In breaking news

Maude has a sister. I hope The Stalker doesn't mind but I have named her Mildred. (The pumpkin, not The Stalker although that might work, too!)

I swear she wasn't there yesterday and she is still very small. Not quite as big as a walnut. 

Mini has decided that the squishy thing next to my chair (it was supporting my back but fell off) is her favourite place. I can be sitting here wasting my day perusing the internet and I will hear loud purring as she kneads the squishy thing and then she curls up on it. And then the front half falls off. And then I smell something. JesusMaryandJoseph cat farts smell. I guess gas rises hence the elevated rear end releasing the noxious substance. I swear the air turns a greenish purple. 

She seems happy with the effect.

Himself has a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get the results of his scans and to ask about his toe which he says is very sore. How embarrassment if I should have told him to hot foot to the ED. 

The dogs are booked in for their overdue vaccinations, my car is booked in for a service and a wheel balance (thank you, dodgy Victorian roads with all your pot holes), Himself has an appointment with the urologist next week instead of in 5 weeks time as said urologist is retiring at the end of the month, I have a doctor's appointment about my sore hip/groin (?arthritis) and we have a glazier coming to replace 4 panes of glass (#1 a bloody mynah, #2 a stone from the whipper snipper, #3 the kitchen demolition and #4 a chair knocked over by a dog). It isn't worth claiming on our insurance as it's actually less than the excess.

In two weeks we are heading off for Lakes and I cannot wait. At least we have things to keep us busy in the meantime.

Maude

The Stalker asked how Maude is. 

This is she...

 She is about the size of a tennis ball now. She is still an only child.

Yesterday's post created some interesting conversations. It seems that enough of us do care about language and that can only be a good thing.

I remember when Two was in grade 2. He was told spelling and grammar didn't matter as long as he expressed himself. I told him if people couldn't understand what he'd written then his words of wisdom were wasted. He is now a grammar nazi like his mum. 

Speaking of which, this conversation with Sally happened the other day ...

I got a voice message explaining why (school girl stuff) and then I got another voice message 

"By the way Granny, you forgot to put a question mark after why sweetheart ".

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

I am a grammar nazi.

So we were playing scrabble and listening to music and "Moonlight Shadow" came on. It's actually quite a sad song but when she sings "4am in the morning" my teeth set on edge and my hackles rise. This is one of my most hated tautologies. I don't know why but it is. A bit like ATM machines, evening sunsets, hot water heater (water heater or hot water service - actually cold water heater would make more sense than hot water heater), "in my opinion, I think ..."

I have spent the day trying to prevent Himself from doing anything stupid with varying success. We went to the Mermaid's place and dropped off the yarn I forgot to take on Friday.

He went and looked at cars.

We played scrabble.

It is now late and he can't mow the lawn which is his big bugbear right now.

So tell me, what grammar faux pas get up your nose? Mixing English with French, perhaps? 

A drive

 

As I knew he would be, Himself was antsy today. We took the dogs to the park and then decided to go for a drive. He thought we should check out some places a bit closer to home as potential places to which to move. So we visited Venus Bay, Corinella and Grantville. All are described as small, holiday resort type communities but they have all experienced a boom of late with lots of new housing developments going up. We were not enamoured with any of them. So in lieu of nothing much to say you get some pics from the drive. Please excuse the reflections in my dirty window! I didn't take any photos in Venus Bay. I actually found it quite a depressing place.

You know you're in Australia ....

This was looking out over Bass Strait near Kilcunda.

This was coming down to the water at Corinella

Looking across Westernport Bay to French Island. It is on my bucket list to visit. 

I do love clouds. 

And the flowering Yucca from a different perspective (my bedroom)

Only another two weeks of trying to keep someone from doing anything stupid. 

Home again

Catheter was removed and he piddled according to plan. They scanned his bladder after each void to make sure it was emptying sufficiently. I picked him up around 2 and he is glad to be home. Still a bit of discomfort and bleeding but nowhere near as bad as it would have been after the traditional TURP.

I went over the the Mermaid's to wait until I got the call. And I forgot to take the yarn for her mum's scarf. Even though I was thinking about it as I walked out the front door. She is going to Lakes next week and would like to take it with her so I will get it to her over the weekend.

We went to the supermarket. Aldi and then Woolies. As we were heading to the checkout at Woolies there was an announcement that their EFT facilities were down. Some cards would work with signature. Phones and watches wouldn't work. Cash was welcome. Who has cash these days? Anyway, Himself went to the bank and withdrew some paper stuff and we were able to pay and leave. I felt so sorry for the staff and to that point everyone was very civilised. I don't know how long that would last. Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

The perfect house for us is up for sale down at Lakes. (Or Kalimna to be precise which is just up the hill). Perfect size, perfect price. Bugger. Oh well, it shows that they do come on the market.

Today is a 75% move day.

The dogs were glad to have dad home and the first thing he did was take them to the park. I think he missed them more than me.

Still only one pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. At least it appears to be growing.

The big day

We were early to the hospital. We allowed an hour and were there in just over half an hour. New roads make such a difference. I dropped him off and headed over to the Mermaid's. 

We had a lovely chat and then the grandkids were dropped off. Oh my giddy aunt they are loud and poorly mannered and I don't blame the kids at all. 

It was lovely to see their dad when he dropped them off. I don't think I've seen him in 15 years. They live in an inner suburb that used to be working class but is now uber expensive. The children don't call their parents Mum and Dad, rather Mama and Papa. I saw an example of overexplaining to youngsters who really don't understand. It just seemed to make them anxious and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when Papa left to go to work. Nanna gave them treats to eat and all was well. 

Yes. I AM a grumpy old woman.

Anyway.

I didn't need to deal with her phone but I did help her with her health insurance. 

I helped her with her crochet - for those who don't know, American and UK/Australian terms are different. She normally uses the latter but got confused and used the former only it's a UK pattern. I bought it home and realised what she had done. Not sure if she will want to pull it out and start again. I might buy some yarn and make it for her as a surprise. In the mean time I am giving her some of my extensive yarn stash to make a scarf for her mum. 

Himself rang to say he was out of surgery and on the ward. He was only in theatre for about an hour which was quick. The big plus of this type of surgery is the minimal bleeding. He sent me this. 

This colour urine is called rose, as in the wine. There are no clots so that is good. He has drunk 5 litres of water so far to flush things through. The catheter will be removed at 6.00am and after he has piddled 4 times he can be picked up. I will go back to the Mermaid's in the morning so I am only 5 minutes away.

Dinner tonight is chicken nuggets from the freezer with a nice red wine and I am going to catch up on Gogglebox. Don't say I don't know how to live large when left on my own.

Fuzzy

Still a bit fuzzy post migraine.

I received an email from the superannuation fund saying they couldn't process my application for a pension stream as the selfie I took with my licence wasn't clear enough. Himself took the photo - need I say more? I have taken several actual selfies, found one that isn't too hideous and have sent that off. Hopefully it will get processed sooner rather than later.

I have to get Himself to the hospital at 9.00am tomorrow. That is better than 6.30 as it's a good 45 minutes away without factoring in peak hour and school traffic. 

I will then go and visit the Mermaid and help her with some technical stuff she is trying to do. It's a bit like the blind leading the blind but in this case it might be more the somewhat visually impaired leading the blind as she has no idea what she is doing while I have a little bit of a clue. She relies on her kids (her son in particular) to do stuff for her but he just does it and doesn't teach her which is useless. She is Apple and I am Android. Tomorrow could be fun.

Still only one female flower on the pumpkin.

Last night's dinner was good except I found out that Himself doesn't like cous cous so we won't be doing it again. It was one of those things where everything is in the packet (except the meat obviously). If you like a lemony tagine and find the box at Aldi give it a go.

I have done very little today. I will blame the headache but I do very little most days. 

The deck has come up well. One more coat and that should be it for a few years. Now we just need to replaced the timber thingies. Himself wants to do wire.