Yeehaw

Yippee! I've just spent hours booking a trip to the Four Corners region of the Southwest. We're going to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, Taos Pueblo, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, and Sedona and a few places in between! We are SO looking forward to this! I can never think about Albuquerque without thinking about Bugs Bunny..."I should have turned left at Albuquerque". No doubt that will be the war cry when we're trying to find our way from place to place!!

Melt down

Well, we got freezing rain on Tuesday night. I got up in the morning and the whole street was completely slick and there were no cars moving. My KISA called to say that he didn't think he'd be able to get his car down the hill from his house and wasn't going to work. It seemed sensible to me. I had someone coming in the afternoon to assess our worldly goods for packing and shipping purposes, so I figured that even if I went to work I'd just get there are have to turn around and come back. I settled in and worked from home. I tell you, I could get used to that! I cosied up in comfy clothes, made a hot chocolate, lit the fire and got the laptop out. Bliss! It was actually really productive as I had a big task to do, and in work its difficult to concentrate with the constant interruptions.

Icicles on the power lines leading to the house

My working from home setup

By the time Patrick from the packing company came it was beginning to rain. It didn't take him too long to go round the house with me. It was just a little repetitive "this stays, that goes, yes the rug goes, no we're not taking the lamps". It amazes me that these folks can look at a whole bunch of shoes and work out how many cubic feet they'll take up! (Obviously a lot in my case!)

Unfortunately, the rain didn't clear all the snow and it froze overnight. Is there no end to misery? I didn't rush into work too early as I wasn't up to dealing with black ice in the dark. I stepped out onto the mat, locked the front door and froze. The steps down to the path were completely slick and I didn't fancy going flying down them. I peered over to the steps from the kitchen door...they looked better. So it was back into the house, down the stairs, unlock the kitchen door, find the ice melting granules, up the kitchen steps, round to the front door steps and sprinkle the granules, put them away and walk over to the car.

Bugger. I understand now why the neighbours were out with brooms sweeping the snow off their cars. Mine was covered in a good inch of snow topped off with a thick crust of ice. I managed to open the tailgate after a struggle and get the 3 foot long scraper out and begin. Now, this is a big SUV, and I'm only a little short person. In order to get to all the snow and ice (snice?) on the windshield and the hood I had to get pretty up close and personal. I was a 5 foot snowman when I'd done. And it took me a good 20 minutes to break through the ice crust and sweep the snow off. Then I discovered that instead of windshield wipers I had two large blocks of ice welded to the windshield....Even though I had the heater going full whack for 20 minutes by this point they were still welded. Thank goodness for the miracle de-icer spray!

I had someone from the relocation company coming round in the afternoon. She was very nice and very helpful. She was here to do the pre-handover walk round to see what we had to do to the house before we turn it back over. I had to keep her in check as she would have had us repairing things that were like that when we moved in. Much as our landlady is great, I don't think its part of the deal that we return the house in better condition that we got it!

Stephen got home, tired, weary and starving, about 5pm. Its always good to have him back. And it gives him a chance to experience the residue of snow as he's always out the way when it snows here!

Snow days

It took my KISA and I just over an hour to drive the 5 miles to work today. For the first time we did not drive up the Parkway at 60mph and 10ft from the car in front...we did it at 20mph and 10ft from the car in front.

It snowed steadily through to about lunchtime and we got probably about 2 inches of snow in the end...which I had to shovel off the path and pavement when I got home. Where were the enterprising children wanting to make a couple of bucks? It was beginning to snow again when I was shovelling, but it seems to be spitting with rain now. The forecasters are still predicting freezing rain overnight which will be nasty on top of the layer of snow.

These ice storms are bad news. They coat everything (including the power lines) with a layer of ice and it seemingly only takes around 1/4 inch of ice to bring down the power lines. Mind you over here we lose power if it rains, snows, is windy or sunny...basically its safe to say that if we have weather the power goes out. It would possibly help if they buried the cables!

Our snowy backyard and adjoining woods

Its Snowing!

Its snowing in Old Town. The weather they were predicting for tonight has come early. There were only a couple of sprinkles when I got up (more sleet than snow), but it was beginning to snow when I came downstairs. I switched on the weather channel - we're due 2-3 inches today and freezing rain tonight. Nice!

As I don't "do" snow my KISA is coming to get me. Stephen is (of course) not here. We were talking about this the other day, and he has been out of town every time it has snowed since we've been here!

The first few flakes - taken at 7:20 this morning

Taken at 7:25 - its really beginning to stick!

Flubs, frozen fingers and flying saucers!

I've just downloaded Beyonce singing "At last" to my ipod as a reminder of the Inauguration. She sang this at the Neighbourhood Ball (which was televised) - the first song that the First Couple danced to at the first of the Inauguration Balls they went to. Yet again softy Spark was blubbing!! It was good to see a President and First Lady who were able to cut a rug on the dancefloor. As I pointed out to my hubby, this was another reason that he would never be President...being Scottish might be the first drawback, but having two left feet was certainly another!!!



President Obama has retaken the oath of office as a precaution as there was an outcry brewing that he might not be President as he flubbed the oath (or rather John Roberts had flubbed the oath and he'd repeated it). According to all reports this was an excess of caution and he HAD been president from 12 noon on Tuesday. Obviously they're not counting the 6 minutes when Joe Biden was in charge!



Apparently the little green men were also there to watch the historic events unfolding. There was a video on youtube showing a supposed UFO sighting above the Mall on Tuesday.... as a cynic I'm going to point out that there were probably "UFO" sightings every two minutes as it was exactly on the flight path for Reagan airport and planes were landing regularly!!!



The final controversy of the Inauguration was the fact that the quartet that played before Obama took the oath had pre-recorded their piece and were miming. I'm sure YoYo Ma was very capable of turning out a fantastic live performance, but realistically it was freezing and fingers and instruments don't react well to subzero temperatures! Can you imagine taking your Strad out into freezing temperatures with zero humidity. The thing would never play properly again!! Strings would snap, the piano would have been out of tune...Much better to pre-record it than play live and have it sound like cats being tortured.

Combating the cold

During our very cold spell last week I made good on my promise to myself to go and buy jimjams with sleeves as I was fed up with freezing my shoulders in my current range of strappy topped variety. I picked up a pair without looking too closely at the bottoms. It wasn't until I put them on and Stephen burst out laughing that I realised what a complete tit I looked! The bottoms were skintight leggings...with the leggings and the bobbed hair I looked like Max Wall!! I just needed the funny walk! These may be a complete passion-killers, but at least I'm warm!

Ever the scientist, as we were walking about Philly last weekend freezing half to death, Stephen commented that we would probably be warmer if we just packed ice inside our clothes as that is only 0C and, thanks to minus 15C temps and severe wind chill, we were probably experiencing nearer minus 25C. I wasn't going to take him up on it, but the laughter took my mind of the cold for a few seconds at least.

Some pretty pictures of Old Town

South Lee Street looking lovely in the sunshine

D'oh! Who spell-checked that one??

We've passed this sign countless times, but I only spotted the mis-spelling today.

Inauguration Day

Today American swore in its 44th President, and the first African-American to take the Oath. A truly historic day. It dawned bright and very cold. We got up and switched on CNN and found that the Mall was already pretty full. Apparently by 10am the police were funnelling people down towards the Lincoln Memorial end of the Mall as the Capitol building end was packed out. People had been waiting from 2am in order to get a prime spot.

For the past two or three weeks the local authorities had spread gloom about how awful it was going to be to get there, be there and get home again. We were told that Metro wouldn't cope with the demand, that security would be the tightest ever seen (you could take almost nothing onto the Mall - no umbrellas, backpacks etc), there was a shortage of portapotties, that you'd need to wait hours to get back into the Metro to get home...and according to the news today certainly some of that was true. Having been up on Sunday and experienced it with a quarter of the people, we decided to not brave it and take the easier option of watching the Jumbotron on Market Square.

There was a pretty big crowd, and it was great to be with people watching the events unfold. I was interested to see the reactions when the former Presidents appeared to take the stage and watch the Inauguration. There were big cheers for Jimmy Carter, some scattered polite clapping for George Bush Sn, huge cheers for Bill Clinton and boos mixed with polite clapping for Dubya. The crowd was totally ecstatic when Barack Obama appeared at the Capitol steps ready to watch Joe Biden take the Vice Presidential oath.

As it turned out, Joe Biden was actually technically President of the USA for about 6 minutes today. Under the Constitution the outgoing President is no longer President at exactly 12 noon, but President Obama didn't take the oath until 6 minutes past. These things are timed to the second, and it all ran a little bit over! This meant the the VP (who had been sworn in) was POTUS for a few minutes. I wonder if he realised at the time? At least he didn't make a grab for The Button!

There was pretty much silence during Obama's Oath taking, but the crowd went wild as soon as he'd uttered the finals words - even if there was a stumble over some of them! He jumped the gun a little, then Chief Justice John Roberts got the words the wrong way round! His speech was well received - lots of clapping, whooping and cheering!

We spotted Andy, Marie and their neighbours as the crowds dispersed so we headed to a nearby bar to thaw out. After a drink and a snack we headed off for a wander about, then headed home to watch the parade. It was running about 1 hour late, so we got to see the President and First Lady walk part of the parade route. Security was exceptionally tight in DC, but people were still anxious in case anything should happen to him. I guess it only takes one nutter with a gun.

Crowds on the Mall

Crowds on the Square


Not quite as crowded, but much easier to get to



Watching the screen with the crowds
Former President Jimmy Carter

Former President George Bush Sn

Former President Clinton and Hillary - collectively known as Billary

President George Dubya Bush looking pensive

Preparing to head out and take the Oath

The Anticipation

Vice President Joe Biden being sworn in

President Barack Obama taking the oath of office

Michelle Obama looking proudly on

During his speech.
"we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist"

Savouring the moment

Hello! Is there anyone there??

We decided to take a run to Historic Occoquan yesterday as we've driven by it at high speed many times en-route to Potomac Mills/Ikea, but have never stopped. Everyone told us it was charming, and it was...except it was closed! We had hoped to walk around and grab something to eat...we managed the walking around part but had to head off somewhere else to get breakfast.

As we were really close by we stopped into Potomac Mills to see what bargains could be had. It would have been a shame not to really!! And there were certainly bargains!

Very pretty...

...but very closed!

The only life we saw!

We are One - Obama's inauguration kick-off celebration

The Capitol building bedecked in flags ready for Tuesday.
You can just make out the thousands of chairs ready for the lucky few who have tickets.
The other 2 million people will have to stand!

Wrapped up and soaking up the atmosphere. Stephen in his Obama hat.

Portapotty city!

The crowds listening to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial

The crowd listening intently to Barack Obama via the Jumbo-tron

We Are One - the Obama Inaugural kick-off concert

The other thing that I hadn't appreciated when I booked the hotel, was that there was going to be an Inauguration kick off concert at the Lincoln Memorial. They hadn't announced it until later in the week (probably to stop many more millions of people pouring into DC), but I kicked myself as soon as they did. We decided to drive back from Philly in the morning and try and get to the Lincoln memorial in time for the 2:30pm start.

We parked at Pentagon City Mall as there is a metro station there, as well as a food court as we were starving. Unfortunately everywhere was packed - except McDonald's. I've now had my bi-annual BigMac. I guess you need to have one every couple of years just to remind you how yukky they are! I was very brave and managed to get down the two small escalators (I have a massive phobia about going down them!) to the platform. We got off at L'Enfant Plaza and made our way to the National Mall (only stopping to buy Stephen a Barack Obama hat). There were thousands upon thousands of people milling the entire length of the Mall, having a look at the seats laid out by the Capitol building for the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday and watching the jumbo-tron screens showing the concert. We walked down towards the Washington Monument soaking up the atmosphere, and pausing when there was an act singing. I was getting quite teary whenever someone sang something patriotic (which was everything!). I think it must be my age - I'm becoming really sentimental!

We rounded the Washington Monument and looked down towards the Lincoln Memorial. There was just a sea of people in front of us all the way down both sides of the Reflecting Pool. More welling up from softy Spark! I am so glad that we came back from Philly to go. The atmosphere was fantastic, and there's a real sense of history being made and celebrated. It was a star-studded line up - U2, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen - to name just a few. Everyone gathered around the jumbo-tron's were singing away and whooping.

Getting home was rather fun! I was trying to persuade Stephen that the Smithsonian metro stop would be best as it has stairs as well as an escalator down to the main concourse (ie the big, steep part), but there was a huge queue to get to the entrance and he wasn't overly keen to wait. We did try to pick up a cab, but there weren't many to be found, so we eventually ended back at L'Enfant Plaza. Stephen pointed out there there were loads of people going down, so I couldn't see the bottom of the escalator and couldn't see how high it was. Fair enough, he's right, it might not be so bad. Just as we were going to get on as the crowd had thinned, a policeman stepped in front of us and stopped us getting on as the platform below was too crowded. Crap! This put us at the front of the queue - not good from a not being able to see how high it was perspective!! We let a few people go in front of us. By the time the policeman stepped aside there was quite a crowd - and everyone began to push to get on. OMG this was totally my worst nightmare come true. Everyone shoving me towards the top of a high escalator which I was terrified of getting on anyway! Stephen got on first, but we got separated. I was on my own and had no choice. The pair on hands on my shoulders shoving me on made sure of that!!

Photos of us freezing in Philly

Okay, so its not of us, and its not of Philadelphia....

A Cardinal (the state bird of Virginia) in our back yard

The Potomac River - completely frozen across

And another view of the river

Here we are in Philadelphia

Thawing out beside the Liberty Bell

Amongst the crowds beside the bell

The star of the show

The Rocky statue

At the top of the "Rocky" steps.

The view from the Museum of Art down the Ben Franklin Parkway towards the city centre

Doesn't Stephen look frozen?

"Why aren't we in Florida?"

The Thinker
Outside of the Rodin museum

City Hall

The Museum of Art - taken from our hotel room

City Hall from our hotel room

Did I mention it snowed lightly overnight?

Freezing in Philly

I had booked an overnight in Philadelphia for this weekend - but had failed to check the weather forecast before I did so! We hadn't been yet, and everyone said how good it was. We were up bright and early, got packed, grabbed a couple of donuts and a coffee and hit the road. We didn't get terribly far before our first stop. We were driving over the Wilson bridge when I began urging Stephen to pull off at National Harbour. The Potomac river was completely frozen all the way across!! We HAD to stop and get photos. It was an incredible sight! I don't think I've ever seen that happen in the UK. I guess it just doesn't really get that cold there.

I spent the next leg of the journey trying to get my BlackBerry to send. It just wasn't working and I was having Crackberry withdrawal symptoms! Our SatNav took us off on a rather obscure route, so we didn't get to Philly until about lunchtime. We checked into the Loews hotel (very nice), bundled up and headed out for a spot of lunch before we started the serious sightseeing. We didn't have to go very far before I realised that I had made a serious error of judgement in not checking the weather forecast. It was minus 13C in Philly yesterday - add in windchill (and there was plenty of that I can tell you!) and it takes you to a temperature where bits of your body begin to fall off!!!

We walked along to the old State House (where they read/signed the Declaration of Independence), and dashed with joy into the building housing the Liberty Bell. By this time my thighs were frozen and I was kicking myself that I'd not picked up my second scarf. (I was wearing a vest, a t-shirt, a jumper, a jacket and a coat - and was bearably warm. I needed thermal long johns for the legs though!) We took our time walking round the exhibits in order to thaw out before we were ready to brave the cold again. I'm sure Philadelphia is a lovely city to walk around in summer - its not terribly big. But in arctic winter - we got taxi's! Next stop was the Philadelphia Art Museum - probably most famous as the steps that Rocky climbed up. There is a statue of Rocky at the bottom which is apparently always submerged in tourists. Not yesterday it wasn't! From there we walked back to the Rodin museum which was rather fabulous - and well heated! I was beginning to worry about Stephen as I've never seen his cheeks so pink. I was beginning to think that frostbite was only a little while away....

From there we cabbed it back to City Hall, which was a stunning building. I was on camera duty here and I could only manage to take about 4 photos at a time as I had to take my gloves off and my hands would be cold to the point of pain within a minute. It wasn't long after this that we sought sanctuary in the bar of the Hard Rock Cafe!!

When we got back to the hotel (which was directly across the street) we had to bathe Stephen's hands in warm water as he couldn't get them warm. This was definitely the coldest weather I have EVER experienced!!

I just want to sleep....

The pint of gin sadly didn't have much effect. Perhaps I should have gone for the two-pint option... I got to sleep easily, but woke about 12:30 as the moon was shining brightly into the bedroom (we don't have curtains as we're on the 4th floor and back onto woods). When I rolled over onto my other side I kept myself away coughing. Then I got too hot so I had to get up and knock the thermostat down a tiny bit. Not enough, so I had to get up again. Then it got too cold, so I had to turn it back up again.... At 4:30 in the morning I was e-mailing Stephen to say "Have a nice flight". And at 6am I was e-mailing POQI to say I've not slept so I'm going to work from home after I've had a little snooze. Thank goodness I did. I was barely functioning!! It was also about minus 12C and staying in the house in front of the fire seemed like a real smart plan!!

It was so cold that, despite me leaving the heating on overnight, some of the pipes froze leaving me without water to the sinks in our bathroom. Stephen arrived back home looking totally frozen and he'd only walked from the taxi to the front door! We braved the temperatures and went for a pizza, but boy was it cold!!

Misery loves company

I've probably set the neighbours tongues wagging. I've just been out for dinner with a man who is not my husband, who picked me up from the house in a sports car. If people had curtains here I'm sure they'd be twitching!!

There is nothing for Stephen to concern himself about though. POQI had pinged Dawn and I earlier and asked if we fancied dinner. I'd had a bad day (emotionally draining - people being upset and me applying a stiff upper lip and being supportive) and had left the office around 2pm to do some work at home. I came home, lit the fire, sat in front of it and sobbed for a little bit. I think it helped to release the emotion. A good greet always helps! When he pinged I was feeling better, starving and able to cope with company. We went to the Warehouse for steak - yum! Dawn's hubby came too and we had a good laugh...and I had a gin and tonic tops. I hope that a pint of hard liquor does the trick sleeping-wise as I'm going to drop dead of exhaustion if I don't get a good 8 hours sleep soon!!

I'm going to try leaving the heating on tonight. Its supposed to drop to minus 13C tonight and its just too cold in the mornings. My teeth were chattering this morning and I was only out of bed for 30 seconds to put the heating on, plus it took about 3/4 hour to get to a reasonable temperature that would allow me to get up without getting frostbite. The arctic clipper has certainly arrived! The only problem with leaving the heat on is the noise - its a hot air system and its not quiet! So...tonight I'll either not sleep because I'm boiling hot, or because the noise is keeping me awake. Perhaps I need more gin...

Stan and Ollie

How is it possible? How can two grown men be so completely hopeless???

I was on the phone to Stephen on Tuesday, he was driving from Farnborough to the hotel and Simon was following along behind. Suddenly the air turned blue as Stephen made a wrong turn. Then "Oh, no...its okay. I know where I am. We can go along here". Further chatting followed. Then more swearing. "*&%$ I'm lost. Where the *&%$ am I?". OMG! It is a 20 minute journey. How hard can it be?? Yet there he was, leading Simon down country lanes in totally the wrong direction. To be fair, Simon realised eventually and was flashing his lights and trying to save Stephen from going too far the wrong way, but Stephen was blithely ploughing on, ignoring him and talking (handsfree) to me!

Of course Stephen (Ollie) is quite able to get himself into scrapes without Simon. He called to relay the latest calamity today. He had driven from Malvern to a hotel at Heathrow airport, was putting his valuables in the safe, realised that he had forgotten his passport and it was still sitting in the bedroom at Malvern. Just as well for him that he has a rather wonderful mother-in-law as she drove halfway down to meet him at Swindon to pass it over.

I just don't understand how it's possible to be so disorganised!!! Tickets, passport, money - it was always the mantra! I suppose tickets are electronic and no one carries cash - so why remember to check for a passport...

Colin's leaving lunch

It was Colin's leaving lunch today. I cannot believe it was 6 months ago that Stephen and I collected him from Dulles and ran him to his apartment. It could have been weeks!! We are really going to miss him.


After a lot of debate we went to Legal Seafood's for lunch - it was delicious and oh-so-filling! We'd booked the table kinda late so we actually had two tables - one at the front (near the door) and one at the back (where it was warm!). After a little bit of back and forwards I sat between Colin and Lily. We definitely had the fun table!

After lunch we headed back to the office for cake. As it was really cold we thought that ice cream cake might not be a good idea. We didn't want to freeze from the inside as well as the outside! Tim had got a sponge cake from Corner Bakery which was rather good. Of course, this didn't go down well with Mr Wrong-kind-of-beer.... or Mr Wrong-kind-of-everything as perhaps I should call him now!!

Whilst we were all together Dawn took the opportunity to enquire who had cleaned the leftover beer from the baseball out of the kitchen and drunk the wine in the fridge (our emergency supply!). He denied having anything to do with the evaporating wine, but Mr Wrong-kind-of-beer did admit to slurping his way through the beer. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS???? This was the man who complained at great length about the very same beer being stale, nay downright dangerous....!!!!

We had all signed a t-shirt (something of a tradition for the returning graduates) and I had bought a rather nice photographic print in the Torpedo Factory at the weekend. I had been wandering round Old Town on Sunday trying to find something suitable and had got talking to a couple of artists in one of the galleries. Sadly they didn't have anything suitable, but we had a lovely chat. I then bumped into them about 20 minutes later when I was flicking through the prints at the Torpedo factory and they helped me pick out the best print.

Looking cool and posing reluctantly!


Cutting the cake

Looking a little emotional...