Mother’s Got A Dot Com

I’m lucky. My hubby is not into sports.

He’s not glued to the TV screen 24/7 on weekends, he couldn’t care less if there’s a football match on, or skiing, or whatever. Sport is flicked over in our household.

Now, in my sister’s life, things are different. She has a football fanatic hubby, and three boys. Guess what they’ve inherited? A lifetime membership in the Manchester United (or perhaps Liverpool FC) fan club, that’s what. She’s a patient soul, and grateful for small mercies, like the fact that her hubby sometimes takes all three boys to football matches. In England.

As for me, I don’t get it. I quite like swimming, but not to the point of watching other people doing it. I’ve also been known to enjoy a game of badminton. Actually playing it. Badminton or tennis on TV is like watching paint dry. Skiing, or running? Come on. I know one of them is going to come in a fraction of a second before the others, and I don’t care which one it is. (Don’t try to explain. I still won’t get it).

I’m just eternally grateful that whenever we do manage to travel a bit, there’s no mention of sports events. I know that if we ever manage to make it to USA, New York Yankees tickets will not be on the agenda. We might catch a rodeo though (no, probably not in NYC), to experience a bit of local culture…

#2 Brat is probably moving to Denmark in August – she’s applied to several design colleges there, and has got scores of butterflies in her stomach these days. She’s submitted her application assignments, and is waiting for word on round 2 of the application process.

#1 Brat wants to travel around the world, and is coming back home to work and save money for the adventure. #3 Brat is probably going on to add some academic exams to his CV – he should have gone into apprenticeship as a carpenter, but the building trade is still trembling, and securing a place is difficult. So, he’s doing the sensible thing. #4 Brat is going on to high school.

It looks like we’ll still be 7 people around the dinner table next year, and there’s no chance of a home theater seating arrangement for 2 any time soon. Just as well. Worrying about one at a time is quite enough at the moment. When #1 Brat goes on her world tour, I’ll be worried enough for a lifetime.

Note to self: This summer may be the last chance to take a familiy photo for a loooong time. Grab it!

10 very efficient fat burners to do this spring in our garden:

1. Dig out/ find/ carry flattish rocks to cover an area of 3×3 meters, to make a nice place for a café table and 2 chairs.

2. When that is done, fill wheelbarrow x times with fine gravel to cover the cracks.

3. Enjoy a cup of coffee on café chairs with hubby.(Not a fat burner, but an essential part of motivation!)

4. Move the 2 HUGE pots we were given last year to said spot, fill with earth, and plant something nice in them.

5. Clean out all the flowebeds.

6. Do the same with the vegetable beds/patches, and the strawberry beds.

7. Move all overspill perennials to the overgrown slope that goes down from the outbuilding, in an attempt to fight the weeds there.

8. Make new vegetable/herb garden closer to the house.

9. Design outdoor kitchen, start work on it.

10. Finish the rock garden that I started on last year.

This should at least build muscles…

I do a lot of proofreading these days. I correct Mystery Shopper reports, and Mystery Shopping is no longer a mystery to me.

I’m also quite au fait with the service level in various jewelry stores around the globe. As well as fine men’s clothing outlets, shoe stores and quite a few restaurants.Working from home sure gets you out and about…

Yesterday, I also started on a new little adventure – I am now officially a travelling salesperson. That is – I picked up my collection of children’s clothing, that I will be demonstrating at home parties. The commission is quite good, but the best part is that the clothes are all designed locally, by a small company not far from here. They are fun and functional, and the prices are affordable too.There is an Internet store too, of course, but home party clients get 10% off the e-store prices, as they’ve experienced that the personal touch is good for sales.

I’ll be starting next Monday, with a demonstration at my sister’s (bless her heart). Should be fun, as I’m totally new to this, and my head is full of newly acquired info that will probably come out helter-skelter… I hope Sis invites some benevolent souls.

Oh – and the last bit of white stuff (a stubborn mound in our yard) disappeared yesterday. So it’s officially spring!

At 8 o’clock Saturday morning, our neighbour rang. Our 5 horses had been romping around in his garden most of the night (Actually, they’d been all over the place – the white stuff told the tale), and he was now about to take his dogs out, and could we remove them, please?

Hmpf. I don’t blame him. They’re lambs, really, but one of them literally weighs a ton, and is quite imposing. Not really the company you want for your rose bushes, either – except for what comes out of their back side.

Anyway. Hubby and a couple of Brats went and got them, and put them back with their regular diet of silo hay. When they investigated what had gone wrong, it turned out that the elecric fence installation had no power. So, when Hercules (yes, that is the name of the monster horse), who’s no fool, sussed that one out, he just pushed the fence down and led everybody out for walkies.

We got the power back on, and we’ve checked it daily ever since…

I’m a bit apprehensive about this week end – hubby is going away, and so are 2 of the Brats that are eligible for horse-hunting.  There’ll just be me and one Brat here to do the biz if Hercules decides he needs some time away. Luckily, the white stuff is still covering most of our neighbour’s rose bushes. Not to mention his lawn… And the monster horse is a lamb – he just looks like a monster horse.

1. More Brats. I’ve done my bit in spreading my superior genes.

2. More Things. I sometimes think I’d be a good candidate for “Life laundry”. I wouldn’t mind lighting a great big bonfire while benevolent souls did a makeover on my house.

3. More White Stuff. ‘Nuff said.

4. To Gain Weight. I should be a bear. Hibernate, and wake up 20 kilos lighter.

5. More Dust Bunnies. The most stubborn ones eat Smarties. I wonder where they get them from?

6. Phone numbers to immigration attorneys. White stuff, politics  and taxes aside, I do love this weird little country of ours.

7. Another Blog. Although…

8. Another Bill. Dream on.

9. Another Telephone Salesman. I know, they’re trying to make their own ends meet. But do they have to be so oily?

10. Daylight Saving Time. It’s OK this time of year. (We switched this weekend). But I absolutely HATE it in October, when we get an hour less daylight in the afternoons. Who cares about mornings? No one sees the light anyway. But to deprive people of daylight in their spare time is not a good idea!

I’m not going to whine about the weather or the snow for a while. I promise.

Today has been lovely, the white stuff is melting fast, and I’ve cleared a space on the terrace that’s large enough to put out a few deck chairs. That means we can enjoy a nice cup of cocoa with whipped cream in the sun, while letting the sun tan our faces by reflecting on the white stuff.

I think I’ll just enjoy the coming week. I’ll paint Easter eggs with the Brats, pick birch branches that I’ll put in water to enjoy a bit of spring indoors, buy a great big pot of mini daffodils, and stick my tongue out at the white stuff, as I watch it melt. I’ll not worry about life insurance quotes, unpaid bills or even mortgages, and just enjoy life for a few days.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just vacuum the old mind for any worries, and take a day or two doing time out?

# 1 Brat came home for a flash visit this weekend, bringing a friend from school. Now, the school in question is run on Christian principles, and I thought that maybe I had to be on deCorum watch.

In a household with 4 teenagers, sometimes words are spoken that would not be acceptable in polite society. This is certainly true in this one, and the little 2 1/2 year old tyke is quick to parrot anything he hears too. We tend to try to ignore it, since we’ve experienced that whatever is made a big deal of, just gets more interesting.

However, I’m not one to willingly offend my guests, so I hoped for best behaviour all round. (Let it be said that swearing is not an everyday occurance around our dinner table, and I repeat: we just don’t make a big deal out of it). Anyway – #1 Brat and friend arrived, and in came this beautiful girl, polite, friendly… and then she smiled at me. Revealing a great big “bag” of snuff under her upper lip. I managed to contain myself. I did not laugh.

Prejudice is a strange thing. In hindsight, I failed on at least a couple of counts:

1. Christian people are offended by swearing. Some are. Many though, think as I do, that it’s just words, and what counts is what’s on the inside.
2. Christian girls don’t use snuff. Eh… where did that idea come from? She might well have had deep rooted beliefs, what do I know? We never discussed the matter, and no swearing occurred.

As life is a life-long learning process, I can sum up the weekend’s lesson as follows: Appearances and preconceptions almost always lie. Get to know people first, and then refrain from passing judgment.

I’ve had regular comments lately, on posts that are buried way, way down in my archives. They are obviously written by people, but the link goes to a commercial site.

The comments themselves don’t always make sense, or have any real content. Some are shameless praise – they’re the easy ones to catch.

I don’t mind linking out – I would, however, like to decide for myself which commercial sites I link to. Which, of course, I do – I mark everything as spam that I don’t like.

Akismet has done well for me here – it’s stopped thousands of spam. Usually, the ones that are stopped are very obvious spam. These new types – it looks like commercial sites have people employed to go around commenting on blogs to get them backlinks.

Not a job I’d want.

So, spammers: Isn’t it much better to have bloggers link to you willingly? It’s dead easy – the following, for example, is a link: It has to do with automotive lifts. Not something I’d normally talk about on this blog, and I’m not about to start, since I hardly know what they are. If this type of link isn’t what you’re after, get in touch! A blogger who writes about the stuff you’re selling might want to exchange links – who knows? Ask! The worst that can happen is that you’re turned down.

You might have to give links out to get links back to your site, but nothing ever comes into a closed hand.

- know that feeling? When you’re juuust about to drop over the edge? I’m talking finances, not mental sanity, though it seems the two are closely linked.

What idiot was it that said that money doesn’t make you happy? Me, I’d gladly settle for rich in an unhappy sort of way. I don’t think there is any major problem in my life that huge amounts of cash wouldn’t solve at the moment. I may be hugely misled, but problem-free seems pretty d*** close to happy to me.

I don’t care about Vegas vacations, luxury or new clothes. I just want the people that owe us money to cough up, so that we can honor our obligations. “Yes, but…” only cuts so many times when you’re talking to mortgage/bank people.
Can’t think why. Every scrap of history tells them that we will make good. Just this once, why not cut us some slack? With property prices as they are, it’s in their interest (pardon the pun) too.

I still sleep at night. I’m weird that way.