Hi everyone,
Well, isn’t the year just flying? We’re already one week away from the end of the first quarter. Despite this, it just doesn’t seem to be warming up here. We switched to Spring last week, at 7:02am (??) on 20th March, but it’s still really cold (there’s even a chance of snow tonight). Poor Brett is going through back-to-back winters, which makes it worse for him. This time last year it was already 15-20 celcius, now we’re lucky to hit 7!
Despite my whingeing, it’s not all the bad. After our biggest snow dumping of the season, I managed to build a snowman in the backyard.
We had the joy of de-snowing our steps and path
..and we grabbed the garbage bags and headed to the park for some snow frolicking. The park was jam packed with people with the same idea. My garbage bag was definitely upstaged by nearly everyone there and their toboggans & snow tubes, but the garbage bag definitely performed just as well.
So besides snow frolicking, I went to a Broadway show with Judy – I can’t remember the name of it, but it was really good. It starred a few famous people (though I don’t know any of their names) - the lady who was in “The Help” (you know, the one that can’t cook), the guy from Downton Abby (pictured), and another guy who has been in heaps of movies and shows but always in a supporting role (you know one of those types of guys that I I don’t even know where to start on google to find you a picture). Jude and I waited outside and despite being rugged up I’m convinced I was this close to getting frost bite on my fingers, even through my gloves.
So, what else has been happening? – well, I failed my license…. Again(!!!!)... what a blow to the ego. So, a week after failing for the second time I thought, “okay this is it – you’re going to pass, you’re going to pass”. I’d like to think it was the positive thinking that go me there, but no, rather than taking the studious approach I had the previous two attempts (reading and reviewing the entire 200 page DMV book), this time I just did online practice tests over and over, and what do you know, I passed with flying colors! By this time I was practically on first name basis with the ladies at the DMV.
The other thing occupying my time is it’s back to study time. After a 5 year journey (I only do one subject per semester), I now have only two subjects left so I’ve taken a leap and decided to go hard and get it over and done with, hopefully without compromise to my results. There is one good thing about the cold… it makes it easier to lock myself inside and hit the books. I’m one month in and have only 10 weeks to go until the finish line.
Travel wise, I’ve been to Miami (apparently Mel Gibson was in the same hotel, but I missed him) and to Brazil – a couple of weeks of defrosting.
So, another American experience we’ve had is poor Jack got skunked. What do I mean by skunked? I mean sprayed fair and square in the face with skunk stink. We went for a walk at the park late last week, took him off the lead for a run and he went straight towards the skunk (clearly we hadn’t seen the skunk). We rush him home, I’m madly googling remedies for de-skunking – baking soda, check; detergent, check; hydrogen peroxide, doh!;…okay, another option – baking soda and vinegar, check! We rush him up to the attic bathroom, we being Brett (I don’t do smells too well). Jack gets a baking soda and vinegar scrub, followed by a shower, but still there was a bad stink. At this point, Brett and I hightail to the local pet store and buy de-skunking shampoo. Another shower later and he seems to smell much better. Jack gets a nice blow dry and hits the sack. In the meantime, I’m airing out the house with all of the windows open (it was -1 outside). At 2am I wake up suddenly to a horrible smell (I didn’t think you could wake up from smells, but you can). There was little Jack man wanting to jump on our bed, and unfortunately the initial smell assessment was wrong – the skunk stink was still there and it was bad. There was no way he was coming anywhere near me or the bed. Meanly, I just ignored him, and I guess he knew he was bad, because rather than pester me as he normally would, he walked away with his tail between his legs back into his own room (yes, he has his own bedroom) and went back to sleep there. The next day, and another two baths later and he was finally ready to integrate back into society. Trust me, going through the experience of skunk smell is one you don't need to go through in life...
