Got visited today by a whole flock of those green parrots that hang out in London sometimes. This shows two on the feeder - at one point, there were four of them. And at another point, we counted about a dozen distributed in trees, feeders, and so on. Fun!
 

lotsa braids... 

Another year older (more or less) - maybe another year wiser? One can only hope! So, that's birthday season in our house done with, except for poor Alex who is out of sync with the rest of us - just in time for Christmas, of course. One of my birthday presents is the new Harry Potter, which we will probably watch tonight, based on the assumption that there won't be anything worth watching on telly (well, it's Saturday - what are the chances?). Should be fun - Sarah and I saw it in the cinema, but Geoff and Olivia haven't seen it yet (we thought it might be a bit scary for Olivia in the cinema, with the dementors and all) so a treat for them. And the girls and I actually watched the second HP the other evening while Geoff was out - I braided their hair in lots of little braids while we watched - they had a mufti (i.e. no uniforms) day at school on Friday and they wanted fun hair. Photo to come!

Here's Sarah holding her postcard album - she's not finished labelling them yet, but we're getting there... 

Being a slacker again - so what else is new! Not a lot of unusual stuff going on here - I've been helping Sarah with her collector badge for Brownies (many thanks again to all who have sent postcards - she now has 122). We have to do some other things for the badge, too, like visit some places that have collections (museums, galleries, etc) and learn about the history of the object she's collecting. Brownies badges have become a lot more interesting since I was in girl scouts - not sure we ever actually did badges in brownies, but at older ages, I remember them being a bit dry, to say the least.

Spent the morning today helping in Reception class in school - you wouldn't believe how loud 17 & 5 year olds can be - I swear they were louder in school than at Olivia's party! Or maybe it just seems that way because you expect them to be loud at a party. But it was fun and Olivia enjoyed having me there, although she's not really keen on sharing me with the other children. She'll get over it, I'm sure.

This afternoon I'm doing a mass pancake-making exercise (little tiny ones) because they are having a World Food Tasting tomorrow at school and I'm doing pancakes with syrup (and other toppings for those who might not like maple syrup). They'll have to eat them cold, but I can't imagine the kids will care. So I'm going back and forth between the computer and the kitchen (which luckily are near one another) doing a sentence or two, then more pancakes, and so on. My life is just SO exciting.

But on the plus side, Kiki & baby Kenny are going home from hospital, which is great news :)

Grrr.

So, it's the big day today in the US - too scared to even think about it, frankly. My friend Kiki is in hospital, having given birth recently (by Caesarian) to Kenneth Albert (congrats, and welcome!), so she's probably the only American I know not voting (I hope!) but as she lives in Maryland, it won't really matter anyway. Little Kenny had some issues with his blood glucose levels, so has been spending a little time in the NICU, but hopefully will get the all clear today to leave the NICU and hang with Mummy. Mommy, rather. :)

Anyway, not much here except a minor domestic crisis in the form of the gasket/washer thingie coming loose on my washing machine during a wash cycle - not an issue as it's easy to fix, except that it meant water everywhere during the cycle as it has to be fixed from inside the machine and of course you can't open the machine until the cycle is done (we have frontloaders here in the UK in case you Yanks are bemused). Good timing, though, as the new flooring is (finally) being installed Friday, so the old flooring has to come up anyway, so I just ripped up the floor at that end of the kitchen so the floor underneath can dry faster. Satisfying, really. It will sure be nice to get the new floor down!

No doubt I'll be back tomorrow with comments (hopefully positive ones) on The Election. Until then...