Mad! About the Boy.

A while ago The Rooster received A Prestigious University Award based on his academic performance. While The Burp was proud of him, she did email me to wail that now he was encroaching on what had previously been her domain - academic achievement. How, she asked, was she supposed to compete with this Bravery Medal-winning, Olympic torch-bearing, academically high-achieving, expert shelf-building, and generally all-round nice guy?? But The Rooster is very unassuming - he even blushes when The Burp drags out the video with the news item all about his Bravery Medal - so it's hard to hold anything against him. Nevertheless I tried to feel her pain.

Last night when Grumpy and I checked the mail, there was a letter informing him that he had won A Prestigious University Award based on his academic performance and almighty initiative. Naturally I was very proud of him and reflected on the fact that I had a husband who, no matter what he took on, seemed to excel. I wish I had an ounce of his get-up-and-go. So we rang Ern and Bezley (Ern asked if the prize money was enough to cover the four of us going out for a celebratory dinner) and he had a couple of celebratory beers and I made him a congratulatory cup of tea, accompanied by a pile of Malt-O-Milks, and Grumpy referred to himself as a prize-winning boy. Several times. "I'm a prize-winning boy!"

Then he said to me, "Won't you be spewing." And I asked, "What? Why?" And he said, "When I win the Walkley and the Pulitzer and then the Nobel." Then he added, "I'm a prize-winning boy!"

Yeah, folks, he's a real prize-winning something.