Just. Too. Hot.

Forty degrees today. I know. I'm never satisfied. T's ice-skating started up again this evening, and most of the town had turned up to watch, it seemed, sitting on the frigid bleachers in shorts and vests. Her classroom was so warm at school, that they had to have lessons in the cafeteria. Alas, like in Australian schools, there seems to be very little air-conditioning for what, when it's not minus forty, is plus.

I overheard this at the ice-rink: Child reading Malory Towers: "Mommy, what's a 'blazer'?". Mommy: "It's a kinda snow-mobile, honey".

I've been doing more running. One of my favourite tracks is to run along the railway-line, which is a common evening walk for a lot of people around here (the rails have a utility vehicle track along side, so are quite wide). The consensus is that it is 'most likely illegal', but the drivers wave to you, and the police just drive on by. For a state which seems to have quite a loose definition of 'gun-control', they probably think "Well, if you're daft enough to be walking along a track when a 120-carriage freight train is rolling-along, is there really anything we can do or say to help you?". And, yes, they are really 120 carriages long - this means (quick mental calculation) with each one 20m long, it can sometimes straddle several railway crossings at once; effectively cutting one side of the town from the other. I tried to run along side of one the other day as it was waiting for its green-light, but gave up and ate chocolate instead.

I have a problem, otherwise, on where to run. Memorial Day was last week (white heels - hurrah!), which means that everyone (else) has opened up their cabins, and cracked open the Glad-Wrap on their boats. As the roads here can be quite narrow, the boat-trailers quite wide and the road-kill plentiful, it means there's sometimes very little space for me (pavements are non-existent....everywhere requires a car, and today I treated myself both to the drive-through chemists, and the drive-through post-box).

And I'm not able to run cross-country at the moment because of the ticks. The ones you can see are OK...it's the ones the size of poppy-seeds which are the ones to scream hysterically at.

I took an executive decision last week (i..e spent a Lancashire man's money without asking him first), and bought some furniture for the 3-season porch. In the last house we were always being nibbled at by the voracious mosquitoes, but here, luckily, there is a balcony enclosed with screens - pretty handy on a swamp. It also has a ceiling fan and speakers for piped music, if only we could be bothered with trying to figure out how it works. Once or twice we have found ourselves sitted in there, Conversing.

Bridgjo had a good day's kayaking on the river, which is very high, due, of course, to the snow. He took T out on the lake, but she sat in the back, with her friend in front, and let her do all the work. Chip off the old block.

Why-oh-Why Wayzata?

It was a fair bit alarming to be told 3 months ago that we had to move out. As the credit crunch had hit people quite severely, it meant that people were selling low (in the case of the house in Minnetonka) and renting high (ie everything else). It seemed pretty unlikely we were going to find anything like that which we had at the time. I saw 15 places in one week - overpriced, not nice neighbourhood, odd layouts or, surprisingly, filthy.

Luckily bridgjo came through and we were able to score a jolly nice place outside of Wayzata. The only down-side is that it is pretty close to the rail-way line which isn't too noisy (they move all the freight at night, as the length of the trains (up to 90 wagons) can block off all the crossings in the area for about a mile), but the bed actually does hop slightly around the room. As it is also built next to a swamp I can only guess that the foundations must be pretty rock-solid.

We had an army of little men over three days who packed, moved and unpacked. I like this as otherwise I know that any unpacked boxes would remain just that for the next 12 months.

It's smaller on the ground-floor than our place in Minnetonka, lacking the huge back-room which we never used. But it does have a fully converted basement ("Play-room!), completed with two sets of hooks in the ceiling to hang off swings (as it's too cold for small possums to play outside in the winter, of course). The kitchen is great with two ovens, dish-washer and wine-fridge, although the fridge itself and freezer are a little bit English in size.

The biggest down-size to everything is that because the ceilings are so high (we'll have to get somebody in to change bulbs), and the counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms non-standard (about 10cm higher than usual), I feel about 8. I have to use a stool to cook, and do my prep on the table.

T loves the jacuzzi, although we haven't tried the steam shower yet. The jacuzzi even has a setting to keep the water warm. She's not so keen on the fact that in trying to find our bed-room during the night she keeps ending up in the linen-press.

I am very definitely going to get a sewing machine and run up the curtains, They need to be about 8 feet long, and am not sure Ikea does cheap voile ready-mades in that size.

So we have space if you fancy a visit.

Sailing off into the Sun-set

A very nice week-end last week-end.



First-off was our first barbie of the season at Isabelle's. John, with all his natural charm as befits a Yorkshireman, informs me my French is still painful - but at least I managed to make it through the entire evening with only one enormous wine-induced mistake (when I describe Tizzy's hair decoration as a magic wand (baguette) as opposed to a hair-slide (barrette), although by that time I suspect even the Swiss themselves also thought I was quite fluent).



Isabelle has a very nice house out in Plymouth - with three ovens, a wine cooler and a dish-washer (see, showing my age. I should have pointed out the pool first). She says it's a bit small for them, but only by American standards, ie they can't cycle around their West Wing like what we can.



On Sunday we were invited out on The Boat. This is a big thing for us, as we hadn't been out on the lake before. these friends have their own company, where, I understand they produce brochures of boats. This means they (or rather the Company) has a rather spiffy "pontoon" ie a wide, three-hulled boat, which, get this, actually has legs which come down independently when you want to stop, and stabilize it completed flat so you don't get buffeted. I'd thought we'd only be out for an hour, but we were out for 4 (more wine), and I even risked a dip (pretty nippy). We went to Big Island out on Lake Minnetonka. I have been told "no definite article, as that marks you out as a Hawaiian or a foreigner". That's the place where all the kids in Daddys' boats go to hang out at the weekend, moore the boats close together so they can run from one to another and, quite frankly, drink themselves silly. Sigh - if only I had been 19 there instead of in Karlsruhe. I think there used to be an amusement park there, but now only enormous $$$ houses.



This week is T's French week at school (ummm, aren't they all?), but it basically implies a week of playing about, as each afternoon is dedicated to a different activity eg Kermesse (sort of school fete/sports day), soccer, fashion show. It's actually her last day tomorrow. Hasn't the year flown by, etc.