Looking forward to warmer weather.

In 9 weeks time the large blue slide you can see in the background which is the the local outdoor water park will have children sliding down it, not even on ice, and without suffering hyperthermia . Minnesota has a very short Spring and a very short Autumn and is mostly Winter and Summer (in that order). So shortly you should see lots of lovely sunny pictures (how we hope).Having said that we're due for 4-5 inches of snow tomorrow so who knows.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone back in the UK.



Easter is a little different here in the states, for one thing Good Friday is not a national holiday amazingly. The separation between Church and State puts paid to that one - I think they can get away with it for Christmas as there are celebrations for other religions at a similar time (such as Spendmus, celebrated by consumerists, and Drinkmus celebrated by hedonists) but Easter is a difficult one to disguise (unless you went for Chocmus, celebrated by Gluttonists). I took the day off anyway and we went for a walk which turned into a snowball fight, because we had 6-8 inches of snow fall - at Easter. I'm sure you're getting as bored reading about the snow as we are emptying it out of Dan's boots - but this appears to be what life in Minnesota is like from Dec-Mar. It snowed at least 2 inches on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday.

One of my work colleagues came over today with his little girl, her and Becky spent ages seeing who could get the most hairclips attached to their heads.

Andy and Dan also had more ice-skating lessons, I took a little bit of video to show the weather.



But more importantly managed to get a great short piece of Dan wiping out.

And here is Andy about to start a lesson (second from the right)

More Winter

There's a saying in Minneapolis that goes 'I hope Summer falls on the weekend'.

In reality the summer is pretty long and hot, but today is the 18th March and this was the view from the house this morning.





We also had some bad news on the chocolate business front in that the city where we live doesn't allow home businesses.

Flu and Rollerdisco

Had a bit of a rough week this week, well Andy and Dan did as they were both ill with a flu-like bug. Dan was off school for three days running and by the end of the time I think all three of them were stir crazy from being stuck in the house. On Thursday Andy and I sat out on the screen porch with a cup of tea for the first time in ages and much as I like the winter I have to admit it was lovely to sit out and not be freezing.

Saturday was a better day, ice-skating for Dan and Andy, Andy is going to learn jumps next week - very tempting to take the video camera along to watch the carnage.

The kids had a sleep at lunch-time so we had some free time to do whatever we wanted, in Andy's case this was ironing, and in mine it was some tiling - it dizzyingly exciting.

In the afternoon Andy and her friend Nizrene had organised the school rollerdisco. See below for vids - no crashes captured on camera I'm afraid though there were a good few of those 'waving arms around as if trying to fly' crashes that I wish I had caught.





We headed out to a local fast food place for dinner, it wasn't 'all you can eat' but it was what I call 'more than you should eat'. By the time you've had a half-pounder with chips and a massive milkshake and a giant cookie you really don't want to eat much more let me tell you.

Today we headed out to a couple of park reserves, the first was closed as it was too wet, the other was a bit more like a normal park but at lest we got to play outside. You can tell it is spring as the snow is melting - we still saw cars out on the ice though.

Dan busy getting wet feet

You're never too old for a playground

One last walk across the lake

Ended up going to the children's museum yesterday as it was too cold to go outside with the kids. They have all sorts of great things for the children to do including a mock factory where the there a load of foam blocks and conveyor belts with handles to turn so the blocks move around the factory, up and down chutes etc.. Dan spends most of the time we go there shouting orders down the voice tube that connects the different levels. Yesterday he sacked all of the other children for not working hard enough. He did take a break from dictating to go surfing however.

On the way back from the museum we stopped to buy some new tool boxes for Dan with his Christmas money so that he can do what I should have done years ago, namely sort out the huge box of lego that he has in his room. This is a classicly difficult exercise in taxonomy, what categories do we need, how much space do we need for the bricks, what about the bricks that don't fit well into other categories (lego maps for instance). It reminds me of one of my favourite taxonomy articles (I only know of one) which is how a taxonomer for the Chinese Emporer decided to classify the animals in China, the book is the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, in which it is written that animals are divided into:

1. those that belong to the Emperor,
2. embalmed ones,
3. those that are trained,
4. suckling pigs,
5. mermaids,
6. fabulous ones,
7. stray dogs,
8. those included in the present classification,
9. those that tremble as if they were mad,
10. innumerable ones,
11. those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
12. others,
13. those that have just broken a flower vase,
14. those that from a long way off look like flies.

While our system is nowhere near as brilliantly insane as this it is still tricky and so far we've spent about 3 hours and got a quarter of the way through the box. It is one of the those activities that is both unutterably dull yet strangely compelling.

A bit like Heroes in fact, the US superhero series which is pretty badly acted in part and not terribly well directed but keeps us up later than we should be. Worth a look if you don't mind a little gore and a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Today (sunday) it was a bit warmer, Andy was out at a sportswear party thing (so she can get leggings made for her that go below the knee) and allegedly it is going to be 11C next weekend so I thought I'd take the kids on a walk round the block near our house and across the lake while we still could.

Here's the kids on the lake outside our house with the house in the background (the brick and cream one)

Last snow angel of the year?Then we took a short cut home across Lake Cornelia (followed by a hot chocolate in our Max Brenner mugs -the best chocolate shop I've ever been too) and a snooze. Andy got home and then we had Irish stew from the freezer, which turned out to be chicken casserole - either ways a winner if you ask me.

Still Winter

Lulled by the fact that last weekend managed to make it above freezing I cycled in again this week, stupidly with fewer layers on only to get somewhat frozen as it had got cold again. The average temperature for the start of March in Minnesota is about -1C. But here is a picture taken yesterday (7th March) at 9:00am. The -1 is in Fahrenheit which is -18C. The clocks go forward tonight, 2 weeks earlier than in the UK but it doesn't seem to go with the weather. Everyone tells me that by the end of the month the average temperature will be 50F, can't even imagine how warm that will feel.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining, in this case cheap snowboard gear and season ticket passes for the ski slopes. I took advantage and got myself some pretty cool gear. Now when I crash on the beginner slopes I can do so in style (if you exclude the hair that is).Ended up in a quaint little town in New Jersey on Thursday going to see a company we're working with. They have a 600 year old tree that is pretty impressive.

Andy's chocolates continue to down brilliantly. She's getting serious about starting a business and will probably kick things off after the summer to give her time to experiment a bit more and get properly set up with all the legal side (she has a work permit now so the biggest obstacle has been overcome).

Andy and Dan both have ice-skating lessons this morning then we're off to explore somewhere new. Last weekend we enjoyed the warmer Sunday and went walking across the local lake and having snowball fights, just your typical March in Minnesota.

March Arrives - Spring is in the air

It is the 1st March today, spring is in the air. It went above freezing today (by 1 degree) and I drove the car with the window down it felt so warm. As you can see from the pictures below the snow has not yet decided to pack it in



I went to a home and garden exhibition in town today so thought I'd show what downtown looks like, not the best shot but it gives the overall impression. I was in New York earlier in the week which was somewhat more impressive. If I could find my phone I'd download some pictures for comparision :-(
The home and garden show wasn't that interesting, but they did have an exhibitor who did nothing but flag poles which is really not something you'd get back in the UK.

They don't have mother's day in the US, but here is a little message for Margaret.