I am absolutely thrilled silly to announce that we bought some property.

Oh,hang on a moment. We didn't buy that. This appears to be the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. That's the Hyde Park in upstate New York (and not the Hyde Park across the way from Buckingham Palace, or the Hyde Park just down the road from King's Cross in Sydney, which is not the same as the King's Cross in London. That would be London as in the capital of England, not London in Ontario's Canada).

Sorry... where was I?

Oh yes. Hyde Park, NY. Birthplace and burial place of Franklin D. Roosevelt, home to the ex-filthy-rich Vanderbilt family (the grandkids squandered it all) and home to some of the East Coast's finest vinyards. I recommend the Clinton Vineyards where you can wine taste for $5 (and get a happy buzz into the bargain... very civil). Beth and I spent a week there for our third wedding anniversary and it was very nice. I feel I should say that big props go out to my crew at the Journey Inn on Route 9, but I'll leave that kind of talk to those with a love for the streets. Or something. As we were leaving the Vanderbilt's 50,000 square foot country cottage (yes, they really knew how to slum it back then) we saw someone having their picture taken with a 'For Sale' sign. So we asked if they'd take our picture too. Hey; if they ever lose the deeds to the property we have a photo record right here that it's all ours!

Other fun things we did on that week: a train and taxi ride to New York City's new Planetarium at the AMNH, a visit to the
Spaceship Discovery Science & Technology Center (where they have two astromech 'droids called R2-D2 and R2-She-2) and a great time by the Hudson River. Going back to the Spaceship Discovery place; I have to congratulate Floyd Holt for all the hard work and dedication he's putting into science to make it fun and accessible. Even if it make a Trekkie like me wonder how much one person can like a Starfleet uniform. Well done, sir!

Then we came home and started looking for real houses. It was last Thursday that the realtor took us to see two houses. The first one was going for $133,000 and it is a shambles. The owner died so it became an estate sale and the loving kids decided to rip the guts out of the house before selling it. All appliances: gone. Carpets: gone. A window frame: completely ripped out. Floorboards: look like a werewolf used them to sharpen his claws. Tiles in the shower: lovingly held together with Duct Tape. I kid you not... blue tiles and lashings of silver tape to give the whole thing structural integrity. Ugh. The second house was nice enough, but too close to a main road and there's a lack of parking.

That's when Richie (he's our realtor) asked us to look at a lot that was going for sale. Eighty feet (25 metres) wide by 130 feet (40 metres), right next to the park, quiet road, stunning view. We put in a bid of $29,900 and it was accepted within the hour. Beth and I are, subject to contract, the proud owners of a patch of real estate. Our house will be built within the next two years (as soon as we get our savings back up again to pay for it all). It's not as big as the Vanderbilt Estate, but it'll do nicely for us.

Listen : Our House / Night Boat To Cairo - Madness ... Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead.

First of all, and here's the beauty of the internet (where you can commit random acts of corporate-inspired kindness just because you want to), here's a non-paid endorsement list courtesy of me.

Zappo's is the place online for shoes. Kids shoes, ladies sandals, spats for men (wingtips with black and white leather just like Al Capone used to wear). Shipping is free in the US... and our order was upgraded from USPS to UPS for no extra change. Nice. Then there's All-Of-mp3 for those of you that know technology and love music... if you have a PayPal account to pay for things online (keeping your credit card numbers safer), you can buy $10 of music. Unlike iTunes, which will charge 99¢ per song, All-Of-mp3 charge by the megabyte and it's just 1¢ per MB. This means a three minute song encoded at near-CD quality (192 kbps) will cost 5% what it does at Apple's store. How can they get it so low? They're Russians! Finally, buy $25 worth of books or music at Amazon.com and the shipping is free. Got a Greg Bear book, The Killers' new CD and Beth got some things she likes too.

Life goes on. My sister Wendy's getting married in England on the 18th of September. Sorry I can't be there, but send me a few digital pictures and I promise one will make it onto this blog.

We've just had the 4th of July here. Being a Limey, I feel like I should be saying sorry to people for having troops barrack in people's houses. Mind you, if G.W.Bush is going to ignore the part of the Constitution that says people are only to be denied access to the judicial system if there's an incoming invasion or rebellion, I shouldn't feel so bad.

One person this week wrote into the local paper and said how great his President is and compared his idea of America perfection to "the failure of Europe". The failure of Europe. Hmmmm. To paraphrase John Cleese as Reg in "The Life Of Brian": apart from the system of democracy, the first Bill Of Rights (Magna Carta, 1215A.D.), road systems, Western versions of religion, Shakespeare and the modern English language, Beethoven, Mozart, penicillin, evolution, skiing, every sport Americans play and watch in large numbers (with the exception of lacrosse), the invention of the train, cars, battletanks, fighter planes, radio, television, the discovery of DNA's construction, the invention of the pocket calculator, pocket TVs, the affordable home computer and the internet... WHAT HAS EUROPE EVER GIVEN US?!? I suggest the dittohead that wrote this diatribe go back to the rock he crawled out from. You don't need to be a dittohead to be a Christian, if that's your thing.

Listen : Such Great Heights - The Postal Service ... You Were Right - Badly Drawn Boy.

Busy, busy, busy. Always my excuse, but it is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

The dearth of houses for sale in the area suddenly took a surprising twist. Old people must have taken up synchronised moving-into-retirement-homes (what with the Olympics starting this summer) and we have our eyes on two places.

'Fairfield' is in a good area. Expensive, true, but the house is on two city lots. 'Ash' is cheaper but that's because it's not in such a prestigious area. It's near to the park we like going to, which is a bonus. The property taxes are lower for 'Ash' than for 'Fairfield' too. Both houses are around 1,500 square feet. I guess things may be looking up. We put a bid in on 'Fairfield' and it was countered, so we'll see how 'Ash' looks like inside before we consider meeting 'Fairfield' half-way...

Went to a concert on Thursday night up at the Montage Mountain Ampitheater. Stereophonics were the support act (you may know them, you may not. Rock band from Wales) and the main act was David Bowie (if you don't know who he is, get back under that rock). The 'Phonics did a forty minute set that included stuff from their last two albums. I was hoping for something like 'Traffic' from Word Gets Around or 'The Bartender And The Thief' from Performance And Cocktails (stuff they did before I moved to the States) but the crowd were very responsive so I shouldn't complain. They got a rousing ovation from everyone at the end of their set, so I think they may have a few fans in the US that they didn't have last week. Bowie... what can I say? The man is a musical God that walks amongst us. He started with 'Rebel Rebel' and went on for over two hours. He bantered with the crowd and we lapped it up like puppies. His act was split equally between newer stuff from Heathen and Reality (his two most recent works); classic songs like 'China Girl' and 'All The Young Dudes' and a selection of cover versions and obscure B-sides. It was one of the best concerts I have been to. Big thanks to both Bowie and the 'Phonics for a great night's entertainment. It reflects in my 'Listen' choices for today.

We went to Bushkill Falls yesterday to see "the Niagara of Pennsylvania". Bit of a grand statement... they both happen to be waterfalls that you wouldn't want to fall down, but there the similarity ends. Bushkill is a series of smaller waterfalls, so it made for great picture opportunities. Like this one in the picture above, where a group of kids were cajoled by their mother to get a bit closer (a lot wetter) for a snapshot. In case you're wondering, the main falls are much bigger than this trickle. It looks pretty good... I might start putting more pictures in the blog. Don't know why I haven't before.

Anyhow, we walked around for over two hours and took quite a few pictures. My legs still feel like lead and I was wearing proper walking books so I feel sorry for the people I saw walking around the hiking trails in flip-flops.

Listen : Sunday - David Bowie ... Have A Nice Day - Stereophonics ... Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand.

So much happened in six weeks, I barely had time to look at the computer. Here are the headlines.

We got a new computer. It's just a secondary thing, really... MacMall had a sale of iBook G3 800MHz laptops, with a free printer and cary-tote, for $700. So we got one. I got the latest copy of Consumer Reports and the free printer (a Epson Stylus C84) was their best pick. Excellent...

We also invested in a little Flash Drive. They're the 21st Century version of floppy disks. Only a lot smaller, a little more stylish and with tons more computer storage space.

My cholesterol is lower. I had it checked a few years ago and it was 220... well, thanks to Beth getting me eating right, it's down to 164. My pulse is normal, my blood pressure's a textbook 120/80. I feel great.

Still looking for a house in the city (after someone beat us on bidding for the place I mentioned in the last diatribe), summer's nearly here and the new position at work is going well. Gus (hello Gus in Philly) offered to throw work my way, designing web sites for people. He's a professional designer and I'm a whizz at HTML programming, so it'll be great. He does the logos, and sorts out their look and I translate it into a website for them. Plus I earn a few shekels into the bargain, which is nice.

Listen : Go To Sleep - Radiohead ... Ride - The Vines.

Winter, I hope, has finally melted away from this little corner of the world. Bring on spring.

March Madness is upon us. The kids are wearing orange Syracuse University t-shirts and vests in weather that warrants at least two layers and they're playing basketball in the streets.

Go G-Mac! It's a local thing, you probably wouldn't understand.

The St.Paddy's Day Parade downtown (yesterday) saw everyone walking around in bad shades of green, but they all looked happy (drunk) enough. It's an odd thing, but whenever I see someone wearing a "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" badge over here I feel like asking them what they thought of the whole Roy Keane / Mick McCarthy thing that happened a few years back and whether Bertie Ahern should have gotten himself involved at all. Ninety-nine percent of people that say they're Irish in the USA have absolutely no idea what the Hell any of that means. It would be like having someone say they're American and not know who Donovan McNabb or Kelly Ripa are, or a self-pronounced Brit not knowing what Wolves and Accrington Stanley have in common.

Little things like that fascinate me for no reason whatsoever. The word "rivulets" and the number "312,000" fascinate me for no reason too. I wish I knew why. Maybe I have half a brain.

I missed one of my friends' birthdays. Sorry, Matt in Leicester. The card is on its way to England. I just wanted to say "sorry", but this has been a busy few weeks for me, and here's why...

Reason One: I'm filing for the removal of conditions on my Green Card so we're rushing around for all the paperwork. I'll probably have to go to Philly to get the new I-751 Green Card in a few months.

Reason Two: work is getting interesting. I applied for a position in another department with a more relaxed atmosphere (as opposed to being given a new position... see January's post), and someone high up in the company now seem interested in the pseudo-company-website I created (click here to see my handiwork) ...apparently, the company paid a ton of money to have an image consultant tell them their current web-site is shit. It was made using Word for Windows, which any eight-year-old kid can manage, so I could have told them that. What they need is some old English immigrant with a G3 Mac computer and a copy of Macromedia DreamWeaver to do their site, that's what I say.

Oh, and the current site cost the company $5,000 so I'm guessing the manager in charge of approving the original must have a case of "sunk cost pride". He, or she, doesn't want to admit it was a bad purchase. One scientist writes that people (of a certain perfectionist type) that buy an expensive piece of tat will not throw this junk out because they have invested more than money in their decision. Their very pride is at stake. So they keep the bad purchase because they believe they'll eventually get their money's worth. Websites, designer shoes on sale, clothes that cost an arm and a leg but warp after one wash, an expensive restaurant meal cooked to imperfection... it's all the same really.

Enough of reason two. On to reason three.

Reason Three: The icing on the cake is that we've put a bid on a house. It's at the high end of what we want to pay, but the house itself looks great and I really hope we get it. So now my mind is full of the possibilities that we could be moving house soon. But we may not be, because they may turn down our bid. It's the not knowing that kills you!

So, once again, sorry for missing your birthday there Matt. What with the immigration stuff, the prospect of a new job at work, being asked to be the webmaster to boot, and potentially having a mortgage in a matter of weeks... well, life is what happens when you're making other plans.

Happy St.Patrick's Day for real on Wednesday, people (beannachtaí na féile Pádraig, as they say in Ireland).

Listen : Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers ... Zombie - The Cranberries.