Did you get a grass cut? No, I got 'em all cut!

Continuing my little interest into the news and parental/child issues, today I'm going to talk about a news article I read recently about a young boy who got into trouble mowing lawns.

What's that? In trouble for mowing a lawn? I hear you cry. But Lucky, don't we want our kids to get off their screens and go outside and do something wholesome? I don't understand!!
Fear not, my friend. Let's explore this together.

Our story is set in the delicious sounding Maple Heights in Ohio, America. The plucky protagonist is Reggie Fields and his aptly named lawn mowing business Reggie Boyz Lawn Service. This is a business he started in the holiday to raise some of that much needed cash. I think we can all relate to that.

It's kind of refreshing to see a twelve year old kid doing this hard work instead of just vlogging or becoming a wannabe Instagram git. Wow, do I sound old and bitter or what?

Anyway, the story comes to a crux when young Reggie accidentally mows over the border.
Wait, that that makes it sound like he crossed into Mexico - what I mean is that he accidentally trimmed over a boundary and into a neighbour's territory. This neighbour called the police.

There are so many ways to look into this story. The first thing I personally thought of was the ridiculous track record America has for unnecessary police calls. Actually, let's face it a lot of countries apparently have a misunderstanding about what this line is for.

Halloween Hullabaloo

Well it's almost Halloween - which we don't really celebrate here in Australia but it's safe to say we can all appreciate a good costume. And why should Americans have all the fun? Who doesn't like dressing up?

Exactly. 

Frankly, a nice healthy scare is good for you. Hell, typing this right now I'm kinda scared. My birds were going nuts in their aviary and when I went out to investigate I heard a weird noise, like a possessed goose. I couldn't see one though but it's been about an hour and a half since it began and I can hear this weird bird monster moving locations - perhaps walking down our street in order to get a head start on the year's spookiest holiday.

Personally, I think the fact that stores are releasing Christmas decorations *BEFORE* Halloween is scarier than most trick or treaters but hey, whattaya gonna do?

Also the influx of meme costumes and 'sexy' costumes... which I suspect may mostly be made up of the exact same dress just painted different and sold for a high dollar figure.

If you venture onto any social media platform you're bound to find a million re-posts of excellent outfits.

Like these amazing Archer and Ratatouille outfits.























Or how about Hank Scorpio's classic 'I didn't give you my jacket' moment immortalised in time.

Sticking with the Matt Groening's theme we also have Scruffy. The Janitor. And his bucket.







Or for a more recent pop culture outfit, here's Rey from Star Wars along with her trusty sidekick BBaGoodDog.

So, here's my favourites (from what I've seen this year - may not actually be from this year)

To Shower, or not to Shower?

This blog is because I don't know what to do.

My sister - due in about two months time - has seemingly cancelled the casual family baby shower/BBQ. I'm not even sure why, as I've only heard about it in passing.

So now I'm conflicted because it's her choice and I'll stand by that - no question. On the other hand though - it's the first child on our particular side of the family and it does carry certain obligations. Thirdly.. I was looking forward to it.

I know baby showers are like small weddings these days - seemingly expecting you to hire out a small room, get caterers and decorators.. give mementos to guests... severe theming issues...
which bothers me. You hear jokes about baby showers being so extravagant because there isn't going to be a wedding ha-ha-ha but it seems like you're expected to have a shower, a gender reveal party, a babymoon and all sorts of things that are just blowing it out of proportion.

Yes, it's a big event but it doesn't need to be so big and expensive that it misses the point of relaxing with friends and family in anticipation of your impending birth.
It really does make it seem like we're going back into the whole 'women's lives revolve around babies and nothing else' mentality.

"It's just a casual get together...AT THE RITZ."

Served up Yummy Mummys.... But have we had enough?

My mother told me about a reality show called Yummy Mummys, with a foot note that it's probably just going to be for laughs. Holy hell, it's something but I'm not sure if I can even make it through this first episode!

I'm not really a fan of reality television because let's face it, it's lazy, it's all staged, it reminds me that the Kartrashians still exist... You know, that kind of thing. My idea of a good reality show is Drawn Together. 

Anyway, this show is centred around three mums to be from Melbourne and one clique invader from Adelaide. 

Jane - a model - seems to be a quieter person than the rest, she's already a mother and seems to have the best dress sense.

Lorinska is a primary school teacher who doesn't seem to understand motherhood, she's afraid of breastfeeding due to a unfortunate incident when she was a kid but also thinks she'll just pop back into her pre-pregnancy size immediately. She does have some classic reaction faces though.

Rachel is my favourite so far, she's a state retail manager but is a bit more down to earth and has a sense of humour about it all. She kinda reminds me of a shorter version of Sarah Jessica Parker.

Over in Adelaide though we have a horrible caricature of a rich useless brat. This is Maria who feels that every mother should have a giant powder room, matching outfits for her, her man, baby and dog, and has apparently stock piled for a baby apocalypse judging by the amount of baby shoes and things she's hoarding. She's a self confessed label slave and monograms all of her designer bags to make sure everybody knows. 

Am I being too harsh on Maria? Nope. 

Clinical Rage and Other Maladies

So right now I just need to have a bit of a rant about my day.

I had finally taken care of allllll the paperwork for the fertility clinic (seriously, I think I've seen less paperwork when I was in school and the questions were probably easier there too) and I asked them... where to from here?

I mean, every time I think I know what I'm doing I find out I had it wrong or there's some other step I have to take first and it's frustrating. So it's a genuine question. I do not have the time, or the money, or the intent... to take this concept of baby producing lightly, and I can't afford in ANY respect to mess it up. I'm trying my best not to be stupid, but I'm getting overwhelmed, and then I lose confidence in myself. 

The clinic staff said.. go and see your specialist for the next part. Alrighty then, I thought and made an appointment for the next available day I had off. This was today. 

My specialist bluntly asked me what I was doing there.