Maybe in January I'll get some down time?
Yesterday we walked to the downtown area three times! The first time we took Haven. We had to go to the post office. And there were ice sculptures being made along the riverwalk.
We even walked around on the riverboat. Haven wasn't so sure about that.
We were out for about an hour and a half during our first trip downtown. We decided to go back toward the end of the time the sculptures were being made. On our way back the second time we saw someone we knew and ended up chatting for awhile and ended up missing the winning sculpture being named (hopefully it'll be in the paper this week).
Here are some of the finished products.
We headed back home and had a couple of hours before walking back to Main Street again. This time it was for the parade, which was pretty cool. It was the first time we watched the parade even though we've lived here for almost seven years!
My favorite part was the cow!! The local fruit/produce stand had him/her. The cow had a big green blanket on it with red garland on it. Cool! There was also a hot air balloon company that had a burner as part of their float. From time to time the big flame would go off and everyone would oooh and aaah. I also liked the old pipe organ that used to be on the riverboat. Someone was playing Christmas tunes on it as it rolled along (on a float).
There were a lot of people watching the parade. It was a good thing that we walked because it was crazy with all of the cars trying to leave. It was fun participating in some of our small town activities. You can see more photos of the ice sculptures in this Flickr album. I didn't have the camera with me during the parade so no photos there.
As promised - pics!
I am not a fishing fan, but these are good.
Specially the way the links look like the Predator...
After a relatively warm November winter has decided to make an appearance. When we went to bed last night there were a couple of inches of snow already on the ground. The dogs loved it. They were chasing each other around. Haven was eating snow. Beacon was chasing snowballs.
Things were a bit different this morning. With snow up to their bellies the dogs weren't as eager to hang out in the stuff. I'm sure we'll take pictures of them playing in it over the weekend.
Moo is home. YAY!
She's figured out the baby gate! :)
So, another tear-jerker dog book. As I stated in my last post, this one is much more "to-the-point". It is the author's recollections of his family, and dogs, and having to make the tough, end of life decisions for one of them (one of the dogs, that is). There really isn't a story to it or a plot, it was just a guy talking about his love for his dogs, but it was still a good read. My only real gripe with it is that there seemed to be some serious name-dropping going on in a few sections. But it could also be that this guy really is good friend's with these folks and that they played an important part to his coping with his grief. The problem is, I didn't get that sense from it...it really just seemed like name-dropping in the middle of a sad memoir.
Trouble has have moved into our house, and I need to know how to get it to move out!
Things you do not want a telephoning child to say - We have a problem. How do we turn off the water?
Things you do not want to find when you arrive home - Water pouring from the light fittings, the ceilings in general, flooding on the floor, discovering some of this water is hot.
Things it is quite nice to find when you get home - your three male children have managed to deal with a crisis without making it worse. And the dinner wasn't ruined either.
The boys were cooking dinner and went into the garden for a cigarette (as they are not allowed to smoke in the house). They took Heidi out, smoked their ciggies and chatted. 10 minutes, 15 max. When they got in, it was raining. Inside.
The massive leak was caused by a joint going in the piping from our hot water tank (middle floor bathroom) to our shower (top floor bathroom). Unfortunately for us, that water gets from A to B using a substantial pump. So it pumped and it pumped and it pumped.
The lads got the water turned off, having to move all Husband's quite heavy diving cylinders out of the way, they got towels and receptacles under leaks, they turned the dinner down so it didn't burn and they turned the lights off.
So, right now these are the things we do not have:
No lights downstairs - somehow, the light fittings did not appreciate water dripping flooding rushing over them.
No hot water to our lovely en-suite shower - but we do have cold, so the toilet flushes and we can clean our teeth (and sleep commando!)
No Internet - our hub was in the under-stairs cupboard, directly under the leak.
We need to decorate quite intensively - the stairwells, the under-stairs cupboard, downstairs toilet, computer room, hall, and dining room all suffered varying degrees of dampness, resulting in varying degrees of paper falling off and damage to the plaster.
Ah well, on Friday we find out how much of this our insurance will cover. Fingers crossed for us, please.
It's a bright Autumn morning in the small town of Chester's Mill. Claudette Sanders is having a flying lesson and Dale Barbara is hitching a ride out of town. Neither make it to their destination...
Inexplicably, an invisible barrier had descended over the town. a woodchuck is chopped right in half; a gardener's hand is severed at the wrist; the plane explodes and Dale Barbara, Iraq war vet turned short-order cook, is forced to turn back into the town he so desperately needed to leave
As the residents speculate about what has cut them off from the rest of the world, the Army searches for an inside man. "Barbie" is put in charge. But Big Jim Rennie, the mad who holds the town in his powerful grip, has other plans. And the Dome could just be the answer to his political prayers.
As food, electricity and water run short and children start to have premonitions of a terrifying Halloween, Barbie is forced to take on Big Jim, and his renegade supporters. Now time is running out for those under the Dome. Can they find out what has created in before it's too late?
Stephen King's mesmerizing new masterpiece - his biggest, most riveting novel since The Stand - features spectacularly sinister characters and a terrifying phenomenon. Under the Dome is a high-octane thriller, an apocalyptic vision and a fascinating allegory on a tyrannical state of political darkness.
Loved it. It is mesmerizing, it is big and, after an initial hiccup a little way in, it is riveting. The speed of moral decay is frightening and the division between Law and Order scary beyond measure. Buy it. Borrow it from the library or a friend (I'm in Harrow, if you wanna borrow my copy) - whatever. Just read it. It is good.