The No-hat Noah game

"Hey, they put that hat on me again! I know this game. this is fun! I throw it on the table...
I toss it carelessly behind me...
I will NOT wear the hat! OFF it GOES!!!
Ha ha! I win! I wear no hat. I am so cheeky!
(Boy I'm lucky I'm not an Australian baby! At least I have a good thick ozone layer over my head.)

Ah yeah... another auntie. Man, I have a lot of those. They sure do like me!"

(Happily brought to you by the Minnesota Zoo, the playful Thurber family, and the letter N. and Auntie Alicia. and her camera.)

A beautiful day in Minnesota

Oh, it is lovely to be on holiday in this great green space :) Welcome to Minnesota!

We started out the trip with a visit to the MN zoo, with Loren, Mom & Dad, and of course 9month-old Noah. His favourite part of the day was undoubtably the water tank in Dicovery Bay. He must've spent about half an hour splashing us all with salwater. It was delightful!

The real shark in the aquarium was a bit scary, but not so the light-up rubbery one his Auntie Alicia gave him.

Grandma wanted to throw him in, but we convinced her not to do it ;)

Hmm... I reckon that's all for now. There is Heaps to do ! Today it's off to shopping with the mother of the Bride.

But there's definately more posts and photos to come...so keep watching.

Love to all those back in Australia. And those I haven't seen here yet. See you all soon!

The Excitement Builds!

So many exciting things going on in this lightly-rained-on land this weekend. Besides the Thank-you-God-we-finally-got-some rain feeling of cold but relief, and besides the fact that it's the last day of the school term and starting tomorrow the wound-up kiddies will be released on the world and anyone childless and over 22 will be evacuating the movie theatres...besides all that, there some other fantastic reasons to celebrate.

First off, the celebration of the end of too many hyphens in this particular blog post. And too long sentences. :) That's got to make you breathe easier!

Australia is stoked! The entire country. and all those who have once claimed any affiliation with the country, anywhere they are in the world. They were excited enough to be having street parties before 6AM this morning. I woke up to shouting around the neighborood and hulabaloos of the masses on my radio alarm , and I thought maybe an entire mob had won the lottery. The socceroos are on fire!
Ok, so to sum up for those of you who don't know -- Australia is in the world cup this year. We are hardly ever in any of the final games of the world cup. We have never in history made it as far as we made it this morning when we didn't lose to Croatia. I've never seen so much celebrating over a game that was only a tie. But it meant that They are out (hard luck, Croatia. Better luck next time mates!) and we are in. We get to go on and play Italy!
and yes, I am using "we" proudly. Why not? I'm still here. And We're doing so well!

And for those Aussies who don't get too excited about sport (there are a few of them out there) there is always the big celebrity gossip to get those tongues wagging today. This weekend in Sydney is the wedding of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Ahh Keith -- a favourite Country music star. And he grew up in a town just north of Brisbane. Takes us about 40 minutes to get there... Caboulture. If you want to hear any jokes about that town, just mention it to Danny and Wayne. I've heard them tell hours of jokes about it. But I won't pass along any of those at the moment -- I quite like Keith! and I hope it all goes well for them. :)

And of course, the other big excitment is the biggest for me and completely unimportant to most of the rest of the world. I leave in less than 3 days now...for a two week holiday in MN. VERY excited about that! I can hardly sit still.
:O
:)

see you soon!!

pilot humour :)

A sleepy and chilly good morning to you all. I blog this morning for no really good reason, but I'll make up a few that should pass for acceptable reasons anyway: 1- I've got flying to visit Minnesota on the brain at the moment, as I'll be doing that in just under a month now! (I'm so excited!) 2-I'll be flying with Qantas, which should make everybody happy, since they feed and entertain me quite adequately, and they are still the ONLY international airline to have never had a major accident; never lost a single person. and 3- It's always nice to start a day with a little chuckle if you can get one.

So Dan's grandparents (great people), they get this newsletter for the National Seniors Association, and this month they sent a copy of it to us because of what was on the back. This morning I finally read it all the way through and I really laughed out loud. My husband is going into a profession with such a fantastic sense of humour :)

I can't be bothered to learn to scan, so I type this, word for word, as fast as I can, before I rush off to work. ENJOY!
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After every flight, Qantas' pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet," which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said tht ground crews lack a sense of humour. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' Pilots (marked with a P) and the Solutions Recorded (marked with an S) by Maintenance Engineers.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to a more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious. (he he :)

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last!!! ....

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.