Wait a minute. When did this happen?

Somehow, when I wasn't paying attention, this one got old enough to start school. How's that for attentive parenting? As you can see, early this morning she was not all that convinced that school was a good idea, thankyouveryfuckingmuch.

Her sister, on the other hand, having been back in daycare for all of four days, was completely nonchalant about the whole thing.

Post-school, it was a whole different story.

Her teacher, clearly wise in the ways of four year old girls, was prepared with princess stickers. The first thing Dev told me about was sitting on the floor in a circle and talking about the rules. She was very excited to be able to put up her hand and contribute "No fighting!" to the discussion.

Who do you suppose her father is? This apple has surely landed smack dab right under that particular tree...

Things that I miss and things I don't

Brought into focus by our trip home for a family wedding.

Things that I miss:
Salsa. I know I'm spoiled, having spent the past ten years living in either Space City or the Old Pueblo, but the lack of decent and/or vaguely affordable salsa is really starting to cramp my style.
Along similar lines, I miss Chipotle chicken burritos like you would not believe
Target

Things that I don't miss:
American accents
American drivers/traffic
Sticky summer weather

It was a bit odd to go back so soon - it's only been three and a half months - and I was surprised at how jarring it was. After beings asked how we like living here, Himself said something along the lines of "London feels more like home then Houston ever did", but upon reflection we've agreed that it's not London that feels like home, it's the lifestyle. We live in the city, not the suburbs, and get to walk everywhere or use public transport. For someone who was riding the T by herself at age 11 or so, and used it to get to every single day of high school, this is what I'm used to. And a 5 min jog takes us to a huge green space where Himself can go off running and explore for long enough to wear himself out, which is more like what he grew up with. The girls have embraced the "walk everywhere" mentality, as evidenced by our hiking in Scotland and France, and the fact that today they walked the better part of a couple of miles, interspersed with bus riding.

But people asked what we didn't like about living here. So far there are a couple of things that have been tough to get used to. One is the driving, which we have a pretty good handle on by this time, but there are differences beyond just driving on the other side of the road. The biggest issue is space: the tolerance for close passing/close following/tight quarters is immeasurably higher here then in the States. Roads that Americans would have as two lanes are three here. The drivers here are "better" overall, in the sense that they are much more aware and attuned to what's going on around them (which may be dubious praise given how oblivious most American drivers are). But that's taken some getting used to.

The other, bigger, issue that has taken some getting used to is the constant monitoring of peoples' everyday activities. There are CCTV cameras everywhere, and if they chose to, The Powers That Be (whoever they are) could trace back my every move for at least the last week, if not longer. Most of the time I don't think about it (and anyone who wants to follow me around for a week is going to be seriously bored), but it's omnipresent. My understanding is that this system grew out an attempt to increase bank security, and I imagine was also influence by the Irish-British conflict, but now it seems to be tied in to terrorism. I have a hard time envisioning a scenario in which this kind of constant surveillance would ever be implemented in the United States, much less accepted. So that's been an interesting thing to get used to.

But now we're back, we've mostly readjusted to the time change (boy is it ever easier to go west then to go east!), Boo has started daycare, and Devil starts school on Monday. Which must mean that I'm starting work soon. Yikes!

The end of an era

I was clearing out a box of my old papers in my parents' garage this afternoon, and I came across a framed letter that I had saved from 1990. It was from Senator Edward Kennedy, congratulating me on receiving the John and Robert Kennedy Book Award, which I vaguely remember was for being a science geek. In light of his recent passing, it was all the more poignant to find a letter from a man I had never met, wishing me success in college, and saying "I know that this honor, and all the others you've received...are well deserved,...,and I'm confident you have a very promising and exciting future ahead of you."

Having spent most of my childhood in the Boston area, Ted Kennedy was one of the political figures never in doubt. Regardless of what you may think of him, his politics, and his somewhat tumultuous personal life, he was a great and effective legislator, who accomplished remarkable things. It is a tragedy that he did not live to see a health care bill passed, but I hope that it won't be by very long.

Thank you Teddy.

* Cross posted at the knitting blog as well.

What I did on my Summer Vacation, Version 2.0 - France

Last week saw us packing up and heading to the train to go to France. We spent the first three days in Paris, where we hit some of the key tourist sights, and the girls happily chased pigeons at each one.

We ended up not bringing a stroller and hauled Boo around in a handy backpack kid carrier. Devil got to walk. Alot. And she was an absolute trooper - it was amazing. I think it would be a hard thing for most four year olds to walk around a foreign city for 4-5 hours a day, but she did amazingly well.

On our last day, we (along with 18 bazillion of our closest friends who happened to be in Paris that weekend) headed down to the Champs Elysees for a momentous occasion:

The final stage of the 2009 Tour de France. Total cycling geeks that we are, Himself and I were bouncing up and down waiting for the peloton to arrive. Boo was asleep and Dev sat down on a bag on the ground, surrounded by other peoples' legs, and wondering when it was going to be done with. She got into it a bit more though as the parade started and the riders started coming by.

It was a good stage to watch; since they go around a loop eight times, you get to see them come by over and over, so it's not just a 10 second flash as they go by. We saw Lance and Contador and Thor, and watched the Columbia team try to catch a breakaway. I always thought that at least the first lap around was a slightly more mellow affair, but not this year - they were hauling ass from the first lap. Amazing to see.

Monday, we headed to Geneva and picked up a car before heading back into France. We went to Combloux, and stayed with the parents of a friend in a lovely house with a view of Mt. Blanc. It didn't suck...

Again, we forced Dev to spend a lot of time on her feet climbing mountains. We think it's really important that the girls get out and enjoy the outdoors, and we're not above bribing them to help ensure they have a good time. Or at least so they associate chocolate with hiking! We went through a couple bags of peanut M&Ms, several chocolate bars and a bunch of cookies over the next few days, all of which did wonders for getting the girls uphill.

We headed back to Paris on Friday before heading back to London on Saturday afternoon, tired, with bags full of stinky clothes, and some serious suntans. A good trip all around.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 1C

It's a suitably rainy English summer day, so it's time to finish up the Scottish interlude. From Portree, we headed southeast, over the bridge and on to Eileen Donan.

This is the quintessential castle. Perched on an island looking out over a lonely loch, mountains all around, isolated in splendor. It was almost completely destroyed in 1719, and rebuilt 200 years later. It's now a major tourist attraction, and you can actually go inside and walk through many of the rooms and hallways.

From there, we headed inland a bit and drove up the Great Glen. We looked for Nessie, but the only signs of her were the stuffed monsters we saw in numerous gift shops. So we decided to visit another castle - you can never have too many!

This beauty is Urquhart Castle, on the west side of Loch Ness. In stark contrast to Eileen Donan, Urquhart is a ruin. But you can still imagine what a massive beehive it must have been when occupied.

It was a suitably rainy Scottish day, so the girls took advantage of the drizzle to get quite wet and grubby.

We spent that night in Inverness, and the next day we headed up to Chanonry Point, north of town. By this point, we were all feeling a bit worn out, so we spent most of the day throwing rocks into the ocean and watching the dolphins playing in the surf. Himself got some photos:

These don't do them justice. There were two, and they started off maybe 200 meters off shore. By the time they were done however, they'd come in to maybe 50 feet away, and had treated us to some spectacular full-length displays as they leapt out of the water. Just like at the Aquarium only...in the wild.

After some good time sunning ourselves, we headed back towards Inverness. Miracle of miracles, both girls passed out in the car, so we took the opportunity to go to the National Heritage Site at Culloden, site of the final stand of the Scottish Jacobites in 1746. The Visitor Centre there had a phenomenal display of the history of the Jacobites, and the events leading up to the disastrous last stand on Culloden Moor. Fascinating stuff. The moor itself is an eerie, eerie place. They are in the process of trying to restore it to it's "original" condition, complete with the marshy sections that played a big role in the failure of the Jacobite charge. We had our own reenactment of sorts when Boo decided that it was a good place for a meltdown.

It seemed like a good time to head back. The next day, we headed southward again, and made it to the airport by the skin of our teeth. A short hop back to London and home. One trip down.

Now we're gearing up for our next trip: to Paris on the train to see the last stage of the Tour, then off to the Alpes so Himself can throw himself up a mountain on his bicycle. I've been waking up in the middle of the night trying to recall my (almost 20 year old) French, without much success. It should be...interesting!

Interlude

There are a number of pluses to staying home with the girls for the summer. Besides getting to spend oodles of time with them (which is much more pleasant now that we've all adjusted), we get to go on cool expeditions, like today's trip to Crockford Bridge Farm in Surrey. We came away with this bounty:

Two kilos of strawberries, a kilo and a half of the best raspberries ever and (not pictured) 500 g peas and one kilo of broad beans. This is our second trip to this particular establishment, and the kids have had a blast each time.

Dev is an expert picker now, while Boo spends most of her time grazing. I'm not at all sure what the UK party line is on gorging yourself before you pay for your pick your own goodies, so I try to keep her under wraps. This, however, is a losing proposition. I can only try to wipe of the majority of the evidence from her chin before we go to the register and hope that she's cute enough to get cut a fair bit of slack.

The proper way to prepare to eat raspberries

When we got home we made shortcake in preparation for dessert. This is what summer is all about.

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 1B

So, we left Fort William and headed northwestwards to the Isle of Skye. You can drive to the island, but from where we were it made more sense to go to Mallaig and take the ferry.

We drove up to Portree, the largest town on the island, and wandered around for a bit trying to find a place to stay. We had great luck for Fort William and Inverness by using the www.visitscotland.com help line, but had struck out in Portree. But no matter - with a bit of searching we found a place and got settled. That evening we wandered down to the harbor, got soaking wet throwing rocks in the water, had fish and chips for dinner, and listened to the local pipe band playing in the town square.

Some of us (me) love bagpipes, but the girls were not quite so convinced!

The next day, we continued our attempts to indoctrinate our children into the "joys" of backpacking by driving north from Portree to climb the Quiraing. We actually ended up going up on the other side of the road from the actual Quiraing, but the girls enjoyed it immensely. Devil walked most of the way up by herself, and when the rain started (practically the only rain on the entire trip), she put on her new pink raincoat and carried an umbrella on the way down.

We made it back to Portree in time to go for a boat ride out in the harbor and were lucky enough to actually see a sea eagle in flight.

Our boat captain injected a fish with air and threw it out into the water, while the sea eagle perched high up on a rock face and thought about it. Just when we were going to give up, he launched and swooped down to grab it. Apparantly, out of four trips that day, this was the only time he'd moved. The captain also told us of taking out boatloads of photographers, 4-6 times a day for three days, and the birds never even budging. So we got really lucky.

And then he let the girls drive the boat coming back into the harbor. They were thrilled!

Skye was a beautiful, barren, wondeful place. It reminded us of Alaska in geography and flora, only a bit warmer (gotta love the Gulf Stream!). Alaskan fauna was, thankfully, absent*.

Up next, the trip from Skye to Inverness and back home. More castles, monsters and dolphins!

*The badger is the UK's largest predator. Makes a big difference when you don't have to sing as you hike to warn the bears!