Forecast: 16-24
Attained: 16-23

Wow.
I was playing with this while listening to dance music.
Trippy...

The Scale of the Universe 2

Forecast: 18-22
Attained: 18-21

Aaaand looking ahead at the 7 day forecast, mid to low 20's every day! Niace.

~=o>

I've been musing to myself, again, about what I'd need on a houseboat... Not an extensive list. :)

~=o>

Can't remember how I found it but this little fic is very cute, very funny.

'Upholding the Laws of Time' by AstroGirl

Summary: Calvin encounters the Doctor.

~=o>

This time(ish) last year - the kitchen window as reflected on my 'phone's screen.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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!

Forecast: 16-26
Attained: 15-26

Hot, hot weekend coming up. [sigh]

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...

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...)

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.

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...

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!

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...

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]

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...!

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...

Forecast: 16-23
Attained: 16-23

This past week has been lovely, weather wise. Day temps not over 26, and the nights cool enough to be under the bedclothes. Nice! We've a few hot days coming up, but not stupidhot, thank heavens...

~=o>

If I bought everything on my wishlist on eyetoons it would cost me over $1000. Good grief!

~=o>

Woke up in the middle of the night last night then had trouble getting back to sleep. Seriously considered getting up and having some icecream.
I didn't, though, which is probly just as well seeing as how hard it is to keep my sleeping pattern vaguely regular as it is. :)

~=o>

There's a pond near my work. This is what it was like two years ago.

It's recently been refurbished. Much nicer now, not the mud-scummed puddle it was.
I'm sure the ducks will be happier, too.

Forecast (Fri 10/2): 15-24
Attained: 18-26

Forecast (Sat 11/2): -20
Attained: 16-22

No blog update yesterday cos I was feeling bleurghy. Stayed away from the computer and indulged instead in Downton Abbey and chocolate icecream :)
Today, however...

I've just spent a happy 45 mins unravelling a big knot of guy ropes. Very satisfying, especially as it was something I've been meaning to do for about a decade.

~=o>

Our ABC has just started showing a fabulous comedy, Outland. Essentially it's about the trials and tribulations of a gay sci-fi club.
It was fecking hysterical, and I now have a new quote. "Daleks. They're like weevils..."
If you get a chance to see this show, do. :)
Beta Go!

Forecast: 13-25
Attained: 13-25

Good grief. Couple of nights in a row of crap sleep and I'm rubbish at work. Had to sneak off during lunchtime for a nap in my car. Fortunately I was at one of the quieter campuses. Did feel brighter though...

~=o>

This time last year I was sorting through my dvds, getting the majority of them out of the plastic cases and in to holder things.

Forecast: 13-22
Attained: 14-21

Weird kind of day. Had a nommy dinner though. Potatoes slow-cooked in ham/roast chicken stock, with cauliflower and meatballs. Mmmm...

Forecast: 14-22
Attained: 15-22

Oooh! My favourite Muse song has a clip!
Jolly interesting, too. It plays up the slightly sinister feel of the track. No simple love songs - or simple any sort of songs - for this lot. No wonder Joules is a fan... :)

Enjoy...

Muse - Feeling Good.

No embedding allowed, sorry. Here's a screen grab:

Forecast: 14-22
Attained: 14-23

I've heard a fair bit about Downton Abbey but not having a telly per se I missed out when it screened here last year.
I <3 New Year sales: picked up the DVD at a reasonable price. Two eps in and I love this series! I've been cheering, and booing, and laughing... much to the amusement of the cubs. :)

This is a very funny spoof of the program. It's probably a bit spoilery...

Forecast: 23-33
Attained: 26-31

An interesting day to go up to the hills to visit cousins, what with the high winds and dry conditions meaning a fire alert. But it turned out all right, by 4pm the temperature had dropped by 10 degrees and it was raining hard enough to cause flooding.
Ah, Melbourne... :)

~=o>

This evening that dratted spider put in another appearance. Half-way down the wall this time so, from a safe distance, I bravely talked the VortexCub through the container/cardboard method of catch-and-release-well-away-from-the-house.
Still twitchy.

~=o>

Animal Song - The Europeans.

"There is a fine line between being artistic and being a fruity ass freak in a white leotard shouting at a parachute..." (Quoted from Funny or Die.)

Early 80's. I loved this song. Tracked down the single - it was an import - and played it to death. Alas, it was one of the treasures I lost in a fire a few years later. Would love to have another copy... :)

"The Animal Song" by The Europeans - watch more funny videos

Forecast: 17-31
Attained: 16-33

[rattled]
You know that (effing huge huntsman) spider that's been lurking about the lounge room? Well, it was out of sight, out of mind - as I thought, until I PICKED UP THE PAPERWEIGHT IT WAS RESTING ON.
[hyperventilating]
Spider ran over my hand, with all of its eight horrid feet, whereupon I squealed and desperately shook my hand to dislodge the thing. Consternation was high as I couldn't see where it had landed so I went to call the cubs - AND THEN NOTICED THE FRACKING THING WAS ON ME!
Squealed even louder - verily, like a girl - and convulsed in my clothes, flinging the thing from my t-shirt. At this point the cubs came running cos they thought I was in serious trouble. Which I was! They didn't seem to think so though they did mention it was the highest pitch they'd ever heard from me. They were, however, prepared to get a container to try and catch the thing, once we spotted it again, but it scuttled up the wall out of reach. Where it's still sitting, right now, and I'm being vigilant. Or paranoid. Same thing.

Right, need something cute to take my mind off it all...

This'll do. :)

D'awww...

Forecast: 14-27
Attained: 16-27

Several years ago, I bought this:

A Bat Signal shaped portable stereo! (Wow, what a rubbish pic...) It was cheap and Batman related: I couldn't resist!
I let the cubs use it in their shared room at the old place, and at some point someone had stepped on the stereo's cord and bent the plug out of shape. [sigh] Was very miffed, I can tell you. I hung on to the unit with the intention of getting another cord someday...
Fast forward (probably) 3-4 years to today. I bought another cord for the stereo!
Alas it didn't work. I think the stereo itself is borked after so many years of disuse. It's probly not worth getting repaired, and I do have other stereos. Just, I was looking forward to using this one again. Eh well.

~=o>

I have a List of things to do this weekend. Not a big list like the last The List, but maintenance type things. Enough to be getting on with. We're in for a hottish weekend, let's see how I go with it. :)

Forecast: 15-27
Attained: 14-27

Hee, cubs went back to school today and I didn't get a 'your child was late' txt! An excellent start. :)

~=o>

Needed to do a little shopping after work. It's always a little weird hearing iconic music from my youth past being played in the supermarket - very glad we've moved on from that godsawful muzak - however, for some reason it was particularly disjointing to hear Sting's Moon Over Bourbon Street as I was rummaging through the organic pasta...




Just... weird... :)

Forecast: 13-24
Attained: 13-24

Ahhh... It was finally cool enough last night to sleep comfortably. Here's hoping there's a few more nights of that before it gets hot again. Will give me a chance to catch up on sleep.

~=o>

Cubs are back to school tomorrow. Their dad and I took them out to dinner at the Piggy Place.
I had the Hog Wheel (pork belly) again. Iz very nom.

~=o>

This time last year I was playing with my new camera...