Izzy strikes again

Maybe its because I've been so busy lately, but I've been wishing I could have a bit of the dog's life. Lots of time to laze around in the sun, get attention for nothing more than being cute, and all of your meals are prepared for you.

Of course the downside is that you have doggie breath, your dinner comes out of a can, and you have to beg for treats.

We've discovered that other than having a sweet tooth, Izzy has another secret vice. Tea bags!



He looks around for cup with the suspicious tag hanging out, jumps up on the chair (so he can reach the table), ever so gently pulls the tag out between his teeth, and drags it under a table to devour.

A pure caffeine hit ensues and he races around the house and yard like a whirling dervish, jumping in the air, barking and carrying on like some mad thing. It lasts about an hour or two and then he sleeps it off.

I'm sure this can't be good for him, so we are trying to hide the tea bags. But he will slurp coffee or tea out of cups if one is left around.

I wonder if there is a 12-step program for doggies. Hello my name is Izzy and I'm a caffeine freak.

Silly puppy with a sweet tooth

Poor little Izzy, stuck eating canned doggie food when the rest of us are eating nice human food. He feels left out.

So, after all the big people go to sleep, Izzy makes the rounds of the house, nosing through the garbage and chewing up bits of paper. The very best stuff that he finds, he hides under Chloe's bed.

A few days ago I decided to get a head start on making the kids lunch, and left the homemade cookies in baggies on the table. After it was dark, Izzy hopped up on the table and munched through the plastic to the chewy, oatmealy (is that a word) goodness. He left the bags under Chloe's bed, because he couldn't reach the trash bin I suppose.

Now we have a very sad puppy because he's banned to the outside at night. Poor Izzy.

Are they biscuits or scones?

Homemade - not from a box

I've been trying to cook more things from scratch lately. Less preservatives, but more dishes to wash.

Tonight I made spaghetti and meatballs with biscuits on the side. Of course no one knew they were biscuits, they thought they were scones. That's pronounced sk-ons, as opposite to the American scone that rhymes with snow cones.

So I had a look, what's in biscuits: flour, baking powder, butter, salt and milk.

What's in scones: self rising flour (flour, baking powder, salt), sugar, butter and milk.

From what I've been able to observe, scones tend to rise slightly higher than biscuits and are generally a bit heavier.

I haven't had the greatest success with biscuits over the years, although I have improved from the lead-lined hockey pucks I used to make in my youth.

Cultural note #1:
There are many uses for the word scone in the Australian vocabulary.

It can mean:
* a biscuit, usually served with jam and cream
* a person's head
* to hit a person in the head

Note #2:
There are no pre-made frozen biscuits in a tube.

The things parents do

While I was writing the post about Donn's flying experience, I was reminded of when my family lived briefly in Alaska. We spent the spring and summer of 1973 in a small logging camp on Baranof Island. Prior to moving back home to Oregon, we stayed for a couple of weeks in a hotel in Sitka, while Dad and Mom finalized their plans.

I don't remember Dad being around much, but Mom was cooped up in a hotel room with three small kids, me 8, Jimmy 5, and Eric 4. We probably drove her insane trying to come up with stuff to keep us occupied.

One of the things I do remember is that every day we begged her to take us to the "castle". The castle was an old fortification overlooking the town. I think it even had a cannon.

Even my young legs thought it was a big climb to the top, but I didn't remember just how long it was.

Check out the video below that shows the trip down. I can't imagine doing that climb everyday, and I bet that she would have had to carry Eric for most of it.

Pilot to Bombardier

Cessna 172

As part of his Air Force cadets training, Donnelly got to try his hand at flying this weekend. He had a free flying lesson from Townsville Aviation. Instead of just sitting in the passenger seat watching the world go by, Donn got to actually take off and land (with the instructor's help).

Watching the little planes take off and land reminded me of the bush planes that I got to ride in when I lived in Alaska many years ago. We lived on a small island that was being logged and the only contact we had with the mainland was a short-wave radio and a monthly grocery shopping trip to Sitka.

I found the video below on YouTube, and it shows a small floatplane taking off in Anchorage. The best part is near the end.

How men shop

Dave has taken over the grocery shopping, even though he loathes the experience, in order to give me more time for writing up my thesis. Lately he's come up with a killer, although very male way of writing up the grocery list.

During the week we write on a white board in the kitchen whenever we start to run out of anything. Then, on the day that he does the grocery shopping, he takes a photo of the list with his digital camera, downloads it to his computer, and prints it.

I guess it beats getting a pencil and paper out.

A few of the items of the list might need a little explanation. Vegemite is of course the iconic, yeast spread that makes Aussies grow big and tall. It must work because the two oldest kids are near 6 feet tall, and one is a girl.

No, I don't eat it. Eww. And apparently President Obama wasn't too impressed when the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard brought him some.

Plain flour is regular flour with nothing added to it. You need to say "plain" because it commonly packaged as self-rising flour, which has baking powder and salt added to it. I guess you need that when you don't have Bisquick.

With 4 kids and everyone drinking coffee and tea with milk, we use a lot of it, so powdered milk is a good thing to keep on hand. Long-life milk is another thing all-together. It is milk that has been  treated so that it can keep unrefrigerated for 6 months. Once its opened I think it has to be used a quickly as regular milk. You can get this sort of milk in Europe as well, but I don't remember seeing it in America.

I had to google to find out what they actually do to it, because I had some suspicion that they radiated it. But, no it's just heated to 285 degrees for two seconds, which kills more of the bacteria than normal pasteurization. Who knew!

Who's Florinda?

Yesterday I overheard the following conversation between one of the kids and Dave:

          Chloe: Dad, where's Florinda?

          Dave: She's out in the car. 

If you didn't know the somewhat strange history of this name, you might wonder why someone was out in car, by their-self.

The truth is, Florinda is a GPS. And she has a long and checkered history in our family.

The story starts back with my grandfather, long before the invention of GPS-es. Before ATMs were around, people actually had to go into the bank to deposit or withdraw money. So, each week Grandpa would drive to town and talk to a real woman at the bank who would give him the money. Each time he'd come back home, and tease Grandma about the cute little red-head down at the bank who was always so happy to see him. It drove Grandma nuts.

Fast forward to Dave and I, 50 years later. I told Dave this story, and so whenever he would go out of town he'd make jokes about seeing his "girlfriend". Eventually I came up with the name of Florinda for Dave's secret moll. The kids thought it was hysterical, and played along. A couple of years ago one of Dave's mates got a GPS for his truck, and Dave decided he needed one as well. Part of the service provided by the GPS is a voice that tells you where to turn. So of course Dave picked the female voice rather than the male.

And since it had a female voice, Dave decided to name it Florinda. The kids shortened it to Florrie, and she became a member of the family, so to speak.

The Easter bunny cometh

We had a visitor last night who left footy prints all over the house. Apparently he bounced in through an open window and left bags of goodies for everyone. 

I think someone had a word with the Easter Bunny, because instead of a chocolate bunny each easter basket had a Toblerone bar. Coincidentally, one of my favourites.

Get this thing off me, I look ridiculous!

Even Izzie got decorated, although he wasn't exactly thrilled with  the idea. After all, sausage dogs have to look after their dignity.

Every year, the kids and I color Easter eggs. It's a bit more challenging in Australia because the eggs are sort of brown colored already. 

The finished product

Trina's graduation

Go the girls!

A friend of mine graduated today with the same degree that I'm hoping to obtain next year.

Also, during the graduation we had a 5.3 earthquake, thus proving that getting a PhD is an earth-shattering event.

Friday pileup

Today it's a pile of green fabric, but by tomorrow it will be a winter bath robe for Dave. I came up with the idea of making one on the spur of the moment, but now everyone wants one. 

I think I see some sewing lessons in my children's future!

Check back tomorrow for the fashion show.

Izzie says: "Do you see any pins, she always drops pins, owie!"