Sunday, April 26, 2009

Ireland Before

Ellen is off to Ireland. Now what does that have to do with me? Nothing. I am staying back here, with the dogs. She will be touring a whole other country we will be home wondering what she's up to. She will be seeing the sights and we will be doing the same ol same old nothing. Am I jealous? Yeah I guess I am but don't tell her. What bothers me most is that she will be using up all her holiday time and I will have lots left and no one to go with.

But its a mother daughters trip. She is going with her mom and her sisters, and its been in the planning stages for years. It was just to be her mother and sister years ago but just before they booked it my father in law got sick and it was put off. Then ny sister in law go married and moved to Winnipeg (not necessarily in that order), And the trip got put off. But every once in a while talk of it would rise like Brigadoon out of the mist and there would be talk.

Well now the talk has come to fruition. The contingent is expanded to Mom and all her daughters and they leave on Tuesday. Fifteen days and a bus tour of Magical Ireland. Ellen is all decked out with new luggage and a new digital camera and all but packed. That will be done by this evening. Then its off to the emerald isle. Well almost first a flight to TO then Heathrow then Dublin and a good nights rest. Then the tour and fun.

The Gooding girls are doing a special side trip next Sunday to meet Barber relatives. Mom's family is from a small pace near Sligo. There are still family back there and through the magic of the Internet Donna has arranged a Family Reunion of sorts. That is to take place next Sunday at the Church in Duncliffe.
Beyond that they have a whole long list of sightseeing tours etc.. etc..

I had one rule for the trip, It has to do with Ellen's sister Barbara. Barbara is a great kid don't get me wrong but she will call up to say hi and you will be on the phone for an hour and will not have said three words in sequence, To say she has the gift of the gab is to put it mildly. Its not a bad thing. She offsets Ellen who usually sits back and lets the others do the talking. At any rate my one rule for the trip is that under no circumstances do they let Barbara kiss the Blanrey stone. I don't know what could happen. Nothing probably like attaching a charger to a gully charged battery. Then again we should not risk a national Irish treasure should we. Maybe it would give that old rock a rechage so it can keep going another thousand years!

Other than thatthey should have all the fun and good times you can pack into two weeks in an Irish tour bus.

As for me and my girls, I think the Chicken delivery man will know where our house is quite well by the time Ellen is back!

Sitting here all alone with the dogs...
Randy

Friday, February 6, 2009

Still Here

As Mark Twain said " The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated!" Yes its been a while and for that I apologize.

This is just a quick note to say I am still here I just have not had too much to say or time to say it. Sorry. Somebody out there is thinking of that line from Dances with Wolves where the Mule skinner and Dunbar come upon an arrow riddled skeleton on the prairie and the Mule skinner says "Somebody back east is wonderin' why don't he write?" Well I ain't dead yet. It is just that Ive been busy at one thing and another. I work on computers all day and I don't want to see them when I get home unless I have to. And this blog is not an I have to.

On the home front no great shakes. Unless you count Belle getting attached by a Pit Bull great (we certainly shook). Last Monday we were out for a walk around the block and as we passed a house a Pit bull jumped an 8 foot fence and roared across the yard and grabbed her. I was able to get her away from it twice before the owners got off their butts and got it into the house. Belle was bitten on the ear and bruised on the neck and shoulders. I was just shook up (its a scary thing to have a dog like that coming at you.) I found her ear wound when I got home so I took her into the vet emergency to get her completely checked out. Two hours and 200 dollars later she was home not a whole lot worse for wear. I reported the incident and the owners were fined. They took the dog out of the city. I have to stop by to get them to pay my vet bill. The animal control officer said I may want to wait as they were quite upset. Poor dears. If I get any grief from them I will take them to small claims court. So they will have a choice of paying me now or paying me later.

Other than that its the same old same old. And as the Monty Python line from "the Holy Grail" goes "I'm not dead yet!"