GO HAWKS!!!

17 years ago Dad and I headed to Waverley Park to see Hawthorn beat the West Coast Eagles for our ninth flag. Tomorrow Dad heads to the MCG (alone, sadly for me) to see Hawthorn battle Geelong. It's been a long 17 years in the wilderness. Go Hawks!

BTW I've found a bar in Boston showing a replay of the game on Saturday so I'll join in with the Boston Bombers in cheering on the Hawks!

Off to Boston

We're off to Boston for 10 days! We're hoping to see Harvard, eat lots of good Italian food and visit a couple of the other New England states (I think we can probably visit 4 other states to get our statistics up to 16 of the 50 US states) I've packed a few new toys for the plane ride for our active 2 and 1/3 year old. Last time we visited Boston Lucy was 13 months old, couldn't walk and couldn't talk! But she still remembers the ducks and has been asking for the 'Boston book' (Make way for Ducklings) as her bedtime storybook. It is going to be a lot of fun!

For all those Office fans out there Season 5 starts tonight!

Future Elle

I bought a few cooler weather outfits for Lucy last week and asked her to try them on at home. To my surprise she was very co-operative and gave me a fashion show. Here she is trying on her new shark slippers! She tried on 5 different tops, 1 dress, 1 pair of pants, 1 head band and 3 pairs of shoes. She even made different mood faces for different clothes (happy, sad, angry) which made for even more fun.

Product of the week: Blue agave syrup

I found this blue agave syrup at the Co-op. It is a sugar substitute but given its very high fructose content I'm not sold on its health benefits. Turbinado sugar seems to be the way to go as it tastes good and is not highly processed.

Here's the facts on the syrup according to Wikipedia:

Agave syrup (also called agave nectar) is a sweetener commercially produced in Mexico, from several species of agave. Agave syrup is sweeter than honey, though less viscous.... To produce agave nectar, juice is expressed from the core of the agave, called the piña.The juice is filtered, then heated, to hydrolyze carbohydrates into sugars. The main carbohydrate is a complex form of fructose called inulin or fructosan. The filtered, hydrolyzed juice is concentrated to a syrup-like liquid a little thinner than honey and ranges in color from light to dark depending on the degree of processing. ... Agave syrup consists primarily of fructose and glucose. One source gives 92% fructose and 8% glucose; another gives 56% fructose and 20% glucose. These differences presumably reflect variation from one vendor of agave syrup to another.

Goodbye trees

We are in the middle of having 7 trees cut down in the backyard. One was dead, 3 were leaning and 3 were very tall with no branches & dangerously close to the house. I just looked out in the yard and I didn't notice that 6 of the trees were gone. But what I did notice was the one that was almost in the middle of the yard (and in the middle of a garden bed) was gone. It seems empty there now.

Pizza oven work continued over the weekend(!) The project for this weekend was to get some welding done. Lucy thought it was exciting to see fireworks in the backyard. Thankfully everyone is safe with all eyes, fingers and toes intact.

In between all the excitement Andrew and Lucy made lemon flavoured marshmallow. Lucy had great enjoyment licking the beater!

Phone numbers

I have a very funny situation happen the other week.

I met the person with almost the same phone number as me except that the last two digits are interchanged. My number ends in 4336 and Heather's number ends in 4363. Upon seeing my phone number written down, the following conversation occurred:

Heather: I know you!
Fiona: How?
Heather: I get your phone calls all the time. My number ends in 4363. People ask to speak to Fiona and I just tell them sorry wrong number!
Fiona: Wow, that's amazing! At least now you know me you can give out the right number for me!

Marker minute

All around North Carolina there are historical markers by the side of the road celebrating an event or person. Officially called the 'North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program' which has the somewhat bizarre slogan of 'history on a stick'. It does makes it fun on long drives to read them out and interestingly there are many markers to be found all around the city. Take for example the marker near the bridge to Wrightsville beach:


BABIES HOSPITAL: D-94; Pioneer pediatric hospital opened here in 1920 by Dr. J. Buren Sidbury. Also provided training of nurses. Closed 1978. US 74 at Summer Street west of Wrightsville Beach.

If you want to read more check out the website at http://www.ncmarkers.com/book.aspx