We almost blew away

We have had quite the storm these past few days as Hurricane Katia's arms swept across our fair isle.  Many other areas of the country had it worse, but 70 mph winds are pretty horrible.  What I think is funny though, is that what we had here was much like a normal Winter Storm in Western Washington.  The difference is, in England not many people lost power whereas in Western Washington EVERYONE without a generator would have lost power.

Loosing power is one of the things I enjoy about a storm. Everything is so still, you get a fire going and it is like camping inside.  I like that there is nothing you can do about it.  Then when the power comes back, it is extremely exciting and the first thing you do is FLUSH THE TOILET, because a septic system doesn't work if there is no power.  When I was little and there was a trail to the creek out back, we would go collect water and flush the toilets with that.  But now there is no path, so it is a little more difficult.

What I found interesting about this storm was that it was mainly a wind storm.  Huge rain clouds swept by at high speeds, but never really let go.  There were some mists of rain, but no down pour. Instead it was sunny, and warm.

The Sprout loves the wind.  So we had all kinds of fun outside.  He laughed and laughed when the winds really picked up, and the cat went crazy, trying to catch all the leaves wizzing by.

But unfortunately my sun flowers didn't make it.  After all of the trouble I went through fighting of snail and slugs and then being amazed that they grew back with multiple heads instead of just one, they met their demise...the wind.

Signs of fall

The Raccoons keep coming inside...

My chocolate Halloween bat sugar cookies. The first cookies I have made that have turned out!

The trees outside my house are turning orange.

Autumn

The Sprout is at nursery and for the first time I feel like I have some time off (except for the half painted bathroom hanging over my head and all the boxes that still need to be unpacked but won't).  I can finally get a bit of writing done and I think I will ponder Autumn since I don't think any other season brings about such memories.

For some reason Autumn brings my most vivid childhood memories.  The other day we were graced with a Sky Sports Channel Open Day so I got to watch the Saints v. Colts game, and surprisingly, I watched it.  It was a good game.  But while I was watching the game I felt there were atmospherical elements missing such as the smell of chicken stock and the sound of a vacuum cleaner and my parents rumbling feat and loud shouts at the TV.  I told Richard this and he commented "wow, there must be some specific memory related to that."  Of course there is.  Football is usually on TV on a Sunday which seemed to be my mom's cleaning and cooking day when I was little.  So, besides the sounds of the crowd on the TV and my parents cheering, was the sound of the vacuum and smell of chicken stock on the stove.

For some reason the chill of Autumn brings me to light a cinnamon smelling candle and if I had a real fireplace I would light that too.  I also get whiffs of Purdy Elementary and school supplies.  I don't know why it is specifically Purdy Elementary and not Harbor Ridge or Tacoma Community College.

I also get a hankering to knit.

The other day I was perusing Gig Harbor's Facebook Page and found that the Fish Bowl had already taken place.  I was surprised it was so early in the year, of course true to form, the Tides won 17 to 14.  Glad to see something never changes.  I also saw that there is a Gig Harbor Chowder Cook Off...yummm chowder (Mallard's Landing took all 3 awards).  I need to learn to make Clam Chowder because they don't have it in a can here.

Of course the thing I get most excited about in the Fall is Halloween.  I need to get moving on my horror movie-a-thon.

And now a new thing to get excited about, the Sprout's birthday.  We are going to have his first birthday party on the 23rd of October.

Did you know I have been in Bradford for 5 years?  Pretty crazy.

The start of Autumn also brings the snowball of the holiday season.  People start to go crazy getting ready for Christmas and I start planning for my British Thanksgiving party.  This year I want to go to a lighting ceremony.

So even though the growing darkness and cold, rainy weather is a pain in the backside, Autumn is one of my favourite seasons and I am looking forward to it this year.

And the leaves that are green turn to brown

September aways makes me want to listen to Simon and Garfunkel and watch When Harry Met Sally.  I want to listen to Simon and Garfunkel because it reminds me of my '72 bright orange Volkswagen Squareback station wagon that I had when I was 17.  There was no radio in it, so I had to have a boom-box and tapes.  I only rode around with a couple of tapes, one of those was Simon and Garfunkel.  The others were Billy Holiday and Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Beastie Boys...what kind of a hippy teen was I?  In general September makes me think I should be buying school supplies and getting ready to go back to school.  I guess 23 years of going to school will do that.

Not my car (this is a '70), but is an example of my car.

I found a new blog that makes me homesick.  Ray Nash Images, this guy takes beautiful pictures of the Gig Harbor area and is a great reminder of why the Peninsula is a beautiful place to live.  My grandmother would have really loved this site (if she had been computer literate in any way).

I thought that the Sprout being able to crawl would be awesome, but it is not...at least not in a house that is in a tornado state because of the move.  I tell you, babies take every advantage to play with EVERYTHING and they are very persistent.  On the good side, as long as everything is safe, he can entertain himself for 10s of minutes roaming around the room pulling down papers and cords and anything else in reach.  But now I know for sure that I am not an overprotective mother.  E is happy that I have maintained my Jessikaness when she witnessed me give the Sprout something that was too hot and all I did was say, "oh that is too hot", blow on the item and then give it back.  I am not sure what other people do, but by the comment I suppose they would have either screamed in horror or not given the baby something hot in the first place.

Richard and I are such procrastinators when it comes to packing...we are pretty much unpacked.  This happened last time.  E came over to our house about a week before our last move and was surprised that the only things packed were the paintings from the walls.  To be fair, this time we can't move anything until we have carpet, which is coming on Friday.

The nursery is going to reopen.  They have fixed their problem, so I will have tomorrow and Friday to get stuff done on the house.

Thankful Anyway Thursday

Ahhh...up at 6 am to see that it is STILL DARK!!!
Let's see...I don't have anything specific because the weeks are going by so fast I don't know what to do with myself.  
The pregnancy:2 months to go!  You heard right! 2 months. 

• I am tired all the time.
• My back and pelvis ache.
• I can't bend over, roll over, stand up or sit down without sounding like an old man (uhhh...ooohhh...grunt!)
• I have to lie when I go to buy vitamins or anything from a drug store, saying what I am buying is for someone else.  Can you believe that?  I can't buy any vitamins at the vitamin store unless they are specifically for pregnant ladies (so different from the US).
• The sides of my stomach feel like they are being stretched by a taffy machine (and are beginning to look like it too).
• I am tired of being kicked from the inside and having the hiccups that aren't my own that last for a half an hour or more.

Thankful anyway:Only 2 months left!  I should be happy that I am being kicked from the inside and not the outside, and if I had the hiccups for a half an hour I would kill myself, so better him and me.
Work and money:Oh work and money...what would I do without you to frusterate my life so?  Since I have been out of work, we had a manager change.  In this manager change, things got really screwed up because my previous manager decided not to fill the new manager in on my situation (or anyone else's for that matter).  He didn't tell her that I had pre-approved holiday that I was supposed to receive before my maternity leave started.  So, the new manager never put it in, and when I was switched over to maternity leave, I was not allowed the pay that the new manager put in to make up for my holiday.So after a small sit in at work the other day...I finally called corporate and dealt with the problem myself and HOPEFULLY it will be all sorted soon.  I have been without pay for 3 weeks now leaving Richard and I completely broke and stressed out.I am totally confused at why I always have to do t he manger's job.
Thankful Anyway:It gave me something to do and cry about.  I was proud of myself for calling corporate myself and dealing with the problem.  I think I could do the manager's job, something for me to think about when I have to return to work.

Fall TV!!!

For someone who doesn't own a TV, I watch a lot of TV programs and I am SO HAPPY that the Fall season line up is here.  Summer TV is horrible, thank goodness for HBO and Showtime programs.

So as the days get shorter and the air gets colder, and my belly gets too big for me to walk around,  I will be snuggled up with my eyes bulging excited for the return of:

How I met Your Mother
Dancing with the Stars
The Big Bang Theory
2 and a Half Men
House
Lie To Me
So You Think You Can Dance
Peep Show
America's Next Top Model
Grey's Anatomy
The Mentalist
Fringe
The Office
Smallville
Family Guy
Heroes
Dirty Jobs
Dexter
United States of Tara
Curb Your Enthusiasm
30 Rock

Mad Men and Entourage have been on for a few weeks now.

I am also excited about a couple of new shows:
Bored to Death
Community

I am sure I missed a few because I only looked at the prime time network websites and had to just remember the rest.

Autumn, Fall...whatever you want to call it.

Can I hear it for Fall everyone? (A reluctant crowd of people applauds)...



So, I don't know about everyone else, but it got colder as soon as September 23 came. Fall is one of those seasons who doesn't like to mince words or fool around. It seems to be very punctual and like to crush any thoughts that Summer will stay a bit longer.

In England, they call Fall Autumn and I always get blank looks when I say Fall.Because I have started a new job, I, of course, meet and hang out with new people, meaning that once again I have to correct the Americaness of my language. It has been about 3 years since I had to do this last. For example...

• Nasty in American can mean that someone is being mean or surly, but I usually use it to describe someone being raunchy or explicit. In England nasty seems to only be used when describing someone who is being mean.

• Of course chips are french fries and crisps are chips. By now you would think I would know this, but sometimes it slips out...like the other day.

There are tons more, but I am having a hard time thinking of what they are...I will know it when I say it.

Here are somethings I am learning at work:

1. People order way too fast. There are a lot of buttons on the screen at the till and I need time to find them.

2. People are really messy eaters.

3. People get mad at you even though it isn't your fault. For example, last Friday, the stupid water people managed to cut a pipe they were working on. Consequentially, the whole retail park was without water. Now it is not my fault that we have no water. I am not trying to torture you by not letting you use our toilets because we have no water. In all actuality we are saving you money by not having any water.

4. People are truly addicted to coffee, hence why people get angry when you have no water.

5. Industrial dishwashers rock!!

6. I am going to get super fat if I keep "sampling" all the muffins.

7. I am going to go broke if I keep going into the Hobbycraft next door.

I learned all this in my 3 days of working at Costa Coffee.

I want to be able to do this, Latte art. (It seems that we can't embed vidoes from YouTube anymore, so you have to link to it yourself...sorry.)