Since she had to go to work the next day, she told the repairman, "I'll leave the key under the mat. Fix the dishwasher, leave the bill on the side, and I'll send you a cheque."

"Oh, by the way don't worry about my bulldog Spike. He won't bother you. But, whatever you do, do NOT, under ANY circumstances, talk to my parrot!" "I REPEAT, DO NOT TALK TO MY PARROT!!!"

When the repairman arrived at the house the following day, he discovered the biggest, meanest looking bulldog he has ever seen. But, just as Maureen had said, the dog just lay there on the carpet watching the repairman go about his work.

The parrot, however, drove him nuts the whole time with his incessant yelling, cursing and name calling. Finally the repairman couldn't contain himself any longer and yelled, "Shut up, you stupid, ugly bird!"

To which the parrot replied ...

"Get him, Spike!"

So the barman gave her one!

If you have any suggestions, let me know.

]]> Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:20 GMT http://www.perldog.com/2008-04/67?rss Finally, Number 27 delivers the goods. We found the happy family enjoying the early morning sun.

No LambCam yet, sorry.

On closer inspection however, it was clear that both lambs were Nellie's, but since they had been born in the field, Tippet was keen to claim one for herself. Much bleating later, both lambs are now safely penned with Nellie to increase the bonding process and avoid "mis-mothering" - Tippet is still bleating! Hopefully she'll have her own lambs soon (although we're not entirely sure that she will).

The other lambs are doing well (and busy exploring outside now that their home as been invaded). Plus they now even have proper names - #27.1 is now 'Sawyer'

And #27.2 is now 'Kate'

]]> Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:35 GMT http://www.perldog.com/2007-04/2?rss An about an hour later, #27.1 has a sister - please meet #27.2.

You can keep an eye on the whole #27 family over on the LambCam

You can keep an eye on #27 and #27.1 (name coming soon) over on the LambCam

This year, things are a little less organised - we don't have precise dates like we have before, and that's not really helping much. For a couple of weeks now we've been checking on the sheep looking for any sign that something might be about to happen.

It looks to us like the current star (known to us as 'Number 27', but her friends call her 'baaa') could be due today - she's been a bit restless and has come into the stable several times during the night (we've been leaving them free to roam outside, rather than penning them up). This morning we decided to keep her in so we (and you, through the power of the internet!) can keep a closer eye on events.

You can check on her progress over on the LambCam.

The Jelly Baby says "No mate, I'm a soft centre, I always end up getting my head kicked in."

"So?", Smartie says. "Don't worry about it, I'm a bit of a hard case, I'll look after you."

Jelly Baby thinks about it for a minute and says "Fair enough, as long as you'll look after me.", and off they go.

After a few more beers in the club, three Lockets walk in.

As soon as he sees them, Smartie hides under the table.

The Lockets take one look at Jelly Baby and start kicking him, breaking cola bottles over his little jelly head, lamping him with little sugary chairs, and generally having a laugh. After a while they get bored and walk out.

Jelly Baby pulls his battered Jelly Baby body over to the table and wipes up his Jelly Baby blood. He turns to Smartie and says "I thought you were going to look after me!"

"I was!" says Smartie, "But them Lockets are bloody menthol".

Well, Lena is hired at The Tickle Me Elmo factory and she reports for her first day promptly at 8:00 AM.

The next day at 8:45 AM there is a knock at the Personnel Manager's door. The Foreman throws open the door and begins to rant about the new employee.

He complains that she is incredibly slow and the whole line is backing up, putting the entire production line behind schedule. The Personnel Manager decides he should see this for himself, so the 2 men march down to the factory floor. When they get there the line is so backed up that there are Tickle Me Elmo's all over the factory floor and they're really beginning to Pile up.

At the end of the line stands Lena surrounded by mountains of Tickle Me Elmo's. She has a roll of plush red fabric and a huge bag of small marbles.

The 2 men watch in amazement as she cuts a little piece of fabric, wraps it around two marbles and begins to carefully sew the little package between Elmo's legs. The Personnel Manager bursts into laughter.

After several minutes of hysterics he pulls himself together and approaches Lena. "I'm sorry," he says to her, barely able to keep a straight face, "but I think you misunderstood the instructions I gave you yesterday...

Your job is to give Elmo two test tickles.

They'll be staying inside for a little while longer, since they are pretty young. Here's a snap of them - Milly, Molly and Mandy (in no particular order!)

]]> Tue, 09 May 2006 17:11 GMT http://www.perldog.com/2006-05/intro?rss Please meat, I mean, meet Phil and Grunt, I mean Grant.

Stay tuned for the arrival of HamCam (although as you can see it might be difficult to see the pigs!)

Here's a picture of some of the quail.

"If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, and connects it to his AT&T cell phone. He surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC-connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1586 sheep."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep." says the shepherd.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man,

"Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?" The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a consultant." says the shepherd.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the shepherd. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew; to a question I never asked; and you don't know anything about my business."

"Now give me back my dog."

"About 32," is the reply.

"Nope! I'm exactly 50," the woman says happily.

A little while later she goes into McDonald's and asks the counter girl the very same question.

The girl replies, "I'd guess about 29."

The woman replies with a big smile, "Nope, I'm 50."

Now she's feeling really good about herself. She stops in a drug store on her way down the street. She goes up to the counter to get some mints and asks the clerk this burning question.

The clerk responds, "Oh, I'd say 30."

Again she proudly responds, "I'm 50, but thank you!"

While waiting for the bus to go home, she asks an old man waiting next to her the same question.

He replies, "Lady, I'm 78 and my eyesight is going. Although, when I was young, there was a sure-fire way to tell how old a woman was. It sounds very forward, but it requires you to let me put my hands under your bra. Then, and only then can I tell you EXACTLY how old you are."

They wait in silence on the empty street until her curiosity gets the best of her. She finally blurts out, "What the hell, go ahead."

He slips both of his hands under her blouse and begins to feel around very slowly and carefully. He bounces and weighs each breast then he pushes her breasts together and rubs them against each other.

After a couple of minutes of this, she says, "Okay, okay...How old am I?"

He completes one last squeeze of her breasts, removes his hands, and says, "Madam, you are 50."

Stunned and amazed, the woman says, "That was incredible, how could you tell?"

The old man says, "Promise you won't get mad?"

"I promise I won't." she says.

"I was behind you in line at McDonald's."

Roughly one hour later, #6 came along...

Meanwhile Stacey (#3), Ruby (#4), Martin (#2), Sonia (#1) wait outside with Harlequin and Creamy.

This was our first outside lambing (Creamy and Tufty have been outside during the day) - luckily it's quite a sunny dry day. After everything looked ok, we quickly set up a second pen and brought Creamy and her lambs inside. You can check on their progress (and Harlequin and her lambs) on the LambCam.

In the meantime, Lambs #1 + #2 are doing just fine.

You can check on their progress over at LambCam

The lamb was up on its feet and trying to suckle within 15 minutes so everything looks good.

Fingers crossed there should be another one along shortly - keep watching!

I've also just bought another webcam since our dry run with the chickens in the stable showed that we need two cameras to cover the stable properly. After lambing, we're going to move one of the cameras into the new chicken house and make HenCam a permanent feature.

Until the next shuffle (when we'll sort out the stable for lambing properly) you can now keep an eye on both the chickens and the sheep with LambCam and HenCam.

Dear Dad,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with you and Mom.

I've been finding real passion with Joan and she is so nice. I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercings, tattoos,her tight motorcycle clothes and because she is so much older than I am but it's not only the passion, Dad, she's pregnant.

Joan says that we are going to be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood, enough for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Joan has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Joan can get better; she sure deserves it!

Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grandchildren.

Your son,

Chad

p.s. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the report card that's in my desk drawer. Call when it is safe for me to come home.

What do they say?" the priest inquired.

They say, "Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?"

"That's obscene!" the priest exclaimed; then he thought for a moment.

"You know," he said, "I may have a solution to your problem. I have two male talking parrots, which I have taught to pray and read the Bible. Bring your two parrots over to my house, and we'll put them in the cage with Paul and Jacob. My parrots can teach your parrots to pray and worship, and your parrots are sure to stop saying that phrase in no time."

"Thank you," the woman responded, "this may very well be the solution."

The next day, she brought her female parrots to the priest's house. As he ushered her in, she saw that his two male parrots were inside their cage, holding rosary beads and praying.

Impressed, she walked over and placed her parrots in with them. After a few minutes, the female parrots cried out in unison:

"Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?"

There was stunned silence. Shocked, one male parrot looked over at the other male parrot and exclaimed...

"Put the beads away, Paul, our prayers have been answered."

"I'll have the same," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order.

"That will be £9.40 please," she says and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact amount for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, "A hamburger, fries, and a coke."

The ostrich says, "I'll have the same."

Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact amount.

For a while this becomes routine until the two enter again later in the week. "The usual?" asks the waitress.

"No, this time it's a treat, so I will have a steak, baked potato, and salad," says the man.

"Yep! Same," says the ostrich.

Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, "That will be £32.62." Once again the man pulls the exact amount out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress can't hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, sir.

How do you manage to always come up with the exact money from your pocket every time?"

"Well", says the man, "several years ago I was clearing the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes.

My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there."

"That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would wish for a couple of million pounds or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!"

"That's right. Whether it's a pint of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there," says the man.

The waitress asks, "But, sir, what's with the ostrich?"

The man sighs, pauses, and replies, "My second wish was for a tall bird with a big arse and long legs who agrees with everything I say."

I've also finally sorted out the camera - click on the preview below to get to the 'live' (updating) version.

* Creamy has been re-named Basil, because we have a sheep called Creamy too, and it was getting confusing. The new name was chosen because she has a funny walk.

The bear says: "If I roar in the forest, the entire forest is shivering with fear."

The lion says: "If I roar in the desert, the entire desert is afraid of me."

The chicken says: "Big deal, I only have to cough, and the entire planet s***'s itself."

Currently they are living in the stable, soon we'll introduce our other chickens and then we'll move them all outside to their new extended outside pen (complete with much larger chicken house and electric fence).

I'll try and get Lamb/Hen cam hooked up to the website properly soon, but here's a quick preview.

"No", he says, "the seat is empty".

"This is incredible!" said the man, "who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the FA cup final, the biggest sporting event in the year, and not use it?"

He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. My wife was supposed to come with me, but she passed away. This is the first Cup Final we haven't been together since we got married".

"Oh ... I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. I guess you couldn't find someone else, a friend or relative or even a neighbour to take the seat?"

The man shakes his head...

"No. They're all at the funeral".

Noticing this, a policeman stops her...."Ma'am, there are £20 notes falling out of that bag..." "Damn!" says the little old lady....."I'd better go back and see if I can still find some. Thanks for the warning!"

"Well, now, not so fast," says the cop. "How did you get all that money?" "Did you steal it?"

"Oh, no", says the little old lady. "You see, my back yard backs up to the car park of the football stadium. Each time there's a game, a lot of fans come and pee in the bushes, right into my flower beds!"

"So, I go and stand behind the bushes with a big hedge clipper, and each time someone sticks his little thingie through the bushes, I say: £20 or off it comes!"

"Hey, not a bad idea!" laughs the cop. "OK, good luck! By the way, what's in the other bag?"

"Well", says the little old lady, "not all of them pay up!"

He visits the lion's cage, but it's empty - not a lion to be seen.

So, he walks around a bit and ends up by the elephants. Not a nelly in the place.

Hmm, he thinks. I shall try the zebras. Every zoo has zebras. Nope, not one. Completely zebra-less.

Eventually, he finds one cage with one small, pathetic looking dog in it.

It's a shitzu.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!!!"

The man said, "You can't be serious, I could never shoot my wife."

The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes.

The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife.".

The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman, she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"This gun is loaded with blanks" she said.

"I had to beat him to death with the chair."

The excitement was almost electric as Claude withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from his coat. "I want you each to keep your eye on this antique watch. It's a very special watch. It's been in my family for six generations.

He began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, "Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch..."

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until suddenly, it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the floor, breaking into a hundred pieces.

"Shit!" said the Hypnotist...

It took three days to clean up the retirement home.

The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.

In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, sir, I think it is just fair - given that you are blind that you should know five things:

1. The bartender is a blonde girl.
2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.
3. I'm a 6 foot tall, 220 lb. blonde woman with a black belt in karate.
4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and is a professional weight lifter.
5. The lady to your right is a blonde and is a professional wrestler.

Now think about it seriously, Mister. Do you still wanna tell that joke?

The blind man thinks for a second, shakes his head, and declares...

"Nah. Not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times...."

"How many children?" Asks the council worker, "10" replies the girl. "10???" says the council worker. "What are their names?" "Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne and Wayne." "Doesn't that get confusing?" "Naah..." says the Essex girl "its great because if they are out playing in the street I just have to shout "WAAYNE, YER DINNER'S READY" or "WAAYNE GO TO BED NOW" and they all do it..." "What if you want to speak to one individually?" says the perturbed council worker. "That's easy," says the girl...

"I just use their surnames"

Should be just the job for the return of lambcam this year.

Turns out it's quite hard to take a decent photo of a TV, but I had a go anyway just so you can see roughly what it looks like.

BTW: If Sony ever go into the flat-pack furniture business, then I think IKEA should watch out - the stand was really well built and the instructions and labelling of all the individual bolts was really impressive (although I probably shouldn't be impressed by that sort of thing).

Nice belt!

It's nothing fancy (not really an 'engine' at all), and I'm sure I'll get bored with it soon. I should probably concentrate on actually getting this stuff online somewhere, and maybe even thinking about some content.

Of course it's written in perl, and follows the bloxsom (static mode) model. In fact, it really just ties a bit of File::Find with Template Toolkit and some Image::Magick thrown in to make images a bit easier. It currently stands at ~360 lines, and I've only got 3 TODO items left. I might even 'publish' it when I've done those.

What can you hope to expect if you come back regularly? (what am I talking about?, I've not even published a single entry yet), mostly just random stuff other people have done which I think is worthy of a mention, silly jokes I've seen, odd photos, junk like that. Occasionally I might even throw in a boring techy thing, who knows.

It came down pretty fast - this is what it looked like after just 30 minutes - there was no snow on the ground before!

This one has a bit more detail, but it didn't exactly hang around to let me take a better picture.

Apparently low flying helicopters aren't restricted to any kind of minimum height - they could in theory just hover a couple of feet over your back garden and you can't really do much about it - although when we did complain about them scaring the livestock, they happily told us you could claim £100 for every dead animal!.