Monday, February 27, 2012

 

Forecast: 23-28
Attained: 22-25

It rained today, for most of the day. It's still raining, in fact. Much cooler outside now but still annoyingly stuffy and sweaty inside. Even with doors and windows open it's taking a long time for the house to cool down.

However, cooler temp means more of a doing day at least. Ticked a couple of things of the List and caught up with the washing up. Also - gasp - did tonight's washing up after dinner! That won't become a regular thing, I can assure you...

~=o>

Do I really need to keep those eps of The Professionals I recorded from the telly 12 or more years ago? I don't have a video, and I can get dvds of the show that are much better quality. Plus, they have extra bits and no station breaks.
'k, I think I've more or less convinced myself now.

~=o>

Just finished reading 'The Guardian Book of Playlists' (Dorian Lynskey, 2008).
Synopsis from link:

Anthology of the much-loved weekly Guardian column * The 'Readers Recommend' column has a huge following in the paper and online * Offers 100 imaginative and idiosyncratic playlists for the multitudes of iPod users to download and enjoy * Provides an informed guide to the bewildering number of tracks available on iTunes and other online music libraries.

It was very interesting but I was miffed at the lack of Aus music. Sure, Nick Cave got on to a few lists but other than that... one track each from The Church, The Go-Betweens and The Triffids. I think I forget sometimes that, happily immersed as I am up to my eyeballs in local product, outside of Australia there's probly not that much widely noted.

Anyway, I'm going to make a point of having a listen to some of the tracks listed. Always a good thing to expand your musical horizons, even if ultimately you don't care for what you hear.

Lutra 10:29 PM. |

Sunday, February 26, 2012

 

Forecast: 26-34
Attained: 25-33

HAPPY BIRFDAY, JOULES! :)

Have a, uh, transforming great day!

~=o>

It wasn't much of a doing weekend - too flippin' hot! - so my List was barely touched. I did however get a few boxes out of storage at Soulsis' place when I dropped the W nephew off. 2 of the boxes were old crap of the cubs, mostly rubbish and so easily dealt with. (Why they packed actual rubbish, I have no idea. Even I don't do that...) The other box was, I think, the last of the xmas decorations. Finally. It included the beautiful Elven Star ornament Joules gave me several years ago that I missed putting on the tree last xmas. See, I knew it would turn up in a box somewhere. :)

~=o>

And now the temperature's dropped, and we've had a little bit of rain. Hopefully the upcoming week will be reasonable...

Lutra 10:44 PM. |

Saturday, February 25, 2012

 

Forecast: 23-38
Attained: 25-36

I'm currently working my way through the Captain Scarlet dvds. Love this series.
Many years ago I shared a house with a Gerry Anderson fan, which was an education in itself! Anyway, he'd managed to pick up some videos of CS - this was before anything much was commercially available. Something was niggling at me while we watched, some memory, that I couldn't quite pin down. I told my friend and he got this mischievous glint in his eyes... then he turned the colour down on the telly and I was seeing it in b/w.
Suddenly, I was four years old and in the loungeroom of our house in England! I had seen this show before, when I was little!
Of course, I appreciate it more now... :)

~=o>

Not quite sure what I was actually looking for when I did an image search and got this.

It's very... pink. It even took me aback.

Lutra 11:30 PM. |

Friday, February 24, 2012

 

Forecast: 16-35
Attained: 15-36

Interesting day, today. A day of yay and woe.

Finally had the ENT appointment this morning - the one that was booked 10 months ago. I'll need to have a CT scan to confirm but it looks as if I could have otosclerosis. That's what Gil Grissom had! Though both his ears were affected whereas I've just got probs with one. (I'll have to watch the scene again but I'm pretty certain Doc Robbins wouldn't have been able to diagnose that just by looking in Gil's ear!)
There's corrective surgery for the condition, that has a high rate of success. Could get my hearing back! Mmmm... stereo...
Mind you, elective surgery, could be years before I go under the knife.

~=o>

Later today I was at work getting things ready for our annual book sale on monday. (What do medical libraries do with superceeded or damaged books? Sell them to med students, of course!)
The boss put Di and I in charge of this and between us we've managed to get it under way, despite us only being at the same campus one day a week. Lots of emails...
Anyway, I did the pricing this afternoon. It was pretty arbitrary, have to admit. Big book? Surgery? Eh, $10. I've got my eye on a couple of the older books: if they're there on Tuesday I'll pick 'em up.

~=o>

About an hour out from hometime, as I was trying to finish the pricing, I get a call from the cubs. When they'd popped home after school to pick up stuff for the sleep over at their dad's, they found the hot tap in the bathroom sink fountaining forth! Ack!Shit! Their dad managed to close the tap off enough it was only about half the flow, but still.
Rang the agent to let them know; they contacted the owner. Short time later I get a txt from the agent saying the owner will be coming over >:< No! Just send the fracking plumber...! I thought, agitated. But it was fine, just a broken washer that the owner was able fix. (Why no, I didn't know how to fix that myself. Though I should be able to do it when the next tap goes...)
That was exciting. Yes.
I'm anticipating a quiet weekend after all that.

Lutra 11:38 PM. |

Thursday, February 23, 2012

 

Forecast: 16-29
Attained: 16-25

All the dreams that I can remember this week featured run-down houses...

~=o>

I noticed today that the pond at the smaller work campus (not the big pond in the park near the main work campus) had little bitty baby fish darting about in the shallows! At least, I think they're fish. They're very small, streamlined and almost transparent. Tadpoles are more lumbery than darty.
Still, very cute. It means the fish in there are breeding!

Lutra 10:37 PM. |

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

 

Forecast: 16-26
Attained: 15-26

Hot, hot weekend coming up. [sigh]

Lutra 10:26 PM. |

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

 

Forecast: 16-24
Attained: 18-24

Was very busy today at work. Didn't once feel like nodding off. Now however... :)

~=o>

Tch, I want the cubs to see the Buffy series but I can't find my copy of the first season. We could start from season 2 but I like to start these things at the beginning.
Eh, it's probly in a box I haven't got to yet. We'll just have to go through Firefly in the meantime...

Lutra 10:45 PM. |

Monday, February 20, 2012

 

Forecast: 17-23
Attained: 20-23

Penny and I went op-shopping today. :)
Found a faaaaabulous metallic hot pink case thing!

It was a make-up set. Or what was left of one, anyway.
Easy enough to get rid of the make-up tray, that was just a plastic insert. The light/mirror thing looked a bit trickier...

Of course, as soon as the tray was out of the way, KittenKong had to 'help'...





And it turned out the mirror/light thing was designed to be removed!
So now I have a metallic pink case. Yeah!



(The last two pics are off-centre cos Blogger's 'insert image' tab was being stoopy and I had to link from Flickr instead...)

Lutra 10:42 PM. |

Sunday, February 19, 2012

 

Forecast: 18-28
Attained: 19-29

Hee, the clearing and sorting continues...
This weekend I tackled the kitchen drawers! Reduced the load by a little but more importantly got the stuff organised. Now the baking stuff is in one spot, as is all the roasting stuff, chopsticks and choptstick rests etc.

I have a few choptstick rests, gleaned over the years from opshops, ebay, cheap Asian supermarkets, expensive Japanese shops... :)

Didn't think they were all going to fit with the chopsticks, but they did!

I also did a quick sort of the two drawers in the hallway dresser. They'd become a dumping ground for miscellania as I was unpacking, but now it all makes sense. I'm keeping the special cutlery in there, like Mum's bone-handled fish knives and forks, and the really pretty bamboo style cutlery set I talked her into buying me several years ago.
Bonus - I also now know how many coasters I have.
I'm not quite ready to tackle the shelves of the dresser yet, but soon, I'm sure.

I would really like to find a way to display the pate knives I've collected as well. They're all in a tin in the pantry. I also have a collection of cute/tacky ceramic toothpick holders. Like to get them up somewhere, too.

Lutra 10:27 PM. |

Saturday, February 18, 2012

 

Forecast: 16-28
Attained: 17-26

My boss tends to be surprised at my ability to sort out M$ Word, Excel stuff. It's not that I'm an expert, not at all. I know a bit, enough to know how to phrase online search queries. :) The internet can be a wonderful resource.

~=o>

A little while ago I saw online someone's 'pattern' for folding paper envelopes for discs. Great idea - I immediately envisioned all my pic/itoon archives in pretty, matching envelopes. Yeah! Today I actually got 'round to designing the template.

To demonstrate:

Started out with marking up an A4 sheet.

Was easy enough in Word to get the text boxes in the right place, but it wouldn't let me turn the text upside down.
I almost settled for putting up with hand-writing the heading...

Nope, wasn't happy with that.
Ahah! Publisher...
... which will let you flip text boxes.

Neat, eh? :)

Soon my need for order will be (a bit more) satisfied...

Lutra 11:27 PM. |

 

Forecast: 19-24
Attained: 19-23

Couple of unsettling dreams this week.
In the first, I'd been given tickets to something really cool/interesting (honestly don't remember what it was but I would've liked to go) but I'd got my dates mixed up and instead of the event being the next day, it was now. I did consider diving in to the city but that would've taken an hour at least and I would've missed half of the show. I decided to stay home, while feeling that I'd failed at something, somehow...
(Interestingly, that one had me double checking myself most of the morning, making sure I was where I was s'posed to be.)

Last night's dream had me in the back garden, looking for something in the dusk. It was getting dark, but I had a torch - or the light from my mobile phone, can't remember which - then the cubs' father came out to hurry me back inside. Something was out there, some lurking menace that I was dimly aware of. What really struck me was that the cubs' father was in such a lather to hustle me back in to the house he stumbled on the uneven ground and hurt his knee. This wasn't funny, this meant things were serious. There was a great sense of relief when I stepped back in to the house and shut the door...

[shudder]
Ok, freaking myself out now. Time for kewt!

Lutra 12:08 AM. |

Thursday, February 16, 2012

 

Forecast: 22-32
Attained: 22-27

Today was a day of minor disasters averted. :)
Got to work earlier than usual cos one of the staff carparks was going to be closed for construction work and I guessed that the public carpark, where I normally park, would be busier than usual. I was right but I managed to get a spot - good.

I'd decided to buy my lunch today so I could save time to get to work early. After I got to work I realised I'd been so focused on getting out of the house early I'd left my purse on the table. No lunch, no atm card to withdraw cash - bad.

Fortunately I have coins secreted in hidey holes all over my backpack so I was able to scrape up enough to get something to eat - good.
Didn't have enough cash though to buy milk on the way home so no cereal for breakfast tomorrow. That's all right, I can have toast - not bad.

Getting ready to leave work this afternoon I realised I hadn't collected a ticket for the parking place. The boom gate was up so I just drove in...
It was probly free parking today to accommodate the extra staff using the public carpark but if it wasn't, then I had no ticket and no money to pay any exit fee - bad.
I thought I may be able to be winsome and apologetic and talk my way out of trouble, but when I went to get the car the boom gate was open anyway - good!

:)

~=o>

It rained this afternoon. Lovely, lovely rain after a significant drop in temperature within an hour. Thunder and lightning, too, and howling winds. No trees down however, or flooding to contend with. Probably should've got my washing off the line yesterday though.

~=o>

This time(ish) last year the cubs and I were at Sovreign Hill, soaking up the Colonial ambience...

Lutra 10:11 PM. |

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

 

Forecast: 18-33
Attained: 18-35

[sigh] It's hot again.
The worst part is that when it's hot like this, it doesn't matter how many cold drinks I guzzle I never feel like I'm cooling down...

[grump]

Lutra 10:44 PM. |

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

 

Forecast: 16-28
Attained: 16-29

Hm, thought I smelt smoke this evening. According to the MFB there was a 'structure fire' not that far away...

~=o>

Aardman vs Superheros

Sooooo funny...!

Lutra 10:27 PM. |

Monday, February 13, 2012

 

Forecast: 15-25
Attained: 17-24

The cubs are pretty good about turning the lights off after themselves if I go to bed first. Occasionally I've woken up to find lights on but a gentle reminder is usually sufficient.
Last night they both went to bed fairly early while I stayed up for a little while longer. Not that unusual on a school night, however, when I finally bestirred myself to turn in, I switched off the lounge room light... and was suddenly plunged in to darkness!
First I squawked, then I lol'd, then groped my way to the kitchen to switch the light on again. Why didn't I just switch the lounge room light on again? Cos it's a lamp, an awkwardly placed lamp - that I'd already moved away from before I realised it wasn't just my eyes taking too long to adjust to the small amount of light from the kitchen - with more things to stub my toes on around it than the relatively straight-forward walk to the kitchen.
Really should get 'round to replacing the globe in the lounge's ceiling light...

Lutra 10:56 PM. |