A long, long month

I personally will be very happy to see the back end of November.  It's been one of the craziest, most stressful months I've ever had and things don't really seem to be getting better!  I'm sure December will see a return to something resembling normalcy, so I'm glad there are only 2 more days to go!

Dave is still in Perth but has plans to drive home Tuesday.  He was going to drive home tomorrow, but Toyota screwed up fixing the car so now he has to wait until Monday so they can undo the bad things and actually fix what it went in there for.  Frustrating to say the least.  On the upside, he does get to go out tomorrow diving for abalone so it's not all bad news.

I'm not going to get out diving this weekend or in the foreseeable future because I have started working in the dive centre every day.  We have reduced our staff because we aren't consistently busy so I'm doing a lot more hands on each day.  It's been a nice change to get back into some face time with our clients - nice to put faces to emails!  I might be able to sneak out for a morning dive one day once Dave gets back, but we'll just have to see how busy we are in the lead up to school holidays and Christmas.

As I usually have to be at the shop just after 7am, the Girls and I have been missing out on our early morning walks for the past few days. With stupid daylight savings, it's still too hot after work to head out until it's too late at night for me to be that active! We did manage to get out before the sun was up one day and were treated to a wonderful sunrise over low tide



The Girls love low tide. Dora in particular loves to stalk the small fishes in the shallows and explore the tide pools; Til just loves to run as fast as she can over the smooth sand





I've been feeling a little guilty for not being able to spend as much time as I'd like with them so caved and put a small (relatively!) dog mat in my office. Usually it's MatildaLily who comes in and snoozes while I work (Dora prefers our bed most days), but sometimes both will come in and share a sweet moment of quiet

Another Qantas sale!

Qantas is having a two day sale for some limited dates in 2009 
and this time it INCLUDES Perth.  The sale ends on the 17th November US time so you'll have to hurry.

Here's the link with all of the information.

Death to the pawpaw!

I don't know what gets into Little Miss Snothead, but as I was getting ready for work at 0630 today she decided that the pawpaw (papaya) tree must once again face the wrath of the Demon Child.

For what seemed to be the umpteenth time this week I had to use my "not amused" voice with her as I tried to get all the potting mix back into the pot without getting too dirty myself since I still do not have hot water on demand.  It would have been easier if she wasn't convinced that the broom and my cursing were actually part of a grand game.




I've now added chili and cayenne pepper sprinkles all over and around the pot, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not too hopeful since she stuck her head under the shaker as I was doing it and ended up with her nose completely covered. Didn't even sneeze.

What a way to start the day...

Growing up too fast

I was on my way somewhere the other day - I don't remember where, only that I was running around like crazy all day - when I saw one of our local emu families walking down the road. I hadn't seen them out and about for a couple of weeks, probably more to do with my not being out and about than with their schedules, so I was excited to catch up with them. The babies are growing so fast that when I first drove by them I thought they had already outgrown their spots and stripes!

I zipped home, grabbed a camera and ran down the street to try to catch them.

They were clearly on an emu mission so didn't stop and would not let me get in front of them, but I was able to get a couple of nice shots of the three almost teenagers as they walked past Mate the dog who was very disappointed to be stuck behind his fence! They still have some markings, but they are fading fast.




I guess they could safely ignore the sign since they were just cruising through!

Insanity is good, right?

What a change a few days make!  This week has been a complete 180 from last week's mellowness. Sunday started off great with Ross, Mary and I heading out early for a couple of dives before I had to work at the dive shop. The water was a little chilly and the recent big swells and wind (I feel like we've had those conditions so often this year!) stirred things up, so the visibility was pretty cruddy - but the marine life was superb with turtles, rays, sharks, eels, masses of fish and zillions of nudibranchs!
Some nudibranchs







Turtle trying to get some peace & quiet


Some fishies








After work Sunday, I was relaxing in my office answering emails and heard plink plink plink followed by a more steady deluge. When I looked out the back door, a lovely waterfall had formed off our roof. Turns out our Solahart hot water system has sprung a leak, so I have been mostly without hot water since then. You don't realise how many times you use hot water in a day until you don't have it!  I've been heading over to Ross & Mary's for showers but I will be very happy to have a new system installed.  Of course, things are never that easy and we aren't expecting to have a new system for at least another week.  That's OK, I don't like to do laundry anyway!  The plumber did tell me that I could turn the main hot water tap on and then turn it off when I was done, so I have been doing that for a shower here or there as dragging everything to another house for a shower is a bit of a pain in the behind, really.  I've got a big bucket under the leak and use that water on the plants instead of just letting it go to waste.  Did I mention that this is a royal pain??

Who could resist that sad puppy standing at the gate from my last post?  The Girls and I have hit the beach a few times this week but the strong morning winds have knocked out this activity for the past couple of days.  I love going to the beach with them - it's just such a time of simple joy watching them cavort and be happy dogs!



MatildaLily was sure she had a chance to get that pelican. She even did a big long swim out towards it; the pelican never spared her a glance and didn't change his leisurely pace, clearly realizing she had no hope!

She didn't seem to upset at failing to catch her quarry as she bounded in the other direction to see what Dora was up to



They really mix it up during their playtime - from ferocious to oh so adorable, all in the span of a few minutes!








We had a little naughty episode, two actually, the other day.

We were doing an early morning walk and saw another lady with two dogs coming our way.  So I popped the Girls on the leads and tried to go around. She put one of her dogs on a lead, but left the little weiner dog off.  Dora was in stalk mode but wasn't tugging on the leash; Tilly was going crazy on her leash, trying to run after the little dog who was doing its best imitation of enticing prey at the water's edge.  I'm still not sure what happened, but all of a sudden both Dora and I were being dragged at full speed towards the daschuand!  The daschuand headed into the sea - why??  it stands like 4 inches tall! - and Til dragged us along behind her.  I ended up almost waist deep, holding two dogs who thought we were now playing as we watched the little dog swim to shore and run after its owner.  I was not amused.

We finished our walk and both dogs jumped right in the car without a fuss and we drove home.



Once home, I slowly opened the hatch a crack to make sure they were both sitting patiently before letting them out.  BAM Tilly barges through Dora, the hatch of the car and me and is G-O-N-E.  I get Dora inside and head out to find the escapee.  No where.  I finally see her cut through a housing complex and follow her, but can't locate her again.

So I drive aimlessly around town, stopping walkers to ask if they've seen a big brown dog, for an hour and a half.  Finally I see a friend with his dog and he asks if I have misplaced one of mine.  He's seen her having a merry old time up at the hospital, playing with at least one other naughty dog.  Off I trundle to see if I can capture her.

Sure enough, she's having the time of her life playing with some random dog. There's another random dog with a collar on and no owner in sight just sniffing things and generally being a dog.  I guess I'm the only one who thinks my dog shouldn't just be out roaming on her own.  Amazingly, I call Til and she hops right in the back of the car.  My mood was not good by this time and took several hours to improve! Good thing they are just so darned cute sometimes...


I've been at the dive shop on and off this week and fielding quite a few calls for photography. April 2009 is now officially insane with weddings booked three Saturdays in a row right through our peak time of school holidays! I also have a christening this Sunday followed by a client meeting with Monday's bride. I'm excited that things are picking up again after a little lull.