House-sitting again

Well, it's been three weeks without a post. I imagine that should weed out those readers who unrealistically expect weekly posts. A crazy notion indeed.

We're house-sitting somewhere else now in North York. Or is it Thornhill? Willowdale? Toronto? Not a clue. Where I've set up my work, I face a big window and have a great view of the back yard, with its abundance of squirrels, chipmunks, birds and rabbits. I have yet to decide what we'll have in the soup tomorrow. A completely unrelated thought of course.

When I'm not looking down my sights at bunnies, I'm working a good chunk of the time. Carrie's been job-hunting and hearing back from various efforts; hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some real answers. We just bought plane tickets to BC for Carrie's sister's wedding. Carrie's going for two weeks, but I'll be going for only a week. It's about time... we were get antsy sitting around for so long without a holiday!!

Well I haven't got any photos of interest, so this little true story will have to suffice...


The father of a friend of a friend (you know who you are) went for a trip overseas recently. I'll refer to him as John. While there, he encountered a special breed of chicken that interested him somewhat, given his history of bird farming. Acquaintances there were raising some of these chickens in their back yard simply for producing a few eggs for consumption.

John decided he wanted to have some of these birds for himself, but he needed a way to get them back home safely and cheaply. Recognizing the downside of cramming live chickens into his suitcase, he figured it might be wiser to take some of the fertilized eggs with him and hope to make them hatch back home. He acquired six eggs and wrapped each one carefully in paper and cloth. And so they got on the plane and made it home without incident.

John had a friend back in his hood whom I'll call Will. Will had some laying hens whose eggs were about the same size as the ones John had found. John asked Will if he could cram his six eggs under one of Will's hens to try to hatch them. This was no problem, so the eggs were planted and the waiting began.

John didn't have long to wait. The following day he received a phone call, and the caller identified himself as an agent for Canada Border Services Agency. There was, he claimed, a problem with John's checked luggage: a routine scan of his luggage had since been checked more closely, revealing what looked very much like eggs. John listened worriedly as he was told that the agency would really like to have another look at his luggage. He wondered what the penalty for undeclared eggs would be...

"But... I've already unpacked everything..." managed John, "...what do you suggest I do?!"

At that point, Will decided to consider his prank call a success, and he identified himself. Other than a few extra grey hairs, John suffers no ill effects from the prank. He has vowed to get Will back one way or another.


And I haven't heard if those eggs ever hatched successfully... that was six weeks ago. Any news, 'John'?