Forecast: 9-18
Attained: 6-17

We had an eventful night last night.
After taking ages to get to sleep an almighty crash woke me and a cub up about 1.30am. Bloody possum had got inside and knocked everything down off the sink! Made a mess but nothing was broken.
Cub said he saw something zip off towards my room... Tch. Couldn't spot the blessed thing so tidied up then went back to bed, thinking the damn possum could find its own way out. KittenKong wisely stayed out of the way: rats and mice are one thing but tackling something as big as herself was something else entirely.

At some point later I heard noises in the bathroom and assumed the critter was nosing about in there, knocking things over but wasn't so concerned I could be arsed getting out of bed again.
Of course, after the broken sleep I had trouble waking up so the annoying secondary alarm went off without me noticing the primary alarm at all. Fortunately I was rostered out at the fishpond campus - which perversely is the one furthest away but cos the parking is better I can leave the house later - so reset the alarm and got a bit more sleep.

When I eventually dragged myself out of bed...
Yep, piles of possum poos and puddles of possum wee in the kitchen and bathroom were testimony to the activity of our 'guest', that and the knocked over potplants in the bathroom. [grump]. I missed breakfast but managed to clean up the ick before I had to leave for work.

I hope the possum got itself out of the house last night, I really do. Cos of course if it didn't it'll wake up once all the lights are off and go rampaging again. [sigh] Eh well, if there's fresh poo and wee tomorrow I'll know.
Mind you, I had an interesting dream cos of all this. The possum in my dream was more like a cross between a joey - baby kangaroo - and a squirrel. It was called 'Squidge'...

Forecast: 11-15
Attained: 9-15

So, Eurovision was last weekend. I had sort of planned to watch it with friends this year but didn't. I did lope on over to the yutoobs to have a squizz though.
Oh ye gods. I couldn't bear to watch anything all the way through! Not even Jedward.
I'll admit defeat, Europop is just not my bag, baby...

~=o>

This time last year...
Cat up a tree!

Forecast: 10-16
Attained: 10-15

[blink] The last time I went to see a movie at the cinema was in January this year. Problem is I'm always feeling so tired it's a lot of effort to get out of the house and do stuff...

~=o>

This is adorable. The song will probly find its way on to my playlist...

Forecast: 10-15
Attained: 11-15

Happy Lab (scroll down). For the mad scientist in all of us.

~=o>

I finally relented and bought a heater. Primarily to dry clothes when it's too wet outside.
KittenKong, given the choice between me or the heater... Well, let's just say, she hasn't been near me while the heater's switched on. :)

Cubs are enamoured of it, too. ("Ooooh, look at the heat distortion of the air...!") But they're not allowed to have heaters in their rooms until the ignition points therein have been dealt with. In other words, they have to tidy up.

Forecast: 10-16
Attained: 10-15

Didn't get 'round to washing the kitchen floor, but the freezer is defrosted and the loungeroom vacuumed.
(And I ate icecream and watched dvds. Was all good. :)

Forecast: 9-15
Attained: 9-16

Cleaned the kitchen today, including the stove top. Even went so far as to take the knobs off the cooker and scrub them down as well. [gasp] I'll wash the floor tomorrow when the cubs are at their dad's.
I've also emptied the bar freezer ready for defrosting. Managed to squeeze what I wasn't using today or tomorrow in to the fridge/freezer. I think I deserved my nap today. :)

~=o>

I've been sorting out my digital photos preparatory to printing. In 2007 I took 4000ish pics! About half of those were from my first trip to Queensland.

The long-term plan is to get good quality photo display/storage, probably from somewhere like Zetta Florence. I like the immediacy of digital photos, being able to see something on a monitor, but there's something lovely and tangible about photo albums. You can plunk them in someone's lap. :)

Forecast: 10-15
Attained: 9-11

The cat is cuddling in my arms. I'm serenading her, loudly, with the Beastie Boys 'Sabotage'. She doesn't seem to appreciate it...

~=o>

Had dinner with the cubs and their dad at his place tonight, then we watched a couple of episodes of original Star Trek on his big telly. I have to get one of those someday - I could see all sorts of detail!

Also:
Quotes out of context!

Kor: Do you have a tongue?
Kirk: I have a tongue.
Kor: Good. You'll be taught how to use it...

[snerk] I mean, really, what was I supposed to make of that exchange?

Forecast: 11-17
Attained: 11-15

And in my dream last night I visited a brothel/massage parlour. Interesting experience but I was looking over the girls (and boys) and wondering, despite the sexy smiles, which of them were there because they didn't have a choice...
Also, at some point I was in a pub/pokies club, watching people gamble. A drunk schoolgirl wandered in and drifted around, wanting me to introduce her to people. She lost interest in me when she wandered off again to go and meet someone at a food court nearby. I followed her for a while, just quietly making sure she was okay.
At the food court she and her friend stopped at a seafood stall and ordered. There were something like scallops/squids being cooked on a grill, but they were still alive, popping and twitching. If that wasn't enough to put me off, there was also a documentary playing of these creatures in the ocean. There was a swarm of them happily feeding, darting about... I couldn't bring myself to eat the cooked one put in front of me. (Weirdly, it was lilac coloured with a pattern of white daisies. Ok, I've got no idea where that came from...!)

Forecast: 12-18
Attained: 11-20

I do so love browsing the tubenets.

The History Blog. I forsee hours of happy procrastinating reading here... :)

Forecast: 9-17
Attained: 10-18

I can't help it. If I've watched something often enough I can quite happily quote along with it. This is intensely annoying to the cubs, poor things, to the point that if they're watching a dvd and I'm in the loungeroom on the computer, I am requested to listen to music on the headphones so I don't quote over what they're watching. :)

~=o>

And in my dream the other night I was in "Japan". Plus, bonus, I was going through paperwork or something relating to my trip and discovered that I could cash something or other in when I got home and gain a few hundred dollars. This meant I wasn't going to land in Aus with absolutely no money. Something that happens all too often after holidays.

Forecast: 6-17
Attained: 5-17

Seriously, how many teatowels do I need?

I reduced this pile to just-a-bit-more-than-half. The boring but still good t's are going to an op shop; the good-but-too-stained-for-op-shops I'll cut down in to dishclothes. Only one went in to the bin, because even after washing it was still sticky and wouldn't even be good for washing up.
(Sorting the teatowels wasn't on The List, just a spur of the moment thing today. I'm going to sneak it on to the list anyway, so I can tick it off and feel like I've achieved something. :)

Forecast: 7-17
Attained: 9-16

Marked a few things off The List this weekend. :)
I can't remember why I got out of the habit of making a to-do list...

~=o>

How cool are these biscuits?

Quite easy to make, too, if a little fiddly. :)

Forecast: 11-16
Attained: 11-15

Mmmm... chicken oxo cubes in hot water. One of the good things about cold weather. :)

~=o>

Towering cranes, enormous holes in the ground. My inner 4 year old boy loves all that.

~=o>

Neat dream last night.
Mum and I were visiting New York ... in Tasmania? We flew over scenic, rugged coastlines to get there. Clearly it wasn't the New York of this reality but it was certainly a New York. The air was crisp and clear, the architecture like sculpture. The sculptures were enormous and there were a significant number of statues and monuments of otters. Hee.
This was our second trip there and I was wondering if we could go somewhere else next time cos, while this city was amazing, I thought it might be nice to see someplace different. I did glimpse a metallic hot pink VW on the streets. That made me squeak and I was little annoyed I didn't have my camera ready.

~=o>

The demon on the end of my bed...

Yerrss...

Forecast: 10-18
Attained: 10-17

Sooo, it's been a while since I've written myself A List of things to do, but it had to be done. There's so much to do it was getting overwhelming. :)

~=o>

Hee. From this blog.

Forecast: 8-18
Attained: 10-19

The cat is snoring in my arms. It's cute, if a little distracting.

~=o>

I has dis book. It is awsum!

And very, very funny.





(I haven't done an actual count/compare of the movies listed but I reckon I've seen at least a third. That's sit-down-to-watch seen, not just been in the room when someone else is watching it. That would bring my total up to about 50% :)

Forecast: 11-18
Attained: 12-16

Dream from a couple of nights ago.
I was checking out a very small flat, basically a bedsit, and wondering how I was going to get my stuff in there. The place still had the current occupant's things in there and it wasn't until that started to be moved out that I was able to see where my stuff would go. Then I was able to look forward to settling in. :)

~=o>

Um...




(Spotted on Triple J's Tom and Alex's blog. They had a Tom and Alex-ercise morning...)

Forecast: 11-16
Attained: 11-18

[snerk]




I've no idea what the connection was but this next one popped up in the recs at the end of the previous clip.
Wow...
Watch it all the way through.

Forecast: 10-15
Attained: 11-17

Hmph. I had a few things to mention but they're all complaints so I won't. (I'm not being precious, I'm just being grumpy and I don't care to inflict that on anyone. So there.)


Time for an inspirational message, methinks.

Forecast: 10-14
Attained: 10-13

Mother's Day here in Aus, and other parts of the world apparently, but not the UK. :)

The cubs made me a fabulous card! Plus I got a bag of choc-coated turkish delight - which I shared with them - and a block of fair trade, organic coffee-flavoured dark choc - which they tried but ultimately didn't care that much about - and a pile of poo from them and their dad.
And then we had fish'n'chips for dinner cos a: I really couldn't be arsed cooking, and b: I wasn't organised enough to have anything ready for the cubs to cook. Feeling very full now... :)

~=o>

Mother's Day Breakfast, 2010.
The cubs and Nana at Wild Cattle Creek Estate. Best bacon I've ever had.

Forecast: 8-15
Attained: 9-16

Picked up a frozen meal from the supermarket last night, cos it looked nice and it was very cheap. Lamb fillet, vegetables and gravy.
You know that cheap ham, where the meat is squished in to a shape? It has a slick sort of texture and tastes mostly of salt. That's what they did to the lamb. Was very odd. The vegetables, by comparison were quite nice: carrots, green beans and half a dozen bits of capsicum.

~=o>

I do so love faux orgies with dancers in bodysuits.
This video loomed large in my youth. See if you can work out why.

Forecast: 12-17
Attained: 12-18

Cellophane noodles, while soft and delicious when warm, revert to their hard, too chewy state when cold.

~=o>

One of the cubs txted me asking if I could think of an onomatopoeia for "the violent bending or ripping of air-conditioning duct metal..."
My suggestion of "Kroink!!" was well received.

~=o>

I don't normally have a lot of interest in surfing but this clip - with this song - makes me all tingly.

Forecast: 11-19
Attained: 11-21

I spotted a few of the baby fish today. I am reassured. They haven't all been eaten.

~=o>

Oooh! I've encountered an original ST episode I haven't seen! The conscience of the King.
Hee, if I'd continued collecting the ST video series back in the 80's ('builds week by week...') I would've seen it long before now. Wonder if there's any others I've missed?

Forecast: 11-19
Attained: 18-22

Had a very walking'y kind of day today...
Had a work thing in the city this afternoon so decided to take the bus in to work this morning, rather than driving in and parking, then having to go back out there to pick the car up.

Walked to the bus stop - 10 mins.
Walked from terminus to work - 12 mins.
Walked from work to tram stop - 8 mins.
Walked from tram stop to forumy thing - 5 mins.
Walked from forumy thing to train station - 10 mins.
Walked from train station to home - 12 mins.

Ok, it doesn't seem like a lot of walking but considering I do as little as possible generally... :)

~=o>

I was walking home in the dark this evening, more or less, and for the first time I noticed that the bitumen path from the train station to the road side has sparklies in it! Was quite enchanting, really; the bits of whatever caught the street/traffic lights and twinkled. Made me ridiculously happy.

~=o>

Interestingly, the forumy thing today was held at my old workplace. I'd left there in '92, after being there for 8 years. I recognised a few faces - don't think they recognised me.
The once dingy, clattery staff cafeteria has been transformed in to a light, pleasant staff and general public cafeteria. The chips were still a bit ordinary, though the tomato sauce was free from a squirty bottle, not doled out in those miniscule plastic packets...

Forecast: 11-22
Attained: 13-20

I had a soy-related mishap at work this morning.
I made myself avocado nori rolls for lunch*, and took along a wee splash of soy in a container. A non-watertight container, as it happened. Got in to work and put my bag down on the desk while I got myself sorted out, as I do every day, but on moving the bag there was a brown smear on the desk. Oops. The soy had leaked out of the container, through the admittedly not completely waterproof lunch bag and then through the bottom of my back pack.
Did manage to get it all cleaned up and on the plus side, the place smelt very pleasantly of soy for the rest of the day.

[* The nori rolls weren't a huge success, alas. The rice was a bit too dry to begin with so it didn't stick together too well and I ended up dripping bits of rice all over the place. The avocado was lovely though, and being surrounded by rice and nori meant it hadn't gone brown...]

Forecast: 9-17
Attained: 11-15

Well.
I thought there's been a mousey smell in the laundry for some time now. I put it down to the cat's litter - the stuff itself, not what she puts in to it.

I've been temporarily storing the flattened out, good quality, reusable cardboard boxes inbetween the washing machine and sink. It was getting a bit full there so I decided to sort out the boxes...
Ah... I said as I pulled out chewed and fouled cardboard, I wasn't imagining the mousey smell, then. Except it wasn't mice, it was a rat. Probably a young one that KittenKong had brought inside and managed to lose, only it wasn't a young rat now, it was a fully-grown and well-fed rat. Hardly surprising it was in good condition, the cat's food and water is next to the washing machine!
Anyway, I pulled all the boxes out, and KittenKong immediately came to investigate. It wasn't long before nature took it's course and she caught the rat. She didn't kill it outright, but neither did she play with it once it was disabled. I think it was too big for that.
I know it would've been kinder to kill the damn thing but I just couldn't bring myself to do that, so I covered it with an icecream container and left it to - hopefully - die quickly and in peace.
I haven't been game to lift the container yet...

Haven't cleaned up the rat poo and pee yet, either. I'm letting it all dry out before I tackle it cos I know from experience that any brush used to sweep up the wet stuff will need to be discarded as well. The smelly boxes have been thrown out so at least one of the sources of pong has gone.

I pulled this out along with the boxes. It used to be a sock.

Forecast: 10-16
Attained: 10-16

I usually have my porridge with milk and raw sugar but this morning I tried it with golden syrup. YUM! Will be doing that from now on. :)

~=o>

Was going to watch Return of the King this afternoon but had a nap instead. Would've fallen asleep during the movie anyway.

This evening I watched another couple of eps from the first season of Original Trek. Yes, some of the production/dialogue is cheesey but not as much as I remember. The plot's are akshully rather good, as is most of the acting. The interaction and banter between the main three charas - Kirk, Spock, McCoy - is already there and very funny. All in all, reaffirming my love for this series.

~=o>

I know it's getting colder, the numbness in my fingers from carpal tunnel is almost constant. Can more or less ignore it during summer but not when it's cold... Eh well.

Forecast: 9-16
Attained: 10-14

I watched Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers this afternoon. I'd forgotten how good they were, especially FotR. All those sweeping vistas (visit New Zealand!).
I did nod off for a short while in TT, though that may have been down to the couple of spoonfuls of chochazelnut spread I'd eaten.

~=o>

I've sifted through mum's paperwork, again, having another go at deciding what can go or stay. It's pretty much down to the archivey stuff now, things that can help chart her life. It's a little upsetting though, looking at photos of nameless people and places, knowing there's no one I can ask about them anymore. Some of the people I recognise, and some of the locations, but most of the time there's no date, nothing written on the back of the pics to give me a clue. Are the photos significant? I have no idea...

Forecast: 9-16
Attained: 12-16

I had something to say but I've completely forgotten what it was...

Forecast: 8-16
Attained: 9-13

It only got to 13 today. I do believe we're finally past the stupid hot days...

~=o>

The good news is the job vacancy at work has been filled.
The bad news* is it's been filled by one of our own librarians which means we're still understaffed.
The good news is that means I should still be getting the extra work for a little while longer.

(*I say 'bad' only so the joke would work, you understand. It's fabulous she got the job as it's a step up and she'll be brilliant in it.)

~=o>

The difference between cats and dogs...

Dogs: "I don't know why you're making me do this but I love and trust you."

Cats: "I will kill you in your sleep."

Forecast: 11-15
Attained: 12-15

This is intriguing:

Depths of lakes & oceans (via The Wilderness Society.)

The Abyss: it's rude to stare...

~=o>

Yummy dinner tonight, a sort of stir-fry with sauteed onions, peas, rice and marinated pork rashers. Plus there was enough left over for lunch tomorrow. Once again, staff canteen, I evade your vile clutches! Mwhahahahah!

~=o>

This is a little weird. Piggle is cute though...

Forecast: 13-21
Attained: 14-22

Another full-on dream last night that messed with my sleep. The stand-out bit this time involved me standing around with some very young people waiting for a posh night/dance club to begin playing music. Well, when I say 'standing around with' I akshully mean 'standing next to'. They'd have nothing to do with me and I certainly felt out of place. One of the PYTs was complaining about it taking so long for the music to start. I joked that perhaps they could play Racey's 'Lay your love on me' as that would certainly get things moving! I got a frosty little smile for that one.
Later, there was (appropriate) music but it was quite sedate. A PYT wondered aloud when things would pick up. I said, jokingly, that would happen when the ectasy kicked in...
The look I was given made me vow to myself to just shut up.

... also, there were costumes, really elaborate costumes, that everyone was required (?) to wear. A good portion of this section involved watching people getting get dressed and made up. Fascinating.

~=o>

Had to c/p some long links to ebooks in to our catalogue today. Unfortunately our dinosaur system takes exception to the new-fangled things like underscores and won't read them, causing problems getting to sites. [sigh] AM, my colleague, wondered if making the links shorter would work...?
She introduced me to tinyURL.com
Great site! Converts unweildy long links to snappy little links. Less chance of needing to c/p the link to get where you want to go. :) I approve.

~=o>

Childish, I know, but the journal name 'Journal of Japan Water Works Association' always makes me giggle.