Cheese! *literally

Attention basketball fans

This sleepy town of Wilmington has some surprising secrets. Did you know that Wilmington's most famous son is Michael Jordan? Yes the man dubbed the greatest basketball player of all time lived just around the corner on Gordon Road and attended Laney high school. Apparently the basketball hoop he used to practice on is still up at his mom's house. His first job was at 'Whitey's' restaurant, a long time eating establishment here in Wilmington which still serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and has just gone smoke-free. I only realised that he had lived here when I saw a sign up on the I40 a few weeks ago and then made some inquiries of some Wilmington natives. See the things you can still find out after living here for a year or so!

The digital transition is coming!

Wilmington NC has been chosen as the test city in the US for converting from analog broadcasting to digital television! I guess we are big enough to be a test case but small enough that if something goes wrong it doesn't really matter. So on Monday 8 September our local stations are being switched over at noon. The rest of the US converts on 17 February 2009. I'll let you know how it goes!

Construction Update 4 + snake tales

After a week of vacation our builders are back and working hard. The roof has been built and the shingles laid. Steve found that the skylights in the existing roof were leaking and fixed those too. We are now on track for the electrician to install the lights and for various county inspections.

In less exciting news around 8pm last night we spied a snake in our herb garden. Some of the herbs are doing great and others are doing terribly so we really didn't need a snake eating the caterpillars attacking the thyme. Andrew killed it with a spade (the snake not the thyme) and then re-killed it when it came alive again. We have no idea what kind of snake it was but Andrew wasn't taking any chances (remember this is the man who jumped behind me for protection when we encountered a rattlesnake whilst hiking in Yosemite!) In a freaky end the snake was decapitated yet the body kept moving.

Product of the week: Tam tam crackers

The name of these kosher crackers caught my eye (I was hoping for tim tams) and decided they were work a try. "The sweet taste of chocolate combined with the salty Tam Tam crunch is sure to entice every chocolate lover's palette." And indeed they are very good. So good that the contents of the packet only lasted 2 days in our house and they were all gone (or as Lucy says "in the mouth, down the throat, in the belly") Highly recommended!

Weekend bricklaying

Andrew worked hard over the weekend and was able to lay two rows of concrete blocks. He visited the hardware store three times (including once with Lucy who participated in the childrens activity where she helped nail together a birdhouse). He worked until 11pm both nights! I think he is determined to prove me wrong and have the pizza oven ready by October. The definition of 'ready' is debatable but he is one tired boy today!

Pizza Oven Update 3

The concrete slab is almost complete! Day 3 it was poured, stamped and top-coloured in one day and then cleaned and sealed on Day 4. It looks awesome! The backyard does not look awesome and has been quite torn up by various machines. However we are looking ahead and dreaming of wood fired pizzas (and so are all our neighbours, friends, mums groups, churches and acquaintances)