Light

Before Danny's visit I replaced several light bulbs that had gone out. I don't know if it is a problem with the electricity or just cheap bulbs but we seem to lose lights frequently. And every time a bulb burns out it flips the breaker that all the lights in the flat are on. So we have to go find the breaker in the dark, flip it back, just to get all the lights back on minus the one that blew.

One of the light bulbs I replaced before Danny came was the one in the stairway. It dangles from a wire and is perfectly positioned so that it is too far over to reach from the top of the stairway and too far up to reach from the middle. I had to stand on a step stool at the top of the stairs, snag the cord on a broom stick, then hold onto the cord with one hand while changing the light with the other.

After Danny's visit I made another run to the store and replaced the rest of the burned out light bulbs in the flat because it is really so much nicer to have light. I wondered how long we could boast having all of our lights working.

Not long. The one light bulb in the fixture in my office that I didn't replace recently has just gone. You might not think it would be so, but it makes a big difference. It is dismal in here after the sun goes down and I had to move the bedside lamp onto my desk so I could see my guitar book.

Le sigh. I guess I'll have to go to the store again.

Sunshine!

Still no big adventures today but I did convince John to walk into town for lunch so we could enjoy the sun. The rain made it much colder outside the past few days so it is nice to have our spring weather back now.

We went by the school this afternoon to listen to the American law students talk about the universities they have chosen for their year in America. There are three, including Samford, that are partnered with UEA. The first year students had to say which university they have chosen and why. The second year students (who will spend next year in the US) had to give three facts about the place they are going. It was interesting to hear what they all thought were the most notable things about each place. I wish them well and hope that they learn as much from living in America as John and I have learned from living in England.

Not What I'd Planned

I didn't have a lot going on last week and I was really looking forward to this weekend when we would have the car and be able to go places. And we did go places yesterday...

...but not today. Today John was sick. So I tried to take care of him by telling him repeatedly how much more fun he is when he isn't sick, thereby motivating him to get better.

Instead of traveling we spent most of the day on the couch watching Dr. Who and playing Mario Party (a very low impact Wii game). It was a shame because there was actually less rain today.

Southwold

From what I understand some of my family line through Grandma Kay came from Southwold, which is in Suffolk County on the southern coast of East Anglia. I believe this is the place Southold, New York (which is also in Suffolk County) is named after.

Since John and I are renting a car currently we decided Southwold would be our first trip. It is not on the train line and also isn't that far from us (about an hour).

We had a very nice time. The coast is beautiful there. Very different from Great Yarmouth and a lot classier. John put it that they have expensive touristy things instead of cheap touristy things. It's true. There are a lot of art galleries.

We ate some coastal sea food at a local inn, then walked around looking for the old rail station (which was on the map we had). We couldn't find it, but we found the railway gift shop. The men in there were very friendly and I think they enjoyed talking to us. It turns out the old rail station is now the police station (which we had passed several times). They are trying to raise funds and get permission to get the old line running again. We bought some post cards and accepted a pamphlet talking about the rail foundation.

We considered going on a boat tour but decided we were already too wet from the rain. So instead we got pastries from the bakery and ate them on a bench overlooking the ocean.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around Norfolk because John is really enjoying having a car and his driving wasn't scaring me too much.

The coast:















I'm looking at the camera here, but the wind is blowing my hair in my face:

Shadows

I finally uploaded the pictures that were on my iphone. Here is one I thought was interesting.

Meanwhile Back at the Flat

I tried out a new running route today. I really like the park but I find that if I run too many laps in one place it is harder for me to be motivated to continue. Whereas if I run away from home and then have to run back that is great motivation to keep going. Especially when I will get cold pretty quickly if I stop moving!

So today I ran through the park, up to UEA, and around the lake. It went pretty well and I think it is about the same distance I've been running, but it was hard to tell because I got caught behind a group of elementary school children and that cost me a lot of time. There are also some hills which aren't fun to run on but provide an added challenge. And I am hoping that the fact that most of this run is on soft ground might help my shins.

After I got back home and spent a few hours thinking about it I finally cleaned the kitchen. It was a total disaster after last night's cooking adventures. Everything was covered in grease and there was Buffalo sauce spilled all over one counter and down the front of the washing machine (a great argument for not having laundry appliances in the kitchen). This is all not to mention the tremendous pile of dirty pots and pans. It took me over two hours but the kitchen is now as clean as it ever is. John went to school to work on some papers today and got home just as I was finishing up. Lucky boy.

American Food

There was an event at John's school tonight for the international students. Everyone was supposed to bring a dish from their country. We decided to try to make jalapeno poppers and Buffalo wings.

Fortunately, our car rental started today, so we were able to drive to one of the larger grocery stores. We found all the ingredients for making Buffalo wings, but no jalapenos. There were some fresh red chili peppers so we decided to try using them instead.

I made some vegan chili poppers just in case anyone who was coming was a vegan. Those I stuffed with a mixture of tofu, garlic, and a little oil and vinegar. I coated them with oil and gave them a light flour batter. This batter came off as soon as John put them in the oil.

The regular chili poppers were stuffed with cream cheese and had egg holding the batter on instead of oil. That batter stayed on a little better in the fry pan. My finger tips still burn from pitting the chilies.

John made the Buffalo wing sauce from the Anchor Bar recipe. It's mostly butter, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Then he fried the wings and coated them in the sauce.

At the dinner we had lots of good international foods and our contributions were well received. Pretty much everyone liked the Buffalo wings. The chilies were a little hotter than we imagined. People from European countries had the hardest time with them, but the Nigerians said that they were just right.

As always it was great to share dinner with the other students. I hope we will all be able to get together again before everyone leaves for the summer.

John Crumbs

Today I went to sit on the couch after John had been there and saw that there were crumbs on the cushion. I asked John what he had been eating because I wanted to know how grossed out I should be by what I almost sat on.

He said they were John crumbs.

Is that better or worse than cookie crumbs?

Shiny

Nothing much interesting happened today, but look what came across my Google reader:



Enjoy!

Ten Bells

On Friday night John and I went to a birthday party for Ashby. I didn't write about it on Friday because once we got home the "Peaches" post was about all I could manage.

We started out at a pub near where Ashby and Christine live called Ten Bells. A lot of people from school were there. Ashby and a friend from the US played guitar for a while, which was pretty awesome. My favorite were the blues songs.

I talked to various law school people until the concert was over and then wandered over to the table with John and two of his students who are both Irish and are both studying in the US next year. I think my favorite part of the night was when John interrupted the conversation I was having with one of the Irish guys who yelled at him, "Hey, we're talking about international politics here!" It made me feel smart. (Just don't ask me to remember the specifics of the conversation now.)

The party headed over to Frank's Bar, where Christine works and where we were promised cake. John and I ended up on the patio with the Irish guys where John recounted the "bloody eye" story and we heard all about one of the young men's love interests. "She isn't a wee lass, if you know what I'm sayin'. She's quite busty." (I guess grown men aren't much different from grade school boys.)

Overall it was a pretty good night during which I didn't drink too much, but may have eaten too little.

Conversations in Cambridge

John and I took a trip to Cambridge today. We wandered around, got some lunch, looked in the Anthropology and Archaeology Museum. Then we went down to the bridge to see if we could catch a punter falling into the water. As we were standing on the bridge making our own commentary on the punters and the ducks we could overhear the two guys next to us doing the same thing.

The next thing I knew, one of those guys was talking to us about the lost dignity of a particular punter who had taken his shirt off. Soon both guys were talking to us about their opinions on Cambridge and US state governors and various other random things. (I mentioned to them Uncle Sonny's plan to solve Georgia's water shortage by stealing back land from Tennessee. They were quite amused.) We ended up spending the rest of our time in Cambridge hanging out with our new friends and watching a rugby game in a nearby pub.

The one young man who was not as interested in rugby talked to me at length about how so many people don't want to connect with other people. They are not interested in making conversation with strangers. This really bothered him. It occurred to me that I am often that kind of person. I'm terrible at small talk and I'm shy. I put in the effort to get to know people I will see often, but someone I'm never going to see again? The thing is that being somewhat more isolated living here and not going to school like John does, maybe I'm starved for human interaction. I'm starting to see the value in making new friends, if only for the afternoon.

John and I ended up sitting with a very chatty woman on the train ride back. And as it turns out, she lives in Norwich and gave us her card. So her, we may see again. It has been a very full day.

Peaches

The other day, I noticed that John smelled especially fruity. I asked him if he had used my shampoo. He admitted that he had used my new Fruictis. Now, I hadn't even used my new Frucitis yet. My old shampoo was running low but hadn't run out. I asked him why he had used it. "Why?" He said, "Why else? I was trying to control my frizz." I'm glad John was benefitting from my anti-frizz shampoo.
Once I started using it I noticed how differnent it smelled from the Fructis I last used. It smelled like a soft fruit with a skin you could eat. Oh yeah, a peach. How could I forget a peach? I've been away from Georgia too long.

More Boobies

The first group of kids I had in the library today ended up staying with me for an extra long time. Paper airplane flying can quickly devolve into complete chaos, so once it was clear they needed something else to do, I suggested they look around the Memorial Library at some of the model airplanes and memorabilia.
I saw two boys laughing at a book that was on display. It looked like it was pictures of '50s swimwear, and there was a woman in a bikini on the front. They were arguing over whether or not she was actually a man. I walked up to them and asked, "Why do you think that is a man?"
Their answer was, "Because there aren't any boobies."
Being somewhat more of an expert on boobies than elementary age boys I can assure you that the woman in the photograph did have breasts. They just weren't ginormous movie star breasts. The youth of today are clearly being taught to have unrealistic expectations.

Paper Airplanes Day 2

The groups that came in today were a little noisier but had more questions for me. One girl talked to me for several minutes while the rest of the children were trying out their airplanes. I tried to answer her questions about World War II planes as best I could, but finally she said, "I would think if I came from the country I would know more about it."
I'm pretty sure she meant that she thought I should be more of an expert simply because I am American. She didn't say it in a snotty way, just like she couldn't believe I couldn't tell her more. I searched for an explanation and finally admitted that I didn't learn about World War II in this detail when I was in school. I've actually learned much more about it living here than I ever did in America.
I hope she will come back to the library to get answers to the rest of her questions.

Following Directions

I helped out in the Memorial Library today because a class was visiting. They were going to see the whole library, but spend half an hour in the Memorial Library learning about WWII airplanes and making paper airplanes. They are learning about planes in school right now. They are also learning about following a set of instructions, so the directions we had for a specific paper airplane worked out well. I'll be going in again the next two days to do the same thing!

I did some more work on the website today. Starting fresh helped. Here is my problem:

For simple stuff I can find really straightforward instructions. How do you change the background color? There is a page in my book that tells you how to do exactly that. But now that I'm trying to do more complicated stuff, there aren't specific instructions. How do I get my YouTube video exactly where I want it on the screen without fixing it a certain distance from the edge? Turns out, it is possible but there isn't a page in the book on how to do it. There is a page in the book on how to give a division margins. I had to figure out myself that putting a large margin on just the left would move the video to the right of my navigation bar. I think the cavemen had it right. When you paint a buffalo on a certain spot on the wall, that buffalo is going to be on that spot on the wall. It doesn't need margins to make it stay there.

I Prefer Lanuages That Are For Speaking

Looking at my website can't fully convey they trouble I went through to get it to look like this.

Doesn't look that much different. But it's pretty much all I have done today. Not because I spent most of the day doing nothing. Because I spent hours changing between divs and tables and trying to get that YouTube video to go where I was telling it to go. I needed to know things that weren't in my book. I needed to know things John couldn't tell me how to do. I decided that I like this website.

I feel kind of fried. But the funny thing is that I haven't even made all the changes I want to make. There is more CSS in my future.

Joy.

Back to School

I got accepted to UGA's School Library Media Certification program!

What this means is that once I have the certificate I can be a media specialist in Georgia. Which means my life plan of having a job I love but also having time for future children and storytelling is coming together. It feels good to be on track.

Taxes

I was hoping to get out this weekend, but John was expecting a package today so we couldn't really go anywhere. Lame. (If you give a husband permission to buy a computer, he will decide he needs some accessories...)

I filed our taxes and it looks like we are getting a refund on both federal and state. John wasn't going to file since he didn't make enough money, but I decided to file us jointly in the hope that his school expenses would get us a better refund.

That is about all the excitement here for today.

If you looked at Sound and Sense yesterday and couldn't make any sense of it, fear not. I was looking back over it this morning and noticed that in changing between templates I lost paragraph and a half somewhere. It should be fixed now.

On Our Own Again

It was sad to see our first over-seas visitor go, but Danny is on to more adventures in London.

To fill the void I started a new blog. Am I turning into a blogoholic?

The truth is that this blog has shown me that daily blogging is good for me and I've been contemplating what to do when I am no longer the "American librarian in Norwich, England." Blogging so frequently when I am in the inherently interesting situation of living in a foreign country has not been easy. What would I talk about once I move home? So I decided to make my post-Norwich blog on a topic I feel I could speak on endlessly (who would have guessed that topic was not myself?): the spoken word.

Anyway, the new blog was meant to start after I came home from Norwich, but I have so many ideas now that I don't want to lose. And I find many opportunities here to talk about sound and sense that I don't want to pass up. Please check it out if the topic interests you. If not, you can keep reading about my Norwich adventures right here for a few more months.

Alright Yarmouth

After exhausting the most exciting parts of Norwich, I took Danny to Great Yarmouth today. He wanted to see a British coast.

So we went down to the beach and then looked for a museum to go through. I saw on the city website that they have several museums. But the website didn't exactly draw to my attention the fact that not all the museums are open in the winter.

We finally happened upon the Time and Tide museum, which was open. There we learned all about herring, and life in a coastal town.

When we stopped for chips we discovered that the pigeon mafia has nothing on the sea gull mafia. A bunch of pigeons were gathered around a child who was dropping chips on the ground. One of the sea gulls came down to investigate. Then he spread his wings out and honked loudly for his friends to come get some of these chips. They seemed to intimidate both the pigeons and the child.

More Norwich Adventures

I took Danny to the Castle today. We saw most of the exhibits in the museum and went on the battlements and dungeon tours. The tour guide this time was a different person than the one John and I had before. She said mostly different stuff so it was worth doing the tours again.

After that we met up with John and walked through the Cathedral. Then we got a pint at the Adam and Eve and went to dinner.

We had nice weather all day so walking outside was pleasant and we had a good view of the city from the battlements.

Danny

Danny is amazing at traveling. He was right on time, which means everything went as planned on each leg of his journey!

We met up around noon, had lunch, explored town, and then came home to eat Indian delivery with John.

Tomorrow, more adventures!

Hair

I was looking at my hair the other day and realized that it was ever-so-slightly, a different color on the bottom half than the top.

You see, I did dye my hair for a while a couple years ago, just for fun. As the wedding approached, I had to fix it. I went to one hair salon where they just dyed over my dye job. The result was that my roots showed very clearly when my hair grew out and my hair would still fade to a color lighter than what it should have been. So I went to a different salon where the stylist (good naturedly) lectured me about dying my hair from a box, stripped the old color, and dyed over my hair with semi-permanent dye. The result was that my hair would fade, but without leaving a distinct line. So she used the semi-permanent dye a few more times and my hair looked normal for my wedding.

Months later, I still think she did a great job, because it really wasn't that obvious that my hair wasn't all the same color. But the dyed hair was never going to be exactly the right color without repeat treatments of the semi-permanent dye.

I opted for cutting off the discolored hair.
















Of course, your hair always looks great the day you get it cut. What my hair will look like when I have to style it myself remains to be seen.

One More Thing

Danny, one of my friends from library school, is coming to visit us on Tuesday. I spent the day preparing for his visit by cleaning.

I scrubbed the guest bathroom, trying to get rid of live mold if not permanently ingrained mold stains. I tidied up the living room, putting away clutter that has been on the bookshelf and fireplace for months. I made my office look more like a bedroom by putting sheets on the bed and moving out a few of my things that might get in the way.

After all this, I took a break, had some lunch, and walked to the co-op with John. As we were walking back into the house I saw that John's bag had sprung a leak. John was ahead of me and he was letting the bag leak on the floor. "John!" I called out. He turned to look at me, and as he did he moved the bag towards the bed. "Not on the bed!" I yelled. But it was too late. The bag had leaked on the bed, too. John immediately saw what was going on and took the bag back outside.

Up until that point, we both thought the leak was milk. It was actually beer.

The good news is that the beer that did get on the bed didn't soak all the way through the duvet cover. Since the duvet itself will not fit in the washing machine I'm not sure what I would have done if it had gotten dirty. But the cover is in the wash, and Danny has escaped having to sleep in a bed that smells like beer.

Train Station

John and I talked about going on a short trip today, but we only made it as far as the train station. Only one bus was running, so we had to walk. By the time we got there is was kind of late to go somewhere, do something, and come back.

Anyway, we explored that part of town. Ate lunch at a Thai restaurant on the river and saw Young Victoria at a theater we hadn't been to before.

Popisms

You: Huh?
Pop: If you can "huh" you can hear.

You: So we were playing outside and...
Pop: What do you mean we? Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

You: *being too slow*
Pop: My grandmother was slow, but she was old.

You: Hey, Pop!
Pop: Hay is for horses, straw is cheaper.

You: Sorry I'm running late. I'm coming.
Pop: So is Christmas.

"Tell me this, people keep talking about how all our pollution is putting holes in the ozone layer. What do they think rockets are doing when we shoot 'em into space. How's a rocket going to get through the ozone without making a hole?"

Me (reading plaque with Mazzaferro crest on it): This says "mazza" means "club," and "ferro" means "iron." I guess "Mazzaferro" means "iron club."
Pop: You're just like this one (pointing at Grandma). It says "mazza" means "club." So it's "club iron."
Note: Someday Amanda and I are going to open a dance club called "Club Iron." Or a gym. That could work, too.

My grandfather left this world today, but he is still alive in our hearts and memories. Please leave your Popisms or memories about Pop in the comments.

World Book Day

Can I just say how much I love being a librarian?

It is funny how now that I'm not doing programs that often I let myself get all nervous and doubtful. When I was working at the library and did two storytimes a week minimum with possible branch visits, school visits, and auditorium programs on top of that I couldn't stress. It would have made me crazy. And today was a shining example of why I should not worry now: I'm good at this.

Through Libby, the library in Long Stratton asked me to come do storytimes today for World Book Day. I told them I would bring some of the American picture books from the Second Air Division Memorial Library collection and talk about how books can teach you about other parts of the world. They made arrangements for three primary school classes (ages 5-7) to come throughout the day.

My program:
* Sing "My Aunt Came Back"
* Read The Perfect Nest
* Talk about the accents the three birds in The Perfect Nest have
* Tell the story of "Mr Wiggle and Mr Waggle"
* Read Mama Don't Allow
* Sing the song "Mama Don't Allow" inserting instrument names suggested by the children
* Read King Bidgood's in the Bathtub with an introduction about how America has a president, but the American colonies had a king under England's rule
* Sing the "Hokey Pokey" after explaining that it is the American version of the "Hokey Cokey"
* Invite children to color

The children were all willing to participate and seemed to have a great time. They were very bright and answered even my more difficult questions like "Who is 'in charge' in America?" (I was looking for "the President," but some children actually said "Barack Obama.")

I had a break after the first two groups during which I walked to a local bakery to eat lunch. After I got back, the librarians were warning me about the last class because they both had children in there. Truth be told, the final class was a little rowdier than the first two. (Not due to the librarians' children, as far as I could tell.) But they were also the most interested in the books. Many of them spent the whole time that was alloted for coloring looking at books. I sat on the floor with a couple of boys looking at an atlas. I had to giggle because the boys on the couch had found the parenting section and had pulled out a book that had pictures of boobies. Their teacher didn't think it was very funny, though. Someone did drop a dictionary on my leg, which reminded me that being a librarian is a job that comes with a certain amount of risk. (In Athens, I once got headbutted in the pelvis mid-book. I kept reading without letting on that it hurt quite a lot.) But it was so sweet to see the kids so interested in reading and learning.

Basically, I had a fantastic day. I am so thankful that I have been allowed to volunteer, because I just don't know what I would do with myself otherwise. I may not be making money, but I'm keeping busy and I'm having a good time doing it.

Mexican?

John called me yesterday when I was in town to say that he had found a Mexican restaurant. We both love Mexican food and have missed it since we have been here. John was so excited he called Ashby to see if he and Christine would want to eat there with us tonight. Ashby told him that they had eaten there before and weren't impressed.

Nevertheless, John and I decided to form our own opinion. Besides, even if the food wasn't that great, we could still have margaritas.

We did go there for dinner tonight. Not even the margaritas were good.

I'm beginning to think that only Mexicans make good Mexican food. And there are significantly more Mexicans in Georgia than there are in Norwich.

Things To Do

Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough to do. But today was one of those days when I did all the little things I should be doing, and of course, I proved to myself that I have plenty to keep me busy.

My day:

yoga
breakfast
shower
trip to co-op
prepare chicken in marinade for dinner
lunch
clean the dishes
start laundry
trip into town to get a new library book, and buy light bulbs, yarn, and a watch
take down yesterday's dry laundry and hang up wet laundry
practice guitar
write in blog

And here we are. Time to cook dinner and relax.

What's Up?

Recently, Amanda was telling me about her linguistics professor's shortcomings and I finally asked her what her professor wrote her thesis on. She teaches this intro class but claims to have expertise in English as a second language. Her thesis topic: prepositions.

I once had a teacher describe prepositions as anywhere a squirrel can be in relation to a table. The squirrel is on the table. The squirrel is under the table. etc.

I asked Amanda if her professor's thesis was made up entirely of phrases describing a squirrel and a table. The squirrel is around the table. The squirrel is beside the table. The squirrel is in the table.

Wait a minute. A squirrel can't be in a table!

Amanda pointed out the obvious. He can if there is a drawer.

Needless to say, there are plenty of prepositions that the squirrel and table duo can't quite handle. Maybe Amanda's linguistics professor's thesis addresses this issue.

And remember, a preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.

Dishes

Somehow, when we moved into a flat without a dishwasher, I convinced John that he should be responsible for cleaning the dishes and I would clean everything else. But John hates cleaning dishes as much as I do, so finally, after 5 months, the system has fallen apart. Together John and I cleaned ALL the dishes today (something that hasn't happened in a while), and then I cleaned the kitchen (something that hasn't happened ever). Maybe starting back from the beginning we can keep the situation with the dishes under control. Both of us. We are in agreement that we need a dishwasher when we move back to the US.

I reviewed another book today: The Knife of Never Letting Go. I love this book. Like, it is up there with the His Dark Materials series. In fact it is the first book in the Chaos Walking series. And since it is a new book, the rest of the series isn't published yet. The last time I read a series as it was published was when Stephen King published The Green Mile in serial form. If I don't get hooked until all the books are out - instant gratification! It was very sneaky of this book to be so good that I MUST have more and then make me wait!