Those Meddling Kids!

I dropped in on The Burp on Sunday while Grumpy stayed at home and did the mopping. Do I know a thing or two about shirking housework or what? It was only supposed to be a flying visit and then I was orff to the paper shop to get paper for my aunt's 50th birthday party invitations.

But I ended up staying for a couple of hours (no point going home, the floors would take so long to dry) and helping out with food preparation. The Burp was alone when I got there and desperately trying, with her one good arm, to get some butter and vegemite on to a few cruskits. I finished the job off for her - she hadn't done too badly but the butter was somewhat unevenly distributed along each cruskit. She reckons that a broken arm is good for weight loss - if The Rooster isn't around to help her prepare a snack she generally can't be bothered trying to rustle one up herself. Eventually her good husband and boys (hello, boys!*) came home & the two lads, Bay Leaf & Machiavelli, wanted to make milo muffins.

[I have referred to The Burp's boys by various different names and none seem quite right. Grumpy came up with Bay Leaf & Machiavelli & they seem like pretty good names to me so I'll stick with these.]

So while The Burp supervised, I helped hold various bowls steady and scraped away the last of the muffin mix from the bowl and into a muffin pan. I felt a bit cruel doing this, because what kid doesn't want a decent amount of mix to lick from the bowl? But the mix wasn't anywhere near as tasty as the finished product so tough luck, kiddies!

When I finally got home to Grumpy all he wanted to do was have a nap. He's had a bad cold, you see. And I had him mopping floors? I tell you, I'm a brute. I thought I'd have a quick lie down too but then the door bell was buzzed a couple of times and when I went to check it was the monsters from next door - with friends - wanting to know "would it be convenient" if they came in and made some cards.

They had the run of the house for about three hours and they all made little posters declaring, "Go Dockers!" (no comma, but for cuteness I can overlook that). Their enthusiasm for their team was a little tragic and somewhat poorly timed - I didn't have the heart to tell them that there would be no more footy for the Dockers this year. Grumpy is having a hard enough time coming to grips with that cruel fact; I couldn't have four sobbing children on my hands.

I see in their future footy tipping careers as brilliant as mine.


*That is just a very silly joke. Ignore it.