Eeek!

Poor T. She does get an awful lot of unjustified flack, just because she is the shortest person in the house. Yesterday evening, I went into the drawer (you know, the one which contains crap, just above the drawer which holds all the plastic bags), and found that every single one of the Oxo stock cubes had been opened - even the ones in the tin (which had also been prised open). Naturally, the only person to blame in the house was the small one....and after getting rather a bit too cross, I had a closer look.....and the drawer was, indeed, full of crap. From a mouse's bottom.

So I had to empty all the drawers, and the cup-boards (emptying the rubbish drawer directly into the bin. Yes, even the elastic bands and the partly used party candles), spraying everything and everywhere with bleach, immersing in scalding water, then sticking it all in the dish-washer.

There are gaps in the cup-boards where they have got in, leading to the back of the dish-washer and then outside.

So off went bridgjo to the hardware store at about 8pm (which we can do here, because we're in the US, and the shops don't shut at 5, like they seemed to do in Switzerland), and got "humane" mouse-traps.

We had had them on our list in any case, as, although the squirrels had been sorted out by the trappers quite well, there was still a lot of night-time activity above T's bed, which they said was mice (as they kept nipping in the squirrel traps, eating the peanut butter, and scurrying out without setting them off).

So we placed them strategically about the kitchen last night and managed to bag one this morning.

So, animal-loving fools that we are, we bundled into the car in minus 10 centigrade, so we could release it back into the wild (obviously several blocks from where we live). We gave it some cheese and let it out, so at least it was still alive at that point.

Today, in-between mouse-detail, we went off to the Ridgedale shopping centre to exchange my new espresso machine for the second time. On Thursday it was the plastic casing which was broken, and yesterday it was the carafe. This time I decided on a de-Longhi, instead of the much cheaper Krups. It's made a really quite decent cup of coffee too, though it did seem a bit of a faff the first time (fill with water, warm the machine, warm cups and place on heating plate, fill with coffee and tamper down (but not too much, yes, that's about right), make coffee, froth milk, ladle and decorate accordingly, leave to cool and repeat for a second cup. Don't understand why tea has never really caught on here.

I was telling my friend about going to Ridgedale on Thursday, and got as far as "and the funniest thing....", and she interrupted me "You mean the 'Mall Walkers?'".

Yes, they even have a phrase for them. These are the people (generally of a certain age, but I also saw young mums with prams), who go to the mall an hour before the shops open, just to walk around to get their exercise, as it is too jolly cold to do it anywhere else (I kept seeing these old biddies speed-walking passed me in sneakers and sweat-pants, with nicely-set hair).

Friday was T's school play. The theme this year was a King and Queen who were turned to ice, and needed to be cheered up in order to be thawed out. The French joke section was a bit hard-going (Who is the president of vegetable? Mr S'haricot-zy), but the singing and dancing was great. As usual the plus petite section (who are about 3) stole the show with their interpretation of 60's dancing.

After this, I nipped across town (tentatively, as there was still ice about) to go to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. It was a hoot. It is quite amazing what people can actually purchase/receive for Christmas.

We then exchanged "rubbish presents" (each had to have a story, and had to have been received as a gift). I think the best one was from a guy called Steve Smith, who regifted a present given to him by his father-in-law. It was a wallet with a gold "B" on it.

I have had another winter advisory message on my phone - everyone stay inside from 9pm tonight till tomorrow morning.

Time to Rug Up

First real snow driving of the season. Naturally, everyone else drives as if they have never seen snow before, and I was glad coming home from T's eye practice that we came the back-roads way (25 m/hr with no-one else about, and I could take the corners like a steam-roller). Already the free-way was crawling along.

We are going to have a good old snow-storm ("andja only get one like this one a decade," they said on the radio) which will last about 24 hours. We should be getting about 8". In '91 they got 29" in three days. There were food shortages at the supermarkets.....but only of the junk-food variety. Less of the "pop out for a bottle of milk," and more "For God's sake, don't forget the pepperoni!".

T was given some tiny Puppies in My Pocket (the sort of size toy manufacturer's currently delight in, which are just perfect for getting sucked up the hoover), which you put into iced water so that their nappies change colour and you can tell if they are girls or boys. T said that today when the kids were flung into the play-ground, she was standing there...."and they all went blue".

Madame yesterday met me at the class-room door and said "Good, I've caught you. Now, I need 20 cat masks for Friday. I've bought the foam", and presented me with sheets of craft material and elastic. I felt a little like Rumpelstiltskin. So I did that; tie-dying last week; and today helping at lunch and then laminating all the letters of the alphabet. T is going to be an Alpha-bete (a hilarious French pun); the letter J, I believe. I would so like a laminating machine. Not sure what I'd laminate, but it's great fun. Recipes, articles, socks...

Next week, I'm dinner-ladying again, and helping out in one of the class-rooms. A bit of a hoo-hah a couple of weeks ago when one of the teachers went a bit bonkers and had to be escorted off the premises, so they are short on anyone to help-out, but long on gossip if you do want to actually do your bit.

I got my battery sorted. He comes around, drops me a car off, takes mine away, and, this time, met me at school and we swapped over again.

And the tree was in the back of bridgjo's wardrobe. So, how did it get there then?

Art Attack

I went into T's class last week, with the purpose of asking her teacher whether it would be a nice idea for the class to do a series of Birds of Minnesota pictures for the class-room. The idea was that I could find all the local birds in Latin and French, get the children to draw them, and we would label them aka the Voyages of the Beagle Botanical sketches.

Today - I had to give a presentation (with print-outs!). And I am proud to say that my feasibility study has been accepted by the Gala committee, and not only will each child produce their own volucrine masterpiece as a limited print for the grannies to swoon over, but we will present the originals in a leather portfolio for one of the auction items at the end-of-year auction. And then, we will be rolling out coasters and place-mats (really).

A sign went up in the school corridor this afternoon: Remember, that unless then temperature falls below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the children will be going outside to play and will require their snow-suits, mittens and hats.

They make them tough around here.

And I cannot find my Christmas tree. It was suggested that maybe the stagiaire took it with her when she left on her road-trip, but even I had a job imagining just how she would sneak it out. But, quite amazingly, I have all the boxes of decorations AND the empty tree box, but no tree or lights.

I had to sort out two grown-up things today - getting the local lad to dig our drive of snow (I know he was a lad, because when I asked for a written quote he said "Yeah, OK, I'll just ask my M...Secretary to get one out to you"). The second one was that my car battery has suddenly started coughing on me each time I try and turn on the ignition. The chap asked me when I called up, if I had checked the contacts. He had to ask me twice as the first time I must have phased out and thought "Oh, bridgjo can answer this one", even though I was the one actually on the phone.

The temperature has plummeted, and the poor little critters in the back garden are getting fluffier. We have grey foxes (the only ones which can climb trees), a family of raccoons (which can also climb trees and attempt to swing off the bird-table), two opossum (which are completely blind it seems, and are also the only marsupial outside of Australia. I have not seen pockets) and a myriad of local birds, including the blue jays, cardinals and, possibly, turkeys.

I buy the cheapest dried cat-food on special and put some outside each evening. Not in a bowl though, as the only time I did that the raccoons ran off with it and hid it somewhere.

We're not in Kansas anymore

We had a great time a couple of weeks ago when we went to the local school play (Hopkins High School). It was the Wizard of Oz, so I thought T would like it, as she knows the story and wouldn't be stage-whispering all the way through "But what's happening NOOOOOOWWW?". We were prepared for a "Aww, sweet" sort of play, but blimey it was professional (although in the first few minutes I did think to myself, "Gosh, she does an awfully good American accent").

For a start it was in the school's very own theatre (even with balconies, and box seats). There were pyrotechnics for the appearance of the Wizard, disappearance of the witch, and the moment when she attempts to touch Dorothy's shoes, and then there was the flight crew, which managed to get Miss Whateverhernameis all the way across the top of the stage on her bicycle. It was all rather brilliant, and made my paltry school nativity plays seem a bit half-baked.

Last weekend we went to Duluth (Mark Twain (allegedly) said that the coldest winter he ever experienced was summer in Duluth). Very weird sleeping and hearing the waves lap when you're not by the sea. Lake Superior (clue's in the question) is really rather big...next time I think we'll go further north and maybe stay a bit longer. Bridgjo wants to walk out onto the lake and look into the lake caves around there, which you can't normally get to.

On Sunday we managed to gird our loins and go into town (possibly the first time this year). We went late evening, so managed to go to Macy's display (disappointingly it was the same as last year), see the Big Guy himself, and then go outside to see the Holidazzle parade (a bit like Blackpool Illuminations, but without the rock). I had actually got tickets to see the parade from a heated tent, but it was insufferably hot inside, so instead we took our courtesy hot chocolates out onto the pavement to see the lit floats going past.

It was really a warm night (ie T had one of her coats unbuttoned). The weather's been quite clement, and only this morning did we have a delicate icing of snow. It was 18 degrees Fahrenheit. No idea what that is in shillings, but jolly nippy. I am now so Minnesotan - I have a hat and gloves in my car especially for when I go and fill up with petrol.

Still say petrol though.