Mother’s Got A Dot Com

#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!

I’m not feeling up to struggling with various keywords today. My partner in crime blogging has given me a list of weird ones – a long list. I looked at it, and thought what a strange blog I’m going to have for the week to come.

But I’m not in the mood to be creative. Down in the dumps, really. Not at all inspired to insert anything about Argentina travel in a sentence, paragraph or post.

I think I’ll just post another one of Miracle Boy’s self-portraits, just to cheer myself up.

On Monday night, we got the sad news that a friend of ours had died of a massive stroke.

She was 43. She had her first stroke, due to an aneurism, 8 or 9 years ago, and had lived with the sword over her head since. She was 5 months pregnant when the first one hit her, and her baby girl will be 9 years old in July.

You never know. Which, in many ways, is a good thing. Our friend struggled for all these years with the fear of leaving her children behind, and sadly, that’s what happened in the end.

We try to learn from these things. Learn to live life now. Hard lessons though.

Do you?

I do hope the Brits make the most of this hidden treasure!

Happy Easter, everyone!

In our case, today has been a Happy Eater, as we invited the inner family circle (which got our number up to 16) to an impromptu barbecue in the sunny side of our yard.

This is how it looked, just a couple of hours ago. In honor of the fact that it had come of age, and was eminently drinkable, we even popped a couple of bottles of 10 year old Margaux.

A very enjoyable afternoon.

Yesterday, Hubby took the monster horse out to try out his new harness, and as you can see, it fits like a glove. The two tiny Brats were taken for a ride, and loved it. Here’s a picture of the monster horse, Hercules, with Brats and handler:

Climbing the Himalayas? Island-hopping in Greece? All very well, surely, but I’m enjoying the coming of spring right here in my own back yard. If that makes me insular, so be it. At least I don’t have to pack a thing, or worry about planes, transfer, hotels, stomach bugs, or whether I could survive on yak milk.
Right now, that’s the way I like it.

Did I remember to wish everyone a Happy Easter? Never mind – one more time won’t hurt.

Look what I found…

This is a webcam located at Kjerringholmen, not very far from here. Just goes to show that Norway isn’t all mountains and hills – there’s a rocky, beautiful shore too.

For more Norway webcams, click here.

It wasn’t a bomb. Technically, it wasn’t a bomb threat either, the young lad responsible had sent an email to a major newspaper, threatening with a blood bath/massacre in the next 48 hours.

Whe he saw what commotion he had caused, he turned himself in. According to him, it was an April Fool’s that got out of hand. And that got caught a bit late by the newspaper desk.

Yeah. Slightly. Some of the 1200 kids involved may well be traumatized, but if they can’t take a joke… At least they got an extra day off. That sort of thing gives 3-6 in this country, so the “joke” is on him, you might say.

#2 Brat came home early from school today.

Why?

A bomb threat. The police came in with dogs, armed to the teeth, and got everybody out of there. Apparently, a student from another school had made the threat, although that’s not been confirmed.

No school tomorrow either, so Easter came early this year. For some. Most of the pupils and teachers still have all their stuff there – #2 Brat’s friend was not allowed to take her scooter home, for one.

Good thing they take it seriously – but scary!