Day 12.049: Surprising must-see

I put on the first episode of the Masked Singer as a see-what the hype is about half-joke. By the time it ended, I had the DVR set for the rest of the season.

When the kids ended up seeing the penultimate episode during vacation week while the girls were waiting up to take more painkillers before taking their sore mouths to bed, they too became hooked and insisted on staying until the end and that we save the finale for them to see at the weekend.

It's hard to say why, but somehow this show was much more than the sum of its parts and - at least in our house - very quickly became must-see TV!

Day 12.048: Red in the snow

It would be an understatement to say I didn't get a good photo - this was the best:

But we were surprised to see this little red squirrel running around in the snow on Monday morning. Their larger cousins are active in the winter and we see them relatively often, but since we mostly see red squirrels when we're walking on trails in the woods - something we mostly do in the warmer months - this was a nice surprise.

Day 12.047: Dancing in the library

After she came home after only a partial school day and and a missed dance class yesterday, we were a bit concerned about Exile #3's recovery, but much like Sunday, today was another huge step forward for her.

So, not only did she manage a full day of school, but followed it up with a dance class and a company performance at the library.

It was a great show for a small but enthusiastic audience, and Exile #3 was very happy to be dancing again.

Day 12.046: Advanced morning walking

We managed a walk this morning in the strong winds. Fortunately it was not very cold - right around freezing, but it had frozen rapidly enough that there were sheets of ice everywhere - frozen puddles, frozen slush and - every pedestrian's favourite - sheets of ice that was once melt-water from the snow banks glazing sloping paths.

There were some good ice formations. This one is actually from our Saturday morning walk, but there were even more today:

Exile #2 commented that it felt like someone had dialed-up the difficulty for our morning walks, or that we had leveled-up.

Day 12.045: Exile #2's Sunday Column #239

Exile #2 writes...

The day started with a nasty mix of snow, sleet and rain. Exile #1 and I were subbing for the regular musician at church today, so we battled through the elements and did our best to keep things going musically.

Yesterday morning the snow on the roof seemed to be predicting the rain clouds!

E5N1 was recruited into a mixture of refreshment duties and child entertainment, so the two services flew by for him too.

When we got home we were happy to discover an almost bubbly Exile #4 and a much more human Exile #3. You’ll be pleased to hear that now, she only bears a slight resemblance to a chipmunk and her bruises have begun to fade. There was even a little bit of dance in evidence this evening, which would have been unthinkable only yesterday. It’s just in time, of course, as all the Exiles are back to school tomorrow. I bet they can’t wait to tell their friends how much fun they had this vacation!

Day 12.044: Recovery

For the most part, Exile #4 is getting back to normal after a mostly fairly miserable vacation week recovering from wisdom teeth removal. Exile #3 is struggling a little more - now on antibiotics and sporting some impressive bruises:

She did manage a little walk to the mailbox with me this afternoon, but suddenly the restart of school and other activities on Monday looks a bit close for comfort.

Day 12.043: The Way to Eden

I mentioned in passing that we had heard the story of a Star Trek actress at the Goats in Space event. I didn't mention that E5N1 spoke to her and snagged a signed official Star Trek print.

Today, we all watched the episode and E5N1 was watching eagle-eyed to try to spot this moment:

He was not disappointed and neither were we with this bit of 60's hippies-in-space magic!

Day 12.042: The passport shimmy

Success (somewhere among these):

Day 12.041: Halo

One thing southern Maine seems to do very well is generate halos. I didn't know what a sun dog or a circular halo was before we moved here but they are a not uncommon sight in the winter here - formed by ice crystals in the atmosphere on a sunny day.

Today, there was a very clear 22° halo and a very bright upper tangent arc (I looked that up today).

I know this looks like lens flare, but the only actual lens artifact is the green spot just above the sun - the radial pattern and the strange shaped light spot above it were very real.

Day 12.040: Saturday beach trip

We made the most of some sunshine, some above-freezing temperatures (just), a convenient early-afternoon low tide and some not-yet-in-pain girls to have a walk on the beach on Saturday. It looked like this:

Day 12.039: Older and wiser?

Exile #3 and Exile #4 both had all four of their wisdom teeth removed today. All went well - here is Exile #3 looking a bit swollen and making use of an ice-pack sock-thing:

Due to the no recording policy that was presented to us at check-in and posted prominently around the recovery room, I am unable to bring you footage of the ramblings of the girls as they came round from their anaesthesia. Both went through a teary phase - Exile #3's was definitely more dramatic, then both started to find things amusing. They both wondered how they had arrived in the recovery room and discussed the numbness of  their mouths of course but also made the following observations:

Exile #4
Why do the curtains have stripes like that? [repeatedly - she was seriously put out by the curtain design] and why are some of the feathers yellow and some white? [the curtains had a leaf pattern]

Exile #3
[in response to Exile #2 observing that it was like having two teenagers on a bad trip] She doesn't mean like in a car [giggling uncontrollably] - she means a different kind!

Exile #3 continued to be very funny - telling the nurse that I won't let her drive on the highway and that salt-water rinses were OK, because at least salt-water is better than apple cider vinegar, all while giggling like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.

They are experiencing some pain, but they are coping pretty well and they have the rest of the week to get over the worst before having to go to school or any other activities.

Day 12.038: Exile #2's Sunday Column #238

Exile #2 writes...

Exiles #3 and #4 are kicking the school vacation off in style tomorrow by having their wisdom teeth out. This evening was an exercise in distraction, not so much from the operation itself but from the fact that they are not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. We are anticipating two hangry girls tomorrow morning. To ensure they do not accidentally ingest something we have confiscated all drinking vessels and have covered the kitchen with stern-looking sticky notes. Exile #3 also encouraged us to put one up in the bathroom. Presumably she thinks she might be desperate enough to contemplate snacking on the toothpaste. Perhaps we just need to create an attachment for the “cone of shame” that she had to wear this evening during our game of Exploding Kittens.

Day 12.037: The family that rocks together...

We had another fairly epic family Rock Band session to end the day:

The rest of the day had featured some admin work, a walk on the beach and a meal successfully cooked by Exile #2 and me together (usually it works best when only one or the other of us is in the kitchen, but it went well today).

Day 12.036: Passport photo time

The two youngest members of the family need new passports soon, so passport photos are on the list for this weekend. Hopefully this one will be better at keeping a straight face than he was in this previous session:

Day 12.035: Just coffee - apparently

There are many jobs that people do that I appreciate all the more for knowing I would never want to do them. Coming up with brand names is one - like whoever decided that their 100% coffee product should be called Chock full o'Nuts:

At first I thought, that requiring a subtitle that pointed out that your product does not contain nuts when you just said it was full of them was terrible marketing, then I read the timeline explanation and now I'm Chock full o'Respect for it (if you get my meaning).

Naming things has never really been my strength. On the other hand, something I am definitely qualified to judge is that it's pretty good coffee as I discovered this week.

Day 12.034: Some puns only work in American

As seen recently:

Whether it is an enthusiastic francophone or a Doctor Who fan is unclear, but I like their style!

Day 12.033: Hard to believe they are ever green

As we approached Portland by air this afternoon, I was struck by how few colours were represented - you could pretty accurately capture it with just white, black and tan:

In particular, the pines were surprisingly not-green, but no less welcome a sight after a day of weather-disrupted travel.

Fortunately, we had decided to leave earlier than planned before we found out that our final-leg flight that was due in late tonight was canceled. so we were already en route at that point. In the end, instead of attempting to return six hours into a snowstorm, I arrived home as the first flakes were falling. Now we have an inch or so, and the kids are going to bed hoping for a snow-day tomorrow.

We shall see.

Day 12.032: Any port in a storm?

On my business trip, I couldn’t help wondering if everyone was expected to use this door in the case of a tornado warning:

I was relieved in more ways than one to discover the Men’s room -out of sight around the corner - was also a designated tornado shelter.

Day 12.031: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #237

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 is traveling to Chicago this evening, although he is presently further away from his destination than when he began. We have been joking with the young Exiles that he is actually going so he can see the musical Hamilton, which is playing there at the moment. They don’t seem to find that very funny and are threatening never to speak to him again should he actually commit such a betrayal. More concerning is the snow storm that is predicted to coincide with his return journey. It is, of course, a tradition for the weather to save up its most convincing snow storm for whenever Exile #1 is away, but we all hope it doesn’t make for delays and travel misery.

Day 12.030: Windchill

It was cold for our walk this morning but not too cold (21°F or -6°C). The wind was quite lively however and with that factored in, it felt more like 0°F (-18°C).  Once again we enjoyed the icy views at the mill complex:

and even spotted some tiny ice disks - the baby siblings of the giant one in Westbrook from a month or so ago perhaps?

Day 12.029: Snow removal

Last Saturday night, E5N1 went to a friend's house for pizza and a movie. As I drove him over there, we were prevented from driving up this street because it had been turned into a sledding hill for the winter festival.

By the time Exile #2 walked by on Sunday morning, they were well on their way to having scooped up all the snow and trucked it back out of town. Tonight we had friends over to witness the signing of our long-delayed wills and have some dinner, drinks, conversation and even a quick game - business at the front, party at the back or something like that. 

Day 12.028: Today's top picks

For today's post, you need a few items of background information:

1. Facebook has a feature where you can buy and sell things locally.
2. I occasionally browse this - especially when interesting pieces of musical equipment pop up.
3. The plastic thing you strum a guitar with that is called a "plectrum" in the UK is called a "pick" here in the US.

This was what I saw yesterday on clicking through to the marketplace feature:

I laughed out loud, but now I look more closely that really is a top pick - made as it is out of someone's driver's licence.