Went to a conference today about an hour away, near the bridge thing on the way to San Francisco. Pretty informative, PAPAS appears to be doing it right on helping get dads involved in their families and got a few ideas about how to recruit more families… “Door hangers” is one strategy used which i’m presuming is adverts you put on door knobs on people’s houses, like in that episode of The Simpsons where Bart delivers flyers in a Matrix stylee, and also asking for help from rotary clubs, who’ve been generous enough to Musgrove Hospital Children’s Ward in the past.

One speaker was a little scarey, going on about Wedlock and Marriage and God whispering into the baby’s ear in the womb. He was, rightly, heckled afterwards, but we’d had to hand in our evaluation forms before he graced the stage which was a tad annoying. His grand finale was a little too close for comfort to David Brent’s “Simply the Best” exit. I saw him skulk away from the building afterwards… Granted, we share the same ideas about helping dads who want to be more involved get more involved… but the door should definitely be open for parenting help for father figures in general, non-biological fathers, same-sex couples and all kinds of non-conventional family structures. Hmmm. Well, you can pick and choose what you take away from these things even if you have to put up with a lot of conservative crap along the way. Nice dessert, mind.

Anyroad, just got back and Sita’s nowhere to be seen and her folks are arriving in a few hours so I shall busy myself for a bit around the homestead. Ooh, and while I remember if anyone can recommend me some episodes of This American Life to download I’ve got a long car journey coming up soon and would be glad of advice, cos you get the occasional crap one… comments welcome.

See you later, or “Vi ses s?nare” as they say in Sweden,

Cheers,
“Gywn” (according to my pre-printed conference name sticker)

Yep, I’m officially Project Director of PAPAS and ABC (Answers Benefiting Children). More details soon… Am quantifiably chuffed. Onwards and upwards…

Sita just pointed out that we were in the midst of an earthquake. A couple of tequila bottles were wobbling on the shelf. The bunnies didn’t notice anything though, so there goes that theory… Anyroad, i’ll check online to see if anyone else reported owt and post a link if something happened. Ah, life on the San Andreas fault. I’m glad I’m not still teaching, the earthquake drill was never properly explained- it’s all duck and cover under desks and then if you think it’s stopped then go outside. How you decide this was never fully explained…
Update- 10:30am : It was a 5.0 near Paso Robles again about 200 miles south of here…

Puff and Merlin’s mum came to collect them. Sita is vaguely threatening acquiring our own guineau pig, but i’ll do my utmost to avoid that one coming to pass.

In other news, I had my second interview today for the project manager position, but I won’t find out till early next week what the outcome is. This is the space to watch for news… We organised a social event for the PAPAS families last night, click that link to have a look at the pictures (only broadband for now, dial-up version coming soon…). I still faintly smell of burger fumes from barbecuing a hundred or so.

Off to celebrate (co-worker & friend) Judith & Carlos’ pre-wedding at Bittersweet Cafe tonight, tis quite a posh place so i’ll let you know if they let me in or not.

Me mum’s talking about a visit to Santa Cruz in November, which is rainy but has plenty of whale watching opportunities and that, and to meet the grand-rabbits, is the main objective. Looking forward to that, like.

That’ll be all for now, hoping to see a film or two this weekend, and I’ve still got to review House of the Spirit Levels properly before it fades from memory, so that may be it fow a few days.

And Ms.Manatee, if you’re reading this, i hope the lack of activity in your blog over the past few days is because of too much fun, or cakes, and not hurricane related. Alrighty, cheers for now, all the best,
gwyn

Puff and Merlin are being picked up in a couple of days. We’ll have to have some kind of celebration/ tea party to see them off. I don’t reckon Merlin will notice any change, mind. Puff will be missed.

On me way home to blighty t’other week, i listened to the Jon Stewart’s audiobook on America- Democracy Inaction- a grand listen and the best bit is he’s off promoting it around cable TV land, so yesterday we got to watch him on “The O’Reilly Factor” (A Rupert Murdoch-sponsored, right-wing talk show bastard-fest) defending all that is true and right. O’Reilly scolded him for saying “Je ne sais quoi” since they’re boycotting France for their Iraq stance on the program. Stewart says that’s bollocks and why not boycott Saudi Arabia, then? Anyroad, long story short, O’Reilly came off worse for once, having invited someone with an ounce of intelligence. Huzzah.

On the techie front, i’m switching my browser to Firefox, it’s ace. Especially with the new Explorer that installed itself at me with the XP Service Pack 2 thingy and seems to rival your average bonfire night for pop-ups. Can’t recommend it enough.

Quite enjoyed this book, but I thought this paragraph on smoking was inspired:

It’s like inviting a homicidal maniac to live in your house, but you don’t know when he’s going to strike. He’s affable, polite, helps you through moments of stress, helps prolong the post-coital glow, really freeze-frames the moment, but one day, he’s going to come into your bedroom and chop you into small bits. But there’s a thrill to it. Maybe you’ll be one of the ones he likes…

I found a nifty little dreamweaver extension and now, presuming you’re not using XP Service Pack 2, there’ll be a random picture each time you visit the index page. Tidy.

Once again I’d like to remind everyone that they HAVE to see Shaun of the Dead, just reviewing it made me smile.

Still no word from the Swedes…

I still have to get round to stating in no uncertain terms what a grand time I had seeing everyone in blighty. So maybe next time…

I had me interview for the project director position on Wednesday and it went OK considering I hadn’t slept the night before. Anyhow, I’m into the second round versus a bloke with a PhD so I have to enlarge my vocabulary over the weekend and get a few books out of the library on grant writing. If you don’t know where i work, you can visit the PAPAS site in English or Spanish and have a nose around. So the second interview’s next week and I’ll let you know how i got on.

In other news, this site appears to have become popular in Sweden. If you’re reading from there, thanks and who are you? It’s pretty rare that anyone happens on these pages who doesn’t know me unless they’re searching for #1: Banana Slugs, #2 Bunnies or #3 Spanish Teaching Links.
Read More “Welcome, Swedes”

I just got back late last night from a week or so in the UK. Normal blog service will be returning in the next few days along with photos, film & book reviews and selected anecdotes from the last few days.

Cheers,
gwyn

One of those 10-different-sounds-of-varying-annoyance car alarms went off at 5.15am outside our house for ever and after stuffing bog roll in me ears, cowering under the pillow and trying to think of lyrics to fit with it, I called the police for the first time ever in the states. They eventually investigated with their walkie-talkies at about the same volume as the alarm, prodded the car for 10 minutes or so, then called a tow-truck to come and shift the car, which duly reversed up the road beeping as it went then at around 7am, beautiful silence. I had lovely dreams and called in to work that i’d be late…
Sita’n’me went to dine at Malabar, santa cruz’s premier sri lankan vegetarian restaurant, since i’m off for a bit and why not celebrate?

Couple of pix from last night, sita with the Ciao Bella cat, and the all singing, all dancing wait staff. Something of a Santa Cruz institution this place…

This is Merlin the comatose rabbit, his story is in an earlier entry. Apparently he was saved from being snake food as a young buck, so he missed out on all the educational toys and attention that Klem and Lulu got.
Anyroad, we sucked in the pub quiz the other night and walked out halfway through leaving our quiz sheet with another team… Dr.Jeckyl’s first name? the ZIP code for Iowa? How many bulls in a Spanish bull fight? We didn’t stay for the answers, but I think google might know. We went from abject failure in the quiz to one of the only scrabble games with no words longer than 4 letters. Dismal. Hey ho.
Friday was nice, we were celebrating/commiserating my boss, Joop’s moving on to bigger and better things and had a couple of swift pints with the team (all in matching PAPAS T-shirts) before going home to see Sita and go to Ciao Bella to celebrate our anniversary. Photos shortly.
Today we’re off to Sudarat’s for breakfast and stuff, there should be quite a crowd there. anyroad, that’s all fer now, cheersy.

Glad to report that Merlin the rabbit is starting to show signs of a nascent personality. If it wasn’t for him hopping around, I probably wouldn’t have watched “13 going on 30” in its entirety last night. Photos definitely coming soon… of the rabbit and guineau pig that is.
Sita and I are off to a pub quiz in 99 bottles of beer. The team’s going to be a bit depleted but we’ll do our best without the sports and natural history experts. We came second a fortnight ago, thanks in large part to the British bias of the questions (It’s called “A Brit of Trivia” and is run by a bloke from Bolton in the North of England). Knowing the only poisonous snake in the British Isles (the adder) helped no end. Also Sita has an encyclopaedic knowledge of dodgy 80s US sitcom themes. “perfect strangers” anyone? Standing tall…
Anyroad, I’ll blog how we did in the quiz. Up for grabs are 10 pints or an “entree”. The usual winning team is called “The Wankers” and we have suspicians they’re a bunch of treacherous, cheating gits.

So, we now have two additions to the menagerie. (Our neighbour) Christine rang us on Sunday to see if we were around to meet her friend who wanted to ask us to rabbit and guinea pig sit for her while she was on holiday. We said OK, and arranged for said friend and her critters to come round on Sunday afternoon to meet us. She came along with enough pet supplies to sink a battleship, a bottle of Trader Joe’s Chilean wine and Puff (G-Pig) and Merlin (rabbit) and the assumption that we’d say yes.

We promptly learned that she’d be away, incommunicado, in Yurop for a full month. So Klem and Lulu are doing their best to get used to the new additions to the room. Lulu’s become v. territorial and Klem is bearing the brunt of Lulu’s behaviour. Sita too is coming to terms with sharing an office that’s looking increasingly like a vet’s waiting room and a fridge resembling a well-stocked Safeway aisle.

Puff is an inscrutable little beastie, he wanders in and out of his igloo pausing occasionally to make thrumming noises and throw quizzicle looks at us. Merlin was still in a state of shock when I left this morning from his car ride over here. Anyroad, photos’ll be appearing around these parts of how Sita’s foster kids are doing.

Here’re the photos from Radio Cooperativa. Sita and, apparently, her dad are v. happy for Chile. I think they’re for tennis or something. The UK’s got a couple so far, in what events I couldn’t tell you. Not the biggest sports fan see…
Sita’s just decided she’s going to do a paper on Morrissey and Latino Los Angelinos after dancing around the room to This Charming Man or some such last night round our mate Sudarat’s house.
Anyroad, I’m off to work and it’s Sunday. Just had a chat with me nanny who’s missing her son Geoff, after he’s been looking after for a week while me mum and dad were on holiday in “sunny” devon. Really looking forward to seeing them in a couple of weeks.