Forecast: 10-18
Attained: 11-19

Today I:

• Drove 186 km.
• Moved 41 boxes of books to underneath Soulsis' house.
• Moved 7 plastic tubs to the cubs' father's garage.
• Brought another 5 tubs home for sorting.

Tired now.
Thank you, Soulsis, cubs, and my nephews for help with the lugging.

~=o>

I frequently have trouble typing straight. Here's why:



Kittenkong insisting on cuddles. Brat. (The grumpy face is because I was moving about taking photos and not staying still so she could sleep. Really, so inconsiderate of me...

Forecast: 10-16
Attained: 12-15

Dagnabbit. I was all prepared to get stuck in to my tax return and get that over and done with but of course 2 of the 3 important pieces of paper - that'd I'd very carefully set aside cos I knew they were important - have disappeared. Fortunately I know where the 3rd one is, having sited it yesterday, and one of the missing ones I've got saved as a pdf so that's not too bad. The last one will probly require a teeth-gritty phone call, unless I find it tomorrow. [grumble] Eh well...

~=o>

Only 3 weekends left to clear out the storage place so tomorrow I'll be traipsing between Soulsis' place, cubs' father's place and storage place transferring boxes. Wot fun. Still, shouldn't take too long to get it sorted, just there's a lot of driving involved. And slinging heavy boxes around. Iz ok, I haz strapping teenagers to help. :)

Forecast: 8-17
Attained: 7-17

Wow, work was very busy today. Not even time to fight the sleepies after lunch. :)
Started the Performance Review process today as well. Good grief...

~=o>

Was invited over to the cubs' father's for dinner tonight. The cubs cooked! Potato pancakes. Took them ages to prepare but they did a good job and the results were berry nedicious. They can cook those again, any time.

And then we watched the first Transformers movie on their dad's big(ger than mine) TV screen. That is still one of my favourite opening scenes, evah!

Forecast: 7-16
Attained: 7-16

Ok, so the P/T thing wasn't a complete waste of time. :) For the cubs' benefit I have to relinquish some control in the kitchen, and they have to spend less time with electronic entertainment. We haz a plan.

~=o>

These are my faaaaavourite Sesame Street characters! So funny...! (Especially at around 2:15)

Forecast: 4-14
Attained: 3-14

Heh, thought it was a bit nippy last night - temp got down to 3. Akshully, checking the Bureau of Meteorology's page, it hit the day's low about the time I was getting ready for work. Lucky I have the kewl gloves Joules sent me! (Will have to take a better pic of them than I've already got...)

~=o>

Gotye (featuring Kimbra): "Somebody that I used to know".

This is currently my favourite music video. The song is about both sides of a break-up. Liked the track from the first time I heard it but the clip adds a deeper dimension. It stirs something...

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 8-14

So. [grump] I have succumbed to pressure and booked a few parent/teacher interviews for Thursday night. They're compulsory. Apparently. [grump]
I had planned on just ignoring the whole thing but there were text messages reminding me of the compulsoryness of the event. [grump] I honestly don't see the point of talking the cubs' teachers. We know how well they're doing - the semester reports are very detailed - and where they need improvement. I don't think I've ever gained much more insight from speaking to a teacher: they only tend to reiterate what was in the report anyway. (ok, that's not perhaps, strictly speaking, completely true. We have discovered homework issues in the past that the cubs neglected to pass on... Even so... [grump])
The booking system is annoying as well. Log in as one student, book things, log out. Or try to. Log out again. Close browser. Go to site... log out. Log out. Log out.
I gave up and made appointments for the other cub through his brother's unlogoutable account, just making sure I included his name in the description. Let the teachers work it out. [grump]

~=o>

HP Spoilers!

Went to see the final Harry Potter movie today. I was ambivalent with the book and consequently was ambivalent with the movie, too, more so knowing the movies rarely follow canon as closely as they could. (Wait... Boathouse...?) It was quite well done, though I needn't have watched it in 3D, there really wasn't very much action that warranted the treatment.
Seeing Hogwarts damaged was more distressing than I anticipated, and as a 'sympathetic cryer' there were a couple of places where I needed a hanky, but that was expected as those were the places in the book I cried as well. (I have not forgiven JKR for Lupin's death.)
The epilogue was amusing if only for the attempts at making the characters look nineteen years older. Didn't work! [snigger]
There was at least one nod to fanon in there as well, which made me raise an eyebrow, but on the whole, not a waste of money. I'm glad I've seen it.

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 9-13

Had coffee with Penny this morning at our current fav cafe and was almost deafened further. My fault, I shouldn't have chosen the table right next to the toys...
Five or so young children - mothers sitting placidly a few tables away - being very excited and shrieking at the tops of their lungs. [shudder] Had to take the hearing aid out, it was a liability in that situation. As it was, my eardrum was numb for about an hour afterwards.
I know I'm going to sound like one of those 'superior' parents, making pointed comments about how my children are so much better behaved than some, but the truth of the matter is that I didn't let the cubs make so much noise when we were out. Yes, they could be as noisy as the next ones, but I was aware of the impact their behaviour had on others and so when the ruckus got above a certain level they were asked to quieten down. I was waiting for that to happen today... Did the mothers not hear the noise, or just not think it was that bad? [sigh]

~=o>

On a brighter note, the cubs and I nipped off to see the new Transformers movie after school!
It didn't grab me as much as the first movie but it was still pretty darn awesome. CGI was flawless, and the 'bots just keep getting better and better - even though I couldn't keep track of who was who for most of them...
Extra special happy bonus seeing Alan Tudyk onscreen. :)
So yes, I enjoyed it. Thanks for the rec, Joules!

Forecast: 7-13
Attained: 9-13

Heh, got a load over to cubs' father's place today, then two loads out of storage and back here for sorting out. Got a little depressed at how much there is to move and where it's got to go, but realistically, compared to the mammoth effort required in cleaning out Mum's place then moving the cubs and I to our new house, this is a piddling annoyance.
Perspective. Wonderful thing.

~=o>

While sifting through a box of my old Batman fannish stuff I rediscovered this little gem:




I love knock-off merchandise... No, not Batman at all! Wrong colours, see? [snerk]

Forecast: 5-15
Attained: 6-13

The emptying/sorting of boxes continues. I'm compiling a big list of stuff to be scanned, too, and refining the storage system for the 8 boxes of paperwork. It's coming along...

~=o>

This is the text of a Snellen Chart to test eyesight, taken from Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialities, 2007. It's quite lyrical, in a nonsensical sort of way.
Phrases are in order but I've arranged them in a prosey sort of fashion for amusment.

He moved forward a few fine chattering gems. He knew exactly who would sneeze calmly through an open door. Had there been another year of peace the battalion would have made a floating system of perpetual drainage.
A silent fall of immense snow came near oily remains of the purple-blue supper on the table. We drove on in our old sunless walnut. Presently classical eggs ticked in the new afternoon shadows.
We were instructed by my cousin Jasper not to exercise by country house visiting unless accompanied by thirteen geese or gangsters. The modern American did not prevail over the pair of redundant bronze puppies. The worn-out principle is a bad omen which I am never glad to ransom on purpose.

The phrases deliberately make no sense so someone having their eyesight tested can't guess what the sentence will say thereby giving a false positive. Fascinating things...

Forecast: 9-16
Attained: 9-16

Feels like it's been a long week...
But, for the first time in I don't know how long, I don't actually have much planned for my Monday and Tuesday 'days off'. I might go and see a film! Do I dare? I'll probly fall asleep... :)

~=o>

Warning! Profanities, ahoy!

This is a clip of Noni Hazelhurst reading Adam Mansbach/Ricardo Cortes' beautifully illustrated not-a-children's-book, 'Go the fuck to sleep'.
Noni was a presenter on Play School here in Aus for years so it's a little brain-bendy seeing her read something like this.
The book is very funny and at the same time, disturbing. If you've been a sleep-deprived parent you'll know exactly what's going on.




(Samuel Jackson has apparently done another version. Haven't seen it so can't comment...)

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 8-13

[suspicious] I think KittenKong's taking advantage of my vagueness. I'm almost sure I've fed her but she keeps presenting me with empty food bowls...

~=o>

And now it's time for... Quotes out of Context!

"Other people are in costume... it's not pretty..."

It rarely is, man, it rarely is.
That was quoted from an article in the Herald Sun (Melbourne, 13/7/11) about a technical cock-up at a premier screening of HP7.2.

~=o>

... I thought I had something else to say. Tch.

Forecast: 9-14
Attained: 11-13

Movie poster spotted mis-read at a bus stop:

Captain Amnesia
The Thirst Avenger

It was akshully this:


(Nicked from Google Images.)

(And at first glance at the pic I read the top line as: 'From the stupid that brought you...')

~=o>

Gah,tired...and vague. Could it be... menopause? Or just lack of sleep? :)

Forecast: 9-13
Attained: 10-16

I can haz hearing aid!




Should only really wear it for a couple of hours, twice a day, for the next week or so to give my brain time to assimilate the new sounds. How is it? Weird.
Echoey, and subjectively it seems as if the majority of the sound is coming in through my bad ear. There's also a noticeable difference between the 'natural' sound in my good ear and the electronically produced sound from the aid. Round and warm vs. spikey and and sharp. Eventually the sounds will be smoothed out and amalgamated.
Physically, it feels similar to having water in your ear, or being at high altitude and not being able to 'pop' the air bubble. I guess that's something else I'll get used to as well.
Was thoroughly distracted in the supermarket this morning: listening in to conversations happening in the next aisle over. :)
However, as well as thinking robots are decidedly iffy, I have a thing about implants. Can't abide the thought of electronics being grafted on to flesh [shudder] (which is going to make life interesting if I ever need a pacemaker!). Things like the Borg, and the Cybermen, are horrifying! My inner cyberphobe was actually growling when I first used the hearing aid this morning but knowing I could completely remove the thing if necessary got us over that first hurdle. There's no doubt though that it feels much more natural not having it in my ear. Eh, we'll see how it pans out.

~=o>

Signed the new lease: here for another year! And I've had my fortnightly electricity payments reduced by 40%. Woot!

Forecast: 9-13
Attained: 9-13

Well, my nice tidy loungeroom has asploded with stuff again. Oh well, can't be helped. I need to move things out of the paid storage - which I can't afford anymore - and in to the cubs' father's garage. Unfortunately it's a bit damp in there so everything ideally has to be in sealed plastic boxes. Going to be a busy few weeks while I get that lot organised...

~=o>

Heh, so, I get my hearing aid tomorrow. (Dun dun DUN) Mildly anticipating the event but really, there's so much else going on at the moment that potentially improving my hearing hardly seems that important.

~=o>

Still Life with Toilet Paper...

One of my favourite pics from the Canberra trip last year.

Forecast: 7-14
Attained: 10-14

The sun had a bit of warmth today. In six months time I'll be saying it's too hot and scuttling from shadow to shadow to avoid Sol's kiss, but today it was nice.

~=o>

Cubs are back to school tomorrow. They disagree, of course, but it seems to me their hols have just gone on and on and on.
We got their Semester 1 reports the other day. Aside from one subject they've done really well this year with a sprinkling of distinctions and high-distinctions. Cubs are quite pleased with themselves, too. :)

~=o>

This is the cubs, mum and my brother in Qld a couple of years ago. I like how the cubs seem to be doing a Matrix Agents on holidays thing.





~=o>

I love this song and I love the clip, though the ending makes me sad.

Forecast: 3-15
Attained: 3-16

Small moment of win today. As I was tanking the car - at $1.27 a litre with a discount coupon - the price jumped to $1.45! Yowch! But cos I'd started the pump at the old price that was what I paid. Win! :) It's the little victories...

~=o>

Four days on from the inspection and the house is still relatively clean. A surprising lack of entropy. This is good.

~=o>




One of the pics from Mum and my hot-air ballooning adventure for her 81st birthday. :) Getting the set resized and up online is on my to-do list.

Forecast: 5-15
Attained: 5-13

Gah,I worked 4 days this week instead of my usual 3. I'm knackered...

~=o>

Cubs and I have been snorfling over HISHE. (Thanks, Joules!)

~=o>



(From the ever amusing I can haz cheezburger of course.)

~=o>

Okay, I think I have all the bits of paper I need to do my tax return. Woot.

Forecast: 7-13
Attained: 7-14

Yes I'm not getting any income support from the government anymore but I don't have to deal with the teeth-grindyness, and even better, I don't have to participate in the stupid and infuriating 'job skills' workshops. [spitspit] Well rid of that. Hah!

~=o>

I used the ironing board tonight - (had to unwrap it first :) - and akshully ironed one of my work shirts! [gasp!] What prompted this rare feat? In the last work newsletter there was a little aside about us being professionals and looking the part, including being well-pressed...
I'm... pretty certain that was directed at me. [g]

Forecast: 10-13
Attained: 10-13

My memory is either startling or abysmal. I can go somewhere once and 20 years later remember how to get there, but remember someone's name...? Pfft At least I'm mostly good at remembering to pay bills on time now. That's a skill that's taken 20+ years to hone.

~=o>

Carpet in the office at the secondary work campus has been replaced after OH&S concerns. It looks quite good, and certainly shows how old and battered the carpet in the rest of the library is.
Fun part was getting all the bits of furniture and paraphenalia back in - I think I got it in the right spots...

~=o>

[giggling...]

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 10-14

Inspection's over and everything's fine. [flop]
Heh, the agent looked about 18! He was probably in his early 20's, but there he was, this fresh-faced young man with his clipboard and gelled hair. :)

After that was all over I nipped out for morning tea/lunch/afternoon tea with some old friends from Tafe. Was great catching up, so much to talk about!
Back to work tomorrow: holiday is officially over. It's been... eventful.

Forecast: 7-13
Attained: 7-13

I normally work Wednesday-Friday, but went in today (Monday) to help cover the bare patches with people away sick and on holiday.
Intellectually I knew it was Monday, but my body was saying: 'Wait. What? Is it Wednesday...?'
Thoroughly confused now. Even more so as tomorrow will be a normal day off. :)

~=o>

Right! Cubs' rooms are vacuumed; stove is as clean as I can get it (rental house stoves are rarely pristine to start with) and I'm about to wash the floors wave a wet mop at the floors before I go to bed.
(KittenKong has been thoroughly spooked by the vacuum cleaner, which probably has some negative implication about how many times she's seen it in her life. Eh well, I never claimed to be a fastidious house keeper.)

~=o>

Barcode scanner of DOOM!

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 8-13

[satisfied] House is cluttered but clean. All that's left to do is wash the floor and wipe down the stove. Even the cubs have got their rooms in a sort of order. Enough so they can vacuum the carpets, anyway.

~=o>

I'd picked up a dvd of South Pacific recently, nice and cheap, and as a reward for cleaning the bath I sat down and watched it this evening. [happy sigh] One of my faaaaavourite musicals. Daft and colourful. The best bit is where there's a bunch of loosely attired, bronzed sailors frollicking on the beach singing about how much they miss girls...
[snerk] Yep, it's as believable as it sounds.



Because the cubs were in the room I refrained from singing along. However, if I get another copy of the soundtrack (no record player to play my vinyl copy) I will make no such promises again.

Forecast: 8-14
Attained: 9-15

Grarritchyitchyitchy!
I've got a scab forming on the back of my leg. Itchy means it's healing but... itchyitchyitchy. Time for more tea tree cream.

~=o>

Egad! I haz lounge room again! Yes, the chaos that hasn't been able to be put away has been neatly stacked to the sides, but there's a big clear spot in the middle! Dancing time! Let's startle the cat...

~=o>

D'aww, this is adorable!

Forecast: 6-14
Attained: 9-12

Ahead of the rental inspection next week, my room's tidy! (Well, tidier, and don't open the wardrobe, for gods' sake! :)
Plus, KittenKong went a bit nuts cos I'd unearthed her scratching post from the debris. Very happy to see it, she was.

But more importantly...!



I've finally put up my lovely grape-lights!

Here's a close-up...



Thank you, Soulsis & Niki! :)

I'm thinking of bulking out the display with some of the elebenty hundred other bunches of plastic, non-lighting-up, grapes I've collected over the years.

Forecast: 6-12
Attained: 6-11

Just a couple of the pics from Sciencworks, but they link through to the set on flickr.
(Mouse-over for titles.)





[g] Was lots of fun.

~=o>

Ok, so apparently I'm earning too much to qualify for any government assistance anymore. Even with the 'allowance' the cubs will be getting that's going to make things interesting. Time to start looking for more work, dagnabbit.

Forecast: 8-13
Attained: 9-14

Cubs and I trotted off to Scienceworks today. Lotsa fun : ) We visited the Explore-a-saurus exhibit, tagged along with the Pumping station tour and went to the Planetarium to watch a short piece about Pluto (which the cubs had seen before but I hadn't. Not that I really saw it this time either. Lying back, in the dark... couldn't keep my eyes open... until... [nudge from cub] "Mum! You're snoring...! Eheh, oops. Felt quite refreshed afterwards though.]
There'll be pictures of our adventures later - probably tomorrow - once I've got them sorted.

~=o>

Today was also the first anniversary of Mum's ultimately fatal stroke. The ten weeks between that and her death were some of the hardest of my life. (Except for the following ten weeks, they were the hardest, too...)
You know, I'm still terribly ambivalent about euphemisms for death. "I'm so sorry to hear about your mother's passing." What? Oh yes, she died, she's dead now. Is it a way of softening the event? Cos it really doesn't work. [shrug] Anyway...

This is probably my favourite picture of Mum, taken a few years ago at a lotus garden close to where she lived. I like this one because she's relaxed and happy, probably because she wasn't aware she was being photographed. Yay, go stealth-ninja-photographer, me! :)

Forecast: 8-12
Attained: 9-12

Right, Centrelink paperwork has been resubmitted. I'm sure it will all be be fine now...

~=o>

Rental inspection in a week's time. See me not panicing panicking? [Is that the right spelling? I should check... Nope, there's a 'k', d'oh. I always forget the 'k'. Edited.]
As I was saying, feeling remarkably cruisey about it. Sure there's lots of stuff lying about and some tidying up and a bit more in-depth cleaning will need to be done, but nothing that's really omigod!flail!
... except for perhaps the cubs' rooms. I've been gently suggesting for months that they might like to unpack/sort the boxes and bags of detritus that came out of their old room. Now it looks like they'll just have to make do with stacking the chaos neatly for the time being. Tch. (Not that I can really cast nasturtiums. I'm going to have to re-bag the stuff that came out of the shed after the last inspection, that hasn't been sorted yet, and sling it back in the shed temporarily. :)

~=o>

Whoa...!




Via EPBOT

~=o>

Yay, cubs and I are off to Scienceworks tomorrow! At last, some holiday type activity for my holiday!

Forecast: 10-15
Attained: 10-15

Another teeth-gritty encounter with Centrelink this morning. They still haven't processed the paperwork that I was told had been found. Grrr. Will have to go in and resubmit. Honestly, I'm so used to cock-ups that I'm genuinely shocked when there isn't any.

~=o>

Had a call from the estate agent today, asking my intentions! Lease is up for renewal in a few months so they wanted to know in advance if we were staying or not. The owner is apparently very happy with us. I confirmed that we weren't going anywhere.
The rent will be going up a little, $5-$10 dollars a week, but considering we got this place for $10 less than the asking price, it's an increase I can wear. : )

~=o>

Yes! Sorted through the last box of paperwork! Now I'm in the process of trying to winnow down the contents of the 'stubborn' box. I've actually ended up dumping a lot of stuff cos I couldn't be arsed trying to file it.

~=o>

KittenKong and the Concrete Camel...

Forecast: 10-14
Attained: 13-15

Still working through the boxes of paperwork. Have 2.5 left to sort. Most of the bits and bobs are easy to categorize but there'll be at least one box of leftover stuff that stubbornly refuses to be defined. There's always some.

~=o>

Watched the first ep of the American version of Being Human today - because eyetoons was giving it away free. Of course I couldn't help noting the differences and drawing paralels with the original but taken on it's own merits it wasn't too bad. This first taste didn't quite have the same humour and scary charm of the UK version, and the emphasis was a bit different, but I'll be sort of interested to see more... if I can watch it for free.

Forecast (for yesterday): 8-16
Attained: 9-16

Cubs had a great day yesterday at their party, and at the end of it all thanked everyone for coming and helping make it so enjoyable. :) There's a number of photos that will have to be approved before posting but here's a couple to start with...

Fairy bread! A party staple! (Akshully, when I suggested having fairy bread at their party it was sort of a joke, but there was an overwhelmingly positive response.)



I don't have a pic of their birthday cake that I'm completely happy with yet but these are the Portal themed cupcakes Penny made! They were a real hit. :)



~=o>

And last night I dreamt there was some supplementary Potterverse material published (volumes of it) that contained concrete evidence of a romantic relationship between Snape and Lupin. Made me very happy!

Forecast: 10-17
Attained: 8-17

I know tangelos are s'posed to be juicy but the one I had today squirted so fiercely at the slightest provocation it was more like a defense mechanism...

~=o>

Cubs' birthday today! (My baaaabies...!) They appreciated their loot, and enjoyed dinner at the Piggy Place. I've no doubt the cookies'n'cream ice-cream we bought later was also appreciated.

It was also their last day of work experience, and now we're all on holiday! Mwahahahah!

~=o>

After a long negotiation for financing, then waiting around for things to happen, the computers at work have been updated. Which is great except that everything has to be reset. I didn't have the foresight to back up my bookmarks, for instance, but at least I'd kept samples of my various email sigs handy so reinstating those wasn't too painful. Getting the library database to open on a new 'puter is a relatively simple business, except when you hardly ever have to do it and forget how to! The IT crew were heartily sick of us after a couple of days. Anyway, it's all sorted now, more or less.
(That first day back with the new machines I was concerned about the amount of typos I was making... until it dawned on me that I'd been given a new keyboard as well. Phew! I thought it was just me being clumsier than usual :).