What do you call a person from Alabama????

Hey all,

so I know I haven't put anything up here in a while....but there has been a lot going on. To make a long story short, our poorness has become worse and we are in hermit/save money mode, or suck it up and love being poor mode (whichever you prefer).

But no worries....there has still been stuff going on....let's see, last time I wrote it was about the redneck games (aaah the large women in bikinis are still burned into my memory), so here's what has been happening.

This weekend we had some people over on Friday night for a regular Friday night gathering. It seems that over here going to bars, which are spread out and cost more money, is more of a pain. Someone has to drive and none of us own a bus for transporting all of our mates. You may say a suburban is a bus, and yes it is kind of....but you are grossly underestimating how popular we are! hehehehe

There always seems to be some sort of drama happening, whether it is one of the young guys and their new girls every week, or just some general silliness. This Friday there was a bit of both, but some of us were distracted by the large number of silly hats that Chris and I seem to own. You may spot some in the pics at the bottom. It's so easy to entertain people after a few beers!

Last week it was the recurring demonstration of Chris and his excellent didgeredoo playing. It's always funny to watch people try it. And last Friday is was apparently much funnier to watch Bob pretend to play, or rather he imitated the sounds....this all sounds not funny at all....but I have video, and it's a good time! heheh

Last weekend we had a visit from Tuna (or Kirk), and his friend Shannon. They came down Friday evening and stayed until Sunday. We hadn't seen Kirk since he left Korea early last year. Since then he had left the army, become a lot more interested in good wine (now working in a wine store and considering a career as a sommelier), and grown some facial hair. Most of these changes are great, but Chris and I had discussed his new goatee before he arrived and agreed that we were not fans. Late on the Friday night Chris tackled him to the floor (surprisingly easy to do Tuna!!) and started to shave him. hehehe. It was very funny. There was a face print in the bathroom mirror for a few days and hair everywhere! I hope he keeps it up the much better look......!!

Last Saturday we took a tour of Warner Robins with Kirk and Shannon. They got to see the base (fascinating stuff....cough...yawn...cough), and we visited our local wine stores. Hands up if you like bad American wines?? Or random average Australian wines? WOW! You should live here!!

After driving around in the rising temperatures with our car having no air conditioning we decided not to go hashing. Why, oh why, would you have a hash in the hottest part of the day? We stayed in and had another lovely evening. Just a little more low key.

Chris has just started a new job at Sears. It's just for 20-25 hours a week and he is working out the back -for the heavy lifting! He gets to take things out to customer's cars and occasionally out to the main store. It's not bad and the people he is working for seem to be nice. I was surprised to see what they pay people over here. If you work in the electronics section you get paid only commission. Mall workers can expect from $5-7 an hour, and waiters make a lot less because they get tips. It's crazy. Something to look forward to I guess, when I can finally work!

Yesterday Sarah and I went on a wee road trip over to Columbus to see Meg. It's her birthday tomorrow and because her boyfriend, David, was working they couldn't make it over to see us as planned. We were planning on doing some swimming but it rained buckets yesterday. So we decided to go to Alabama instead!!!! Now isn't that a sentence you never thought you would hear?? hehehe. The border from Georgia to Alabama is about 10 minutes from Meg's apartment and they have a Super Wallmart over there. We thought we would pop over just to say we had, and pick up some potatoes for dinner while we were at it! We passed over the Chattahoochee River, which is apparently famous in a country song (which Meg was kind enough to sing for me), and got to see the welcome to Alabama signs.

While we were there I was struck by the lack of overalls, men with straw between their teeth and banjos. What is the South coming to? I went to the Redneck games people! I expect more from my Southerners!! I took some pictures of us in Alabama to see if we looked any different, perhaps I would suddenly become attracted to my brother (or wait, is that West Virginia??), or grow a gap between my teeth, maybe even have found out that I had a child at 15. But no. Nothing. Just a lot of laughs and some bad Southern jokes.

I did have a thought though, and if anyone can answer this question please leave a comment!.....What do you call a person who lives in Alabama?
An Alabamanian? That's my favourite. Maybe an Alabamer, or as David suggested, a, Alabaman. It's fun saying all of these out loud anyway. And it prompted me to think about some other states, and what those people are called.....Wyoming? I don't even know where to start. I know that if you are from Wisconsin you are a Cheesehead, but is that the official term??

Oh so funny, I just spellchecked and it gave me another suggestion, Alabamian. I hadn't even thought of that one. I now forgive it for trying to make me spell like an American with "favorite" and "color"....oh no! No thank you.

Now let me see, I have almost run out of things and happenings....but not quite! On July 15th we took a trip out to Tybee Island, which is near Savannah. There is a really large beach there and we spent the day hanging out there. It was lovely to swim in the sea again, even if it was murky and a little muddier than we would have liked. Sarah's sister, Michelle, and her boyfriend, Rob, were visiting so we decided to divide the group by having a boy's car and a girl's car. Rob seemed a little scared to be going with Chris and Glen, it could have been the threat of their gas, or Glen's dislike of air conditioning. All the girls were quite happy. While following the boys on the way there they decided to take a tiki-tour through Savannah on the way and we passed a cafe with a long line of people, predominantly made up of large women. We had no idea what it was for, but lately there had been a lot of ads on TV for a show called "Fat Chance". It was a fat beauty queen competition and I thought it looked like a hoot~! I decided that the line we saw must have been for that and joked about it with the girls. After following the boys in what seemed like the maze of streets they finally called us and we told them we had seen a sign for try-outs for the "Fat Chance" show. They, of course, believed us...heheeh. They did get us back on the way home, though. They swerved across two lanes and onto the off-ramp while we just drove behind them going..."whaaaaaaaaat??". Oh well, a few large loops and 15 minutes later we caught up with them. When we stopped for dinner on the road Chris found half the beach in his shorts. MMMmmmm yummy.

And now I think I am done for now. I know everyone loves Charlie updates, so I am including some new big Charlie pics. He is now the proud owner of our pool (the big one). He got in one day when we were not home and apparently clawed his way out making a big hole in the side. We fixed the hole, but he has claimed it, and he is hilarious to watch. He bounces off the side and dives in, he loves it! He's a lovely wee guy and is becoming more protective with his barking.

I hope all is well and everyone is happy! Love and smooches,



Anna xxxxxxx