Day 12.088: E5N1 is 12

One of the side effects of the way I number the posts on this blog and its predecessor is that the same dates look the same each year. So, Day 88 was a birth announcement and each Day x.088 since has been a birthday post for E5N1.

I'm not sure it was one of the most exciting of them today. He had school and a meeting about an upcoming school trip, but we did manage to fit in some present opening and a large piece of chocolate cake, so all is well!

Day 12.087: Student choreography show

The second dance show of the weekend was the student choreography show at the studio. Exile #3 had choreographed three dances - an emotional group number that she didn't dance in, a solo for herself and a fun hip hop vs jazz dance battle number (she represented jazz on this occasion):

It was a great show - with lots of hard work in evidence. I now have some video editing to do. Meanwhile things move on apace here, with E5N1's birthday tomorrow (Exile #2 is busy with some important baking) and then SATs for Exile #3 on Tuesday. After that, we're hoping there will be time for us to come up for air!

Day 12.086: Westbrook

After dropping Exile #3 off for a dance show at the high school there this afternoon, the rest of us had a walk along the river in Westbrook in the sunshine:

A second planned walk was aborted due to a surprising amount of snow and ice still on the trails. After dropping everyone else home, I was back in time to see the Exile #3's last performance:

Last of the day that is, but not even the last of the weekend!

Day 12.085: One of us was ready for the day

E5N1 went to school in his pajamas for his Read-a-thon today. I was just a little late getting dressed for work, but a moment is a moment - right?

Day 12.084: Exciting landing

I'm excited to be home, but getting here was a little more "interesting" than I would have liked.

The journey was hitch-free until we were making our turn over Casco Bay:

My picture from a plane over Casco Bay but not from today

Nothing particularly unusual about that - often the approach to the landing is westbound over the bay. Then we turned again. And again. And it was windy and the plane was tilting and dipping and then climbing again.

At around the time that maybe half the people on the plane were wondering what was going on, the pilot informed us that we were holding while they tried to clear a broken down plane from the runway. The pilot mentioned that there was a back-up plan to use the alternative runway but that the alternative one was "a bit short" and since it was gusty, he was going to wait a little longer to see if they could clear the main runway.

So we circled and bounced around some more.

Then he came on again and said we were going to land on the alternative runway. No mention of the length of it this time for this relatively-large-for-Portland jet (Boeing 717), but - of course - we knew.

So, after an odd approach the pilot put the plane down decisively at the end of the runway and immediately committed to some dramatic deceleration. We all held on and...

...then it was over.

Everything was fine and I made my way off the plane and back home.

Day 12.083: American turkey

There is a persistent story that Benjamin Franklin argued that the wild turkey rather than the bald eagle should be the U.S. national bird. If that were true it might have given extra significance to this sighting:

We see turkeys  fairly often - usually (it seems) family groups. A lone male with his  impressive “beard” is a rarer sight. We spotted this one as we were leaving the USCIS office after our biometrics appointment - the first step in our U.S. citizenship process. 

However, according to my quick bit of research it’s not true. 

Day 12.082: The big stick

No travel mishaps for me today  Just a day of meetings. Exile #2 mentioned that Exile #4 had been to karate class and that reminded me that I had pictures of her practicing swinging what we call the big stick but apparently has a real name that is the Japanese for bamboo sword or something like that.  She also tells us that the one she has at home for practice is significantly heavier than the one she uses at the dojo  That’s probably for the best as she was a little sore after this session: