Birthday Cake!

Look what G & the girls made for me as a surprise while I was out having a girly lunch & shopping session for my Birthday!

Spring is finally sprung!

At last the weather is changing & its feeling more spring like...you also know when the season has changed when the Oreo's change the colour of the cream inside...taste the same & oh so very yummy!

Blacklers do Disney!

So we went to Florida early on in Feb for some 'Winter Sun'...we've never done that before, we've only gone on 'vacay' in the traditional season so we were excited! Of course the plan went pear shaped & it was cold when we were there...they'd been having some very weird weather & it was the coldest it'd been in years...it was warmer than the wintery STL that we'd just left but it was un-seasonally chilly! We weren't prepared for it of course, we only had one outer layer each so we spent the whole week layered up with all our t-shirts! We still had a fab week away, our condo was right & I mean RIGHT on the beach with great views & we had lots of fun! We stayed in Tampa & while we were there we drove over to Orlando & had a 'Disney Day' which was the longest most tiring day of my life but so worth it!

"It's Cold!" Says Graeme

I know you’ve heard us say it is cold over here, but that was before we had experienced a hot St Louis summer. Now that we have, we must have forgotten how cold it gets because it’s bloody freezing! We’ve now had over 2 weeks of the temperature not getting above 25F (-4C) during the day and some nights, wind chill taking it to -30F (-35C)! Notice how I’ve converted between Fahrenheit and centigrade? We’ve learnt so much while we’re here you know!

We also had some snow, about 4 inches overnight last week and again the efficiency of the snow ploughs are something to behold. I made my 20 mile journey to work and was only an hour late, and that is due to the office opening a little later! In fact most people make it in (might have something to do with the fact that if they don’t, they get fired!). Efficient or what! Mind you, Dionne was very nervous about me driving in the conditions. Not because of my lack of driving skills, but more about the lack of any common sense from the St Louis driving fraternity! They have a fantastic ability to not see weather. Weather is invisible. Snow, what snow I hear them cry, as they pile their car into the back of the car in front (who had to stop for traffic lights...Just) and not noticing the icy roads! M.U.P.P.E.T.S!!

We had a great a Christmas this year, which I think is largely down to us being so much more settled than last year. We could get wrapped up in the excitement of the season, rather than worrying about whether we had any cable TV connected, of whether the internet would be down because our stupid cable company failed to update our records. Dionne got a big tree (real one) which had a strange top to it... In fact it didn’t have a top as it had been chopped off by someone or something and looked very bushy, but we loved it as if it were our own! We had a lovely Christmas day and I cooked Christmas dinner at home, made by my own fair hands... No one died, so it must have been OK!

This winter, I’ve also got into making lots of fires. Not like arson, but nice house fires in the fireplace! We got half a truck load of wood brought down by our neighbour’s father from Tennessee, which we thought would last us all winter. Hmmm… We’re already running out! Well, not being wood burning experts, we weren’t sure how much wood it would take to have a fire going all day! I’ve become very adept at chopping wood into little bits, but not so adept at starting the fire! The problem is that now days we do everything online, on the computer, but I need paper to get the fire started and well, we just don’t have any. We’ve taken to smuggling out all the free newspapers at the supermarkets for our fire starting exploits! Still, we keep running out of paper. Also, the wood is so cold from being stored outside and holding in moisture, it takes longer to heat up and catch fire! Still, it’s fun trying and very satisfying when I eventually get it going!

Dog alert! Yoji doesn’t like the cold. She is becoming a lazy ginger fur ball! Oh, for sure she looks excited when I go to take her out in the morning or last thing at night, but as soon as she steps outside, she starts physically shaking (anyone would think it was cold!) and becomes schizophrenic (multiple personalities for those who didn’t recognize the word!). She gives it the ‘I’m so fit and energetic that I could run for miles’ look about her when I get my coat on, but as soon as she does her business, she becomes a mad possessed alien trying to drag me back to the warmth of the house, and in particular to get back in front of the now raging fire I made (well we burnt the children’s clothes to get it started!). If you’ve read last year’s blog entry, we’re back to me flying through the air again in front of the neighbour’s house, but this time slipping along on the icy paths (sidewalks)! Now they really do think I’m a mad Englishman… actually going out in the cold with a dog and sledging along with ginger ‘Husky’ type blur pulling me along but without the actual sledge!

We’ve got some trips planned for this year just in case we do come back in November. We’ve already booked Florida for 4 weeks time, to find out they are having the coldest temperatures (below freezing) for decades when they should be averaging mid 70’sF (23C). We will Sooooooo not be happy if it is not warm. But I’m sure that will be another story!Ok, enough of my rambling as I’ve got a stew to finish off cooking, but I’ll try and get back sooner this time with another entry.

Writers Block?!

That must be what I have...I can't think of anything to write at the moment...back soon! (**,)

Halloween Leftovers!

Something I’ve noticed with all the leftover Halloween sweets is that some of the names are wrong! Wrong, wrong wrong! Now don’t get me wrong, we love our sweets/candy but some things you shouldn’t mess with… for example: they call Maltesers, Whoppers & you’ll find a Mars Bar here but it’s called a Milky Way & a Milky Way is called 3 Musketeers. Smarties are what we call Fizzers & they don’t seem to do what we call Smarties at all! A Twix is …well a Twix but they also do it in a peanut butter version (don’t even get me started on peanut butter version of all sorts of food!) Hershey’s chocolate is weird but that’s probably because I was weaned on Cadbury’s. They do actually do Cadbury’s here but it’s a fake chocolate dressed up in a Cadbury’s coat!
Today I like… all the differences still!
Today I don’t like… weird chocolate!

Trick or Treat?!

So you may or may not know that Halloween isn't my most favourite time of year & we were in all honestly hoping not to have to do the Trick or Treat thing with the girls but Harley was invited to a party & we felt mean not doing something with Nyah. We were invited to the local yearly Halloween street party in a cul de sac round the corner from us & although G didn't fancy it I wasn't totally sure I convinced him we needed to go even if only for a little while! The 'Hosts' set up tables & chairs outside their house & there were long tables for food, desserts & then drinks. Everyone (if they want)can bring something to eat or drink & before you know it there is all sorts of food & drink available! There is also a 'candy table' which has enough for about a thousand kids then all the Dad's take the kids off trick or treating while the 'Mom's(!)sit round the fire pit (yep someone kindly bought one of those along too!)chatting! Everyone was very friendly & there was even someone there who had family visiting from Oxford! There was beer & a fire & food & fun was had by all! Harley & Nyah were on a sugar high after comparing their loot!