Martha's Marvellous Munchies

On Sunday afternoon at 5 pm it was 77°F; I went for a walk wearing shorts, T-shirt and sandals. On Monday morning at 8 am it was 27°F; I went for a walk wearing coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and boots. Living here certainly gives you a new appreciation of warm and cold fronts.

This Saturday we went to see the Ice! exhibition at the Gaylord Texan resort, near Grapevine. Thousands of pounds of real ice carved, coloured and illuminated to form amazing displays. It was a tad expensive but well worth it. As you will see.... Old Man Winter, I presume. Giant baubles. Trying to eat a fairy cake! The big blue coats were standard issue, and I was glad of mine despite having another coat on underneath. The exhibit was kept at 9 degrees F (-13 Celsius). Although Graham, as always, didn't seem to feel the cold at all. Here he is with a rather weird elf. Ice-gingerbread house. Well, I guess an ice exhibition has to include a skating rink! The trees were real trees, I think, coated with ice. The giant angel was beautiful. And the finishing touch - a life-size nativity scene. Finally, the fun part! We both had to have two goes on the slide. Sorry the video is sideways - I couldn't work out how to rotate it.

"Life's too short to live in Dallas" runs the slogan in a local BBQ establishment. But it's nice to visit once in a while. The TRE is only $5 return and is an exciting double-decker train (why don't we have those in the UK?) so we decided to take the trip over on that. Unfortunately we stupidly missed the one we were aiming for, arriving on the platform just in time to see it pulling away. We had to wait over an hour for the next one. However, once we got to Dallas we had a very nice afternoon. We disembarked at Victory Station, next to the American Airlines Center. AA sponsor almost everything around here, it seems; no wonder they're struggling financially! The big outdoor screen was showing, as always, American football, and despite the chilly air several people were standing around watching it. From there it was a short walk over to the Arts District, which hosts a number of museums. Due to our missing the train we were there a b

OK, maybe we should have bought a stand! But who cares if it doesn't have the most aesthetically pleasing setting - it's great to have something to play on again. My most loving and wonderful husband had obviously picked up a few signs that I was missing my piano (no, I wasn't hinting that badly!) and a few days ago said, "I was just in the guitar shop and they had a big sale on keyboards - do you want to take a look?" So we went and browsed around a bit, and he firmly dragged me away from the $1000+ models and made me look at some more reasonable ones, and after some discussion we went for this little Casio. It's more portable than the type with a built-in stand, which was a big consideration when we know we're moving in less than 2 years and I had to leave my old one behind for precisely that reason. It's got weighted keys so the touch is good; the sound could be better but it renders Bach quite prettily even if not really coping with Rachm

We went on a plant-buying spree a while back and among our purchases were two Habanero pepper plants. I don't consider my fingers to be a particularly deep shade of green, so I was surprised and delighted when this plant bore a little pepper. It gradually ripened to a pretty orange colour, and we decided the moment had come to try out its heat qualities. Despite its minute size, it flavoured a batch of chilli pretty well. Both plants are currently sporting a pretty array of little white flowers, so I'm holding out high hopes for another crop in the future. It's not quite living off the land, but hey, it's a start!

Back in the olden days, when it was a major undertaking to get from, say, Bristol to London, or even Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, and so most people didn't bother, it is said that you could place people within 10 miles or so by their accent. Now that we've built motorways and everyone spends their days whizzing up and down them, you have to go a bit further to get your accent noticed, but moving 3700 miles from Bristol to Texas certainly does the trick. Of course, I don't really have an accent - I speak quite normally, thank you very much, but everyone else talks funny around here, so naturally I stand out as different. It's been a strange experience to be marked out the minute I open my mouth. About the second thing everyone says to me is, "You're not from around here" or, "Where are you from?" Even though we talk the same language (well, almost), the way I speak says I'm a newbie, a stranger, something exotic. Fortunately the thir

Yesterday was my first Sunday off work for several weeks, and I was looking forward to going to a church service. We strolled over to a local Lutheran church for its 11am service only to find they were all out doing good works in the community - extremely admirable, but we rather wished they hadn't chosen that particular Sunday. So we settled for a megachurch we'd been to before, which has several "campuses" around the DFW metroplex. The trappings are certainly impressive: state-of-the-art sound system, huge screens, slick video sequences, funky banners reflecting the theme of the latest sermon series. Which on this particular Sunday turned out to be about politics. OK, not my number one topic for a sermon, but it's obviously topical right now, and the Bible certainly has plenty to say about kings and leaders. Could be an interesting talk on our responsibilities as Christians and how to interact with our government, and I know the preacher is a good communi

This is a somewhat belated post about our Labor Day weekend away at Caddo Lake, on the Texas - Louisiana border. I've just got the photos up on Facebook which tells most of the story: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58850&l=c0745&id=667138898 It was fun to be camping again - I haven't done that for ages, but I've always enjoyed camping since we had a trailer tent when I was younger. In the States, of course, keeping cool is more of a problem than keeping warm, and the countryside is populated with lots of nasty bugs who thought of me as a tasty picnic. For some reason Graham tastes bad to them, which is totally unfair! We were right on the border where Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas meet, so we drove around a bit just to say that we'd visited each state. To be honest they looked a lot like Texas. We camped near a little place called Uncertain (which must give rise to endless puns) but the nearest interesting town is a place cal

A nicely organised set of wedding photos is now online at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56519&l=5f5d6&id=667138898 A lot more were taken, of course, but I think those are the best ones. I'm not sure how they come out quality-wise if you want to download them, so if you want copies to print or anything email me and I'll see what I can sort out.

Well, I'm now back to making a useful contribution to society (and paying taxes) with my first job in the USA. My love of cakes is still being indulged, as I'm now icing dozens each day; I have a job as cake decorator for an up-market supermarket called Tom Thumb. The current cake decorator, Jennifer, has been working 10-12 hours a day trying to keep up with demand, so is very glad I've arrived! Hopefully between us we won't have to work such long hours. She's also a very lovely person to work with, and I think we'll get on well. It's always strange being back at the bottom of a pile, knowing nothing and no one, but I think this will hone my decorating skills, and it feels good knowing I'm going to really help out someone else. The holidays are coming, i.e. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I'll certainly be busy... In other news, yes, I will get some more wedding photos up soon, but it might have to wait until we have internet in th

There was a delay at the photo developing company, apparently, but we now have 5 folders full of photos of ourselves looking extremely happy. I've put a few up on Facebook in a rather haphazard manner, just to keep everyone photo-satisfied for a few more days. Here's the link: (I deleted that album so have deleted link; see above for new link) It's Labor Day weekend here, so in common with probably everyone else in the country, we're planning to go away, so I won't be around to add more photos until probably Tuesday. Till then... enjoy!

Moving was a slightly surreal experience given that our new place looks almost exactly the same as the old one, except for being a different layout. That's what you get for living in a throw-'em-up-and-pack-'em-in apartment complex I guess - albeit a very nice one. So, entering apartment 433: To your right is the master bedroom: with en-suite bathroom: and looking back, from your left, that's a walk-in closet, door to the hallway and door to the bathroom: Following the layout so far? OK, go back to the hallway and put your back to the front door again, and this time walk straight forwards into the sitting room: As you can see, ahead of you is the door to the balcony: for which I have grand plans for a herb garden and other plants. Leading off the living room is the dining area: and if you walk through that and round to your right you reach the kitchen: Go back through the living room again: and if you turn right (

No actual wedding photos yet I'm afraid (hope they arrive soon...) but the photos of the rest of the trip are now on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53715&l=3498c&id=667138898 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53722&l=b4263&id=667138898 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53725&l=14c2a&id=667138898 Enjoy! and I might get round to putting a bit more of a story on here at some point, but the photos will give you the general idea.

Just a quick post to say that yes, Graham and I are now married, the ceremony was beautiful, the honeymoon was amazing, and photos should be available next week, at which time you can have the whole story with pictures! If I can I'll get some photos up before then, but I'm working off a public computer which makes playing around with hundreds of photos a bit more complicated. Watch this space...

Well, here it is: my first post from Fort Worth! I arrived safely, despite a 4-hour delay at Newark. The connecting flight to Dallas/Fort Worth was running late anyway, but they got us all onto the plane about 4pm, we taxied away from the gate... and then found out that the weather was so bad that no planes could take off. So we sat there... and sat there... and sat there.... until 8pm, when we finally took off. I arrived at 10pm Fort Worth time, which is 4am UK time, having got up at 6am that morning! It is, of course, fantastic to see Graham again, and we have now bought wedding rings and are all set for Hawaii! One week to go!!!