Friday, January 08, 2010

Friday Fragments

Mommy's Idea
Hosted by Mrs4444.

I don't seem to have all that many fragments to share this week despite having missed the weekly brain-dump last Friday. It must be something to do with being on holidays! Well, the kids are on holidays, the main difference for me is I'm doing all my paid work from home, I don't have to drive anyone anywhere in the afternoons, I don't have to argue about homework, and I don't get any time completely alone. All of which is good except that last bit. I'm starting to get weirdly grumpy and I'm pretty sure it's the absence of alone time that does it (no doubt Adam will say "Starting?!").

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I spent several hours on Saturday and a few more on Monday standing over Caitlin in her room and helping her clean it up. Yes, it really was that bad. She has now written a list of rules that must be followed by anyone coming into her room and stuck it on the door, it includes the instructions "No food or drink" and "If you use something then put it away afterwards." Amazing, who'd have thought that might be a good idea!

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I renewed my driver's license on Thursday, having my license expire on Jan 7th has always been a right royal pain in the bum, if it wasn't having to scrape together enough cash post-Christmas it was having to take all the kids along and being stuck waiting in the interminable queue because it's holidays time and there's no school or pre-school. This time the money thing was ok and the kids are old enough to be left at home while I pop up the hill to the Motor Registry - there's one right near our place - and as it turned out Adam was working from home anyway. The hardest thing about the whole exercise was being told not to smile at the camera, it's a reflex action, I can't help but smile! It's all to do with facial recognition systems needing neutral expressions on faces to work properly apparently - so there you go, the secret to not being identifiable is to grin wildly all the time.

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I have a couple of Tribbles. Don't worry, I'm assured they're not fertile. One of them is such a sensitive little soul that if anyone raises their voice a little too much in the lounge room it does its squeal and shiver thing. So I've taken to yelling at the kids when they're getting a bit too carried away "Stop it NOW! (which sets the Tribble off) ...You're upsetting the Tribble!" Which has the rather happy effect of making everyone laugh thus stopping the escalating drama in its tracks.

Sound activated Tribble

Click here if you can't see the embedded video.

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When the very lovely Richard Tulloch dropped by and left a comment on my post about his play, I clicked through to his travel blog and was instantly hooked. I particularly enjoyed reading about the Pieterpad in Holland, somehow he managed to make walking and biking in a thunderstorm sound almost fun.

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And that's the lot for this week, pop on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time for more fragmented fun!

13 comments:

cat said...

Great to meet you girl! Did not realize your school year also runs with the calender year or am I understanding you wrong?

mimbles said...

Yep, that's right, it's summer holidays here too at the moment. It's that whole southern hemisphere thing ;-)

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

Let me know if those bedroom rules work, nobody seems to pay attention to them at my house!
Happy FF to you too.

4 Lettre Words said...

Love the Tribbles!

Happy driving this weekend!!

Stacy Uncorked said...

Do you get resistance from your kids cleaning their rooms like I do from Princess Nagger? Maybe a printed list of rules would do the trick... ;)

Thanks for reminding me that I need to renew my driver's license - good thing I'm not driving anywhere right now, it expired on December 10th! Ooops! I've been illegal! Hope I don't get pulled over on the way to renew... I have trouble not smiling, too - wonder if they'll tell me not to at the DMV? I'll let you know... :)

Tribbles are so cute!

Confessions From A Work-At-Home Mom said...

I have never heard of a "Tribble" before; I'm not sure if you did it on purpose or if it was just one of the conveniences of the web, but thanks for linking to the Wikipedia page about them. You learn something new every day!

~Elizabeth
Confessions From A Working Mom

mimbles said...

The rules list wasn't my idea, Caitlin did that herself, presumably the horror of being forced to clean up impressed upon her the value of not letting it get like that in the first place!

Stacy, my kids don't just resist cleaning up, they actually get really angry with me for insisting. It's so exhausting!

Elizabeth - the Wiki link was me, I was pretty sure not every one of my readers would be a Star Trek fan ;-)

Unknown said...

Your department of motor vehicles tells you not to smile? Ours always say smile...and I wonder why...because if I need to pull my license out most likely I won't be smiling...lol!

Confessions From A Work-At-Home Mom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Confessions From A Work-At-Home Mom said...

OK, let's try this again... (my last post had crazy-weird formatting!)

Thanks for the link, then, I definitely don't know much about Star Trek!

You know about the wine? I made DH return it and exchange for a grigio! I was surprised, but the grocery store actually let us exchange it!

~Elizabeth
Confessions From A Working Mom

mub said...

Argh! I didn't know they were making people stop smiling on their drivers license photos too! My passport was made right before that rule kicked in so I've still got three more years of smiles. My residence permit picture on the other hand... let's just say I'd make a mighty good criminal by the looks of it!

Claudya Martinez said...

I need some Tribbles for comic relief. I'd love to tell my husband he's upsetting the Tribble. Maybe, I'll say it even though he won't know what I'm talking about. I'll let you know how it goes.

mimbles said...

@Kristen - There was a guy getting his license done at the same time as me and we both commented that they must assume no-one smiles at police - but that we both do! I certainly smile at the random breath testing cops - it's a crappy job but it works and I appreciate them being there.

@Elizabeth - Yeah, we're a little bit into wine, we do the occasional wine-tasting holiday but we don't actually drink all that much so the cellar is always well stocked!

@mub - I just came out looking like I was trying not to laugh in my photo.

@UM - Heheh, you must! I can just imagine the confusion :-)