mystery solved?

I've been doing some research and have discovered who this Grant McKinstry is - I think the parent of one of my Guides. I had emailed him to ask why his email address was coming up so felt obliged to re-email and say I had worked out the connection and presumably his daughter had maybe typed in the address when I had the laptop at Guides at some point. Still doesn't explain how it came to be on my Blogger sign-in page but at least the connection is explained!

I hope he doesn't think I'm a stalker. sigh.

Action must be Taken!

Right, that's it - I've had enough of this thievery! It's gone beyond a joke. In the last couple of weeks or so she's had half a joint of beef, a packet of chocolate mini rolls, lord knows how many catfood sachets (R tends to leave them around half full)  and now she's polished off two thirds of a loaf of Irish soda bread - grrrr!

So I am declaring war. I've downloaded some tips and will be putting them into action. Watch this space...

tricky treats..

gulp - as my sister says, she doesn't know how our two survive, with all the rubbish they eat. Tonight I found an empty (& chewed) birthday candle packet. I'm hoping Maddie found the empty packet rather than the full one!

Meanwhile the mystery of Murphy's recent departures has been solved - I let him off the lead on Sunday morning and off he went (sigh) but at least it was light so I knew what direction he'd gone and stood and called and called. He was only away 10 minutes but when he came back had something in his mouth and stopped about 200 yards away (I knew then he had something he knew he shouldn't have)

Sure enough when I eventually got to approach him to see what he had - it was a deer's hoof! OK, I thought, I'm getting used to this now, he'll just drop it at the door so I'll ignore it til then. Of course, not this time - he duly came along with me once he realised I wasn't going to take it off him, but stopped every now and then - and I could hear crunching sounds...

Oh dear. Steeling myself (and not thinking about what he was doing) I told him sternly that it would not agree with him and he would suffer for it later. Needless to say I was wrong - it was us who suffered for it - more of the "silent but deadlies" all evening, sigh.

Cheers, boyo!

and now..

Took Maddie to the vet on Saturday; she was terrified! Poor wee thing, she didn't want to get out of the car, then when I got her in and we tried to sit in the corner (where she normally hides under my chair) - she hopped up onto a seat and when I sat next to her, hopped over and sat, shivering, on my lap. awwwww....

But she was a brave girl and didn't squeak when she got her booster jag (but refused to take any treats til she got out the door again.) 

Lucky it's only once a year.

Who is Grant McKinstry?

I've no idea who Grant McKinstry is, but I just signed into Blogger here and his email address came up. Who are you, Grant McKinstry? And why is your email address on my laptop?

Why why why?

[if you're a friend of stepson 2 that explains a lot]

and for her next trick..

Maddie has obviously decided now that Christmas is over Santa is in no danger of not coming. I was just saying at work today that she behaved well all weekend. Then got home and discovered that in fact it was just that we hadn't discovered what she'd done yet!

That turned out to be nicking half a joint of beef that R had (like an eejit) left on the chopping board at the edge of the counter. Of course he assumed I'd put it away somewhere, I didn't even know it had existed as I wasn't in the kitchen at the time. It wasn't until he asked me tonight about having beef curry..

Of course we're blaming Maddie but to be honest it could well have been Murphy. He's the one who appears to have eaten something he shouldn't have (judging by the usual). If so then I'm sorry to be blackening your character, Maddie.

Epiphany

Pause for thought - for anyone who's interested - we had a good sermon two Sundays ago by our resident Polish priest, Fr Tomasz (a Jesuit, so he must be pretty bright, but also seems to be a lovely guy with a twinkle in his eye) about Epiphany. He said the three Wise Men were not Catholics, Christians or Jews. They were scientists (a completely different religion, if you ask me), but found God that way. Plus they were emblematic of the welcome to be given to strangers at this time of year and in fact any time of year.

Help!

Btw can anybody help? Rich wants silver (grey) cords for his birthday but in loose fit. And do you know I've been googling fit to bust and can't find any anywhere?!! Not in fashion this season I guess. Oh, there was one pair he grudgingly said he might like - but they were Barbour and I wasn't paying £90 on a maybe!

If anyone comes across some do send me a link, please?

A recommendation for next Christmas

We didn't get it til after Christmas this year which is a shame but for next year I can definitely recommend Michael Buble's Christmas CD, called, somewhat appropriately, "Christmas". Yes Christmas songs but slightly different ones so make a nice change - and he does have a lovely mellow voice, just right for that time of year!

It'll probably still be in the CD player next December (I don't use it very often) so I shall look forward to it and you should too.

Murphy has a go

Just when you think Maddie is behaving herself, Murphy decides it's his turn. After his efforts on Friday night, Rich took them out last night. Half an hour later I got a phone call - Murphy had been kidnapped! He was in the back of someone's car and not too happy about it apparently!

As it turned out out was his own fault and in fact they've probably saved his life - he was on the back road in the dark (and people go quite fast there and there's no lights) - chasing deer no doubt; someone going the other way flashed their lights at this woman who saw him so stopped and called him and in he jumped (he's a pushover really). She took him to a pal's and they had to take his collar off to get the info and after talking to me they brought him round. Oh dear, Murphy, what are we going to do with you?

and for my next trick..

That's Murphy out in the garden throwing up...poetic justice?

Although I might join him, having finally made inroads into my Christmas chocolate (and instantly regretted it)

dog doings

Well we've survived the festive period not too bad.. Maddie had another personality change - I heard a suspicious noise at midnight one night and upon heaving myself out of bed and down the stairs I found her in her crate with a knife in her mouth! "Ye gods", I thought, "she's signed up to be an assassin!" although surely she couldn't actually do any more damage than  she already does?! (to our diet, mainly)

Meantime, not to be outdone, Murphy headed off into the great (dark) unknown tonight - as usual on the one occasion we're doing something else on a timescale (does he not like us going to the Lairhillock? I'm sure this has happened before) so we both spent half an hour wandering round woods in the dark, whistling and calling our noble invisible hero..

Following his reappearance (in a panic as usual when no-one's where he left them an hour previously!!!) he turned out not to want his dinner. Great, well Maddie can have it then. So what HAVE you been eating, then Murphy???

We may never know but for sure the results are not pleasant. Think silent but deadly.

ponderings

watching Graham Norton at the mo. Missed most of it which is a shame as it's people I'd be interested in hearing - Martin Freeman, Karen Gillan, Gerry Butler and Noel Gallagher. I was at Uni with Gerry Butler, have I ever mentioned that? or Gerard Butler as he's known now. He was the year below me - complete a***hole at the time but seems to have sorted himself out now. In fact I was wondering tonight if he's tamed himself down too much, he seemed a bit thrown in the shade by Noel Gallagher - whom I got tickets to see on Valentine's Day for Christmas, yippee!

What?

I've done something to offend Stepson No 1, I know it. He bought us an amazing counter-based corkscrew which is good but the top tends to pop off when it's used... which is way too technical for me! If Richard's not around to open a bottle for me what am I to do? Stick to tea I suppose, sigh

New Year

Well, Maddie managed to round off the year with a spectacle; having finished off my Cadbury's chocolate biscuits for me (I only had two before finally discovering the empty box under her bush in the garden) last week, we woke on the 30th to find she had polished off the (fortunately almost finished) Black & Green's mint dark chocolate bar and also the chocolate Santas Nick had left on the coffee table. probably including most of the tin foil too - a welcome nod to the festive season I feel!

All of which resulted in me having to take an extremely hyper springy spaniel out for their walk that morning and apologise and explain to various other dog owners.

Meanwhile my Sony e-reader (Christmas present as I refused to have a Kindle) is so far a huge failure. I have after much cussing and retries managed to buy and download 3 books, one twice, one without a cover and a fourth not at all (sigh). The instructions you eventually find are completely useless as they simply don't work or refer to scenarios which are either not available or don't show up....grrrrrrr

Have I ever mentioned that I have an adverse affect on IT? Went on Skype for the first time tonight, urged on by some good friends at lunch in Glasgow (what a great couple of days we had there, seeing all my old friends!) to find my laptop apparently doesn't have a mike (which I know isn't true) so can't work for Skype and my netbook apparently has too slow a computer connection to work. Ever felt the world is conspiring against you?

Still, I will not let the New Year be tarnished by these negative associations. I will savour the last week with all our gallivanting around and catching up with friends (did I mention what wonderful friend I have?) and resolve to visit the Sony store SOON with e-reader and laptop in tow and make them fix it all for me.

So there. Take your life in your hands, that can be my New Year's resolution. Slainge!!