Hosta Sudoku

The last 2 things I did before bed last night was to browse the BBC gardening page for plants I could put in the shady, damp part of my garden. Then I did half a sudoku and went to bed. My dreams were all about nine square grids into which I had to place hostas, camellias, ferns, etc. It was quite a restless night.

On manners: Today Ailsa said to me, after I politely asked her to undo her seatbelt, "Well, Mom, you don't have to say please when you ask ME things. I'm not so worried about people saying please all the time".

What's for snack?

This question gets asked about 14 times a day, starting from the moment breakfast is done. They don't get 14 snacks; they get 2. I get about 5, on the sly.

Insomniac

It's 4:20am and I've been awake for two and a half hours. What to do, what to do? A blog. We watched this film last night and it was really really good. It's the story of 2 Palestinians recruited for a suicide bombing mission. Despite the subject matter, it's not at all violent, just a good good story.

In other news: Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Hope y'all are sleeping.

Shaz

Rescue Hero

A picture from the vault. This picture flashed up on my computer screen this morning and I thought, "I'd rather be clearing wood on a warm September day with Maria, than stuck in on a grey February day". So I thought I'd share the picture. This is after the 2003 hurricane and shows a woman who can do manual labour in style.

Banana Bununny

Do you want some banana bunny? You can have some of my banana.

Doesn't she look sweet? What a sweet gentle girl.

That was 3 weeks ago. Today she perfected her ever increasing (in frequency and volume) foot-stomping demands with "I stomp WANT stomp A stomp BA stomp NA stomp NA stomp!!!!!!!!!

Despite that, we had another nice day with the Cranmers, museuming and playgrounding and lunching and cafe'ing.

DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SAN FRAN?

Hi Yall. Well I got back

from SanFran over a week ago now and have just about got over the jet lag. That is a cool US town - great tram rides to be had. The trams are run on this underground cable that the trams clamp onto (tram geek). Cool steep roads where lots of car chases are filmed. Checked out a musical of Legally Blonde - very true to the film - also very North American - not sure it would work in the old country. Unfortunately didn't make it to Alcatraz but got a glimpse of the Golden Gate and had lots of great grub, returned to find my darling 3 girls waiting for me.

A bit of Scottish / English history

Apparently after Queen Elizabeth the Second's coronation in 1953 there was a bit of a protest in Scotland. It involved post boxes. You see, they started putting up post boxes with ER II on them. BUT, Elizabeth the First was only ever Queen of England, not of Scotland, as this was before the Union in 1707. So, some very proud Scots thought she should be called Elizabeth the Second of England and the First of Scotland (Like James VI of Scotland, I of England), and they blew the post boxes up.

When I read this I thought, "Oh for God's sake, aren't there more important things to protest?" It is difficult for me to understand the Scots anti-English feeling sometimes.

But then.
I was recovering my dining room chairs that we bought at a second hand shop and discovered this label underneath:


I mean, that is just ignorant. I contemplated blowing up my own chairs. No, but it's like placing Nova Scotia in the USA.

The Boy is Back in Town

John is back and has left nothing in San Francisco. He brought us an array of presents and souvenirs: sunny San Francisco mugs and tshirts, candy, face paint and some lovely Chinese silk garments. Also this: Reese's peanut-butter cup-FLAVOURED lip balm. I don't ever want to open it and use it, even though I'm very curious. I'm going to keep it and its kitsch packaging forever.

Waiting for the SnowBus

This is a picture from the BBC website. London had a lot of snow last week and this is what they did with it!

So, Oma and Opa, how are you? We are missing you. I could hear Heather crying in her bed this morning, "I want Oma". This wasn't out of the blue, but because I told her, "No, we're not going down for breakfast, it's 4:30". I wanted to tell her Oma wouldn't pour her a bowl of Krispies at that hour either, but I didn't. I bet she was lying there thinking that if Oma and Opa were still here, they'd come pick her up and give her a big bowl of chocolate raisins, they're nice to her.

We made chocolate chip cookies today and nipped in to Ikea to buy some storage boxes. Who would have thought that nipping into Ikea was possible, especially with 2 slowpoke girls? But we were in and out of that commercial vastness in 25 minutes.

Although it would have been better with some snow to make some snowmen, it was a nice day.

Blue Sky Thinking

Isn't that some new management-speak phrase?

I'm pulling pictures out of the vault because John has the camera with him in SAN FRANCISCO. Jammy real-work-dodger.

We're just having a few low-key days, nice and chilled with everyone going to bed early. I'm not sure why we don't do that when John's home. It's not as if he forces us to stay awake with loud guitar solos. Maybe we're all bored, with no one to entertain us.

On the theme of entertainment, I may just entertain the next visitor to our home with a few new fiddle tunes now that I've signed up for classes with the Glasgow Fiddle Workshop. It was looking precarious last week, I thought I'd never improve my fiddling skills if I couldn't even find my way to the damn lessons!!!!!!! It's not easy getting from the south side of Glasgow to Stow college, which happens to be sandwiched between 17 flyovers and a cruel one-way grid system. And I have lost my map. When I find out who has stolen it (I can't have lost it; someone else must be to blame), I shall plunk them in a car in the middle of Mexico City as punishment, and they may not come out alive. So, map thief: cuidadoso!

Nasa should make better use of chocolate packaging

Ever since she got the Colours Are Beautiful CD from Neil and Anita, Ailsa has been singing, "I am an Astronaut" (track no 4, by Snow Patrol). Here we see how food packaging can be used to create a rocket, space shuttle and astronaut helmet. All you need is a miniature whiskey box, plastic chocolate box liners, rubber bands, and an empty goose neck tin (sounds wierd and kind of gross, but when it's brought to you by a Frenchman and called Cou d'Oie, it sounds and actually is delicious). Anyway, she's on her way to Mars.

Share the PIC(t)S

Just thought I would share some of the pictures of the Reynold Revelry that has being taking place. Aub and Riekske return tomorrow from Rome - we'll see if they're holier than thou.

A prize for the person who can guess what Bethanne is whispering in Brunos ear in the second from the top?

John