Wedding and Sewing

First off, congratulations to the newlyweds- Ian and Caroline are now officially married. They had a really nice ceremony at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, and then we were all whisked off to a fantastic lunch on the waterfront. We had a really great time and we're SO excited for them. It was really fun to meet some more of Ian and John's friends from school...they're all fun guys.

We're completely zonked, but I managed to finish the knitting needle case...[insert fanfare here]. Here are the pics!! Sorry the quality is kind of grubby but I wanted to post them tonight and not wait for the daylight tomorrow. It's hard to see in the picture, but the printed fabric has all kinds of designs of sewing stuff on it (both the blue and the cream ones). All together now...awww.

Meebo

I've discovered Meebo (well, ok, the Times discovered Meebo) - it's a chat aggregator that puts together the MSN and GoogleTalk and AIM and Yahoo chat services in one web window. I find iChat to be sort of clunky (sorry, Apple), and I LOVE being able to have a meebo window open at work without having to download anything. Well, I can't download anything...our evil network manager (aka the hubby) has locked us down.

I got a call tonight from Elia, one of the girls I met when I was working at Ickworth. She's from Seattle and lives in Bury with her Brit husband. Sound familiar? We're getting together for dinner after I get back from NY, and she's under strict instructions to let me know if there's anything she needs from the US. Thanks to cultural diffusion, there's SO much more American stuff here than there was when I was a kid - you can buy Betty Crocker brownie mix, for Pete's sake.

I'm SO close to finishing the knitting needle case, but we've had a bunch of late nights at work and choir and stuff and I just haven't had a chance to get the sewing machine out. This weekend, definitely. Mostly because I have to take pics for the blog...it's been really texty lately.

Comfy Pants

Ok, I feel completely legitimized. It started when I moved to the city - when I got back from class, I'd immediately change into a pair of flannel/fleece pants and a hoodie (modified to cotton capris and a tank top in the summer). I still wear my v. old and somewhat groty red plaid Old Navy comfy pants around the house all the time (and I sleep in them when it's too cold for regular pjs).

The big news? Philip, the conductor of the Bury Bach Choir, appeared at rehearsal in the BLUE version of my comfy pants and a fleece. They were awesome. And since his normal garb is khakis and a polo shirt, he totally looked like he'd arrived in his jammies.

I was v. jealous that I hadn't changed from my skirt into comfy pants for the rehearsal. There was some miscellaneous whispering, but the general consensus was that he wears his comfy pants kind of a lot in the winter. :)

And yes, all you Brits...I know it's comfy trousers, but comfy pants just has a better ring to it.

Vote!

I feel terrible - I didn't get my act together in time to get an absentee ballot this year. It's the first election since I turned 18 that I haven't voted in. I voted in Maine, I voted in New Ro, and I voted in NYC (which was v. nice as the polling place was in the lobby of my building). Not that the New York races are even vaguely contested (hello, Governor Spitzer and Senator Clinton!), but still.

I may still even be on the voter rolls in NYC...I don't know that I officially changed my address back to my parents' house. Tonight is probably not the night to be checking on it...I'll need to stop at the post office when we're home and get one of the address change forms and make sure I'm all set in the right place. The DMV has my correct address but I'm not sure who else they give it to.

I was talking with John yesterday about how I talked all kinds of smack 2 years ago...that I'd leave the country if Bush won...and here I am!

People over here think the American government are loonies (although they save their choicest words for ol' Tony Blair), and that the American people are bonkers to have elected them. Personally, I agree. A joke from Radio 4: How do you know when Tony Blair is lying? His mouth is moving. Oh, tee hee.

It's clean!

We'd gotten to the point where we knew we needed to do a really good deep clean in the flat, so we cleaned for about 3 hours this morning. There are still a few things left to do, but our oven is a whole new color and the idiotic wooden windowsill in the shower has been de-mildewed. We don't really have much margin for things to get messy without it taking over the entire house- we basically spend all our time in the living room when we're home.

I also managed to get started on my knitting-needle case, and then I ran out of thread. I probably would have had enough had I not gotten overconfident and made a mistake and had to pick out a whole bunch of stuff. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to go to the fabric store to get some more. How sad. :-D

We're coming up to a really hectic few weeks...Ian and Caroline's wedding is this Saturday, then we're collecting a whole lot of furniture from Martin's on Sunday, and then we're leaving for NY next Thursday, blasting up to Vermont on Friday, in Liz and Dan's wedding on Saturday, and then back to New Ro for Thanksgiving. It'll be really nice to be in NY and not be doing (our) wedding stuff, though.

John's going to be staying in the US for work for an extra week, and then the first weekend he gets back, I have an event at Ickworth and a choir practice in Bury, both of which will be tricky with just the one car, since we also have James that weekend. Then the following weekend we can just mong out and survey the chaos of the past month. Oh, I'm also taking my Driving Theory test in the middle of all that. Which will be closely followed by my practical test.

Phew.

Random driving test tidbit: if you start the car in gear (even if your foot is on the clutch), it's an immediate fail. It shows "failure to secure the vehicle' or something else strange. Random unscientific poll of stick-shift-driving American blog readers: when you park the car, do you leave it in gear?

Kaboom!

Well, tonight is Guy Fawkes night (actually, it's tomorrow, but it's celebrated on the nearest Saturday night...tonight), so we went off to the Museum Of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket where they had a massive bonfire and a surprisingly good fireworks display. There was a really good turnout and it wasn't too cold...but it was cold enough to appreciate the warmth that the bonfire was kicking out.

When we lived in Peterborough, we always rode our bikes to Ferry Meadows for the fireworks and the bonfire. I seem to remember a carnival-y thing set up as well, but that could easily be memories mushing together. John and I were in a similar spirit tonight...we walked into town rather than drove (John doesn't have a bike...)

I spent the morning having a driving lesson (I need to work on parking and 'clutch control' - i.e. not rolling forwards or backwards at any point). Bugger.

There was a suicidal pheasant on our way into Bury after my instructor picked me up. I was driving along the A14 in a 50mph zone, when I noticed two pheasants standing by the side of the road, looking very much like they wanted to step under the car. I'd clocked them and I checked my mirrors (I was having a driving lesson, after all), and then right as I was coming up to where they were, the bigger one stepped RIGHT out in front of me. I swerved into the other lane and missed him but I don't imagine he made it to lunchtime today.

According to my instructor, on the test, if there's a pheasant in the road and it would create more of a hazard for me to swerve to avoid him, thumping over him is the thing to do. Ugh.

After doing some Christmas shopping in Bury, I went to the fabric store to get some quilters quarters for a knitting needle (for me) and paintbrush (for mom) case that I'd seen in The Crafter's Companion. It's a FANTASTIC book published by Anna of Twelve22, one of my favorite craft blogs. My mom had heard that I was going to make the knitting needle case and asked if I could repurpose one for her for her watercolor paintbrushes. I could and I have and it's AWESOME. I've modified the pattern very slightly, and it turned out really well. I'm torn about putting pics up, since it's her Christmas present. I haven't made mine yet...tomorrow.

Happy (smelly) Halloween!

Happy Halloween! In case you're wondering what I'm up to tonight, check out the article in today's NYT about Halloween in the UK (or the lack thereof). Yeah. Since we don't have the stepson, either, it was a night in for us. However, we did have an orange dinner, in tribute. I roasted butternut squash chunks in olive oil with garlic and herbs and then poured the squash and garlicky herby oil over pasta. YUM!! It only took about half an hour to roast (at 200C, granted), which kind of surprised me. BTW, Lizzie, my Halloween socks are in NY...sad times.

Speaking of which, I've now officially been here for a year. Time flies when you're having fun. :)

In case I'd forgotten that I live in the country, however, there have been new and interesting smells permeating Bury and our office. You know how there are lots of fields in rural areas? And how they grow stuff on the fields? Well, as a refresher to all you NewYawkers out there, in order to make the stuff on the fields grow, they put poop on the fields. LOTS AND LOTS OF POOP. And it's smelly poop. And the smell gets everywhere, and then once it's there, it clings. Yummy.

It almost makes me miss summer subway smells. Almost, I said.

Oh, and then on my travels I found this article on the New York Times. And it tickled me to the point where I had to send it to News Quiz, my favorite BBC radio program. It's on Friday night's and it's a funny roundup of the week's big stories with some random funny things thrown in. I was noodling around on the website after submitting the article, and read that they get a staggering 15 emails (along with 20 letters) per day. I was expecting it to be more in the 200 per day range. Shows what I know. At least it means that there's a human bean somewhere at the BBC tomorrow who's going to READ the email I sent...along with a little Westchestah shoutout to Sandi Toksvig - she's the host of the show and she's a hysterically funny Danish lesbian who grew up in Mamamaroneck (!?) but is a v. famous Brit now.

I smell like campfire

We got up early this morning (enjoying our extra hour!) and then gave Freda and Travis a call to see what time would be good for them. Travis had decided that two big (dead) pine trees at the back of their garden were going to come down today, and we thought that an 80-year-old taking down 2 trees by himself was a bad idea.

So off we went, and with much chainsawing and clipping and burning of brush we were all done by about 3. In England, a lot of people still burn their garden waste and miscellaneous other stuff. Not the ones who live in cities, obviously. Travis has an enormous fire pit that's covered by a HUGE log from an giant oak that came down 20 years ago, so by the time we left, he'd burned all of the branches and was working his way through the big logs. It smelled just like Lochearn, though...the slightly sweet smell of burning pine. And I randomly wore my Lochearn hoodie today, which I'm sure is very happy to be smelling of pine smoke. I'm hoping for some nice smoky-scented Lake Fairlee-themed dreams tonight.

Mmmm...camp. I have to say, some of the best nights' sleep I've ever had were 'in Vermont, among the hills...' (points for anyone who can give me the next line to the song). I think it probably had to do with the fact that the counselors work 16-hour days and crash into a bunk bed around 11 with the sounds of the lake and the crickets and the trees. I guess I do kind of romanticize it...it's a hell of a lot of work for v. low pay but it's not something I'd ever trade in. And I have secret (well, not anymore) fantasies about going back there when we're retired and being the next Gordon and Joan. They're an adorable English couple in their 70s who used to come over to VT every summer and work at camp. I have no idea if they're still at it.

I'm still kind of astounded that the three of us (plus intermittent clipping from Freda and James) managed to take down two trees in the space of about 5 hours. Travis said that he had been planning on doing the whole thing himself over the course of a few days, but that he was very glad that we'd helped him and it was all done, since it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I can't imagine him doing it all by himself, although I'm sure he would have.

John and I are both completely shattered...we're aching in places we didn't know we had and John has blisters from the chainsaw. I know, I know....John?? Chainsaw??...but he was surprisingly adept with it. What a guy.

Lazy Saturday

We ran errands and stuff today - we were originally going to go down to my in-law's mom's house to help her move some stuff around, but John went down with a 24-hour thing last night and conked out really early and slept until 10 this morning...he's feeling much better.

I'm feeling really frustrated with the whole learning-to-drive thing - every time I think I'm making progress, I remember that I haven't been studying as much as I should or that I've not been doing something the right way. I'm going to be really glad when I'm all passed and legal. It'll make our car insurance cheaper, too :)

Chili!

It was a really blustery fall day today (think Mary Poppins in the nanny-audition scene), and so I made some veggie chili. It was a HUGE hit- it was really spicy but had a nice warmth and sweetness. I have to admit, I left out the chocolate that was in the recipe...but John made some of his famous hot chocolate to make up for it.

I had a really nice evening out on Tuesday- Lynn and I went over to Sandy's for supper and had a good gab. I started talking about the blanket I'm knitting (patchwork squares), and Lynn said that she'd been in a sewing/quilting/whatever group when she was first married. I'm DEFINITELY up for it - basically it's like book club, with the addition of dinner and crafting, minus the books. Any takers?

I'm also one of the newest members of the Bury Bach Choir committee, as the New Media Officer. WOOHOO! It basically means that I go to committee meetings (MUCH nicer than SGA meetings at Colby), and am responsible for making sure all of our press and concert information goes to external websites. Any suggestions for Suffolk/UK music websites that take listings would be appreciated. Also, if anyone wants to link to the BBChoir, go for it! The next concert is Saturday 25 November at 7.30 pm in the St.Edmundsbury Cathedral - they're singing the Brahms German Requiem. I say 'they' because John and I will be en route back from Liz's wedding and Thanksgiving, so I won't be singing with them. Sad times. I will be able to sing in the next two concerts after that, though.

I'm really looking forward to going to NY - we haven't been home since the wedding and it feels like a really long time. I have intermittent pangs of homesickness - usually for completely random things like walking Rrufus around the block with Mom on a rainy windy fall night or sitting on the front porch. And my mom's mac & cheese...she makes it with elbows and velveeta and whole canned tomatoes and it's the best thing EVER.

Oh, and one more thing...Julia emailed me (hi Julia!) to say that Wagamama is coming to Boston. Only 5 years after we told them they should...sheesh.

Mr Pond's House

Got an email from Lizzie today - she's working with Habitat For Humanity to help Mr. Pond, a wonderful old gentleman who was the grandfather to several generations of children in Larchmont Woods. I, being from the wrong side of the tracks, didn't know about him until I met Lizzie in high school, but his house is truly fantastic. He decorates it to the nines for everything- from Halloween and Christmas on down to Flag Day and Arbor Day. His house was seriously damaged in a fire, and now Habitat (and Lizzie) are helping to rebuild.

Here's the link to Lizzie's blog - her sister Allie was quoted in the New York Times (!) in the article that she links to.

Go forth and help out!!

BTW, regularly scheduled KateUpdates will return shortly...things are feeling a little stagnant at the moment and I keep feeling like there's not all that much to blog about. Famous last words, probably...

Little Sledding Man

I found Line Rider on Lifehacker- it's completely addictive.

Play with it for a little while and then watch this.

Too Funny To Pass Up

Check this out. I spent a solid 5 minutes playing with it. (Hint: hit round button A and then press letters on your keyboard)

James' mom and her partner are also moving (next month) and as they're consolidating two households to move in together, there's lots of furniture going spare. Some of it's going on Ebay, but most of it's being donated to the Kate & John Foundation. WOOHOO!! Which means that some of the stuff on the "1" list will be taken care of, which leaves room for some things on the "2" and "3" lists to move up.

John and I, like most people, have many needs and a limited budget, so we've scaled the things we'd like for the new house on a 1-5 scale, with 1 as the WE-NEED-THAT-IN-THE-HOUSE-BEFORE-WE-GET-THERE category and 5 as the eeh...maybe one day category.

Oh, and our flooring samples arrived today. Truly, the excitement never ends.

People are dumb.

I have random grammatical pet peeves. I know I'm probably on shaky ground, as this is a blog, and I sometimes forget to spellcheck, but I loved this from the New York Times. They're running an Ask The Editors series, and this was from the Assistant Managing Editor For Journalistic Standards (try fitting that on a business card):

DVD’s or DVDs? The Trouble With Apostrophes

Q. Why do you persist in insisting that the plural of DVD is DVD's? There is NO reason for an apostrophe, unless your are using it in the standard way -- to indicate possession. As in: "The DVD's special features are better than average." You just make yourself look out of touch when you insist that your own rules are better than the generally approved practice! Please change the way you handle acronyms, so that you look like you understand grammar!

-- Alan Moorman

A. We're not always as dumb as we seem. There was a good reason for that variation from general style (and our Stylebook has more than this one). Here it is, as explained in the entry on plurals:

Use apostrophes in the plurals of abbreviations and in plurals formed from letters and figures: M.D.’s; C.P.A.’s; TV’s; VCR’s; p’s and q’s; 747’s; size 7’s. (Many publications omit such apostrophes, but they are needed to make The Times’s all-cap headlines intelligible and are therefore used throughout the paper for consistency.)

But we expect to satisfy you grammarian sticklers soon by making a change, as soon as we can figure out a way to avoid the unintelligibility problem.

By the way, many of you keep us on our toes constantly when we make grammatical mistakes, as we so frequently do, and we point them out (and relay your complaints) to our editors and writers more often than we are able to acknowledge your help. My own theory is that schools over the past 20 years or so don't teach grammar as well as they did in the public schools of Westborough, Mass. when I was there (hommage to Mrs. Murphy, Miss Wadleigh, Miss Conroy and others from the 1950s).

So, dear DVD fan, don't give up on us yet. Besides, you look like you could use a little work on grammar yourself.

The little zinger on the end really did it for me. Dad - did you spot the typo in his question first time through?

We keep a folder of "Greatest Hits" emails at my office - my department has a group email folder and we move the really stellar ones into it. One of my favourites involved an email with the subject "Star Wars for Horn Trio," and in the body of the email, the author asked us to please tell him what the instrumentation was. Uhhhhh...horn trio?

OK, maybe you had to be there. But I'm amazed at the stuff people send out, not necessarily thinking about the fact that whatever nonsense they've committed to email could potentially go around the office with "HAHA" stamped on the top of it.

The all-time prize goes to the bright spark at a company I used to work for who got one of those "Bill Gates wants to give you all his money" chain emails, which he then very industriously forwarded to EVERYONE on the global contacts list. Not just all the company employees, either...this list has all our clients, suppliers, affiliates, vendors, etc. I think it's somewhere in the region of 10000 people. Which must have taken quite some time, as there's no way to 'select all' in our version of Outlook. I think he was disappointed when rather than $100,000 from ol' Bill, he got laughed at by the whole company. D'oh.

Despite Our Differences

I stumbled on the new Indigo Girls album on Saturday morning and found out that they have just released a new album, Despite Our Differences. It's classic IG...a mix of Amy's punk-ish songs and Emily's more melodic ones, but with the two of them singing together in their distinctive style.

I presented two papers on the Girls when I was at Colby - the first one was about their subversion of gender norms and the second was about their long-time status as protest singers. Both papers focused on their use of coded messages in their lyrics - they're not particularly hard to spot, you just have to look for them. If you're interested, I can go on for pages...but I'll spare you.

Current favourite song on the album: I Believe In Love. I've only gone through the album once so far, so that could change.

I'm starting to feel marginally better after staying home again today, although it looks like John is coming down with whatever I had. Yuck. Oh well, time to make him some chicken soup. He was wonderful last night- I was feeling really crappy and so he made dinner and ran me a gloriously toasty bubble bath, which improved things immensely. I think I'll keep him.

I've also switched completely over to Blogger Beta, which is why the top of the blog looks a little funny. I'm working on it, but it seems tricky. I designed a fab logo but I can't get the "StowmarKate" part to go away, and they look silly together. Any suggestions would be fab.

Sliding on Art

I met up with my friend Susan (from NY) in London on Saturday...we went to the Tate Modern and rode the slides, which were lots of fun but scarier than I was expecting. We were big and brave and decided to go on the tallest one - it departs from the 5th floor of the gallery and goes all the way down to turbine hall. It was really bumpy and not something I'd want to do a lot, but once was definitely worth it.


Then we went over to Borough Market, which is right by London Bridge station, which was a fantastic find! I had been moaning to Susan about the lack of cheap yummy food in London, and we stumbled upon this huge fruit & veg and other stuff market, which had lots of little cheap (and not so cheap) places to eat. As we came around the corner approaching the market (famished after our sliding), we were hit by the glorious smell of grilling chicken. We both ended up having these grilled chicken satay wrap thingys, which were spicy and creamy and VERY messy. And cheap! At 3.50 each, it was easily the cheapest lunch I've had in London. And the tastiest.

I also got completely sucked in to the "short skirt with footless tights and ballet flats" trend, and bought myself a pair of footless tights. It looks SO 80s but seems like a good way to extend the life of short skirts in the UK past mid-July.

John and James and I went to Ickworth yesterday for their annual Wood Fair, where they feature crafts and artisans and the opportunity to buy wood produced on the Ickworth estate. Eek...I sound like a press release. Well, maybe that's because I WROTE the press release for the Wood Fair. Anyway, it was really good to see all my Ickworth peeps and wander around the grounds. They had some really glorious coffee tables made out of very rustic planks, which John and I loved but decided were WAY too big for our new house and would look very silly. We'll go back next year to get garden benches, though.

I stayed home sick from work today - I felt really crappy starting yesterday afternoon and couldn't swallow when I woke up this morning. I don't have a cold...it's more achey and my nose isn't really running. I spent the whole day sleeping so hopefully I'll be ok to go back to work tomorrow.

I indulged in some TV this afternoon - I watched "Ready Steady Cook" and then Blue Peter. BP was my absolute favourite TV show when I was here as a kid...it wasn't as good as I remembered it but then again I'm not really in their target audience anymore...

Both Hands On The Wheel, Bitches

Well, I've had my first driving lesson - it was not what I was expecting but it went reasonably well. As expected, I basically know how to drive, it's just a question of learning how to drive like an ENGLISH person. Random things trip me up, like checking the mirrors every time I either shift or change direction. I was also never offically taught by a driving instructor how to shift. Apparently you're NOT supposed to coast to an intersection in neutral with your foot on the clutch. Who knew?

The other thing I was having trouble with is the fact that you're not allowed to shift gears and move the steering wheel at the same time. You either have to be steering or shifting, but you can't do both.

I'll get it...there's just a lot of stuff to remember and unlearn. At least I already know how to drive stick...

I also got a mysterious package from Apple Holland today at work - it turned out to be my new non-exploding Powerbook battery. I'm in the process of draining the original one to send back to them, and then I can put the new one in and be happy and explosion-free. Lucky me.

Phone Calls

Check out David Pogue's Blog today. It's about a new service called Futurephone and you can call internationally by calling through a number in Iowa. Perfect for those times when you're not near the computer and want to call.

I'll DEFINITELY be testing it out the next time I'm in NY.

And, as a special treat, I've included a poem written by my friend Michelle, who is a receptionist. Having started my career as a receptionist, I'm ALWAYS nice to them - it's a shit job. The poem is great, though.

Ode to Telephony, by Michelle

To be a receptionist is oh so swell,
Like a pavlov dog respond to the bell,
Sacharine Smiles, Company Day Greetings,
Ad hoc duties, Organiser of Meetings.
"Hello! Certainly! May I take your name?"
Buddha like patience, Each day is the same.
My artist soul and mind are elsewhere
While my tuchus of concrete sits in the chair,
Dreaming of ways that I might work from my home,
So I don't have to speak one more word down a phone.

It's TV Time!

Well, we've done it. Finally. My parents bought us a TV for my birthay (yay them!), which we have now brought home, set up, discovered there was nothing on, and switched off. :) It's Sunday night, so the lack of stuff to watch is understandable. I'm sure we'll find something this week.

But seriously, I'm really excited to be able to watch Wimbledon and the World Cup and the Olympics and Blue Peter and the cooking shows and other such nonsense.

Speaking of nonsense, John and I saw "The Devil Wears Prada" yesterday- we thought it was pretty entertaining and that Meryl Streep completely stole the show. We were both kind of freaked out by our recognition of former bosses in Miranda...fun times.

In between the movie watching, I finally got my copy of Marley And Me from the library and read it all. In 2 sittings. It was definitely not a train book (unless you want people to think you're mad) - it was SO funny. I was laughing really hard and kept reading bits out to John, who didn't find them anywhere near as entertaining...he's more of a cat person. I highly recommend it.

On our way back from Norwich, we stopped at a farm stand/garden centre that's about 10 minutes away from Freda & Travis'. We've driven past it a zillion times and never stopped, but I thought today might be a good day to check it out. It turns out that they have all kinds of local fruit and veg (yay for low food miles). I had one of the apples for dessert and it was very yummy. We're goint to need lots of grass seed and plants and things once we move in to the house, which we've now OFFICIALLY bought, by the way, and we'll definitely be stopping by there again.

REALLY good idea

There's a great idea for what to do with kids on a plane (or anywhere else where they have to sit still for an extended period of time and are likely to get bored) - make them a custom, disposable puzzle.

Here's the link, from Whipup.net.

Enjoy!!

Excitement at work

Had quite an exciting day at the office today - my colleague had mentioned that there was a Christmas Promo pack in the bulk warehouse that one of us needed to check, and since it was technically a new title, it was my job.

I trundled over to find that it had been put away already, on a shelf. "Ok," I said, "can I just go and check it out to see what's in it before I write the description?"

"Sure," said John (the warehouse guy, not the hubby), "hop on the lift!" He gestured towards one of the big industrial forklift riser thingys. I climbed into the cabin, thinking we'd drive along the bottom of the aisle and then lift the forks up to the location, pull the stuff down, look at it, and put it back.

Not so. Up we went (while moving forwards), until we were about 50 feet in the air. I was clinging desperately to the back of the chair and trying to be nonchalant about leaning over the edge to open the box and look in it. I think John sensed that I was not a happy bunny, so he opened the box himself and looked at it, reading off the contents to me as I wrote them down in my notebook.

As he zipped back down to the ground, he commented that he'd really gotten the willies the other day when he'd had to go up to the ceiling to change a lightbulb...at least when you're in the stacks you have a reference point that's right next to you - he was all on his own, 90 feet in the air.

I didn't feel unsafe - the Brits are FANATICAL about 'Health and Safety,' I just had a bit of a thrill. The notes that I took are complete gobledeygook, by the way.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

I don't want to be that person with the gratuitous birthday post on their blog....but I'm going to do it anyway.

I had a v. rockin' day today...went to work, came home and opened various envelopes and packages, the hubby and I made fajitas for dinner, I had a candle in a brownie and a glass of lactose-free milk. Woohoo!!

Ok, I think that's all the gratuitousness I can manage. Go read Lifehacker or something. :)

We have a roof!

The house is coming along nicely- we went this morning to tell them where our plugs needed to go and when we visited the house itself, the roof was on. Yay! It hadn't been put on the last time we saw it, so it was neat to see. The windows have gone in, too.

We had a bit of drama with the Crest-Nicholson people this morning- we'd made an 11am appointment to decide where the plugs should go (we can add them and move them around, up until the roof is finished, and then we're locked in). When we arrived, they were fairly busy, so we said we'd take a quick walk up to the house and be back in 10 minutes. When we got back, we told them (again) that we were there for our plug-fitting appointment...the woman then told us that as they were very busy, perhaps we could go upstairs and look at some nice kitchen cabinets and floors (which we had spent 2 hours looking at last weekend).

I was feeling a little nervous/agitated about this to begin with, and I basically snapped at her.

"No, we will NOT go upstairs and look at cabinets- we've been told that once the roof is on, we have to decide on the plugs. The roof is now on, as we've just been up the road and seen it, which means we need to tell you where the plugs will go. By the way, there are no plugs marked on the plan for the kitchen but there are plugs in the kitchen of the model home. Are they extra?"

This basically did nothing but get her back up- she decided she didn't know and if she did know she wasn't going to tell us.

At this point, John decided that we weren't going to get anywhere, so he marched me out of there and we went back at 4:30 when it was raining (and therefore empty) to figure out the plug situation. Our regular salesperson (who thinks John is about the funniest person on the planet) was there, and she hooked us up.

The kicker was when the first saleswoman came back in, looked at me and said in a syrupy voice, "Oh, good...are we happy now?" I replied, in the same tone, "Oh yes, we're all sorted out, thanks so much for your help!"

Grumble grumble grumble...I didn't realize how annoyed I was about this morning until I started to write about it.

In the intervening 3 hours, we went to F & T's for what turned out to be a birthday lunch...complete with 25 candles on the cake. Thank you, James, for emphasizing the fact that I need a firehose to blow out all my candles. :)

Castles and Baseball Gloves

James unwrapped his birthday presents from Michelle and my parents last night- all were an immediate success. We've already played Cluedo (which he loves now), inpsected comic books, playing cards and baseball cards, and done the only thing an English boy knows what to do with a baseball glove and baseball.


Yup, you saw it here first, folks. He set up the baseball glove as a goal and used Wolfish (the soft toy featured in the photo) to push the ball into the glove. Then Bulldog (another toy who missed out on the photo op) stood in goal while Wolfish took shots on goal.

Tomorrow, we'll take James to Freda & Travis' (they're back from France- yay!) and play catch in the back yard with the mitt and ball.

We took the train to Norwich this morning, since we needed to get James some trousers, as he's grown out of all the ones from last year. We went to Norwich Castle first, which was REALLY well laid out and full of fun things for kids (and grownups) to tinker with. It was how I remember the Science Museum from when I was a kid. Here's James with the castle that we built:


And here's the castle he was modeling it after:


I can't resist adding one of my v. cute hubby...I've found that the only way to get a good picture of him is to make him think you've taken the picture, at which point he relaxes and you snap away. Bingo!

Leek & Potato Pie

It's started to feel really fall-y here - today it was raining and chilly, so I made leek and potato pie for dinner. It was a recipe that I got from a Good Housekeeping Student cooking article - they were v. excited because it only costs 59p per serving. Woohoo, I say! More money for the mortgage. :)

Anyway, you basically saute 1 leek per person, boil and mash a few potatoes, (I added some lactose free milk and nutmeg at this point), then put the leeks on the bottom of an oven-proof dish, cover with the mash, and bake for about 10 mins. I also added a little cheddar cheese to the top of mine at the end. MAN, was it good!

John added extra virgin olive oil and lots of salt and pepper, which improved things as well. Yummy.

I've been tearing out recipes madly (Freda and Sandy have both given me v. tall stacks of back issues of their regular magazines), so I'll be cooking up a storm.

Now I Have A 9 Year Old Stepson!

We went to James' birthday party in Ipswich today- we all played laser tag and then the boys played 'quick cricket' and ate typically groty English birthday party food. The laser tag was really fun (John, Martin and I got to play as well), and then they all seemed to have a really good time with the cricket. Here's James, about to blow out his candles:


Happy Birthday, Kiddo!

Girls' Night In

We had another one of our thank you notes from the wedding returned as undeliverable today- if you gave us a present and haven't gotten a note yet, PLEASE let me know, since they were all sent by mid-August. It's my usual neuroses that I feel guilty when the notes come back...but we've had a few returned (one, after two DIFFERENT attempts at the address...I think their mailman just hates me).

John's out in Bury with the boys tonight...they called earlier in the day to see if we wanted to go out for a curry evening with them, but I wasn't really in the mood so I'm at home listening to the Indigo Girls, Tori, and Sarah McLachlan. I also got out the sewing machine and finished the skirt that I'd started ages ago but lost the zipper for. I bought another zipper when we were in Ipswich today and the skirt's all done. It's navy and just above the knee...I'll post a pic once I've taken one in the daylight tomorrow morning.

Then I got out the shirt that my mom sent me in the package of wedding photos and James' birthday present. It was a baby blue t-shirt that was too small for my dad and not really wearable for anyone else. It's also ripped (and repaired) on the bottom right hand corner, which made it PERFECT for my new favorite project- turning t-shirts into comfy pants. ROCKIN!!! I made some for James a few weeks ago out of one of John's old shirts (he's going to grow out of them in about 10 seconds). So since I had the machine out to finish the skirt, I started the pants. And once I'd started them, I finished them. I'll take pics tomorrow and put them up - they're really cool. They're a little short in the rise and baggy in the waist, but my back started to hurt (the table I sew at isn't quite the right height...), so I'll finish them in the morning.

I ordered Madhur Jaffrey's memoir- she's a great cook and we have a few of her cookbooks. She grew up in Delhi and now lives in NYC, but has spent a lot of time in the UK. So far, it's fairly interesting...it's all about food (much like Peter Mayle's books). I'm also due to start Wild Swans soon - I've checked it out of the library but it just looks thick and daunting at the moment. Any encouragement would be appreciated. My favorite book in the last few months is still The Red Tent...and before that, the Ya-Yas, the Time Traveller's Wife, and the Dark Materials books. If anybody has any suggestions for good books, based on those, let me know!!

I found this on Real Simple today - we have SO many beautiful dish towels from the wedding. They're going to be making appearances on the table v. soon!

I love News Quiz

While I was waiting for John at the station tonight, I was listening to News Quiz, kind of like NPR's "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me." It's a weekly roundup of all the news, with various commedians and media people. The people next to me in the parking lot kept looking over to see what I was doing, because I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face.

John missed most of it so we're going to listen to it again on the BBC site...you should definitely check it out if you get a chance.

Tomorrow is a house day- we're going to go pick out our tiles and countertops and other fun stuff like that. Woohoo!!!

Settling in at work

John was on a business trip yesterday and today (he got back this afternoon), and so Sandy from Ickworth came over for dinner last night. We had a really good chat and looked at all the wedding photos (thanks, Mom!). Sandy and I had baked apples and ice cream for dessert last night- it was SO good when the cold ice cream hit the melted butter-sugar-cinnamon mixture and made it all cold and crunchy. I'll DEFINITELY be doing that again.

It was funny- I realized that I hadn't spent a night alone in the flat in ages- I was really jumpy and checked the doors a zillion times and slept with the bedroom door shut in case the bogeymen came in. For someone who lived alone in NYC (admittedly with v. awesome doormen) for 2 years, you'd think I'd be able to handle a night alone in a flat. I think it was the fact that it's more than one room (duh) and there are a lot of doors with balconies. Or maybe I'm just getting jumpy.

We had the PDQ Bach work My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth through the Product Info department today. Here are the lyrics (from Peter Schickele's website): (teehee)

My bonnie lass she smelleth,
Making the flowers Jealouth.
Fa la la (etc.)

My bonnie lass dismayeth
Me; all that she doth say ith:
Fa la la (etc.)

My bonnie lass she looketh like a jewel
And soundeth like a mule.
My bonnie lass she walketh like a doe
And talketh like a crow.
Fa la la (etc.)

My bonnie lass liketh to dance a lot;
She’s Guinevere and I’m Sir Lancelot.1
Fa la la (etc.)

My bonnie lass I need not flatter;
What she doth not have doth not matter.
Oo la la (etc.)

My bonnie lass would be nice,
Yea, even at twice the price.
Fa la la (etc.)

It totally made my day. :)

Garden Party!

Note: I've switched to BloggerBeta, so if you're having trouble, refresh the page and it should be fine.

Today was the Bury Bach Choir's annual garden party, so I made Coronation Chicken (basically, curry chicken salad) and John and James and I trundled along. It was a Enid's house in a little village south of Bury- they have a glorious country cottage and a HUGE back garden that backs onto the village hall. The weather was perfect and a good time was had by all.

We had a bit of excitement in the morning- we had to bring something for the tombola (basically a raffle, it's a very British thing to do), and so we were hunting arund to see what we could regift. As we have a flat full of very new and lovely wedding presents, it was slim pickins. But I did find a small espresso set (new in the box) on the top shelf of one of our kitchen cabinets. We don't drink espresso at home, and we've never used the set. "Ah hah," I said to John, "We can take THIS!" John replied, "Yup, that's perfect!" At which point James piped up with, "HEY! I gave you that for your birthday last year! And what's a tombola?"

Oops. I've never actually been caught in the act of regifting by the original giver before... Needless to say, we found someting else. But James did manage to win a bottle of wine in the tombola, which Tibor magically transformed into a little Meccano airplane set. Much better (and it gave James something to do for most of the afternoon). Here he is, building it:

I need a nap

Thanks for the comments on the house, everyone- we're really excited about it (but feeling like April is a VERY long time from now and not looking forward to spending another winter in our v. drafty flat). At least when we move in it'll be spring and we can eat outside in the back yard and have all the windows open, etc.

I've had a particularly exhausting few days- I went over to Sandy's for dinner and to catch up on Tuesday night but didn't get home until fairly late, then got up early yesterday, worked all day, had Bury Bach Choir practice (Liz, I REALLY love you to be missing this concert...it's going to be glorious), came home to John and the D&D boys, went to bed at 11:30, got up at 6 to go to work because the air conditioner went on the fritz and flooded one of the computer rooms, and then had a completely soul-shredding day at work. I'm having trouble enforcing a deadline at work for a report that I do every week...it's somewhat arbitrary but it has to be somewhere, otherwise I find myself staying later and later and getting more and more stressed as people give me more things to put on it 10 minutes after the supposed deadline. ROAR!!

In other news, I've downloaded iTunes 7 and am lusting after the new pods, which is completely rediculous as the one I have is completely functional and totally fine. One day, it'll give up the ghost, though. Not too soon, 'cause we got a mortgage to pay!!

We Bought A House!

We are the proud new owners of a half-finished 3-bedroom house in the great metropolis of Stowmarket! We put down our initial reservation down-payment-y thing yesterday, so as long as we get our mortgage, survey, and other fun expensive and lawyer-y things done by October 9, it's OURS!!

Here's a map of the area- we're Plot 66. It's one of the last houses to be finished in this build...the same company is starting another build on the other side of the road at the bottom of the map early next spring.


We're due to move in late March, so we're embarking on the dizzying journey of picking all kinds of furniture and carpets and floors and other crazy stuff.

And then EVERYONE can come visit.

Here are the floorplans and the "artist's impression" of the finished house...we've been in a few completed ones and it's basically what they look like. (Sorry they're kind of blurry...it was the best I could do).

A Lactofree Kate is a Happy Kate

My new favorite thing: Lactofree milk. It's got less than 0.05% lactose and I can drink it! YAY!! It's way better than soy milk and lets me conserve my Lactaid pills for yummy stinky cheese. Here's the link, if you care.

Yay for cereal in the morning!!

Had our first Bury Bach Choir rehearsal of the season tonight- it was really good to see everyone and catch up, but I'm feeling v. rusty and tired now. I checked with the treasurer and I've just gotten in under the wire for another year of the under-25 discount (free!). Next year, though, I'm up to the full fare.

An Almost House

We were thisclose to buying a house today- we'd been looking at it all weekend (it's a new build). We did a little more research today and found that it's RIGHT on top of a 24-hour truck depot (something the builders had neglected to mention). Oh sad.

But while John was finding out about the truck stop, he also found another development of houses further up the hill (away from the trucks), which have some great houses. So we'll go see some more on Saturday. John has fallen in love with a 4-bedroom (!?) that we REALLY can't afford, so we'll check out the 3s that they have (or win the lottery).

John has a computer game called "Rise Of Legends," that both he and James are adddicted to, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I played it for about 20 minutes this evening, and actually kind of enjoyed it. And then REALLY enjoyed the Waitrose magazine that I got yesterday. I think I'm safe. :)

Oh, and I can't remember if I posted about it, but I made James a cute pair of comfy-pants from here. My mom's sending over a package of random wedding stuff and needed some padding, so I think she's included some of my old (huge) t-shirts. Foss Arts comfy pants, here we come!

John and I have made it into this quarter's Colby alumni newsletter...we're the second item in the '03 news (on the web listing, at least). Not the NY Times Style section, but we're getting there.

Ballet Mecanique and Tamagotchi

I found the link to Says-it.com on Lifehacker, and made a seal for the blog (Moose helped):



I'm going to try to figure out how to embed it permanently over on the right...eek! (I'm such a dork).

We've had James for two weeks already, with only 3 more days before he goes back to school (and his mom). It's been a little stressful having him around: he's lost his Tamagotchi (sucks to be him) and his inhaler (sucks to be him AND us) over the last few days. He's fun, though. Apparently Gillian (his mom) has bought a new (bigger) house with her partner, which they will be moving in to shortly. So all James can talk about is houses and rooms and sizes of things and what color his room will be and what his room in our (still undiscovered) house should be. He's been v. sweet about it, though. He and John got haircuts today, so they picked me up at work in the afternoon looking like little boys. Ok, well, one of them ALWAYS looks like a little boy, but they were v. cute.

It was Ryan's last day at work today- he's off to Canada for a year before he starts university. I'm going to miss him- he's got a great sense of humor and is the other classical music geek in the office. We had the Schirmer Ballet Mecanique come through the office yesterday and he and I were gawping at it. The other guys were marginally interested...they're missing out on the pianola goodness.


I'm looking for a good html-viewer (other than Blogger), so I can check my html text as I type in Word. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I'm also (slowly) uploading wedding photos onto Flickr- the link is over on the right. Feel free to submit any that you have!!

Riding, Ploughing, and A Hot Air Balloon

We had a really good time up in Durham- it was v. relaxing to be away from work and stuff for a few days, and we had a lot of fun with Andrew and Barbara.

The puppies are very funny...they're generally excited about life and are very bouncy and cute. James is fairly afraid of them, but tolerates them if he has to. I did a lot of horse riding with Barbara and Andrew and Katie- I'd mentioned that I'd love to go for a ride and they all sprung into action with jodhpurs and boots and horses and I had lots of fun. Their horses are stabled in a barn on the crest of a hill, so the view is gorgeous and there are lots of green fields to ride around.

In keeping with the horsey theme, we went to Beamish, an open air museum, on Saturday to watch a ploughing competition. They had all kids of old plows and tractor horses and other stuff...lots of fun.

We came home yesterday after a brief stop at Ikea, and were eating dinner tonight when I looked out the window and saw a hot air ballon drifting by, out over the rooftops. Had to take a picture, natch.

Off to Durham with the Herds

We're off to see John's brother and his wife and their daughter in Durham tomorrow...we'll be there for 5 days. There's going to be various things going on- they have two black lab puppies who are about 8 months old and v. springy, along with a geriatric yellow lab (who would have given the pups a run for their money in her day).

Have seen a few more houses- still nothing is catching our eye. The one today was nice, and reasonably big, but had no cloakroom, a postage stamp of a back garden, and was kind of on the edge of Stowmarket with a LOT of cars on the road. The good points: there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood, it's not far from fields, there's a nice sunroom (hence the postage stamp), and the kitchen is reasonable. It also has a small driveway and garage, and an en-suite shower/loo to the master bedroom. Haven't fallen in love with it, though.

It's nice to be in our position...we can basically wait as long as we need before we buy something, and the longer we wait, the bigger dent we make in our down payment. Payday was yesterday and I've now received my first paycheck in pounds. With the $-£ exchange rate at the obscene $1.89 to the pound, getting paid in pounds has a major advantage.

I'm haunting rightmove with great regularity...if anyone sees a house that they think would be good (within about 5 miles of Stowmarket), holler.

I've also put links to Mark and Pete's blogs on the right...go forth and check them out. (Pete- now you've GOT to update the blog!!)

Andrea and Patrick are WAY more motivated than I am

Andrea and Patrick are running a marathon. They're awesome.

They're also raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and need your help!!

Check out their blog (and donate to their race fund) at Running Pair.

Pat's Special Blend

As previously mentioned, the sandwiches at Music Sales are free. Yum. As is the coffee & tea, although we can only have it at the appointed times (10.30 and 3). And Pat has to make it- there is no making of your own unless your name is John.

Last week, Pat was on holiday and Mandy took over...she made me a lovely cup of (instant) coffee each morning and afternoon. Now Pat's back, and the coffee suddenly tastes REALLY strange. I can't put my finger on the taste, and I'm getting used to it, but it's defintely not normal. I can't figure out what she's doing to it, since she's using the same hot water, the same instant coffee, the same dishwasher & soap, and the same mug.

Pat's Special Blend it is, then. NOT coming to a Starbucks near you any time soon.

Crafty houses

Postings have been thin on the ground lately...the LAST thing I want to do when I get home from work after Musicrooming all day is go anywhere near my computer.

I've become completely addicted to craft blogs: Twelve22, Wardrobe Refashion and Craftzine are my current favorites. I've made a few skirts using the sewing machine that Freda gave me, and I'm planning on making a quilt next. I have to go in to Bury soon and get some quilt squares. Emily has a quilt that's UBER soft with corduroy on the back...that's what I'm aiming for. I think she got it at Anthropologie yonks ago. Either way, I can't wait to make one. One of my favorite button-down shirts has gotten a huge hole in the arm (no clue where it came from), so I'm going to cut it down for quilting. The other option would be to take it to a tailor and have them make it 3/4 sleeve...I should check with Freda.

We've been househunting madly...I took John & co back to the house that I loved this weekend and we ended up putting in a bid, but someone else got it. Sad times. We've seen a few others that haven't even come close, but we're still in the early stages and I'm sure something will come along. The property market in Stowmarket has suddenly gone mad...houses are going in a matter of days. Everyone says it'll calm down once kids go back to school. Here's hoping. At least now we know that we're definitely in the right price range for a 3 bed/bathroom/cloakroom/reasonable kitchen/smallish back yard. When we get a house, y'all can come visit. Not all at once, though. And once I've made the curtains. :)

Week One: Complete

I have now officially made it through my first week at Music Sales. Basically I spend all day updating the various stuff that goes on Musicroom. I'm not used to working in such a structured office...everyone is in at 8:30 on the dot, we work until a tea break at 10:30 for 15 minutes, lunch at 1 for an hour, and then another tea break at 3. Everyone leaves at 5:30 on the button. For some reason, Music Sales Bury is the ONLY Music Sales office in the world (out of about 10) that works a 9 hour day rather than 8. I mentioned it to my boss, and he said, that we all WORK for 8 hours, with an hour for lunch. Someone somewhere has gotten their wires crossed...legally, we're supposed to be at the OFFICE for 8 hours, with a 1-hour break for lunch. Oh well. At least we get free lunch every day.

Yup, you heard me. FREE lunch. There are a few catches: Pat the dinner lady has given the entire company food poisioning on more than one occasion, so there are some risks involved. Also, you have to order one kind of sandwich for the whole week, so by Friday you're bloody sick of tuna/roast beef/ham or whatever it is you've been eating for the last 5 days. You also have to come get your lunch AT 1pm, any later and Pat is not a happy bunny. There's not a whole lot of freedom surrounding the tea breaks, either. There's no mechanism for suddenly deciding you want coffee one morning, rather than tea. And you can't skip tea break, eather. Because then Pat will bring your mug and come and find you and plunk it down on your desk with a pointed look. And woe bedtide you if you don't bring your mug back at the appointed time.

But other than that, it's a free lunch.

Have been looking at a few more houses...we've seen two that were NOT ours and then I saw one yesterday that I completely fell in love with. Which is bad, because we're not QUITE ready to buy. The house is great, though. It meets all the criteria that we have, and it's really bright and airy and in a quiet neighborhood close to town and is quite big for our price range. I'm taking John and Freda and Travis back to see it today. Apparently there's an offer in on it already, but I don't think it was accepted. I'm desperately trying not to get too emotionally attached to it.

This househunting thing is exhausting.

I'm a Data Monkey

Had my first day at Music Sales today. I'm completely knackered...I was a data monkey all day. And starting a new job means that you have all the random stuff from the supply closet, since everyone else has traded up. My chair was not ok...I'll have to raid the office tomorrow to get one with fewer holes in it.

I was walking around the warehouse with Peter (my boss), and have discovered my new favorite Music Sales product:

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0155891/details.html

Yup. You got it. SUSPENDERS WITH FRENCH HORNS ON THEM.

Awesome.

Takin' the Long Way Around

I had my last 'official' day at Ickworth today...I'm going to be working in Reception tomorrow afternoon but that doesn't count. Julia organized a cream tea for everyone in the restaurant, which was really sweet. Jenny gave me a mug (which will be alternated with my NY one at MusicSales) that says "World's Greatest Computer Geek." I'm really not...that's John's title...but at Ickworth, I was definitely the one everyone called anytime they had any computer issue. NT is not known for its tech support...

I can't believe that I was at Ickworth for 8 months...it still feels like I'm 'the new volunteer from America,' but at the same time, I felt really settled there. I don't think I could have done it without them- I have such an awesome 'pack' now.

John and I are going to see our first house tomorrow...we'll see what happens. We still need to get a mortgage sorted out (ugh...I feel like a grownup), so nothing's going to happen quickly, but at least we're getting started.

We had a funny experience with the Attack Ducklings in our parking lot last night...the ducks are particularly aggressive, especially if they think you have some food for them. Our neighbors (not the pothead ones) were going out, and the ducklings followed them to the car and were getting in the way of the wheels...they couldn't go anywhere without hitting them. We watched and giggled for a few minutes, and then took some pieces of bread outside to lure the ducklings away. They were great- eating right from our hands. It reminded me of when we lived in Weert, Holland, and would go to the stream and feed the ducks.

I got my passport, visa, and wedding certificate back today from the DVLA (like the DMV). They'd needed the originals of all the documents to send me my Provisional Driving License (which should be arriving shortly). Then I can be like a real Brit and take the insane 45-minute driving test. Drive around the block and parallel park, this is not. I'm SO relieved that my docs are back, though...it was freaky not having any real ID documents or proof that I'm in the country legally. I also wouldn't have been able to get back to the States if anything had happened. Not a fun feeling.

I missed having a MusicSales email address

So, starting this Monday, I'll have one again. :) I've been in the closet about it (for obvious reasons), but I'm definitely out now. I'll be working the Product Information department, dealing mostly with the text and stuff that goes on MusicRoom. It's the job that I was originally hired for last September, which fell through because of work permit/visa issues.

Hooray!

This means 3 things:

1. My full-time Ickworth tenure is rapidly approaching
2. I'm going to have to actually WORK, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. No more tea brakes from tea brakes.
3. Our house-buying is kicking into gear.

Regarding 1., it's meant that I've finished up a couple of long-term projects, as well as written all the press releases through the end of the year. They're pretty rockin', so make your Pudding Lunch reservations now, people!

About 2., I think I'll manage. I do have to remember to bring my "New York City" mug, purchased at the QD (think dollar store) in Stowmarket for 90p, home with me. And then to Music Sales.

As for 3., I think John is feeling a little panicky about the whole buying-a-house thing. So I'm going to be my usual take-charge self and get on with it. I'll try not to steamroll him. I'm hoping that he'll adopt the "if you can't beat em, join em" strategy. I'm going to look at a few places on Saturday morning...I've been watching Rightmove.com for weeks, so I have a fairly good idea of what's out there.

Our dream place: 3 bed, 1 bath/1 cloakroom, reasonable sized kitchen, medium backyard, a sm. driveway, and not too far from the station. In our price range, it'll be tricky, but it's do-able.

When I was talking to the estate agents this afternoon, lining up the appointments, the agent told me that the place that I'd emotionally bought and moved into went off the market because the woman's not sure she wants to sell it, not because it was sold. So there's still hope...yay!!

One more thing...Lizzie's started a blog...the link is over with the other ones. Also, Emily's letter to the Transvestite on Her Stoop got on the Best of Craigslist. I can only aspire to be so famous. :)

I've been reading

...so I haven't been blogging. I'm still reading Watching the English (and still finding all kinds of things that I'm doing wrong). I read The Handmaid's Tale last week, having heard a lot about it. It was v. surreal (most of her stuff is), but really engaging. Poul Ruders (a Schirmer/Chester/EWH composer) wrote an opera based on the book...I'd like to see it but it's not being performed around here any time soon. I'll email the london office and see if they can get it programmed in Stowmarket. :)

I finished The Red Tent last night, and LOVED it. In case you haven't read it, it's the fictional story of Dinah, Jacob's daughter (from da Bible). It was a v. quick and compelling read...I'd love to read something else by Anita Diamant but all she has so far are books on Judaica. Not that it's not fascinating, but I think I know more about Judaism than the average goy living in Stowmarket married to a lapsed Catholic needs to know.

Ooh...scratch that, I just checked Amazon and she HAS written other novels. Not sure if they're in the stowmarket library system yet, but I'll check.

In other news, the wedding pictures have come in and they're v. good...hooray!!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Cheekbones

Ok, I totally didn't think that up. It was A.O.Scott in the New York Times. His review is here. John and I went to see it this evening in Bury...it was 2 1/2 hours of swashbuckling good fun. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are v. hot, and the movie was surprisingly entertaining. I had been moaning about not wanting to see it, but I'm glad John dragged me. It's not going to win any Oscars but it's definitely worth the $8 movie ticket.

I'm reading White Teeth (not as good as everyone says it is) and Watching the English (better than everyone says it is). According to Watching, I'm doing all kinds of things wrong, but I get special dispensation because I'm American. Phew. Gotta keep that accent...I can get away with all kinds of stuff.

I also did a Tarot reading for the prospective job that's coming up...it basically said that I would get the job but end up with all kinds of financial problems. Oh joy. Here are the cards, in case anyone cares:

Who knows.

My Swiss Kitchen

I bought some picture hooks at Woolworth's today (yes, they still have Woolies in England), which meant that John could hang my Swiss Kitchen in our Stowmarket Kitchen.

There are three of these in my family: my mom has one, Sandra has one, and I have one. This one was originally Grandma's, and it's the only thing I wanted from her house after she died. According to Mom, it had been earmarked as mine years ago. Anyway, we packed it in bubble wrap after the wedding and carefully brought it back to England. Upon taking it OUT of the bubble wrap, I broke the stove hood off...sad times.

Travis to the rescue! Not only did he reattach the stove thingy, he rejoined the corners that had been out of whack since before I can remember. Now it's better than ever.

P.S. This post is dedicated to Sandra who is hobbling around on a broken foot. Get well soon!!

Day at the Beach!

Yesterday a bunch of Ickworth girls and I went to the beach. It was down in Frinton (about an hour from us), and it was glorious. Yesterday also broke all kinds of heat records for the UK, so it was a perfect beach day. The water was warm, the beach was busy but not too crazy, and we got all suntan-lotiony and sandy. There were a few kiteboarders out...this guy looked like he was having a LOT of fun.

And here we are, all spread out.

It's A Man's Job? Hah!

John and James and I had quite a day yesterday...we found a new lunch place in Stowmarket- it's called Tall Orders and it's very coffeeshop-y. John had a baked potato with some spicy veggies on it, James had a Cajun chicken wrap, and I had a lox baguette. It was ALMOST a New York Brunch...yum! I've walked past it a zillion times but never actually gone in.

We then trundled off to the Stowmarket Carnival, which was better than we thought it would be. They had rides and displays and food stalls and various other things. We bought a watercolor painting that I really like- it's very blue with white sailboats, and is very clear and crisp. It's hanging in the front hall (after John and James informed me that hanging pictures was "a man's job," John in jest and James in seriousness. I told them both that that was a completely unacceptable thing to say to a woman, and then climbed back down off my soapbox.

Freda and I were discussing the fact that when we were little, we used to play ball games constantly, since I was teaching James to play Butts Up against Freda and Travis' house. He doesn't have much in the way of hand-eye coordination, but I think it's because he never plays any ball games at school...they just wander around in the playground. I wish there were some other kids around here that he could play with...Edward and I were ALWAYS outside running around or riding our bikes or throwing things at each other. Hopefully when we buy a house (after I get a job...), there'll be kids in the neighborhood.

Not sure why I'm feeling so soapbox-y today.

In other news, I found a pattern for making comfy pants out of an old tshirt. John's t-shirts had better watch out. I have some old ones that I never wear any more, but they're all in New Ro.

I've applied for a job at a theatre in Ipswich...they were advertising for a Marketing and Outreach Assistant, which would be a good way to at least get my toe in to the classical music scene. They don't have MUCH music, but they do have some.

...Victoria & Albert

I had breakfast with John on Monday morning before he went in to the office, so I was v. early for the Victoria & Albert museum. I got there just before 9 and they didn't open until 10, so I went and had a coffee and read the rest of the last Ya-Ya book and took this picture of the outside of the museum.

Here's a picture of the plaque at the outside of the museum...I love the part about India. How colonial.

The museum itself is quite something...it's like a cross between your grandmother's attic and an encylopedia. There's just so much STUFF. Most of it is very well curated and organized, although some of the rooms are so full that my first reaction upon walking in was to go "ACK!" and turn around, walk back to the hallway, take a few deep breaths, and then try again. The musical instruments exhibit was by far the WORST I've ever seen, but their display of the different media that artists use (grouped by method, rather than by region or time period) was REALLY great.

This is the picture of the room full of copies of Italian artifacts, brought back for British students to study (a hundred years ago? not sure when), when travel wasn't as easy. Cool.


I've been getting a lot of headaches lately, so I went to Boots this morning to get my eyes tested. It turns out that I have the optical equivalent of 'duck feet' (where your feet turn outwards). My eyes' default position is to be slightly turned away from each other (not anything that you could see by looking at me), and so it makes it especially tricky when I'm looking at anything that's closer than an arm's length away, hence the headaches. The optometrist said that the best thing to do would be to 'prism' my glasses- basically to embrace the 'duck-footedness' and let the glasses do the work of putting the two images together for my brain. Apparently I've had this for a long time (and hadn't really noticed the fact that the double-vision I had was actually double-vision...it just seemed normal to me). The new glasses should arrive in about two weeks...yay!!

Tate & St. Paul...

Here is a picture of some (completely mad) people coming out of a kayak trip on the Thames. Couldn't pay me to do that one.

On Sunday, I started off at the Tate Modern (having been to the Tate Britain on a previous trip- thanks Liz!). It was converted to an art museum from a disused power station in 2000, and only has art post-1900. Good stuff! It's a damn ugly building from the outside but really well done on the inside.

The main entrance hall:

I then walked across the Millennium Bridge, which also has a sound installation where the wind and foot noise from the bridge is harnessed and then piped into the lobby above, making a REALLY cool noise, and to St. Paul's for evensong. The singing was great, and the sermon was very good. We even got to sing a few hymns...singing in St Paul's is like singing in a v. large bathtub- you suddenly sound very full and echoey. I could get used to it!

Can the London Symphony Orchestra relocate?

Checked all my job sites this morning, and the ABO (Assoc. of British Orchestras- the equivalent of the American Symphony Orchestra League) is listing the following job:

London Symphony Orchestra
Orchestral Assistant

This is an exciting opportunity to work closely with the London Symphony Orchestra. Working with both the Orchestra’s Personnel Manager and the Librarian, the Orchestral Assistant will help with the smooth running of both these functions.

It's totally my dream job, but it would only pay £19k at the top end, and it requires evening and weekend work. There's NO way I can do it from Stowmarket. If I were (independently wealthy and) living in central London, I'd be there. But I was looking at house prices as I was walking past an estate agent's in Knightsbridge, and the small 2-beds are going for more than a million pounds. Where do people get all that money from?? But to get back on track, it would cost me more than 50% of my post-tax income to GET to work. Not gonna happen...I don't even really want to apply for it because then if I get it I'll either turn it down and regret it or take it and regret it more. Just not applying isn't ideal either, but I can't bear to get all excited about it and spend ages on the application.

I worked at Ickworth on Saturday in reception (we had the usual cast of people who wanted to discuss at length why their Great Aunt Mabel HATES New York and it's horrible, along with the ones who think I'm Canadian), and then went down to London for the rest of the weekend.

I was a tourist yesterday and went to the Tate Modern and evensong at St. Paul's, then John and I watched the football. I was rooting for France but Zidane's little headbutting episode really soured the whole thing. I have pics from my museum escapades (was at the V&A today)...I'll post them as soon as they're uploaded.

Anglo-American Relations

This is the second year in a row that I've been in England for the 4th of July. I was here last year, visiting John...I can't remember exactly what we did on the 4th, but there were no hot dogs or fireworks. This year, John was working in London (he's there through next Monday), so I went to Sandy's house with Julia and her kids and we had a barbecue and set off fireworks and generally had a good time. If we have a house this time next year, we will definitely have a BBQ and lots of people over for baseball. (And yes, Mom & Dad, we will try to put an American flag on the garage door with crepe paper.)

I had lunch with Freda and Travis today- they're back from their caravaning in the south of France. It actually sounded like a pretty nice place to be, barring the caravan. John and I may try to go visit them the next time they're there. I miss France. Hooray for Les Bleus, btw. Sunday night, John and I will be sitting somewhere in London, cheering France on.

Still nothing on the job front, but I have a meeting in Cambridge tomorrow and there are some things in the pipe. The London job turned out to be a New York job...my old colleague had gotten her wires seriously crossed. Oh well...the commute would have killed me anyway.

More Risk

When we picked James up from school yesterday, the first thing out of his mouth (not "Hi Daddy!" Hi Kate!") was "Can we play Risk? I almost won last time and I want to play again and Daddy can play too and then I might take over the world if I..."

So I guess he's not mad at me. :)

We're headed over to Julia's this afternoon to watch England v. Portugal (and meet her new kitten...aww). I'm eternally optimistic, so I'm convinced England is going all the way. John, on the other hand, is much more of a realist (read: pessimist), and doesn't want to watch the game because he knows England will lose. We'll see what happens.

I'm following the zillions of leads from my various meetings- there are a surprising number of small music orgs that are coming out of the woodwork in Suffolk. And there are a few leads in London...but it's an hour and a half on the train and it's £426.30 ($788.27 at today's exchange rate) for a MONTHLY pass (if you include the subway card it's £483.90). The comparable ticket from New Ro is $159.74 (not including the subway) and a monthly ticket from Cold Spring (NY), which takes the same amount of time as the Stowmarket-London run is $283.22). So yeah, the job in London would have to pay REALLY well to make it even vaguely worth it. Subtracting £500 from my monthly salary at a lot of places doesn't leave me with a whole lot.

Divine Secrets of Suffolk Music

Finished Ya-Yas...it was REALLY good. Liz, you're right...it would have made a great book club read. I'm on to the sequels now.

Went in to London today to pick the brains of a few Chester/Novello peeps...they've given me some good leads for suffolk/norfolk/cambridgeshire music orgs. There are going to be a lot of emails going out in the next few days.

Dad, I definitely remember the steam shows at Thorpe Hall...we're going to take James up to run on the ride-behind steam trains on that little track. I'd found a link to it last fall but it's gone again.

John and I went to the Stowmarket Model Railway Club tonight...he'll probably be going back. They were a nice group of guys. I see more trains in our future...

Back in the Land of the Living

Yeeehaw!!

John and I are officially better, as of Saturday morning. We both woke up, full, as John says, of the joys of Spring. We did a few errands, then trundled off to the Wings, Wheels and Steam festival, about 15 minutes down the road. We saw lots of steam tractors, some really cool flyovers, and wandered through one of the strangest exhibits we've ever seen.

It was a "stationary engine" display, which consisted of a grassy avenue, fenced off on both sides. On each sides of the fences were caravans, with their occupants (mostly wearing wife-beaters and such) sprawled out in front on lawn chairs. Strange enough, say you? Hah! In front of these vignettes were small-ish engines, stationary, spluttering away and pumping food coloringed water out of a bucket and back in again. The racket was tremendous, yet the owners of the spluttery machines seemed perfectly happy to sit outside and stare at each other. Some of the more intrepid owners had even brought out couch cushions for their lawn chairs, adding a particularly charming touch. John and I beat a hasty retreat.

On our way out, we started watching some kids launching homemade rockets from a compressed air tank. It turned out that it was £2 to make a rocket and fire it off five times. We had such a good time with our first rocket that 10 minutes later we were back to build a second one. And, since neither of us is in elementary school, the guys in charge of the rocket school decided they wanted to go head-to-head with our rockets. It was awesome. John captured a pic of the rocket going off with the continuous shutter setting on the camera...sweet!



We had Ian and Caroline over for a curry on Saturday night- the Stowmarket curry house has been pronounced as good as the one in Bury. Success!!

This evening, we trundled off to The Stag (the least sketchy pub in Stowmarket, by our estimation), where we watched Beckham and his textbook free kick send the Ecuadorians home. We then went to Chinese Checkers, a chinese place that Lynn, my Stowmarket mom, has been recommending. It was AWESOME and we will definitely be going back.

Currently reading The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which is a really fun chick-lit book. More updates when I've finished it.

Getting the "In Sickness" part out of the way

John and I are finally starting to see the end of the tunnel, flu-wise. I'm feeling much better and will be going to work tomorrow (having been sick since last Friday). John's come down with a sinus infection, but he headed to our friendly neighborhood NHS branch this morning and they hooked him up with some antibiotics, so he'll be fine in a few days. We're getting a little sick of the inside of our flat, and are rapidly running out of reading material.

It looks like David Pogue has found a way for me to watch Good Eats from the UK...I just have to hook up some $300 kit to mom and dad's tv when I'm home next. Well, maybe I won't, but it's nice to know I can. I imagine that within 5 years it'll all be available over web streaming anyway...not necessarily live, but I'm not going to to stay up until 3am to watch AB anyway. Speaking of whom, I was on his website yesterday and he's broken his clavicle in a motorbike accident. Poor AB...feel better!

We were supposed to go to the annual Ickworth staff picnic last night, but my trip into town for more asprin necessitated a 2-hour nap, we didn't go. I'd gotten all sorts of food in for the picnic, though, so I made "Coronation Chicken," a v. British dish that's basically curried chicken salad. Chicken, mayo, curry powder, celery, and melon. It was pronounced yummy by John...I'll be making it again soon. On Tuesday night I had a spurt of energy and made salmon with tomato salsa...it was really summery and tasty...you'll be seeing it if you come over for dinner.

Chicken Soup and Rrufus

I'm feeling a little better (my sore throat is down to a dull roar and the headache is gone), but John is feeling worse. Yuck. We're both home today, taking turns warming up chicken soup on the stove. If anyone knows where we can get good matzo ball soup in Suffolk, call me.

In other news, having my mac back means that I have a chance to catch up on my Redeemer sermons. Hooray for 15 hours of Tim Keller ahead of me! :)

I've posted a picture of Rrufus that John took...awww.

Terribly British Day Out

I'm working on fighting off a flu-y thing- I've been feeling crappy since Friday afternoon. I've slept most of the day today, so I'm feeling a little better.

We had a fun weekend: we went to Newmarket for a train show on Saturday morning, then to Bury for some groceries and a quick walk around Ickworth, and then to Freda and Travis' for a barbecue. They'd had such a good time cooking outside with my parents in New Ro that they decided to buy themselves a barbecue for the patio. It was a gloriously summer evening, and we all had a lot of fun. At the train show in the morning, the biggest hit with James was a guy who'd taken some Fisher Price Geotrax and built trams to sit on top of the trains, along with a fairly complicated layout. He had 4 kids driving the trams (the controllers are really simple) and trying not to hit each other. James would have stayed there all day, but we figured half an hour was plenty of time. :)

Yesterday, we went to Dedham (in Constable country) with Ian and Caroline, where we had a picnic in a field by the river, went for a hike, and then hired a boat and rowed down the river for a while. We watched a pair of girls accidentally flip their rowboat, which was pretty funny. One was tall and lanky and the other was...er...of more traditional build. They wanted to switch places, so they both stood up. The boat tipped, and rather than sit down again, the bigger girl grabbed the gunwale and freaked out. ::Splash:: It was like the whole thing happened in slow motion. We retrieved the oar that they had lost in the excitement, and Ian held the boat while they climbed back in. They were v. wet and extremely surprised, but otherwise fine. James was VERY careful about not standing up in the boat after that.

C and Liz (my college roomies) gave us a bunch of board games for the wedding, including Risk, which James immediately decided he HAD to learn how to play. So he and I played the two-player version (you get to have neutral territories- it was really cool) yesterday. I was helping him with strategy and stuff, and he was doing really well (read: winning, and getting very cocky). I told him Risk isn't over until it's over (I had Australia and was busy with Asia), and John came over and told me to stop letting him win and start fending for myself. Which I was planning to do on my next turn anyway- I had a huge card bonus plus all my continents. His eyes got all wide like dinner plates. Then he had a temper tantrum and declared it a tie. I felt TERRIBLE kicking an 8-year-old's ass at Risk, but it was bedtime anyway. I'm an evil stepmother. :(

Football?

Football. England football, to be exact. I was in Stowmarket this afternoon at about 4:15 and all of a sudden the town completely emptied out. And then I remembered, at 5pm, the England vs. Trinidad & Tobago match started. The whole country completely stopped. And we don't have a tv. I would have felt really strange going to a pub to watch the match without John (he's working in London today), so I listened to the webcast on BBC Radio. I think we might need to get a small tv. Or schedule watching times at other peoples' houses. Since EVERYONE watches football. Listening to it on the radio isn't bad, though. Even when the halftime newscast includes a traffic report that consisted of: "There's really no traffic out there, Bob. Everyone's at home watching the match! Which is where I'm headed. Bye!"

By the way, England won the match, 2-0. GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAL!!!! Second round ass-whupping, here we come.

BTW, America sucks at soccer.

Lets Go Mets!

A Mets Fan in Central Park



Watching the Game

My New Friend Colin

I was at Ickworth on Tuesday, doing my usual stuff (press releases, a little ad design, etc), when the phone rang. I picked it up...here's what followed.

"Good afternoon, Ickworth House, Park and Gardens, this is Kate."

[a old-ish man with a terribly posh British acent)
"Hellooooo Kate!! This is Colin."

"Hi Colin, what can I help you with?"

"OOOhhh...I'm just ringing about those lovely Pudding Lunches you have in November. I'm TERRIBLY excited."

"Well, I'm glad to hear it!"

"My dear, you're not from around here."

"Nope."

"Where are you from, then?"

"New York."

"OOOOHHHHH! I LOVE New York. It's so charming! And what brings you to Ickworth."

"I married an Englishman."

"Oh DEAR. Well, will you be at the Pudding Lunches, then? I'd LOVE to meet you!"

"I'm not sure I'll make it, but if I do, I'll be sure to say hi."

"Ohh, that's just LOVELY. I'm RATHER excited about it all."

"So, is there anything specific that I can help you with?"

"Oh!! Yes, that WAS why I was calling, wasn't it!? We're a party of 15 and we'd like to all sit near each other. If it's at ALL possible, my dear girl."

"Well, Colin, I'll see what I can do."

I love Ickworth.

The honeymoon, in a snapshot

My darling husband John, behind the camera.

I went back to Ickworth today- in case you haven't heard, I didn't get the Aldeburgh job. Apparently someone was more qualified than I was. Which freaks me out, since I was about as qualified for the job as I could imagine anyone being. Apparently in the UK (according to my Ickworth peeps) it's perfectly acceptable to email/call and find out why you didn't get the job. I'm on it, tomorrow. But it's kind of disheartening, since there are basically 2 big music employers in Suffolk (and for the UK, for that matter): Aldeburgh and Music Sales. Hmmm...

Mr & Mrs Herd

We're back in the UK, after a fantastic wedding and a fun (if somewhat rainy) honeymoon in Mystic, CT.

Lots more pics to follow, I promise. Ed took this one when it stopped raining after the whole thing was over.