Day off!!

I finally have a day off! It's kind of a bit sad when you get excited about not being at work on a Sunday but basically i'm working 27 days at the moment with only 2 days off. It's a bit rubbish. Friday night Dave and I went to a friends surprise 30th birthday party. Yesterday I went to a friend from works wedding. She and her new husband are Malaysian so we were all taken out to an Oriental restaraunt afterwards - it was very nice.

Im still working on my parents Christmas quilt - it's definately getting bigger...



Best wishes,

Jen

Caution - Graphic Content!

As promised, here is my wart. Jen smuggled a "caustic pencil" home and I used it to burn my wart. It is silver nitrate. Kids, don't try this at home. It turned all gray then black and looks nastier than this picture. It doesn't hurt, it just itches a bit.
Anyway, Jen would like you to know that I couldn't get a decent close-up picture with our digital camera, so I stuck my arm into our scanner for this photo.
Cool, huh?

Mmmm - caaaake. (Homer voice)

Whew! 28. One of those significant milestones in life. Sort of. Good enough for chocolate cake, though! Thanks to Jen for a great birthday dinner and cake. And a new phone, book and espresso machine.
Thanks also to all those people in my life that have shared significant milestones with me, or vice versa. It was good to be reminded recently of all the great stuff that I've been a part of in the past year or so, such as Melissa's wedding, Eli's birth, recording with my band, etc. etc. As you can see in the previous post, we had a few of you around last night to make me feel older. Pete is the only one older than me (by 2 months).
Anyway, I'd like to share a few interesting things about my job delivering the mail. Before I do, let me assure you that I by no means enjoy the job as such, and any anecdotes concerning it cannot be used to convince me otherwise. That said, today I got my first gift as a postman. I think perhaps this resident is an angel in disguise. Not a very good disguise, since two of the four times I've seen him he hasn't been wearing a shirt. Today he announced "Why wait till Christmas?" and produced a bottle of 10 year old Aberlour whiskey. That cheered me up for awhile!
Now let me tell you about some of my more interesting customers. I happen to deliver mail to some very famous people. The godfather of soul, Mr. James Brown; rap artist R. Kelly; and actor R. Redford all live on the same street! The rather unfortunately named A. Dick lives at number 68. Finally, my nemesis H. Flin is the Queen of Sweepstakes. Her record is 33 pieces of junk mail in one day. If you are to believe the envelopes, she is definitely the luckiest person on this side of the Atlantic, as long as she sends in the confirmation number by next week. Interesting side note, most sweepstakes competitions seem to be postmarked from Canada, Las Vegas, or Kansas City.
Well, that's about it from me. By the way, final mixing of the new Ladybirds Can Fly album should be complete next week sometime. It's sounding good. We'll let you know when CD's are available.
Until next blog-post-entry-thingy-

-david

Happy Birthday Dave!

Yesterday was Dave's 28th birthday. We had some friends around and chatted, played trivial persuit and ate chili and nibbles. It was a good evening.

Dave got quite a few cards and stuff. Mom and dad gave him some money to spend in a outdoor store here in Dundee. He's looking forward to that! I got him a (very much needed) new mobile (same phone number as the old one by the way) and an espresso machine. We need the Porters to expidite their visit to Scotland so they can give us lessons. The milk steamer has proven to be a dangerous appendage! Dave's friend Pete scalded himself whilst attempting to make the perfect cappuccino (just after announcing - " we're MEN, we don't need instructions!!"). I'm wondering whether a smoothy maker would have been a more sensible purchase!

(From left to right: Graeme (church friend and lead guitarist in Dave's band. Enjoying a gluten free muffin), Ashley (vocalist in band), Eva (Church friend), Simon (Church friend and married to Eva), The birthday boy, Pete (Dave's friend and business partner), Craig (band mandolin player).)

love to you all,

Jen.xx

ps. mom - have you worked out how to add comments yet?

My boys....

Isn't this just so cute!!

The Life of Winston...

Hi there to you all from wintery Scotland. Grandpop - I hope you've had success in re-accessing the site.

I'm a bit fed up today as was supposed to be going canoeing last weekend and got an infected foot and so signed up for this weekend instead and now have the cold. I'm pretty disappointed. Nevermind. Winston has been trying to cheer me up I think. He's been really helpful around the house - first he tried to help out when I was cleaning our leather sofa... only he used his claws (!). Then he decided he would try to help with the quilt I am making just now (see photo). I dont think sewing is his forte.

Anyway, Dave and I decided to plant a cherry tree in our front garden so we can have beautiful blossom in the spring. It's sort of to commemorate our second wedding anniversary - we thought it would be best to plant it now than to wait for November and risk snow and frost. Dave planted it this afternoon. He did a really good job (Ben Lemmons and Pete Reid would be proud of him I'm sure), remembering to take away the grass and top soil and replacing it at the end.

Winston watched from the window purring loudly - we reckon he thinks we've planted it for him as a new climbing frame/scratching pole. I'm sure he will try to test it out this afternoon. Afterall, last Christmas he went crazy with our 4ft fake Christmas tree - he would climb up the inside and knock of the balls and stuff!

Into The Fray

Hi, it's me, David. My first blog entry. Ever. Jen made me do it. I don't have much interesting news to tell, basically because Jen does such a good job of keeping everyone up to speed on what we are up to.
So I had a wart on my arm. I went to the doctor and he made me an appointment to get it removed. It took awhile, but then I finally was able to go back and see this nurse who had a big cannister of liquid nitrogen. It was pretty cool. She was just like, "So its this wart, then? Any others?" And I said no, that's it. So she pulled the trigger and sprayed this little jet of nitrogen at the wart. It really didn't sting or anything. Frost formed on a little spot about one centimeter wide, half on my wart and half on my arm. Then it disappeared. I was kind of disappointed, because I expected it to be more dramatic.
Anyway, it blistered up after a few days and eventually about half of my wart came off with the scab on my arm. I don't think the nurse hit the wart straight on, because only one side seemed affected. So I get to go back on the first of november to get another shot of the cold stuff. Maybe I will ask her if I can half the leftover nitrogen. I could use it to blast weeds in the driveway. I wonder if that would be more effective than the propane blowtorch I have right now. Jen won't let me use the blowtorch on my wart. She says that's like something my Dad would do, and I think she's right.
One time my Dad smashed his fingernail and it bled under the nail. I've had the same thing happen and it really hurts because of the pressure it creates. So my Dad took his cordless drill and used a really small bit to drill a hole in his nail. It worked.
Okay, so I'll let you know how the wart thing goes and maybe I can post some pictures of the dramatic process next time.

bye.