Al Fresco Dining

So here is a little taste of daily life at the end of September in Minneapolis, here is the view from our scren porch where we've been dining al fresco pretty much every day since we got here. Click on the picture to enlarge, its quite pleasant really.

And here we are having our evening meal, still in the screen porch (it looks like there are windows behind us but they are just insect screens), and still warm enough to eat outside, luckily for you you can't see my legs as I've got shorts on.

Minor Updates

So Martin and Margaret are going home tomorrow, they've lost a bit of blood (Margaret on a broken cup and Martin on our vicious and ugly chandelier) but gained a few pounds (thank-you Denny's and Baker's Square) so pretty much all even then.

We've had a fun few days with them, I took an afternoon off work last week and we went to the funfair at the Mall of America
Then on Saturday we went to Albertville, an out of town mall until we could take no more (which wasn't long) and then went to Big Lake, the weather was brilliant for the end of September.
We found out that Dan has super-powers and can crush clumps of sand with his bare hands


Sadly our time at the beach was spoiled by some reprobates.
They turned up out of nowhere and then tried to make friends with us

We finally managed to get the best of them though and bribed them with bagels to babysit for us.

The weather isn't always great though, earlier in the week I cycled to work and then had to get a lift back from Andy iin the car as it was spitting outside.

Check out the amount of rainwater coming down from the rooftop drains!

We had our anniversary on Sunday, Martin and Margaret babysat for us on the Saturday night so Andy and I went out for meal and tiny bit of shopping too - having the shops all open until 9pm or 10pm is really handy as I managed to get myself a new wedding ring - somehow I lost my old one in the first couple of weeks of being here. The new one is real boy's wedding ring - it's made of Tungsten Carbide mmmmmmm, so its quite heavy and pretty much unscratchable, only Wolverine's adamantium claws can really mark it. I mention Wolverine as for the last month or more I've been telling Dan an extended story about Wolverine's life story. For the uninitiated Wolverine is the Marvel character with an adamantium skeleton, healing powers and extendable claws, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(comics). Andy did well too and got a ball dress, I'm guessing that people will want to see the new wedding ring rather than the dress so here is a picture of it.
We've been out to few nice restaurants as well, all the restaurants here are very child friendly, which is fortunate as Dan and Becky are not particularly restaurant friendly.
Its not just us that seem to think that Dan is somewhat loud either, his school teacher said to Andy 'that Dan was rather loud and that they were trying to get him to moderate his volume switch' - he certainly goes up to 11.

Becky's Birthday

Today was Becky's 2nd birthday!

Thanks to everyone who sent cards

She certainly enjoyed her presents

In the afternoon everyone (apart from me as I was at work :-( ) went to Lake Harriet and to the rose gardens, which by all accounts were spectacular.

Of course the kids weren't too fussed and mainly enjoyed getting soaked in the fountains



Running around a lotClimbing trees..


And getting carried by grandad

Before we had to leave
In the evening we got treated to the very first proper tornado warning we've had in the area, sirens went off and the radio was advising everyone in Edina (the area we live in) and some of the surrounding areas to get in their basements, which we did. However I did have to finish cooking the brats (sausages not children) on the BBQ, my first ever grilling in a tornado experience, I did get rather wet. However we managed to get the bangers and mash cooked for Becky's birthday tea which we ended up eating in the basement while we waited for the all clear.

Andy cooked some lovely cup cakes on her groovy cake stand which she's very pleased with as you can tell


And then we opened a few more presents..


and Dan even got some Power Ranger pyjamas (for 8-9 year olds) which he was rather pleased with.

Anyway, we're having a lovely time with Margaret and Martin being here, they are staying in the basement (which is where all the birthday pictures are taken) where they are eating all of our bagels and generally injuring themselves in various ways - so be warned, blood has been shed.

Minnesota Weather

So there are 4 seasons in Minnesota, much like everywhere else. They are 'Nearly Winter', 'Winter', 'Still Winter' and 'Road Construction'.

This week we got our first taste of the changeable Minnesota winter, last week it had been in the 80's every day then it dropped about 20 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. On Saturday I took a picture of the neighbour's roof (like you do) at about 9am.



The neighbours actually phoned us in the morning to say, 'don't worry, its not normally this cold at this time of year'. And sure enough later that day we needed the air conditioning as it got really hot again. Some of the people we met from Church had a birthday party for their son Ethan, who Dan gets on well with later that day and it was lovely and sunny. We went to a great park (in fact in Minneapolis there are seemingly hundreds of amazing parks that are not at all crowded). We had cake and ice-cream and there were some 'awesome' (everyone says 'awesome' in MN slides for the kids.

Click to enlarge this photo and spot Dan

Our stuff from the UK finally arrived too, which meant the house looked like a rubbish cart had emptied its load across the various rooms. We'll get a post soon to go into more detail and show some more of the house with furniture in it, but for now I'll just show this picture of Becky enjoying her first night in Dan's old bed.

At last our stuff.....

Hello! Good news:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TOBY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WILL!
1. We have our car, which actually has windows and brakes and appears to obey the laws of gravity!
2. Becky eats chicken (previous main source of protein after milk - sausages - not entirely suitable for a 2 year old (well not every day anyway!)
3. Our stuff is arriving from the UK on Wednesday having been x-rayed and searched - am dreading the mess!
4. Mum and dad appear to have forgiven us for the fake basement photo.
5. Have just discovered chain of 'drive-thru' pie shops (yes that's right!), so weight gain programme can now begin in earnest.

All good here settling in well to school routine and church. Have just ordered an obscene amount of chocolate so will be dabbling with my chocolate making soon (or getting v fat!)
We are having 2 gas fireplaces installed tomorrow to save us grappling with the work/mess/danger of open fires.
Not much other news except love to all our family and friends. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Labour Day Weekend

On Friday I had a short day at work as it was the last public holiday of the summer on Monday - Labor Day and we had our next door neighbours, Mary and Wes, over and did a BBQ (what else) and the kids helped to make/eat brownies too (what else). This was our first BBQ for genuine Minnesotans so we were a little apprehensive, especially when we found out Wes does his Christmas Turkey on the BBQ! But it went well, even if I did overcook the steak a little.


What is Labor Day?

Well don't bother asking a native as the typical response is 'Well, I'm not sure (pause) I think it has something to do with the unions?' We're banking on Martin being able to tell us. Whatever the reason (Wikipedia: Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families.') we were able to have a long weekend.

On Saturday we spent the morning changing the tyre of the Crapmobile - our super rental car #2 due to a huge gash in the sidewall of the tyre (spelt tire over here!) so we got off to a slow start.
Our verdict on the Chrysler Aspen - a single one of these cars contributes 11% of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions simply starting by starting the engine.

We then spent a few hours buying a car which we hopefully collect tomorrow - the strange thing is that buying a new car is actually more economical than buying a used one - assuming we can eventually sell it - as we've not been able to do with the Primera yet (sorry Denise and Bill) - anyone know anyone who needs a great car in the UK - 'I give you good price'.

We then found a new playground for the kids and did some more decorating - we've now done our bedroom and made a start on the dungeon (we call it the oubliette, it sounds more welcoming) as it has to be ready before Martin and Margaret get here- we're hoping to get the rats cleared out and put a sheet over the torture rack in time as well as carpet the stairs.


As you can see we've gone for the spartan look for the guest area - seriously though we do hope to get this spruced up for visitors.

On Sunday we went to the church we've been to a couple of times before, it was great again and this time we were offered a spare car if we needed one! Later that day we went to Minnehaha Falls in St Paul where we hired some pedal cars.



After a long hot cycle ride, we treated ourselves to a Dairy Queen ice-cream, which the kids were not too unhappy about
On Monday we went to Lake Harriet and Dan and Becky had a good play in the lake and the beach next to it. The weather was really hot, nearly 90 so it felt like being on holiday in Turkey.


Becky got to wear one of Dan's T-shirts and she couldn't stop grinning, I think its the most pleased she's ever been.

Later that day we had Debbie and Rob over for another BBQ, which also went well, (more BBQ experts, Debbie does pizza on the BBQ) so now I feel we've passed the tests and can BBQ for the natives with aplomb.