Are men really necessary ?

This is not my cake, it is the Chubby Hubby's.

Summer is just around the corner here in South Australia and with our summer comes intense heat and BUGS !
Now ladies have traditionally been reluctant to go bug and spider hunting in their homes. Preferring to allocate this task to the " men of the household. " Not because we can't do bugs I might add but because our heroic menfolk need to feel wanted and useful.
However with the development of high impact bug sprays I find myself pondering on whether men are now really necessary.

Let's consider their previous uses;
- Heavy lifting : well we have forklifts now which girls do operate.
- Babies : reproductive medicine has now virtually eliminated their role in this process. Not to mention the variety of battery operated do it yourself toys now available.

Of course man's original role was as hunter and gatherer. Now any lady watching her man trying to find something in the refrigerator will understand that the gathering instincts have long been bred out. When my chubby hubby goes to the fridge, if the item required does not jump out and say " here I am ", then there is no way he is going to find and gather it.

Now back to the bugs ; watching the chubby hubby trying to hunt and kill a fly is poetry in motion and akin to a Greek Tragedy.
Hunting tool required : Rolled up TV guide.
Now like prehistoric man DH treats his hunting tools with utmost reverence. It is his life line don't you know and his entire life is guided by it.
Chubby hubby's guide to fly squatting;
- take rolled up precious TV guide.
- raise left arm 90 degrees and take a practice aim.
- announce to the entire household including said fly that he is about to make a KILL.
- aim and swat, halting the killer blow just before making contact so the TV guide is not damaged.
- fly in question escapes.
- DH looks at Moi; " you get it if you're so good ! "

I REST MY CASE.

So now I'm thinking there is only one possible role left for our menfolk. That being the taking of moral responsibility for ordering desert when out for a meal.
We girls know that if we order our own deserts we are inviting a catastrophic expansion of our hips and waistlines. So we simply do not do deserts. BUT: if DH orders a creamy pie the size of Ularu and we eat most of it with a long spoon from his plate, the calories are lost in transit.
And we are innocent of the crime of desert eating.

The Twisted Sisters have now commenced summer training and I have now recovered from whatever I had that led me to retiring from the Yurrebilla ultra.

Moi in the Yurrebilla Ultra just before retiring.

This week we moved from the trails to avoid the snakes and went down to Largs Bay to train in the Snake Pit. Go figure !
This is a tough, very soft sand 500 metre hilly circuit and it's hard, hard work. I don't know why it is called the snake pit and I don't want to know.

Tracey running the snake pit.

The snake pit.

Moi, about to tackle another lap.

The Twisted Sisters on the beach.

We did 5 full laps, 5 sets of soft sand hill sprints, alternated with sets of step ups, push ups and tricep dips. We then went on to the beach and did a 30 minute sand run in bare feet.

Last Friday night I competed in the West Pac Stair Climb race. This was a race to the top of the West Pac building here in Adelaide up the stairwell.




I completed the full 30 stories and 135 metres of vertical height in 4 minutes 26 seconds and won first placing for my age group.
Each runner started in 15 second intervals and the average finishing time was 6 to 8 minutes.
Some people did the run in teams taking 10 flights of stairs each. Because I have done so much hill training I actually found it quite easy although a little hot and stuffy in the stairwell.




The sewing machine and I have also been having some deep and meaningful time and have not come to blows too often.




This is a quilt I hand stitched and which DF Amanda of Sea Breeze Quilts is Quilting for me. The pattern is Meg's Garden by Kelly at Dont Look Now.




I've also had a bit of a play with a Tilda Design and these bunnies are to be a wall hanging.



This hexagon pillow has been a lot more work than I thought it would be, but i'm totally hooked on hexagons right now.

These bags are also fun to make . The pattern is by Lorraine at Hetties Patch.

Happy running and stitching to all.
Til next time
Cheers Karen.