Plane 'plaints

I've been racking up the miles this year with roundtrip flights across the Atlantic, a total of 4.5 thus far. Now that I've hit silver status, I have automatic access to the lounge, woo-hoo! The gratis food and beverages - including booze - are nice, but I have a greater appreciation for comfy couches and access to wifi.

Going to the airport is no different than the bus or train station because you see a little bit of everything. And then it gets on the plane with you. Last month, there was a retired gal who was sporting a brown velvet track suit with gold studs on the jacket. It immediately reminded me of this other retired gal mother and I met on a Christmas markets cruise several years ago that wore a different coloured track suit every day we were onboard. That's not a particularly flattering look for the grannies, though at least the old girls don't have some slogan emblazoned across their sagging backsides on the pants.

Then there are the loud talkers that drive me nuts. Seriously, scoot closer to whomever you're talking to and lower your danged voice. Nobody wants to hear how you're disappointed with the food. What - you don't fly for the fine dining experience? Or can't figure out how to control the volume on the entertainment screen. Here's a hint - take off your headphones first before asking your spouse or seat mate for assistance. And please, for the love of all that's holy, we absolutely do not want to hear about how flying upsets your stomach as you launch into a detailed account of your recent trip to the toilet. Just no.

I obviously need to bite the bullet and invest in some noise cancelling headphones to improve my overall flying experience. Either that or risk getting hauled off the plane by the sky marshal for losing my cool at 30,000 feet with the guffawing, gum snapping folks flying the sometimes not-so-friendly skies.

The Fox and His Calling Card

Ollie, our four year old Cairn Terrier, is quite the guard dog. He dashes at birds, pursues squirrels and goes berserk when he spies a fox. Unfortunately, he loses his cool quite often since the neighbourhood foxes pass through our yard regularly. This morning Ollie started his mad barking, so I looked out the window of our second floor master bedroom, which gives me a view over the tall hedge into our neighbour's yard, and spied a fox. It's not the larger one I've seen most recently, but it's still an adult.

Too lazy to retrieve the good camera from the daughter's room, I snapped a few pics with my phone while Ollie was going ape. Upon hearing Ollie's crazed barking, the fox immediately took a poop. I'm assuming he was marking his territory against a very vocal assault before he blithely loped to the back hedge and shimmied beneath it to escape the doggie ruckus.

The fox poop is quite prevalent, showing up on our back lawn, back patio and Ollie's fetch balls in the backyard. And even nasty piles left on our front drive. 

It's a veritable biology lesson, having to clean up the scat, because it's plain to see what the foxes have been eating. It appears that seeds and berries are common staples in their diets. I'm glad I bought an overabundance of cheap scented dog poo bags because it seems they come in handy for picking up after the local wildlife.

Assuming the Position

So this, it happens every Saturday and sometimes spills over into Sunday when he records football on college game day. The furry, four legged child likes to join him for a bit of a snooze while he's flopped on the sofa. The very best Saturdays are when he gets to see a Texas team play - UT, A&M, Baylor, Tech, etc. He may be a Longhorn, but we Gig 'Em around here when the Ags hit the field since we've got a junior on campus in College Station.

Happy Halloween

Halloween has jumped the pond to England per the pumpkins, bags of candy and costumes in our local grocery stores. But, honestly, it's not such a big deal over here. Nevertheless, the 9th grader and her BFF have bedecked our front porch with a few jack o' lanterns to pass out candy. 

TMI Time

I've been in Texas for the past 19 days, taking care of middle-aged lady problems. After years of suffering through all sorts of annoying monthly issues when we absolutely knew our family of four was complete, I decided to finally take the plunge and close down the defunct baby making machinery. Adios cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes.

If ya gotta get the lady parts removed, I highly recommend the laparoscopic robot assisted hysterectomy. Four little incisions covered in what looks like rubber cement, a bottle of way too many pain pills and a bladder full of blue dye that makes the toilet look like I've been drinking glasses full of Windex. That's all it takes to make the monthly yuckies go away.

I'm back home in the UK as of yesterday. The husband, daughter and dog survived in my absence thanks to the help of a cleaning lady, dog walker and calendar I created to keep them on track. For the 9th grader I imported the usual bath products in fall scents from her favourite non-clothing store in the mall, plus some candy corn and new leggings she requested. Now it's back to life as usual after a lovely fall hiatus of shopping, dining, surgery and recovery at my mother's home in the Texas hill country. I could get used to this every October... minus the lady parts removal, of course.

Furniture Finale

The corduroy swivel chair is it, the last piece of furniture we'll be placing in this house. Boy am I glad to see this part of our move abroad done because I've been working on decor since we arrived the last week in July.

At first I thought we were about to have another furniture goat scramble on our hands. When I purchased the chair online, I had elected to have the swivel chair for the third floor delivered Thursday, along with the sunroom furniture. Then I received an email Thursday morning that it would be delivered the next day. It was a shoulder shrug and oh well moment since I didn't have anything else in the hopper for Friday.

Then mid-morning on Friday I received a text that the swivel chair company was having carrier problems and they would be contacting me to reschedule delivery. About 30 minutes later, I received a call from the delivery driver that the swivel chair would be arriving within the hour. Say what?

Sure enough, the driver and his helper arrived to deliver the chair. They hauled it up to the top floor, I tipped them and they left. I attacked the plastic wrap on the chair with scissors and uncovered it. I must say it's really comfy and exactly what I expected, except for the colour. This is what it looked like on the furniture website. You can see it's supposed to be a golden brown sort of colour they named coffee.

Below is what I got. According to the label on the chair packaging, it's the right chair in the correct coffee colour, but it just looks gray to me. After the sofa snafu of September, nothing surprises me. 

I think the golden brown colour I chose based on the website's picture was a better fit with the rug, but I imagine we can all live with it. The chair wasn't expensive and I'm not going through the trouble of returning another piece of furniture that might take weeks to accomplish and be replaced by something that isn't any more fabulous than what I've already got. 

Bump, set, spike

Thanks to the lack of elementary level indoctrination, summer camps and off-season competitive travel teams, the 9th grader is playing JV volleyball at her UK based American high school. That's one of the things I appreciate most about her school, that she didn't have to start playing a sport before kindergarten in order to stand a chance of making the team. She gets to give things a try without the pressure of it being do or die, win at all costs and give 150% all the time in order to be considered successful in the eyes of the coaches.

It's a grainy picture taken from the bleachers with my phone because I never remember to bring along a *real* camera to document our lives with more clarity through a better lens, but it still captures her beautiful smile. They've won some and lost some. I believe she has shown improvement. They don't always get around to the bump, set and spike drill consistently. Plus I've seen some one armed efforts, as well as a foot shot or two, to get the ball back over the net, but it's all a part of the process.

That's the bottom line for me - having fun, learning some new skills and enjoying the overall experience of a team sport. Go Royals!