Day 11.080: Student Choreography Showcase

Today was dominated by a trip to Lewiston to see these young ladies (including Exile #3) dance:

The venue was this impressive converted church:

where they played to a packed house with several other companies doing mostly student choreographed pieces. It was a great night - but a late one!

Day 11.079: Refitting is the reverse of removal

...including some water on the floor, some concerned moments, some brute force, some reconsideration and in the end...

...success!

Day 11.078: Getting a quart out of a pint pot

Tonight, our job was to remove our old dishwasher ready for the new one to be delivered tomorrow. A job that would not be too hard, except that the flooring does not extend under the cabinets, so the dishwasher had to be tipped and lifted onto the floor at which point the top tucked itself under the lip of the countertop.

Of course, we turned to the internet, where we found not only others complaining of the same issue, but also horrific sights of people literally cutting their old dishwashers out.  We were about to give up when we realised that there might be just enough give in the counter to wiggle it out. However, we needed three strong workers - two to pull on the counter and one to move the appliance. Fortunately, our mighty karate ninja daughter (Exile #4) was not yet asleep and - sure enough - with her help we succeeded.

Tomorrow, we will find out if fitting the new one is as straightforward.

Day 11.077: Preparing for high school...

...included finding a baby picture of our 8th grader. So, here is Exile #4 quite a few years ago and many miles away:

As the response from the year book editor said, "So cute!!"

Day 11.076: An aerial photo of our house

Right there - see it? No, it's the one to the left of that one.

Day 11.075: Hidden and discovered

A few more pictures from our walk on the beach yesterday:

One of many shells, an egg case (possibly a skate), the storm-buried benches way above the normal high tide mark, a selection of driftwood that E5N1 had piled up and a washed-up deck-board.

Day 11.074: Exile #2's Sunday Column #197

Exile #2 writes...

While Exile #3 caught up on some homework this afternoon, the rest of us headed to the beach, ignoring the threat of snow.

We were hoping we might snag some sea treasures - it’s always easier in the off season - but we were surprised by what we found. In the ocean, huge rocks stood where they had not been before. On closer examination, it turned out they were not rocks at all but huge clumps of seaweed that moved slowly like a stranded animal.



Along the high tide line, there were vast numbers of shells,

whilst at the ocean’s edge we found an extraordinary gelatinous seafoam, that looked like some kind of alien lifeform.



Much of this debris was due to the series of coastal storms we’ve had recently. Alongside the naturally occurring materials, we found chunks of decking, and pieces of siding, no doubt dislodged from someone’s house. E5N1 was fascinated by the many pieces of weathered wood, and he adopted one that looked deceptively like a pebble. Even better, at the last possible moment, he found that most precious of treasures, a sand dollar, a good sized one too, perfectly complete.

Day 11.073: Views of Vegas

It was my first full day back home. Exile #2 and I went to see Exile #3 and her dance company perform at a local nursing home - including the first public performance of the duet she and her friend have choreographed and dance together. Apart from that, I have been swinging between feeling fine and wanting to fall asleep, so pretty normal for a Saturday!

Here are some views of Vegas including a couple getting married on a street corner watched by a knock-off Mickey Mouse and a cheeky showgirl, various hotel/casinos and a bit of desert:

Day 11.072: The Chainsmokers

The day 3 entertainment (that's Wednesday for those keeping score) was a choice of two musical acts - The Chainsmokers or Train. This was my view at The Chainsmokers at the MGM Grand:

They didn't let us down!

Day 11.071: Red-eye blues

The last half-day of conference followed by killing some time followed by a night spent on planes and in airports. It all felt a bit like this (actually from a video wall display in the airport on my outbound trip):

I don't think we're supposed to see that.

But then, finally, the southern Maine coast:

Day 11.070: Schooled by Khan

I had a good day at the conference with sessions on data security and industry disruption and a great 30 minute primer on quantum computing by an young British woman currently researching at MIT but the highlight of the day for me was undoubtedly a talk by Sal Khan about the past, present and future of his non-profit Khan Academy. Inspiring, moving and hope-inducing!

Day 11.069: Barenaked Ladies at the beach

I spent the evening standing knee-deep in a warm wave pool watching the Barenaked Ladies. They improvised a song about the conference (Think) having mentioned that their first ever corporate gig had been at another IBM conference around 30 years ago. They later improvised a song about the wave pool in honor of those of us who had ventured into the water to stand in front of the stage.

At least our presence in the water did something to justify the twenty or more lifeguards that were on duty for the safety of people who otherwise were staying entirely dry (except in the sense of visiting the bar).

Day 11.068: New York, New York

My current work travels have brought me to New York, New York:

Not the Big Apple however, but a large hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip:

It's everything I imagined!

Day 11.067: Exile #2's Sunday Column #196

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #4 has had a busy weekend. After her success in karate on Friday night, she spent last night over at a friend’s for a birthday sleepover. This friend lives two houses away, so it didn’t require much in the way of organization. She did, however, text us at about 11:45 am this morning to say she would be home around noon. Some time later, we began to wonder if we should text her back to ask what she thought noon meant. Eventually we discovered she meant 2 pm. On returning home, she disappeared to her room for a while but soon we needed to be heading out once more. Her youth group had been invited to an African dinner, hosted by friends in the local community of immigrants and asylum seekers. Ominously, she didn’t respond when called and, not too surprisingly, was to be found curled up in bed fast asleep. She managed to rally (just about) and we had a fun evening eating and chatting.

Exile #1 missed out on all the fun, unfortunately, but he is off on another travel adventure.

Day 11.066: Passionate About Art

Exile #2 and I visited this exhibition at the Saco Museum today:

It includes works by at least two of the kids' art teachers. I hope that Exile #3 at least will manage to find time to visit it before it finishes at the end of the month because it is amazingly varied and really excellent.

Day 11.065: Karate test

Another rank achieved - another reminder that we may have lost the ability to control our little girl:

Fortunately, she also seems to be learning to use her powers only for good!

Day 11.064: Lots of snow

This was as the storm was beginning to wind down yesterday:

I was in work but it was the second consecutive snow day for the kids. In total it seems we got about 18 inches of snow on top of the 16 inches we had from the last one - it's just as well that some of it is melting in between or we would be in trouble!

Everything was back to normal today - school and work and clear roads, but we know better than to get complacent!

Day 11.063: Sometimes people need to sit down

...but it's not always the top priority!

Day 11.062: Winter Fail Olympics

It started snowing around 8 am and by the time I did my second round of snow removal, we had about 10 inches. It's still snowing four hours later.

E5N1 demonstrated a game he played with a friend at recess at school that they call "Winter Fail Olympics". This was some kind of skiing event I think:

This was "Men's Slopestyle":

After this he demonstrated my favorite, that basically involved lying down on the side of the snow pile "Luge!" he exclaimed, "or should I say LOSE!"

Day 11.061: Quinzhee

On Thursday evening as the snow was winding down, Exile #4, E5N1 and I went outside. After a while this happened:



Here are some stills from a second video that E5N1 and I made - there was just room for both of us inside - not bad for a quinzhee made from a single-storm snow pile. We made it with two entrances for the sake of excavation speed.

It was still doing well the following morning:

but by Sunday, it was looking a bit saggy, so we gave it so cheered it up:

And now, we are going to bed expecting another foot of snow tomorrow!

Day 11.060: Exile #2's Sunday Column #195

Exile #2 writes...

Happy Mother’s Day to our mums and all those celebrating today in the UK. It is not Mothering Sunday here in the US but Exile #1 did kindly make dinner and wrangle E5N1 for much of the afternoon, so it did feel a bit like it.

It has been an eventful week on the household front. You may or may not remember the smoking microwave of a few months ago. Well, this week we had the sequel. Our oven, which has been looking a little shabby for a while now, unilaterally decided to put itself into self-clean mode on Friday night. Without warning, it locked the door and heated up to 500 °F. This would be troubling at the best of times but it was especially so because it had a chicken and sundry veggies held hostage inside. Funnily enough, it had happened before but last time we naturally assumed I had accidentally pressed the self-clean button (I was sure I hadn’t). This time, however, I was in the other room when it happened. Goodness me. Could it be in league with Alexa? We did eventually manage to extract and eat our dinner, some of which was not too charred, then we headed to Home Depot to buy a new oven.

On the plus side, I have rescued our grubby, threadbare armchair with some new fabric. It’s not a perfect job - I wouldn’t examine it too closely - but it looks a whole lot better.

Day 11.059: Down and up again

This morning I joined a small group from church and we traveled south down the Maine Turnpike, through New Hampshire into Massachusetts and then looped back into New Hampshire to attend a training day.  Not long after we returned, Exile #2 and I saw Exile #3 off to a school dance, and left Exile #4 and E5N1 to get themselves to bed, so we could attend a concert some way north of here.

The music was great and the concert was in a good charitable cause, so it was feel-good all around!

Day 11.058: Weighed down

There are lots of trees looking a bit weighed down by the heavy snow today:

...but the snow has been melting and I'm sure most of the trees and shrubs will recover once it allows them to.