A Dingo's got my Barbie!!!

I'm not mean!

There were a couple of comments about yesterday's post, relating to Belle, the table and why did I put her bowl there. Let me splain...the table is a breakfast nook type table and the the shelf is to put (I think) place mats and other assorted crap such as salt and pepper etc. away so that you can read a newspaper or whatever you do when you're not eating breakfast.

Why were was the bowl there, and why was I being mean to Belle by putting it there? As it happens I wasn't being mean to her, that bowl was right where it has been for the past four years and actually belongs to Buzz and Booey. I have fed them there without incident for four years. Neither Bentley nor Buddy ever thought of trying to get to their food and everything was just fine...

The cats got to eat their dinner in peace, and the dogs didn't cost me a fortune in pilfered cat food...

That was until Belle showed up! From the very beginning she was a climber, and used to climb up the latticed side of the table to get to their food. She got so good at it that I had to move the cats' food higher up (onto another table, but she can still get to it) in an effort to maintain some shred of sanity at mealtimes. I just wish I had got a picture of her as a pup climbing the table. Hang on, I think I've got something...

It's not actually of her climbing (which used to be pretty funny) but rather shortly after she made it to the shelf. Here's yet another clip of the youngsters from a couple of months ago...

Wall a'll be dahned who knew?

Thank you all for participating in "WT's brain buster", and thank you even more for not getting it right. Well that's not strictly correct, LMM who disappeared without a trace some months ago must have some sort of 'prize radar' set up in Molvania, because literally within minutes (ok, 2 and a bit hours but that's still 130 minutes) came swanning in and gave both correct answers.

Too bad Little Miss Molvania, I've got you on a technicality! You said "Is it Wallabadah Rock?" Well yes, in fact it is, but... you didn't actually answer, you asked! Ha ha ha! Rumpelstiltskin would be proud of me! And darned if you didn't go and do the same thing for the Swannies, who were originally South Melbourne! But being a fair both in mind and visage, here's what I'll do, if you send me $20 I'll send you a stamped self addressed envelope.

Come on, it was a joke! Send me your mailing address and I'll send you some Vegemite, but since you've got rellies coming, you may want something else. Just let me know what you want and I'll see if I can get it for you if it's not too outrageously expensive.

For those of you who said a termites nest, this is a termites nest...

That's a termite nest in a nature walk behind our house on the Coast, and that's my best friend ET next to it.

Wallabadah Rock is the second largest monolith in Australia (which makes it significantly larger than a termites nest, or a hairy tit or camel's hump for that matter). It is apparently the plug in a dormant (or is that extinct?) volcano. The Sydney Swans on the other hand are an AFL team that relocated from South Melbourne around 1980.

And because no post is complete without a gratuitous pet pic, here's the one I promised you. This was me and Belle shortly after I discovered the cake was missing, I like to call it "Why you little..."

Before you call the RSPCA (or Humane Society), this was done as a joke and Belle was not hurt or frightened in any way.

Update to yesterday's post.

A few people asked about the maps we use down here in Oz, so I'll post two for you. The first  map is the one that TheOtherBear mentioned in the comments, where Australia is in the centre. The second is called a corrective map.

Fig. 1  An Aussie World Map

The line you see running top to bottom and to the right of Oz is the international dateline. We do our maps like this because it's just so embarrassing when someone can't find their own country on the map (and even more embarrassing when someone tries to explain why). We learn from an early age that we should just point somewhere close to the middle.

Fig. 2   A Corrective World Map

I used to have a 3'x2' version of this mounted on plywood when I lived in San Jose.

It's only convention that has north at the top of world maps (that, and a northern hemisphere centric view of the world), we all know there is no up or down in the universe, and we don't know the orientation of those looking at our world from a distance. (But I assume they are mostly hetero.)

Who was that masked man?

A few of you have asked who that was singing on the CD in the background of the dog clip, although sadly not nearly as many as have asked me if I really am a Romanian slave trader (or worse, wishing I was one). And even more seem to have mistaken this blog for a Mills and Boon sampler! Ok, so I did use the word 'romantic', but geez, this is me we're talking about! What I meant was down and dirty lust (don't worry, I'll get to it next week).

So for those who wanted to know, it was Eliza Gilkyson. But that's not really typical of her music (however it is my favourite song of hers). She normally sounds more like this....

Now here's something a little different. This first one is Xavier Rudd, a Canadian living in Oz. It's worth watching just to see a white guy play the didgeridoo properly...

This next one is John Butler, an American also living in Oz. This one's worth watching just to see a banjo used in contemporary music...

And finally, Peter, stop hitting the Post button!

Of dogs and dolls.

I think I'll start with the easy ones while I try to make up something for the harder ones. I know most of you already now all about this but if you don't it may be confusing interesting.

Jenni in KS wrote....
I'd also like to know why you picked Willowtree. My kids would all like to know where you got that Barbie. Like, did you just happen to have a Barbie lying around or are you an avid Barbie collector or did you purposely go out and buy a Barbie for the picture? And while we're on the subject of that picture, who's the dog?

Why I picked Willowtree...

No surprise here, Willow Tree is a small town in Rural Australia. I live just outside it. It's a nice quiet little town with at population of about 200, although it is a service centre for quite a large number of outlying properties so there is a general store and a pub. There was a bank until about 6 months ago.

It's located at the beginning of the Kamilaroy Highway, which makes it the gateway to the Central West. The main industry is beef farming, and there is a bit of wheat as well.

Over on the right we have a picture of the Main street of Willowtree (which is actually the New England Highway at this point) during peak hour. We're just under an hour away from Tamworth, the Country Music Capital of Australia, which frankly I've always found to be somewhat of a misnomer, given that all they have is a Contry Music Festival once a year. All the country music artists actually live and record on the Central Coast (where our other house is).

Now, as for the dog and the doll. The name of the blog is "A Dingo's got my Barbie" which is a play on words of the purported cry of Lindy Chambermaid (aka Meryl Streep). You can Google it for the full story (I've misspelled her surname on purpose), last time I addressed it here, some dickhead with an obsession for the case wanted to get into an argument about it. I mean shit, who really gives a rat's?

So here's the deal...

1. I've never owned a Barbie doll.
2. This is why her panties are around her ankles.
3. I found the picture on the net.
4. It's not a dog it's a Dingo.
5. My good bluddy Mark photoshopped the picture in the sidebar to represent the blog title.
6. He used a picture similar to this one, but I can't find the one he used.

I may answer some of the text based questions tomorrow, unless I fall off a ladder (which would be a much better story)

You guys kill me!

Every now and then you get a post that generates such clever comments that they deserve a post of their own, and while this is not the case now, I'm going to do it anyway (come on, it's a joke!).

Sabrina - Oh, your poor sweet pea! Hope he is okay! I don't know that my pups could handle the cattle guard any better. . They're also really fun to try to ride a bicycle over (hazards of cycling in Texas, by the way)
Starts out with a cursory reference to the trapped animals, but then gets kinda lewd with a reference to the use of cattle grids for sexual gratification. Hmmmmm, I wonder what the dryer thinks about this.

Robin - Sometimes I feel like a reeeeeaaaal city girl. (Me too! I'm getting tired of transexuals) Never heard of either one of those before. (Come on, you've never heard of trannies or shemales?)
Yep, educational blogging at its finest! (Thanks, I do pride myself on knowing everything except what you need to earn a living)

LMM - Dear willowtree. Sunday too far away and click go the shears mate. I thought you were talking about the thing ON the table. And I'm still p*ssing myself laffing at the picture of the pooches.
For those of you unfamiliar with the cultural reference, Sunday Too Far Away is a classic Aussie move about shearers, starring a young Jack Thompson (he's a real story in himself! For years he lived with two sisters, yes I mean he screwed them both, no shit!)

Songbird - Thanks for kind comments on my Sorrow post. I also don't understand some American's views on automatic weapons (and weapons in general for that matter). We make strides forward in one administration then lose all that we've gained in the next administration.
Nothing to laugh about here, this is about the tragedy in Virginia, my sincere condolences. But guys, come on, do you really believe he could have killed 31 people if he didn't have an automatic weapon?

Nikki - "Help I've fallen and I can't get up" say the uber cute puppy dogs.
Well, I guess that's one interpretation, and a clever one at that, but I'm going with "Hey WT, check it out! We really are that fucking stupid!"

Katie - How's Beep settling in? There is an update planned for the near future.

Simply Jenn - OMG! That is absolutely freaking hysterical. I hope it's not supposed to be sad, because I'll be smiling about that pic and the looks on their faces all day!
What difference does it make if it's supposed to be sad or not? The whole point is to get a laugh out of someone else's misfortune! There is no nobler endeavour. PS. it wasn't supposed to be sad, after all, they did get out eventually.

Katie - I was actually thinking it was a surry carriage although I knew a sulky is used for harness racing.
In truth, I thought sulkies were only used for harness racing too. I was quite surprised when I discovered that there were also models for pleasure, such as the one in the picture (I had to look it up because I wasn't actually sure exactly what it was called). Even more surprising was that picture on the site that I found looked exactly like the one in the picture!

Jenny - Ha!  I totally would have guessed cattle grid.  But then, I'm a rural Texas kind of girl.
Well that's just like like you. It's all about bovines and blowjobs to you isn't it? (hey don't get made at me, she started it!). I'll get you for that nomination too!!!

Pamela - awww.... I think I saw that sheep thing on DIRTY JOBS!!!!
In one of life's little twists, if you look at the closeup picture of the classing table you'll see that it has significant discolouration (black crap). This is caused by the lanolin in the wool, a substance that is used in many soaps.

Claudia - Shame on you throwing those dogs in there for a picture!! (hehe) Why do you have the wool table in a hangar??
They're my dogs, and if I need to throw them on a cattle grid to provide comic relief in return for food, then so be it! I'm storing it temporarily for my neighbour's father.

Heather - Educational. If I ever write a novel set on a ranch, you'll be my go-to guy.
If you ever need background info on self gratification, flatulence, anti-social behaviour or poor diet, I'm your guy for that too.

Jen - My cousins had to teach me how to walk across the cattle guard during a family reunion years ago. Fun times. Somehow, I tried to cross the thing by side-stepping and got my whole leg stuck in between the bars.
If that ever happens again, give me a call and I'll send the boys over to keep you company.

Wolfbaby - Are they takin a nap?
No, it's only their brains that are asleep.

Lisa - Sorry to ramble.  Just thought I'd let you know that your dogs aren't the onyl silly ones.
I may be mistaken, but I think this is the first time you've commented, if that's correct, then welcome and thanks for the input. Rambling is perfectly acceptable. I just visited your blog, I hope your daughter is OK. If you don't already, you should read Pamela's blog, she's a birdwatcher too.

OK, these next two comments don't need any input from me as they are already  off the bizarre scale....

LMM - Dear willowtree. Back again after a bottle of ukrainian shampanskoye. MmmmMmmm. Preemtping the hangover tomorrow and commenting tonight (although there's no new post). I just realised - see the wall to the right of the pooches? We had those walls all around our school and we used to have races to see who could scale them the quickest OR get the best scab on their knee. Ah memories. Have to go, stomach ache (probably related to the fact they make wine from powder here, not grapes).

LMM again - PS. I love allllll of youssse. No, seriously, I realllly love allll of yousse. I mean it. there's nothing like lovvvinggg all of youuusee. And there's nothing like powdered champagne.
All I can think of here (apart from, 'either her keyboard has some keys stuck, or she really is pissed') is a quote "Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends"

Karmyn - Around here they just have to paint lines on the road to trick the cattle.  (we have really stupid cows).
I think this one belongs in the previous group too.

ChrisB - Well something else I've learned today. Love the picture of  B&B (I assume no dogs were hurt in taking this picture!)
No dogs hurt...ah yeah, that's right...no dogs hurt around here...

Beccy - My mil has a cattle grid, I still love walking over it!
Apparently you could double your pleasure if you got a bike!

**Updated** Even though this wasn't part of the post in question, I just had to include it...

Susan in Va (who else?)
        Clever you are much.
        Sneaky as well you are.
        Call me Yoda you may.
Medication taking she is.

Fun Tuesday.

Yesterday I busted my arse to make a spectacular epicurean delight, and Min posted a comment asking: "Does it come in a tube?".

I had a whole range of emotional reactions to choose from, I could have been:

• Indignant that she made a joke about our National icon,
• Insulted that she would suggest I cheated,
• Amused at the funny line, or
• Amazed at her naivety

In the end I was disappointed that after a week of intense lessons in Australiana, Min still didn't have a good grasp on our culture. This is Australia we're talking about, of course it comes in a tube!

Or to be more precise, it comes in a big plastic egg, a small can, a small plastic tub, and an aerosol can. You can't beat a can of Diary Whip for whipped cream with an elegant fluted design (the bulk of the cream was real whipped cream). BTW, that thing behind the Thickened Cream is the Kiwi Fruit.

Hey I didn't say I used the recipe (in fact I just said it was from an ex-governor of Idaho), but it is a valid recipe if you want to make one yourselves and don't have access to food items with a 45 year shelf life.

I took the picture intending to put it in the original post, but then decided against it hoping I could get away with making you guys think I'm a Kitchen Wizard. Oh well, I'm not too proud to fess up.

You guys kill me!

Ha ! you guys are crazy, probably crazier than me, but fortunately theres no way of really knowing, so we can all rest easy assuming that each of us has someone even crazier.

I was busy fixing MDW's computer yesterday, ok I'm making that sound more technical than it actually was, I just got her a new keyboard and mouse. Before you ask, no, I didn't lose my temper and break something again. The mouse I bought her last time was a real crappy one and the keyboard was getting old, so I upgraded her. These new ones are great, they are so advanced that you just think it and it happens!

Anyway, I really couldn't think of anything to write, hence the post, but the funny thing is, when I posted it I though, "shit, I'll probably get more comments from that than the ones I sweat bullets over?" And I probably would have if I didn't post this one to distract you, it would be just too embarrassing to get more for that one than anything else I've done.

There were some very interesting comments, and some were almost as good as the original post. I'll take them all on board and get back to you (anybody who's ever worked in the Corporate world knows this is management speak for "Thank you for your input, but I'll be ignoring it completely, so feel free to go and get fucked").

However it would be remiss of me not to respond to the pertinent comments (and ignore the impertinent ones).....

Mark - "Am I a part of the gang?" You may be part of the gang I'm not sure, but we are a color gang, so what color underwear are you wearing?

Amanda - I'm not talking to you since you posted that picture of yourself and said that I was your boyfriend.

Pamela - Thanks a lot, four hundred bucks worth of counseling to help me to forget and you just go and bring it all up again.

Spado - "Freedom means nothing left to lose." I guess that makes me totally liberated.

Stephanie - I thank you, the world thanks you.

Robin -  You're still on a period of grace, so your safe for the moment. But eventually you'll have to stop mourning and then your mine!

Shauna - "Pretty different for you not to have anything...Bet you get a comment to write about:)"  I am insulted that you would suggest that I am capable of such tawdry practices.

Claudia - The Great Mining Disaster post is coming.....

Karmyn and Tiffany -  Err yeah, that's right, I forgot...I already wrote it and it's in the archives somewhere.

Brian - "A comment????"  How very Zen of you.

Vicki - "You've got knee socks and a speedo. I'd say that's quite a bit." Hey is this another one of your kneeslappers that you say always disappear?

James - That's just plain spooky.

Ree - You may be right. As for #3, they both know that licking my face is off limits, but what they do when I'm asleep is anyone's guess.

Susan - What are you getting so grossed out for, you've got three kids, I'll bet you've seen far worse than that!

Robin - Thank you for that last comment, it arrived just as I was proofreading this post and all I can say is "That's it, times up!"

Don't listen to their bullshit.

OK, the gloves are off! I just saw what those little bastards wrote in the last post and boy am I steamed. Yes I've got all kinds of doggie beds around the house. and yes they always seem to be empty, but that's not my doing.

If those little pricks (and by the way, since they were neutered that is an accurate description, not an insult), want to play rough then I'm up for it. Here's why the doggie beds are always unoccupied.

Don't let the dumb expression on the Beagle's face fool you, he's one cunning canine, there is no part of the house that he doesn't call home, and the Pug is no better.

I think you are starting to get the picture (pictures actually). Now as for me making them sleep with each other so I can get some dirty doggie pics, that's just plain crap. Those little perverts like to sleep together...

Need more proof? Ok fine, try these...

I've been accused in the past of setting this stuff up (Melissa), but to prove these are not fakes,  I've saved the best for last...

These are a couple of the Beagle's less successful attempts to get into bed. The first one was a few months ago and I still don't know how he managed to do it, but that's him inside a doona cover, as you can see, the opening is only about 18" wide. The second I took this morning after I began to wonder why he wasn't coming out for breakfast, he was so tangled up that I had to unwrap him.

So there you go, if those little punks what to try something like that again, I've got plenty more pictures. And btw, don't bother calling the SPCA (or in Oz, the RSPCA), they know that I am not cruel to animals as I've rescued around 10 in the past few years.

Things don't always go as planned.

**Warning, Uncharitable Rant Alert: If you consider yourself a good Christian, or even a decent human being, you might like to skip this and go on to your next blog.

Just yesterday I said that I wouldn't be lazy anymore, and just take comments out of context to make a funny post. Well, there's not much I can do about Divine Intervention, and that's exactly what happened after that promise was made.

There is a member of the Mama Drama team who seems to spend more time commenting on Jenny's posts than working on her own, and sadly, it shows. While this may not be an issue to her, as she seems to have set the bar at mediocrity (a goal she regularly achieves), I thought I would add my two cents worth in an effort to add some humor. To use the word sadly again, it didn't work.

Given that I received a relatively severe bollocking, I thought, "What the heck, I've been insulted! That's got to be worth something, a free post maybe.

Here is a series of comments taken straight from one of her posts, they are entirely un-edited and are copied in a block exactly as they appear in the comments section, but they may be considered out of context as I'm not about to include all the comments for that post, and the actual post is too boring to include anyway. You make up you own mind.....

Mark says he believes in Jiffy Pop.

Willow tree believes in ...Corpus Delicti.

I can't even speculate what holidays you two celebrate. 

But check out Willowtree's astute use of language, Mark!  Who's the lawyer here?!

Posted by: Stephanie  at December  4, 2006 04:16 PM

This is starting to sound like a Mythbusters episode. Have you contacted the Discovery Channel yet? The dude made a meatloaf on his motorcycle exhaust once, I'm sure they'd be interested...

Posted by: AnotherMom  at December  4, 2006 05:49 PM

Now that's something you don't see everyday! The words "meatloaf on his motorcycle" not referring to the 'Bat out of Hell' guy.

Posted by: willowtree  at December  4, 2006 08:03 PM

Stephanie--I think willowtree is just trying to impress us or maybe he's trying to impress Barbie (who the H*** is Barbie?). Anyway, you can stop trying willowtree because I don't give out comment awards.

Another Mom--You didn't happen to get the recipe did you? My meatloaf isn't even edible when I bake it in an oven. A few exhaust fumes couldn't hurt.

willow tree--How old are you?

Posted by: min  at December  4, 2006 09:43 PM

Min, if you ever visited my site you'd know how old I was. If you want me to stop leaving comments, OK.

Posted by: willowtree  at December  5, 2006 02:20 AM

Oooh, one facetious remark about your age and you are cut to the quick. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were so sensitive---probably because I never visit your blogsite; Never have, never will. As for leaving comments...that should be one's individual choice, so do as you like. We all know who you click over to chron.com to read...and I somehow doubt it's the comic.

---Oh, and I'm not being facetious about your sensitivity, that's a good thing in my book.---

Posted by: min  at December  5, 2006 06:16 AM

Ok, now for some commentary, I didn't include it next to the comments because I said it was unadulterated....

I mentioned that Min had never visited my site because a few days ago I had a post saying exactly how old I am, age is not an issue. I said that if she wanted me to stop I would, because that's what she said in the comment immediately prior to mine.

Mindy seems to consider it quite an accomplishment to have never visited my site, a concept that I find rather perplexing, given that a) she spends so much time in Jenny's comments either addressing me directly or referring to me, and b) her comment about the comic is strange indeed, seeing as I made a post about it just recently.

So there it is, a rant that really is of no interest to anyone except me, but then from what I read all around the place, that's one of the advantages of having a blog. I did think twice about writing this as I didn't want Mindy being offended if I accidentally said that she was a self-centered, arrogant, braindead moron...but then I realised that it would be more insulting to any braindead moron who happened to be reading. Plus Mindy never comes here anyway (if she did, she wouldn't be surprised by this post) so it should be fine.

PS. Talk about divine intervention! I was going to say something nasty about Mindy personally but decided against it because its just not my style (getting personal that is, taking the piss is another matter). Well wouldn't you know it, and I'm not making this up, when I went back to copy the comments, Mindy actually said what I was thinking in the very next post, so I'll let her tell you...

"Then came the divorce. It was a bad divorce.

It left me bitter and antagonistic toward men,  it made me despise the entire gender..."

I don't want pity, but I wouldn't mind some cash.

This is a hurried (unplanned) post, as I was just over at Karmyn's (not two minutes ago) and saw that she is telling people that I just had a wedding Anniversary while MDW was in California. It's not a lie, it's just that I didn't plan on saying anything about it, but as she's asking bloggers to come and wish me happy anniversary, I thought I better give you somewhere to do it.

However rather than sending me your best wishes, I'd prefer that you sent some of this......

I can't believe I got a chance to use this picture!!  I found the negative last night when I was amusing myself while waiting for Veronica Mars (I know there'll be some wise-ass comments about that but I'm too lazy to change it). When I saw it, I remembered the time fondly and decided to scan it, but then when I did I thought "what the fuck can I do with this?" Well, now I know. Oh, and in case you don't recognise them, they are all quarters.

Thank you Karmyn.

I thought about posting a wedding picture, but as I was in a hurry (plus I don't have many on the PC up here) I left it out. But trust the OUAB gang to want one. So here ya go...

Meet the inlaws.

Seeing as everyone seems to be doing these quiz things lately, here's one. There's no prize for the right answer (this is me we're talking about here), but the question is: How long have we been married?

The reason I don't come straight out and tell you is because I'm sure I've mentioned it more than a few times, both here and in comments on other blogs. However, I will give you a clue, this anniversary means that I have been married exactly half my life.

Mr Humblebum.

Aww gosh guys, thanks a bunch.

I've got a split screen thing going here and I figure that if I read through the comments and address them, I should be able to get a whole post out of it (on the house).

Robin,  technically your use of large and infinite is not redundant given that something can be referred to as being infinitely small as well (that's not redundant that's just plain weird, if it was infinitely small it wouldn't exist). Now see, this just proves my point! How can people ignore such riveting, informative writing. Got me beat.

I'm not going to say who I read because in the end it's totally subjective and the truth is I have no right to criticize anyone for their success, so if I keep it anonymous it should be OK. Having said that, I will say that Dooce, despite once being both humorous and cutting edge, seems to have fallen into this kind of Stepford Mom genre, but still attracts a huge audience in spite of this (or maybe because of it).

To my mind, Jenny you are one of the few in the category of "writes well, has lots of readers". You always make me laugh, and it surprises me that you say you have to leave comments, I don't think this is the case. But don't stop leaving them here, it adds class.

Heather, you ask when was the last time I visited your site? That would be yesterday, as I haven't done any reading yet today. You are a good example of the "writes very well, deserves more readers" category. Although since you've been going to all those Christian writer conferences, your readership has significantly increased. I don't comment because as I've said before, there's a time and a place for humour, and it's not necessarily in the comments section of a brilliant piece of prose, plus do I seem like the kind of guy that would ever read the books you review!

Swampy, nice try! Quality is more important than quantity is a line I've been using for years (except I'm usually talking about my pecker when I say it). And I don't really believe it then either. Of course I want good quality, witty comments, but I want lots of them! Just because you guys get me, and can express it, doesn't make me famous, it just makes me fortunate.  Oh yeah Swampy, 
"And for us who are repeat commentors on the same post...your words cause me to ponder and then come back to add more.".....Not helping, that just means I was too obtuse!

Stephanie, nice try and thanks, but I direct you to the previous paragraph. But don't let that deter you, comment away!!

Ha! Pamela, do you seriously think that soft porn is any match for an antique oil painting of a poodle? You're just not paying attention. You should have quit while you were ahead..."Nice post" said it all.

I agonised over whether to include this or not as I wasn't sure if it was: (a) - a brilliantly subversive piece of work to illustrate a point, (b) - a couple of typos, or (c) - an example of what happens when you don't  proofread. Given that I read Kila all the time, and I know that she does in fact have a good command of both grammar and vocabulary, I'll vote for (a)...but you decide: "I, too, noticed that the poor crude the language is, the larger the adoring audience. Like flies to poop."  Oh, never mind, I just came to the comment where it was explained to me, but while we're at it, it should read "I too," instead of "I,too,". Picky, picky.

Tiffany, I think my sitemeter is broken (I keep telling myself that to make me feel better).

Hey thanks guys, I did get a whole post out of it. Plus I seem to have fixed my computer problems too. Anyway, I feel love, and its a good feeling. Maybe I'll keep writing, after all I haven told you about the mining accident yet have I?

Updated** Mea Culpa... I'm sorry Claudia, I left you out. Just proves I really am a thoughtless prick. Thank you for your long and constant support, I always look forward to your comments.

Picture this.

Pamela had some questions regarding my new high-falootin' photo albums (thank you Pamela, I almost didn't post today because I was too lazy to come up with something).

But before I answer, I just want to make sure everyone understands that if you hover the cursor over something and it changes to a hand, it means you can click on the object. It's normally either a hyper text link (the HT in HTTP) or it will give an enlarged view of the image (I don't mean just here, I mean anywhere, it's a CUA96 convention for GUIs).

On to the questions.

One in Asia with what looks like a woman lying on the ground..doing something and the picture may have been taken out of a window of what a plane? or a bus?

I think this is the one you're talking about, although she doesn't look like she's lying on the ground, and that would be a really low-flying plane!

But if this is the one, here's the explanation: the picture is taken from the deck of the hut in the picture below (right where MDW is sitting), and she was cutting that green stuff. Why? because it was some kind of herb that went into that night's dinner. If you click on it you can see she has a knife in her left hand and a plastic bag in her right.

and then the cake? valentine?

Pamela, that's not a cake, it's a giant chocolate chip cookie and yes it was for Valentine's day.

and then sjnapa-13 in America .  What is that?

That photo is too boring to include in this post (I don't know why I even put it in the album), go back and click on it, it needs no explanation.

Penguin Classics.

One of the good things about not having kids is that you can suit yourself as to how Christmas will be celebrated (another is not having to prepare proper meals everyday). In the past we have declared "no presents", various "themed presents" and the occasional "extravaganza presents" Christmases.

Surprisingly the "no presents" one is a lot better than you would think. If everyone knows there will be no presents there is no disappointment (try telling that to your kids). The actual present you are giving is that your spouse doesn't have to get stuck in checkout lines or run themselves ragged looking for the perfect gift. On other occasions its fun to give and receive gifts. We've had 'Bear themed, boat themed, music themed, clothing themed and the reason for this post, literature themed.

A copuple(wtf! does anyone know what a copuple is?  spellchecker seems to think its a real word) of people asked about this object in yesterday's post and wanted to know if they were real books. Yes they are, I bought them as a filler one Christmas when we were doing the 'literary theme'. I thought is was a great idea,they are called Penquin 60s because they have 60 books per box. There are other flavours but this one is Classics.

They are real and I have read some of them, and tried to read others (I don't go in for that whole 'the Emperor has no clothes' scenario, if I don't like a book I won't read it just beacuse everyone says is brilliant). Anyway, of you want to see what books there are, just enlarge the picture in the usual way.