Thanksgiving 2017

Just a short post about Thanksgiving – I had the day off from work for Thanksgiving (and also black Friday off – score) and Kim was working in the afternoon so one of my colleagues invited us over for lunch which was really kind. I asked what we should bring and was told potatoes and I’m not a big fan of mashed potatoes so I made sauteed with herbs etc and I was thinking we’ll need a lot so I almost tripled the recipe for two people and created a production line of potatoes – needless to say my fridge is still full of millions and zillions of potatoes.

So we had a tasty lunch then Kim had to go to work and I stayed and won a very inventive game of pictionary with another colleague.

Accompanied by 4 weeny dogs – super cute.

My nemeses, the leaves, have been slowing down finally. I tried a new trail out in Nathan Hale State Forest.

Again the leaves were against me and hid the path at one point on the way back so I just followed my GPS on my phone back to the car – nice try leaves.

My 29th

I’m not a big birthday fan, another year closer to death, but usually my day is a disaster. This birthday was nice a one, I spent the morning at work which was fine, I had a second birthday cake from my lovely co-workers. I came home and packed and then Kimmy and I drove to Westbrook by the coast in Connecticut to stay a couple of nights.

We had a nice comfy room and there was a pool and jaccuzi we floated about in for a bit.

We also discovered the world’s FINEST water, the absolute finest, and it could be ours for just $5. I had to fight the temptation to open it. Especially after I got curious about what made it the finest water and discovered it was full of arsenic when compared to tap water…um… no.

Instead we settled for cocktails and prosecco with a nice dinner.

In the morning we explored the hotel and walked to the beach.

The house next door to the beach was for sale for $1.5 million.

Then we drove a couple minutes to Madison.

We went to see a movie but we were early so we browsed a little bit and found a great bookshop.

There was a slight political undertone…

Madison seemed like a wealthy place and they had a cute arts cinema, we saw a movie called Lady Bird which Kim really liked, I thought it was OK but it was a little depressing.

That evening we went to a cajun/creole restaurant, we had to wait for ages for a table but it was worth it. We got cornbread and biscuits while we waited (Victoria sponge and scones in English).

Then we went halves on three meals (we skipped lunch so it was allowed).

The next morning Kim had booked brunch at the hotel that had “the best brunch in CT”, it was massive, it just went on and on, they had everything.

They even had an ice sculpture with prawns!?

So I got to eat the best meal of the day in luxury watching the choppy waves.

On the way back I finally found out why the bridge in Willimantic has frogs on it, there was a drought in 1758 and the frogs fought over the last bits of water, they made such a noise that the people living in the next village thought that either Canadian or French soldiers or Indians were coming to attack them so they all got their guns and were armed and ready. The next day when no attack came they found zillions of dead frogs and the Battle of the Frogs was legend.

Kim went to shop for supplies, I caught up with the important news.

I got a tasty dinner made by my Kimmy.

Then I was presented with my special cake construction, it’s a reconstruction of my favourite boy.

Mr Barclay.

November Time

I got my first taste of medical care in America these past weeks, first I had to get a physical for work which is just a very basic check over where they take your blood pressure etc and talk about your medical history and say that you’re fit to work. First of all I’d never had a doctors appointment be so unhurried, and second of all I’d never had a doctor be so friendly and pleasant. He wanted to know all about me, why I’d moved here, what pets I had… at the end of my appointment he thanked me for coming to the USA because he was so glad to have me here (err…?) and wished me a happy birthday for later in the month! Surreal. But I thought this has to be a one off right? Sure enough, I go to register at the dentist, my appointment was an hour and a half long! They measured every single one of my teeth! They photographed AND X-rayed every tooth. My new dentist also wanted to know all about me and had time for a long leisurely chat and ALSO wished me a happy birthday for later in the month, “and thank you so much for choosing us as your dental care providers” she said… even though I just chose that one because it was down the road. Not a miserable cow bag of a receptionist in sight! Now granted we have to pay for our medical insurance and taxes paid for the NHS in the UK… but wow what a service! It was the kind of service I think everyone I have ever worked in the NHS in the UK with wished they could give their patients.

So whilst that all went very well, my oil change for Ruby the Fiat did NOT go as planned because the second I drove out of the oil change place my warning light came on and my front indicator was out – just like that! And that’s how I found myself sat in a mechanics for two and a half hours watching “news”… joy. $2 for a new bulb and about $65 for labour… plus tax.

We had a good weekend last weekend, we had breakfast at IHOP.

They have a balloon man at IHOP that makes balloon animals for little kids and works for tips, this is what he made a little boy sat behind us… (queue chanting of USA, USA, USA!)

Then we went to see Murder on the Orient Express which was very good, I hadn’t read the book in years so I’d forgotten the ending. I often think how good it would be to be able to program your memory to forget endings to good books and movies so you could watch or read them again and enjoy it just like you had the first time.

Also I found a car parked in the cinema car park that sums up my feelings on all the Christmas adverts about in November… we have a lovely client at my work who enjoys nothing more than listening to the Celine Dion Christmas album…. every single week of every single month. It’s gotten to the point where I want to hunt Celine down and make her answer for her crimes but all the Christmas ads are just pushing me closer to the edge.

In other news my laptop is on the fritz, for some reason almost everything on it is now red, I strongly suspect it has been possessed by Satan (either that or the massive dent in the front it got on the move to America is finally taking it’s toll). Have remedied this by super gluing the battery in (it kept falling out) and hitting it and so far so good. Not today Lucifer.

Got a new gadget for the garden to defeat those bloody leaves, it’s a leaf blower that also can suck up the leaves into a little bag for easy disposal, it works great and was only about $50 which I call a win. Now I just have to wait for a dry day so the leaves won’t be so wet! Found some bulbs in my shed I’d forgotten to plant in October so I planted them… hopefully they’ll rally and still come through in the spring. Still finding bloody peanuts everywhere that some kindly neighbour is obviously leaving out for the squirrels and they are bringing to our garden to bury for winter… cheeky. We’re away this weekend so I hope it won’t be too cold 😦

Productivity Thy Name Is Hayley… Sort Of

We bought a drill last week… which may not have been a good move given my history. My first real contact with a drill was when my Dad had left one out on my grandparent’s kitchen table to do some sort of handy work so naturally I was drawn to it and managed to drill a small but noticeable hole in their table… oops. The second time I used a drill I was lent one by a much loved colleague, “borrow the non electric one because you can’t break that”… then I dropped it and it broke in half. Oops. THIS time went a lot better, observe our boiler room where we do our laundry.

And now observe there are some shelves.

So that went OK until this set up on the right turned out to be too heavy so I had to distribute the weight and involve a bit of Gorilla Glue. As a new home owner I’ve discovered that Gorilla Glue is absolutely necessary.

I’ve also been signing up for a new agency job to get a few extra hours every now and then and when you join up to a lot of new jobs here you need to take a drugs test. So I had to drive bloody miles to take a drugs test and when I got there, next door to the building that ran drugs tests was a Planned Parenthood – in the car park there was some crazy protesters. I thought that only happened on TV… jeez.

We had a game night this week.

And I learnt how to play Uno and Dreidel.

I used my new drill skills to install a key safe in case Kim locks us out again.

Kim’s parents came over and I successfully made a pavlova.

And then last night we went to Harry Potter in concert where an orchestra played the sound track to Harry Potter live alongside the film which was good. The first movie came out in 2001 and it looks so old now, I hadn’t watched it in years.

So that was my week.

This is Halloween

It’s Halloween once again, time to head over to the pumpkin patch. Actually this year we went to a gardening store near us called Edmondsons. Some of the pumpkins were absolutely giant, I thought they were all decent ones but Kim circled them anxiously looking for “the perfect pumpkin” until finally she found one that “spoke to her”.

We also got a few gourds to decorate our porch.

And a door hanger that was 97 cents in Walmart, my mum got a matching one when she was visiting.

So then we got to carving, we bought a little kit with what looked like small hacksaw blades on a stick but they worked pretty well. Kim chose the largest pumpkin of course which she could barely lift.

The kit we got came with stencils which were really helpful and it all went OK except for an unfortunate breakage that I had to fix with a cocktail stick but it looks quite good still I think.

Also we had apple cider (hot apple juice, for actual cider Americans call it ‘hard cider’) and some spooky lights.

So yes, very festive, Kim was thrilled she didn’t mess hers up. Usually Kim picks a design that’s too ambitious for her motor skills then panics when it goes wrong so stencils are clearly the way to go.

On the night of Halloween we got 95 kids! Including a small ninja turtle who opened the door and walked right in to shouts of his mum going “no no you wait, you knock and wait, don’t go in!” and a group of zombie pre-teens who said our pumpkins were “so dope”. Luckily there’s still enough sweets to gorge on in packed lunches for a week or so.