Shopping with HRH: a Tutorial

When Lady Deb and Lady Marti informed me it was time to go to the Mall to shop for the Royal Grandson, I became a bit flummoxed. However, when it was noted that the Mall had a "family" shop I found myself slightly amused.

The perambulator ride was anything but amusing.

 Now let's get shopping.

 

Some might say my Great Grandson has been born with a silver spoon in his mouth...I'd say it's more like the Royal Treasury. 

Come along, now; we've a rucksack to fill with clothes for HRH Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. I abhor some of the designs on these rucksacks currently.

This is the closest I could come to my beloved corgis.

rucksack (backpack)

In your country, lads and men certainly do not think they wear jumpers - but they do.

jumper (sweater and other tops)

woolly (sweater)
jersey (see above)

No need for a mac or gumboots this summer - it is a scorcher! Perhaps you will be outfitted in these trainers instead. 

mac (raincoat)

gumboots/wellies (rubber boots)

trainers  (sneakers)

A lady can get her knickers in a knot, but a lad never can because his are called pants. Why do Americans insist upon calling trousers pants? They are very different, indeed.

 Forgive my lapse in judgement in close inspection of these Star Wars pants. Very Unqueenly of me and I won't let the Force be so forceful next time. 

Oh, bother. Here is a polo shirt - your Daddy was a lucky bloke when you were born late so he didn't have to miss his match. But, Ralph L. got it wrong, wrong, wrong. A true polo shirt is a turtleneck here in Britain, or so I'm informed. I never wear either. 

Really, it is quite elementary. These jim jams are adorned with braces and poppers.

jim jams (pajamas)

braces (suspenders)

poppers  (snaps)

Perhaps when you come to visit me you will be served some of these foods.  (I will not be amused by poor behavior and shoddy manners.)

        banger (sausage)

bath oliver (dry biscuit eaten with cheese)

biscuits (cracker or cookie)

bubbles and squeak (cooked cabbage and potatoes combined then fried)

chips (french fries)

Kedegeree (dish of fish, rice and eggs served for breakfast)

 Do put on one of these to protect your jumper and trousers.

Next time, wear a waistcoat, won't you?  When you visit me, I prefer more formal attire,  

Now, I'm off on Holiday. Regards.

Congratulations to Will and Kate on the birth of their son George!! 

Souvenir

Ah, Summertime!

Time to bask in the sun, take a road trip and experience something new and different.

Time to pull out the wallet and spend a little money on a trinket or two to recall the sweet memories of this slowed-down season.  

Yes, a souvenir is a great way to savor the summer fun long after the flip flops are stowed away.

Even though it is still July, I have something to remind me of the summer of 2013 - a small souvenir  that came to me when I least expected it....

Is it a beautiful, artistic postcard from someplace with mountains, streams and trees? 

No.  We are sticking closer to home this summer after our travels this past spring.

 

Is it turquoise jewelry from Estes Park, Colorado?

No, been there and done that.

Is the souvenir a shell that echoes with the sound of the ocean?

No, certainly not.  We have a nice collection from the kid's searches long ago.
 

Is the souvenir a rock from the shore of our cabin lake? 

No, I left the rock(s) there. Miss E can never get enough of the experience of watching them skip across the surface of the lake and Miss M is using them as teethers.

Now we are getting closer to the special souvenir I collected this summer.

Is it sea glass?

No,   unfortunately not.  No ocean visits this summer.

 It is glass, though.
Fractured glass from a broken thermometer.

I somehow managed to "collect" a rather large piece of a broken thermometer in my hand this summer...my very own  special souvenir.  It's a crazy story that didn't need to happen as a result of my carelessness.  I hope to never repeat the acquisition of a souvenir like this again.

My glass souvenir even had little numbers on it!

However, the downside of collecting this glass souvenir had to come at a price a bit bigger than this dime. I had to have  hand surgery at a hospital to get it out.  Complete with a doctor and several nurses.  A sling. Stitches.

Post surgery with my precious souvenir.

The plan is to make this a one-of-a-kind souvenir.
It may soon be thrown away.
Happily, I am on the mend now with stitches soon to be removed so that I can go out and collect
souvenirs with no ouch factor.

In Which I POSE a Question

There are so many questions
 one can ponder and wonder about: 

What is the purpose of life?

Why are we here?

Why is the sky blue?

What is wrong with a diet of sweets?

I am currently wondering/pondering this phenomena:

What is going on with all these hand-on-hip poses?

      Do you know what I am talking about?  Just look on Facebook and you will see this pose over and over again!  Not wishing to offend anyone, of course, but I see this pose on

young women graduating from high school, lined up with friends with both ends of the line posing with hands on hips as if acting as matched bookends.  I see an attractive couple posing in their dress-up clothes (weddings and "Occasions") and she has her hand-on-hip posed to perfection.

Does this mean something and I have not gotten the memo?

Is it to look thinner?  Is it to look more appealing?

Is it something learned in ballet class that I missed because I never took ballet?

 

Here is a ballet chart -  one hand on hip pose is apparently not one of the basic five positions.

Then I remembered this Red Carpet moment:

Does Angelina J. have anything to do with the current popularity of this hand-on-hip pose?

If you are so inclined, please tell me what this pose is all about...it appears to have nothing to do with 

the Hokey Pokey moves I am more familiar with.  

Thank you!

Go Bananas - Family Birthday Bash 2013

Recognize what they are all wearing  around their necks?  You probably played with these as kids.

It's that time of year when once again our family has five birthdays to celebrate within a three week time span. We met at a supper club - The White Stag - on our way to our cabin in the North Woods in the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan. 

This is a tradition that we all look forward to! 

Every year I plan a theme and will go to many lengths to keep it a secret from the celebrants.

Last year the theme was dinosaurs as one in the group turned thirty.  (Get it?  She's now a dinosaur - ha!)  In past years we had themes of pirates, flamingos and All-American 4th of July red, white and blue.   Perhaps you have already surmised what the 2013 birthday theme was based upon the top picture.  Drum roll, please...it was

MONKEY BUSINESS!

The monkey faces were actually paper plates and I cut out holes so the monkey eyes could "shine" through for the party-goers shouldst they choose to act as monkeys throughout the course of the meal.

Once we sat down at our table (thankfully in a side room with fewer diners...we can get a bit rowdy), it was time to pass out the treat bags. Inside the bags were items one might use for monkey business such as squirt guns and party blowers. Yes, also chocolates were included...what's a treat bag without chocolates in this family?  For my little sweeties, the bags had monkey-related books and puzzles and a little stuffed monkey with velcro paws for hugging.

While we wait for the food to come, there's time for some monkey-ing around.

Oh, how delicious our food is at the Stag.  Miss M especially enjoyed the iceberg lettuce.

Dinner eaten...cake time!

This year it was a real treat to have an ice cream cake pre-ordered and picked up from a nearby town (Rhinelander).Tricky, too with the possibility of it melting before it could be eaten.
 It was a delicious cake!
Now, on to the gift-giving.

Games inside those boxes?  TICKET TO RIDE (ASIA), BLOKUS, NAME FIVE, CLUE and MAD GAB.

The theme of the gifts: games. Five different games were purchased and wrapped. The celebrants chose a game from the pile and could keep it or trade it.

The Monkey Business continued days after the party was over with the two most willing participants shown here tossing water balloons to each other.

Happy Birthday to

John

Jed

   Kari   

  Anne 

  Wes 

Wayward Raft

We had driven six-some hours and couldn't wait to get to our cabin for the 4th of July week.
After unloading the car and fixing a simple supper, we were  psyched to look out from the picture window by the dining table as the sun was soon to go down.
 Fresh air. Clean, refreshing lake. Breath it all in.
Will we soon see the eagle flying to it's perch across the lake?

Wes suddenly says,
"Oh, my goodness!"
I question him as to why he has said that, noting there seems to be an intonation of something not sounding so good. And he said it again.  Again I questioned him as to why he said it again with no further explaining.

"The raft is gone!"

Two previous groups have used our cabin this summer, so we know the raft has been there.
The raft has never before gone missing on us.  We have a problem. We have to go out now - just before dark - and look for that wayward raft.  The fishing boat is readied and we take off. 
 Look!  There it is!
We head to the end of the lake and there is our raft with the ladder holding fast in the lake muck.
Wes turns the motor down a bit and heads towards the raft.  I grab the raft ladder and the boat starts to wobble and before we know it I have tipped the boat over! Motor running and all.

Major oops.

We are drenched and I climb onto the untethered raft and Wes cuts the motor and starts bringing the righted-but-full-of-water boat to the shore. He's not much for talking right now, only telling me he's walking back to our cabin to get two buckets for bailing water out of the boat.  I wait and shiver. 

It was almost dark by the time we've towed the raft back to the cabin. Wes tied the end of the broken  rope to some bricks, we dried off and called it a day.

How lucky we are to have a very hot-hot-hot drying rack on our cabin property in the form of a sauna. Our wet clothes (and unmentionables) were dry by the next morning. Our bruises, too were more visible by the next morning!

 

Wes ended up with a bruise on his side belly.
Me?  I ended up with a bruise on the side of my knee from hitting
the raft ladder full force when
I tried to secure it from the boat.
That's when the boat decided to
topple.

The next morning we discovered the raft was again missing!

While sitting at the breakfast table pondering what our plan would be to retrieve the raft, we noticed our wayward raft was finding its way home without our help. What???
A closer look revealed a human swimming in the water pushing our raft along.
Wes went out to investigate and found a young, apparently strong, tattooed man who told him he was planning on enlisting in the Navy this fall and he needed some strength-training practice.  Good thing he was strong - he swam the raft back with the bricks still attached to the anchor rope!!

The raft, again, was placed in the shallow waters in front of our cabin while we secured a heavy cinder block to add to the bricks.  This worked and the raft held for the remainder of our stay.

All is once again right with our raft/dock/boat world!

Wes is very pleased to have the raft back where it belongs!

Unfortunately, I seem to be developing a penchant for over-turning boats.  You might recall it was the canoe last year, and that led to the discovery that cameras can sometimes be "fixed" by placing them in an oven.  What I learned from that experience was not to bring my camera on any boat trips...what will I learn from this boat topple?  Check in again next year.

For a review of the last unexpected "dip" in the lake, here is the link:
http://thelindahls.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html