Saturday Jan 5

Cedwryck’s birthday!

I woke up early to make Bob a to-do list. There were about 4 stops and a long grocery list. When he saw the list he tried to rent a van so I could go too, but he had no luck. So he took off toward the base. Had to get gas, go to the library to check email and order internet, go to the BX and look for several things, go to the Shoppette to get Ced a birthday present, and go to the commissary for groceries.

While he was gone I took care of the children, sorted the kitchen, got the piles out of the hall, did laundry, sorted books, cleared a pile out of the living room, and fixed lunch.

He came home about 3, bringing armloads of sacks. First thing he said was “you better get this (Ced’s ice cream cake) in the freezer; I was in line about 45 minutes.” Poor baby. He’d bought a phone, some more plug adapters, a line splitter thing to use the phone jack for both phone and internet, and a vacuum cleaner. The vacuum was cheaper than a big transformer, and it is dual voltage. There was a cheap vacuum that he was ready to buy, but a woman walked by and said she had that one and it was a piece of junk.

Then there was the groceries. He got 3 of everything on the list so he wouldn’t have to go back. I got that put away while he unpacked the vacuum. Duel voltage, but American plug. So we still have to use an adapter. Cedwryck wanted potatoes, but that wasn’t on the list, as we seldom eat them. So I decided on hamburger chow mien and rice. Plugged the rice steamer into the kitchen’s transformer, turned it on, and nothing happened. Decided not to fiddle with it and cooked the rice on the stove. While the meat was browning I tried to start the dishwasher, and nothing happened. No lights or anything. SO I got to thinking that maybe I’d tripped the circuit breaker. Bob went to check, and sure enough, we had dishwasher lights again. But it didn’t fill up with water. I’d tried it Friday, and the “salt” light came on, so I thought it wouldn’t run without “dishwasher salt” that you put in a compartment on the bottom, but Bob had found some at the store and I’d filled that. So Bob looked at the pipes – there’s a valve under the sink for the dishwasher, but it looked ‘on.’ He flipped and pushed buttons, and got it to come on. Phew.

We went to set up the phone, and the plug doesn’t fit the wall jack. Tried and tried. Read the instructions, tried again. What finally worked was to plug the line splitter thing into the wall, get an American phone cord that we’d brought with us, and use that to connect the phone to the DSL slot on the splitter. I don’t know what we’ll do about the internet when we get it.

So dinner. The girls set the table up pretty with party plates while I shoved presents into sacks. Bob got a book and some “party favor” type gifts as that is all that’s available on Lakenheath. Ced was pretty excited and would hardly eat. But we finally got finished, and had the ice cream cake. Not bad. Cedwryck pulled a long face half-way through the cake and said, “This is not the birthday I wanted.” I said. “Oh, no! Why not?” The problem? He wanted to eat with his fork and not his spoon. Easy fix. Then lots of fun with the toys and balloons.