This is now the fifth (I think) Thanksgiving celebrated in the States. It's a funny holiday as part of it is so traditional with the relatives around, Turkey dinner and the listing of things that we are thankful for (and the football game) . Kristen's brothers and family are up for Thanksgiving which is cool, Brian's daughters have been keeping us amused with Kate's love of spaghetti and attempts at clicking her fingers and Mia's pride in the pink cake we had last night and it was cute when she couldn't wait to give me the pretzel they had brought from the mall (and waited patiently for her tip - a piece of Kristen's pretzel). I'm really thankful for the 4 day break as I need some rest and a chance to recharge my batteries. No studying will be done this weekend.
Recently in Holidays Category
The Cruise photos are now online at zooomr. There are a lot of them and a couple of big panorama ones too so don't view them on dialup! All the photos are in the Cruise album or you can look at each country individually. Let me know what you think and what you think of the zooomr interface. There are a couple of things I'd love to change but at least it gives me free storage for the large amount of photos. All the photos are also downloadable in their original size too.
After surviving the tornado that wasn't (although it did chuck it down with rain) I went out with friends to Columbus's Red, White and Boom firework show. We had a great time, we spread the picnic blankets down on a nice little park (that google doesn't have on the map) and enjoyed the show. As Kristen has the camera there are no photos to upload though.
Kristen had the day off so I took the day off and we went to Cincinnati. We went to Newport Aquarium in the morning and I tried to do some geocaching.
We also saw Over the Hedge. I was not sure that I wanted to see it as the commercials looked too cheesy and I enjoy the comic online so didn't want to get disappointed by watching the film. The film was very funny but the ironic thing is that the film has been plugged by Walmart and Kroger a lot - yet the film is about the excess purchasing and food eating habits of humans. My favourite character was Hammy - the squirrel (thats squ-ir-rel).
I've loaded some of the pictures we took up to flickr - there are more photo's but these ones will do to start with.
Apparently today is Cinco de Mayo - something I've never heard of before. My first thought when I saw it in an email was that it was someone playing battleships with sandwich fillings but a quick google search later shows that it commemorates the astounding victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla on the 5th of May, 1862. As I don't want to be accused of inciting racial hatred I won't say any more but it does sound like a GREAT day today ;-)
Oh - and happy Birthday to my Sister for Sunday!
Happy New Year to you Brits who are now 1 hour and 7 mins into 2005. I've got another 3 hours and 52 minutes to go for that priveledge. Hopefully I'll still be awake by then. This will be the first year I've seen the apple fall in New York "live" on TV, so that will be interesting. Certainly it will be different to the bong of Big Ben I normally hear (or the fireworks that wake me up if I've gone to bed early)
I may publish a reflective post when we get back to the UK.
Delayed as I've not been able to get to the computer for an extended period of time - below is a quick run through of the journey to america.
The Beeb are reporting that America is planning to insist on people having biometric passports to enter under the visa waiver program and as usual in this country there is no way that the Passport agency will be able to produce this information in passports by the deadline (let alone handling the hundreds thousands of passport applications they will receive). It will be a nice little money earner for the government though and an extra step towards the national ID card scheme so I doubt they will complain too much. Apparently they are "lobbying hard" to get america to extend the time limit.
Hope you all have a great Christmas day and for those of you travelling today hope you have a safe journey. Enjoy the time with family and remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas
We've booked two nights at Ohio's Getaway Cabins, Log Cabin Rentals in Hocking Hills which looks really neat. I also did a google search to see if anyone had stayed at these cabins and what their impressions were. Micah and Susan had stayed at one of the cabins and looking through their photos it looks like there is loads to do and theres always the hottub if required! Their photos are really good too so I'm looking forward to getting some good pictures when we go.
Well it's taken me a year (as I wanted to carve one last year) but for the first time ever, I've carved a pumpkin! Kristen was on hand to give out advice and laughs about how slow I was going - she'd practically finished her cat before I had finished. Pictures, in order are online at the Coppermine Pumpkin Gallery. Thanks to Byroads magazine for the skull pattern. I was going to do the cat but this looked far too complicated.
Yesterday we took the day off and went to Chester Zoo and several photo's were taken and uploaded to the Chester Zoo gallery
You set off 3 sets of fireworks at 10.30 on a Friday night, on Independance day, to make your wife feel a bit less homesick, and the neighbours complain about the noise. The fact that we have to put up with dogs,cats in heats, drunken arguments, loud music and fireworks on the 5th November seems to have escaped some peoples notice. 10.30 on a summers night is not that unsociable and certainly within the hours allowed by the noise nuisance laws.....Misery guts. NOW I wish I had got that 125 quid firework that lets off 245 bangs called the Horsemen of the Apocolypse....now that would have given some cause of complaints evil grin. Maybe I should start a fund to raise money for the HOTA...after all if that women can persuade people to fund her credit card debt, surely this is much better - annoy someone elses (my) neighbours - send money now.
