“My middle son was stubborn when it came to #2 on the potty — absolutely refused, no matter the reward. So I finally told him that when we flush, the poop goes out to the sea to feed the fish — so if he didn’t go, then the poor little fish wouldn’t have anything to eat. My son, being the compassionate, sensitive little do-gooder he is, felt it was his mission to poop to “save” the fish. (After all, Nemo and Dory were counting on him!)”
— Liane Worthington; Simpson, Pennsylvania

Col and I regressed to our childhood this weekend.  And boy was it fun!

Friday night we went out to dinner with our friends Cindy and Tim Ribaul and Janet and Paul George.  We’d not seen them in way too long.  We went home, then they were all out of town or had company in town and there was just never a good time for us to get together.  I was thrilled to see them! We always have such fun when we hang out, by the end of the night I was hoarse from all of my chit chat and the food in Olive Garden was delicious!

Saturday morning was Cols mums birthday and Sunday was Fathers day, as I’ve said before, birthdays and holidays are always the hardest when you live so far from home.  It was the third (and fourth on Fathers Day) time this week that we’d spoken to his folks and we both got progressively more homesick with each phonecall.  We miss the weekly Sunday dinners followed by tea and Top Gear, and we miss Mac and Tosh scampering around your ankles as soon as the front door opens!

As we were up early on Saturday morning, we had every intention of going to the beach in Galveston, but when the thermometer hit 100F by midday and it was too hot to even sit in the garden let alone go to the beach we changed our plans accordingly.  We decided to go for a dander around the Galleria, not somewhere I’ve ever liked but I give it another chance every time.

We didn’t last very long in the Galleria, it was packed and hot and there wasn’t much to look at so we did a little furniture shopping.  With the wedding coming up and the house going to be full, we need a bed for the spare room.  We took in two furniture shops before we decided that more research was needed (plus, the sales assistant in the second furniture shop was rude and turned us off the furniture shopping for the day!) so with not much else to do we decided to head to Game Stop and take a look around.

We came home with a whole bunch of stuff! LOL! Col has always said he’d get me Dance Dance Revolution, I love the dance machines back home and I think it’d make for a great work out.  It was reduced in Game Stop so we picked it up, we also picked up 3 of the games for it for $6.99 each (buy 2 get 1 free), we also needed 2 new controllers cause we only brought one across the Atlantic and it doesn’t work very well.  Our last purchase was another buy 2 get 1 free on the pre-owned games, we got 2 Crash Bandicoot games and a Sing Star (the later was Col’s choice).

Crash Bandicoot was something we played a lot in my house when I was younger and Col has never played it before.  We spent Saturday afternoon and night playing it only to discover that it doesn’t auto-save and the memory card was full so on Sunday morning it was back to square one! lol!

I got up early on Sunday I went out and about on my solo shopping trip.  I think the best Fathers Day present I could have given Col was to save him from a week of trips to every shop he hates for only one or two items! haha! I hit up Walgreens, Walmart, CVS, Michaels and Target where I picked up Cols favourite Coffee (and a pair of Astros PJ shorts) before heading home where I was going to surprise him in bed with waffles and Coffee for breakfast.

I got home to find him not only up, but he’d totally cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom and had taken the rubbish out.  Turns out, he’d been up since not long after I left and the landlady and her worker had already come to the house to fix the bath in the guest bathroom.

It wasn’t long before I noticed he was walking like frankenstein and he told me that his shoulder was busted (we suspect the computer game overload the day before) so Sunday was a slow day.  The World Cup, more Crash Bandicoot and for Col, pain killers, a shoulder rub with some ‘Iron Man’ gel and a steaming hot bath while I started on a new TV show that I’ve been wanting to watch, ‘Dollhouse’.

We stayed up til 1am watching Big Brother (and are still not caught up to date!) and I was up again at 6am for my 7am water aerobics class.  Col couldn’t move yet again this morning, he had very limited range of motion and decided it’d be better to work at home as he shouldn’t drive without being able to turn his head so he spent the day here, studying.

I’ve been busy these last few days.  In spite of it being the busiest time of the year for people transferring in and out of Houston it is the quietest time for SSA activity.  Everyone heads home, heads on vacation, has people visiting and as a result, there are no events, no outings or activities – and, as I know from my personal experience last summer, that sucks for newcomers.  So, I’m trying to change it!

Col kindly volunteered (translated: I volunteered him!) to do our summer newsletters for July and August and I’m planning coffee mornings, lunch bunches, a weekend/evening activity and Melanie has suggested a ‘Meet the Board’ lunch after our Board meeting in August.  Even if we get one person out of their house this summer – my job will be done! I’m also representing the SSA Houston in a Conference call on Wednesday morning between all of the North American SSA Chapter Coordinators as our Coordinator can’t make it and I’m trying to put together a ‘database’ of sorts of local contacts, schools, doctors, hospitals, grocery stores etc. to send out to my newcomers as they arrive – to help get them started here in Houston.  It’s all go!

Our Coordinator Melanie wrote this about me in our July Chatline message from the Coordinator,

“Welcome to edition one of the new mini-summer Chatline, the brainchild of our very dedicated Welcome Coordinator, Las. Thanks also to Colin, Las’s husband, for his support in getting this new venture of the ground. Las only arrived herself just last year about this time of year. As all you “oldies” now, summer is a time of very little action in SSA, as people often go back home or travel to family all around the country/world.

However it is often a time when lots of new families arrive. Las is working to try and assure that all of our new arrivals have at least a handful of activities throughout the summer to enable them to meet each other and you.”

The week ahead will be quiet, for the most part.  I’m trying to keep things on the down-low to save money as best I can for when Rowan comes to visit next month cause we want to show him a great time, but also most of my peeps are out of town or busy with their kids.  Sharon is up in Newfoundland for a month, Helen my scrapbooking buddy is home in England, Ann has family in town, Janet is getting ready to head out of town and the list goes on.  I think I’ll try and get Cindy, Lisa and Julie together for a lunch later in the week and Friday night marks a first during our time in Houston.

At home, Col and I used to have regular Sing Star parties with our hockey crew.  We used to get together perhaps once a month or so, eat nibbles (courtesy of Iceland’s party food), drink and sing some karaoke (or play Buzz!).  We’ve not had one in so long, I tried to organise a couple at home, but the terrible winter weather made it impossible for people to get out to us in the sticks.

Watch out Houston – your time has come! LOL! Again, some people are out of town, but I’m hoping that a few people will turn up none the less and even if no one is sing star confident, we’ll have a get together with some friends and probably some delicious BBQ from Spring Creek around the corner.  I’m looking forward to it.  I loved entertaining at home.  I love socialising with my friends and just chilling out on an evening – I’m hoping this will be the first of many!

Anyone watching the UK Big Brother? We got suckered in (as always) and aside from the occassional, almost overwhelming urge to smack Sunshine in her less than sunny face, I’m enjoying this season already.  It was so hard to watch Steve, no legs, one eye lost, scars and old wounds and he said he got blown up in war.  When you think of war, you think of Afghanistan, Iraq or Bosnia or something.  When he told everyone he was blown up in Northern Ireland during the troubles I teared up and got a lump in my throat.  It made me feel sick.  I know Col and I make political in jokes – which has what the troubles have become for a lot of people, but when the cold reality of it appears in front of you.  It’s hard to swallow!

Today also marks the beginning of the Summer of Socks.  I’ve set myself a goal of 3 pairs – but hoping for more than that cause I’ve got a lot to do for Christmas! Col keeps adding himself to my list of sock requests and he keeps parading around in the one pair I have met him to try and remind me that he wears them and wants more! LOL!

I have enough sock yarn for 2 pairs here at home, but I’m going to need a sock-yarn shop pretty soon to get more – which doesn’t bother me too much, but Col might have a complaint or two! hehe!

I’ve also found some beautiful chunky yarn that I’m using for a Christmas present scarf.  I wish that Houston had a proper Winter, cause I’m so tempted to keep it for myself – which is rare for me as I love giving my projects to other people! It’s soooo soft and lovely, I might also have to buy some more and make a few more gifts from it cause it’s just too nice not to share with other people!

Right, Big Brother beckons!