England 2010 - Part I

Here are some pics from our trip to England.

We took a little prop plane to Toronto, then big jet to London. Here's Brett with the Folks.









Rose Cottage is the family home. It's a lovely place, with a great view. The property just out back is owned by an Arabian prince who breeds race horses, so we get baby ponies every year. The horses come right up to the fence every night if they see us and we feed them mints.





We have a blast with the folks! Lots of great company, great food, long walks in the country side, short trips to visit museums and interesting places...it's a great time.







Diana's sister, Nicki, and her husband Peter are a lot of fun,too! We went to a restaurant in Windsor with them. Windsor wasn't prepared for us to pour out on the sidewalks!

From left: Peter Needham, Adrian Day (dad), Brett Day, Diana Day, Nicki Needham

We try to get up to Leeds, which is in the north of England, when we can.

This is Theo, Conrad and Mich's son. Last time we saw him he was just 11,(I asked him if he was going to Hogwarts and, without skipping a beat he said "I hope so!") the time before that he was 5! He's 14 and plays the steel drum, guitar, bass and whatever else he can get his hands on! Fun kid!

This is Brett and Conrad in the conservatory having coffee. We're heading out for a hike!


Here's Brett and Mich...Brett went to school with Mich and Conrad way back in the 80's!

The Yorkshire dales are my favorite. Lots of rolling, green hills, dry stone walls and sheep dotted across the landscape. Yorkshire never disappoints with the sky effects!

Conrad was building a sculpture while we were there that required a huge scaffolding. Theo couldn't resist. Neither could Con!

Neither of us remember being pissed off, although this looks like we are. Just a funny picture of us! This is Brett and another college friend, Andy Beresford. The first time I met Andy we were at the beach. He cut a cast off his leg with a hatchet and later, at dinner, sand poured out of his prosthetic arm...good times!

Malham Cove is a place Brett has wanted to take me forever! When he started at Leeds Poly (his undergrad school) this was where one of his professors took the class to introduce them to the Yorkshire country side. If you saw the latest Harry Potter film you may recognize some of it!


Brett on a distant hill....a bird flew between us...what a chance of a shot!








And always reward a hard day of hiking with a nice pint!


...and a few curries!

We spent a day in London with William Potter (no relation to Harry) and Nono (they got married December 2010)

We went to a couple museums, and Brett placed himself beneath a full sized plane hanging from the ceiling...scary!

England 2010 - Part II

OK, where were we...oh yea, we were visiting William and his soon-to-be wife Nono in London. Had a lovely day and back to Rose Cottage to spend time with the nephews before the big annual Day Family Party!

These are the "twins"...Brett's cousins. They are lovely girls and next time we're in England we plan on visiting them in Dorset. (I said it out loud so now it must happen!)

Diana's birthday was just after the party, so she was birthday girl for the Day bash as well.



This may surprise you, but the weather in England in August is unpredictable. To assure a good time is had by all, regardless of weather, dad got a few tents that we installed the night before


Here's Brett with his cousin Sue, and Sue with her kids.

This is a great shot...not sure what's going on here, but I can tell you no one was really mad...like the shot of Brett & I in Leeds....timing.

Some shots of the family having fun. All told there were 30-40 people there. Uncles, Aunts, cousins and friends eating, drinking and reconnecting...a tradition for 17 years now. The first one I attended was in 1995...our England wedding (well, party) and honeymoon. I met the whole family at once...whew! Always lots of champagne...but (I KNOW!) only before lunch, not after as well.

The next day we went to Henley on Thames for a picnic party for Diana's birthday. The little ones are Diana's nephews kids...so cute!

We went for a pub lunch the day before we left with just dad and Diana. My two favorite things to do in England is pub lunch (how can you beat a nice pint with lunch in a real English pub?!) and getting curry take-out. Got to do both a couple times this trip!

Couldn't resist this shot...

Oh, and my father-in-law pointed out these great cows for me...he even pulled over special to let me take this shot! XOXO

Air Travel 2010 - part 1

Things I'm grateful for today -

The view from a plane...That is the BEST part of flying- the view! You can’t get this view from anywhere else, except maybe google maps satellite images. That view is worth all nervousness I get from flying! I can see the clouds from the top…I get the 3-D version of them! A puffy white landscape, big white mountains! It’s fantastic! I love it!

Air conditioned airports...It's like 100 degrees outside!

Nice fellow travelers...it's amazing how things like people talking on cell phones in public becomes acceptable when you're stuck in an airport for HOURS! I'm sitting in a bar, at a high table with a bench seat on one side and chairs on the other. Usually you'd be horrified to bring a large purse or briefcase into a place like this but they really accommodate travelers here. There is luggage everywhere, most people are single travelers and we are all packed into these tables...4 tops...and doing a variety of things, like talking on the phone, blogging, surfing the web, texting, drinking beer, eating dinner, having conversations, more phone calls. And it's all fine, we're all in a zone, together, but separate. I had to use the restroom and a total stranger offered to watch my stuff...first time I'd been with out my 20# bag since 3am! and I was so grateful! Nice Fellow travelers!

Friends...especially those who can tell you "you need to calm down, deal with what has happened and figure out how to fix it" when you're having a melt down and feeling sorry for yourself. Thanks Cindy!!!

What a crazy day!

I can’t even begin to know where to start. It was a weird day. Started out with a plan. Go downtown with Brett, I go to the census and he goes to get his green card renewed, then to get his PA state ID so we can get the loan for the car on Thursday. We meet afterwards and connect with my mom, who I haven’t seen in weeks (she was spending time helping my aunt and visiting my uncle, her brother, who is in the hospital with brain cancer) because she’s leaving tomorrow morning for Texas. Plus, since I haven’t had a car she offered to take me on errands…I desperately needed chicken feed!

So we get up and are getting ready to leave when my mom calls and has to cancel because she’s not feeling well and she has a ton of stuff to do…totally understandable…I can find another way to get chicken feed, but I’ll miss seeing her for another 2 weeks. Then the guy I’m buying the car from calls with questions and concerns about paperwork, and my bank guy is away for two days until we close on the loan at 9am on Thursday…so how do I get info for car seller? OK, leave for downtown.

On the way, I can’t find my wallet…ok found it. Whew! Brett & I go our separate ways and I meet up with him at DMV for ID. At this point, we need the id to get the loan. Brett has sent in his passport to be renewed and the bank will only accept certain ID, passport or PA State ID…now I find out that the state ID requires a PASSPORT! So we are waiting in hopes that the green card, which is SOOOO difficult to get, and is a federal ID, will work.

In the meantime, I go outside to make some calls to my staff for the census and somewhere between the street and our seat in the waiting room I lose the list of employees! I look everywhere! Can’t find it! I ask everyone in the waiting room and look in all the trashcans. ARGH! This is very bad. I could be fired for this! OK, stay calm. Brett suggests walking a 2-block radius and seeing if it blew away. That’s what I do…checking trash cans all the way…no sign of it. I call a co-worker and tell her what happened and I stop at the curb while getting sympathy…I look down and there, in the sewer grate, is MY LIST!!!! All I have to do is grow 3 inches on my arm and I’ll have it!! I run into a bar and grab some straws to use as chopsticks and they do the trick…it’s kind of funky smelling, but I’m not getting fired today!!

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. We shopped and had lunch with my mom, then Brett went to work and I rode my bike up to the farm where I weeded and planted and watered and harvested. When I was getting ready to leave I saw a group of sparrows forming a cloud in the sky…there was a hawk that they were defending against. The cloud was amazing! I’ve never seen a defense cloud before…you’ve seen the clouds of birds just dancing in the sky, you know what I’m talking about, I’ve seen them too, but I haven’t seen a hawk trying to eat the birds and the cloud split and flow…wow! It was a sight!

I feel very accomplished today! It’s 9pm and I’m sitting on my porch about to go in and make a pizza for dinner! I just had to remember why I feel like it’s been a LOOONG day!

Get this out of my head!

I’m going to try to summarize what has been keeping me busy lately…

Need a Car – but riding bike everywhere good, Looking for a car is endless and there’s always a reason the car could be bad…so I don’t know what to do. With no “verifiable income” I’m kinda stuck scraping at the bottom of the barrel.

Census job – The fun ia almost over. I’m gonna miss my crew…they’ve been supportive and fun. I love project work, where you get to meet people, create a team, get a job done figuring it out along the way. It really is an adventure!

Oakland Community Garden – planting this weekend! Yea!

Stuff that’s in my head stressing me out….

Brett’s Birthday in July – Brett loves surprises and is astonished when I don’t get hints about things he wants for Christmas and birthday…it’s always a lot of pressure for me and I usually just throw money at it, or take him somewhere (last year we went kayaking on the Allegheny and then had friends over for pizza) but this year I have no car and no money because I’m saving for a car, so I don’t know what I’ll do!

Trip to England for father-in-law’s 70^th In August –That’s not the stressful part… Brett needs his passport renewed. It expires at the end of this month. To his credit it is a complicated process, and no phone number to call for help…you just have to follow the instructions, get it right, pay them and hope they think it’s correct, or you have to start over and PAY over…so he’s very nervous…but a good time to do this would have been during the huge snow storm that kept us in the house with nothing to do for WEEKS! Not 6 weeks before the trip! ARGH! We haven’t booked a flight yet either….

Silpada Designs Conference in July – only stressful because I have 3 of my team going and I don’t know yet when the trip to England will be….can’t overlap.

Sisters wedding in California in September – I’m making something for them for their wedding and haven’t even started! But I’m looking forward to hanging with my old friends, and seeing my sister get married!!

This doesn’t even mention that I’m still looking for a job, which has taken a back seat to finding money for grad school at Chatham…I think I’ll have a great internship, I talked to the director of the program yesterday, but I still need to find money and what kind of time will I have.

And I haven’t been up to the farm much. I’m supposed to work 5 hours a week and I’m maybe doing 3…I only hope Barb considers all the work I did over the winter and last summer, and I’ll be getting back up there once the Census job is over.

**SIGH** is that all? I think it may be….

One Month Catch-Up

Whew! It’s been quite a month! I didn’t get the job at the Audubon, but I did get a crew leader position at the census, so I’ve been working for the US Census since April 12^th. As with any short-term government job (actually, I don’t know if that’s the case with government jobs, it's more like a political campaign gig) I was notified just days before and then hit the ground running. I’ve been trying to get organized and find some kind of routine ever since!

So, here I am on a Thursday morning, just before the start of my 42^nd year, trying to summarize my last month of my 41^st year. My thoughts are: I didn’t get the job at Audubon; I did get accepted to Chatham University’s Food Studies Masters program; my census job is fun and challenging, I have a great crew. Along with my fellow crew leaders, that fulfills my need for coworkers; my 17 year old car needs a $1,000 head gasket so I’ve found a car to buy-a 2006 Subaru Forester-and I’m having fun with my bank to get the $12K for it; the Oakland community garden is coming along nicely; right now is the peak of busy-ness of all my projects!

Did get the job- I’m kind of relieved…I know that sounds like a defensive statement, but how was I going to do a Masters program with a full time job? I have to find $30,000 to pay for school, plus my expenses while I go to school (I could just have 2 Silpada parties a month and pay for my personal expenses…) but I’m not worried…I probably should be, but I’m not. I’m just so excited about the future! Who knows where I’ll end up!

The Census job is great! Its kind of crazy in that the rules change every day…you’d think an organization that’s been doing this for 230 years would have their system down pat! But it doesn’t work that way. Very interesting and challenging, and I love it! My crew is fantastic and I hear I’m the only one not complaining about her staff…maybe I’m just a positive person and don’t want to bother people with details, but that doesn’t sound like me…

OMG I had the craziest week back in April…my second week with the Census. I was hoping my 1993 Honda Civic would last through this summer. However, the head gasket problem escalated and was sucking the radiator dry, so the car was overheating. I couldn’t deny it anymore. My folks were still in Florida and my mom offered me her car while I searched for another. She got friends to take it from her house to her mechanic to get inspected; I got a ride up to get it. (About 45mins north of here) I used it for Census training on Tuesday and came home, got changed for the gym and got back in the car. I put it into drive but the light on the dash, the one that indicates what gear you’re in, didn’t move…humm…nothing. Turns out the cable that connects the gear shifter to the transmission had snapped! WHEN DOES THAT EVER HAPPEN!!???!!?? So, I had to manually (under the hood, at the transmission) shift the car into drive, take it to my mechanic. However, I had a meeting the next day, so I thought, OK, I’ll ride my bike. Well, half way there my tire goes flat. I fill it at the station and I end up pushing it home after pushing it to my meeting! I was afraid to walk anywhere for fear of breaking my legs! (and I recently sprained my ankle, but that’s another story) BTW, the selector cable for my mom’s car cost $400!l

My folks have a friend who buys cars at auctions around the country. I’ve been working with him to find a car. I wanted a Honda Element, but that seems to be the hot car of the season and couldn’t get one in my price range. So I cast my net a bit wider and found a Subaru Forester that I like. I really like! Have you ever driven one? They are so much fun! I can’t wait to get it! It’s higher off the ground than my Civic and even higher than the Outback, which I thought I wanted. It’s got a lot of space for camping gear and stuff, and it’s a seriously tough vehicle! I’m so excited! But my bank is giving me a hard time loaning me the $12,200.

First, let me say that my go-to loan guy is on vacation. He went on vacation the day after I applied for a loan and left it in his coworker’s capable hands. The underwriter, however, is taking advantage of this fact. The poor woman, she said she would be sympathetic to my plight if I were the only one she was having that conversation with…every loan she is working with is getting the same treatment. She wants to hide under a desk until my friend gets back so he can fight with the underwriter!!!

Here’s how it went. I applied for the loan. The car is worth $13,000 online at Edmonds.com (blue book) but they needed info from the dealer about the car. I put Bobby in touch with the bank. (turns out they didn’t ask him anything different than what I could have told them) Next, there is an outstanding balance from an account I closed in 2007…What? Turns out that there was a series of unfortunate overdrafts while we were on vacation, camping, no access to bank, internet, etc. and the bank offered to waive some of the fees and, in their words “Settle the account” for $150…which left a balance of $182…apparently “settled” doesn’t mean the same thing in Dollar Bank language as it does in normal English. It means “Ok, we’ll take $150 now, and wait till you need something, then we’ll bend you over this barrel and see how much you really need us!” So I paid the $182, and expressed how unhappy I was, but was paying it anyway. The next day, the underwriter still wasn’t happy with my credit rating…my husband’s is a bit better, but he’s not comfortable with giving me $12,2000. I, apparently, can’t talk to him directly, so I plead my case with a nice woman on the phone. Over the past 2 years, (while being unemployed, I tell you but didn’t tell them), I have managed to pay off my student loans, all my credit cards, my loan to them (Dollar Bank), and completely wiped out all my debt ($10K). We don’t have a mortgage; we don’t have credit cards (F**K them!) …We don’t have ANY debt….and I have good credit…I’ve paid on time and more than was due most of the time. What does he have to be “uncomfortable” with!?!?!? He won’t disclose details about what he doesn’t like, so I have nothing to go with. He’s offered me $11K…what am I supposed to do with $11K?!?!? No, it’s all or nothing, my friend. I’m confident that I qualify, I’m worthy and I deserve it. So if you want to make me wait until Kevin comes back, fine. You’re so ON!

I am not desperate. If I need to, I can put the $1000 into my 17-year-old vehicle and drive it another few months until I save up enough money to buy another car. I could start a campaign to get people to withdraw money from their Dollar Bank Account and hold it until Dollar Bank gives me the money…I’m sure I can get $12,000+ removed from Dollar Bank in less than a day. I guess they could argue that if I know people with money, why don’t I just borrow it from them…But THEY ARE A BANK! That’s what they do. I can wait.

Thanks for letting me rant this morning. I now have to go get ready for my busy day. I have census work, then I have to make signs for the farm’s plant sale tomorrow, and I have to do a final drawing (Large!) for the Oakland garden…called Frazier Farms…for Saturday. Oh, yea, I have to prepare to turn 41 on Sunday. Wish me luck!

I'll be blogging more about Michael Pollan soon!