It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without....

It wouldn't be Christmas without a tree.

So, yesterday, Sweetie and I went down to the local golf course where the YMCA was selling live trees as a fundraiser.  

I've never had a live tree before due to my allergies (they have better drugs now).  Sweetie and I were slightly limited in the sense that whatever tree we got, it had to fit in the Fit.  So, we went for one about 5 feet tall.  And we fit it into the car with no trouble.

Then we got home and retrieved Sweetie's German tree holder.  And we proceded to put the tree into the holder, except that the trunk was too wide for the holder.  Lovely.  

Sweetie luckilly noticed that if we just sawed off one of the knobby things sticking out of the trunk, we could probably slide it into the holder. So, he ventured next door and got a hand saw from the neighbor.  And he sawed off two knobby things.  And then it fit.  Hooray.

I boiled some sugar water, as that is what the lady at the golf course told us.  And we filled the basin.  Ta da.

It wouldn't be Christmas without lights on the tree

I dragged out my various dregs of Christmas lights and at some point yesterday evening gave up finding a set that actually worked properly.  

This morning, I resumed the tree light production.  And Sweetie commented that I was "all happy putting up the tree lights."  I stopped in my tracks and said, "If you knew my family and had known my dad, you would know that putting up tree lights is NEVER a happy occasion."  

Indeed, as we were growing up, there were the various stages of the tree light production.  Stage One probably ran until we were about 7.  That's when Mom and Dad cooperated in the tree lighting/decorating venture.  Then Stage Two ran from about age 8 until age 16.  That's when Mom left the house during the tree lighting/decorating venture.   Thereafter, I think everyone except for Dad left the house for the tree lighting/decorating venture.  Dad, may he rest in peace, had VERY specific ideas about how the tree lighting/tinsel placing production had to be implemented.  And unfortunately, the rest of us did not always follow his vision (it wasn't insubordination -- just a lack of attention to detail on our part).

So, I was not exactly "happily" lighting the tree.

It also wouldn't be Christmas without....

This evening, after I painstakingly arranged our new bow on top of the tree and painstakingly placed assorted new bulb ornaments on the tree, Sweetie admired my work.  Then he made some comment that the tree "seems to be leaning."  And "we better keep an eye on it."

With Sweetie at the table grading papers, and me at the computer doing some Christmas browsing, suddenly there was a mighty "WHOOSH!" sound from the corner of the living room.  "No way!" I thought, as I turned.  And sure enough, the tree was no longer standing.  

So, we both raced over as Sweetie sat at the base of the tree declaring, "I knew it!!!" and "&*%$^%&!"  I meanwhile got behind it and pulled it up with my brute strength.  Of course, at that point I'm pretty sure the gallons of water in the holder had already been deposited onto the carpet.  It was also at that point that I realized maybe it would be wise to unplug the lights, given that I was sitting in a pool of water.

(Of course, as I am writing this, I keep glancing back to make sure it's still standing).

Anyway, the tree is back up, this time sitting on a marble cutting board and surrounded by forest green towels....

More of Sunny, Summery England

It's getting down into the 30s here now, so I'm going to carry on with my summer England travelogue.

Salisbury

Sweetie and I paid a visit to the town of Salisbury, which was really cool as I read "Pillars of the Earth" last year (fantastic read!!!) and I could just imagine it in medieval times. The Cathedral is stunningly large and very impressive inside.

We grabbed some soup and a sandwich for lunch at a small cafe in the town before heading off to our next stop.

Kingston Lacy

Since Sweetie has a National Trust membership, getting him into NT properties for free, we stopped at every NT property we could as we traversed the countryside.  Kingston Lacy was a grand specimen -- an enormous estate house with expansive gardens showcasing everything from hostas to Japanese maples.  They even had a "Japanese garden," which, while not quite my vision of a Japanese garden, was very nice to look at.

From there, we headed to the town of Swanage, along the coast, where we spent several nights in a neat little boutique B&B:   "Swanage Haven."  The owner showed us up to our room and pointed out the various amenities.  Sweetie and I took a brief nap and then showered and got ready to head out for dinner.  Except I couldn't find the hairdryer.  Which was really odd, because I absolutely positively remembered seeing it when the owner showed us the room.  I remembered him opening the top drawer of the dresser and there it was.  But it wasn't there now.  

Sweetie and I actually BOTH remembered seeing the hairdryer, which made it all the more perplexing . We eventually gave up and went downstairs in search of one of the owners.  We found David and we enlightened us about the "secret drawer" which was hidden INSIDE the top drawer.  DUH.  Anyway, crisis resolved.

Swanage was a great launching point for some amazing sites.  The town itself was impressive mostly in the sense that it had an INDIAN restaurant which we definitely took advantage of (somewhat unfortunate that we were so stuffed from good-eating on our trip that we could not quite finish our meals), and lovely seaside scenery.

Just a short drive or train ride away was the village of Corfe and the ruins of the mighty Corfe Castle, which could not have been more spectacular.  Despite some pretty ferocious winds at the ruins, Sweetie and I explored them at length and got some amazing photos.

The site was actually pretty mobbed with people, but you can't really tell that from the photo.  The village itself was absolutely adorable, and the ancient stone houses were so old that the doorways were noticeably shorter than average.

After exploring the ruins, we indulged in some delicious Purbeck ice cream, named for this region of England. 

Forcing my way out of the doldrums

We've endured entirely too much unseasonably cold, cloudy, and sometimes downright nasty weather this fall.  I actually feel like summer never came.  I kept waiting for it to get steamy and sweaty, like a Japanese summer, but it never happened.

And now I feel like winter is upon our doorstep.  I missed my best chance for fall photography last weekend when I was attending a conference.  A reminder of why I left graduate school after my M.A.  Who wants to be cooped in a dull classroom discussing the finer points of say, pornographic Japanese fiction, when you could be outside frolicking in piles of golden leaves?

So, I'm taking us on a virtual tour back to summer, and my warm and wonderful trip to England.

I already wrote about the world's greatest country boutique hotel ever.  

The New Forest

The hotel was in the New Forest, which is basically a big national park area, with towns and villages within it, that hosts thousands of wild ponies.  They are everywhere.  In parking lots, in the street, and in fields everywhere.  

Besides our stay in the Whitley Ridge, we also attended a family wedding in the New Forest.  Sadly, rain paid a visit, but Sweetie and I had fun with the children in the hotel garden.  We had run out to the car to get something, and the children were slinking around the garden and running from everyone they saw.  When they saw us, they'd run in the other direction.  This was amusing for about 5 minutes, and then the kids saw us, pointed, and shouted "Murderer!" and at that point, we decided we were very much done playing their game!

Motisfont Abbey

We visited the most glorious garden at Motisfont Abbey.  I could have stayed there for hours snapping photos of the bright flowers and bumble bees flitting from bloom to bloom.  The sun made an appearance and really warmed things up.  

Porchester Castle

Sweetie took me to the impressive Porchester Castle, in his home town (castles and gardens were tops on my list of things to do on our trip).  Located on the sea, it was an impressive fortress, still in very good condition.  We climbed up to the top, with its panoramic views of Portsmouth.  

Boo~~!

Have you been "Boo"-ed yet?  Or ever?  Do  you know what I'm talking about?

Last night, the doorbell rang wildly.  It was pitch black outside and we didn't have any outside lights on.  I was scared.  I didn't know who it was.  I gingerly approached the front door.  I then went around to the kitchen and peeked through the blinds.  I didn't see anyone.  

Across the road, I saw that our neighbor was outside his house, so I figured that if I opened the door and someone tried to attack me, he would notice.  So, I opened the door.

And there I saw a small, elegantly-wrapped bag with "Boo" written on a piece of white paper sticking out of the top.

After a moment of deliberation, I decided that a bomber would probably NOT wrap an incendiary device so elegantly.  So, I grabbed the bag and opened it up inside.

There was a poem with the "Boo" sign that explained that I was to do the same thing for two other neighbors within the next 24 hours.  The bag was full of all sorts of cool goodies like a really nice Halloween candle, some apples with caramel dip, Georgia pecans, assorted candy, and a Halloween towel.  It was really sweet!!

At that point, I figured that many neighbors had not yet been "boo"-ed and that I would have my pick the next night.  But alas, by the time I returned from a post-work shopping run, all of the friendly people we know on the street had already been "boo"-ed.  I found it interesting that the none of the folks we don't really care for had been boo-ed!  Apparently others share our taste in neighbors.

So, I ventured down to another cul-de-sac, where the two other people who work at the college live.  They didn't have Boo signs visible.  It wasn't quite dark yet, but I didn't really fancy walking around on a dark, cold, rainy, windy night, so I went out just before dark.  I think I might have been spotted after my first drop.  And by the time I made the second drop, I was very hesitant when I pressed the doorbell.  I'm not even sure it rang.  Oh well!  Hopefully they use their front door occasionally:-)

Try starting a Boo tradition in your neighborhood!  Now is about the time to get started -- two weeks before Halloween.

What ARE you doing?

This is what Sweetie said to me the other day.  I knew he was going to ask.  It's not everyday that you see someone boiling strawberries and rasberries and then setting them out to dry on the counter.   

I read about this method of keeping berries fresh and mold-free for longer in the New York Times.  I read that parboiling them could not only stunt or prevent mold growth, but actually REMOVE moldy bits.  And I needed a miracle, as roughly half the box of rasberries I had bought the day before was moldy.  

Definitely the boiling seemed to freshen up some of the berries.  But the clumped masses encrusted in mold, sadly remained....clumped masses encrusted in mold.  But, the boiling definitely seemed to improve the flavor, remarkably! 

Try it sometime!

Scrabble Injury

Sweetie and I have pretty serious Scrabble games. They tend to involve words such as "thrashed." And the other day, I think I broke a rib. Or bruised it. I might even have a collapsed lung. It was intense.

How it happened was....I was carrying Sweetie super gigantic Cambridge English Dictionary to check a word, and I wasn't watching where I was going. I managed to walk full-force into a wall. Which thrust the dictionary into my ribs. Yeah, super-coordinated. Way cool.

IT Hero

Sweetie and I finally caved and bought a wireless router for our house and a laptop for Sweetie (well, Sweetie bought the laptop for Sweetie but I picked it out). I was a little apprehensive about the whole router thing, particularly as the reviews for the router, while sterling, said to all sorts of mysterious things like: "I had a little trouble getting it to work.  It turned out that there was an IP conflict. To fix it I did the following: In ''DHCP Settings'', I changed the ''Start IP Address: 192.168.0.100'' to 192.168.0.1. I also cloned the mac address with the one I had on my last router. Finally, I changed the ''Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1'' to 192.168.0.1. After that, everything was working fine."

O-KAY.  

Yeah.  And, I did also recall that I paid approximately $100 extra to have my router in Israel installed by a professional and I do recall that it took Techo Geek roughly 3 hours to install it.  So, quite how I expected that I would be able to install this darn thing, I don't know.

Well, I followed the instructions and booted up Sweetie's new computer and NOTHING.  Then, I plugged it directly in my computer, ignoring the whole wireless aspect and... NOTHING.  Then, I plugged my computer directly back into our modem and....NOTHING.  Crap.  So, now, not only did the router not work, but NOTHING worked.  We had NO INTERNET WHATSOEVER.  Lovely.  

So, a small (okay, large) marital meltdown ensued as Sweetie was nastily (he will agree, it was nasty) accusing me of screwing everything up and declaring that he wanted me to repackage the whole lot of equipment and send it all back.  Meanwhile, I was crying and screaming in indignation: "I was just trying to improve our lives!!!!"  

Apparently, this is all very normal human behavior surrounding a non-professional attempt at self-installing a wireless router.

What I didn't know is that sometimes it takes up to 12 hours for the router to kick into gear.  

So, the next morning, Sweetie turned on his laptop and had an internet connection.

And all was well in the world again.

I told Sweetie he could call me "Hero" for one month.  He said he would go for "IT Hero," which I actually prefer.

The Last Straw

You may remember my tirade about our crazy neighbor "Rodeo."  Well, he just returned from one of his jaunts on his ear-blastingly loud motorcycle and is now "dusting" his motorcycle with a leafblower.  Not joking.  Wish I were.  I am about to lose my mind entirely.  The sound carries through the entire neighborhood when he has that thing blowing.  As if the nightly 11PM blasts from his motorcycle going past our house were not enough.