OK, drum roll please...

 

Here is what our new house in the US looks like:

 

We are renting half the house for six months, or something like that. The house is newly renovated and for sale, so we'll have to deal with some open houses and stuff along the way. The strange bit is that this appears to be a very unusual conversion in that the house is split in half height-wise. Usually a two-family in this area is one over the other. In this case, the builder built a new back-side onto the house and split it down the middle giving each side four floors. And by the way, yes, that is snow in the driveway next to the porch. Our back door is not actually very visible here - it's to the right of the door at the end of the porch.

 

Anyway, the irony of all this is that the house will definately not be new when my kids get done with it. I mean, we're a pretty clean family and all, but Alex's nickname was, "Bubby-Zilla" at one point and for good reason.

 

Case in point. The entire house has brand new hardwood floors. Nary a scratch to be seen. Here's my 2 year old after a few minutes with the popcorn snack I so generously gave him.

 

 

Actually the story is a bit funnier than that. You notice how there is quite a range of different sized popcorn in this shot? That's because Alex was dancing on it while laughing and smiling at me. I was temporarily unable to respond because I was outside the glass patio door (it's out of shot to the left in the photo) working on something very domestic like breaking down boxes and when I glanced up, well, you get the rest.

 

Actually, the thing I like about the photo is how all the popcorn settled around him like a ring around a planet.

I've been quiet for awhile because my family and I have been in the process of moving back to the United States. We're not done yet, although we're mostly settled. We still have bills in the UK and bills in the US and we haven't quite figured out where everything we shipped over actually goes.

 

Being back in the US is quite a culture shock, even after so short a time abroad. The hallway of Katherine's new school here is about as wide as her old schoolhouse in London. Both are good schools, though, so we're lucky there.

 

Some things are still very frustrating to us. Commercials on TV are pretty high up that list. We are having some difficulty acclimating to the food as well. I suppose I'll have to expound on that for you at some later point.

 

In the meantime, we are sorted enough that I am back to blogging. Before I begin, though, I will leave you with this.

 

I was unaware of a rather spectacular form of photography, kinetic photography, called appropriately enough, "camera tossing." If that isn't enough for you to go click the link, I can't help you. Maybe I can. Check out this, this and this on Flickr.