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 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 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 4.300: Know it sounds frunny...

After a rough first week of running after my first 10K race, I had a good run again and decided it would be good to run one more race this year - so I signed up for the inaugural Fall Frun 10K.  So this morning, bright and early (slightly more and less so respectively because of the end of daylight saving time), I made my way to Shenendehowa High School where the gym and the running track were being used for the event.

The actual race was mostly on the public roads of Clifton Park but the end of the race was three-quarters of a lap of the track which was a fun way to end things - I hadn't run on a track for many years.

The race was very well organised and had some fun technology including instant online results during the race and live video streaming.  I don't think it kept Exile #2 and the kids in rapt attention however!  I hung around at the end hoping I'd won the guitar in the draw, but sadly, despite my chances being increased by the dwindling crowds and the must-be-there-to-win rule, I'll have to settle with coming away with a personal best - having knocked a rather pleasing thirty seconds per mile off my time from two weeks ago.

So, after a 195 day furlough for the feature, it's (a fairly simple) pop pun 120 for title watchers like Frun-day morning.

Day 4.152: ...and the ragged tiger

Well, as I mentioned yesterday (in 17 syllables or so), today it was Exile #4's birthday. We had a nice day, opening presents, lunch at P.F. Chang's (something the kids have been keen to do since our back-to-back visits out west). Then we lost the birthday girl for a while to a play-date wearing some of her new clothes.  While she was gone Exile #3 built the Harry Potter Lego game and we played it when she returned. It's a surprising and excellent game - and fun (if challenging) to build into the bargain.

Incidentally, I took the die for the first turn - since it called for the oldest player to start - I was correctly tensed and knew that you needed more than one for it to be 'dice'.  Having said that, don't get excited if, in some kind of reflex reaction you think you've spotted a pop pun, this post doesn't obey the rules at all!

In any case, we should be focusing on the girl of the moment, so here is a picture for the beginning of each of her first seven years:

Day 4.103: Cans scan (hist'ry)

We've been back for two days now. Today started out rather rainy and we decided to spend a couple of hours at the State Museum. In particular, we went to see the Canstruction event on he 4th floor.  We took five cans to vote with - Exile #2 and I allowed the other generations to participate on our behalf  - It was just as well perhaps as my favourite was probably the iPod which was not part of the competition.

After a look at each one in turn, five cans were deposited as follows:
One for the airplane
Two for Angry Birds
One for Nemo and
One for green power.

It's a small fun exhibition in a good cause and definitely worth a short visit.

It's a rather obscure reference today for pop pun 119 for title watchers  - nothing new can tell you how old you are, or what's canned.

Day 4.077: An infectious sense of hopefulness...

Just before I left for my Far Eastern adventure, we rebuilt the snow fort and once again it looked quite grand:

By the time I got back - it was barely visible:

And by Friday, it was about to disappear (along with most of the snow in the yard):

But that wasn't enough for Exile #3 who decided that she would literally take matters into her own hands to hasten the arrival of spring. She spent quite some time laboriously tearing chunks of snow and ice from the banks to spread it out and therefore ensure it melts more quickly.

Of course, temperatures have barely been above freezing since then which doesn't help.

In any case, here's the real remedy for all late-winter ailments - it's pop pun 118 ...and prayers for spring.

Day 4.025: Queen of the Mountain

Could you climb higher and higher? Could you climb right over the top? Exile #4 did.

Yes, she is 'standing' in that top picture with her leg straight down into the snow!

It has been a gradual realisation that the kids have been walking along the tops of the snow banks for weeks and flattening them down and widening them (on the away-from-the-drive side) - goodness knows what they would have been like if it wasn't for that! Something to be thankful for.

And here's something else for the faithful few to be thankful for - pop pun 117 for title watchers: A happy man in the snow with Rosebud.

Day 3.295: Killing (joke!)

Before a crazy night came a pleasant evening, before the pleasant evening came a happy afternoon, before the happy afternoon came a crafty lunchtime and before that it was Saturday morning and we walked the Vlomankill (or possibly Vloman Kill or even, on one sign, Vlomanskill) trail at Five Rivers.

I love the woods at this time of year - the mostly bare trees give views that are absent in the spring and summer, there's always plenty to see and the walking is easier than in the winter.  Talking of which, as you can tell from the kids' clothing it's starting to be winter-coat weather and we may well have snow this week.

No question today but it is a bonus pop pun for title watchers - not just walking at the Kill, but also some 80's pop.

Day 3.280: Some falls are bigger than others

After we all made it safely back from the 'Trail of Certain Death' yesterday, today E5N1 fell down the stairs. All the way down them - landing in an uncomfortable heap at the bottom. He's fine. Completely fine.

I'm reading a great book of short stories by Maile Meloy called 'Half in Love' at the moment. Last night I read one that features a father who suddenly has a brush with death and rushes to the place his children have gone to with a premonition of something terrible. It's funny how our brains work.

A little while after the stairs incident today, Exile #2 pointed this out - sometimes I'm sure E5N1 can secretly read and write! And while we're at it, you can have this as pop pun 116 for title watchers as Anthony said to Cleopatra as he opened a crate of ale.

Day 3.229: Green Mountain Getaway (Getaway)

I spent the afternoon playing touch football (US variety), soccer and volleyball at the company picnic. As ever it was a lot of fun and I even managed to learn how to throw a football with intermittent success. Afterwards, I went to meet the rest of the family at Exile #4's piano lesson and we set off for a little road-trip.

It took us northeast over the border into Vermont then north, skirting the Green Mountains towards Manchester. In the end hunger overtook us before we reached there and we dived off the main road into Arlington, where this place caught our eye - I'm so glad it did because we had a really lovely meal there.  All five of us thoroughly enjoyed the food we chose and the ambiance was friendly and local without being unwelcoming to us foreigners (from New York you understand!)

Afterwards we turned east again to traverse the mountains on State Route 11 which despite taking a pass through the range, feels like a mountain climb and descent.  On the other side, we turned north again along the Vermont side of the New Hampshire border to tonight's destination in the wonderfully named White River Junction.

And to celebrate our arrival here (in New England - not the deep south!), it's pop pun 115 for title watchers: only way to please me...

Day 3.191: They were born within an hour of each other

Probably.

After the triumph of our encounter with the Disco Caterpillar, Exile #4 was the one (as usual) to spot these similar caterpillars swarming on a tree trunk in vast numbers (maybe not as many as 2000 but well over a hundred I would say).

It was quite a sight and worthy of bringing about pop pun 114 for title watchers - can you imagine what they're saying - "Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown?"!

Day 3.183: Green frog in the reeds

After yesterday's multimedia triumph, here's another sight and sound from our walk yesterday.

And if you click through to YouTube you can see that it is also pop pun 113 for title watchers - show me your motion!


P.S. Pop pun 112 was solved - and I was quite pleased with it!

Day 3.155: Take a look at my girl, friends!

She's not the only one I've got, but this evening was all about Exile #3 who's season of gymnastics classes came to an end with a little performance to which family members and their cameras were invited. The light in the place was terrible so it took my fastest lens, my widest aperture and my highest ISO setting to get some half-decent pictures. I'm sure I can improve on them with some post-processing, but this will do for today.

As you can see, the whole family was in attendance - although true-to-form, E5N1 decided that he could do better than hang out with the rest of us.

Exile #3 did a great job on floor, beam, bars and trampoline and made us very proud.  Proud enough for me to resurrect the long-neglected pop pun feature - if you're new to it there was a brief explanation back on Day (0.)112.

So, it's pop pun 112 for title watchers - and I know it's going to sound old.

Day 3.087: What's her name? Virginia Beach!

For the first half of the day we were back on the road - making rather better time than yesterday. We were driving east to the coast - to the expressively named Virginia Beach. On the way we saw a lot of this pink/purple blossom that we had also seen on the Skyline Drive - could be flowering dogwood perhaps? In any case, it's very pretty at the moment.

Just after lunch we arrived and checked into our room in the hotel. Not too bad as views go.

We wasted very little time in getting down to the sand and had a great afternoon full of all the normal beach activities - including, for me, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in April.  It was cold, but not quite cold enough to put me off.  In the end I was driven out of the waves by my cold hands - quite a strange feeling!

None of you have solved yesterday's pop pun - but hot on its heels here's another - not too difficult if you know the original.  Pop pun 111 for title watchers - make me a deal and make it straight.

Day 3.086: Mountain - more! more!

Today, we set off from the Shenandoah valley into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yes we are still in Virginia. Yes there is a song in there - or maybe more than one.

We were driving the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park.  Today was a very warm day.  The temperature was expected to hit 90 °F at valley-level.  It probably did because when we descended after a day hovering around 80 °F at 3000 feet, it was still 87 °F at 6 pm.

It took us eight hours to drive the northern two-thirds of the drive - about 60 miles.  Admittedly, we weren't trying to make good time.  Apart from the overlooks, we stopped for two short hikes.  The first was easy and not terribly interesting - but did feature a very welcome cooling stream at the mid-point.



The second was steep and taxing and took us 440 feet down (in height) a stream to this waterfall.



The taxing part was coming back up of course.

But the real starring role of the day went to the views from both sides of the ridge - sometimes withing a few hundred yards of each other.



Exile #2 dared me not to make this a pop pun day, but I have failed. So, it's pop pun 110 for title watchers - Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River...

Day 3.050: Swan, Lark, Hamilton

I had a rough day at work today. As usual, I won't really be talking about it here.

Instead, here are some pictures from our lunchtime jaunt on Saturday - we left the museum and walked up the hill to Lark Street and had a very nice late lunch at Bombers. None of us had an eponymous burrito, instead, we had hot dogs and fries (Exile #4 and E5N1), plain cheese 'quesadillas' (Exile #3), crunchy tacos (Exile #2) and a Jamaican jerk pork plate (me). All was rather good, although Exile #3 is very particular about her cheese and so ended up shunning her Mexican-themed grilled cheese in favour of E5N1's deserted hot-dog roll. The kids ate their food transfixed by the film Labyrinth which was playing on the TV screen on the far wall. I was only slightly distracted by the wall-art.

Afterwards, we took the side-streets back to the museum, passing some fantastically painted Victorian houses and an unusual view of the Empire State Plaza. It was a great voyage of urban discovery and all added to our rather excellent trip.

Our route was actually Lark, Hudson, Dove, Hamilton, S Swan - but I couldn't resist offering you pop pun 109 for title watchers - hurrah, we're all free now.

Day 2.363: I'm older than I've ever been

In celebration of my birthday, here is a picture showcasing two of my gifts - the lens that took it and the tiny remote control in my hand that meant I did not need a timer to take this self portrait.  I had a good day - presents and cards with the kids helping me unwrap and read, breakfast, purchasing doughnuts to take to work, lunch out with colleagues, birthday cake with the kids and dinner with Albaniana and The Man (followed by a bit of Beatles Rock Band).  I did some work in some of the gaps implied by commas.

I also inflicted some of CD1 of the two-CD compilation I received as a gift today on various colleagues.  It includes this song,  Yes, it's pop pun 108 for title watchers - and now I'm even older and now I'm older still.

Day 2.349: "Christmas" and "What have we done?"

Part 1: Christmas...

Our Christmas started in earnest with our special Christmas Eve service at church yesterday evening. Exile #2 and I planned a shortened but otherwise traditional carol service - let's call it "Six Lessons and Carols" - which included the kids building a nativity scene as the story was told through the Bible readings.

Today brought this:

...happy chaos. Not too much new stuff, lots of generous gifts which will be either very useful or much loved or both.

I think if you could bottle joy and sell it on eBay, we could have made a killing from Exile #3 today. This doll has been basically the only item on her Christmas list for months, but she was convinced she wouldn't be receiving it (mostly because we weren't planning on getting it until very late in the process):

We also had a fantastic Christmas dinner including gluten- and dairy-free bread-sauce (no mean achievement when you think about it). We also enjoyed talking to family on Skype, reading stories, singing songs and playing games together.  At one point, we were playing a game where each person adds a word to the end of a list and then the next person has to remember it and add another word.  In this version, the only rule was that the words had to start with the same 'sound'.  The first round used 'ch' and went quite smoothly, the second one used 'b' and at one point the words went as follows:
Me: ball
Exile #2: bear
Exile #4: but
It wasn't until Exile #3 was reciting the list that we realised what we would be saying for the rest of the game.

An excellent day - we really can't complain.

Part 2: ...what have we done?

Oh yeah, we bought E5N1 a drum-kit. It's tiny, extremely cute and very loud - just like its new owner.

Oh go on then, since it's Christmas - you can have pop pun 107 for title(s) watchers - if you want it!