Alex, bless him

Alex, for reasons only known to himself, feels the need to make a running commentary while going to the loo. He also, unfortunately, feels no need to close the door. So while I was doing some work on the computer I can hear him mumbling away whilst getting the job done. All of a sudden in a nice big voice he says " Aaah that was a nice long fluff". He sounded so pleased, it was obviously a job well done.

Just remembered

Yes alright I have had a drink or two this evening. I originally logged in to write about the fabulous wine I am drinking, then having had too much of the wine I am currently drinking forgot that I wanted to write about the wine and thus wrote some slightly inane stuff about my cat. Whilst writtng positively insane musings to Ben's cousin on facebook I remembered that my glass was empty which brought me back to my thoughts on the marvellous wine I am drinking.

The marvellous wine that I have found has many fine points. The first of which is that it has a screw cap. Yes I know there are purists out there who feel that a bottle of wine has been sullied if stoppered by anything other than cork. I say a cork is all well and good when you are opening the first bottle but quite frankly by the time I hit the botttom of the bottle I am in no fit state to be opening a second with a cork screw, and I am damn near dangerous by the time I am opening the third.

Next is the fact that the magnificent wine I am drinking this evening is a cleanskin from Dan Murphy's. Some la-di-da people say that they like paying extra to know who there wine is from. I say, where's your sense of adventure? Where is the fun of knowing what to expect from your wine. Surprise is a wonderful thing in a bottle of wine. Knowing nothing more than the fact that my wine is a shiraz from the Victorian regions I venture forth hoping for something light on the palette and high in the alcohol content.

Another magnificent point about this wine is the little warning, that now seems compulsory on all consumables. These little warnings pop up as a sign of societies madness. Packets of peanuts these days contain the little warning panels stating that there may be traces of nuts. Lord I hope so. Any way the warning on my bottle of wine states that it has been....Produced with the aid of egg and milk products and traces may remain. The mind boggles. At least now I may claim that while I am getting into my drink I am also having a meal. Protein and dairy with a bit of fruit, that's a balanced meal.

Last but certainly not least is the fact that my bottle of wine cost me $2.oo. Yes that is correct, no typing error, it cost $24 for a case of this wine. It may be more of a pink than a red, have no nose and is a 2008, who cares? It cost two dollars a bottle. So for all my beloved friends feeling the need of a drink, look no further than the magnificent Shiraz cleanskin at Dan Murphy's. After the seventh glass you won't know what it tastes like anyway. Quaff on. xxxxx

cat stories

Yes it's another cat story. Angel ( the new and mildly deranged kitten) has an interest in water. She gets most upset if she doesn't get to watch the toilet being flushed. She loves teeth cleaning time. Worst of all she insists upon having a shower with me. She likes to walk around in the shower while I'm in there. The problem is she doesn't like it if I close the shower door behind her. I on the other hand dislike being clawed to death so I tend to leave the shower door open for her. Yesterday I was showering and it was fairly cold so I closed the shower door and left her out of my shower. Angel sat on the other side of the glass door and screamed at me. When I wouldn't let her in she felt she needed to express her anger in more urgent tones, so she started throwing herself at the glass door. I have never seen anything quite as funny as this kitten throwing itself at head height at the door. No run up. One minute on the floor, next thing I see the cats belly slamming against the glass all four legs out. Wham. Over and over. I finish my shower but the cat is still having a sulk. I get dressed and as I'm walking down the hallway she is a couple of feet ahead of me, throwing herself at the wall every couple of feet. That'll teach that wall a lesson. She was probably still holding a grudge against it because it wouldn't do anything for her while she was on heat.
Tonight I decided it was time for a nice roast pork. Yummy. I put the pork in the baking tray, Angel mistook the baking tray for her dinner bowl. I had to prepare the roast with her under one arm. I tried putting her down on the floor but the boomerang cat was back up trying to get a lick of the roast faster than I could stand back up. I was pulling her off the bench, little paws flailing, tongue out, desperately trying to get the roast. So I conceded defeat and held her under one arm while I patted the skin dry with some paper towel, rubbed in some oil and sprinkled a little salt. None of this was made easier by the little thing squirming under my arm. Now I needed two hands to get the baking tray into the oven, so I popped her down and quickly picked up the tray and turned to get it into the oven. I turn back and Angel has found the paper towel I was patting the pork dry with and is running around the kitchen with it on her head. Just stop and get the picture in your mind. Yep you have to laugh or you would need to shoot it.

amuzing moment

My son was watching the cat being an absolute pshyco. He turns to me and says "wow mum the cats even naughtier than me and thats pretty hard to do." A moment of guilt passed until I realised that he was actually proud of them both.

For those of you that haven't heard about another moment while we were out shopping. The family were out at Big W and we were all standing fairly close together in an aisle looking at phone stuff. Suddenly there is a horrendous smell and we all look at Alex who is whistling with a guilty look on his face. Ben says very sternly that his actions were very unfriendly and you shouldn't just drop one when other people are around. Alex thinks about this very seriously and wanders off to the other end of the aisle, turns and shouts back "Hey Dad can you still smell my farts from here?". Bless him

We walk into a lighting store and Alex's eyes light up with the possibilities for mischief. Ben looks at him and says "Alex there are a lot of breakable items in this store, I want you to take this as a warning, not a challenge".

Hope this amused everyone

Emma's birthday

These are some of my favourite photos from the day. The kids had a wonderful time. Emma and Alex had smiles all over their little faces. After doing a one hour trail ride we went back to the cafe to have lunch and sing Happy Birthday. The group shot was really nice, Alex wasn't co-operating and is killing himself laughing about it in the photo. The people at the riding school were really nice with the kids, which was great because it was the first horse ride for a couple of the girls and they looked a little nervous. By the time they got back of course they were all fanatics. Feeling a bit tired and have to get all reved up to do the family lunch tomorrow. If I survive tomorrow I may feel inclined to expand on the wonderful day had today.

This cake is approx 4 inches wide. Emma decided that she wanted this cake for her birthday party on Saturday. The reason that it is so small is that she wants everyone to get their own individual cake. Fortunately it is only a small party and I only had to make 9 of them. Each one had to be a little bit different, to make them all unique. Then one of the parents that will be at the party complained that there wouldn't be any cake for the adults, so now I have to make a cake for us to cut on the day. I'm thinking I should stop fighting it and just surrender to being insane. Possibly taking a small holiday on planet looney might help my perspective. I am actually finding myself introverting again just to stop feeling hurt or sad. Shame really because I had actually reached a point where I had decided that I really loved my friends and where my life was at. Ironically this has all been brought on by one fabulous moment where I got to really cherish a great time with some friends. Perhaps I'm just suffering from coke withdrawal. I've been two weeks without any coke. Cold turkey has been bloody hard but was obviously the only way I was going to get it out of my system. Still craving, but it's getting easier and I am still managing to resist substituting with something other than water.

Looking forward to watching the joy on Emma's face tomorrow at her birthday party. Hopefully will remember the camera this year.

Yes it's more photos of my cats doing stupid things. Missed a great opportunity to get a photo of Zeuss in the wok but was amused by these. Photo on the left looks like one of those puzzle pictures....can you find what isn't meant to be there? Zeuss is now 12 and having a kitten in the house has given him a new list of quirks. He was already really odd and now he is picking up all her wierd traits. Photo on the right was only meant to be of my new piece of furniture. It had just been delivered and I was playing around with where things should go. Emma decided the herbs should go up on the shelf. Angel decided to eat the plants. At least her breath is lovely eating all that parsley. The kids are really excited because the canisters are now within reach, one holds the biscuits and the other holds lollies. Really happy with the idea of making things a little more grown up. Painted over the bright child friendly colours and adding some not child friendly furniture is very exciting. It's sad they aren't my babies anymore but this is definately the silver lining. Getting to go out this week on a hot date with my husband is another good thing about the kids being a bit older. We went to see Wanted at Gold Class. Fancy shmancy. Great movie if you like heavy on the gory, light on the story. Worth seeing on a big screen. That's about it for now, if I manage to get the cat back into the wok will let you know.

Husband working late. Just sitting down to a medicinal bottle of wine and a plate of butter chicken and rice. Have had one of those weeks where I may have to eat the whole banana and raspberry bread I am baking. Also made a batch of choc chip cookies. Would it be really bogon to dip them in my red wine? Looks like there's nothing else for it but to break out the Buffy dvd's and have a good sob.