Letter 10: sho-booties and Aly's first Scottish snow

So, from the pictures, we have Alyson and Baxter in front of the apartment. Then we also have Alyson and Baxter in the car park on Baxter's evening outing to take care of "business". This is officially Alyson's first Scottish snow. It appears that we're on course to have a white Christmas, although it's still late November. I doubt that this batch of snow will last more than a few days. I would be surprised if we didn't have more between now and December 25th though. As I'm sure Alyson has mentioned, our snow storms are less dramatic, and it's only a couple of inches max out there just now. The most I have seen is a foot I think. Anyway, it was exciting, especially for Alyson who is now almost hyper-ventilating just at the thought of Christmas being so soon. We are almost finished our Christmas shopping, which is a good thing since I start finals in a week and a half. We're looking forward to seeing you all in less than a month now.

The last picture here is especially for Jessica's benefit. I wasn't even allowed to take a picture of her other new pair since she's looking forward to showing those off personally in 4 weeks time. Yes, that's right, 4 weeks time until we arrive. I hope you're prepared for "But David can't sleep in my room...! He's a boy! Boys smell!" etc.. And Brody should probably be wearing padding for the kind of attention he'll be getting from her.

Our recent movies have included "RED" which was quite good. A relatively laid back comedy punctuated by mild action scenes. It was an interesting plot. I saw "The Social Network" a couple of weeks ago, and it was quite fascinating. It is, of course, about the rise of Facebook and all that entails. The part that really caught my attention was where they recreate a scene where the co-founder says to Mark Zuckerberg (or whatever his name is) "I just spoke to a girl, and she said she'd facebook me"(or something to that effect). At this moment they realise that facebook is now a household name; a noun, adjective, and verb all at the same time. It is quite interesting to think that I use that in regular day-to-day speech, but never would have done so 5 years ago.

On a last movie note, the big blockbuster of the month has of course been HP7. Harry Potter mania has descended upon the Adam household. I have finally caved, and we are reading the books together. I had already seen all the previous movies, but its interesting to read them now to catch up. The 1st part of the Deathly Hallows is definitely worth watching, but I had SO many questions afterwards. Alyson has placed an embargo on me knowing too much before I read the 7th book. I am now half way through the 5th book, but this may have to take a bit of a back seat until I get exams out of the way. Luckily I have several long flights in the very near future which will require reading material. We were both very enthused to see HP7 though, and have already seen it twice (thank you unlimited cinema cards).

Letter 9: Tom's Month to Shine

Movember (http://uk.movember.com) is a foundation designed to raise awareness for men's health issues.  The Mo, slang for moustache, and November come together each year for Movember. Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st  clean shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month.  The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men.  Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.  

The male MSP Staff on  my floor at the Parliament are all taking part in the charity event and raising money for the Prostate Cancer Charity.  I appreciate their involvement and their fundraising efforts, but lets face it... Tom is really the only guy who can pull off the moustache. Every time one of the guys on the floor asks me how he is looking with the moustache, I have to fight back the response, "you look like a pedophile and I am getting the urge to hide all the children in a five mile radius."  Instead I opt for the slightly less offensive 70s police officer reference. I cannot wait for December to come and clean shaven faces to return.  

Really we all know that Tom should have been the spokesperson for this month:

Just SOOOOOOO Good Looking!

(For you Mom)

Much love,

Alyson

Letter 8: Cannot Teach an Old Dog New Tricks...But You Can Bribe Him with Treats

Because of this, that is my happy and healthy marriage... I got this....

Meet Baxter, Alan's 15 year old mutt (please take this opportunity to notice our vintage couch coverings. I say vintage, because lets be honest... it sounds better).  Having never had a dog it was difficult for me to commit to having Baxter live with us in Edinburgh. Baxter came to visit for a week while Alan's Parents, Sarah and the kidlettes were off on a trip.  It became painfully obvious that Baxter would be a happier dog and Alan would be a happier boy, if  Baxter stayed in Edinburgh with Alan and me.  So while not originally planned we now have a pooch.  There are some new rules for Baxter learn. No sleeping on Alyson's side of the bed. I had to compromise on that because no matter how many times I told Baxter he was not wanted on the bed at all, he just would not listen. Now, I put boxes on my side of the bed and he can't lay down, HA!  He has to stand still for me while he gets brushes which happen at least twice a week and the vacuuming three times a week, I do the vacuuming Baxter just has to stay out of the way.  It is nice to get the exercise walking through the park with the dog, but totally creepy when I have to walk him at night, past the haunted/squatter's nest/ uber scary abandoned house.   There are a lot of things I could say about how difficult it has been adjusting to having Baxter, but I know that our dog will not change.  You simply cannot teach an old dog new tricks... He does respond well to treats though.