Weekly Chat, Sunday April 25, 2010

Hi all: Getting a late start here today. Been busy in the garden all day and now working on getting some of the glue out of the corners of the panes in the French door, so have back to computer.

Previous Weekly Chat's last page included long chatty posts from Lindybird and OG, a link from Djoan to the BOT Barn Owls, which have their first egg, and a colorful greeting from Diane to AQ who's having a birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AQ!  :-)

  • Good morning / Evening, everyone.

    Firstly, Happy birthday, AQ!!!  I hope you have a lovely day today.  You're a bit lucky this year, aren't you?  Your 'Sunday' celebration yesterday, and now a public holiday (because ANZAC Day fell on a Sunday this year) for your real birthday.  It's quite a cool day today too, so that should make it more enjoyable for you.  We've settled into the cooler autumn weather patterns now, I think, and we had 40 ml of rain overnight until 9.00 am yesterday morning, so our gardens and lawn are looking great!

    Now, ironing!  If the truth be known, I think it's not so much that we all have a lot of ironing, but that we are so easily distracted by our ospreys from this dreaded task that we never actually finish it!  It sits there haunting us!!!!  If we leave it long enough, some of it DOES disappear magically, as clothing owners give up, pick it out of the ironing basket, and wear it unironed!  LOL! 

    Smiles, Jan.

  • Evening all:  Trucker Steve has just arrived as his drop off point in Georgia after a nice ride through lots of green countryside.  FYI all, am getting lots of "server problem" pages when I hit "post" but things are still posting.

    OG: Trucker Steve could've been at a Rest Stop, or a Weigh Station (they weigh trucks at various places on the highways to make sure no cargo has developed legs - don't think all trucks have to stop, could depend).  Incidentally, this Finnish website link shows a map of the Finnish-Russian border, which interests me because the old USSR was always such a "forbidden" place, but also you can see trucks lined up to cross - must be so much more complicated driving across Europe/Asia, etc..  If you click on the little camera icons by the place names, it shows a tiny image of the scene (not a streaming cam). You can then click on that to get to the big picture. Note "This page in English" option at right. http://alknet.tiehallinto.fi/alk/rajaliikenne/e18_en.html

    Lindybird: Indeed as OG points out, when does a doctor ever recommend ironing? So it must be okay to let it go, right?

    Wattle: Wish I could let ironing go, but am equally compulsive at that as everything else and I'm the one who has most of the ironable clothes.  No chance of me taking it out of the pile to wear. Sigh.

    Diane: Followed your advice and rested today - napped in the garden with a book, got woken up by a noisy mockingbird and then a crow who, I suspect, was hinting I toss out some more bread or crackers. Also saw our neighborhood hawk being chased by crows and three orioles, two of which perched on the wire overhead but flew of when they saw me looking at them. I think they were planning to pilfer the hummingbird feeder...

    Off to do something and get the blood flowing again.  Yawn....

  • Hi Annette and everyone else!

    Annette, you talked about recording clips. If i can do it, anyone can do it.

    I have RealPlayer SP downloaded. When you have that, each time the LG screen starts or you put your curser over the image , a box pops up "download this video" Click yes and that's it!! It downloads it to your machine, then I put it on YouTube (which again is easy) and then post a link. Sounds a lot more complicated than it is, really:))

    Happy Monday everyone

  • Thank you to Annette, Diane, Auntie, Margobird, Lindybird, Alan, Brenda H, Tiger, TerryM, OG & Wattle for your birthday wishes. What a lovely lot of friends I have. Apologies if I’ve missed anyone. Lindybird - the Snake’s head Fritillaries are gorgeous, they look like they are wearing gingham. TerryM - The diet has been put on hold until I finish the chocolate given me by my very delightful gr-chn. (Thoughtful too, they know exactly which kind I like.) It was a very pleasant afternoon with the Daus teasing each other about wedding decisions and honeymoon plans. Some discussion on whether the girls will change their surname. One fs-i-l declared that he would change his. Now that would be fun if they swopped. LOL Sorry folks, the mudcake was delicious and nothing left. Today is actually my birthday and apart from the washing I am going to bludge all day. The ironing can wait. Lindybird’s fridge magnet on dusting reminded me of a Quentin Crisp saying "There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years, the dust doesn't get any worse." Obviously he had done the test. Crazy system here re shopping. Today is a public holiday for Anzac Day and as a public holiday the shops are closed. Yesterday being a Sunday shops opened at noon despite it being the sacred day of memory for the Anzacs. Crazy. I missed the intruder excitement and I don't really wish for more excitement . . .  but it wouldn't be LG else?

  • I got the server error / timeout expired message but it posted anyway. The wonders of modern technology.

  • Hi there: Thanks Gary. I'll check out the RealPlayer thingy at some point (should do it since something exciting could happen when not many clever people around and it's just me).

    AQ:  What is "blodge" "bludge"??? (can't see your message or remember the word). Soooo glad you had a good time with favorite chocolates, too.  Assume it's "hang out" or as some say, "chill."??

    I bludged/blodged?? most of the day; suddenly remember have not had shower yet. Had better hurry since I can see the first hint of daylighter over LG......

  • Hi, all. Thanks to everyone who posted info on the Daily Update page about the intruder events today -- especially thanks to Gary for posting the video.

    OG: I want to add my congratulations for the wonderful photos that you've been posting. Back during the days of 35 millimeter-film photography -- about a thousand years ago -- I used to have a lot of camera equipment, and I loved photographing birds. Well, I loved trying to photograph birds. I was never very good. So I can truly appreciate your talent!!! You asked about our weather. We were under a tornado watch last night until 3:00 AM. But we've had only rain -- lots of it -- and a bit of lightening. The tornadoes and bad storms missed us.

    AQ: I'm so glad that you had a pleasant day with your family.     JSB: Tinned peaches?!?! LOL     Alan: Wonderful osprey chart! I'm a chart and list person myself. That's the way my brain works; it seeks organization.    Lindybird: I love the Snake's Head Fritillaries. Also love to say Fritillaries! Such a fun word.

  • Hi, Annette. I'm so glad that you took a day off and rested today!!! If you napped, that means that you did need a break. Sounds like you had a nice day. I love to hear the mockingbirds, but you're right that they can be noisy. What kind of orioles do you have? We used to have Baltimore Orioles here in the summer, but I haven't seen any for years. Maybe because the forest here is getting too dense; I think they like to have some open area.

    Did you see the funeral for the coal miners today? Very sad. Hilda Solis needs to start cleaning up those mines and enforcing regulations before more people have to die. Such an abomination.

    I'm going to watch the Discovery Channel tonight. They are showing two episodes of Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. Yay!!! One is about the potential for alien life, and the other is about time travel. Two of my most favorite subjects! Can't wait.

    Hope the "intruder" ospreys don't show up at dawn. Also hope Caerann's job negotiation is going well.

  • Hey Diane: I love to say fritillaries (sp?) too - sounds like something French to eat!  I imagine a light and flakey pastry that would go well with a cafe au lait.   Aaack. A tornado watch?!  How would you know if one was approaching? Do you have to sit glued to the telly or radio? Do you have reverse 911 calling or would that even be effective given that you probably wouldn't get much notice. And where would you and your Dad go if one did show up? Don't feel you have to rush to answer all that!  Discovery Channel program just starting but torn between that and "Small Island."   Hmmmm. 

  • Annette - 'Bludge' means doing nothing productive, not lifting a finger for anything one should be doing (except for viewing ospreys LOL). It must be Aussiespeak. Yes Diane & Annette fritillary is a wonderful word. It makes me think of very thin crepes. (Oh dear, food again). Aren't some butterflies called fritillaries? (Or as we kids used to say, flutterbies)