TGIF - Kissing frogs

This guy is 72 years old and loves to fish.

He was sitting in his boat the other day when he heard a little voice say, "Pick me up."

He looked around and couldn't see any one. He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again, “Pick me up."

He looked in the water and there, floating in the water was a frog. The man said, "Are you talking to me?" The frog said, "Yes, I'm talking to you. Pick me up then, kiss me and I'll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. I'll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be your bride!"

The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully, and placed it in his front breast pocket.

Then the frog spoke again, "What, are you nuts? Didn't you hear what I said? I said kiss me, and I will be your beautiful bride."

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said, "Nah, at my age I'd rather have a talking frog."

Zits was apt this weekend

Awa' stick yer heid in a bucket

Poor Josie, she just can't take a trick at the moment.

I noticed she had a little weeping sore on her wound and Ian and Ishbel took her up to the vet yesterday. $200 later she has had an antibiotic injection, antibiotics to give orally and an Elizabethan collar/bucket.

As I left the house this morning she was crashing around and the collar had split! She had me pinned against the kitchen bench trying to get up close for a cuddle.

Poor baby!

Another big weekend

I note the last two weekend reports start "I should have posted this earlier but . . . " Let's see if I can do something different this weekend.

Haven't seen much of the family this weekend. I've been on a Rural Fire Driver course (Friday night, Saturday 12:30pm-11pm and Sunday 8am-5pm). It's so you can drive safely under lights and sirens and also teaches recovery for if you get a vehicle bogged and need to rescue it. The course, unfortunately, is heavily weighted in favour of those who drive the trucks which is not me yet. I'm there doing the 'light' component but spent a fair bit of the time in the back of a truck watching the boys having a go. That said, when I did get to drive the PC I got one-on-one attention. Today when we were out doing 'stall recovery' - how to recover yourself if you stall on a hill - I got to drive a Cat 7, one of the smaller trucks. I was then allowed to drive it back to the road. Woot woot.

In a month we do the second part of the course and the assessment. It is an overnighter with us going out west to Rydal.

Ian, Jamie and Ishbel meanwhile were heading out early on Saturday morning for Cronulla, all the way across town and south to the seaside where Jamie was playing his AFL match. It was the first time Jamie's team has played in a few weeks and unfortunately they lost. It must be nearly finals time, his season seems to be taking a long time, Robbie's soccer finished weeks ago.

Robbie was called in to work on Saturday afternoon and was still there when I came home. He's had a few shifts since the holidays where they've called him in at the last minute. I think he likes the money he earns.

Ishbel, having done the trip to Cronulla, was rewarded with a sleepover at Zanny's. She didn't come home until 6pm tonight and Zanny and Jeanne stayed for dinner - an Indian banquet which Ian had prepared for us. Yum!

Ian is recovering fairly well from his surgery - just getting his pin out on Wed - he was pretty sore for a day or so but I think it's better now. He's off work until Thursday at least; he has a GP appointment on Tuesday and an appointment with the hand specialist physio on Wednesday - he's just a bit concerned about how much flexibility he's going to have in his wrist.

TGIF - Lost in Translation

This is a true story from the Japanese Embassy in US!!!

A few days ago, Prime Minister Mori was given some Basic English conversation training before he visits Washington and meets president Barack Obama... The instructor told Prime Minister Mori, when you shake hand with President Obama, please say 'how r u'. Then Mr. Obama should say, 'I am fine, and you?' Now, you should say 'me too'. Afterwards we, translators, will do the work for you.' It looks quite simple, but the truth is... When Mori met Obama , he mistakenly said 'who r u?' (Instead of 'How r u?'.) Mr. Obama was a bit shocked but still managed to react with humor: 'Well, I'm Michelle's husband, ha-ha...' Then Mori replied 'me too, ha-ha.. .'. Then there was a long silence in the meeting room.

Ishbel's birthday party aka the best laid plans . . .

(Should have posted this last week but I've been really busy)

Up early on Saturday morning, head spinning with all the things I thought I had to do. At the supermarket for 8am when they opened. Whizzed round and all at the checkout by 8:20am. Not the usual couple of hours as I bump into people for a long chat and perhaps a diversion to the coffee shop.

Among the to-dos was to bake a birthday cake. Having never had any luck baking cakes from scratch in the old house, we are now used to buying packet cakes. One of the advantages is that Ishbel can now follow the instructions and make her own cakes. All went perfectly until the timer went to tell us the cake was done. Twenty mintues later and the cake was burnt - I'd opende the door of the oven but not switched it off!

Back to supermarket for another cake.

The invitations said, I'm sure, drop the kids off at our house at 2pm and we would be taking them down to the indoor climbing centre in Penrith.

Ishbel was telling the girls to arrive at 1:30pm. One of them did. The mother of the other rang us from the climbing centre at 1:30 asking where we were . . .

Had a lovely time at the climbing centre. "Best day of my life," was Ishbel's verdict.

Here's the slide show

Home for pizza and a movie. The pizzas stuck to the tin foil and we burnt (again) a couple of them. Someone spilt juice all over the table.

Head spinning with shrieking girls and Pink on the CD player.

Karen, Dan and a still bit poorly Xavier arrived.

Cake had its outing. I have a square tupperware type box for cakes. It came with an insert with handles that you can pull the cake out with but the handles have broken off so I tend to put cakes on the lid and use the bottom of the box as the lid.

Ishbel didn't know that and, as she took the cake through to the dining room, did't have hold of the bottom/lid of the box - result - chocolate icing all over her foot and the dining room carpet!

Xavier tried some climbing of his own up the stairs. Was doing two steps up, one step down, quite happily until he face-planted a stair and tears ensued. Karen tried to interest him in the stairs again but he wasn't having any of it.

By 9pm two of the three guests had gone home. Zanny was staying overnight. Girls pretty good, not too noisy and we headed off to bed. Read for a while and fell asleep with the light on. Just getting into some deep snoring when Ishbel arrived at my bedside - Zanny crying and wanting to go home - at 11:45pm. Tried ringing her mum but got no answer and she didn't think her dad would come all the way down from Lawson to fetch her. And I had no intention of driving her up there, aside from being dead beat, I'd had a wine or two during the evening. After much persuading the girls agreed to try and go to sleep. I went back to bed.

Where I tossed and turned for another couple of hours, expecting one of the girls to appear at the bedside asking to ring Zanny's mum again.

And then up early to go to RFS training.

I NEED SOME SLEEP.

Jamie's big week

Should have posted this earlier in the week but it's been frantic . . .

Jamie passed his driving test on Tuesday and is now on his P plates - red ones for 2 years (speed limited to 90Km/h) and then green Ps for 1 year (speed limited to 100Km/h)

TGIF ~ An Italian, a Scotsman and a Chinese man

An Italian, a Scotsman and a Chinese man, are hired at a Construction site.

The foreman points out a huge pile of sand.

He says to the Italian guy, “You're in charge of sweeping.”

To the Scotsman he says, “You're in charge of shovelling.”

And to the Chinese guy, “You're in charge of supplies.”

He then says, “Now, I have to leave for a little while. I expect you men to make a dent in that pile of sand.”
So when the foreman returns after being away for a couple of hours the pile of sand is untouched.

He asks the Italian, “Why didn't you sweep any of it?”

The Italian replies, “I no hava no broom. You saida to the Chinesea fella that he a wasa ina charge of supplies, but he hasa disappeared and I no coulda finda him nowhere.”

Then the foreman turns to the Scotsman and says “And you, I thought I told you to shovel this pile.”

The Scotsman replies, “Aye, that ye did laddie, boot ah could nae get meself a shoovel. Ye left th' Chinese gadgie in chairge of supplies, boot ah couldna fin' him neither.”

The foreman is really angry now. He storms off toward the pile of sand to look for the Chinese gent.

Just then, the Chinese man leaps out from behind the pile of sand and yells, “SUPPLIES!!!!"

The lost art of reading

There's an article in the LA Times from a few days ago about how the quicker pace of life makes making time out for reading more difficult to find. It's well worth reading in its entirety, but this part I particularly liked:

Reading is an act of contemplation, perhaps the only act in which we allow ourselves to merge with the consciousness of another human being. We possess the books we read, animating the waiting stillness of their language, but they possess us also, filling us with thoughts and observations, asking us to make them part of ourselves.

Sister Act

From the Nature & Health Newsletter Issue 14 August 2009:

She might have pulled your hair when you were little; however, Ulster University researchers say that having a sister increases your odds of having a happy life. Their study found that both men and women who had at least one sister scored significantly better on tests for optimism, achievement, and resilience. Why? Co-author Professor Tony Cassidy explains, "The presence of girls in a family is strongly linked to better communication, which is fundamental to health, while boys have the opposite effect."

I'm H-A-P-P-Y, I'm H-A-P-P-Y,

I know I am, I'm sure I am,

I'm H-A-P-P-Y