Day Two in London: The Unplanned Bus Tour of the Suburbs

Cheri and I flew overnight from Newark to London arriving around 9 a.m. London time on Saturday. Sarah met us as soon as we cleared Customs (she’s the blonde in the pictures in case you haven’t seen her in awhile), and off we headed to arrange transportation to Harrow.

	While Cheri and Sarah went off to get us week passes for the bus and underground system I stayed in the bus terminal with the luggage. Fortunately, I had something to keep me busy watching the local pest control program in action. In case you can’t tell, the animal near the light is a falcon.
I tried to get his picture while he was facing me, but he jumped up just as I focused and shot. You can see him a little better with his handler in the other picture.

We then took the bus to the hotel in Harrow, checked in, gave Sarah the special items we had brought over for her—crunchy peanut butter, candy bars, homemade cookies, cheese—at our own risk, and since it had managed to become 1 p.m. we decided a nap was in order. Sarah and I first made a quick run to a news stand to pick up some sodas and Sarah continued on her way to the tube back to her house.

Sarah came back and met us around 3 p.m. and we headed out walking through the Town Center of Harrow—mostly shops and restaurants, no touristy types of things. We then walked over to Sarah’s house and got a tour of where she is staying—pictures another time, I didn’t get the camera out this time.

Then it was a walk back past the hotel area and over to the Westminster University Harrow Campus. Unfortunately, the buildings were closed to visitors so we will try again later this week. Andrew’s flat was near the campus so we picked him up and headed out to a pub in Harrow for dinner. After that we decided it best for us to head in for the evening and be ready to go the next day.

Day Two: Somehow on Sunday morning we both managed to sleep in until 10 a.m.! Of course this is only 5 a.m. on the East Coast, but it certainly isn’t in keeping with my normal early hours. Sarah had to work from 11 to 5 so Cheri and I were on our own. We headed for the Underground Station that Sarah recommended for us (Northwick Park) only to find the rail line under repair and the need to use a double-decker bus to take us to another station.

The bus trip wasn’t too bad and it did allow us to see some more of the suburbs, but it seemed to take quite a long time to go a relatively short distance. The station we were re-directed to is Wembley Station which is also the site of Wembley Stadium—Soccer, Rugby, US Football when played in London. Fortunately there were no events there today or we’d still be on the bus.

Once we reached Wembley, we were told that rail line was also down and that we needed to take a separate bus to Finchley Road Station, transfer to a bus to Baker Street Station, and from there we could get on the Bakerloo Line of the Underground. This started to remind me of some of Dan Manz’ escapades in airports and flight connections.

We got on another double-decker and this time we went upstairs to get a better view of the neighborhoods. The bus wound through many back streets and, again after a fairly long time, brought us to the Finchley Road Station. Fortunately, just as we were getting off the bus the Underground staff informed us that the Underground from that station was now operational so we gladly entered the station and started to head further into London.

Several stops and one train change later we were at the Embankment Station. Our plans were to head out to Greenwich and I wanted to take the water taxi.

Here is a shot of the boat tying up to the landing. It is a catamaran style, so fairly smooth and easily fast in river.

Being on the River gave us an opportunity for some good pictures of the sights along the way. First there is the House of Parliament along with shots of first Cheri and then me with the Tower house the bell “Big Ben” behind us.

All of this helps to show that we are actually here! I then went on to take some pictures of the London Eye,

Tower Bridge,

a bridge yet-to-be-named but having a double-decker crossing it,

a side shot of Cheri, and then the HMS Belfast.

We finally arrived at Greenwich and started out by heading to the National Maritime Museum. I think the items were of more interest to me than Cheri, but I also think we had a good time. Next it was on to the Queen’s House and tour through the house. I did take the opportunity to take a couple of pictures in the house, one after asking and one when I should not have. The picture I asked about was out of an upstairs window looking over the old hospital with the modern city in the background.

The picture I didn’t ask about is looking up the spiral staircase. It became patently obvious that I shouldn’t have taken this shot when Cheri pointed out the no photography sign at the bottom of the stairs.

We then headed up through the drizzle to the Royal Observatory and the marking of the Prime Meridian (zero degrees longitude). Looking down the red line in the picture all West Longitude is to the left and all East Longitude is to the right—so I literally straddled East and West to take this picture. Looking up at the building they have also added a green laser line that more finely depicts the center of this demarcation. You can see some of the raindrops passing through it in the picture.

From Greenwich we hopped back on the water taxi, back to the Embankment Station, on to the Bakerloo Line and out to the Pub where Sarah works. We had a great Sunday Roast with Sarah, we met one of the owners of the pub, and on the way out got a picture of Sarah with the pub sign—Duke of York—in the background.

Our travels back were re-directed because of an emergency in the station we had arrived through, so it was off to another station for one stop and then onto double-deckers again for the ride back. We were able to get front row seats on the upper deck so the ride was more exciting (particularly with narrow lanes and driving on the left).

A great Day Two in London!

Swenson Adventures Goes to Tampa Bay for the Superbowl!

Well it was a whirlwind weekend heading south on Friday to Tampa Bay with all of the Arizona and Pittsburgh fans. There was cheering on the planes—three legs and two stops on the way there—people dressed in team attire, and Mardi Gras beads and handouts in Tampa International Airport.

Dad picked me up at the airport and we headed back to Zephyrhills. We got there in time to unpack and sit down for a few minutes before heading out to dinner. Friday is usually fish night for Dad so we tried getting in to the Mainely New England restaurant—a favorite we have been to other times—but the lines were so long it would be at least 90 minutes before we would get a table. We went by a couple of other places and the lines were equally long, so we settled at the Village Kitchen restaurant, a place Dad had not been to before but wanted to try anyway. He was able to get his fish and since we were in the south I settled for Chicken-fired steak.

We got back to Dad’s in time for me to load Skype onto his computer and get the system set up. Then we connected with Cheri back in Connecticut on a video call. We still had some bugs to work out of the system, but it was a good call anyway.

Dad gets Netflix and had a new movie for us to watch—Bounds. After about 15 minutes we both agreed that it was less than a B movie and maybe we should see what was on TV. We started to watch the Return of the Mummy (with Brandon Fraser) and part-way through we ended up connecting by Skype with Sarah in London. By the time we finished the call we couldn’t really connect with the movie, so we watched the end of the Celtics game and headed off to bed.

Saturday we slept in and then lounged about reading books and the paper. Dad got called in early for dialysis so I took him in and then did some shopping to make dinner later that night.

After picking Dad back up we went back to his place, watched a little golf on TV and worked on supper. I exposed Dad to Polenta with a Tomato and Sweet Italian Sausage gravy. His plate was pretty well cleaned up so I think he liked it.

We were able to connect with a movie on TV Saturday night—The Chronicles of Narnia – The Witch, The Lion, and The Wardrobe. It is an enjoyable movie and the only downside was the commercials took a two hour movie and stretched it to three.

Sunday morning we were up and off to Church. Dad sang in the choir and they did a great job and sounded really good. Deb met us at church for the service. Afterwards we headed out for lunch at Outbacks. The meal was good and it was nice for the three of us to get out together. The dessert in front of Deb wasn’t the only one, the other plates had already been taken away.

Dad and I watched the Superbowl that night—see I did go to Tampa to see the Superbowl. As you all know it was a good game right up until the end. Dad and I were cheering for Arizona, so the outcome wasn’t the best, but we did enjoy the game.

Monday was cooler and overcast so it must have been time for me to head back north. We did get out for a brief walk to the Community Center in the morning and to see Harvey and Ruth Ann before it started to rain. Then it was off to the airport and getting back onto flights. Fortunately it was only two legs this time—Tampa to Chicago, Chicago to Providence. It would have been great except the flight out of Chicago was an hour late in leaving so it didn’t get into Providence until almost midnight. It just meant I had more time to sit and read.

All in all it was another good adventure and it is always enjoyable to spend time with your Dad.

Bunco Squad Raids Swenson House

The Last Couple of Weeks

We thought it would be another quiet weekend following the weeks of Christmas, New Year’s, St. Knut’ Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. During this period I managed to get to a Celtics Game (on the Premier Level), we didn’t join the crowds in Washington but we did find ways to watch the inauguration, and then Cheri headed off for two days of skiing at Smuggler’s Notch.

So although it slowed some, we did manage to keep busy—I won’t bore you with more pictures of the insulation projects, but I did seal some significant leaks between the stone foundation and the sill joist. This should also help with some of the squirrel bowling that seems to happen most mornings in the attic. It seems that during the fall several red squirrels found their way into the attic and stored butternuts somewhere in the eves. In the morning, before they head out for a day of foraging they go to the secret stores and roll them across the attic floor to wherever it is that they chose to eat. I am not sure if they are looking for window views or someplace out of the drafts, but for some reason they have to move the nuts—and it seems to be mostly over our bedroom.

One Saturday morning this fall I managed to watch one of the squirrels gather butternuts from the ground out in front of the house, scurry up onto the front door steps, shell the nut—leaving the softer peelings in a pile on the stoop—and then disappearing behind the step with the nut firmly in his mouth. Looking around the area where the stone step meets the stone foundation I found a couple of access points for the squirrels into the basement—see some earlier pictures for examples of these holes. It seems they then either form a nest between the old insulation and the floor in the joist space—likewise, see the previously mentioned project to replace damaged insulation—or they work their way through the holes between the center chimney and the floors to gain access to the attic. I am sure they have other ways of getting to the attic, but this does seem to have some validity.

I have searched and vacuumed out the area over our bedroom, but still no nuts have been found. Have-a-Heart traps and the more effective, but to some—particularly the squeamish types—a more permanent solution, snap traps have been employed without any success. By that I mean nothing captured, although the bait is sometimes missing or the cage remained untouched.

While home during the MLK holiday I did manage to observe some more activity and discovered a couple more access points into the basement with incriminating furry rodent—they really are just large rodents with a fuzzy tail—tracks in the snow. The holes have been blocked and sealed, but the bowling continues. I wonder if I blocked them in instead of out?

The Raid

Since the period following the holidays can be cold and dreary—although the clean white snow and crisp cold air provide a cleansing feeling—many people start to experience cabin fever and a desire to be with others instead of hibernating. To counter the bad side of these effects Cheri and I decided to have a Bunco night. Alright, actually Cheri was the primary instigator but I am always up for a reason to have a party.

A Bunco Squad is normally thought of as a part of a police force that investigates fraud and abuse. Although there may have been some attempts at fraudulent rolls of the dice and abuse of food and wine, this wasn’t the type of Bunco at the Swenson House.

The night started out in the kitchen, the way most evenings seem to start out in the Swenson house, regardless of the party. Cheri and I—alright mostly Cheri again, but I did help with some things like making the guacamole and taste-testing—prepared heavy pupu’s, which is a tradition we brought back from our living from from Hawaii and consists of enough finger food appetizers to make up for a whole meal. I—really me this time—opened several bottles of wine, had some microbrew beverages available, and prepared a cheese-stuffed, mushroom and butter basted, baked loaf of Italian bread (the recipe card calls this ‘Gail’s Bread’) while Cheri put the finishing touches on lighting candles and getting out the support dishes.

It had been a snowy day, so we cleared the walkways and put down some salt. Then to add some ambience I put out small candle lanterns on the walkway directing guests to the right door, and lit the larger lantern to welcome them in.

People gathered around the kitchen island to start the festivities. Overall we had a party of eight couples (sixteen people…just to help you with the math) and several of them had not met before. Our friends the Gosselins (Jack and Stephanie) came up from Stonington, we had neighbors (Dennis and Lisa) from just down the road, Jamie and Martha (who you’ve seen in earlier posts), and then Bob & Ellie, Suzanne & John, and Charlie & Kellie who are all friends we’ve gotten to know through church.

Stories were told, as you can see in the picture, wine was imbibed, also as you can see in the picture, and we had plenty of food between what Cheri prepared and the wine and appetizers that others brought. The food kept coming so it was almost two hours before we retired to the Keeping Room which had been set up for Bunco.

Bunco is a dice game we learned to play while living in Texas. There are several variations, but the basic game involves four people around a card table and multiple tables around the room—four in this case to seat all sixteen people. In the variation we played each person was a partner with the person opposite them at the table. We drew table numbers beforehand to mix people up and didn’t allow spouses to start out at the same table. Without going into detail, you roll the dice for simple winning combinations and continue until the someone at the head table—so designated by having the colorful tablecloth and more importantly the bell—gets a score of twenty-one. Then the winning (and losing) teams for each table are determined and the losers move to another table while one of the winning members shifts to one of the loser-vacated seats—this mixes up the teams for every round.

The one exception for winning a round is if someone rolls the three dice to match the number of the round. For example, if in round four someone throws three 4’s in a single roll they shout out “BUNCO” and all play stops. This happened on several occasions and it seemed that it was more women than men. It reached a point that Lisa, Martha and Suzanne were all declaring themselves the ‘Bunco Queen’ and by the end of the evening we had to have a roll-off to officially declare the official Bunco Queen.

Of course why have games and a Bunco Queen if you are not going to award some prizes. The overall loser—the person on the most losing teams—and not to mention names (Charlie) received a bottle of ‘No Whining Wine’, the Bunco Queen (Martha) has a box of chocolates fit for a queen, and the overall winner (Jim) got three $5 scratch-off tickets. It’s only too bad his luck ended with the game.

So, the police didn’t come to the house. But everyone had a great time and there was agreement that we need to do this again. All in all another great adventure with the Swensons.

Idle Hands are the Devil’s Playground…

Here we are leading up to St. Knut’s Day (that’s pronounced Cah noot) and the excitement is building! For the uninformed this is also called Tjugondag Knut or ‘the twenty days of Knut’ in Swedish.

Those silly Swede’s, always looking for a reason to extend a good party, decided in the 11th Century to extend the Christmas season to twenty days—if twelve days were good, wouldn’t twenty be better!

Actually it was King Knut, who besides being a Viking, a Dane, King over most of Scandinavia, and also the King of England, who declared Christmas time would last for twenty days—December 25th to January 13th. He went on to be canonized (sainted) for his virtue and generosity. Of course this was years after his reputation for cutting off enemies ears and noses. I would guess that after years of only coal in his Christmas stocking, he decided it was time to start being nice instead of naughty.

Traditionally St. Knut’s Day is the time for taking down the Christmas Tree and all of the decorations. At one point in time this was when all the candy canes and other candy on the tree were taken off and eaten by the family. Just because we don’t have many candy canes on the tree these days it doesn’t mean we aren’t using this for an excuse to finish up some of the treats.

So the doubly good hot fudge sauce—see the hot fudge blog—has been finished up…

The ornaments are down and getting ready for storage…

Of course there was at least one casualty of a Santa falling down and not being able to get up.

And the trees, boxwood and holly have all gone the way of the brush pile. In some places people put nuts and berries on the tree before placing it outside so the birds and animals have some Winter food. Maybe we’ll do that in future years.

The wreaths on the front of the house and the garland around the front door also came down.

The door has been returned to a more country look.

Other than getting ready to celebrate Tjugondag Knut it has been fairly quiet in Woodstock. Since we wanted to make sure we avoided having idle hands we did go spinning (indoor biking) several times this week. Of course since we’d been spinning Saturday morning, we decided to go to Bill’s Restaurant for a full breakfast by someone else—waffles, eggs, potatoes, sausage.

Then later in the afternoon I felt inspired to try something I haven’t made in some time. So out came the garlic (and the wine) and I put together some polenta with a spicy tomato sauce.

It was not too shabby…I’ll probably make it again!

Today after church (again we didn’t want idle hands or minds) I had a few things around the house to accomplish before watching a little football. We had a snowstorm the night before, so I got out the roof shovel and got the snow off the edges. This keeps ice dams from forming and causing water to back up into the house.

Shoveling the Roof	The end result

After that I did a little more insulation work in the basement. I decided to try some batts that fit better between the joists and add quite a bit more insulation. I’m still experimenting with the best way to get the thicker insulation in place and you can see some of the difference.

Your Moment of Zen

Above is something new for you to try. Click on the picture and have a moment of zen. I hope it works!

Happy Tjugondag Knut!

Basket Ladies Shooting Moons!

Now that the girls have gone it's been pretty quiet around the house. When we moved to Connecticut we bought a big house so we could have everyone here for the holidays, and this year showed the value of the decision. With multiple events and dinners, and even with just the four of us, plus Andrew, the house worked well for spending time together (or apart) as we wanted.

The original plan had been to go skiing on Monday at Wachusett Mountain, only about thirty minutes north of Worcester. Before Christmas it seemed like a good plan since we had 14 inches of snow here and more on the mountain, but as the weather deteriorated, or got better...depending on your point of view, we changed the plan.

Actually it worked out much better to have the time on Monday. Sarah and Andrew had 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. flights back to London. By the time people got up, ran a few errands, and got packed it was fairly close to the time we figured we need to start heading for the airport.

We had Jess with us for another day. Monday evening with her was nice and we spent some time watching a DVD, going out to the hot tub, and then off to bed at a reasonable hour.

New Year's Eve found us at home alone. We had considered earlier in the week going to the Morris' in Maine for the evening--they were in an empty house as well--but decided it would be nice to spend the evening at home and not have to think about driving back on New Year's Day.

Early in the evening Dave and Karen called and let us know that one of the couples they were meeting in Boston had cancelled and would we join them. They had a group of families going to the Medival Manor, a comedy dinner-theater, and it sounded like a good time. We considered it briefly, but there was a nice fire going, one of us already had a lemon-drop martini and the other was into his second glass of wine, so we took a pass.

We did spend some of the evening watching a few episodes from the second season of Tales from Avonlea. This is a Canadian television show we use to watch with the girls when we lived in Vermont and could get the Canadian channels. We use to watch it on Sunday evenings and it reminded me of when we were kids and use to watch the Disney show on Sunday nights. The show is a little hokey and takes place in the same area (and with some of the same characters) of Anne of Green Gables. But it is a fun story line and the scenery is beautiful. Nana and Papa currently have our copy of the first season, but if anyone would like to borrow it after they have watched it just let us know.

This year we did manage to stay up to see in the new year. About 11:50 we headed out to the hot tub and sat in 103 degree (39.4 C) water while it was only 7 degrees (-13.9 C) outside. Icicles kept forming in the hair along the back of my head because of the temperature and there was a steady breeze so the wind-chill was certainly below zero (-17.8 C).

On New Year's Day I decided to finally download Skype to my computer. In case you don't know, Skype is a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) system that allows users to speak with each other over the internet for free. I loaded the software, started to fill in the contacts list for people on Skype and within five minutes Sarah called me on the system. Her computer has a camera built into it so we were able to see her on screen as we talked with her (you can see her on the side of the screen with Cheri talking to her in the photo). Of course this meant on Friday I had to stop by Best Buy and pick up a camera for our computer so we could all see each other. Since then we have video-talked with Sarah and James Morris several times. Here are a couple of shots from the video connections with them.

New Year's Day stayed cold and you can see the effect on the bubbler in the pond. It was nice and sunny several days, but you can almost feel how cold it is in the windswept front yard. I also took the opportunity of the clear cool days and nights to try some more outdoor pictures around the house.

Since I'd been watching football quite a bit over the last several days, Saturday was a time to get some house projects done. There has been a problem with some squirrels getting in to the basement and trying to set up home in the insulation. I found a couple of the holes in the foundation they have been using and filled them in, but you can see the havoc they have caused in insulation and the difficulty it has caused in keeping some of the rooms overhead warm. I had decided to try a new roll of double sided insulation first and you can see how effective putting that single roll in has been in cleaning up the ceiling area.

For those of you interested I also took some pictures of the house's rim joist. You can see the original ax cuts in this wood that was put in place over 260 years ago--all hewn by hand.

I also thought Saturday would be a good time to try out one of my Christmas presents. Cheri got me an Cuisinart ice cream maker that I have wanted for a while. I looked around the house for something to make and decided to try a sorbet using some marionberries preserves that have been in our pantry since our trip to Seattle a few years ago. I used Splenda to keep it sugar-free and used an Alton Brown recipe as an example. It made a pretty good sorbet that can help us go through the ice cream withdrawl of post holidays.

Cheri and I decided to go out to the hot tub early on Saturday evening. We got out there "in the glooming" or civil twilight. Since stars were just beginning to show and the horizon was still visible I pointed out to Cheri that this was the time in celestial navigation when you 'shoot the stars'. I also commented that this would not be a time I would 'shoot a moon' but included that she had probably never done that. Boy was I surprised when she said, "I have so. . ."! I asked her when and she said when she was out with the basket ladies group.

"So when you were in Maine with these ladies last year you shot a moon? When....where?"

"When we were playing cards. You've seen me shoot the moon before"

At this point I realized that we had a failure to communicate. Cheri thought I said 'shoot the moon', as in taking all the tricks in a game of hearts, when I had actually said 'shoot a moon', as in....well you know what I mean. We did get a good laugh out it all.

Sunday was some more insulation work; this time in the area under the kitchen. I have been noticing when we open the cupboards under the kitchen sink it is always cold. Checking the area under the kitchen showed areas without any insulation. Fortunately, I had some styrofoam insulation that I could cut to fit between the joists so I filled in the area. Now we'll see what effect it has.

You could say that with the girls gone plus Christmas Day and New Year's Day past then things return to normal. But as I think about it, what is the 'normal' we want? Wouldn't we rather spend time connected with friends and family throughout the year? Jamie spoke of this in his sermon today and shared the following poem:

Work of Christmas Begins

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with the flocks,
then the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit,
to feed the hungry,
to release the oppressed,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among all peoples,
to make a little music with the heart…
- Howard Thurman

Let's plan on this year being one where we stay connected as if it were Christmas.

You can see all of the pictures I took over the last few days (mostly 'artsy' things....I must get it from my brother and Dad, they do call him Art), if you click on the picture below.

Twelve Days of Christmas 2009