Awful Morning, Great Afternoon

Right before I was about the leave with the girls to school/work, it started snowing. A quick check of the weather and the school cancellation message and we got confirmation that school was in fact on. The snow appeared to only be relatively light, ending around lunch time, so off we went.

As it turned out, the snow was pretty much exactly the worst kind of snow to be driving in. Light enough to mean that everyone was out on the roads but still heavy enough to cause cars to be sliding everywhere. There were accidents all over the place and the commute, normally 40 minutes, was still in progress at the 2 hour mark.

At this point I was approaching the exit from our last main road, and noticed that a lot of cars were getting onto the shoulder of the road to get up to the exit ramp (the main lanes were pretty much stopped at this point). I decided to also try this and it was going well, making some more progress when suddenly someone decided to try to cut in front of me. Of course, there was a lot more snow on the shoulder and there was no way I was going to be able to stop in time...so I had to hope that I could slow down a little and that they would accelerate away. Naturally, their cunning plan in the icy conditions was to cut in front of me, then stop...so at about 15 mph (I guess) I ran up the back of the car.

Massive shout out here for the Honda manufacturing process, particularly the Japanese bloke who designed their bumpers...the only damage to my car was to the licence plate cover - literally. The woman in front had a few small scratches on her bumper. As part of my continuing need to educate humanity, I threw out a comment - "Are you serious cutting in front like that in this weather?", she then yelled back something about me driving on the shoulder...the same shoulder that she was driving on when she cut in front of me. I could have continued by showing her the lack of logic in her comment but thought better of it.

I said that I was happy to simply drive on if she was happy to do it. If we wanted to wait for the police, we would literally have been there for hours so everything worked out OK.

I managed to crawl up to the exit ramp, then saw there were 3 cars smashed up there so despite only being a few miles from our destination, figured that there was no guarantee it would have been a short trip. I then took another exit and looped back around and headed home, arriving back 3 hours after leaving. The girls were happy to get a snow day and I got some stuff done in the afternoon, so it all ended up being OK. Working from home in comfortable clothes near a fire beats going into the office any day!

Catching Up

I think we are now pretty much over the initial hump of live with 3 kids. It was made worse over the past 3 weeks as I was working extra hours in the evenings, however, this should be behind me for a little while at least.

Angus is growing well. His next appointment is in early February but he seems to have added a couple of pounds and is already not fitting some of the 0-3 months clothes we had for him.

Naomi had a couple of minor cavities fixed the other day. So minor as to not need a needle and she did not feel a thing so that was good. When she heard she had to get something done, she was quite anxious, we were glad when it went so smoothly.

Cricket news - great wins by the Aussies in the ODIs. Despite Cameron White once being picked in the Test side as a bowler, I am lamenting the fact that his bowling is not quite enough to slot in there somewhere. However, I think I would be giving strong consideration to picking him as a #6 in the Test side. Would he really score much less than North? Also, with Haddin, Johnson and Hauritz at 7,8,9...we do have good depth and could afford to carry someone a bit I think. His slip fielding would be a massive boost for us, he is a decent bowling option as a 2nd spinner and I think, given time, his batting could continue to develop. Watching Watson has given me this hope - he has gone from an all rounder to being considered a front line batsman. Andrew Symonds and Steve Waugh were others who made this step up. Perhaps White could do the same. In any case, in the ODI team he is now a fixture and making us not miss Symonds quite so much.

Mouse In The Bed

Last night, around 2:00am I awoke to find a living mouse actually inside our bed. Fortunately, with my lightning fast reflexes, I managed to grab the critter in one hand...all without needing the assistance of any sort of light in the room. Of course, at this point, I decided to ask for help from Mindy in organizing proper disposal of the rodent however, much to my surprise, not only was she not in the slightes way interested in helping...she was not even bothered by my discovery!

I detected a slight sarcastic tone to her voice when she said "There's a mouse in the bed?"... I looked at my empty clenched fist then realized that this was another "sleep walking" episode. It is really the weirdest thing - for me it is all quite real - for Mindy it is all quite ridiculous! Still - not quite as strange as the last time when I was convinced I was some sort of "secret agent" dude and I was feigning sleep, waiting for her to try to escape. Luckily for her she knew better and stayed in the bed! All 100% true...and these examples are not even the weirdest ones from my past. A quite strange "affliction".

A brief Angus update - he is doing well and growing nicely. He is now over 10lbs. Can't wait for him to learn to stand so we can start practicing "lineouts".

Angus etc

Things are starting to get back to normal, whatever that means. Angus has spent the past two weeks eating, sleeping and pooping which is a fine way to spend your life. At his two week check up he has continued to gain weight so all is well. Also, he continues to be relatively content. Not too much crying - he will wake to feed then go back to sleep. Mindy is also feeling better - still not 100% but on the improve.

From my perspective, I am doing more stuff in the evenings. Running around after the girls, running a few more errands, working and watching cricket. In fact, cricket is the main reason form me needing much coffee during the day. Last night, I stayed up until 2:00 watching us beat the Pakis. It should never have been this close and unfortunately I think Ponting sees this as vindicating his decision to bat rather then him realising that we won in spite of his decision to bat. A lot of fun to see it happen though.

Post Christmas fun has been spent on the Wii. The girls really love it and it is letting me see their competitive nature REALLY come out. Table tennis is the best for this...for whatever reason, this game makes them want to get in each other's faces when they win a point and there is certainly some pissing and moaning from the loser each time. Mario Kart is quite a challenge for them but they love the Littlest Pet Shop game. The Dance Revolution was also a hit. Mindy and I have done battle in several games, table tennis probably one of the faves right now.

Movies etc...watched the Kill Bill series again - a lot of fun. Nothing recent however. I would like to get out and see Avatar but not sure that will happen.

Work is quite busy catching up on everything. Hopefully I can stay at Colgate for a while yet, looking promising but nothing has been signed at this stage.