A peek at the REAL Thumbster

Odds and Ends

I know I have more important things to do than be writing journal entries...but I don't care. Today is still a holiday...and besides...I now realize that I love writing and if I can help it...there's going to be some room in my life for this side of me.

Checking my emails at Hotmail just now and I had to laugh. One of my addresses gets TONS of junk mail...regularly filling completely in 3 days or so.

I just have to shake my head at all of the lame and boring emailers out there. All selling the same old crap...in the same old way...except this one I got today.

It turned out she was only selling computer virus software...but it was her subject title that made me click on. I must admit that I do get curious when I get even midly sexy emails...with hugs and kisses in my inbox. That was a first. Very misleading Alice ...but she got my attention. First rule of marketing...get them to notice you.

I forgot to mention about Derek's and Mitchell's ski trip. :) The kind of time they had varies according to who I listen to.

According to Derek...

It WAS his first time downhill skiing after all. He loved it and was great at it...once he got the hang of it.

According to Mitchell...

The best part of the day was watching Derek tumble head over heals down the mountain...in a big cloud of snow and flying skis...for 25 feet at a time...like some character out of a cartoon.

Okay...so I lied about Derek just for dramatic impact.

I guess Derek began his day on the bunny hill...much to Mitchell's and the other kid's amusement. (the guys were invited to go with some good family friends and their kids...one of whom...Tyrone...is also best friends to both my guys.

Mitchell and Tyrone shouted encouragements to Derek as they went overhead on the ski-lift. According to Derek...it wasn't so much encouragements...but insults and dares. So Derek was "persuaded" to venture off the bunny hill and onto the intermediate hill. According to Derek he was never more scared in his life...even more scared than when he went on the roller coaster in England...the one with the loops and things.

According to Mitchell...Derek has a skiing style all his own...which Mitchell demonstrated for me...repeatedly while crying with laughter each time. The best way to describe it was that Derek was in some sort of chicken stance all the way down the mountain...with his arms flapping out to his sides...crouched down...knees wide apart and shaking...his eyes streaming tears so much he could barely see because he was going so fast. Apparently he was yelling all the way down for people to get out of his way because he couldn't stop. Ending in him wiping out spectactuarly...better than anyone else they've EVER seen.

I guess Mitchell and Tyrone talked him into doing that three times before he finally gave up and spent the rest of the day back on the bunny hill by himself.

According to Derek...the 2nd and 3rd times were the hardest...as each of those times he was yelling..."I'm NEVER doing this again!"...down the mountain...because he knew how it was going to end.

I now wish I had of gone along. I'm just glad that no one got hurt. I do tend to worry. They did wear helmets and were with experienced skiiers though.

I'll never be able to properly clean around the bathroom door. That's where over the years I've recorded their heights...Mitchell's on one side...Derek's on the other.

I stopped doing it for awhile because Mitchell put on a growth spurt and went from being smaller to being bigger than Derek. Now they're pretty closely matched again.

I'm such a terrible speller...a lot of that is due to me not taking school very seriously but also because of my Dad.

He had a speak impediment when he was younger...but only with certain words. He had to have an operation on his tongue. Growing up...my brother and I would constantly say all these things at school that would make others give us wierd looks.

My Grandmother..."Nana"...to all her other grandkids...was called "Naner" by my brother and I. I was still calling her Naner when she died two years ago. Dad also adds needless syllables to words all the time. What other local people called "Nictaux"...we called "Nic-a-taux". That drives others crazy...I don't blame them. Even today I find myself writing or saying something odd that I can trace back to my Dad.

I best go before I start embarrassing the rest of my family.