Road trips and Anthrax Deer: Part One

Maybe you've been wondering where I've been... Why have I been neglecting you? Why haven't I been updating you with my silly sunburn? How are my lady bits coping with the fluconazole moratorium? Have I encountered any extreme weather systems? I'm sure there are a million questions you want to ask me.

From Friday past to Wednesday evening I was in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. That's right up on the border with Canada, and I should just say that I wasn't in the best mind frame to go away to the Canadian border for five days. Paypal had suspended my account the night before for using my own money abroad (yes, I am very cheeky) and I'd tearfully fought a pointless phone battle with them in Luxembourg in the morning to reinstate my account and pay all the people that were waiting. I had countless fabric orders stalled and they possibly wouldn't be able to be shipped in time for me to bring back to the UK. And the lakehouse we were borrowing from family friends did not have internet access so I couldn't continue my campaign to pay people. But nevermind, there was a local WIFI cafe and we were meeting the delectable Baby Calvin for the first time and catching up with the adorable Isla so I did have some things to spur me on.

Me and Mom had the pleasure of Jamie and Maia's company on the full day's drive, so to allow us frequent opportunities to do primal screams in the forest stretch our legs we had to make plenty of stops. Like at a second hand children's shop, where we bought a strangely alluring Mr Potatohead for Jamie and a gigantic grab bag of mixed ponies for Maia. Her new pony troops successfully (success being hers not ours) kept her stimulated and awake in the car for the next five days, which I suspect has something to do with this menacing pony:

Or this freaky deer made of real deer hide:


Or human hide a la Silence of the Lambs. It's just that freaky. I tried to keep that one well away from Maia, so it nestled at my feet. I joked to mom that the raw hide would probably give me anthrax.

To be continued...