Random Thoughts

A Rangers loss in game 7 is even worse when it’s at 4:30am. We hadn’t watched any of the playoff games, partly because they typically started between midnight & 2am and partly because they weren’t shown on television over here. We could get the ESPN radio feed through internet radio and the MLB.com gameday ‘peg people’. Although the two were rarely in sync so you’d see something happen on the gameday screen then about 45 seconds later hear it happen on the radio. But after some serious peer pressure from my former boss about not being a true fan, I caved and decided that if there was a reason to stay up past my bed time, game 7 when I didn’t have to get up the next morning on a weekend where the clocks get set back was the reason. So we went to sleep at 10 Friday night & set the alarm for 1am. Thank goodness for laptops. Adam made popcorn and we laid in bed and “watched” the game. Despite the outcome, I’m glad we did it. It’s one of our traditions that makes us feel at home.

We’ve started getting questions about Christmas. We honestly don’t need anything. Besides that there are many restrictions on mailing stuff over here -- for example, if the value of the package is greater than £40 (about $60), we would be required to pay VAT on importing. And it is really expensive to mail stuff internationally. What we would much rather you do is to take whatever the cost of what you’d buy us and the cost of the postage and apply that to your plane ticket to come over here to visit. Currently, May 2012 is looking a bit full. First, we’re coming home for Greg & Alisa’s wedding (yea!!!) then Richard & Ginny are coming for a few weeks (woohoo!). We’ve heard from a few others of you that you’re thinking about coming, but no other set dates (that we know of) yet. The bed & breakfast is open! (and sometimes there is really breakfast included)

The girls continue to be cute and excited and obnoxious all at the same time. Walking in the park has become less frequent as it is dark here pretty much any time I’m not at work. Though I did realize that the UK is further north than Texas, I hadn’t quite thought through the fact that because of that this leads to a more extreme difference in the length of daylight in the summer and winter. When we first moved here in June, the sun didn’t set until nearly 9:30 and it was up again at 5:30am. Now however, it’s just getting daylight as I leave the house at 7:45 and as I walk down the hill to my car in the evening at 6, I see some pretty neat sunsets. So, they’re a little more cooped up than they’ve been used to lately, which admittedly has led to the extra whining at night. This weekend we took them down to the park and they ran like they’d never been there before. Daisy is getting a bit more bold (much to the dismay of Adam) and running up the hills and through the trees around the path. Even at 8 years old, she can still out run me on any given day. And that sentence makes me happier than I’ll ever be able to explain. Ginger maintains her love of people over other dogs. It cracks us up when the girls see another dog walker – Daisy goes for the other puppies and Ginger makes a beeline for the owners. After the particularly muddy walk today, everyone got a bath. Nothing better than super soft fluffy puppy coats.

Since we’re talking about baths, I don’t think I’ve told you about our shower. We have a small ensuite bath (with just a shower) and a family bath (with a tub, but no shower) across the hall. The shower in the ensuite was leaking from when we first moved in. In July we told the leasing company about it, they sent a plumber out to look at it who basically said it needed to be completely rebuilt. He told us that he'd send the quote to the leasing company within a couple of days. We didn't hear anything for about two weeks & then we noticed some stains on the ceiling in the living room directly below the shower. So we called the leasing company again and they said they hadn't received anything from the plumber yet, but they'd try to get in contact with him. This same story continued for about 3 weeks with Adam calling every 3-4 days. Then we noticed black mold starting to appear on the ceiling. Somewhere along the way, we'd gotten the landlord's email address, so I took pictures of the ceiling and sent an email along with the photos to the leasing company & the landlord. Apparently there was a lack of communication between the leasing company and the landlord. Within a week they started work on the shower. They had to take off all the tiles on the shower & put up new drywall because it was all rotted. They said the floor boards weren't rotted, so they ran a dehumidifier for 4 days and dried everything up then put a paint sealer over the mold and tiled back over it all. During this time, we had to move completely out of the ensuite and Adam & I took baths for the week & half. We now understand why people in the 1700’s only bathed every couple of months. 10 days after they started, we had a brand new shower again.

Can I just tell you that we really like our landlord. When we first met her, she gave us all sorts of advice about where we could get some nice second-hand furniture, even lending us a patio table to use in the kitchen until we could get a proper table. When she found out that we’d moved here from the US and had no lawn equipment, she bought us a lawnmower. When the problems in the shower came up, she apologized and took quick action to get it fixed. Then this week when she came by to check the repair work, she thanked us for keeping the house clean and making it a home. Never thought I’d get such a nice note from a landlord. We’re really grateful to have her. It counteracts alot of our frustration with the leasing company. I will say, though, the leasing company has stepped up their communication level after we called them out on not taking action for nearly 2 ½ months on the shower.

We’re pretty excited for this week. The US tv shows that they broadcast over here start the new seasons on Thursday. So we won’t be too far behind on The Big Bang Theory and How I met your mother. I haven’t found NCIS on any of the stations we get, so we’ll probably have to Netflix it when we return. You know, if Netflix still exists.

I’ll leave you tonight with something I learned at work last week. When an invitation for a party is sent out and the attire is listed as ‘fancy dress’. It doesn’t mean ‘black tie’, but ‘costume party’. Interesting.