Hey!
I found all your posts. Had been missing them because they were tucked away.
Anyway thanks for contributing to the discussions. Cassandra - good to hear from you and that Europe is living up to expectations. Nothing like a bit of hagiography ... and Sylvia, thanks for sending the gallery and museum material. Jiayang has received it but I've been too busy to look at it. Will check it out this coming week - I've finished writing the first draft of the associated article, and now need to trim a couple of thousand words out of it.
I've a couple of photos of our house, taken from the road. The place obviously need work!
Anyway, Imogen, there's a nice big spare room, and its in a lovely woodsy, scruffy neighbourhood quite close to town, close to lakes and rivers, close to Atlanta.
By the way Sylvia - the Greek Islands are definitely a must see, but are they a must see this time...?
I'm thinking of starting a more general blog for all-comers so that we don't have to invite others to this one. What do you guys think?
XXxDad

Hi - Jacqueline here
I tried to do my own post earlier but failed, so here I am tucked onto the end of Rod's. It has been really interesting getting to know our new environment - I've seen quite a bit of Auburn and the surrounding area as I've been carted around by the land agent. It is actually really very charming. I though it was also very quiet until the students came back. It was graduation last week and all the parents hit town - masses of very shiny SUVs all over the place. Mind you, they also seem to be the vehicle of choice for students too - that and extra large Utes. I thought the Merc was extravagantly large but I now realise it is rather modest by comparison.

While we only have a very skeleton kit in the apartment I simply couldn't resist all the fresh fruit, especially peaches, so I managed to bottle a few and also whip up a batch of peach chutney - don't have my Digby Law with me, but I did managed to find a simple, one pot, receipe on the net. Tasty. I'm looking forward to seeing what come into season next. One of the advantages of living in the South is all the great produce.

I expressed an interest in finding out more about local food to the real estate agent, and the next day she gave me a book of Southern cooking - one of her own that she never uses as she says she simply can't afford to eat in that way (weight wise). A quick look explained all - most receipes start with "take a pound of cream cheese" or involve deep frying. However, it does make a great read - it even includes the receipe for Elvis' favorite foods - fried peanut butter and bananna sandwich - which I won't share with you here, but let me know if you fancy giving it a go (bearing in mind that Elvis died before his time...) The author is Paula Deen who has made her reputation on serving outragously unhealthy food - she has TV shows and is the South's version of Nigella Lawson (without the grace or taste). She recently caused an uproar with her receipe on TV for a ladies luncheon - deep fried hamburger on a sugar doughnut. She's a real southern girl that one! Still tucked in amongst all the fat and sugar there are a few recipes worth trying I reckon. I'm going to try the one for collard greens tomorrow and I'll make some buttermilk biscuits to go with it.

Bed time now. Boris has football trials tomorrow. We brought all his gear yesterday - hellish expensive but he looks hilarious in it all. I'll take a picture.

Lots of love
Jacqueline

We bought a house last Friday. After a lot of looking, we actually found something that we liked right away. No pictures yet (camera batteries are flat). It's a 5 bedroom split level ranch house on 1.5 acres, built in 1967, very "moderne." Quite a lot of mature trees, lots of lawn and a sizeable award-winning rose garden (!) The couple who own it are getting on and are a bit dizzy - they've had it for thirty five years ... and are moving into a retirement village. We take possession on 16 August. So now we have plenty of room, come stay! quite a few other creatures seem to like it too: the owners have all sorts of repellents in their garage: termite, gopher, mole, wasp, chipmunk and armadillo. The rose garden has an electric fence around it to keep the whitetail deer out.

Other events: semester has finally started so I now get to see what kind of students I'm dealing with (much like anywhere else) and what they are capable of. Tomorrow we have the college Convocation (like orientation) - speeches mostly probably (incl. me) and a cook-out in the courtyard of Dudley Hall (our building).

Boris and Jacqueline right now are out buying B's football gear: helmet, pads, longsox, boots etc. We approach this particular activity with trepidation. What can go wrong when you're wearing a helmet, face guard, mouth guard and chin guard, right? Thing is, with Boris, anything can happen. He's starting to get a slight drawl too ...

Since everybody else here has a ute, we're thinking of getting one too. An old clunker kind of ute, for hauling furniture for our house and beartraps and ride-on mowers - that kind of thing. It's funny how they all drive round in great gas-guzzling pick-ups with nothing in the back (except perhaps a couple of military-style rifles in the tool box). Our little hunter talks about scopes, and muzzle-gauge and whether the gun has 'good action'.

We'll get our photos up just as soon as we get some new batteries ...

big game fishing in alabama

Down the end of our road, about eight or nine minutes away, there is a rather gorgeous lake. Last time we went there, Boris attracted attention by catching fifteen (15!) small bass. These are one of the local fish varieties. There are also bream, catfish, trout, crappies (!) and a range of other species, most of which are apparently good eating. We'd been in a Walmart looking at fishing gear, and Boris 'stole' some trace by biting it off a reel with his teeth. He bought a few hooks and then at home constructed himself a makeshift fishing line using a key ring as a sinker and part of a car aerial as the stick on which to wind the line. He found worms in the leaf litter under trees in the forest to use as bait. Well, the lake yielded its young, and Boris unwittingly became the centre of attraction amongst the families picnicking there as he reeled 'em in. He had to give each small boy a turn at throwing the fish back (see photos).
Today we went to another lake up country where there are cabins to rent. We were just doing a reconnaissance trip, and found once again that there are great places to visit which are literally a short drive away. Deer, snakes, scorpions, racoons and woodpeckers ... the good, the bad and the ugly.

If there is actually anyone out there it would be good to get a posting, as right now I'm not sure if the blog is working. Once again - let me know ...

next day

Continuing from yesterday ...
my auburn university email address is . I'll keep the gmail one going for a while but the unitec address should now be considered defunct.

I'm hoping to change the aburn one as well, to something less clinical. Will let you know.

In the meantime here are a couple of images of our car. As you can see its in great condition. We all feel like we are in the Diplomatic Corps when we are driving around in it in stately fashion. Not quite an Audi though Sylvia.

The photos of the car were taken about an hour and a half drive from Auburn, at a park and museum that are a memorial for a huge battle between the government forces and the Creek Indians that used to live all over the southern states - particularly in Alabama and Georgia. This is really the only time I've seen the American Indian population mentioned in a meaningful way. Its like they never existed. African American culture is all over the place - in the media, newspapers, movies, music etc, but absloutely nothing about the indigenous population. I asked one of my colleagues if he thought a Native American would ever be president and he said: You gotta be joking! (Having said that, there are 2 places where you see the Indians: 1) Romanticised in coffee table photo books, 2) in academic books about their history, culture and society.)

Let me know what you think of the blog idea ...
XXX

New means of communication

Thanks to Imogen's wise suggestion I think I've found a better way of communicating with friends and relations. Hopefully it will be easy for everyone to access and use, and easy for me to work with too.

Jacqueline and Boris arrived in Atlanta last friday at about 1am. We stayed at a nearby hotel and went in to Atlanta the next day. Boris was haggard tho'. Utterly exhausted. And jacqueline had spent the flight from LAX to Atlanta throwing up. So we didn't stay long in the big city, but headed back to Auburn. It's great to have them here finally, and we can start making plans for the future.

Monday we looked at some houses, and since then J & B have been orienting themselves in the town, seeing the school, signing up for wireless and other things have to be done in order to get by.

I've posted some images of the kinds of houses we're looking at and a couple of the apartment - it has a bit more furniture now!

Jacquline has come to pick me up so I better go ...
Love from the Bama Boy!