Welcome Back!

And so our beloved hockey returns to us. Last night we watched the sixth Senators game of the pre-season and so far the Sens have a perfect record. Just a few days now till the regular season starts and there's certainly a buzz in the air. In fact even Sarah and Lucy got into the spirit of things as the attached picture shows.

Besides the excitement of hockey coming back, I'm certainley not twiddling my thumbs, which is usually just the way I like it, but I have to admit, I am feeling a wee bit knackered. However there's always time to do some interesting stuff and I have no shortage of that at the moment.

As well as work, home is also pretty busy. I am about 80% ready with the new websites, so that will be good to finally put to bed. Mind you, once I have them finally finished, I'm sure I'll come up with 101 things to add to them.

Anyway as 11pm approaches, I can feel my eyes starting to dry out, so I shall sign off and finish my cup of tea. With the weekend ahead of me, there's certainly no shortage of things to do. Hopefully the weather is nice and we can take Kosmo to the pit again, so he can haves his weekly run.

A Little Jiggle.

And yet again the weekend the weekend has flown by. It's not that we've been really busy, altough I did manage to get lots of work done on my websites. Hopefully the family website will finally be up and running. Not too bad, even though the guestbook and photo album have been down nearly a year, but I do have other things on my plate at the moment.

Talking of other things, not that that's the best introduction, Lucy and Sarah are blooming. They never fail to put a smile on my face. Yes raising 2 babies and keeping a house of 5 women together can be tiring work, but I can't say it's not rewarding. It's funny, so many people see we have twins and give the usual comments, like "Better you than me", but I don't see it that way. Yes sometimes I want to curl up into a ball and go back to bed, but I wouldn't have it anyother way. Even now, just as I come home from work and come through the door, Lucy can't crawl to me quick enough. Sarah's not far behind. You just can't beat that feeling.

Anyway I have to sign off. I have a cup of tea to polish off and then I have to get me some sleep.

It was a hard days day!

And I was worked like a dog, but I did have my female dog with me (see didn't I didn't say the B word LOL). So the garage is all nice and tidy and organised. I put up a couple of 8 foot shelves (my cousin Chris would be impressed) and also put together a couple of 5 goot shelving units, so we have plenty of space to put all the crap that we have aquired over the last couple of years. So with the garden done and the garage done, that just leaves the pool to be closed for the winter and the basement to be finally cleared out, once and for all.

On a totally dirrerent note, we took Lucy back to the childrens hospital today to have her hearing re-assessed. Turns out that her hearing is fine apart from the bottom end of the range. She obviously has no problems hearing us as her head spins round quicker than Linda Lovelace in the Excorcist, but just a quarter turn instead of the full turn, when we say her name, so I'm not overly concerned. We have to take her back in a few months to be rechecked, but better safe than sound.

Finally I have to add being a parent to babies is a synch when compared to teenagers. Even so, sometimes it's not them that's the problem, but me. I do have a defense, but a lame one at that to hide beind, so I won't even bother using it. Suffice to say sometimes I'm an arsehold, but at least I admit it....... to myself anyway :-)

I Made It So!

So the garden needed doing and I finally did it. It was a lot more work than I thought, and I finshed everything after about 4 hours. So the gazeeo is now dismantled and the front and back gardens are mowed. I also pruned back the rose bush to nothing again, but I'm sure it will be making another appearance before long.

After having a much deserved shower, Sherri dragged me kicking and screaming to Home Depot along with the babies. We were there 5 minuts before bumping into their Godfather, John, otherwise know as my boss. He was there picking up some stuff to repair some paving stones. Oh yeah, we were there to buy some wood to make shelves for the garage. We ended up buying those, as well as some cheap storage shelving units and also a much needed new network card for the laptop.

So here I am on a bright Sunday morning after having watched the grand prix and preparing to have a nice relaxing day........"What's that honey? You want me to do the garage stuff now and get it all nice and tidy?" The boss woman has spoken, off I go. Well that is after I have a nice cup of tea and turf the wife our off bed LOL

By the way, talking of sick jokes...

...did I tell you the one about the HP computer that kept dying and when I finally got it up and running and wanted to use it..... it BLOODY DIED. ARRRRRRRRRRGH! Yes folks, it's back to the Mac again.

That's Sick!

Having received a sick joke this week and laughing as I usually always do, I couldn't help but think again. Sick jokes abound on the Internet, be they make fun of religion, be sexist, ageist, make fun of a horrible situation, or any one of a hundred other subjects. I wonder if it's a mainly British thing as I don't think I know of any other person from a different country that's ever told me a sick joke. But what is it that we find so funny. I don't necessarily think it's because we find them funny. I think that deep down we just use humor to get us through awkward situations. Laughter is a powerful thing and yes it's sometimes inappropriate in certain situations, but it's how the British have always been. Yes I know I'm stereotyping the British as a whole, that's not an accurate stereotype to make, but certainly most of my friends have either told or laughed at a sick joke.

Next time someone tells you a sick joke, don't immediately think they mean anything by it. Yes, tell them how you feel, tell them that maybe that's not your type of humor, but don't blow your stack and attack the joke teller. Maybe they too are affected deeper than you think, about the joke they are telling.

And before I finish, no I didn't tell a sick joke to the wrong person. Just letting my brain air itself.

Au Revoir Summer!

With a top temperature of 17c today, it's looking uncreasingly likely that the pool will be used again this year, so time me finks to start preparing to close it till next year. I also need to get around to dismantling the gazebo and then I'll have no excuse not to mow the grass, for probably the last time this year (boo hoo).

As always the summer has come and gone with lightening speed, but it was enjoyable no the less. I got to spend two wonderful weeks at home with my children and also got the little ones christened. We also got the chance to see some family, which is always nice.

So as the cold weather approaches, with snow just around the corner, I wonder what winter has in store. I think the babies are in for some fun playing in the snow. I imagine Lucy will be toddling around by then, as she can pull her self up and walk around as long as she's hanging on to something. Sarah isn't too far behind, at least she's crawling to some degree, so she'll be right behind Lucy.

Anyway I imagine we'll probably still be in shorts and t-shirts until the end of september, then it's time to dust down the winter jackets. And then before you know it, it will be Christmas, ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

Sorry Kosmo!

I realised that over the past few weeks, poor old Kosmo doesn't get much of a look in. It seems that the only time I mention him, is when he has an episode of seizures, of which he had several last Wednesday. This time he had a couple of seizures more than usual, but still nothing he hasn't had before.

Anyway I realised a few weeks ago, that it's been a couple of years since I took him to the pit, where he can roam without a lead and vowed to rectify the situation. Last Sunday was the second time in as many weeks and this time Sherri came along. Things didn't start of very well, when just as we were approaching the entrance, rain statring falling. We sat in the car for a little bit and the rain eased up, so off we went. We didn;t get further than about 30 feet when the rain again started to get a lot heavier, but instead of running back to the car, we decided to take refuge under a tree.

We were probably under the tree for 10-15 minutes before the rain cleared. We could have gone back to the car, but it seemed a shame to come all that way, only to turn back. We let Kosmo off his lead and continued on our walk. It's funny, when he escapes from the house, he's all over the place. When we're at the pit, he hardly leaves our side. In fact sometimes, you'd be hard pressed to know he's there, as he skulks silently behind me. After about 3 quarters of the way around, the rains started up again, but insted of taking shelter, we just enjoyed the rain and got wet. There's something really nice about taking a gentle stroll in the rain with the woman you love.

When we finally got back to the car, we were all soaking wet, but in good spirits. Suffice to say, that we're going to try to get Kosmo to the pit at least once a week. It's good for him and very good for us.

It's the Most Wonderful Day of the Year!

Now what can I mean about it being the most wonderful day of the year? Well in case you hadn't realised, today is when all the kids go back to school. This means my brood (the older girls that is) will be going to bed much earlier and waking up much, much earlier. All good things come to an end, but you had a good run girls LOL

Talking of school starting, ours and the neighboring street had a back to school party on Sunday. We had the babies out there until 7pm and then put them to bed and went back until about 11pm. It was great fun, with films being projected on the side of a house and a fire pit, to toast marshmallows. There was also a nice liberal sprinkling of alcohol and I had a dabble or two with some home made Grappa. Anyone who hasn't tasted grappa before, let me tell you it's an aquired taste. To the non diserning taste buds it can be something akin to paint stripper, but I like it LOL

Yesterday was Labor day, so another day off from the working grind. Now it's back to the grind stone, and time to get my head down for some serious working.

Petrol $1.35 per Litre

Yes you heard me right, a $1.35 a litre on average, but some places are even higher than that. That's a heft hike, when we've been used to paying around 85 to 90 cents. Food prices will soon go up. Electricity costs will also rise, as will public transport. Yes the cost of living has taken a sharp spike, but at least the quality of life remains the same. At lest we have a home. At least we are relatively uneffected by what's happening in New Orleans.

It's hard not to feel the pain of all those affected by Hurrican Katrina. Everyday that passes, brings us more news of hardship. Everyday we hear more stories of the people in that area, turning on themselves. Raping, looting and murdering their fellow citizens, just because here's no one around to uphold the laws, that the majority of people live by and accept as part of their everyday lives.

We see on TV, looters, pushing around shopping carts of Nike trainers and other everyday household items, hoping to earn through the misfortune of others. Sure the looters themselves are suffering hardship, but does that really excuse this kind of behaviour. How much easier would things be, if people just tried to help each other. At least the rescue helicopters could go about saving lives, instead of fearing bullets rising from the ground.

It's going to be a long time before we find out how many people lost their homes, posessions and lives. No matter what, lessons must be learned to prevent this scale of disaster every happening again and surely a hard descision has to be made, whether to rebuild at all. To surrender New Orleans to the water, must be an agonizing choice to make. To have this happen again however would be an even harder burden to carry.

New Orleans our thoughts are with you.