Domestic Bliss!

We had something of a domestic weekend last week, dear reader. Our house here is lovely, so it's always delightful just to, er, hang out. And hang out is precisely what we did last weekend.

It was all kicked off by some splendid weather. Even in January, we've had plenty of nice days, as I mentioned last week, but just to make you jealous, at midday on Saturday last week the sun was shining, and it was 17 degrees C. So we did what any self-respecting English person does when the sun's shining; we went and ate out on the verandah, just so we could say we had.

It's January. JANUARY!

Whilst out there, having had the tree chopped down and everything, we happened to notice that the verandah was filthy with sawdust and who knows what else, so quickly we resolved to give it a clean. Working out how to do that was surprisingly challenging given the lack of anything resembling a mop here, but we gave it a go.

My attention then turned to the bulb in the kitchen which hasn't been working since we moved in. I did a lot of twisting (most bulbs in the US appear to be screw-fit), and nothing happened. I did a lot of pushing (could be a bayonet), and nothing happened. Eventually - tinkle tinkle - said bulb couldn't take it any more. Ah well. Upon proper removal, it turned out to be what one of my friends termed an "alien bulb":

Everything is different!

So this meant a trip to the local hardware store for a new bulb. The hardware store here is a great place; it's got a huge selection of barbecues on the street outside the shop, and inside it's full of people who actually want to help you find things to buy. Obviously, this is nothing like any shopping experience I've ever experienced in the UK, but don't worry, fair reader, you get used to it, and you might even enjoy it after a while. We've been here a couple of times for a single items, and ended up buying half a dozen cool looking things which we spot. I didn't think I'd want to come to Silicon Valley for the hardware stores, but there we are.

It was also Chinese New Year last weekend, and our neighbour Bing, who lives in the house behind ours, brought some Chinese food round to our place with her daughter Annie. We shared dumplings and followed it up with Christmas cake, which isn't Chinese, but needed eating.

So a weekend of domesticity prepared us for this weekend's Super Bowl, which TV news has been reporting on all week. We look forward to the game this Sunday (or as my work colleague Jen put it, "I only watch it for the commercials").