Happy Easter



The quintessential British Easter - giant chocolate eggs with Trademarked mugs

Happy Easter! 

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and had the chance to spend time with family and friends.  With Mike spending Easter in America, we expected a rather dull weekend, but as you will see, our week has ended up being full of good times and entertainment.

Before I go further though, we received the unfortunate news that my Grandmother passed away on Easter day.   My grandmother was the most independent woman I have ever met, and her influence on me was lifechanging.  Having suffered quite a lot from anxiety and fears, it was her example of fearlessness and independence that rallied me to become the person I am today.  The person who could move to another country--who will jump from the precipice--sometimes to my own detriment, but nevertheless, I WILL jump! I know that this example of strength was an influence on other women in her life, and I am very proud of her accomplishments.

My Grandma, Mary

We had a spring Basset Hound retreat when Bertie and Bella came to visit for a week.  It was fun having four dogs, and while it is full on busy, it is worth it.  Hounds are truly pack animals, so watching them in a 'pack' is interesting.  They really get on well, and sometimes they can get cranky but moments later are the best of friends.  Samson and Delilah did need some serious 'daddy time' though...which on a normal schedule they are completely unwilling to share with one another, but exceptional circumstances seem to change the rules.


Two bassets wanting individual attention



Left to Right: Bella, Delilah, Bertie and Samson all cuddled on the couch



"You have my attention"


We had a nice Easter at the Prestwood, having a picnic and Egg hunt.  I usually don't run..but I do when I am hunting chocolate..which I guess says something about my weight issues....

Easter Picnic at Prestwood



Pigs at Prestwood



Finding worms for the chickens at Prestwood



The Easter egg hunt at Prestwood



Mike's riding instructor showing how its done



Beautiful flowers from Bella and Bertie

Sadly, I left this post in draft for quite a few weeks, but had some gentle prodding, so here is Easter's blog
 :-)

26th March 2012

My first official volunteer stint is over. The school ran the Sports Relief mile, with all of the students doing at least 2 laps around the field. I was at point 6, defending the woods from thralls of truant school children dropping out of the mile and slinking into the woods with bad intentions at the forefront of their minds. Er....I mean....cheering on and encouraging these bright young minds to continue onward. I must admit, this is an area where my Americanism shines through in spades. We are masters in encouragement and cheering on.

The Mike's after the mile.

I at least feel I can practice what I preach. I have started using mapmywalk.com and have currently logged 47.45 miles over 19 days. The puppies love the long walks and often lead the way while I meander along through the woods following their noses over logs and through creeks.

Michael is visiting his dad in America. We planned the trip so that Mike would arrive right in time for his dad's birthday and he was delighted to be dad's "birthday present". We flew on the Virgin "Tokyo" from Heathrow to DC. I was fairly certain it was the oldest plane in Virgin's fleet. With ancient in-flight entertainment and a whistling sound screaming through the roof on landing which had me convinced the roof was going to peel off, I was loathe to learn that it was the plane which I was flying back to the UK on after dropping Mike with his dad. However, research has unearthed that it is merely the 5th oldest plane, at 15 years old, in the 75 plane strong fleet.

The Maiden Tokyo

Other than our unfortunate border detainment in 2009, I have not traveled round trip over a weekend but this trip entailed our landing in DC at 3:30pm, and I boarded the plane back to the UK at 6:30pm. Sadly I missed the Skype call with my in-laws updating us on the birth, and introducing us, to our new nephew, but Neil was very happy to have had the chance to catch up with them. .... I think it is time for Mike to fly as unaccompanied minor!

Mike is having a good time in Virginia. We called him last night and he was watching Batman and drawing. The drop off was easy. All smiles and tear free on both sides, I would never put the weight of my sadness on his little shoulders. The crush of him being away hit me last night when I passed his empty room. Only a month to go! Sigh....I love that kid!

My friend Christy surprised me with Herman, the German (Amish) Friendship cake. Herman is a sour dough cake, which requires tender love and care over ten days before being divided into 4 parts. One part you keep and bake yourself, the other 3 you pass on to friends with a set of 10 day instructions, which culminate in thier subdivision and passing on of Herman. In other words, Herman is a chain letter in cake form. The crux of Herman is yeast. Herman hails back to the days when yeast was grown by the baker and the recipe was passed between friends for frugality purposes.

Herman Batter

I unfortunately can't share this recipe with most of my friends and family, so I entrust you now, to use the information below and start Herman in my honour in your country.

"Billy No Mates
Cake"

retitled (by me!) "International Friends Cake!"

Ingredients
1 Cup plain flour
1 Cup caster sugar
1 Cup plain natural (live) yoghurt
Half Cup milk
1 small sachet fast-action dried yeast (breadmaker yeast)

Put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

Mix to a smooth batter-like consistency.

If the mixture is too thick to run off the spoon,
add a little more milk and re-mix.

Set aside for 24 hours, the mixture will be frothy and bubbly, smelling of alcholol/fermentation

Stir-- the froth will collapse, but remain bubbly.

This is your starter batter for International friend cake...now...Herman the German!

Measure out 1/2 pt (1.2 cups) and start day 10 on the instructions.... http://www.hermanthegermanfriendshipcake.com/

It is reported to be a very good cake, so give it a go! I'll let you know my personal verdict in a few days when my Herman is complete.

Finally, we went to Brighton after Neil picked me up from Heathrow and took a long walk with the dogs. Delilah enjoyed rolling around in oyster shells, and Samson smiled the entire walk through. They were two tired puppies when we got home.

Delilah loving the sea

Samson, Me, and Delilah with Neil (taking photo)

Samson after a great day in Brighton

Delilah after Brighton

Til next time....

6th March 2012

Happy Birthday, Michael! He turned 10 yesterday and he sure has grown up fast. I remember when he was born, looking at him and wondering 'Who will this person be?'. I have been delighted to watch him become a happy, independent, funny, and bright boy.

He didn't have a party with his friends this year, but he got some very exciting gifts, such as a JD Bugg Scooter, Lego Batcave, Batwing, and Superman and Lex Luther sets, plus other exciting gifts. He went to McDonalds for lunch and I made him a Dr. Who cake.

On Saturday, we went to Brighton for the Annual Saltdean Pasteboard and Plastics Boardgame meetup. I was looking for a picture for it and found this blog post, which amusingly has some pictures of Neil. However, it is from 2010!

http://kevinandgames.blogspot.com/2010/11/saltdean-pasteboard-and-plastic-13.html

The day was a resounding success from a fundraising perspective for the Scouts, and for us; as we had the chance to play Norenberc and Glory to Rome, which is one of my all time favorite games.

I pinched this photo from Little Metal Dog, so if you want some more info on the game, check out their review of the game here: http://littlemetaldog.com/2011/04/06/ch-check-it-out-glory-to-rome-review/

We were able to take off for a whole day of gloriously selfish gaming because our puppy sitting co-op was put into use. We met a local couple who also have two young basset hounds and now we are minding each others puppies for the odd day out and holiday. Samson and Delilah seemed to have an excellent time with Bella and Bertie. I think they both look quite tired in this shot!

(Left to right: Samson, Delilah, Bertie and Bella)

Tonight, Neil is in London playing Glory to Rome with some of his work colleagues. Every Tuesday evening they play a few games after work and it has been quite a success. In fact, they seem to enjoy it so much that for Neil's birthday they MADE a game for him. That is pretty special.

I am taking driving lessons. I have been driving for over 20 years, but there are different styles of driving and I need to learn a technique that undoes most of what I learned in the US. It is hard going, but I am making progress. The hardest part for me is learning the signs. Some don't seem to be obvious. --for example, if you are on a ramp entering a motorway (interstate) and you see a giant red X sign, would you think 'oops! this must be the wrong way?!?!?'...because, that is what I thought. However, it means.....Don't stop. Yeah...the big X means 'don't stop'....I don't think that is intuitive. Also, a round sign, with a red border showing a car and a bicycle. I would think...'Oh, that must mean only cars and bicycles', but it means 'NO cars and bicycles'. I personally would put a SLASH through things not allowed. But hey, I didn't make the rules, I just gotta learn them!

Parting thoughts, we are going to see Les Miserables in a few weeks as part of Michael's Birthday gift. (He has watched Les Miserables about 15 times in the past 2 months on Dvd. He loves it.).

The dogs are enjoying their walks to school and they are learning to follow commands such as ''Easy' (don't pull), 'Wait' (wait for me or wait at a street crossing). They are getting calmer with people and I am feeling more confident that they won't jump on everyone that walks within easy paw range.

Til next time.

16 January 2012 -- We're back!

We're back! I gave my notice at work and took on the role of stay at home mom/wife.  Both Neil and I working in London left the family short changed, and when we calculated the money I was taking home after we deducted all the expenses of my working, it just didn't make sense to continue.

My last day was 17th December, and we flew to South Africa the very next day for a 3 week holiday.  The details of the South Africa trip will be covered on Facebook through photos for the time being.  I don't have access to the bulk of the photos taken, but I will definately revisit it in the future. To summarize, we stood at the tip of Africa at Cape Point, swam with penguins (and almost swam with a shark!), had many great meals with family, walked the beach every day; watched the sun rise in the east over the Indian Ocean, and set over the Atlantic on the last day of 2011.  We went to a wedding, and a to a game farm, to the top of Table Mountain, and rode horses on Noordhoek beach.

I am very pleased to have met the bulk of my In-laws over the past month.  It has been a long time coming and I was touched by how kindly they treated me and Michael.  We are very lucky to be part of such a fabulous family.
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Now that I am staying home, I find I need a little help in the 'getting things in order department'.  The trusty Flylady is always available for inspiration, and little by little I am managing to get the house back to order.  Along with Flylady, is the handy Cozy Calendar application, which allows me to add events to my family calendar, make grocery and to-do lists with ease.  You would be amazed at how rusty I am at doing school runs and managing my time at home!

I searched around a found a brilliant leash coupler on Amazon by Company of Animals:

 Today was the first official school run with two very excited, very strong Bassets in tow.  (Actually, I was in tow).  I have no doubt that my upper body streangth is going to increase exponentially over the next few weeks, but they really love having two 1.5 mile walks a day and already show signs of feeling more calm in the house. (picture to come).

My favorite part of being home is having time to cook.  I love cooking, the whole process is very relaxing for me.  I bought a cook book Cook & Enjoy, in South Africa.  I made Bobotie, beef casserole and a pumpkin fritter so far, and I have two very happy guys here that appreciate and enjoy my efforts. I also bought a bread maker and already have made 3 loaves of brown bread.

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Michael has had a very good news from Lego; they have reinstated Lego Batman as Lego SuperHeroes!   He has already purchased this set.  He has paged through the Lego catalog so much the pages look old and worn and its only a week old.

Well thats it for now.  Til next time!
 

15 April 2010

Mike's 8!!!

While The Tiny Paper should be a priority for me, I am afraid of late it has not. It's not that I have lost interest, it is just that there literally, are not enough hours in the day.

Still, a short update is due, so hang on for a brief summary of the past month.

Michael and I travelled back to the States for his twice yearly visit with his dad.

I flew back to the UK so that I wouldn't miss 3 weeks of work, and brought back a large amount of games for review for the magazine. We are played some of those games to add reviews for the next issue of www-thru-the-portal.com, which has managed to come together within the deadline despite Neil's laptop being held hostage by the Sony service center.

While Michael was away we got the chance to attend some of the gaming meetups in London and Brighton, and we met some fabulous people there. This inspired us to find a babysitter, and we now have a number of one of the Kidco employees who is available for occasional babysitting in the evenings and weekends. Last Friday we took the leap, and called the sitter for a night out in London. We saw Watershed and got a signed copy of their lastest album "A Million Faces", which, if you look hard enough you can see a photo of us on.

We also have started on a rather ambitious calendar project, and we are recieving the needed support of the publishers to move forward with it in time for it's release at Essen in October.

On the trip to collect Mike from the states, Mike and I had several days to spend with the Grandparents in New Jersey, and a nice get together with the extended family to catch up and celebrate Michaels birthday. Mike was very happy to see his cousins, and we enjoyed the time spent.

In karate, they recently held grading, but we didn't let Michael grade this time, because he had missed about 6 classes between his trip and sickness since he had obtained his red belt, and while he probably would have passed the test, it didn't seem fair to all of the kids who did attend all of the classes and worked hard to earn it. No worries though! An additional grading will be held in a few weeks, and Michael will be able to grade at that session, where he will surely earn his yellow belt.

It's nice to have spring finally upon us, and we are getting out as much as possible. Last weekend we went to Brighton for the day, and it was nice to finally have the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather after the long chilly months.

Currently all UK flights are grounded due to volcanic ash from Iceland, and the election is looming.

That's the news, til next time!

6 February 2010

The big news!!!

thru-the-portal has been launched, and after only one week it has been downloaded all over the world! We are quite excited about this, and Neil worked very hard to put together the magazine. I was very impressed with the quality and content, and I am sure the readers are as well. We already have some great content lined up for the next quarterly, so it will be fun to watch it take off as more people become aware of it.




Happy Belated New Year!

Sorry to say, this blog is going to take a bit of a hit in regards to timely posts. Between work, the magazine (which you should definately check out at www.thru-the-portal.com, if you haven't already) and the beginning of my law studies, well, there just isn't a whole lot of time left to keep up with posting.

The good news is that we have still managed to get out and have fun times together. :)

Several weeks ago we went bowling with one of Michael's classmates and his mother, who is also from America. It was Michaels first time bowling, and he did wonderfully, beating us all, though his friend came in close second.











We have been snowed in for part of January. Basically as soon as I got my permanant offer in the office, it became nearly impossible to actually get to work with all the snow we had. The trains are pretty horrendous, as there is not an accurate website or phone line to call that will tell you what the trains are REALLY doing. So if you manage to make it into the station (ha ha, they don't plow the roads, or even salt the secondary roads in our area)...then you are likely to find there are no trains even running through the station. Still, it doesn't snow here that often, so one can't complain too much about the lack of infastructure in place...it's just that it has snowed this year more than it has in the previous 100....

We did get out though, and took a walk to the pub for some lunch, posing with snowmen along the way. We were lucky to find these guys before they were beheaded by the local gang of decapitating snowman thugs. :)



Michael has been taking his vitamins, and he is getting big muscles...don't you think?




Michael designed this Bionicle. He is quite proud of it, and rightfully so. We need to send it into the Lego club website for him.









We had a wonderful Christmas. I got this fabulous game, Pandemic. Each player takes the role of a member of the Centers for Disease Control and...well..if you really want to know more about it then you can read the review in thru-the-portal! :)



It is a testament to what a great job I have that my boss got me the game Logo! How fabulous is it that she picked up on my hobby, and actually went through the trouble to get something so nice when I had only been working there for two months? I was thrilled.


From our BoardGameGeek secret santa, we got Dominion and a Ticket to Ride expansion. We really enjoy Dominion, and it has become one of the favorites around our house.



My mother, ever the EXCELLENT present buyer, managed to pick up this Bobbi Brown Lip Pallette, which was a limited edition Nordstoms item, really not easy to find, and has an amazing 7 colors (all usably attractive). I don't like the lipstick in the UK, and Bobbi Brown is my favorite line of makeup. Thanks mom!



Over Christmas break we decided that Mike's legos needed to be custom painted, as one of his gifts were custom face decals for the Lego batman line. He wanted the characters to have the correct colored bodies for the faces (understandably). We also had some figures from a few of our games that needed some painting. We killed a few afternoons playing around with paint.



We had Lobster and tomato soup for our Christmas dinner, though we technically had it on boxing day. It was really delicious .




Here are the Lego guy's customized. I know it would make more sense to have them above the lobster, but Blogger doesn't feel like allowing me to move pictures today, so I am just going to go along with this so that I actually publish the post rather than put it off yet ANOTHER month or so. I hope you understand!



Neil and Michael got bath robes from Santa, and they look smashing in them. I got one a few weeks later because I was pouting and jealous :)



Michael got power miners from grandma and grandpa, and he was very excited to get them. He put all of his lego sets together within 24 hours of receiving them.




Finally,

Happy Birthday Neil! He is 35 now!

We treated him to dinner, a night out to see Wicked (again)..though it was Mike's first show, and Neil was very pleased to be with Michael for it. We had a chocolaty chocolate cake and he got BattleLore for his present, along with a few extra cards for Monty Python Fluxx.

Til next time.

20 December 2009

It has been so long since last updated that I hardly remember what has been going on! Right after Speiltage I started my new job in London. I suppose that has been the biggest factor in my lack of posting. The commute is fine, and I have had no trouble adjusting to the 9 – 5 schedule again, and the location is great, right around the corner from the British Museum, which is fun to stroll around over lunch from time to time. I finished knitting my cowl, which some of you may have seen on Facebook, and I include here.

We also celebrated Halloween with a little bit of trick or treating, pumpkin carving, and Michael dressed as Spiderman. We put up a few spooky decorations around the house, including glowing spiders.

Bonfire night was an exciting adventure for us. We went to a party in London and had great food, company, fireworks and a bonfire. It was very exciting stuff! For the internationally inept, Bonfire night is in memory of Guy Fawkes trying to blow up the parliament. It wouldn’t be complete without a viewing of “V”

Michael had a Christmas Fete at school. They had games crafts, face painting, and food and we had a lovely day. Michael was also able to pick out presents for us and have them wrapped, and we are very excited to see what surprises he chose for us! He also had Pirate day at school recently, and we worked hard on making his pirate costume special for him. Mad Michael Cash was quite impressive!

We have been busy with gaming. Neil has been working on thru-the-portal very diligently, with a bit of help here and there from me. We went to Dragonmeet in London, where Neil met the creator of 1666, a new game, and we both entered the Ticket to Ride tournament, which was a frustrating experience to say the least due to organization issues.

Michael earned his red belt in karate, and yesterday we attended the SKF Karate Christmas Party for some disco-ing and games.

We got a bit of snow on Thursday Night, and Neil and Mike made a lovely snowman.

Ah! Now we are all caught up to Christmas!!!

Til next time!