Embarrased turtle ...

Today Levi and I drove to Charlottesville to get some suits for his internship. While in Richmond we bought one suit at S&K on Hull Street and were extremely pleased and found the salesguy really comfortable and nice. Following suit (forgive the pun) we went to S&K this time as well. The service was a little weirder though. In the midst of Tropical Storm Ernesto's peripherial lashing we drove, I drove, the 45 minutes to the store. When we arrived there were no other customers and two salespeople, one man and one woman (early to late 40's). Through the shopping experience I began to get more and more disturbed by the male sales attendant. A petite man with poor posture and a soft nasal voice I realized that if he were an animal he would be a shell-less turtle. And of course from this trainwreck of a thought, I remembered a cartoon I watched as a child called Rocko's modern life which had a sidekick turtle named Filburt (pictured below). This sales attendant was the human manifestation of the cartoon character. Beyond kind of unnerving me, he was repetitive and didn't listen to anything I said. But we got the suits and everything is shiny.

And now officially, my imagenation is far too warped for society.

Atmosphere and furballs ...

I was working today in the library, buried deep in the stacks upstairs and as I scanned the call numbers on the book spines I found myself squeaking. Typically that noise was reserved for calling one of the kittens to me, but I had done it so frequently over the summer (living with 5 kittens) that it has apparently become part of my pattern of behavior. Weird ... that is going to take a while to reprogram.

County Fair ...

Tonight Levi, Victoria and I went to Chesterfield County Fair. The atmosphere and reality have changed quite a bit since I was last there 3 or 4 years ago. The crowd was a little more trailer trash than redneck, and the prices were a little more shafting than carnival. But in the hour we spent at the fair, we had fun. Probably could have survived without it (definately) but I wouldnt have the photos to show for it.

Bang! Bang! Rollover ...

Today Kevin, Mary, and I took Levi for his first shooting experience. Because handguns are illegal in Australia (as in the UK) he never had occasion to fire a shotgun or a handgun, and there was no way he had an excuse to fire a fully automatic - so now he has. Standing in Dominion Shooting Range I realized how subconsiously safe I felt in Oz because I knew the worst that could happen would be a stabbing. If anyone wanted to attack me when I was walking home late from the busstop or the store they would have to get close to me to hurt me, they would have to challenge me not to spot their approach.

My familiarity with guns reminded me how often I have fired a weapon, never in self defense, but always for some form of teaching. As a child I shot a shotgun on a range at Indian-Princess Camp with my Dad. I recieved a sharpshooter badge several years in a row. Around the same time I was frequently firing a BB gun with my best friends Dad, aiming at styrofoam deer and wood stacks. As I preteen I used to shoot with my neighbor, always blanks and always in a secure environment.

With that said - here are the scores from our day "gone shootin'". Kevin beat us all! But of course he has been trained by the government so no contest. With the 9 millimeter (my favorite) I scored the highest. With the semi and fully automatic MK-5 (excluding Kevin's score) I did the best and will admit to getting knocked back by the fully automatic setting. So I will stick to handguns. At least until we move back to Oz.

Mary firing the MK-5 (eventually, much to her objection)


Me firing the 9mm


My target (yeah! heart and head)


Levi and his target (not bad for a virgin)

Josh's Anniversary of Escape ...

Today was Josh's 1st birthday party. It was chaos, but controlled. It was nice to have a kids birthday party in the family again. Everyone, adult and child, had excuses to play with toys and balloon volleyball. And the neices and nephews were all in the same place so they got to interact as well. That is something I missed out on growing up, but I had enough siblings to replace any cousins I could have longed for. For a family party, I have never seen so many people I didn't know (last minute neighbors and friends). Please enjoy the timeline in pictures.

Josh's 1st birthday FROM ...

... THROUGH ... ... TO !

One week and one day ...

One week from Sunday Kat, Levi, and I head to Staunton. Levi is going to spend the week with me before heading to DC and we split again to track down our respective futures. I am looking forward to finishing school, to getting two bachelor degrees and starting that new chapter of life where I no longer get summer's off. I am also trying to find a second part time job, other than the campus library, to help pay for the relocation to Melbourne in December and compensate for Levi having an unpaid, but fantastic, DC internship.

This Sunday just the same is Josh's 1st birthday. Its amazing how much all the kids have grown since I got back, its depressive that I am going to miss so much more while I am gone.

Possum - minus the O ...

I haven't blogged in a month, my apologies. Things haven't been so hectic that they would restrict me from blogging I just haven't been in the headspace for it. So on to it then...

For the last three nights I have been awoken by the sound of scurrying. This isn't unexpected in an old farm house but still freaks me out. Not that I play the "screaming girl standing on the ottoman" bit but its still jarring. When we first moved in we saw what we thought was a small field mouse scurry between some totes and bags stacked against the wall. A month later, a large mouse/rat ran across the floor when we came home late and turned on the light. Well, from the 10 inch long (not including the tail) juvenile possum that I have spotted 5 times now, those were just growth spurts. I have mastered getting up to turn on the lamp without making too much noise so I can catch a glimpse of the vermin. It is getting to the point now, the animals boldness increasing, that I spend at least a minute just looking at it before it decides to walk away. I spent today with plywood, chicken wire, and triple expanding foam trying to secure some of the entry points that I found. I have also learned the distinction between a possum (Australian bushtail) and an opossum ("Rats of Unusual Size" - Princess Bride). Lets do this visually shall we:

Normal bushtail possum ...

Giant Rat opossum with 50 razor sharp teeth ...


The real worry is that juvenile possums don't travel alone, only adults which means that somewhere else on the property there is a full grown and at least 4 more young possums .... that makes my head hurt.

Levi and I got engaged tonight ...


On Swift Creek Reservior at Sunday Park ...


At Sunset ...