2010 2010 2010!!!!!
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? It's already half-way thru January, and I keep meaning to update my blog. Well, I'm finally getting round to it.
Christmas: Went to Church for the first time EVER on a Christmas morning - nice, loved the singing (as I always do!), got home to find David's parents had arrived early - oops! 11 for Christmas lunch - both sets of parents, brother and his wife (almost need subtitles for the strong Californian accents of both of them), me, hubby and 3 kids. Lots and lots of yummy food, and lots of talking. Nice to have all the family together. I even managed to find presents for both Mothers - sets of bathsheets and flannels in salmon and aubergine - and they liked them!
Spent Boxing Day gardening - it's always so much more fun gardening in company. Grapevine and climbers got tidied, front garden bed got turned over, and a general tidy-up. Back to Church on the Sunday, with David's parents. Comment from FiL - grumble "not used to going to a church without a suit and tie" ... hmmm - how often do you go to church? Except for funerals? Retail therapy at Mitre 10 - got a couple of big terracotta planter pots, and plants - a climber for the patio, and flowers for the front. All but one flowering plant survived.
David rigged the hammock just before New Year - really nice lying in it out the back, in the breeze, swaying gently. He was working New Year's Eve, I was tired, and in bed and asleep by 2200. Slept thru till 1100, with the help of a sleeping pill. Then of course, couldn't sleep properly for the next couple of nights, sigh :(.
Avatar 3D - Awesome! Wanna see it again, and buy the DVD. Loved the animation, and the live action, and the scenery and .... and KFC for dinner! nom. Happy happy happy.
3 January 2010 - 14th Anniversary! Went for brunch at a cafe in Titirangi - big breakfasts and coffee, then to Lopdell House, to look at an exhibition of glassware - amazing what artists make, and how much they charge for them (and that people will pay for them!!!!)
David worked in the afternoon, and I played Space Cadets RPG - 6 gruelling hours. This is fun? Well, in hindsight, it was. At the time, I wasn't enjoying a lot of it. What would you do if someone threw a gas grenade into your room? Or you found yourself in command of a US Naval Destroyer going to the rescue of a Coast Guard cutter boarded by pirates? Short answer - not do it right.
The return to work was a culture shock - I'd got used to (relatively) late nights, and lazy mornings, and pottering during the day - oh, and of course, reading and reading and reading ...
Back to School: Signed up for a paper at Laidlaw College - "Ways of Knowing", essays, assignments and exam: 503.515 Ways of Knowing: This course spans how we know (epistemology), how we interpret (hermeneutics), how we think from the Gospel (theological method), and how ideas shape society (public discourse). The aim is to throw useful light on how people actually make sense of themselves, ideas, events and things – both when we think about thinking and when we don’t – and to suggest how we might engage and influence in the marketplace of ideas.
- adds 15 more credits to my NZQA collection. Starts 1 March - really looking forward to it.
Hello possum! Been catching possums in a trap over on the reserve - 1 mother + joey, 4 males. In trouble with Animal Welfare for cruelty to animals because I've been drowning them in the pond. Why am I trapping and drowing possums? They are noxious introduced pests, omnivorous, to the point of eating not only eggs and baby birds, but adult birds on the nest, and anything else they can catch (sounds a lot like humans!) They destroy trees with their voracious appetites - they eat 2-3 times their bodyweight daily. They also carry TB, which they pass on to livestock and hedgehogs, who then pass it on to humans.
Animal Welfare were talking about prosecuting me for it!!!!! It's cruel to drown them, and when I asked for more humane alternatives, suggested I shoot them - pointed out you can't discharge a firearm in a built-up area; or to chop their heads off with an axe! Get real - take a possum out of a cage, and wave an axe at it? I do not need lacerations thanks!
The Animal Welfare woman left a message on my voice mail tonight: "she may have a solution for me". So, I can keep on trapping? Can't wait till tomorrow to find out!
OUCH! I've managed to strain my left hip. How? lol - don't really know, but possibly from pushing my bike uphill after checking the stoat traps up at Waitakere dam. Hurts like hell - like a corkscrew is being driven into my hip joint. Walking makes it worse, resting better. Been to the osteopath - useless. Voltaren has stripped my stomach lining, so no painkillers. Acupuncturist tomorrow - we'll see how that goes. It was so bad today, when I left to go home, I forgot my book, and didn't have the energy to walk back over the carpark to get it.
Thursday morning - 0300 - Angelina caught a tiny field mouse. Sat on the fence chittering, with it in her mouth. Went out, she came over and released the mouse, while the dogs watched at the door. Caught her mouse, and went off to chitter again. Bark bark bark. Another long long night.
It's only 2120, and I'm thinking of bed.
Books read this month:
Lee Strobel; Case for Christ & Case for Faith - grr - once over lightly, but had its moments, and answered some questions.
Edited by Marcus Borg; Jesus at 2000 - some very interesting lectures, and some very dire ones, but all in all, an interesting read.
Chuck Swindoll; The Grace Awakening (argh - didn't need sleeping pills after this one!)
Robert Heinlein; Space Cadet - I'd forgotten how cool this book is - a rollicking good yarn (Starship Troopers is waiting at the Library)
James Ryle; Hippo in the Garden - quite funny
Books in Progress
Marcus Borg; Heart of Christianity - now this one rocks!
Larry Kreider; Building your Personal House of Prayer - interesting, but having a hard time finding the time to put it into practice. (gee, maybe I'm reading too much?)
David Ebershof; The 19th Wife - only about 20 pages in, it has another 20 pages, and if it doesn't grab me ... bye bye.
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