Orright

I got wicked sunburned yesterday orchestrating highly irritating - but probably very funny to watch - cleaning then refilling inflatable swimming pool on Washington's sixth or was that seventh sunny day this year. Husband returned from Canada where he's been working on a pinnapod exhibit (thats seals, sealions and walruses in case you didn't know what 'pinnapods') are. First words on strolling through the door: "Hi dear, I have to go to Sydney for the week before Wellington (NZ, people) next month". This means that I have to figure out night time childcare for two kids for two weeks as I have a bunch of due dates on the calendar. Sigh.

UberNanny was in town visiting with her beau, which rather took the heat off childcare wise while Husband was makin' the big bucks in Edmonton. That didn't stop the resident critters (racoons? coyotes?) from swiping Dolly and June (Parton and Carter Cash) - the egg-laying Cadillacs of my chicken coop, leaving only a trail of soft fluffy red feathers. RIP June and Dolly. Two new cheepy chicklets now inhabit my laundry and Ryan will be building a fence around their pasture as I can't bear the thought of the neighborhood rifraff thinking that my joint is the one with free, hot and cold, running chickens in perpetuity.

We look set to enjoy another, incredibly rare, balmy day here in Leafy Corner. But today I'm thinking of my Mum, who has had perhaps the shittiest week ever, losing one of her two best friends to a vicious pneumonia/leukemia sucker punch today, and later this week will support her other best friend as she undergoes surgery for bowel cancer. These are the calls which every expat dreads. I wish I was home with her.