Hope

.Sunday drives through the country were one of my favourite things to do as a child. My mother would load us kids into the car and set off, often on aimless wandering drives to no-where in particular while we gawped out of the windows at all the sights.

The Colonel and I went for such a drive yesterday and visited a town next to ours; situated on Lake Pend Oreille. It reminds me of Lake Como and of course I love that. It even has hillsides with quaint houses dotted all along.
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We had dinner at a floating restaurant which sits on the water at the marina. The food was so-so but the view was amazing. It was not exactly as grand as the Jumbo Floating Restaurant I went to in Hong Kong, actually, it was more like a pontoon out the back of the Jumbo, but around here it was pretty exiciting.

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Dragon detail from the Jumbo Restaurant.

On the way there we got up close and personal with a Moose and some deer. It's not quite the colourful scenery that Ms Patrice gets to see down Smith Street; if by colourful scenery you mean prostrate druggies, but it certainly was exciting.

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Grammar Files: Headlines

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I have been working on some headlines for articles recently. Not quite the easy task one would imagine.

One of the pitfalls headline writers can fall into is the perilous double entendre.

A copy editor friend provided me with the following list of actual headlines that were published, but that contained some unfortunate double meanings. Personally, I think they are brilliant and that there should be some kind of award for writers who manage to convey the information contained in the story, and provide us with a raucous laugh at the same time.

My apologies to anyone offended by some of these headlines but I assure you, they were actually published!

Student excited father got head job

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Gators to face Seminoles with Peters out

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Messiah climaxes in chorus of hallelujahs

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Governor's Penis busy. (meant to read Pen is)

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Something went wrong in jet crash, expert says

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Long island stiffens for Lili's blow

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Organ festival ends in smashing climax

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Include your children when baking cookies

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Iraqi head seeks arms

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Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over.

Brilliant stuff I say.

Dirty pretty things.

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My neglecting this blog for so long is a total disgrace. That little bit of space floating around in the around cyber-realm that belongs to me and my surprising adventures must feel quite abandoned.

Forgive me world wide web, for you have tolerated my lackadaisical approach to blog writing for way too long. I shall--with this post at least-- address my woeful neglect.

It turns out that there is not all that much of interest to write about here. Back in Tampa there was always some new place to visit: galleries, museums, beach-side cafes, beautiful views, you get the picture.

In Northern Idaho life is a lot less glittering. I am always busy with this or that: work, study, copy editing, planting, lawn mowing --all 8 bleeding acres of it--weeding and whatnot. Boring I know.

I do get to enjoy panoramic views, a bucolic existence and see majestic wildlife on a daily basis, but that is just not the stuff thrilling and interesting blogs are made of. Sadly, my poor sister in Australia who would read my blog to catch up on my ex-pat adventures, is bombarded with pictures of bears, trees, mountains and the odd flower; instead of fancy hotels and trendy restaurants.

In this post I will try to liven things up a bit. Yes, there is a picture of our new ATVs, I cannot ignore the country stuff completely, but there are some pictures of new baubles just to bring back some fance my dears.

The ATVs are completely cool. Mine is the blue one, I named it Psycho Paul after a crazy character from the TV show Ideal. The Colonel has called his vehicle: The Crunch.

Dirty things

I recently bought an amazing black onyx and gold ring that is very sleek and cosmopolitan from the Italian gold by Stefano Collection.

Pretty things.

Kenneth Jay Lane makes some beautiful Lucite danglers that I just had to have. They are enormous but light and I hear they were featured in the first Sex and the City movie. I have not seen the film, but hope that it having been worn in a film does not mean that every Carrie copy-cat has a pair. Well, let's be real, the folk in my town hardly go in for the whole fancy schmancy thing so I need not worry.

More pretty things

I hate Knick-knacks, but this rotund little glass bird was so sweet and porky, I had to buy him. How cute is he?

Speaking of birds, I rescued one today. It had flown into my front door and I think it was in shock. I nursed it until it opened it's little eyes and started to look better. When trying to get it near the water and food I had placed on the patio, my dog promptly stepped in and killed it, what a sad little circumstance. I rescued one a few weeks ago only for my cat to step in and kill it. Perhaps I should stop trying to rescue small birds, it seems to end very badly for them.
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