I have had these football decorations for ages but they still come out every year.
We went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's for his birthday, one of our favourites. It was all lovely.
When we came back he blew out his candles and tried the cake.
I'm happy to say it met with his approval.
This year it is a chocolate cake. Last year was a ginger cake, before that there has been a carrot cake and fruit cakes.
I wonder what I will do next year? Any suggestions?
The weather hasn't been very lovely though.
It did this....again....
Mind you Father Christmas and his reindeer look very festive. Well, except the one that has fallen over. His nose is buried in the snow, poor thing.
They managed to get the stakes of some of the decorations out of the ground but these are still totally frozen in.
Of course that resulted in this.
Alan never seems to mind a bit of shovelling, which is just as well. Facebook keeps throwing up memories of "This day 1 year ago"..." This day 2 years ago" ....etc.
Every bloody day, going back 6 years, shows photos of poor Alan shovelling snow.
I think it might have something to do with the time of year :)
To top it all we have horrendously low temperatures again right now. We are going to see the Admiral's ice hockey tonight and I think it will be warmer on the ice than it is outside.
Minus 30 C (with windchill) continuing over the weekend and into next week.
Winter drawers on yet again.
I understand in the UK snowdrops and daffodils are blooming........sigh....I have never seen a daffodil or snowdrop here. I have seen the odd tulip but never until about June.
I do miss them.
I shall just have to make do with this arrangement of daffs and sunflowers, made and sent over to me from England, by an old work colleague.
Thanks Fred. They are still on my kitchen windowsill after all these years.
We went to Binary Bar, the one that Donna recommended, on Thursday evening.
It is quite unusual for me to go out in the evening at the end of January.
But, oh it was so worth it.
There is nothing else like it that I know of in Milwaukee. I am so glad we managed to go during Alanmas as he really enjoyed it.
There is so much memorabilia in this place.
It was like being in 10 Forward or maybe 5 Backwards.
Everywhere you looked there was more cool stuff.
It was very busy when we first arrived but we found a table. We looked at all the games on offer.
You can donate a $1, if you wish, and then play any game you like. There were, board games, card games, trivia....and just loads more.
There were a pool table, air hockey...and various other pub type games.
It was also a brilliant place to people watch. I am good at that.
Everyone seemed so happy and friendly. Even though there were all ages in there, it still reminded me of a student union bar.
Memories of GenCon at Loughborough University came back and the good times we had there.
Every now and then we would go for a walk round and find even more stuff.
The food and drinks were cheap too (again like a student union). They even catered for oddities like me, someone who doesn't eat animals.
I had a veggie burger, salad and chips and it came to $5.
I think the carnivores had burgers too. It was all really good.
Alan and Philip had a few games of darts.
Neither of them had played for years but they did really well. Well, they did a bloody sight better than I would have done.
I blame my poorly hands but, in truth, I was always crap at darts.
Philip on the ockey. I think Eric Bristow would never had anything to worry about but these two did enjoy themselves. So much so, that Philip bought a dartboard the next day.
They played darts in the basement yesterday too, but today there arms hurt so much they couldn't play at all.
I did chuckle. Oh...and look at the sign on the wall....hehehe.
One last photo of Godzilla and the Alien Queen, at least I think that is who it is.
We had a fab night and I hope we go back.
We always say we will but, particularly in the winter, it is very easy to settle in front of the telly, or computer and stay indoors.
We should really try.
Finally, they managed to get some of the Christmas decorations in this weekend.
Not all though. The ground is so frozen that it is impossible to get the stakes out. So, Santa and his sleigh and reindeer are still out there...along with other things.
I wonder if I will be able to put easter eggs in the sleigh this year?
Another winter storm heading our way.
Don't you just love the way they give them all names now.
We've just had winter storm Bella and now her mate Kayla is hurrying to catch up with her.
I am sure it will be lovely....it looks like we are in the 8 - 12 inches bit. There's a novelty.
Alan will have some fun.
Another huge loss.
This has been an awful year so far. So, many well loved celebs have passed away.
Terry Wogan........wasn't he immortal?
I loved him. His gentle humour and sharp wit, got me through many a morning when he had his radio show.
He even read out a story I sent in once.
It was true too.
I had been coming back from London on the train. The ticket inspector was making his way through the train towards me.
He was a rotund, loud and jolly sort of person, who was speaking to everyone as he passed by.
As he got near me, he proclaimed loudly, "Oh yes, I've been on a course you know. Yep, they sent me on a course. We don't have problems anymore. Oh no. We don't have problems anymore we have 'solution opportunities'."
Donna tells me there is a radio show in the UK where you can confess to things you have done...maybe fibs you told your kids or something.
She is trying to make me tell some of the stories I have from my previous 'profession.'
One in particular she likes.
I was supporting my group of 'special needs' kids in a geography lesson. It had been a long, hard and tiring day.
In the text book we were using we came across a picture something like this.....
They were very curious about these cows, but I soon explained it all to them.
These were, I told them, a special breed of cow. They were mountain cows. They were specially bred with little short front legs so that they could stand on the side of the mountain with the little legs towards the top and the longer back legs, farther down. This helped them keep their balance on the slope of the mountain.
They all found this perfectly reasonable and I sometimes wonder if they ever found me out.....or they might even still believe it.
Sometimes when you are in a stressful job you have to have little ways of coping with your day.
It was either things like that or (as I often did) collapsing onto the floor of the staff room saying "Ahhhh Mr Fawlty.....I die here.".
Yes this was often me after coping with my little angels all day.
Happy times.
I might even tell you the one about the apples one day.
I am English but living in the States.
I like to visit England each year for a few weeks to catch up with family and friends.
I like kids and animals, although not necessarily in that order. I currently have 5 cats.
