Tales from America

Only 3 months til Spring!

2010-02-13T18:44:00.000-08:00

It was a warm day today, only about 5 below, Eloise and I inspected the state of the ice melting in the drain pipes, and the gutter, forming some pretty impressive icicles. I have a fantastic tool called a 'chopper' basically it is a little like spade but narrower , thicker steel, and with a more heavy duty handle. Its for smashing ice from your walkways/driveways. I spent 20 minutes or so doing that today, its a little like sisyphus pushing the bolder up a hill forever, but it does have a certain meditative quality.

Actually, when I went out to buy my chopper, I didn't know what they were called, so I walked into the hardware store and asked for "one of the those thingys for smashing up ice on the sidewalk" and recieved one of those quizicle, 'you're not from around here are you?' looks.
"You mean a chopper?"
"Err yes"
He pointed to a particularly hefty looking one
"This is a great one"
I 'hmmmd' knowingly, nodded my head, and tried to look like a man who knows his choppers
"I'll take it"

There has been a lot of shoveling snow and smashing up ice to do this winter. It's a civic duty (and a legal obligation) to shovel the pavement in front of your house whever there is more than 2 inches of snow, but that is only half the job, what with the entrance to garage, paths around the house and garden and 2 flights of steps the streets to deal with. It sounds like a drag, but given that you are cooped up inside for 5 months of the year, it is possible to take pleasure in this little excursion.

Liz is back in law school now, so that means I'm on baby duty evenings and weekends so she can go to class and get some studying done. Liz's mum also helps out, coming in for a couple of days a week to watch the little girl. She is growing and lots of fun. We try to enjoy every moment, because she's changing before our eyes.

I'll leave you with some proof of my shoveling efforts!

The Winter has come but Eloise warms our hearts!

2009-12-06T17:58:00.001-08:00

I was singing when I invented this chintzy title. 'Hearts' was sung with a very high C if you want to give it a try. I actually have had a very tuneful evening as I've been pacing around the house singing every Christmas carol I know (which is a lot) to stop Eloise from crying. It's not so much soothing for her, as confusing, but her incredulity at my absurd behavior stuns her into silence.

Ok, enough silliness. I won't pretend that what I have to say is of any interest, as a new parent I know that the only thing anyone is interested in is the baby. Most conversations with others go like this, 'Horray, Eloise is here!', 'How's Eloise?', 'Any new pictures of Eloise?', and 'When's Eloise coming to visit?' I'm going to pick up my chauffeur's license next week.

Will give quick summation of news. The recession hasn't caught up with me yet, still in the workforce! Liz has taken the semester off from university, but is going back in January. We are pretty settled into our home now, and we both feel very blessed as we know many people are far less fortunate. Eloise is smiling, cooing and occasionally sleeping through the night. She is 3 months and 9 and a half pounds.

We hope everyone is doing great, here are the photos!

Baby Eloise

2009-09-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

For those of you who just can't get enough baby photos here are some of little Eloise who is now approaching a heady 2 weeks of age. We are all doing extremely well, despite the sleep deprivation. I am adapting well to my role of 'evil daddy', being responsible for most things that result in hysterical crying - changing nappies, burping, bathing and cleaning belly buttons etc. 'Yummy Mummy' on the other hand is responsible for spreading joy and happiness by designing the menu, serving up wholesome meals, comforting and cuddling.

Just a quicky

2009-06-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, as you may or may not know, Liz and I have bought a house and are having a baby. How very conventional of us! I know, I'm a total disgraceful sell out, but what can I say? I'm 30.

Anyway, I have been promising to put some photos up of the house for sometime, and now that I don't spend every spare minute studying for the CFA I can actually get around to it.

(I uploaded the photos in reverse order, so we are starting with the garage)

The Jeep's new home

Down the Stairs
Up the Stairs

The Living/Dining Room (still in a just moved in state)

Our vegetable boxes I made with my own hands and brand new power tools!

Me with birdfeeder, peonies and wheelbarrow making a flower bed

Liz in Kitchen with bump

View from back bedroom window (garage, garden and alley)

View from master bedroom

Front porch

Front and side view

Back view

Front view

A Brief Summerization

2008-09-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today is the official last day of summer in the U.S. I say 'official', although perhaps I should say 'traditional' as unlike the Queens Birthday there's only one of them, as far as I know anyway. It's also the first day of the Republican National Convention, right here in St Paul, and the day that Gustav refused to drown New Orleans, much to the disappointment of the news media I'm sure.

At the start of August my parents came to visit Liz and I in St Paul, so we got to show off the delights of the city to our first guests. They efficiently worked their way through the detailed itinery we had put together and now have seen far more of the city's museums and attractions than we have. Staples of Americana we served up included: Baseball (Bratwurst and Summit beer were hits, the local team's batting mostly misses), Bowling (Dad won easily ) and Bald Eagles. We also visited Liz's parents for several days and spent several more days on the shores of Lake Superior. Which upon contact Dad pronounced 'Boiling!' scotching malicious rumours that it is in-fact hypothermia inducing.

Following my parents' departure to rediscover the long lost Canadian relatives, (apparently they've been in Canada all this time) Liz and I have been soaking in the last heat of Summer. The end of Summer in Minnesota means one thing - the State Fair. Actually, it also means the ever approaching spector of winter but everyone has a cultivated state of denial around that. I'm sure you'll be amazed to know the State Fair has over 60 different kinds of food on a stick. Every year new kinds of food on a stick are dreamt up and this year's addition to the menu, chocolate covered bacon, recieved state wide news attention.

Squeaky, one of the fair's biggest attractions, may indeed have indulged a little too heavily in the food on a stick....

I didn't buy the sob story about it being 'in the genes' or 'selective breeding'. I know a case of 'deep fried snickers on a stick' when I see one.

The other big event in St Paul this week is the Republican National Convention, so Liz and I went down to check out the demonstrations. The demontrators were a diverse lot, from peacenic young families, to anarchists dressed in black with scarfs around there faces. Some speeches called for love not war, others for militant revolution, all playing to the same crowd, just to prove distaste for the current regime tops ideology any day. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Code Pink and Che.

6 Months in 6 Paragraphs

2008-06-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

Spring was all about studying. Liz and I have been heads down in the books for months, she in law, I in economics and equities. Life pretty much consisted of working eating and studying, which may not sound like much fun, but after several years of living it up, I think we probably deserved some hard work. On May 13th however, that all changed, Liz's last exam was over and we off on another (mini) adventure.

At 11.30 am I swung into the carpark of Hamline law school, our venerable old jeep piled high in the back with food, tents, cooking gear - the works. Liz ran down the steps grinning from ear to ear, jumped in next to me, and we sped off towards Interstate 94 and The West... With the possible exception of Denver, Minneapolis is really the last bastion of civilization until you reach the Pacific coast, so it wasn't long before we were on open, straight roads cutting through the incredible vastness of the American West. It's really, really big.

I'd been warned by colleagues that between Minneapolis and the Bandlands are 10 hours of the most tedious driving anyone is likely to experience, with the monotony only broken by the dubious delights of the 'Corn Palace' which is a kind of Brighton Pavilion, made of variously coloured ears of corn. The corn is arranged into life affirming murals of the everyday heroism of ordianary folk, the firefighter, the policeman, etc. Mao would have been proud. Its a testament to the monotony of drving across the great planes that the place can exist and draws thousands of tourists a year, all of whome are on their way to somewhere else.

This all said, I enjoyed the drive, probably because unlike my co-workers don't have painfull associations of childhood holidays trapped in the car for 10 hours. The great emptiness of the plains definately has a majesty of its own, and the way sky dominates the landscape draws attention to its own ever shifting asthetic.

After a day and a half on the road we pulled into a 'rustic' campsite in the Bad Lands national park. The only other inhabitants of the site were a small herd of buffalo who we rather hoped wouldn't take offense at our presence. A large pictoral sign on the edge of the camp gave a rundown of the warning signs that a buffalo is about to charge, and as we read it we realized that one of the bulls was exhibiting a disturdingly large number of them. We decided to eat dinner in the car.

A day later we were the Black Hills, which is home to Mt Rushmore. Its also a really beautiful area of forested hills with granite outcrops which is sacred to the Native Americans. We climbed up Harney Peak, which is the highest mountain between the rockies and the Pyranees and hiked into the Black Elk wilderness and camped in the forest.

Our target for the journey was Yellowstone, a mere 1100 miles from St Paul, so we pressed on after a couple of days in the Black Hills visiting the Devils Tower (used as a set in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind) and the Big Horn Mountains on the way to the Rockies.

To get into Yellowstone you have to cross a pass at about 10000 feet, and even though it was May there was still alot of snow on the ground, once we were inside the park, which as a huge caldera is ringed with mountains on all sides, we realized why only the lowest altitude campsites were open, the rest were still under several feet of snow. Still, it's a huge area, so we were still able to explore a good section of the park on foot and the snow does deter a good number of the tourists. In high season it is apparently like a huge traffic jam in the park, with everone stopping to take photos of the wildlife.

I actually didn't realize just how many long camera lenses were in existence until we went there. This gaggle of amateur photographers were so busy trying to get a glimpse of a bear down the hill on the left hand side of the road, didn't notice the one on the other side of the road, right next to our car. I didn't need the long lense for this. Of course we were terrified of the bears when we were out walking. The rangers tell tales of bear attacks and generally try to make tourists feel as vunerable as possible in order to encourage them to stay in their vehicles. When walking in bear country you are supposed to sing constantly and make lots of noise so the bears know you are coming, so I suppose I was never in any real danger of being attacked. Our last day in Yellowstone the snow started falling again, so by the time we reached Jackson Hole in the Grand Tetons we were camping in the snow, which wasn't too clever in a summer only tent. Still it is also a beautiful part of the world.

Once we got back from our holidays I had a couple of weeks to finish preparing for my first CFA exam. It was hard work going over 7 hugh text books of material in a couple of weeks and cramming it into my head. The test itself was 6 hours long, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. I'll find out the result at the end of July. In the couple of weeks since then we have been trying to enjoy the summer, Liz is working at a Non-Profit being public defender and I'm still busy as ever at work. I'll leave you with a photo of our campsite in the Black Hills and a cloudy Grand Tetons.

FREEEEEZING

2007-12-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

Its cold.

Everyone takes a sick pride in it too.
"So Nigel, is this your first Minnesota winter?"
well yes it is
"OH!" (sympathetic look) "well it hasn't really started yet, wait til March". People act like they're sorry that the uninitiated have to suffer so, but I suspect that subconsciously they are rejoicing that someone else now has to suffer like they have since childhood. Apparently by March, it'll still be -10 degrees C but all the snow will have gone a muddy black brown, much like everyone's mood.

Our area is very beautiful right now, but I forgot to take photos right after the snow. One Saturday a couple of weeks back we had seven inches. Liz and I went for a wander around the neighbourhood on our way back from the cinema sometime past midnight. With all the roads covered in snow it was like wandering in a forest, with just tall trees and houses. All softly illuminated by a multitude of Christmas lights.

Unfortunately I didn't capture that on film, but I did photograph the rather more gritty Minneapolis downtown where I work for Ameriprise Financial. Its going very well. My boss is from India so he understands me when I say things like 'Full Stop' (rather then Period) and helped me explain things delicately when a colleague asked if it was appropriate for her 12 year old to be using the word 'Bugger' (he'd been reading Harry Potter).

Some people at work say they just want me to talk so they can hear my 'beautiful accent'. I can't help but feel slightly used. Seriously though, everyone is very friendly. Unfortunately this means my usual habit of politely ignoring people and pretending that I didn't see them so I don't have to think of something pointless to say doesn't really fly. I've discovered the best way to get myself out of this situation is to say something about how incredibly cold it is outside. This confirms me as a wimpy Brit and pleases everyone.

It's Christmas soon (you may have heard). Personally I've only just recovered from Thanksgiving, but maybe that's the point. A mini binge in readiness for the great Holiday binge. A kind of binge training. This is important because here it isn't just Christmas but Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too, so you really have to be prepared. As I mentioned the houses everywhere are completely decked out in lights, the wreathes on peoples doors are size of Saturn's rings. According to a colleague you can pay up to $1500 to have a professional team come around and add sparkle to your premises. He thought that was ridiculous until he almost broke his neck trying to hang lights from his garage roof. Weighing the $1500 against the potential health care costs it doesn't seem so silly.

Well that's all for now. We hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Home Sweet Home

2007-09-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Liz and I are moved into our new apartment in St Paul Minnesota. I went for a bike ride around my area today to take some photo's to show you what it's like. I've got a job in downtown Minneapolis which is on the other side of the Mississipi from St Paul. Its about 5 miles or so from our apartment.

This is our apartment block, we have the top right hand apartment in this photo. Its the only one with all the shades open. For some reason other people seem to have an aversion to natural light. Below is our front sitting/dining room. It feels rather huge for only two people.

We need to get around to putting things on the wall, but please note the snazzy red and white chairs around the table that took weeks to 'create'.
I took these photos in the morning when the light comes in nicely. The big oak just outside our windows affords us some nice shade.
Our road is called 'Grand Avenue', pretty impressive eh?! We have a coffee shop a short walk to the right and a pub a short walk to the left. So that takes care of mornings and evenings.

The coffee shop is a real locals place with some people seemingly in permanent residence. At one dollar fifty for a coffee and twenty five cents a refill you can understand why. We spent about five hours there one day (I was a little jittery by the end) and most of the people who had been there when we arrived were still there when we left....

This is the view down Grand Avenue, looking pubwards. Very leafy, not too many people getting shot, I promise. You may think from the name that 'Grand' is the Grandest avenue in town. That however is not the case. The street one block north and running parrallel to Grand is 'Summit Avenue'.

Summit is reputedly the longest row of restored Victorian mansions in the US. These place are huge rambling complexes that were built, according to one of Liz's lecturers, by railroad tycoons. Most of the palatial ones are broken up into apartments now. Not content with trees in either side of the street, Summit has trees down the middle as well. It leads down to the Mississippi from our place, which is the way I cycled today. Its about a mile to the river.

At the end of Summit is a lookout over the river across to Minneapolis.

Thats downtown Minneapolis poking up over the trees. I took a left down the path leading along the river bank and followed another bike path past more big houses. This one is Tudor style but they come in all shapes and sizes. Tudor, Georgian, Clapboard farmhouses, Spanish Villa's and Frank Lloyd-Wright inspired designs sit side by side. Its a kind of architectural disney world. The Mississippi is relatively narrow at this point, both banks are parkland in this area, so when you are down on the banks, its hard to believe you are in the city. This concludes my tour. I hope you enjoyed it!

Making Jam

2007-07-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Its not everyday Jon Bon Jovi yells, 'thank you Eau Claire' but now for the first time in history it has happened. Liz and I were standing on a sand bar in the middle of the Chippewa river at the time, having waded through thirty meters of water to get as close as possible to the local music festival without actually crashing it. Jon Bon, clearly mellowing with age, has now turned his hand to country music which put him at the top of the bill of Eau Claire's very own 'Country Jam USA'. All week the town has seen a huge influx of pickup trucks and grass chewing, stetson wearing music fans. Apparently though, the country crowd doesn't hold 'rock' in too high regard, and from comments I overheard in town, the arrival of Jon was being taken as a slight imposition even if he has converted to the fold. "I'm going to country jam" one lady said "but I don't care much for Bon Jovi" she muttered as she carried her groceries out of the shop. So it was that the fans at the Jam divided into two camps, those who didn't care for Jon, and those who didn't care for country. It seems it's not just the politics over here that are plagued by bi-partisanship, although the power of Jovi managed to unite the crowd in classic style. No one can deny that even those who detest Jon and his white rock buddies can't resist punching the air and loosing their voices to 'Livin on a Prayer' and so it proved at Country Jam.

No doubt you're all aware I'm not the only high profile Brit whose come stateside lately. The Beckhams have decided to join me, which has aroused a considerable amount of interest. This is especially surprising given that the world hot dog eating contest gets five times higher ratings over here than the average major league soccer game. I'm not sure whether that says more about eating contests or soccer. Incidentally, reigning champion Kobayashi, competing with a serious jaw injury, couldn't hold onto his title despite beating his own record of 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Anyway, back to the Beckhams, Posh gushed that she had 'No idea' so many people would be waiting to greet them, before waxing lyrical about hanging out with the Cruises and having Leno over for tea. Presumably she did have some idea she'd be appearing on one of the planets biggest chat shows that evening. Its embarrassing to see star struck Brits being idiotically obsequious in Hollywood.

In the next couple of days Liz and I will be moving to our new apartment in St Paul Minnesota. We've got a U-Haul truck and lots of charity shop furniture. Next time I post I'll put some photos up of the place. I've been in and out of the city having job interviews for the last few weeks, so have been pretty busy. OK, thats about it!

Going to the Ball Game

2007-07-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

It was your typical Wisco summer day. The sky was blue and cloudless, trees green and the air buzzing with more biting insects than you can shake a swatter at. We were in the Jeep, and I was about to be 'adjusted'. No this wasn't part of some American initiation ceremony where new immigrants get strapped to a chair with their eyes clamped open and forced to watch every Eddie Murphy fat suit movie in quick succession. Thankfully this adjustment would be restricted to my vertebrae and stay a safe distance from my cranium.

The visit to the chiropractors owed more to a fascination over what exotic noises my back would make when manipulated than any serious medical need. Although as it happens I found out I have one shoulder significantly lower than the other. This was probably due to carrying a bag over just one of them for all those school years. I castigated myself on all the time spent laughing at the French exchange students. Look who's laughing now. This aside the upshot of all the satisfying back cracking was that Dr Dave offered Liz and I his box seats for the local baseball team on the upcoming weekend as he would be out of town. Never missing an opportunity for a cultural caper (or a freebie) we duly accepted.

Sunday rolled around and after a busy day stripping and painting chairs (we are preparing our furniture) we headed off to the ball game. Baseball is played in the evening during the summer months and as a spectator sport is in the same phylum as cricket - largely an excuse for groups to congregate and mingle with little chance of missing anything crucial during beer runs. Liz, a veteran of the Eau Claire softball circuit was called upon to give me regular briefings on precisely every aspect of the game. As a quick learner I effortlessly mastered the concepts (I spend most of my day writing CV's) of 'a double' and 'a full count' which in the words of Liz is a point at which 'something will definitely happen' - beer runners beware. The old timer to my right sat nervously as if next to a crazy person one wouldn't want to offend. We later heard that the old chap upon next seeing Dr Dave exclaimed incredulously that 'That guy didn't seem to know a thing about baseball!'.

Between innings, of which there are nine, members of the crowd took part in competitions on the pitch such as pulling a portaloo, spinning round for ten seconds before racing for the finish and blind folded ball chasing. In all of these a huge fuzzy mascot was on hand to ensure that the smallest, youngest and slowest would always prevail. By tackling, and pinning their stronger opponents 'Trax' enforced an on field inferiocracy. There was also the mass participation sport of opposing sides of the stadium seeing who could sing a popular advertising jingle the loudest.

More than anything though, the ball game is a chance for the community to connect, the team is sponsored by local people and local businesses, and the familiarity with which the crowd greets each other reflects this feeling of family. The singing of the national anthem and even more so, baseball's own official anthem 'Take me out to the ball game' may sound like an exercise in wholesome hokum but what's wrong with that? Why have we made wholesomeness a bad thing in our cynical postmodern world? By scoffing at those things that seem unblemished by the 'real world' we create a mindset whereby the profane becomes inevitable. I have to say that I liked the ball game, the family atmosphere and the feeling of community because in connects us to a more innocent time. I think we can all do with a little more innocence.