Figures. Murphy's law or something. Despite the fact that the SMTP error had persisted for a couple of days, the minute I email virgin.net about it & blog about it, it fixes itself. It's like washing your car to make it rain, I guess. At least it's fixed now, though!

Busy busy busy lately. Birthday party today, which went very well. Assembled a bike, too (well, not quite the whole thing, but had to add the front wheel, handlbars, seat and so on. And to get the front wheel on, had to loosen the front brakes, then tighten them again after. So exciting!), so it's been a busy day. And to top it off, my SMTP server (the one that sends mail) seems to be malfunctioning, so though I can read my messages in my virgin.net account, I can't respond to them. Or rather, I can't get the responses to leave my outbox. Grr. I've contacted them, but if it keeps up, I'll have to use my yahoo address for a while. At least I have internet access. And frankly, it's not as though I really feel much like writing a lot of email at the moment anyway...

OK, sorted. whew. (just something fairly stupid after all)

Went swimming today, with Alex, who seemed to enjoy it more or less (the less part being when he was splashed in the face repeatedly as a result of Sarah jumping into the pool as heavily as possible). Not much else happening, really, but just wanted to update everyone who might be worrying about my sound...

Today's challenge in the world of computing - the sound has mysteriously stopped working on our computer. Sometime between one child successfully playing a game (with sound) and another trying unsuccessfully to play (no sound). Have checked the obvious, connections, speakers themselves (work with another device), power, mute, volume, etc etc. Have been all through the more complicated stuff (Sound Troubleshooter) to make sure devices are installed and are default options and whatnot. Still nothing. Grr. I'm hoping Rod (neighbour with some computer expertise) has some ideas. Otherwise, I guess it means taking the machine somewhere. Computers. Gotta love 'em. Or not.

Had a lovely weekend. Gorgeous weather here, and went to the quilt show at Hever, where I got to meet in person many of the ladies I knew virtually from my internet quilt block swap group - lots of fun. The girls had a great time, too, as Hever Castle (where the quilt show was) has a water maze and an adventure playground. Olivia of course made it her personal mission to get as wet as possible. Luckily, gorgeous weather, so it didn't really matter.

Today was the first day of my yoga class, and I have discoverd, to no great surprise, that I have no stomach muscles. Only to be expected, I guess, and at least I have the excuse of having had a baby quite recently, but my goodness. At least Lana, who is in the class too and who is pretty fit, was also suffering after a 2 month absence. In fact, quite a few groans were heard all round, which is heartening!

OK, I'm a slacker. You probably knew that. Just seems like there's no time again, now that I'm home. I think it's that when you're on holiday, there aren't thousands of things hanging around waiting to be done (or rather, the things are still there, but they're at your house rather than being on holiday with you, so you can't do anything about them!). And too, I've had to finish up a quilt for Hever (a quilt show next weekend). Now that that's out of the way, I can actually catch up a little on correspondence and blogging and whatnot.

So, hmm, what's up. School started again this week for Sarah, who is in Year 1. Olivia goes back to nursery Tuesday, and will go in the mornings this term. The official birthday party season has started up, as well. Olivia has already received one invitation, and we've given out Sarah's invites for her party (on the 27th). I swear my kids have twice (or more) the social life I have!

Not much else to say, really, though I'm sure stuff has been happening (but who really cares that the council finally delivered a green recycling box after I'd only had to ring them three times and request one, or that I put a new bolt on the back gate of the garden as the one at the bottom no longer fastens - I mean, these are the exciting features of our days in the North household). Maybe I'll be inspired tomorrow. Or the next day. Or so on...