Yes, she accidentally named her cats Nitty and Pearly.

That's adorable.

Today was a total success. Frances finished one homework assignment 2 days early, and then we went to a beach/lagoon for swimming and general hanging about. Perfect way to send off summer.

Personally, the word ally is fine with me, because you can be a fairly decent human being and sit on your dead butt. As an adult, in my mid-twenties, I had an e-mail argument with my father and wrote that he was full of crap(Man, the pearl-clutching that went on!) Still, much as they work my nerves and I like to curse, I'm somewhat pleased that I've never broken the f-omb barrier with any of them. Scola, sometimes I feel like the oldest unattached woman in the world, and, you know, kind of a human tragedy, with the chair and all. it sucks.

I'm sorry Gud, that was an unfortunate cross post

Almost a total fail.

How can it be a total fail when you helped your Grandma and fixed your toilet?

Yeah, sounds like you still accomplished more than me today, Gud! But hey, tomorrow is another day?

Also, with the freakish growth rate going on, aren't TCBITW and her brother available to mow the lawn? My parents pawned that task off on me and my siblings by the time we were about 12...

Yeah, maybe back to square one, but not a fail.

You got way more done than me, Gud.

I hope you aren't in Doctor Who, aurelia. Not with hovering Christmas robots.

meara, when I was scrolling past the post about that with you tagged, on fb, I was scrolling too fast and totally read it as Wu Tang Clan flash mob, which would be a wholly different thing.

Our weekend of football is now over, so I have an update on Ryan and the office Aussie rules tipping comp. First, a bit of good news from the rugby league - our team, the Canberra Raiders, managed a win in extra time over the Parramatta Eels. They finish the season in 9th or 10th place, depending on whether Cronulla downs Manly.

This was the last week of the tipping comp. Leading in, Ryan and I had just hit first place, bumping off George, who had led the comp from the very first week. Last week, Ryan had picked a couple of upsets, both of which paid off for him. Now, as the front-runner, we were the ones playing it safe while George plotted his revenge.

He needed one upset. It was complicated by a footy brouhaha this week. I had thought (looking at the draw) that the two matches hardest to pick would be Port Adelaide vs Fremantle (on Saturday), and Richmond vs North Melbourne (Friday night). Then, on Monday, Fremantle announced that as they were now guaranteed to be minor premiers, they were going to rest a number of their best players so they'd be fresh for the finals. Outrage followed ("what about the fans?!?") but their plan went ahead anyway. And then on Friday, North Melbourne announced that as they were guaranteed to be in the finals, they'd rest a bunch of their players too. More outrage! But the two most dangerous tips for us were neutralised. (And indeed everyone in the comp tipped Richmond and Port Adelaide.)

That left one match about which I was worried, Geelong vs Adelaide. 71% of tipsters picked the Crows (Adelaide), us included. Sure enough, when the tips were revealed, George (and Ann in 3rd place) had gone for the Geelong Cats. (They had been supposed to face each other earlier in the season too; tragically, that match was cancelled after Adelaide's coach was stabbed to death by his own son.) The Cats led by 27 after the first quarter, and stretched it to 39 by game end. George had reclaimed his crown. We could be pretty sure his tips would match ours for the rest of the weekend; my boy was going to finish the season in a very creditable second place.

However! In this comp, tipping is open for each game until just before kick-off. Seven of the nine matches were over, but there were two to go on Sunday. Neither looked a great chance, but Ryan decided he still had some fight left. He made his choice - Melbourne Demons (with just six wins for the season) to beat Greater Western Sydney Giants (11 wins). Melbourne has lost their last four matches in a row, and had not won at the particular venue for 22 games. It was a dubious hope.

They won by 27. My boy is the 2015 champion of the office tipping competition - only one ahead of George, who led the competition for 21 weeks out of 23; and Adele, who won the comp for the last four years running (or indeed rolling in the deep). Ryan's chickens, they have hatched.

Yay, Ryan, snatching the chickens of victory from the jaws of defeat! He must be quite pleased.

Who wants to help me figure out the nature and source of the noxious stench that comes over my front yard almost every morning shortly after sunrise?