The Onion Has Landed

Anne arrived last night, rolling in from the airport a little after midnight, so she was pretty tired (her internal clock being 4 hours ahead of that).

The trip over flyover country was uneventful except for one small inconvenience - American Airlines have lost her luggage again! They did this to her the last time she visited, so I think this will be her last trip out here (or so she threatens).

It's good to see her, and I know she feels the same as she actually stopped in mid-dash (through the house to see her sleeping nieces) long enough to give me a kiss on the cheek.

I hope her bags arrive today as we're all going to The Nutcracker tonight and her ball gown is in one of them.

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Letter this year marks a first for us, as we've put it online* here. And when I say "our" I mean it rhetorically. It's 98% Julie's effort this year.

I think she did a fine job, don't you?

*This way we can truthfully claim that the letter went out before Christmas, even if the hard copy hasn't hit the post office yet.

Diving with Tiger Sharks

My friend Neil Burnie is at it again - this time diving with Tiger sharks off Bermuda.

"It's a different world under there," added Dr. Burnie, who has surfed a giant whale shark, and watched flying fish, manta-rays and barracuda in a feeding frenzy underneath his fishing boat.

They didn't mention that he also drove an open fishing boat, powered by two outboard engines, to Bermuda from the East Coast. (That's a trip of some 700 miles, and I think he did it in 2 days.)

I remember when I first met Neil. He was a pale, pasty-faced little Englishman then, newly arrived on the island to work for Dad as his locum. Now the shoe's on the other foot, and I'm the one who's pale and pasty-faced.

Sacred Bull?

They need to get a new censor at the Royal Gazette. The one they have now doesn't know good four letter words from bad.

Crown counsel Nicole Smith told Magistrates' Court yesterday the defendant said to them: “This is f***ing b***shit.” He was warned twice to calm down but when two other officers arrived DeSilva continued his outburst.

And what school child can't fill in the blanks?
Around the Courts

Southpaw?

One day over Thanksgiving Aiden was served her breakfast cereal by her grandfather, who put her spoon on the left side of the bowl. Without missing a beat she simply picked up the spoon with her nearest hand and started to serve herself.

After I commented on this Ed allowed that while he was right-handed, he held a baseball bat left-handed, and kicked a football (an American football) with this left foot.

Could our little peanut be left-handed? Or perhaps even ambidexterous? Time will tell.