Wadder, wadder everywhere...

Honestly, I don't know where the days are going now I'm at work! I blink and suddenly it's Thursday... We went to a cool place last night after work, called Gravelly Point. It's a recreation area just off the GW Parkway and is directly under the flight path of the airport, right at the end of the runway. It was awesome to watch these 737's coming in to land, directly overhead and so low you can practically touch them! I promise we'll take the camera next time so you can see exactly what I mean...

The phantom pizza flinger was out with us again on Monday. It was a different restaurant, and only a slice this time rather than a few slices followed by the tray...but the net result was the same - embarrassment all round!! And this time...it was Stephen's fault!! I discovered something when I was there (apart from the fact that Stephen has no co-ordination!)...if I asked for "a glass of iced water" they didn't know what I meant (I asked twice to make sure!), but when I gave in and asked for "a glass of iced wadder" one appeared instantly! Which was the reason I was really, really thirsty the last time I was in there! I asked about 3 times and nothing...but they understood Pinot Grigio so I was forced to have that instead!!

I've been trying to book a hotel somewhere for Labor Day weekend, but have obviously left it WAY too late!! I was hoping to get a B&B near Charlottesville, but there is nothing anywhere near. B&B's here are nothing like back home. They tend to be more expensive than the hotels, but are stuffed full of antiques and situated in superb locations, with superb service and food. I'm still looking, so we'll see where we end up. We might end up jumping on a flight somewhere, or we might end up doing some day trips...we'll have to see what comes up!

A busy weekend

It was stormy for quite few hours last night. It was on the news this morning as an apartment block was hit by lightening and caught fire not far from here. We had left our beer bucket (that we fill with ice to keep the beer cold during BBQ's) out in the yard to dry off after we emptied it of booze on Friday...we need to let it dry off again as there was about 5 inches of water in it from the rain yesterday!

We had a busy weekend. It's amazing how much you can get done when the alarm goes off at 6:30...even if you do snooze on for a little bit! We had errands to run yesterday morning, and had been to the post office, gone for coffee and dropped Stephen at the hair salon all by 10:30. Then we went round to Tysons Mall as I was in search of undies. We had a nice wander about the shops, had some lunch, watched a bit of the fashion show that was going on and then, as I could put off the inevitable no longer, I went in search of Macy's lingerie department. What a disappointment! Don't get me wrong...the department was huge and had every conceivable kind of bra...as long as you were a 34B or smaller. And I think you all know I am not a 34B! After about 30 minutes of searching the racks I did manage to find a bra in my size...and refused to buy it! This thing looked like something your granny would think twice about wearing! It had substantial steel reinforcing and straps so wide that you could have used them on the Forth suspension bridge!! I miss M&S (and I know I used to complain!) but their styles are so pretty compared to this... I was pretty hacked off by this time, which is not a good place to be when bra-shopping (you need to be in a happy place to begin with!) so we called it quits and drove home as I'd had the brilliant idea of walking along to the Torpedo factory to look in the galleries. I had forgotten that it was about a million degrees outside....

This was the perfect excuse for Stephen to suggest that instead of walking there, we jump in the lovely air conditioned car and drive to Falls Church where there is a guitar shop he wants to look at (yawn), but being very obliging I agreed. I had to use the "wife look" a couple of times when it looked like he was getting attached to the particularly expensive ones!

We went down to Morag's for a glass of wine and pizza last night and almost as soon as we got there we lost power for a few minutes due to the approaching storm. Lizzie was funny. She absolutely howled when we got there, and wouldn't leave Morag for a second. Simon had gone to the Redskins game, and she was being a bit clingy with Mommy. She doesn't like being left with babysitters, and she must have thought we were there to look after her whilst Morag went out too. After about 20 minutes she was fine, and toddled off to the playroom with Alison and Stephen to watch a DVD and was perfectly happy...until she realised that this might be a rouse and Mommy might have slipped out whilst she wasn't looking!! Oh, the howls!...so she scampered back down to check that Morag was still there. Back to smiles again!

I webcam'd with Mum this morning...and with Guy next door too! It was a bit surreal with Mum holding the camera to the window so Guy and I could have a chat!! Anyway it was my turn to wish I had spent more time doing my hair before I switched the webcam on!! Before long we'll be doing a full Hollywood-style makeover before each Skype session!!

We headed down to the Potomac Mills outlet shopping mall today. This place is huge! It was the first time we'd actually been there, rather than Ikea which is across the road. We were there for 5 hours and still only went in maybe a third of the shops! And I got bras - which weren't too industrial!! Yay - added bonus!! And some really nice Anne Klein tops (is she some relation of Calvin or something?). And a really lovely tall metal vase for ridiculously little money (about $20!). And a Versace tie for Stephen. And.... I was going to say I could have spent a fortune...but it was pretty cheap, so a fortune's worth of stuff would probably not have fitted in the car!!

Stormy weather

I have survived my first week at work here! Tired, having worked just shy of 50 hours, but content.... I need to have a word with Stephen about timekeeping. We get into work for 7:30 to maximise the overlap with the UK, but unlike our colleagues (sorry - co-workers) who go in early and leave early, we are failing to leave before 5:30. In fact they are complaining that we're making them look bad!! The exception was Friday when we managed to skip off at 4:30 AND I got a lunch hour (as opposed to a lunch 15 minutes!). Alyssa, Tanner and Jacqui always go for lunch on a Friday and invited me along. We had a really good time, some interesting food (I had chili made from Bison!) and laughed a lot about some pretty "interesting" topics! Heaven knows what the people in the next booth thought! No topic was off-limits!!

We were talking about TV programmes (this was one of the tamer topics!) and Alyssa said "There is this programme in the UK, they should bring it over here and show it. I don't know what its called but the girl from Big Brother was on it" (Alyssa is as huge a gossip hound as I am, and had got hold of a copy of OK magazine when she was in the UK - which is when she saw this programme. As soon as she mentioned this I was able to tell her it was Embarrassing Illnesses...I had read the same magazine!)
"There was this woman on there with haemorrhoid's who was happy for the doctor to spread her cheeks and show the world, and then there was this other woman on there who was incontinent and had been peeing her pants for 20 years".
"I know her! And it wasn't peeing..."
"Ohmygod, that's right...she said she'd just poo her pants and then go home and change"
"And considering the inappropriately short skirts she wore to work, I'm surprised no-one noticed"

So, this person's fame and notoriety has spread to the US...it didn't take long! I look forward to the day I switch on the TV and see her on TV here!!

I told you the conversation was funny, interesting and inappropriate!! (And this was the most printable bit - honestly I blush to think what else we talked about!!)

After another few hours slaving away in the office we scarpered a little early in order to get home in time to tidy up and prepare the food for Paul, Hilary, Paul, Lisa and the kids coming round to BBQ. Thankfully the weather had picked up a little and had stopped raining...unfortunately someone forgot to stop turning up the thermostat and humidifier and by 6:30 you stepped out of the lovely chill of the air conditioning into....hot soup! Honestly, one week of cloudy, damp and cool weather and you forget just how totally boiling hot and humid it is here!! It was over 100 degrees here today (which is 40 deg c!). Anyway, we all did the British stiff upper lip thing and stood outside sweating buckets and chucking wine down our throats and Paul's eldest daughter did her bit to keep Dad cool by occasionally chucking lumps of ice down his T-shirt...

Because of the exceedingly high temperatures and humidity today we're now having a severe thunderstorm (that is the official meteorological rating!). There was a HUGE boom a few minutes ago which made me jump out of my skin. I think it might have been one of the trees in the wood out back being struck - it certainly sounded loud enough and close enough!

What's in a name?

We went for a pizza on Monday night to celebrate my first day at work. They showed us to a tiny table in the middle of the aisle, which we took as we were starving...next time we should definitely wait for a booth! We were nearly finished our pizza, which was sitting on a tray, perched on a stand, on our tiny table...when CRASH...the whole lot hit the floor! There was a deafening silence only broken by the metal tray rotating a last few times like a spinning penny slowing down and Stephen saying "It wasn't me. Honestly! It wasn't me!". Actually, it wasn't either of us...the stand is carefully sloped so that the tray would rest against the wall....if there was a wall available for it to rest against!! They apologised, offered to make us another pizza and bought Stephen a drink which kind of made up for the humiliation of having the eyes of the entire restaurant on us!!

Work has been busier the past couple of days. Colin is going on holiday, so I've been picking up some of his stuff as well as getting on with sorting out El Presidente! There has been a great debate as to what my title should be. I was happy to call myself PA, but that is apparently not a phrase that is used in the US - so scratch that. We finally decided on the US term, so I'm a rather grand sounding "Executive Assistant to the President, QInc"...Colin (my dear friend!) suggested that we should include "Short" at the beginning to make it more accurate. I tell you I was Short in more than one sense when he said that!!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work I go....

Today was the big day! My first day at work in the US! It went as well as it could really....Paul (the boss) was in a meeting all day, so aside from 2 minutes (literally 2 minutes) at the beginning of the day and 2 minutes at the end I've not had a chance to sit down with him and sort out how he wants things run. I'll be doing that tomorrow....

It is a bit of a shock for me to be in work for about 7:30! As you are all aware I'm not a great morning person...grown men have been known to run away crying after an early morning (i.e. pre 9:30am) exchange on those days when I've not got out of the sunny side of the bed! I'll need to take happy pills or something as the very early starter (my friend Colin) is exceedingly chipper at 7:30. He gets up at 4am to beat the traffic for the 40 mile drive to work, and gets to the office around 6am....mad fool!! The upside, of course, is that he gets to leave about 2:30...

Anyway, Colin and I had a nice chat in person this morning. We have spent a lot of time e-mailing over the past few weeks, so he knows all about my demanding ways (is asking for puppies to play with too demanding? I didn't think so...but I'm now known by him as Mariah*!!), and he knows about my potential morning grumpiness (I thought it only fair to warn him!). He tap danced past my cubicle this morning doing "Jazz Hands" and beaming like a lighthouse - and this was his idea of 'subdued and not to chirpy'.

He then declared I was totally under dressed for an American office and tied his tie on me, and as a consequence I still smell faintly of Armani cologne....thankfully as Stephen and I work together he was in on the joke, otherwise I'd have some explaining to do!!

Mum sent me a really, really hilarious funny which had me shaking with silent laughter and crying. I was really trying to stifle my laughter as the cubicle farm where I sit is really deathly silent (mostly cos its empty apart from me!), so I was sitting there shaking and crying and someone walked past! They probably think I'm nuts now!!!

*My friends in the UK used to call me Victoria as (apparently) I could be quite demanding in a Posh Spice, meticulous attention to detail, flying trees in from Italy kind of way... Just because Andy was tired after a day climbing ladders preparing the room for the Winter Ball, and I was still deciding how exactly (to the millimeter) I wanted the fairy lights to be arranged...there was no need for the "Whatever Victoria" as he was busy hammering in nails willynilly to hang the lights!

Oh, my head....

I'm very excited to be starting work on Monday! It has been good to have a few weeks to get settled into the house, but I think a few weeks was enough...here's a tip to those of you who might want to move to Washington - do it the Spring or Autumn! It has been a bit of a frustration that I've not been able to explore more than I have. It is just so hot here! You go outside and sweat in 95+ degrees and high humidity...it does make you cower inside with the aircon on!!

I weakened on Friday and allowed Stephen to call in the Fox Soccer channels. We now have about 15 further channels of sport to watch (groan)...and currently he's watching the Liverpool-Chelsea game. It was cheap though! I'm going to make all you sky subscribers jealous now...we pay $2 per month to get all the Premiership games. Yup, a whole $2! Which probably reflects how much Americans rate "soccer" as a watchable sport!!

We had a really nice day yesterday - although I'm suffering a bit for it today!! We popped along to the bank to apply for credit cards, and whilst we were chatting the guy told us that it wasn't possible to increase the daily limits on the debit cards we currently have....so either he was clueless, or the guy I spoke to on the phone was saying anything to get the annoyed Scottish lady off the phone! Anyway, credit card applications are in. As we have no credit history here we're looking forward to seeing how much (or rather how little!) our monthly credit limit will be (if in fact we're allowed to have a card!).

The banking system in the US is a little archaic. It is impossible (apparently) to set up so that the whole balance of your credit card is deducted each month. They can do a fixed amount, otherwise you have to pay by cheque. And getting people to sort out "Direct Deposit" for things like rent and car payments is really difficult! People like to have a monthly cheque! They seem very suspicious of people "messing about" with their account.

After the bank we popped down to King Street, had a look around the Farmers Market and then headed to get some breakfast. It was a bit cooler yesterday (about 80ish) so it was really pleasant to sit on a pavement table in the sunshine eating breakfast.

As it was a bit cooler we headed down to Mount Vernon, the home and final resting place of George Washington. You spend a lot of time walking around outside, so it's not a great idea to do it in the extreme heat! It was really interesting. They show the Mansion as it would have been during Washington's time, and there is a huge museum and exhibit as well as all the outbuildings, farm and the family tomb to walk round. It was interesting to see the reverential awe which overcame every American there. They absolutely heeded the instructions about not taking photos inside the Mansion! Usually these rules are there to be completely ignored...

The front of the Mansion

The back porch

The view from the back porch. The area across the river has been designated a National Park so that the view which George Washington would have enjoyed will never be spoiled.

The reason for my apathy this morning? We went out with Morag and Simon last night for drinks and dinner in Old Town. We had a fantastic night! We started off with drinks in O'Connells. Stephen and I arrived first and were shown to a high table at the bar. There was a banquette running along one side and stools on the other, so I went for the comfy option and climbed onto the banquette....only to sink down in the seat to the extent that I could barely see over the table!! I felt like Alice in Wonderland after she had been shrunk!!

And the note which Alice found said "Drink me"

So I drank ... and Morag had some too!

Stephen and Simon looking cool

We had dinner in 100 King which had a jazz band playing, and really nice food as well! We were too late to do drinks on the deck of the Charterhouse, so we headed to Chadwicks for a final couple of drinks. By the time we had wandered home, drunk lots of water and chiseled my make-up off it was about 2am before we got to bed!! And the alarm went off at 6:30...although we did have a little snooze til 8am! I managed to stay awake during breakfast, but had to have a snooze on the sofa during the West Ham game!!

Finally, I have managed to get a photo of my new "do"!

Yippeeee!!!

The mail has just arrived. I've got my Work Permit!!!!

Maybe not such a true Scot!!

I have spent most of this week in a rather grumpy mood (which I didn't think fair to inflict on you) and it's all down to my mosquito bites! The debate still rages here about whether they are actually mosquito bites, or whether I was eaten by "no-see-ums" which are vicious little things which you don't notice gnawing on you. Either way these bites were driving me nuts!! For 3 nights I got no sleep because I was driven insane by the itch, and when I did drop off I woke up scratching which isn't good! In the end I resorted to wearing a pair of Stephen's socks on my hands like giant baby scratch mittens!! I know - sexy huh! Finally the itch has (mostly) gone, and I'm just left with the attractive red marks as a memento!

Actually, it wasn't all grump and gloom this week! On Wednesday I had arranged with Susan (the relocation agent) that she would take me to the Gas company office in Washington to change the account from her name to mine. Have I mentioned that, unless you've had your social security number for 5 years, you have to go to the office in person to set up the account? Ridiculous isn't it? I had been round at Hilary's for coffee in the morning and she was telling me that Paul had been there for 4 hours when he went - which based on my experiences to date didn't surprise me!! Anyway, Susan picked me up and off we went to the Gas company which is right beside the Capitol building (I still am amazed that I live here - I still get goosebumps when I see the monuments!). We couldn't get parked, so Susan dropped me off and was going to circle til she found a space, and I would call her to let her know how long I thought it would take... I never in a thousand years though I would be calling her to say "there is one person in front of me. I won't be long!". I was in and out in 10 minutes! They even accepted my UK drivers license as my 2nd form of ID!! Somehow it felt wrong that it should be that easy!!!! Normally there is a 3 hour wait, usually with some kind of deranged person yelling at the staff (no - I don't mean me!!), then there is a fight cos they've never seen a UK passport (or even a passport!)...

Here's something for all you plane-spotters out there! I saw an incredible sight when I was in the car with Susan. We were driving up the George Washington Parkway which runs past Reagan National Airport and we rounded a bend in the road to see a plane directly in front of us, really low (I actually ducked! I'm talking maybe a hundred or so feet - it was difficult to judge exactly from the foot well!!) and about to land. At the airport not, as I had feared, on the road! It seems its a popular spot with the locals seeking to recreate that "Wayne's World" moment when they are parked at the end of the runway. It was certainly something to see!!

Hilary hosted the Ladies Lunch yesterday. She's a fantastic cook, so it was utterly delicious! I got to meet the final UK wife (although she's actually Australian) and her darling little 6 month old baby Henry - who was incredibly well behaved during the 5 hours (it was a long lunch!) that we were there. It's hard to believe that such an angel could ever live up to his nickname of "Horrid Henry", but it seems he was on best behaviour yesterday!!

I was rather failing on my Scottishness tests! Hils has a friend from Edinburgh who is a cookery writer, and had sent her a mysterious wooden implement...which I totally failed to identify as a spurtle - although I did eventually manage to guess it was for stirring porridge! (It's not something I ever eat - yuk!). I then had to admit that I didn't know that Scotland had been playing rugby last weekend (someone has to keep me up to date here guys!). I did however manage to redeem myself with my knowledge of the collected works of the Proclaimers and the swede/turnip thing (in Scotland we call what you Sassenach's call a swede, a turnip or "neep").

We walked along to King Street last night for dinner (or rather Stephen had dinner and I had a starter as I was stuffed after lunch which I'd only finished a couple of hours before!). We found 2 places that sell cider!! So I had a Blackthorn in one, and Magners in the other (which looked and tasted like watered down Irn-Bru!). I'm not sure if Magners is supposed to look and taste like that, but I'm not sure I'll be having it again!! Still the Peanut Butter ice cream from "Pop's Ice Cream Parloour" took the taste away! They do really delicious ice cream here!!

A true Scot

Sunday was shopping day! We popped along to World Market, Home Store and TJMaxx to pick up some more bits for the house....mirrors, prints - that sort of thing! I got a really nice thing in World Market, which is a deep box frame with a carved roundel mounted in the centre of it. Just the thing for the wall of the entrance hall which has brass roundels inlaid in the floor. It was only $40 which I thought was a bargain...until I went into the shop next door and found the exact same thing for $16!!!

A sudden wave of Scottishness swept over me....and despite Stephen's assurances that it was only a few dollars difference and that it didn't matter, and then his questioning "can you do that?", I went back to the car, retrieved the picture and took it back for a refund with a reassuring "Of course we can do that. This is America, the customer is always right". As I have a dislike of bagpipes, whisky and porridge it's reassuring to find that there is a flicker of true Scot in me! There is no way I was going to be done out of $24 without an argument!!

We got some other nice prints (but need more!)....I'm just waiting on Stephen getting round to putting them up. We need to go and buy picture hooks and a hammer...which will work as an excuse this week. If they are still waiting to be hung in 3 weeks time then you'll know the curse of Stephen has struck!!

I bought the most gorgeous pair of funky animal print shoes as well. Real killer heels!! (or possibly road-kill heels - geddit?!). It passed the time rather nicely whilst Stephen was in Best Buy looking for a web-cam...finally we are hooked up, so we web-cammed with Mum for 1/2 hour or so on Sunday. I must remember to give people warning before we Web-cam....it's probably only fair to give them time to make sure that they are suitably made-up...and not just out the bath and sitting in their goonie!!!!

I made this mistake of going out to water our back yard at about 5pm yesterday...without spraying myself with repellent. I was only out for about 10 minutes, but I've picked up about 5 bites on each foot, a couple on each hand and a couple on my arms...and coupled with the 5 or 6 bites I got when I sat out on Sunday evening (with spray on!) I am once again in an agony of itchiness. I didn't sleep well last night as I was so itchy, and today I could scream with it. Needless to say it's making me a bit grumpy!! Stephen bought tropical strength 50% DEET repellent when he was back in the UK and I may have to use it, as the little b£$%^*&!s can obviously work through the 15% stuff I was using!! I had been lulled into a false sense of security! For the past week or so, I've not had any bites and Stephen has been the one to be bitten (which is a complete reverse of the usual situation)...

We also discovered on Sunday that Stephen's card limit doesn't seem to have increased any....so either, the bank haven't done what they said they would, or they've increased mine and not his! I'm not in the mood today, so I'll need to call them tomorrow and try and work this out! It gets quite embarrassing when your card is constantly rejected!!

Bonkers in Baltimore!

Yesterday was not a good day for my opinion of our cable/phone and internet supplier. Remember that I had a 30 minute call to them the other day as the cable box stopped working? Well the same thing happened the following evening after a day of patchy service...so (being a geek) I reset the cable box in the same way...still the same error message...so I picked up the phone to call them...no dial tone. Not good! As it became clear that it wasn't going to come back on (and I wasn't going to find out if it really was Bo Duke's long lost brother that had turned up to see Uncle Jessie) I switched everything off and went up to the next floor to listen to music instead. Out the front window I spied a Comcast van parked outside, and two guys with a long pole prodding at the wires coming off the telegraph pole just outside my house..."Ah, I though, that explains it! It'll be sorted by morning, they're working on it." So I got up the next morning and checked - yes I have cable and phone! Then I switched on the laptop so I could check my e-mail....and no internet connection! I was not a happy bunny!!

More Comcast guys turned up (with a ladder this time) and spent hours climbing up and down and fiddling with cables....everything (and I'm touching wood here!) now seems to be working!

Stephen got back from California Friday evening, so we're now trying to pull him back onto DC time. All this travelling is wreaking havoc with his body clock!! He's usually up with the lark here, but I had to wake him up this morning at 7:30 - a HUGE lie in for him!

We had decided to drive up to Baltimore as they have a really nice Inner Harbour area to look around, and lots of restaurants for a nice lunch. Well that was the plan! We got to Baltimore, but so had thousands of Red Sox fans...They were playing the Baltimore Oriels today at 4pm, and the baseball field is only 4 blocks from the Harbour - or Habba as it should have been re-named today! (think JFK accent here!) The place was absolutely rammed with Bostonians!

We had a wander about, looking at the pretty sailing ships, then we went up the Baltimore World Trade Centre (a whole 27 stories high), then we tried to get into somewhere for lunch....a 45 minute to a 1 hour wait for a table!! Absolutely no way we were going to wait that long - we had passed loads of restaurants - so we tried another, and another, and another...we even lowered our sights to the food court (we were thirsty now!) and the lines were HUGE! No quiet Baltimore lunch for us.... The Ice Cream concession didn't have a queue, so we decided that a wee ice cream and soft drink would have to do...so we stood, and tried to make contact with the server. Ahh, the line which said "Enter here" which we had entered obviously wasn't the actual line...and despite the fact that we were obviously standing in the wrong place, and there wasn't anyone else in the actual line, the server didn't point that out to us, or in fact deign to serve us, she just stood there looking vacant.... now by this point we were tired, we were hungry, we were very thirsty and I was pretty cranky... No, don't worry - she lives, but my patience has been sorely tried today!

We stomped back to the car and drove back to Washington for lunch. We ended up at the Pentagon Centre Mall, and didn't eat until about 3pm. Considering that we had split a muffin for breakfast at 9am Stephen is probably lucky I wasn't gnawing on his arm off by the time we sat down!!

Baltimore Harbour is lovely, but remind me to check whether there is a baseball game going on before we venture down there again!

Told you it was busy!

See how pretty it is?

It only looks quiet here cos the 20,000 Red Sox fans are sitting in all the restaurants!

Hair we go!

I have been to the salon...and I don't have hair like Barbara Bush, so I think this counts as a successful visit! I walked along to the salon which took about 1/2 hour...yup 1/2 hour outside in the heat doing something more physical than standing still! By the time I got to the salon my makeup was sliding, my carefully straightened hair was going curly and my clothes were sticking to me! I had to borrow a towel to mop the sweat from by brow...how to make a great impression!

Anyway, I had a good chat with the stylist about what I wanted from my cut and colour (i.e. make it dark, not grey!) and she got to work. She took a long time with the cut, so now I have a graduated bob with texture and movement that takes into account my curly hair. She dried it quite funky, but I haven't got an accomplice to take a photo of it at the moment. I'm going to have to try and recreate it tomorrow when Stephen gets home... it will be a poor imitation I'm sure!

I need a cable guy!

Have I mentioned that it's hot here just now? I watered the front garden this morning whilst it was still reasonably shady and within 5 minutes of doing nothing more strenuous than standing there pointing the hose I was sweating buckets! I retreated to the house to get a cold drink, stand by the air con vent for maximum cooling and watch BBC America...I was just getting into the "Great British Menu" (the one for the Queen, not the most recent one) when the TV went blank and an error message came up. Aaarrgghhhhhhhhhh. I know I've complained about the TV being cr*p (and it is!) but at least it was something to do whilst Stephen is away...besides I'm beginning to enjoy Dukes of Hazzard.....

Anyway after about 30 minutes on the phone to the cable company when I got to have a really nice chat with the customer service lady (who is due to give birth to a little girl on the 26th of this month - her mother (who is Brazilian) is thrilled at the thought of having a granddaughter) they finally managed to get my service reconnected! Phewee! I can tune in to see Bo & Luke Duke righting the wrongs or Hazzard "like a modern day Robin Hood" Yeehaw!

I've also been very brave and booked a hair appointment for tomorrow! I've had two recommendations - one place in Georgetown (a faff to get to) and one place here in Old Town...which got some really crummy write-ups in the Washington Post on-line review section! So I've been brave and booked with a place in Old Town that got great reviews online, but that no-one I know has been too!!! They looked like they did quite modern cuts, so I'm hopefully not going to come out with hair like a character in Dynasty!! I'm getting it coloured too, so hopefully that large streak of white hair visible in the recent photo's will be gone and I'll no longer look like Cruella DeVille!

I've done a lot of phoning today. I've phoned the utility companies to transfer the accounts to my name (the realtor set them up for us)...water and electricity were fine - almost easy (only 10 levels of automated choices before I could speak to a person) - but the gas company need me to go in person to their office in DC to transfer the account! In person - honestly!!

I also phoned mum, and managed to sort out her internet connectivity problems. I am very proud of my geekiness today!! Just dial 1-800-YOU-GEEK!! Okay, so it was only just flipping a switch on her laptop, but still....

I'm dreaming of a....warm Christmas!

Well I've had the fight with the bank over the ridiculous limit set on the debit card. Actually not so much a fight as a minor skirmish...well actually they immediately upped the limit to the maximum allowable, so I barely needed to get out of "slightly peeved, but still reasonable" 1st gear! I have yet to unleash "complete bitch fit" (6th gear) on any unsuspecting American service industry workers...but give me time!!

I've been making lists of the places we want to visit whilst we are over here. I think it would be really easy to settle into a routine, and then get to the end of our stint and go "Oh, we've got 12 weeks left here and 47 states to visit. Where do you want to go?"

One of the "must do's" is the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta which takes place around my birthday in October. The sight of 700 hot air balloons rising into the early dawn light is supposed to be incredible. (They are two hours behind us, so if we stick to DC time we'll be up at 4:30 in plenty time to see the dawn mass lift-off!) I've always wanted to go to Albuquerque, and Santa Fe is just up the road so I'm going to try and get that weekend booked soon. I was also looking at holidays in Hawaii as there is never going to be a better chance to get there (it is just so far from the UK!). It's still quite a long way from here - but at least you're saving 7 hours of journey time. I might try and combine it with a stop in San Fransisco or somewhere on the return leg. There are so many places to see!! Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, the Antebellum plantation houses in Georgia, Napa Valley, the Rockies, the national parks...the list goes on and on!!

For years we have been promising ourselves a Christmas vacation somewhere hot and sunny, so this year we might actually manage it! No presents (as Stephen's personal shopper is in Malvern and he has no idea what to surprise me with...an encyclopedia and thesaurus was one of his more desperate gifts!), just a nice 5 days somewhere sunny. Sounds good to me!

The jet-setter is off again!

I've just packed Stephen off on another trip. He's off to Seattle and then onto Los Angeles for a conference....Which has curtailed my shopping expedition today! We were up early (7am! - on a Sunday!!) so he could watch the Grand Prix whilst he did his ironing (I didn't have time to drop them off at the 95 cents a shirt laundry, so I had to wash them...must get more organised - or buy more shirts!). Then we headed off to the shopping plaza I was at on Monday, in order to get more bits and pieces for the house. As I said - Ralph Lauren towels at $8 are too good to miss! Especially as the ones I bought from Target don't seem to be terribly absorbent!! I am now also stocked up with Salad Cream, Cadbury's chocolate and Walkers Shortbread! Yummy!!

I need to phone the bank in the morning though...our debit card seems to be limiting our spend to $250 a day. I can spend that much in 5 minutes with my eyes closed, so we need to get the limit raised. I can see why the might limit your cash withdrawals, but to limit your debit card spend seems a little silly! I'm sure there will be a fight....

It had to be a pretty short trot round the shops, as we had to stop for some lunch (we went to this burger bar called Johnny Rockets which is done up like a 50's diner - all red leather seats and lots of chrome - very retro!) and do a quick food shopping, then be back here in good time to get Stephen packed, print out driving directions to the hotel he's at tonight, put out the garbage....and then be ready for the taxi all by 3:30. It was all a bit of a rush, and Stephen was panicking because he seems to have a lot of room left in his case...which probably means he has forgotten something. Usually this means his underwear (he knows directions to the nearest clothing store from half the hotels in England!) but I definitely put that in the pile to be packed...

It seems that he's not the only person who forgets items of clothing! After hearing from Hilary how often she has to drive up to work with cuff links or a tie for Paul, I've said that I'll keep a few spares in my desk when I start at the office. Hils thinks I should go one better and hand out Ziplock bags for the wives to fill with shirt, tie, cuff links, pants, black socks... People often cycle into work (won't be me!) and there is always something they leave at home!!

I got a really nice bracelet from Stephen after dinner or Friday whilst we were wandering King Street. I think it was guilt! He's not been here a lot in the past few weeks and I missed out on the QNA conference which was held at a very nice spa hotel round near Dulles. I mean - a SPA hotel - and he didn't arrange for me to go with him! I could have had a couple of days being massaged, polished and having my zits squeezed...not fair!!

We went out to Manassas yesterday to visit a Civil War battlefield, which was really interesting. The Civil War centered on Virginia (Richmond was the Confederate capital, and many of it's Generals were Virginian including Robert E. Lee who was born in Old Town a few blocks from us), and there are a number of battlefields around. This one was significant though, as this was the opening battle of the war - the Battle of Bull Run (if you're from the North) or the Battle of Manassas (if you're a Southerner). They came back for a repeat the following year - both were Confederate victories.

The Union guns pointing toward General Jackson's troops

The Henry House (farm and homestead) and the surrounding fields where the battle took place

Me, looking hot (sweaty!) with the battlefield behind me

The first battle of Bull Run/Manassas was where General "Stonewall" Jackson got his nickname. In an attempt to rally the Confederate troops who were in danger of being overcome General Bee said "There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!"

The statue of Stonewall Jackson - with the physique of Rambo!

We also went to the second Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out by Dulles airport. This was quite interesting as they display the aircraft suspended in giant hangars. Amongst many, many exhibits there was an Air France Concorde, a Blackbird and the Enola Gay...which I was a little unsure about. It seemed a little strange to me to exhibit a plane which dropped the bomb which caused such utter devastation - I think I felt there should have been more remorse about the exhibit perhaps. But the Japanese tourists around us were snapping away and not looking too disgruntled so perhaps I'm wrong...

There was also a Space Shuttle! The Enterprise was the original test vehicle that initiated the shuttle programme, and no less impressive for not having actually been into space. As with all things space related it was smaller than you might imagine. I can't remember if I mentioned this last week, but the Apollo 11 module is tiny! ...And this carried 3 men - jammed in like sardines in a tin!!

The Space Shuttle Enterprise - named cos thousands of Trekkies wrote to demand it!

There is also an IMAX cinema here, so we had to go! We saw a film "Fighter Pilot - Operation Red Flag" which was really good. Plenty of stomach churning, motion shots of skimming across the valley floor and over hills and canyons. If we had held on for another few hours we could have watched the new Harry Potter film in IMAX, but we were tired and there was cold beer in the fridge back home...

The Wives hit the shops - again!

There was a faint smell of burning plastic in Georgetown this afternoon where I was trying out my flexible friend! There was the most gorgeous quirky shop that sold clothes and bits and pieces for the house too. I got the most gorgeous red woolen lightweight cardi/jacket. It's a very Kerry shade of pillar box red, in a casual cross-over style and is warm whilst being incredibly light - perfect for walking to the pub on an Autumn evening! And not terribly expensive either! I have a feeling that I may not be bring many of the clothes I brought out back with me - either that or we'll have to order a bigger shipping container for the journey home! I also got a rather fetching hat! Jude, Hilary and I all tried this on...Hilary and I made quite a contrast - I have a big head (nothing in it though!) and have to ram it on risking possible brain damage due to the compression factor, but on Hilary it slipped down over her ears with acres of room to spare! As we said - you have to suffer to look good, so I've bought it - but if you speak to me an I can't remember my name then I've either been wearing the hat a lot, or I've had a bucket of wine!!

Georgetown was lovely. Loads of great shops including a Dean & Delucca delicatessen, and a Pottery Barn (got a lovely throw for the sofa in there), a J Crew which had fab bags/shoes and jackets, oh and a nice cardigan.... really I was quite restrained with the purchases! I could had done some real damage to the bank account!!

You can cruise to Georgetown from Old Town, and this is supposed to be a really nice thing to do. You can take the afternoon boat over, do some shopping, have cocktails and dinner and take the last boat back. The last boat is at 9:30 so you sail past all the monuments which are all lit up on the way back. Must organise that one weekend. Sounds lovely!

Stitching Away

Stephen was at a Conference yesterday and today, so I spent last night watching Northern Exposure and ...wait for it... The Dukes of Hazzard!! Yup, I was bored and there wasn't a lot on TV!! It wasn't even the original Bo & Luke Duke...

I did find the original Dick Strawbridge and Jim Milner on TV here though! I was flicking and found "It's not easy being green" was showing on the Sundance channel. It's nice to see a BBC import that isn't 10 years old showing on TV here!! They show endless "Who's line is it Anyway" during the afternoon on BBC America, and "Bargain Hunt" in the morning. This is why I don't put the TV on much - I'd rather read! I picked up a cross-stitch today for the first time in about 4 years...I had sworn I would never do another after the last one nearly sent me blind and insane! This one could be my life's work...I had forgotten the massive dimensions when I stuffed it into the suitcase (just in case). Still, if I ever get it finished it'll be a masterpiece! But it's a big if...after about 3 hours of solid stitching I've completed about 2 square inches...and this thing is about 12" x 24"...you do the maths!