Exiles in New York

Day 5.017: Fighting (and making up)

2012-01-27T21:43:00.001-05:00

Exile #3 and I had a fight tonight over nothing much after we'd had a very nice story time. I also managed to be grumpy this evening with Exile #2 and a colleague who I've never met but decided to send an email telling me that I'm lousy at my job.

Maybe I'm the common link. It's been a tiring week - and not very interesting to read about I suspect. Sorry.

Fortunately Exile #3 was still awake when I went in to tell her it was time to go to sleep, so we had chance to make up.

Day 5.016: They're a happy height

2012-01-26T22:55:00.001-05:00

Occasionally the kids aren't 100% happy about my photographic projects.

They usually come around in the end.

* heights correct as of Day 4.278

Day 5.015: Shore shorts

2012-01-25T23:51:00.002-05:00

A flight coming in to land at SFO around dawn on Day 5.008.

I enjoyed my runs on the path along the shore of the bay while I was in California. Unfortunately, my schedule and the time of year did not permit me to run during daylight hours - rather I was running before dawn in almost complete darkness. There was enough light to see where I was going, but that's about it. I didn't really go prepared for outdoor running - assuming, incorrectly, that I would be stuck on a treadmill in the fitness center. So it was that I was running in shorts and short-sleeve running shirt without anything reflective or a light at 5am, disturbing the shore birds, trying not to disturb the homeless guy on the bench, passing the hotel staff smoking at the back of the hotel and a few other runners from time to time.

So, it worked out fairly well and I knew that the views were nice - even if I couldn't actually see them.

Day 5.014: Loving being Dad

2012-01-24T22:32:00.001-05:00

My Daddy moments from today:

E5N1 wanting to show off his latest creation.

Exile #4 'catching up' on hugs she missed while I was in California by squeezing in some extra ones.

Exile #3 putting her head on my shoulder while I read to the girls at bedtime.

Four times since we've been here in the US, families we're close to in one way or another have lost their Dads. The latest was just before Christmas. He left a three year-old son. It's almost too sad.

It has made me realise how precious the time we spend with the people we love is. It hasn't stopped me being cross with the kids, or despairing of them, or upsetting them at times - but it has certainly made me treasure the Daddy moments a bit more consciously than before.

Day 5.013: Over-tired

2012-01-23T23:56:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what catches my eye at times. As I was leaving for California, I spotted what looked like a display case with Swagelok fittings in it at Albany Airport. It turned out to be exactly that.

Welcome to Albany - home of a reseller of vacuum fittings from Ohio.

Today we started the week with a family sleep-in. Exile #3 woke us at 8 am. Amazingly, the kids made it to school on time and I managed a reasonable arrival time at work - more delayed by getting my normal work-stuff together after my trip than by the late start.

And now I better get to bed before I compound problems by having a very late night!

Day 5.012: Wow - it's winter!

2012-01-22T23:18:00.000-05:00

I know we've had some very cold weather, and some snow but - whether it is the return from California or whatever - it really seems like winter at last.

This morning I repeated my cold-run feat but with added snow under-foot. I'd been rather skeptical when I saw that Fleet Feet sold Yaktrax Pro that they would really work for running, but it didn't stop me suggesting them as a birthday gift. Today I found that they work very well when I took my morning run to the deserted and not-to-partially-cleared roadways of a local park. Traction was good - very good. I was anxious to get home to see the family though, so I didn't do a very long run.

Later the kids played in the snow (actually the picture of Exile #4 in the top right was taken by Exile #2 yesterday) and called me out to take a photo of the chair they'd made for E5N1.

Taking photographs of things made from snow against a background of snow is tricky, so I tried a few angles. When I looked at this one, I realised it didn't so much look like he was sitting on a chair as well...

Yes. That.

Day 5.011: Bye-bye San Francisco....

2012-01-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

...and welcome back to Albany!

Despite the frosty welcome, I am very happy to be home.

Day 5.010: Business travel

2012-01-20T23:35:00.000-05:00

One of these pictures is of Portland Oregon - let's face it, it doesn't matter which. Business travel is not much fun and meeting rooms, airports and hotels all look pretty much the same wherever you are.

We had an 'entertaining' landing in San Francisco this evening thanks to heavy rain and gusty winds. Tomorrow, I get to spend the day flying back home. Do I get all the fun or what?

Day 5.009: On the bay

2012-01-19T23:06:00.000-05:00

So, I'm staying in a hotel next to San Francisco airport. The bridge in the pictures is the San Mateo Bridge.

After our meetings today, we were returning up the peninsula in our minivan with at various times of the day four, five or six occupants. We only needed a minimum of two people in the car to use the HOV lane, which made it all the more amazing that the vast majority of people were sitting in stationary traffic in the right three lanes.

This evening we were back in San Mateo for dinner. Here is mine.

Yum.

Tomorrow brings two more flights, one more state and it will all end up back here.

For now, goodnight!

Day 5.008: Land of the rising sun

2012-01-18T23:15:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned, I'm out of town but I'm in the US not in Japan!

I saw the sunrise this morning. Anyone able to recognise where I am?

Day 5.007: A bit of everything in Coeymans

2012-01-17T23:56:00.000-05:00

I'm travelling today, so it seemed like a good opportunity to catch up on some old news. Way back on Day 4.363 (my birthday) we had a small outing to the wonderfully named Joralemon Park in Coeymans. We'd heard there were walking trails there. We didn't find them, and decided against walking the ATV trails, but we did find plenty to occupy ourselves.

First, there was the river - fast moving with interesting ice formations where it slowed down.

Then we found out that the most of the park is taken up with an extensive disc golf course. Everyone else we saw while we were there was there to play as far as I could see. Whether it was a 'golfer' who mad the stone snowman we don't know, but we restored its 'carrot' nose when we came across it.

It turns out that a lens of wood shows Exile #2 and E5N1. I didn't find a lens of stone.

There is a fascinating area of rocky outcrops - no doubt challenging for disc golfers - but also fun for adults and children alike.

Eventually, we left nature's playground for some more man-made adventures. The swings had been removed, but this tunnel/slide was popular with E5N1 and Exile #4.

But the park had one more surprise. Behind the playground we discovered a bit of flooded woodland that had frozen capturing fallen leaves in a glassy display case. It was quite attractive - and fun for the girls because the ice was fairly thick and the water underneath (in case of breaking ice - which didn't happen) was safely shallow.

All in all - rather a good little outing. Next time maybe we'll take a our golfing supplies.

Day 5.006: Five frozen Rivers

2012-01-16T23:10:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we managed to fit in a short walk at Five Rivers. It had already turned quite cold and it was quite icy under foot, but the sun managed to come out and we had a good time.

Did I mention the ice under foot?!

I took the opportunity to attempt to perfect the winter bullrush picture.

Got a shot of this cautionary tale about ice-thickness:

And managed to talk everyone into the welcome return of the traditional group shot.

Day 5.005: Cool running

2012-01-15T22:42:00.001-05:00

I do almost all of my running first thing in the morning, before breakfast. It's a time I can control - not that I find getting out of bed early easy, but I can do it. So, I get up when my alarm goes off (or sometimes the second time it goes off) I have everything pretty much ready to go. The next thing is to check the weather. Sometimes I look out of the window, but unless a neighbour has left an outside light on I'm unlikely to see much, so I pick up my phone and check the temperature on there.

This morning it said 0°F. I had been expecting it, but there it was. Was it possible for me to run in those temperatures?

I've nearly finished reading novelist Haruki Murakami's wonderful memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running in it he nails the potential disaster in allowing excuses to stop him running, "I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished." I'm perpetually afraid that if I miss a couple of days of running I'll just stop and never get back to it - so today had to be a running day.

To the two shirts, tights, gloves and hat I had been wearing on days when the temperature was in the teens, I added a pair of glove liners, a fleece and a pair of fleece jogging bottoms. I swapped out my hat for a real cold-weather one with a velcro chin strap to hold it over my ears and added my regular high-visibility bib and headlight worn around my waist and off I went.

This is what I looked like in the early morning sunshine when I got back just over an hour later. The temperature was still 0°F.

For the first time ever, I didn't see a single runner or dog-walker. A few people drove past but I managed not to catch their expressions.

The run was OK. I walked outside and felt OK, I took a breath and thought, "Oh yes - that's cold!" After a mile I'd cooled off from the outside but was starting to warm up from the running and realised I was fine. Then I started to worry about whether I would get too warm and have to take some clothing off - but worried that if I did I would get cold. I needn't have worried about that.

The shoulders and back of my fleece gradually got a coating of ice and so, more surprisingly, did my knees - but that didn't really bother me - I was warm and running easily.

In fact, the problem came after about seven miles - and it was my little fingers - as has often been the case on my less-frigid winter runs. I pulled them out of their finger holes, balled them into my palms and finished up - I ran just under eight miles in all.

So - yes - it is possible for me to run when it's 0°F. I found out when I got home there was a wind-chill advisory due to the extreme cold. Fortunately my route is fairly well sheltered. Still, I'm considering this morning's run to be fairly hard-core, if only because I seemed to be the only one brave or foolish enough to be attempting one.

Day 5.004: Categorical

2012-01-14T23:08:00.000-05:00

Well, winter has arrived - no doubt about it!

The 'big' snowman had lost his nose this morning, but was still standing tall. The small one was looking like a modern art sculpture. The real surprise was that the very thin covering of snow made for some of the best backyard sledding of the last five years - as you can see even Exile #2 was persuaded to try!

My other project of the last few weeks - categories for the posts to make it easier for people with specific interests to find material they might like - has gone live. Not that it is complete by a long way, but feel free to click on the links in the side-bar to see a selection of recent and ancient posts and let me know if it proves entertaining or helpful.

Day 5.003: Photography by Exile #4

2012-01-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

It wasn't until this morning that I discovered that Exile #4 had taken my compact camera out to photograph the finished snowman yesterday. She took several rather good pictures. Here is one.

I was surprised all over again this evening to discover she'd taken more today. Exile #4 (home from school because she was unwell yesterday evening, but doing fine today) and E5N1 built a castle complete with luxurious living accommodation, crenelations and spectacular grounds. Naturally she took photos.

And then there was the treasure. "I have to get a close-up!" was her response to Exile #2's suggestions she'd taken enough photos. Oh how often I've heard that suggestion from one family member or another!

Day 5.002: Snow!

2012-01-12T21:53:00.003-05:00

Yes, it finally snowed last night. Exile #4 was already persuading E5N1 to come out to play in it with her (Exile #3 having made it quite clear that she is no more ready for snow now than she was when it came in October), when we discovered that there was a snow delay for the girls and no school for E5N1.

I went to work as normal, but first I witnessed some fairly competent snowman construction and a whole lot of smiles.

It was already raining when they were doing this and the day has continued in English winter's day style with dull wet near-freezing weather. There's still some snow around, but it's certainly nothing like this time last year.

Day 5.001: Pop a cork!

2012-01-11T22:29:00.000-05:00

Yes - it's time to celebrate the beginning of a new year. It's five years ago today that we woke up for the first time as residents of the USA and spent our first day working out how to live here. We seem to be managing it.

However, there was no time for champagne or any other alcoholic beverages today as I rushed home from work just in time to have a quick plate of dinner and then rush straight out again with Exile #3 to the school science night. Exile #2 took Exile #4 to hers yesterday and this year there were no snow delays like the ones that repeatedly delayed this event last year.

We had a nice evening. Here she is investigating the effects of air pressure using cups with and without a small hole and a cork floating in a bowl of water.

Day 4.365: Daddy art

2012-01-10T22:42:00.001-05:00

It's the end of another year of The Exile, today marks the anniversary of flying day and tomorrow the anniversary of the beginning of our life in New York.

I'd normally take this opportunity to look back over the year, but I have other plans in mind for that which are still a little way off so instead I'm going to look back to my birthday and show you what the kids made for me.

First, here's Exile #3's card. It's me. Running. But, wait, why do I look so strange? Because it's Lego me! In my running tights! So good.

E5N1 also drew me, and also himself. So smiley!

Exile #4 drew instead my iPhone, complete with game of Angry Birds in progress.

As well as the cards, Exile #4 and E5N1 worked on this book for me. Exile #2 knew nothing about it, so we both enjoyed the surprise on Sunday morning.

Here's the title and the dedication (in case I was in any doubt who is was for):

And here is the story:

One day it was near Daddy's birthday. The children were planning a surprise present for him. The children had drawn a picture on it, then they made a list of things that they thought they should do for him. Then, when they were finished, they started to blow up balloons. Then they hung up wriggly streamers. One morning it was the Daddy's birthday, the kids yelled SURPRISE! Then he opened the box...it was a popup book. The End!

Day 4.364: High, diving

2012-01-09T22:56:00.000-05:00

A couple more Duplo adventures. The first was my answer to, "Can I build a tower up to the ceiling?" along with my answer to, "Will anyone help me?"

And the second is what happened when Exile #4 let her imagination run free. E5N1 may or may not have helped - he was certainly there (except when he wasn't):

Talking of swimming, which we weren't - except in pictures, the girls had their first lesson today after "the holidays". They both reported that it was the "best lesson ever" so maybe it is not a bad thing that next Monday is another holiday so it will be another two weeks before they have another one.

Day 4.363: The cake is a lie!

2012-01-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

How awesome is that?! The cake may be lying about my age - or it may just be partially passed through the portals. However, neither the cake itself nor the awesomeness of my wife for making it and adorning it with bomb-shaped candles is in any doubt.

We had a good morning (which I'll write about another day) and followed it with lunch and cake and then it was time for rocket balloons:

Oh yes - we know how to have a good time!

Day 4.362: Institutional fun

2012-01-07T22:54:00.001-05:00

We had an excellent visit to the Albany Institute of History & Art today - something we never quite got around to during the holiday period. Yes - it was excellent but I do have a few issues with it.

The Institute has many great features for us. It has a very nicely supplied kids hands-on room, it's small in size, but stocked with a good variety of interesting items well presented and right now has the Kid Stuff exhibition of toys from earlier generations - most of which are still available today. However, they really give the impression they don't want us to visit.

Firstly, there's the frosty reception. Seriously - would it hurt to smile or to make us feel welcome? Then there's the signs - no photography, don't touch, keep your voice down. OK I get it, I don't even mind it in principle, but somehow they make it seem like a bigger deal than they need to.

It turns out that the second-floor galleries are completely photography-free and that is where the Kid Stuff exhibit currently resides. This is unfortunate. First, let me say that I understand that sometimes photography in galleries and museums is forbidden because of concerns over copyright etc. or simply forced on the galleries by the owners of the material on display, I think that this is a mistake, but I understand it and would never fight it. Having said that, I do find it hard to believe that anyone would look at photographs of pieces of art and then decide to skip the trip to the gallery. People who are happy with looking at such reproductions were probably not that likely to go in the first place and others are more likely to show up if they see interesting items advertised. If the photos are for personal mementos then so what? - maybe it discourages a few sales of an exhibition book - but again, I can't imagine this is a big financial effect. Secondly, can I remind you that the current exhibit is a bunch of old children's toys. It's pretty extraordinary that they would object to me taking a picture of my daughter playing Twister or playing with a yo-yo. I also happen to know that the materials belong to the Institute, so there is no owner-in-the-background forcing their hands.

Anyway, here is a picture outside the galleries:

The exhibition itself is great. There are several toys to play with as well as very interesting pieces about their history. We enjoyed 'walking' Slinkys down a set of specially provided stairs and Exile #4 asked a Magic 8-Ball if I would have a good day tomorrow and it said "Yes" so that's nice.

There was a craft project - coloring and making shadow-puppet style fish which E5N1 had almost boundless patience for which was great to see. He and I ended up going back after a quick look around the permanent collection on the third floor while the girls took their time in looking around. The lady who was running this project was very friendly and apparently happy to be almost-overrun with children keen to take part.

Amongst the descriptive material, I discovered that it was in the early 1960's that Mr Potato Head stopped relying on a real potato making it all the more surprising that both Exile #2 and I are convinced we played with the older version as children. Also, the name "Frisbee" was added to the original name by Wham-O because people were calling their "Pluto Platter" product that after the pie dishes from the Frisbie Pie Company that were sometimes supposedly used in a similar way.

I did manage to get a slightly more cheery greeting in response to my thanks as we were leaving - but maybe they were just pleased that we were on our way out!

Here are the puppets that Exile #4, E5N1 and I made, demonstrated by the young Exiles once we were safely out on the public streets of the city of Albany:

All in all, we had a really good time, but seriously...does it have to be so, you know, serious?

Day 4.361: First day of High School

2012-01-06T21:43:00.000-05:00

It was E5N1's first day at High School today and my first visit to a US High School classroom too. He was invited to be a tester for some pre-school activities designed by this class of High School girls and, as part of hopefully my last day as stand-in Mom, it fell to me to take him there. He took a while to get started but was soon playing games and doing craft projects, disowning me and sitting on girls laps in his normal way.

For me, it was also an interesting experience. The bells going off for the end of one class (at 1.26 pm) and the beginning of the next (at 1.31 pm) and the absolute observation of these as start and end times. The girls attending class in cheerleaders uniforms (not just in Glee then) and so on were things that I knew about in theory but was still surprised to experience.

Anyway, E5N1 declared the visit to be, "So fun!" so I guess whether their activities turned out to be well designed or not, the girls got the essentials right.

Day 4.360: Towers and Daddy-dinners

2012-01-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

Exile #2 has been laid-low with a migraine attack for the last couple of days, so I've been holding the fort. This has meant some unexpected time with E5N1 in the afternoons.

This afternoon, we built a tower as tall as me from Magnatiles, then did some balls-and-rods building. Then finally, we built this tower out of basically all the Duplo we have. He helped a lot until it was about two-thirds complete at which point he lost interest - and instead built his 'sequence' containing all the different colours of single blocks he could find. Of course, by that point I had to press on to find out how tall it would be when I ran out of blocks. The answer is almost exactly the same height as Exile #3.

I've also been in charge of dinner for the last two days. Yesterday, I completely wimped-out and went out for Chinese take-away. Today I managed to make pizza and salad. Considering I used to do almost all the cooking for a few years when we were first married, with a fairly wide repertoire, it's sad to realise what a Daddy-cliché I have become!

Day 4.359: All Lego - great and large

2012-01-04T21:08:00.000-05:00

One of the things we fitted in during the Christmas period along with all the walks and things that I blogged about was the step-by-step construction of Hagrid's hut from a Lego set that Exile #3 received.

She and Exile #4 did the first half in a few sessions and then, on Monday, all five of us sat down to finish it off.

Here is the finished article (so cute!):

The rest of the magic (including the light-up cooking fire) is inside:

And you've got to love the facial expressions:

E5N1 joined in the process as far as his patience allowed and absolutely loves the box of 'real' Lego that we now have, but today he suggested a building project with the 'big Lego'. So, I taught him the joy of 'interlocking' as the Lego folk call it, or as E5N1 puts it 'stopping the lines'.

He was very pleased with just how strong (and large) it turned out.

Day 4.358: Wolf Creek Falls take two

2012-01-03T23:49:00.000-05:00

It was a bitterly cold day today (and back to work and school) so here is some more from yesterday!

It seemed like a long time ago that we discovered Wolf Creek Falls Preserve - a pocket of Mohawk Land Conservancy land opened several months after we arrived in the area. In fact it was about fifteen months ago on Day 3.251. Visiting in winter was quite different, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Here are the kids on the trails and the dry-stone walls that once held sheep in their fields:

And here are some details (the ominous skull above the barn door of a neighbouring property, the small picnic table where the kids seem enormous compared with last time, moss looking like tiny trees and bronchioles and a delightful old can perched on the wall of what looked like an old water trough):

E5N1 was in a running ahead mood. Even with the openness of the winter woodland, he sometimes nearly disappeared:

And the creek where we took a group picture last time was slightly more challenging to cross on this occasion (happily, we did manage to stay dry).

These photos and a couple of others are also here.