Memphis Belle

We went to the Air Show at St Cloud today. Amazingly there was a Flying Fortress (B-17) which you could fly in. We settled for a walk-through - T was rather disappointed on that compromise, but we were amazed. Still quite thrilling though. They make a lot more fuss of war Veterans here; a bunch of real life heroes were there to chat about their past.

Surprisingly, there was also a Luftwaffe vet, and, what I suspect, though this would have to be proved, a contingent of the local Neo-Nazis (quite big in Minneapolis).

You can see the pix on my facebook page.

Tea and Hamburgers

The local corner-shop has obviously missed a gap in the market. They have completely sold out of PG-Tips. Did they not realise that everyone has their parents over from the UK at this time?? Alas, we will have to move to Yorkshire Tea instead (the cheap one).

Harry's project for the week is doing the lilac hedge. It's about 15 foot long, but, with the surprising heat during the day, may prove to be similar task-wise as the painting of the Forth Bridge.

We went to see Treasure Island today at the local AmDram. It's not bad there as their productions are only about an hour, with no interval. T thought it was great, and no-one fell asleep. Afterwards, we tempted their palates with the best Minnetonka can offer - Snuffy’s. Hamburgers and malted shakes all round!

Hotmail Woes

I have still not managed to recover my hotmail account. I am a bit peeved, as, 15 years after first creating it, the nearest I can get now is an email address prefixed with hurra04, which at least makes me feel cheerfull each time I log on.

The hotmail team ignored me for the first week, and are now sending me e-mails asking me if I have done things I mentioned I had done in my original e-mail.

So for now, I am lounging in the arms of Mozilla and GMail, so yah-boo-sucks!

I had my hair done again - it's getting shorter each time - and also got waxed, as it should be summer for at least another 6 weeks. I was intrigued - the "Epi-Lady" had the hairiest arms I've ever seen.

I also had a pedi. Speaking to my mate Andrea, we weren't sure if a pedicure is actually quite classy, or everso slightly common. While I make up my mind, my toe-nails are a dark purple, which, obviously looks as if I have either dropped a plank across all ten-toes, or spent the afternoon sellotaping raisins to them.

We have 10 tomatoes on our 8 tomato plants. We shall be holding the christening next week.

Internet Shenanigans

I am currently suffering from a bout of Internet shenanigans, which unfortunately are not within my control. It seems that someone has managed to hack into my Hotmail account and changed the password. This means, obviously, I cannot answer any emails. It also means that should you receive an email from me with a subject header "Open this, this is ammayzink" (sic), with an attachment, it probably won't be a recipe for delicious chocolate ginger slump cake, but more likely to be a virus (of the non-piggy variety).

I would go in and change the password, if only the facility for doing this on Hotmail wasn't currently being displayed in Chinese...It currently looks as though my "secret question" is "Tender fragrant grass, how hard-hearted people can trample them?".

The parents-in-law's trip, so far, is going swimmingly. Although she hasn't said anything, I think Marney is quietly impressed that you can buy instant porridge containing sweets, and that my washing-up liquid has a built in air-freshener.

A-tishoo!

Last week was the start of the school holidays. By 10am that Monday I had received four phone-calls all prefaced with "I'm ON THE PHONE! Oh, hello, would T like a play-date?".

We've been doing lots of house-calls then, visiting the zoo, going to the pictures. Instead of Mandarin Chinese, we're actually making lots of forts in the garden, and revisiting Enid Blyton and her numerous insufferable brats.

As T's toe was still in the painful stage, we borrowed someone's push-chair to go around MOA (the Mall of America, dontcha know). For the first time I was actually able to do some shopping there as there was no-one whingeing (as T in the pushie, and bridgjo was at work). Except I had forgotten just how awkward push-chairs can be - especially there as the lift at the car-park does not actually arrive at the same level as the sky-way - you have to take a flight of stairs down.

The zoo was incredibly hot. Again she was in the push-chair (I began to get paranoid, convinced that people were judging my parenting-skills letting her slob in there. Each day's trip was making me put a larger and larger bandage on her toe), so negligible complaining. Sometimes that is good. There they have strategically placed showers on the walkways so that you can stand under and get a light misting. Very pleasant on the super hot days they seem to have here (NO! I am NOT complaining!).

Yesterday we went to the art shop to get crafting supplies for when the grand-parents visit (today). T managed to drop a block of wood, corner down, on the exact same toe, just where the nail had come off.

Do you ever receive a "sign"? Not the heavens opening, streaming light sort of sign, but more practical? Sort of one day, you hear a word for the first time, and learn its meaning, and the next day it's used 3 times on the news.

The previous week I was driving home and saw a woman pull-over on the motor-way with a flat-tyre (tire for my American readers, I'm so thoughtful). I thought "Ho-hum, what a pain to have a flat on the motor-way, (free-way. Oh never mind, this is too hard). So when I later drove to school, I walked around the car, kicking the tyres, and lo! The back one was all squishy (never a good sign). So off I trundled to the near-by garage, and the chap very kindly sorted it out there-and-then for me for $12.50. Extremely handy service indeed (though I am never sure if you are expected to tip that sort of thing?) - so at least my fortuitous sign meant I didn't have to suffer a buckled wheel-trim and the possible ignominy of having to flag someone down cause my phone's dead.

So the stagiaire's now been kicked-out to make room for our next visitors - bridgjo's mum and dad. She said as she left "That room's quite big really when it's tidy, isn't it?". Indeed.

Oh, and as I left the play-date yesterday, my friend said, "Oh, I didn't tell you - the other week we went to a party, and such-and-such called up the next day saying 'Are you all OK? Only Sebastian's just been diagnosed with Swine Flu'". (And in case you're interested, everyone is fine, and it was just like normal flu for the people who got it).

Ow!

Poor T. The first day of the holidays, and she drops a large piece of plastic piping on her foot, and spectacularly explodes her big toe. It's the kind of injury which makes me want to hop and yelp "fnkf...knkf....fnkf..." each time I glance at it.

I went to the Chemists to get some Dettol this morning for a nice foot-bath and the assistant laughed "you know, you're the second person to come in today and ask for it.I shall have to google it". They do not have it here. When she asked what it was for (antiseptic; the smell; the fact that Mother used it), she said "That's exactly what the last person said too". It must be an English thing, like Branston. Though admittedly slightly less messy when applied to feet.

Bridgjo bought our first barbie this weekend. Technically, it is the second, as the first one was off FreeCycle, and is just large enough for one small chop.

I went and bought a couple of steaks today. The T-Bones were "just over a 1lb". Isn't that about the definition of a roast??

T's holiday is up for the following activities: ice-skating, Bollywood dancing, piano, tennis. We decided against the Mandarin Chinese course, as we thought it might be Too Much.

The au-pair was telling us about being at a night-club the other night with one of the other teachers. As they were dancing, a girl stood on L's foot,and made her cry out with pain. Except that in French, they don't say "Ow", they say "Eye!" (approximately). They thought she was being friendly, shouted "Hi!" back, and whipped her off for a dance. C had to rescue her after the second dance.

Pee Ess

The Contact Lenses arrived! This thrills me with the sort of excitement that you can only get from opening a box worth $500. Obviously a slight anti-climax. If only bridgjo would let me spend the same amount with equal gay abandon on, say, Jimmy Choos ("but you don't understand - I need them to seeeeee!").