of the dentists who sponsored trees were corny enough to make the dentist-tree pun!

Day 5.327: The third will have you on your knees

It's now the third consecutive year that we've gone to Majestic Tree Farm in Selkirk to cut our own Christmas tree.  It's also the third and last post title in what could be the longest running pop-pun feature ever - although it's more pop than pun.  Maybe I should get back to those?

Anyway, it was a great place to go once again.  This time I let the kids loose with the camera resulting in these (car shots by E5N1, others by Exile #4):

My best side is in one of them.  Here is one of my own photos:

Sadly the gust of wind made the tag hard to read.  It's labelled, "Man Wreath". Obviously.

Day 5.282: When you say it's going to happen now...

Thanks to some generous babysitting we went to see Morrissey tonight at the Palace Theatre in Albany. It was great!

He did songs ranging from Still Ill (from the first album by The Smiths released in 1984) to two songs (Action Is My Middle Name and People Are The Same Everywhere) which were first performed in 2011 (since his last album was released).  He moved effortlessly from era to era - with neither the older nor the newer material seeming out of place.

He also moved effortlessly through a series of shirts (one was ripped off dramatically on stage as he issued the punchline to Let Me Kiss You and then thrown into the crowd).  There were at least four shirts in total in the 19 song set.   Here he is in one of them:

Highlights for me were the aforementioned Let Me Kiss You along with You Have Killed Me and Ouija Board. Exile #2 was delighted to hear Spring-Heeled Jim and Every Day Is Like Sunday.  He also did a wonderful version of I Know It's Over, well, let's face it I could single out almost every song (full setlist here). We could also name at least as many songs that we would have loved to hear but didn't make it into the set tonight.  The only time the band seemed to have a tiny misstep was in One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell in which they seemed to get a bit out of time at one point but even that song was wonderful.  His voice, stage presence and delivery are all as strong as ever.

He didn't say too much - at one point he seemed to be both complaining about and admiring the building.  Let's face it he seems conflicted about most things - with the exception of his vegetarianism.  He made a reference to Obama eating lambs and lambs being babies therefore...Obama Eats Babies! and did an unrelenting version of Meat Is Murder with a film of hideous lifestock farming practices going on above his head.

The set started with Shoplifters Of The World - which has the wonderfully (in)appropriate line for a first song: I was bored before I even began and he finished the set with Speedway, the closing track from Vauxhall And I in which he admits - All of the rumours keeping me grounded - I never said they were completely unfounded.

And then, wonderfully, as an encore...



...in which he sings I am human and I need to be loved - just like everybody else does and then he accepted hugs from those down the front whether they reached out to him or invaded the stage while the band played on.

Day 5.276: Fire safety (and planking)

Exile #4 and E5N1 tried the planking challenge at the marathon expo last weekend.

This week has been Fire Safety Week for E5N1 at school. The best moment was on Wednesday when he came home determined to sing his song for everyone.

You'll have to imagine just how cute it was - delivered to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Listen now this is no joke
Before a fire there's always smoke.
If you smell it, go outside.
Never find a place to hide!
Stay down low and crawl away
Fire trucks are on the way.

I dropped one of our guests off at the station to spend part of the day in NYC before flying back to the UK tonight. Exile #3's godmother is here until Sunday afternoon, so we will have a bit more time to show her the delights of Upstate New York in fall tomorrow.

Day 5.252: The whale and the aeroplanes

When I was a student in Oxford I became aware of a band from Bristol called The Blue Aeroplanes. Some of my friends saw them play live at a music venue I was later to play with my band a couple of times, but it was before I started going to such gigs with them. Later we would frequent another venue to see an unknown local band called Radiohead, but that is another story.

The Blue Aeroplanes, at the time were a large collective - sometimes as many as four guitarists, a keyboard player, drummer and a dancer (credited even on the recordings) collected around a beat-poet called Gerard Langley. When asked why he formed a band rather than recite his poetry he is reported to have said, "Have you ever been to a poetry recital?"

Anyway, it was around the time that I narrowly missed seeing them in Oxford that, at the height of their popularity, they released an album, "Swagger" and on it, one of my favourite tracks was "The Applicant":



It was some time later that I discovered, that these words were not Gerard's own work, but a poem by Sylvia Plath (here she is reciting it herself if you're interested). A few years on, while sharing this music, I found out more about Ms Plath thanks to an English Literature student I was dating (that's Exile #2 to you).  I heard about her marriage to Ted Hughes, suicide and the fall-out where many blamed him for her death.

I had heard of him, but I had no idea that I had any real experience of Ted Hughes' work.

A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, I remembered some stories I had liked as a child - I thought of them at the dinner table and wondered if it might be something our kids would like.  Much to my surprise, it turns out that this book "How the Whale Became and Other Stories" is by no other than Ted Hughes.

Exile #2 found it at the library in this, relatively recently illustrated edition and tonight, while Exile #2 is out, I read the first few stories to the three who listened with rapt attention, always asking for another...

Day 5.147: Weekend part 2 - Beach!

I know the weekend is starting to feel far away (in time), but here is part two of the recap (here is part 1)!

Our first choice on waking to another rainy morning was to go to the Shelburne Museum.  However, it's not open on Sunday mornings, so instead we went to a nearby park.

We didn't regret it for a moment, and before long the sun came out and we saw:

standing stones surrounding a sundial (the kind where you are the gnomon), a tree-house and...the lake.

Eventually we made our way to the beach, where I took these pictures - none of which contains Champ (the Lake Champlain monster):

The beach was a hit with the kids (and the rest of us were quite content to watch them enjoying themselves (and writing about it):

And then we had lunch and drove home.  A perfect end to a very nice weekend away.

Now...about that mystery Capital Region object - any takers?

Day 5.103: Party (at the airport)

They revamped the airport completely
Now it looks just like a nightclub
Everyone's excited and confused.

They Might Be Giants - Man, it's so loud in here

Today I found myself at the second (un-revamped) airport in two days - with no tickets or plans to fly.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family were at what seems to have been a fairly spectacular party for two of Exile #3's friends.  She was very excited to show off her airbrushed 'tattoo' (photographed at church by Tammy) and her cartoon portrait (photographed badly by me at home):

Day 5.084: Rip it up and start again

I think we've reached the end of the destruction part of the kitchen project.  The electrical work is partially complete and there are no major holes in the wall, no wallpaper, no furniture.

So, to start the rebuilding project, the flooring guy is due to be here tomorrow.  We have to get the walls looking presentable, then it will be cabinet time!

Day 5.047: Firefly's lit up our world

I move in pretty geeky circles both in real life and online so it is something of a surprise that it was only a few weeks ago that Exile #2 and I watched our first episode of Firefly.

This TV series was broadcast in 2002 and was cancelled after 14 episodes.  Honestly, having watched the first six episodes, I can see both why it has such a faithful following and why it was cancelled.

It's a strange wild-west-meets-space concept, but like all good sci-fi and fantasy it's not actually about that - it's about relationships and human nature and good stories.

Episode 6, which we watched tonight, was one of the finest pieces of TV I've ever seen - funny, sexy, dramatic and suspenseful.  We'll be watching the rest of the series over the next few weeks thanks to Roku and Amazon Prime.  When we're done, we'll probably watch the 2005 movie follow-up Serenity again - we watched in 2006 when it came out on DVD but we'll probably appreciate more now.

Of course, our perceptions as life-long watchers of British TV of what 'a few episodes mean' may be different from our American friends.  Fawlty Towers for example - which ran for two full series - has fewer episodes than the prematurely-cancelled Firefly.  But that won't stop us joining the crowds of fans wondering why this sci-fi gem (or should I say Jewel?) burned so briefly.

Day 4.328: The second only makes you wonder

For the second year, we went to Majestic Tree Farm to cut our Christmas tree today. Once again, the tree-shaker was a big hit!



We also managed to get a wreath on the door and the lights up so I guess we are now doing our bit to share some midwinter cheer.

Day 4.322: Yell: "Oak, why try tree?"

Come on oak, give it up now - a tree like you is never going to win plant (product) of the year. On the other hand - saffron - I'm just mad about saffron.

Talking of things of a certain hue, we finished our second painting job of the year. It went quite a lot easier than the first one thanks to the absence of drywall-destroying wallpaper.

Exile #3 chose the colour and now her room looks like this.

It's still a little smelly but the window is open and the wind velocity is not nil, so I imagine it will air by tomorrow night.  All of which is really just a prelude to announcing that today sees pop pun 121 for title watchers - bound to be the very next phase.

Day 4.320: It's time to meet the Muppets...

This morning, Exile #2 and I put a coat of yellow paint on Exile #3's bedroom walls while the kids entertained themselves and each other. It's nice when it works out that way.

This afternoon, we all went to the mall.  Not shopping obviously - we went to see The Muppets.  It's really a unique piece of work - old fashioned without being dated, sentimental without being cloying, kid-friendly without being adult-destroying, self-aware without being post-modern. OK I'm done now.

Admittedly, we're probably about as close to the target demographic as you can get but I would say that if you think you might enjoy it you probably will - whether you have kids to use as an excuse or not.

It looks like UK readers will have to wait until February - so consider this your "Didn't someone say they liked it?" for when the time comes!

Day 4.221: Such a little thing...

I've written about Spill'n The Beans before.  I've been back a few times in the last year with my colleagues and have never been disappointed.  We're more likely to go when our Friday lunch numbers are small and it so happens that that has been the case for the last two Fridays in a row.

So it was that I found myself there today waiting for a coffee after ordering my sandwich (a MMMB with goat cheese of course - great as ever).  Incidentally, my colleagues ordered a quiche and a camembert sandwich and both were extremely happy with them.

"You can sit down if you like, I'll bring your coffee over when it's ready." said the girl barely visible behind the espresso machine.  Except she didn't - she also called me by name.  I hadn't used my name today - but she'd remembered from last week when I had been first from our group in line with my order.  I find it hard to get my children's names right so it is beyond me how anyone can have that kind of memory for names and faces - but when it comes to customer service - especially in this kind of place - that's the sort of thing that turns a customer into a regular.  As Morrissey once sang, "Such a little thing...but the difference it made was great."