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If you want to go straight to Vol 8, you may do so now!
...
After recovering from the New Year's Eve party we went
shopping, we bought some shoes for Tim, some gloves for Tim and
Kajsa, looked for multi system videos and stocked up for just
about for ever (we went to a big warehouse place). On the way
home it snowed a little tiny bit but not anything to get excited
about. That was the last snow for a long time. In the next days
it got unseasonably warm. In fact it got too warm. Everything (like
heating, etc) is set up for cold weather and temperatures up near
20° make things very
muggy. Unlike here though, Canada suffered a reverse problem. It
was very cold and they had ice storms that cause the power lines
to collapse and cut off electricity from about 700,000 people.
Not good timing really.
Kalle has developed an undue interest in his manhood, causing us to crack up in the car when he states with urgency from the back seat "My penis is being squashed" (Well we'd better sop the car.) or asking "Do I have a penis?" (I certainly hope you still have one.) One of those stages they talk about, we suspect.
Early in the month we went to view the Miracle of Lights, a huge arrangement of lights set up in a National Park. You drive along slowly and ooh and ahh, and if you're Kalle you say "Det är jätte fint" and "It's really peautiful". The thing that really got us was close the end where they had written PEACE in lights right at the end, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this was right next to the shooting range and therefore you view the word PEACE to the sound of gunfire and distinct odor of gunpowder. Perhaps they are talking about peace through superior firepower!
That weekend we started looking for a second car. We looked at the sort of car we needed and the amount of money in the account and made major adjustments to the first. (That is our requirements were modified.) In the middle of the month we got ourselves a little black bomb. It is nice that for once in our lives we can have a black car. It just isn't sensible in Australia but here it doesn't seem to matter as much, we'll see in summer if it is true. Kajsa wanted to call him Blacky but Tim is not so sure that is a good name. Rastus was also rejected. Boris the Bomb was considered but rejected in deference to Boris the Bonked On Beanbag. Finally we settled on Baldrick.
Just after getting the car, Kalle started at Swedish School. There was bit of confusion, well a lot of confusion really and it ended up that there was no classroom for Kalle's level. So after spending the first session in the corridor, Kajsa invited them to have the school at our place. Now each Saturday after Tim escapes to his Swedish class, the house is descended upon by hoards of Swedish speaking kids and one teacher. If Tim drives slow enough or goes to the chiropractor, they are gone by the time he gets home.
Julia, the au pair/nanny, arrived in the middle of the month (Saturday 17th). Since then Kajsa has been searching for a job but has had no success yet. The Americans are quite rude and don't reply to job applications so you don't even know if their inefficient mail system has managed to get the letter to its destination. Oh well, things seem to be working out quite well with Julia, the kids really like her and she looks after them well.
The following weekend we were going to visit a contracting friend (I met him when he came to Australia) for lunch up in Maryland (where Maryland gets very thin between Virginia and Pennsylvania) but his wife was ill. As an alternative we went driving up to around that area and visited West Virginia. It is strange to see whole bare forests. I (Tim) must have seen them when I was young and living in England but now it just seems strange, being so used to having gums around that don't loose their leaves the same way.) On the Sunday of that week we were quite busy. First we went to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch and noise for the next door neighbour's youngest son. CEC's is a restaurant that specialises in noise and birthday parties. Basically assembly line birthday parties. It was nice I suppose, for the kids and it was very amusing watching Kalle play on one of the video driving games (it was one in which you could even drive over the farmyard animals). Tim didn't have to stand in the background going (brrroom, brrroom and schreeeeech as the corners come up) while Kalle spins the wheel during the demo. He did have to put his foot on the pedal though. However, it wasn't very personal. American's seem big on personality and individuality but not so hot on personal and individual service.
Later we went to one of Kalle's schoolmates' house for dinner. Kajsa has struck up a friendship with his mother. It was quite pleasant. It should be noted however that they are German, not American. It just seems that there is not the same culture of hospitality here in America. You go to someone's house for very special occasions only (Thanksgiving or farewells), otherwise dinner is always out somewhere. Bill Hemschrodt and Doug Greenlaw are notable exceptions.
Tim went away in the last week, to Mississippi for a symposium. At first we were all going to go, then we weren't, then just after Tim had booked the tickets and made all the arrangements, we were all going to go again. By then it was all too late and we didn't all go. The symposium was on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and was not that far from New Orleans. Unfortunately it was a little too far to pop over to for dinner so a visit to Louisiana will have to wait.
On the weekend we went over to Shane Casboult's house (he was Tim's WEEO when he was on CANBERRA) and had dinner, the first of many farewell's for Peter and Angela Marshall. It was pleasant and very child intensive (they have three, the Marshalls have one and one on the way and then there were our two terrors).
Thus ended the month. A bit short and sharp but it is the middle of February now and I have to get this posted so … that's all folks!