Over the last few weeks I have got the family addicted to the game Catan. It is a game where you have to think a few moves ahead and also sweet talk other players into trading goods with you. Last night I was playing with WaG!, Monster and Grandpa. The 9 year old (Monster) kicked our butts! This means war I am not going to play nice any more, my goodness a 9 year old out smarted us all!

Tomorrow is the last day my daughter is with me for the school vacation and what a fun filled time it has been, it is amazing how much you can fit into 4 days!
Lets see Friday night, Catan
Saturday, sleeping in and then we went to a museum, we live near some amazing castles and we have a museum card which gets us into over 400 places in the country free and all are educations! Can not do better then that!
Sunday I gave a workshop to help out Breast cancer, it was a load of fun!
Monday was spent doing a little shopping, it is monster’s grand fathers birthday soon so she went gift hunting and found the best gift ever! The I took her to her friends and she played all afternoon, we stayed for dinner and then went home.
Today I had to work and she come and helped me, then, you guessed it back to her friends house and played all night!
Needless to say we went very often to Grandma and Grandpa and also the horse camp (it is a retirement place for horses) We had some great quality time and we even have our nails all painted too! yeah the things us girls do!

I read this on another site and just had to copy and paste it here, if you want to see the police report it is over at The Smoking Gun
I do not know if I should roll my eyes at the whole situation or just keep laughing, what the heck is the world coming to?

FEBRUARY 17–A 14-year-old Wisconsin girl who refused to stop texting during a high school math class was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, according to police. The teenager was busted last Wednesday at Wauwatosa East High School after she ignored a teacher’s demand that she cease texting. The girl, whose name we have redacted from the below Wauwatosa Police Department report, initially denied having a phone when confronted by a school security officer. However, the phone was located after the girl was frisked by a female cop. The Samsung Cricket, the police report noted, was recovered “from the buttocks area” of the teenager. The student was issued a criminal citation for disorderly conduct, which carried “a bail of $298,” and had her phone confiscated. The girl, who was barred from school property for a week, is scheduled for an April 20 court appearance on the misdemeanor rap.

I was fighting fires.
The last “great fires” in Victoria in 83′ I was 9 years old and I was there fighting it with my family, yeah it is eye opening running to the dam your grand father made getting muddy water to put out embers and taking cloths to dampen so you can shove them in guttering and air vents to prevent the house burning down. As my mother, grandmother, sisters and myself were doing that with cloths covering our faces because of the thick black smoke, our eyes stinging from the heat and smoke, the males of the family were out clearing land to make fire breakers. I remember after the fires where out in our area looking at what use to be a forest, the smoke coming off the trees for days, the cattle and wildlife that died, I remember writing with my finger on the windows of the house “We made it” the thick ash just fell off the windows as my finger touched it, that is how thick it was, our white car was no longer white. Months past and the world still seemed so black but then over time the new grasses grew, some trees recovered and there was green again. It took many months for wildlife to come back, I remember the silence after the fires, no birds singing, nothing flying over head just the crackle of the red embers eating at the trees still.

I have seen very few wanting to help Australia, well fuck you all, As helpless as I feel so far away and unable to a lot from here I am doing what I can even if it is $1, hell I will buy the cheaper bread and forget coca cola for a week.
This is my answer to helping Australia. ANZAC biscuits, usually made for ANZAC day (April 25) I am baking my fat arse off and all my friends are taking them to work with a little note attached and asking for donations. In many of my friends offices I am known as the Cookie Lady and they are always asking for me to make more, well here they come!

Sorry for my silence but here is an update on my family!
I got in contact with my brother and he was having troubles getting hold of my father.
The fires that were close to my Aunty missed her town and headed for my fathers, some houses on the edge of the town were lost but the neighbourhood of my father was ok, thank goodness.
The fires near my brother is still burning and with all the fire breakers in place and the direction of the wind they will not come closer to him.
I miss my family dearly and these 2009 fires have made me even more determined to get things in order and travel home next year.

Ok final words! A huge thank you to the people who have given up time, and credits to help raise money for the bushfires in Australia, I am sorry I have not changed my Tiddles’ thermo but I shall very soon.
Family is safe! I am over the moon and stressing a lot less so may as well go cover them grey hairs I got over the last days!