No Camera

Twice today I really wished I had my camera. We went up to Beaufort to visit with my parents and I didn't think I'd miss it, I mean: Car trip, boring!
The first stop was for a cache (surprise surprise) up the hill behind Kryal Castle (I've always wanted to go to that!) I walked in, logged the cache, no worries, I got back to the car and my pants (trousers for you folks from the UK) and from the knees down I was covered in little burr/seed pod things! It was amazing, and kind of annoying, cos I needed to pick them all off before we could get back in the car. I didn't want to become a weed vector after all!
After having lunch with Mum and Dad, hanging out for a while, doing a cache with Mum, taking Clara for a swim in the dam etc, we headed back home. There was one other cache (a travel bug motel) I wanted to go past, cos I heard it was secured with a padlock that you need a combo for, how cool is that? Anyway, we drove into Ballarat, found the cache, entered the combo, opened the door and WOW! The cache was all set up like a dolls house, with furniture and things and little rooms, with their own doors and numbers for the travel bugs to stay in while they are at the motel. This is the best put together cache I have ever seen, just an amazing amount of work has gone into it. I have someone sending me a photo to show you, it is too cool!

cool

I'm not a big fan of posts that are notihng but a link, but I love this guys games and I think you should go and play them

http://bartbonte.com/factoryballsxmas/

bored

I am so bad at doing nothing. Neil is at the steam club. I could go out caching but then I'd be doing something, and I have it under good authority, that I am very stressed and need to spend sometime doing nothing. That's easy for them to say. Doing nothing sucks. Today so far, whilst doing nothing, I have been to the brand new shiny Spotlite that has appeared near Northland Norflans, been to the JB round the corner (spent money), sorted out meeting the new people for Sparky (a Scottie I have been helping to re-home after his elderly owner died), spent far too much time playing Farmville (for those of you who don't know what this is I have two things to say: a) Have you been living in a cardboard box? and b) Don't start playing), eaten food, read some more of Anne of Green Gables (Man that's a good book, why didn't I re-read it years ago. There is one really good thing about having a memory as shit as mine. For me re-reading books is like completely re-discovering them, I might as well have never read them before. I mean technically it has been over 20 years since I read this the last time, but seriously it's way better then I remembered. Note to self, buy the movie!) and though up about 1000 things I could do, but all of them would count as 'doing something'. Seriously people, how are you really supposed to do nothing?
P.S. If anyone else is bored, ring me, we can do something.

arrival

Look what I got!!

online

I think I feel like it's OK to be "online", when other people I know are on. This is why things like face book and google chat are a bit evil, because you can see when other people are online, even if your not chatting with them, it feels like your not by your self. but when they drop off line, it make it seem a bit lonely, even though nothing has happened at my end..... OK, yep sad. *sigh*

Busy - part 2

The trailer arrived today, and we loaded it up,As you can see it looked hugh, until Neil did the tie down. Now I'm hopefull we can get away with it being 1m³

busy

As we all know, I am completely incapable of doing nothing. Today we decided and needed to so some gardening. I hate the garden and the only reason it isn't fence to fence green concrete is I hate that idea slightly more.
Neil was cutting down the tree that will not die and moving the compost heap (ooooooewh yuk.) on top of it's (hopefully soon to be) dead trunk.
I was "trimming" all the alive trees.
The dogs, at least the black ones, were helping.
Neil ripped out the x-clothes line pole.
Now it's lunch time and we are both buggered. All we need now is Steve to bring his trailer around so we can get rid of all the evidence:

(It might not look like much in these photos but I promise it was heaps when your cutting it and moving it all)
P.S. and that's just the back yard! I'm doing the front yard after lunch... maybe

headache

I don't get headaches, as a general rule, unless I am hungover.
The optometrist recons that my weird vision thing this morning was the visual aura thing for a 'mini migraine'. By the time we got home in the car, my head was feeling awful and I went to bed, until about now. I still feel a bit average, but at least my head isn't as sore. Yay. I bloody hope this doesn't become a regular thing.

I'm blind or dying or something

I can't see properly. I am looking at things and there are bits missing. It's getting very disturbing. I am going to the optometrist this morning. I really hope they say I am really tired.

And I'm back

I'm very glad to be home. The holiday was great! We saw ace stuff and did heaps. Next time I think we'll make it 5 weeks, rather than six. I missed my doggies and my bed.

I'm it

I know I'm on holiday, but my cousin did this post, so I decided to tag myself. Plus, I have never done one of these, or if I have, I have completely forgotten

1. What is the last book you read, did you like it?
Yay!! trashy Romance. The last book I read was a Georgette Heyer I bought from a second hand book shop in Bath, it was good and crap at the same time, love it!

2. Do you have any travels planned in the near future, where to?
What you mean other than the holiday I am at the moment? I guess my next bit of travel will be to come home from the UK.

3. Do you prefer tea or coffee?
I don't drink coffee and like my cousin, I will answer Peppermint tea also, usually from T2. Also ditto for the comment of "The smell of coffee makes me want to spew"

4. Where were you born?
At the Queen Vic Hospital in Melbourne, which has now been knocked down and made into a shopping centre.

5. What is your favourite work of art?
Hmmm, art.... It's not really my thing. If I had to chose something, it would have to be some sort of tapestry or something crafty like that. I also like the Yellow Peril, cos everyone hates it.

6. What is your favourite breakfast food?
I hate breakfast. I mostly don't eat it. Lately, on my flash tour in the UK, I have been eating a lot of chocolate croissants.

7. What is the last picture you saved/uploaded to your computer?
I just uploaded nearly 1000 pictures from my camera of my holiday... does that count? I can't even think of the last picture I got from the interwebs.

'stuff' is over, holiday roll on

So, The Club Champ show is done, the Royal Melbourne show is done and now all I have to think about is my OWN holiday! Yay! We leave tomorrow, I haven't packed, half my dogs are missing (they are with Dad), I still have to clean the house for the house sitter who is looking after the other two dogs and I really think I am coming down with something. Oh well. For the next little while I can be found over here: My Travels

Oh No...

We are getting new neighbours next door. This is fine, the man and his son, who I met today seem really nice. However... they have dogs, big ones, and there is only a small chicken wire fence between the two houses at the moment. We are departing the country in T - 11 days and I really don't have time to organise a fence during that time, what with organising a lunch for 70-80 people, working, having an international guest and trying to get my dog ready to go to the Royal Melbourne Show. ArrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggHHHHHHHHHHHHHH can't things just stop of 5 seconds!

Keeping Scotties out the way

I have finally found a way to keep the scotties tidy and out of the way! So far this morning they have been 'helping' me tidy the front room. In there I found place to keep them, all neat and tidy! Here we have Conner, Clara and Guthrie.

Long time, no blog.....

Again.
Hi any random people who happen to visit my blog, cos god know no one regular must visit as it's been about a million years (aka a month) since I have posted anything....
but gees, I have been really busy ok?
We are going OS for a 6 week break in less than 3 weeks! This will be great, once we get there, until then it's tidy, organise, tidy, panic, tidy, worry, you know the deal.
The main issue has been what to do with the dogs. Usually I'd ask (really nicely) for my Mum to look after them, but as she is coming on the holiday with us, for part of the time, this doesn't really work. I could ask Dad, but frankly, I think looking after 4 dogs is a bit much for him especially with with Molly's drug and the boys generally being puppies and a bit fast for him. We looked into kennels and even for two of them it would cost multiple THOUSANDS for the time we are away, and I didn't trust any of them with Molly's drugs either. Michelle, one of the lovely Scottie Club members, recommended a lovely house sized kennel, who only ever take 2 or three dogs, unfortunately they already had some dogs and couldn't fit mine in. Last time we asked Scott to mind them, how ever he is also away for most of the time we are away. What to do?!?!?
Eva, has come to our rescue to mind the girls, which is fantastic, as I do trust Eva with Molly's dogs and general care (I know Clara would be fine anywhere). I was just starting to find a kennel to book the boys into when I had a brainwave about looking into a house sitter. I was about to chat with a friend at work who has done a bit of house sitting before, but doesn't personally like dogs, if she could recommend anyone to approach, when I just did a little search on the web. There are quite a few sites out there (we chose this one) set up for us this sort of thing! Almost all the listings are people with dogs that want them minded. The whole process was completely easy, I put an add up, all up we got 8 or 9 applications, we meet two lots of people and chose a guy to mind the boys. I have had to make 'house instructions' and of course we have to tidy, alot. but all up I think this will be a great solution.
Anyway, onto the reason for this post. In the spirit of sorting shit out prior to our holiday, I really needed to get to a Doctor, to have this spot that appeared on my face months ago, looked at. I went to the GP first, who decided I needed to go to a specialist. The first one she referred me to had no appointments til mid October, so she suggested another who, who was in the same bag, but they had a cancellation for yesterday, so I went along. The nice (expensive) plastic surgeon man took a tiny biopsy, and I now look like this:Pretty isn't it. He reckons I should leave this on all weekend, just to be on the safe side, even though it was only a 1 mm biopsy. I mean I will, of course, as I want to minimise the chances of looking like a scared freak. Not that I'm prone to over exaggeration or anything.
Anyway, better go as we have heaps of things to do, because we also have the judge for the Scottie Clubs 60^th show coming to stay next week and I have to get everything set and tidy by then, including setting up a room for her! I have ordered a curtain rail, I need to get the furniture set, and get a new quilt (which admittedly we need anyway). Then there is the bath room. It's just embarrassingly bad. I don't think I will even be able to bring myself to do before and after shots.

Not my real name

So, I am a bossy, anal, unemotional, shy person. Hmm, that's a bit negative. How about:
I am an assertive, particular, objective, modest person! Ha ha ha !!!

You can click on the picture and do this test too if you like. Let me know what you got!

Not fixed

So the men came on Tuesday morning and made a nice new flat bit of nature strip whilst fixing the gas leak, but it turns out.... it's not fixed after all.
Here it is.... on fire....

Gas leak!

Look what they were doing out the front of my house this morning!You need a bit of excitement every now and then.

Conner's gone a visiting

My Conner has gone to stay with Mum and Dad for a while. He will hopefully be catching a few of their mice. Also, this will mean Conner and Guthrie can hopefully learn their own names a bit better, rather than both answering to Connerguthrie, which I sometimes think they think is their name. Mum has just left. It seems a bit empty here now.

Melbourne Open House

Neil and I went out today to the Melbourne Open House. It was quite good. We only managed to get to five buildings. It was quite interesting, and very tiring.
I got all arty with my photos, you can go look if you want :)

Melbourne Open House 2010

Recent Craftey-ness

Quite some time ago, a very good friend of mine had a baby. I started making some little presents for him/her well before she was born. She is now 3 months old. Still haven't met her, but at least I have passed her little pressies on to her mum, who loved them, and lets face it, thats the main thing!
(hat kindly modeled by my teddy from the UK)

messy

Long time, no post I know. Things have been rather busy at work, and not all that happy on other fronts. I don't want to go it, but see this post, it pretty much says it all.
Anyway, this morning, I got up (eventually, my hip has been giving me some 'gib') and opened the back door for the puppies. One shook him self in the door way. He made this pretty 'beard art' on the wall, my nice new, steal clad EXPENSIVE wall.....
And that's the wall! You should have seen the offending puppy that made the mess! It was Conner, of course. Lucky he likes to play bite the water with the hose so it wasn't to hard to clean him.

24hr movie marathon

we're half way. Mind you, Neil is asleep on the couch with three Scotties tucked in around him. I think I am getting too old for this sort of thing

too much

There is just too much going on at the moment:

• I need to get more molly drugs
• Molly needs another blood test
• the boys are putting up a fight about being combed and I need to spend more time on that
• I have a meeting tonight about the Scottie Clubs 60th Show, which is rapidly turning into a disaster
• need to prepare all the things to talk about at the meeting
• I have a real job to do as well your know!
• the scottie club secretary still isn't talking to anyone
• I need a shower
• the house is a mess
• lets not even talk about the back yard
• Neil doesn't want to move mega couch out of the lounge room, and it takes up to much room
• the heater fan seems to have stopped working
• I'm cold
• is that enough?

My head hurts

Mail

Guthrie got mail today. I didn't :(

My vista

I sit at a nice window seat at work. Only very special people get window seats. I really like mine, it has a nice view over the Dandenongs. Right now, it isn't that special looking:

Vet

I should have posted this late night after I got back from the vet,
just to reassure you all. Clara is ok, the vet looked at her and
agreed with the vet nurse. It looks like Clara is having a "reaction"
to the internal disolving stitches. This won't go away until the
stitches disolve. This will take a couple of months. She isn't in any
pain or discomfort so there is nothing to worry about

Sent from my spiffy iPhone

Clara update

Last week Clara had to have an emergency hysterectomy. Se was very sad for quite while a afterward,a s she had been quite full of nastiness (I could go into details here about what was wrong with her, but I won't cos it's very yukkie) Then the antibiotics kicked in and she improved out of site. She went back to playing with the puppies and being her normal self, which was a huge relief. Anyway, I am getting a bit worried again, as she seems to have a bit of a lump in the area where the chop was. It seems to be getting bigger, so we will be off to the vet again in the morning I think. I will give them a ring and see what they think at least.
This dog is such a worry!!! Oh NO! I have 4 for them! I don't think I ever get to stop worrying now! All you parents out there, including mine: Wow, I don't know how you do it (after all humans live a bit longer than dogs.)

I love the Dyson but.....

Sometimes it is a bit yukky.

Steam Powered trip

Ages ago, Neil started looking for a steam engine to buy. It was a bit of an up hill battle. They seemed to be a lot more expensive then he thought they would be and also a fair bit crappier for the lot more money. He passed up one or two early on, then started getting a bit depressed he was never going to get one and played 'what if' about the ones he hadn't bought. He was getting really quite down about the whole thing. Many many people from the steam club were looking out for one for him and most of them were really supportive about him getting one. Which was nice.
Anyway, early this month a Burrell Single Crank Compound engine came up in Queensland. Apparently only 37 engines were produced with the specifications of this one, and although as you can see it doesn't look all that flash, it has had a lot of the really expensive boiler work already done.





In the end, it might end up looking like this:
But not for a while, because this is what the wheels look like

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell you Neil has left me for the week/weekend, to go to Queensland to visit the engine. It might be a while before it makes it to Melbourne, as the cheepest way to ship it is to wait for a back load. He is very happy about the whole thing (not the back load, the engine.). He has taken the nice shiney new car. He left this morning at very dark o'clock (about 5.30am) and tonight he is staying in Dubbo, which is further north than Sydney. He is mad. Apparently the owners/ex-owners have organised a BBQ for him on Saturday night and he will be staying with them. They sound nice.
P.S. it's 8 horse power. This is very important....

My first cache

I have made my own Geocache. I'm very excited about it. I placed it this morning, and sent it off to the approval person, who turned it on at 2.37pm. I got my first person logging their find at 4.16pm! They fond it with another cacher, so the First to Find (ftf) qudos has to go to two people.
I have another couple of caches in the pipeline, including two EarthCaches, provided the people who look after the land I want to put them on approve them.
Now your job is to go and look at my cache, then get out there in the real world and go and find it!

Tickets are booked

Our holiday is now all booked in, at least the flights part is anyway.
Looking forward to our break to the UK :) Here are the entries from our last trip there: Our travel blog

New Car

As you can tell, Neil hated having this photo taken, but I feel it was completely needed. It's us standing in the Doncaster Subaru dealer, pick up our new car :) The new car in question is a 2010 Subaru Outback. It's a diesel. It's very shiny and goes brooooom. This post has been deliberately back dated to the first day we got it, but I couldn't actually do the post then, as I wanted to surprise mum and dad with the car on the weekend. They were very surprised :)
We took all the pups up to Beaufort to visit them (They caught a mouse!)

Less guarding

More sleepingToday is a bit over cast and grey, so this is how the guard dogs seem to plan on spending the day.
On Monday, I woke up with the head cold from hell. It was so bad, I didn't go to work until Thursday, in fact Thursday was the first day this week that I got dressed or left the house. I still don't feel exactly wonderful and I have the worst smokers cough, I sound like a 20 a day girl. You know the sort of cough, where you cough and cough and feel like to need to bring up a lung, and even then, after all that coughing, it doesn't help, you still feel like there is 'something' there. I have even left bad enough I have had Benadryl (not a useful link, sorry) That stuff is awful. I remember when I was little, it was kind of a dark red color and really, although it was hardly a nice drink, it really didn't taste that bad, for medicine, now however, it is clear and has a "great berry flavour" (sorry NOT true) it tastes like POISON! It has this awful chemical taste mixed in with the 'berry'. Not being a fan of either chemical taste or berry, you can imagine, I don't really find this stuff a joy to take. Mind you, the first two doses really did seem to be effective. Last nights? Not so much. Why would that happen to you think? Other than to give me the shits of course.......
Anyway, I have one thing on today, so until I have to go to that, I am planing on being very restful, like the dogs (who are now guarding again! (or at least two of them are)).

Clever me

I started the first of these booties well before the baby they are for was due. I only just finished them today, when we were due at a party where the baby will be present.... 2hrs ago! Oh well, they are cute and I'm sure the Mum will like them.

Delivery

It's here. I have been waiting all day.It's even bigger than I thought! Clara is in the foreground for prospective

P.S. In case you were wondering, it's a stereo, with many many many many many speakers (12 I think)

Guarding

Here are guard dogs in full swing. Apparently the lady walking across the road was a dire threat.

Note to self

do not try to move Neil's motorcycleAlthough it can make artistic broken glass photos, it does mean you have to spend a lot of time on the phone to the insurance company and time cleaning up glass, not to mention paying for the new glass.

The smaller the group

the worse the politics.........
.......

Milko

Do you recon Milko bars go off?


Neither do I! I'm going to eat it! Even if it is from the Show in September last year!

Note: I search and searched on the interwebs for a page to link to about Milko bars and there is NOTHING OMG interwebs, you have let me down! :(

Note Note: it was yum and not off at all.

Lip cream

I think there are three sorts of lip cream.

• The first is a sort that I never buy. It often comes in gimmicky packaging, can be colored or flavored and never actually does anything for dry sore lips.
• The second sort is, I think, the most invidious of all. Usually, it looks like a very sensible useful product. When you put it on you feel relief. However! Some short time later the effect wears off, and you have to reapply the lip cream. Heaven help you of you are not in the position to reapply said lip cream, as you lips will continue to grow more and more anxious until you almost feel the need to remove them from you face, the irritation is so extreme! Hence this particular products main source of insidious-ness. It will 'addict' you lips to it, so you just have to keep using it and using it FOREVER!
• The last sort is, of course, the only sort you should buy. It is the sort that works. You put it on, you feel relief, the end.

To add confusion to this story of lip cream, there are also three sorts of packaging for lip cream

• Little pots, that you put your finger in and then wipe on your lips
• Twisty ones: both the sort that work like lip stick and the sort that work like glue sticks with a post up the middle
• lastly there are the tinny little tubes, that you squeeze a bit and carefully wipe the end of the tube on you lips to apply (danger danger)

The really confusing part about this is that the packing method is in NO WAY an indicator as to the usefulness of the product contained with in. I have 'good' lip cream in all three packaging types.

My advice (which you didn't ask for) is to find a good brand (either by trial and error or by recommendation by a friend) and STICK TOO IT! (well der!)

Finn's progress in Monbulk

Hi Neil and Louise

It's been a hectic time here with Ellie, JF and Helen and I haven't had much time to think about writing to you both.

Helen's having a bit of a day off today and is relaxing at home so I thought it would be a good idea to let you know how things are going.

I am very well and have settled into their routine. Ellie and I are very good friends and we spend a lot of time play fighting and chasing each other. We growl and moan whilst we are playing and Helen says sometimes it sounds like we're killing each other...

I sleep on a big cushion next to Ellie in the bedroom and I also sleep on Helen's fleece which she puts down on the floor next to the bed. I feel very warm and comfortable both there and on my cushion. I usually get a bit restless around 7.45 am and Helen always takes me outside and I obligingly do my toilette duties. I'm always ravenous in the morning and I generally have two chicken necks and some puppy dry food or puppy wet food.

Helen has decided that Ellie and I need to spend a bit of time apart so Helen takes Ellie out for walks in the morning and I stay with JF and accompany him to work and help him open the office, patrol the building and check all is in order. Helen says that I'm still too young to go on proper walks and I really don't like that silly lead she sometimes tries to put around my neck. Usually all three of us go to the park in the evening and Ellie and I run around and sometimes we meet and play with other dogs, or sometimes children. Ellie got into big trouble the other day at the park because she found some very smelly pooh and rubbed herself in it, all over. She smelled absolutely wonderful and I started licking her. Helen rushed us home and Ellie spent ten minutes in the shower. She didn't smell as good after that.

On Wednesday evenings Helen takes me to a puppy school in Mount Dandenong. there are three other puppies there and two teachers. So far we have learnt to sit, stay and drop - I'm not too keen on the "drop" but it's worth humouring Helen occasionally as she gives me treats and then I sort of drop to please her.

My teeth are still very sharp and I try to chew anything that I think looks chewable - chair legs, table legs and of course slippers or other leathery things. Helen buys us chews and Ellie and I usually have a dispute over those and growl at each other because she tries to take mine or I try to take hers.

Helen says she will send you some photos. Please say hello to my brothers and my mum.

Love and kisses,

Finn


Edit: We got an update the next day to say that Finn has also been added to the Nathania Springs Team webpage. Just scroll down to see Ellie and Finn at the bottom, their photo is on the right

lazy

So, this is what the puppies do all day....I think Clara had cottoned on to the fact that I was up and about. The boys hadn't though

News Flash

Conner has lost a K9! Puppy teeth are on their way out! Thank God! Come on adult teeth!

it's safe now

The puppy pen has been dismantled, it's safe for visitors with sensitive noses to come and visit again.

Edit:
Trying to mop with one puppy attached to the mop is difficult. Trying to mop with two puppies attached is next to impossible, but very funny!

new feature!

So, for those of you who know me, I am somewhat.... "specific" about some things.
I like lists for example, as demonstrated in my 101 things in 1001 days thingie. Listing things also shows up in my desire to catalog things. Like our DVD collection. For this task, we decided to purchase some spiffy software. This is fairly cheep and quite cool. I discovered this morning that it also lets you automatically create web pages of your collection. This I have duly done. I am personally not very impressed with the template, but it seems to be quite complicated to create your own template and I haven't attempted that (successfully) yet. Anyway, you can now look at our DVD collection online and marvel at our terrible interesting taste in DVD's. There is also a link above on the header bar.

The potato cake enigma

What is it with potato cakes. You go into the fish and chip shop and you order n potato cakes

   n = the number of potato cakes you want

and inevitable you end up getting n + 1 potato cakes

   number of potato cakes you actually get = n + 1

So next time you go to the same fish and chip shop you think, "Hay, I'll be smart, I only want n potato cake, so I'll order n - 1, knowing I'll get n + 1 potato cakes

   being smart, next visit you order = n - 1 potato cakes

Then the man gives you bloody n - 1 potato cakes and you are now one short!

Arrrrrrrrrr, you just can't win can you?!?!?

skip

We love a good skip here at our house! It usually means hours of back braking work, especially for Neil. Here is our his latest effort. He is currently out there now putting even more on it, even though I think it's full.

Message from Finn

I received a lovely email from Finn the other day. Here it is for you to read:

Hello Louise and Neil,

It's Finn here and Helen said I had to write you a quick note to let you know how the past 24 hours have been for me up in the Hills.

Well, after I left home I was plonked into a little doggy bed on the back seat of the car. I was quite pooped so I lay still for the whole trip. When we got to their house I spent a lot of time sniffing in every nook and cranny and familiarising myself with the layout. they have lots of steps in their garden and Helen had to help me get up and down some of them,
Later in the evening we went to the park and I had a good run around chasing a tennis ball and following Ellie wherever she ran. By the time we got home I was starving and I ate Ellie's food and she ate mine - Helen tried to intervene but didn't succeed. We went to bed at about 11pm and I was a bit unsettled and kept fidgeting around. JF picked me up and let me sleep on their bed for a while. That was great until I fell off and then I decided to sleep in my bed on the floor. I woke up at about 6.45 and made sure they knew I was awake. Helen took me into the garden so that I could do my pee. Ellie and I ran around a bit and then I did a bit more sniffing around the place hoping I could find some food. I overheard Helen saying to JF that I have a huge appetite. Helen gave me some of the food you left for me plus a yummy chicken wing.

After breakfast we went to the oval in Monbulk and Ellie chased the tennis ball again and was running around like a whippet - I had to chase her of course to show her that I am just as fast as her. After that Helen put me on a lead for a while and we walked to the post office. I was too tired to do any more walking so Helen picked me up and carried me back to the car.

I went to the office today and spent a bit of time sniffing around when i first arrived - lots of interesting smells, especially from their big kitchen. When Helen or JF weren't around there was always someone else to look after me and I got lots of tickles and scratches. One young couple came in to have a look around because they thought they might like to get married at Nathania Springs. When they saw me they made a big fuss of me and even wanted to take me home with them. I spent a bit of the afternoon asleep under a desk where it was a bit cooler. Later in the afternoon when Helen had finished her work she took me downstairs to her office where it's comfortably furnished and airconditioned I had a big sleep in my bed with Ellie close by and Helen sitting at her computer.

All these young people started arriving for their shift in the late afternoon and they all kept coming and disturbing me downstairs to say hello. I kept hearing the word, "cute, cute, cute" all the time.

We went back to the park again in the evening and I had another good run chasing Ellie. We met another little pooch called Nelson (Ellie knows him) and they played chasey together. I tried to join in but Nelson kept snapping at me and trying to put me in my place . I think he thinks he's top dog...

When we got home I ate an enormous dinner as I was starving again. Ellie's food is really yumm and I like to eat out of her bowl.. when I growl and bark she moves away so that I can eat from her bowl. I can tell Helen is a bit miffed as Ellie seems to like my special puppy food which Ellie isn't supposed to have.

It's bed time now and Ellie and I are on the bed and it's very comfortable. There's a nice ceiling fan which makes the room nice and cool and I think I will have a good night's sleep.

I will write again soon when Helen and JF tell me to as I know you must all be missing me!

Love and cuddles from Finn.

good/sad and good

Today Finlay went to his new people. I have been very sad because of that, but I do know that the people will be very good parents for him, so it is also good. They run a reception center in Monbulk, where they work from home. They dog Elli, sits in their office with them all day, on her own couch. We are wondering how long it will take Fin to become the boss and own the whole couch. Apparently their whole staff and looking forward to the new puppy coming. So even though I am now crying AGAIN, I know Fin will be very happy there.

In other news, today Clara caught her first mouse! (Don't even thing of asking why there was a mouse in the house for her to catch, it probable isn't worth it) I had seen the mouse earlier in the day, whilst on the phone, and pointed out to Clara where is was hiding, under the fridge, so she know it was in the general area. Later tonight, Neil was helping Clara sniff around by moving things. He moved one thing in the 'alcove' and the mouse came zooming out from under some stuff on a shelf in the alcove towards the middle of the kitchen. Clara whizzed around and snap, the mouse was dead. Clara took the mouse outside, then the puppies came and took it off her.......... and ate it. There is obviously no picture for this post, as that would be gross.

concreters

Today, after a seemingly interminable wait, the fencing man arrived to put in the posts for our two new gates (it hasn't actually been that long, it's just the puppies can;'t be outside during the day, when we are not home, until the new gates are in, as our front gate is a bit dodge). This was duly accomplished, all before 11am. So I let the puppies outside. Then I noticed one puppy had a dirty nose.....
I had a look and yes, it was concrete. What a helpful boy, he had decided to have a dig in the nice wet concrete. Thankfully, when I found the spot he'd had a go at, there was no real damage done, I smoothed it over and it will be fine. I nipped back inside to get the camera to take a photo of the naughty puppies face (God why do Scotties get into everything) and took a nice photo of Finn's face, only to realise, I had been looking at Conner's messy face not two seconds ago!
Oh Dear. Two dirty puppies.
I cleaned then up, with a face-washer, in the laundry trough (in face, I think it was actually the same I just about 4 years ago to clean tortured slug off Clara's face in the first week we had her home).
Anyway, I put their fence around the offending concrete and went to write this post, only to discover Guthrie also has a concrete-ie nose. AHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh. I am yet to discover which of the 4 bits of concrete he has gotten into. God I should have gone to work, it would have been more restful!

Lump o cake

As I was pouring the cake mix I had just made into the cake pan, I realised that the pan was really too big. 'Oh Well' I thought, 'the cake will just spread out and be a bit thin'
Little did I realise this would not happen. Hence: was born.
Oh Well, I'll put some icing on it, it'll be fine.....

away

I have just gotten back from a fire deployment to Cann River (what a party town that is) and running the cache for the base camp there. While I was there I had the weirdest 24hr flu thing I have even had. I had a head ache for 48 hrs and 'hot colds' for almost exactly 24 hrs, starting at 7pm ish on Monday and finishing at 5pm ish on the Tuesday. Really odd. Being sick at fire is always a pain in the bum as it involves lots of paper work. All of the paper work in question is is designed to be filled in for injuries, not being sick, so it never really makes sense. Anyway, the deployment went really well, all the people on it were great and we did lots of good work. The equipment cache was a total disaster when I got there and I left it perfectly up-to-date, so I am very happy (and smug) camper.

Puppy problems

this isn't any actual problems with the puppies them selves, they are great! They had their first showers the other day, they have so much more stamina now, they have had their second vaccinations and gotten their microchips. I will be sending off their registration form next week.
No, the problem is I now have no buyers for them. I am not sure what to do about this. I am currently adjusting to the idea that we are going to have 5 dogs. I don't know how to train 3 dogs at the same time. Molly and Clara think their names are interchangeable enough, how on earth do you get three puppies to know their names apart?
Anyway, to this end, we have finally named them, so I would like to introduce Finlay, Guthrie and Conner! (previously known as Red, Blue and Yellow.)

FinlayGuthrieConner

I am about to go out and have a go at clipping the little guys heads, so you can go off and look at the heaps more photos I have loaded up of them! Also, please let me know if you know any one, preferable in Australia, who might like a perfectly lovely Scottie puppy!

progress report and upcoming events

Ages ago, long time readers may remember, I started the do 101 things in 1001 days challenge. I am over 2/3 the way through the time in this challenge and I have enjoyed it immensely so far. I am not completely confident that I will be able to complete all my tasks by the 3^rd of November this year, but I plan on making every effort.

Part of this effort will be to knock a few of the easy but 'haven't gotten round to them' task off this list asap this year (or at least schedule them so I tell people and they have more chance of happening, especially those task that need other people along to complete them) hence I am telling you about them... here... now. (I'm telling you on this blog, in case you don't know about the other one)

• I am going to book a table at the Swiss Club for dinner of the 5^th or 12^th of February, for dinner. I'd like to hear from anyone (who I know) who would be interested in coming.
  
  
• I am going to hold a 24 hour video movie marathon. Obviously I don't expect many people other than.... well probable only me actually, to stay for the whole gig, but anyone (again: who I know) that might be interested in coming, let me know. I am thinking Saturday the 19^th of June, as this is just before the winter solstice. (planning ahead, I know!) I will publish a proposed program, which will be open to majority wins voting on the night.
  
  
• I am going to host a games night. You (if I actually know you) are invited! It will be on Saturday the 27^th of March. It will be fun, and slightly nerdy. There will be beer, and prizes!
  
  
• I need to organise a picnic. This a bit of a danger, cos as you know: Melbourne weather. It can be a bit dodge. This one I will get back to you (oh mythical web person) soon.
  
  
• Role-playing. Yes it is a nerd fest. I will have to get back to this one too. I need to decide if I am going to GM this or ask a friend, I also have a feeling I am going to have difficulty getting takers for this one.