My Computer Has Died in the Behind

My desktop has died in the proverbial but. It has committed the ultimate sacrifice to save me from my blogging and emailing and will not work. But I am able to bypass this little sabotage and am using my teenage son's laptop. Just need to ignore the MSN messages that keep popping up and all the gruesome images and websites this computer is used to accessing. Fear not dear reader(s) I will return....better, stronger, faster. My computer will go to the computer hospital tomorrow and get repaired (I hope). I miss my mouse, these pads can be very sensitive to my trembling hands, and there is no delete key! What kind of keyboard has no delete key? I know, I am a dinosaur.

Diet has hit a glitch. Have gained 200g this week. Poopanola I say. As my brother tells me that is but a glass of water. OK, I can live with that. Am starting tennis again this week and will be playing another night in the week from next week so I will be trim, taught and terrific (but most probably exhausted).

It is getting colder now. Winter tomorrow (1/6) and I have the leccy blanket on our bed and getting into the flanny jammies. I know this will send you sex maniacs wild with desire but you can't go past flannelet in winter. You should see me go over to the chook pens in the morning with my flannelet nightie, beanie and big gum boots on. It is a sight to behold. I remind my Lovely Husband that it is my fashion sense that he was originally attracted to. He agrees......but does not make eye contact, do you think that means he could be agreeing just to shut me up? Naah.

It is also slow cooker time of the year. Oh yeah, love that device. Had to take the Young Negotiator to hockey game tonight, then pick up Dynamic Daughter from drama and then go back up the hill to collect son from hockey game. Come home and slow cooker has dinner ready. Excellent device.

I love singlets. I wear them all winter. Oh yeah, your vision of me just gets better and better. Flanny wearing, boot ensconced, crock pot using, singlet wearer!

Enough of this waffle, those MSNs from people with pretend names must be getting impatient by now. Will try and requisition this laptop again soon. (I quite like this keyboard even if it doesn't have a delete key).

Bubbles And Her Belly

Bubbles is about 18 years old. She is a miniature horse we purchased many years ago as a retired broodmare. The old girl loves people and children but her true love has always been food. We were so delighted with her that a couple of years later we purchased her daughter from the same stud. Her name is Champers (get it? Bubbles and Champers?).

When the children would take Bubbles for a walk and/or run she was so well behaved. If they stumbled and fell she always stopped and checked on them. Until they discovered this little trick and would fall on purpose. She no longer believes them.

As you can see from this old photo she will try anything to get to either food or people. Her daughter Champers still lives with us but I sold her to a teenage friend to help pay for the Piece of Poop (Waler mare) at the time.

About three years ago we packed up both horses and the dogs and took them to a small village agricultural show. The kids were entering the dogs in the pet show and my Dynamic Daughter was also entering Bubbles in the miniature horse show. Champers' owner was doing the same. Our minis enjoyed the day immensely and were beautifully behaved. This particular show was big on horses, especially miniatures and there were quite a few shaved and groomed to-within-an-inch-of-their-lives horses there. And then there was our little fat and woolly mammoths. Yes they had been groomed, Champers even had a bath. Bubbles' only fear is of bathing so she went with that dusty just-pulled-in-from-the-paddock look. The show horses were so fine and small and young. They were excited and frisky. Our woolly mammoths behaved like seasoned professionals (they were just older and calmer actually).

Champers' owner had been practicing jumping her and worked with her for a couple weeks before hand. The Dynamic Daughter sporadically had a go but Bubbles did not co-operate with the whole jumping thing. Why jump when you can walk around? It did not look good for her show prospects. The Dynamic Daughter was stressed and worried to the point where I threatened to pull them out of the comp. We were just doing this for fun afterall.

When our two little fatties got through the first round of jumps we were all thrilled. How lovely. As the jumps were raised and the horses dropped away we thought "any time now" and we would be out. When the jump was put to the highest we all knew that Bubbles would not make it. We were barely watching the Dynamic Daughter and Bubbles with any enthusiasm when that little horse sucked in her gut and sailed over that jump to come first in the open event. Holy Cow! Champers came third and we were all so excited. What a shock. This shaggy old horse from the paddock had some guts - in more ways then one.

Bubbles came third in the led event and so came home with two ribbons and a trophy for the handler for her efforts.

At the show our Cyclone-on-Legs (Staffordshire bull terrier) also had a win. He won ugliest pet at the show! He and the Young Negotiator (our son) won a show bag with lots of goodies in it for kid and dog. My father was so insulted by that when we told him later but we thought it very funny. Our sedative-on-legs (greyhound) won nothing but quite a few hearts. Some people asked about her, (she was wearing a promotional vest to encourage people to adopt greyhounds) and her behaviour was exemplary.

All in all it was a bloody great day. Beautiful country side, steak sandwiches were excellent and the animals enjoyed themselves immensely.

Another Wonky Egg

Check this out, another strange egg. Do we have a chook with a weird cloaca (bum)? It looks like whipped cream on top. Anyhoo, the egg has been sold and is probably eaten by now.

I Am Fit

It has happened. I have gained a reasonable state of fitness and am
feeling great. Since my brain injury I have tried many times to attain some
sort of fitness level but always with the same result, I 'crash and burn'
and I have significant fatigue for about a week. You may remember in a
previous post that I was using jam jars and oyster sauce bottles to
strengthen my arms and walking the hills in the paddocks. It worked. I
have progressed to hand weights I purchased from a discount store and my
walks have included my dirt road which has some good hill climbs. I can
do 4km and not die in the butt.

A friend asked me to go to the gym with her and we go one day a week now,
along with our teenage sons. I do cardio and resistance training for
about 70 minutes and as much as I am exhausted afterwards it feels great.
Our boys enjoy it as much for the socialising with each other as they do
the exercise.

I have enrolled in tennis lessons (for a second time) which I go to with
another friend one night a week. It is run by a fitness trainer who does
not allow anyone to stand still for long. We work hard for an hour and a
half and again I am exhausted but feel great. What an achievement, I am
so proud of myself. I do however feel as if I have created a new
discomfort. Instead of tennis elbow I feel as if I have tennis butt. I
suffer stiffness and pain the next day after I sit still for too
long. No pain no gain eh?

One last thing; I have joined an online weight loss program and have lost
4.2kg over about six weeks. Again I feel so proud. It is slow but
successful and I am learning a lot more about good eating than I thought
was possible. We all think we know what the right diet is but we can
always learn more, and I have. Again I have two friends doing the same
and it makes it so much more interesting and supportive.

Woohoo, I think I am getting more of my life back!! Concentration is still a
challenge but I can live with that. I have a job that I love and I like to think I do it well. I hope this does not sound like a lovefest about myself but I just
had to share.