Hard work makes me Lawn

Well it has been a boring couple of days blog wise - I spent them mostly editting but I am quite pleased as I managed to finish this job in just three days and, unlike the previous one which took two weeks and I loathed every aspect of the finished product, I am really pleased with this one.

I did take a couple of breaks though - yesterday I weeded the area where the pond used to be, clearing away the weeds that came across with the bags of soil from her new garden. Today about 5.30 I decided to tackle the lawn - 6.50 I finally finished. In that time I uncovered 5 lots of dogs poo that had hidden in the masses, 2 dog toys, one empty packet of crisps that I suspect Thai nicked from the bins and hid out there, 1/2 of a pool noodle, emptied the grass collector 18 times and sweated approximately 20 buckets of moisture!

But as you can see, before it was a long untidy lumpy mess...

so the short untidy lumpy mess that it has become is quite a relief.

Sherb particularly likes it as now when I throw the ball, it lands and either rolls or bounces, instead of just stopping dead as it was doing.

It was such hard work, it turned my feet green.

We have apples on our apple tree at the moment - best keep an eye on them or the monster will eat them and then it ain't pretty.

This would have been a picture of a bee, but Thai had other ideas.

I also had a couple of good bits of news today - the cheque came through (minus excess) from the car insurance and as of friday our mortgage will move to our new mortgage company. Yay!

A good turn

I bit of a disorganised day today - I had intended to work all day but I slept in late (for once the monsters didn't bark - actually they have been doing well on that front all week). I then walked the monsters and saw a gorgeous heron by the pond - I tried to take pictures but sherb was doing his best to be a pain so they weren't great. It was quite an overcast morning - grey skies but no rain.

It was very quiet down the park, even the ducks were sleepy.

I then had to go and get a new keyboard as I killed yet another one by knocking my drink into it. I got a "spill-resistant" one so hopefully this one will last longer.

I then headed to asda to replace the trousers that I broke the zip on the other day (long story) and the stopped at KFC to grab some lunch. As I was headed back to the car there was a young asian guy in a red car that wouldn't start. I mention the color cos I know JJ will ask me what type pf car it was and it was the RED type OK?. Anyway, as our car history is spotty at best I know well the sound of a car with a dead battery, so offered to give him a jump. To my intense enjoyment, he had never jumped a car before so didn't know how to do it - for once I was able to tell a man about cars! Not the easiest thing ever as the battery in the van in under the drivers seat, so we had to roll the car back a bit so that the leads would reach.

Once we got it going we soon realised that his battery is completely dead was I re-jumped it and sent him on his way. As I drove off, it sounded wrong and I realised that I had left the side door open a little - I had major problems opening it as the door panel had popped off the inside and stopped the door from closing BUT I also couldn't open it properly so it took ages to get it sorted. Once I got home, I had cold KFC and wilted salad - it was still quite yummy though as I was starving.

I had thought to hook the new wireless keyboard up to the laptop as the power cable is dodgy and the battery died years ago and so I wanted to be able to sit the laptop on the table beside me and type and use the mouse without the laptop dying every two mintues. However, the software wouldn't work as the laptop didn't have service pack 2, so it took an hour to update to the latest service pack and then another 1/2 hour to install the software. THEN I hook the USB thingy up to the USB port and the bit inside the USB port snapped off. This seems to be what my life is like at the moment! So I then hooked it up to my computer and ti works and it is great!
Anyway it is now 5.00 so rather than start so late I hung out the washing (the weather is gorgeous this afternoon - really sunny) and sat down to watch Dick Tracy which I haven't seen before. It is amusing but not brilliant, however I just LOVE Glenne Headly - her voice is just adoreable! Anyway, I am still waiting for JJ to call - he rang earlier when I was walking the dogs and I haven't heard from him since.

As an aside, Unca Ghastly has put out a new vid on youtube - it made I larf.

Disgraceful behaviour in public

Spoke to JJ several times today - he is a having a miserable time in switzerland, but spen tthe afternoon shopping so perked up a bit and his Dad is giving us a DVD player that he doesn't want - we wanted to replace our cheapo one as it doesn't have multiregion functionality and a lot of our DVD's are from the US.

I editted all day and I think Mum and Dad are concerned that I am wasting away without JJ so Dad suggested we go out for Chinese food. After a huge debate about where we would meet and go we decided to the chinese in Godalming. We phoned ahead to book and had no problem getting a table and it soon became obvious why - their diary was open and we were the only booking for the night! There were about 5 tabes full the whole evening - a shame as the food was great. I disgraced myself by dropping my bowl towards the end of the evening. Dad amazed us all by knowing who pinky and the brain were (K protested this fact for ages) and general hilarity was had (much, I think, to the disgust of the other people in the restuarent). All in all, it was a really good meal.

Eventually we headed home.

A long day

This morning JJ flew out to Frankfurt. We left early to get him to the airport through the rush hour traffic, only to get there very very early for his flight. We dropped his bags and had a very pleasant breakfast in the airport before sending him through the security to see his Dad. We are slightly worried as about a week ago, his Dad called, explained he wanted to give JJ power of attorney over his accounts, but wouldn't say why. We suspect that he worse (he has been ill for a while) and has been told to put his affairs in order but for some reason won't tell us.

Later K turned up and we watched a film (it was so unimpactful I can't remember what we watched) and then we went to see the new Harry Potter film. It was brilliant, far better than the book which was one of the weaker ones I think but there were a couple of things I didn't like. Poor Cho didn't get an apology which seemed a bit harsh and also they never explained the arch that poor Sirus fell through which, as it had been quite a while since I read the book, was a bit hazy for me. Also this seemed to make Sirus definitely dead, when the book seemed to leave the question of if he was really dead open. I also didn't like the final confrontation with Voldemort, it just seemed spectacular but contrived and false, for example, conveniently the rest of TOOP conveniently didn't seem to notice the battle going on in the next room, despite having yelled after Harry as he ran out, until right at the end.

But all in all, I really liked Luna and if I weren't straight I would jump Tonks bones right this second! And watching the film now knowing what happens in the last book adds another layer of poignancy.

Volvo revisited

Good news! The insurance people have let us know how much money they are giving us for the volvo and it is pretty exactly double what we had bargined on so, after buying the van, we are only about a grand down now. Come then everyone HAPPY DANCE!

I took the monster to Lily Hill Park which I haven't been to in AGES. And they have added a bunch of sculptures to the park which I haven't seen before. Sherb posed.

Getting home I realised that one the sunflowers that Ryan (my nephew) had given me, was flowering! Amazing bearing in mind my ability to kill plants just by thinking about them. And it is a wonderful red color, I haven't seen a red sunflower before and didn't believe him when he told me!

When John got home he was desperate for something sweet, so under the pretext of spending some quality time with me, he opened the chocolate scrabble. I won but there was some dispute, that took a while to sort out.

The chocolate was disappointingly cheap so John gave it to me and, hey, chocolate is chocolate.