On the Road Again
On the road again
Helen came back from her trip to the UK bearing chocolate and was relieved to see that Kitty and I had managed to survive without regressing to a primitive state or being overrun by wildlife; we even managed to eat healthily and only had pizza twice. Helen did a lot of travelling and visiting in the UK as well as working and attending her school reunion.
One result of the a/c failure is that we found out the real culprit responsible for the theft of the bird seed from the feeder and knocking the feeder down; I have formally apologized to and made reparation to the squirrels. With the windows open at night in an attempt to keep the temperature down I heard the bird feeder rattling so I popped downstairs with a torch (not the flaming variety)
and saw a raccoon loitering with intent. Apparently the raccoon had been climbing up the pole past the squirrel baffle, which explains why I found the pole on the ground a few times as well as the baffle disassembled. We started bringing the bird feeder in at night and leaving marshmallows out for the raccoon until one night when Kitty and I were sat on the sofa watching a film we heard a chomping and smacking of lips behind us and saw a young raccoon gobbling up it's supper. The raccoon is still a bit nervous of us but has been venturing almost within arms reach when we have seen it.
Setanta for one reason or another have decided not to show the Lions rugby tour to South Africa online and as we went for an online subscription and dumped the TV package I had to resort to a devious way of watching the matches. For the test matches I found a few sites that were providing live streams, which were not the best quality but good enough to see what was going on and probably not entirely legal but very interesting listening to the Afrikaans commentary. I also found a UK TV file sharing site from which I was able to download better quality footage as well as the midweek matches.
Whilst we're on the subject of legally dubious viewing over the internet, we've also found a way of viewing UK programmes available via the BBC iPlayer even if it can be a bit slow on occasions.
To celebrate US Independence day on 4th of July we watched the final Lions test match and I did my manly duty by having a barbecue in the back yard. We did rebel by grilling vegetables and veggie burgers as well as having a jug or two of Pimms; take that America! In the evening we watched the first day of the Tour de France (TDF); oh yes, three weeks of cycling coverage! I do feel a bit for Kitty as she's been forced to watch the rugby, been forced to learn about professional cycling and watch the Giro as well as three live bike races; we've even made her compete in the TDF fantasy cycling competition.
After a few days back together it is my turn to go on the road again. It's only to Massachusetts and for four days though.
Finally a great piece of news; we have a new niece! Well, she's not exactly brand new out of the box as it were, but she is new to us. Her name is Rhiannon she is seventeen and is Rob's daughter. Sadly we've only recently had contact with her and she did not get to meet Rob but we're looking forward to meeting her.
Helen came back from her trip to the UK bearing chocolate and was relieved to see that Kitty and I had managed to survive without regressing to a primitive state or being overrun by wildlife; we even managed to eat healthily and only had pizza twice. Helen did a lot of travelling and visiting in the UK as well as working and attending her school reunion.
One result of the a/c failure is that we found out the real culprit responsible for the theft of the bird seed from the feeder and knocking the feeder down; I have formally apologized to and made reparation to the squirrels. With the windows open at night in an attempt to keep the temperature down I heard the bird feeder rattling so I popped downstairs with a torch (not the flaming variety)
and saw a raccoon loitering with intent. Apparently the raccoon had been climbing up the pole past the squirrel baffle, which explains why I found the pole on the ground a few times as well as the baffle disassembled. We started bringing the bird feeder in at night and leaving marshmallows out for the raccoon until one night when Kitty and I were sat on the sofa watching a film we heard a chomping and smacking of lips behind us and saw a young raccoon gobbling up it's supper. The raccoon is still a bit nervous of us but has been venturing almost within arms reach when we have seen it.
Setanta for one reason or another have decided not to show the Lions rugby tour to South Africa online and as we went for an online subscription and dumped the TV package I had to resort to a devious way of watching the matches. For the test matches I found a few sites that were providing live streams, which were not the best quality but good enough to see what was going on and probably not entirely legal but very interesting listening to the Afrikaans commentary. I also found a UK TV file sharing site from which I was able to download better quality footage as well as the midweek matches.
Whilst we're on the subject of legally dubious viewing over the internet, we've also found a way of viewing UK programmes available via the BBC iPlayer even if it can be a bit slow on occasions.
To celebrate US Independence day on 4th of July we watched the final Lions test match and I did my manly duty by having a barbecue in the back yard. We did rebel by grilling vegetables and veggie burgers as well as having a jug or two of Pimms; take that America! In the evening we watched the first day of the Tour de France (TDF); oh yes, three weeks of cycling coverage! I do feel a bit for Kitty as she's been forced to watch the rugby, been forced to learn about professional cycling and watch the Giro as well as three live bike races; we've even made her compete in the TDF fantasy cycling competition.
After a few days back together it is my turn to go on the road again. It's only to Massachusetts and for four days though.
Finally a great piece of news; we have a new niece! Well, she's not exactly brand new out of the box as it were, but she is new to us. Her name is Rhiannon she is seventeen and is Rob's daughter. Sadly we've only recently had contact with her and she did not get to meet Rob but we're looking forward to meeting her.
