Our Visitors depart...

Well we have the house to ourselves again. Carolyn and Tim jetted back to the UK on Wednesday evening arriving safely but tired on Thursday morning. They seemed to have a good time - not sure if they felt it was a destination to which they could emigrate, but we'll see. Tim built us a very nice gate onto our deck so we can let Bella out for some fresh air unsupervised.
We had a lady come round on Friday giving us a quote on Invisible Fences. This is a wire which is buried around the perimeter of the property (all 800 feet of it..). The dog wears a special collar around it's neck and when it approaches the wire, it gets a tingling sensation which increases in strength as it approaches the wire itself. They also do three training sessions, install it and guarantee it, so it's something we will probably have to get done. As Carolyn pointed out on a few occasions, there aren't fences around the properties, so dogs and people can roam at will! However we have two friends who have invisible fences and they do work, so it's good that it will give Bella over an acre to run around on without being tied up!
The weather has definitley got milder this week and we're expecting to see some evidence of bulbs poking their heads through. A lot of the trees have got some growth evidence, so it shouldn't be long. We have a bit of a tree quandry in the woods at the back of the house. A pine tree has broken and landed on a birch tree. The birch tree is supporting it, but leaning alarmingly. We would cut it down, but it's not our tree! The house to which it belongs is actually for sale, so we'll have to contact the Realtors and see if it's okay to cut it down. I want to keep the wood as well to supply the wood burning stove next winter. If they were to fall down completely, they would land on our property and we are concerned they may fall on the children, so we'll have to get something sorted soon. Next door have a chainsaw.....
Had a fun Toastmasters meeting on Thursday. I was Grammarian which means I have to introduce a new word to the vocabulary and keep an ear out for mis-use of English. I was also Listener, which means I have to listen to all the speeches and quiz the members on a couple of issues to ensure they were listening as well! On top of all this I got stiffed for a Table Topic - where you have to get up and talk on a subject for 2 minutes. Normally you volunteer for this, but this week people were 'volunteered' and I got picked on! I couldn't believe it - what with me being so busy with other duties. The irony is that I came joint first, so that was a result!
Matthew went on a sleepover last night to next door. This time, he actually stayed the night, so that was a good hurdle to get over. He used to be okay, but as we were preparing to leave the UK, he suddenly started getting homesick and has been unable to last the night since. They were planning on sleeping in a tent in the garden, but that was downed on two counts. Firstly it was too cold and secondly we'd had police in the neighbourhood at the beginning of the week, looking for a fugitive. They slept in the tent in the basement instead! Emma had Megan next door come here for a sleepover, but as were next door for drinks until 10pm, by the time they got back here, they were both shattered and were asleep within half an hour. Result!
Things seem to be coming together at work. I'm slowly getting the hang of how they do things. My desk order will arrive a week Monday and the other orders I've placed for software have also been signed off, and are 'in the system'. It is a nice place to work and the cafeteria does damn good coffee!
My boss is away this week, so there will be less English translation to do (he's from Chile) and with a bit of luck I'll get my Internet access.
That just about sums it up. Our next visitors arrive in June - we're hoping to go whale watching with them as it's the season apparently, so we'll have to start investigating that.
I'll see if I can rustle up a picture for the next entry!!