Forecast: 16-32°
Attained: 17-32°

On the way to work.

Two cups of coffee? No, one cup of coffee plus a cup of milk for my cereal. Due to rubbish sleep I got up late and didn't have time to eat breakfast at home.



When I got to work I found this:



I knew about the flooding but because I hadn't actually seen it yet I assumed this was just the carpet not drying out over night.
No, apparently, there was another leak. That's new wet on top of the mostly dried old wet.

By the end of the day it was looking much better though, despite there being a problem with the condenser.
See the wet spot at the back by the cluster of chairs? The unit had got blocked and started leaking. Fortunately a new unit was found forthwith.



~=o>

Forecast: 15-26°
Attained: 14-23°

I don't work on Mondays but I got an email from the boss today, letting me know there's been a flood at the secondary campus, which is where I'm rostered to work tomorrow.
Hasn't affected the books but it's down the end of the library where all the computers are. Consequently, and via OH&S' recommendation, no one is allowed to use the computers there. This is incredibly annoying for the students/med staff doing their training/researchers that regularly use the library.

Engineering says they've fixed the leak - should bloody hope so! - and the cleaners were up there quickly with the wet/dry vacuum thing.
Big fan dryers will be going overnight to help with the drying. Whether that will get rid of the wet carpet smell remains to be seen. I'll see what it's like when I go in tomorrow.

Only the plus side, the library may get a new carpet out of this. :)



(Image nicked from here. My edit.)

~=o>

Forecast (yesterday): 14-25°
Attained: 15-24°

Forecast (today): 14-25°
Attained: 15-24°

I dreamt while I was napping this afternoon.

I picked up the cubs and their friend from somewhere. I had KittenKong in the car with me but she escaped when the door was open and the cubs were getting in. I went after her, managed to catch her and went back to the car... Except the cubs (and friend) had 'borrowed' it and were driving away slowly. I jogged after them, cuddling KK who was quite happy to be carried.
I saw the car stop a little way ahead and they waited for me though I was anxious that they'd take off again before I got there. KK and I continued on, me looking for glimpses of the car as I somehow had to go through peoples' houses and garden - and part of an old hospital! - to finally catch up with them. Once there I was too relieved they'd waited to be angry. Reclaiming my car, KK escaped again, but I wasn't too worried cos I knew she'd come to me when I called. Which she did, little white paws flashing as she ran.

The really interesting thing about this dream was that the cubs (and friend) were primary school age, wearing their uniforms. Even their friend, who they didn't meet until they went to highschool, was wearing the same thing.

Weird, eh? Now if that's not a dream detailing my anxiety about the cubs growing up and moving away from me I don't know what else it could be!

~=o>
And now some adorableness...



~=o>

Forecast: 14-24°
Attained: 15-20°

The phrase 'Wouldn't say boo to a goose...' means that someone is timid, meek.
They're sensible, I say. Gooses are vicious; look at them the wrong way and they'll 'ave you! There's a reason they're used as guard dogs...
When I were a wee lass, living in England, Mum took me to visit a farm. I think we were there to pick up some goose feathers for my Red Indian Amerindian headdress*. Anyway, I refused to get out of the car cos the resident geese scared me. They were almost as big as my five year old self, for a start, and there were a lot of them (in my memory the menacing flock counted in the dozens but it was probably less than that.) So I stayed in the car, keeping a wary eye on these huge birds and anxiously waiting for Mum to return.

(* I loved that headdress. Mum sewed the feathers to a long piece of fabric braid. Sort of like this:



(Image nicked from here.)

Toby, the boy next door, and I played 'Indians' for hours amongst his family's gooseberry bushes - bonus snacks! I had the headdress, he had the bow and arrows, it was perfect. :)
Unfortunately, the headdress was one of the things that didn't come out to Australia with me. Not sure what happened to it, but I do remember missing it. Perhaps it was falling apart and had been tactfully removed when I hadn't been paying attention. Or, possibly it couldn't have come with us cos of quarantine restrictions. I wonder if there's a photo of me wearing it? I haven't looked through all the old family photos yet, hm...)

~=o>

Forecast: 2-26°
Attained: 20-23°

Woohoo! Windy and rainy today!

~=o>
Interesting...



One of the comments made me giggle:

"Yer a wizard, warlike Harry."

~=o>

Forecast: 13-29°
Attained: 13-28°

As neither their dad or I could make it this afternoon, the cubs took themselves off to the P/T interviews.
I asked them if they felt more relaxed without us there; unsurprisingly the answer was 'yes'. :)

~=o>
I'm gamely resisting counting down the days 'til wootholidays, but not successfully. Five working days! [bounce]

~=o>

Forecast: 11-25°
Attained: 12-23°

So there I was last night, happily asleep, when I was suddenly woken by the thumping arounds of cubs.
1.30am
I growled at them via text cos a: they'd woken me up, and b: what were they doing still awake at 1.30am! (That they managed to get to school on time is impressive, however.)

Very not happy, cos of course it took me ages to get back to sleep.

~=o>


Never underestimate the innate nobility of gooses.

~=o>

Forecast: 13-21°
Attained: 13-21°

... when I have an idea about something to blog about I really should write it down.

~=o>
Oh, I remember!
Cubs have got parent/teacher interviews this week but cos of the work-to-rule restrictions the only times available to book are between 2.30-4.30 pm which means because of work I won't be able to go. [sigh] I guess this is why the note this time didn't mention anything about mandatory attendance. Anyway, I've asked the cubs to organise their own interviews and we can discuss them when I get home. Their interim reports are ok, the usual smattering of 'needs attention' in regards to homework amongst the otherwise good stuff.

~=o>
And yes! I'm only rostered on for the one day I requested over the Easter slow week. Mwhahahahaha! Sleeeeeeep innns, precious!

~=o>

Forecast: 13-20°
Attained: 12-20°

Cubs have realised they've only got a few weeks before the convention in Sydney they're planning to attend. :) Cue frantic checking of hotels/travl arrangements/finances...

~=o>
[giggling]



~=o>

Forecast: 16-22°
Attained: 17-23°

Yay, rain! It's been weeks...

~=o>
I refuse to feel guilty about not answering the door. Everyone I want to speak to will either ring first or has a key. Anyone else is likely to want to talk to me about religion, be looking for a donation or want to convince me to change my electricity supplier. Pfft.
Oh, and there's the kids from over the back fence, looking for lost balls, but they have tactit permission to go look for them without asking first anyway.

~=o>

Forecast: 15-26°
Attained: 18-23°

Yeah, well, I was going to do stuff this evening, but you know...



~=o>

Forecast: 15-25°
Attained: 16-24°

I love this!
Alas, no eyetoons munny until after the rent's paid...



Boom! Clap! Boomboomboom clap! :)

~=o>

Forecaste: 24-29°
Attained: 27-26°

Temperature hovered around 27°* for most of the night, dipping down a few degrees about 10am then climbing back up to 26° later in the day.
Sooo much better though than the past nine days. I may actually sleep tonight...

[* That was outside. It was 32° in my room when I went to bed.


(Happy cuddly cat is happy to cuddle now that the temps gone down. There's not a lot of that goes on when it's hot. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 24-37°
Attained: 24-36°

Happy birthday to me! :)

The cubs had made a lovely card and their dad turned up this evening with cake!



And, there's a cool change on the way, apparently.

~=o>

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUTRA!!

Forecast: 21-36°
Attained: 21-36°

Penny and I went for a birthday drive today! (My birthday's tomorrow; her's is on Thursday). Loads of fun.
Up to the Patchwork Teahouse for great scones and gooooood coffee, omgsrsly good coffee, then a happy browse of the fabrics. So much pretty, pretty stuff!
We dropped in to the Warratina Lavendar Farm on the way back. The iced coffees were acceptable but unfortunately it took a while to be served, due to a combination of a busy day and new staff being trained.

Got home about 3pm then flaked out cos it was hot. Was a good day :)

~=o>

Forecast: 22-32°
Attained: 23-35°

Cubs and I went to see Branagh's Hamlet this afternoon, all 4 and a bit hours of it. :)
Oh dear. I seem to have rekindled my uniform fetish...

~=o>
Paolo, with moderate-sized cat for comparison.



~=o>

Forecast: 22-34°
Attained: 24-35°

... six days of 30+ temps so far. My inner monologue at the moment is made up of mainly whining and swearing. Only four more days of this...

~=o>
Popped up to see soulsis et al this afternoon! We grazed on cheeses and dips and crackers and lollies, mwahahaha, and watched Harvey and Dr Doolittle (the original).
And, I got a present...!

He shall be called Paolo



He is a magnificent brute.
(Better pics tomorrow, when there's daylight. :)

Thanks, soulsis! [bouncing]

~=o

Forecast: 21-32°
Attained: 21-33°

Wow, there's been times I've never thought this day would actually get here...

When the cubs were but wee (adorable) babies their father and I had the good fortune to be talked in to setting up ASG education scholarships for them. The monthly contributions were sometimes hard to manage but we - mostly me - kept them going. I have to admit, the secondary school payouts have been a bloody godsend. Things would've been much, much harder financially without them.
But! The tertiary part of the scheme has finally matured, which means no more monthly contributions! This is a good thing, they were a sizeable chunk of my income. Now, all being well, the cubs will have a small monthly payment to help out when they're at Uni.

~=o>

Forecast 6th March: 19-33°
Attained: 19-33°

Forecast: 22-33°
Attained: 22-35°

Yay! We are required to have a 'go slow' the week after Easter! Only one person rostered for the major campuses that week. I'll be volunteering to go in on the Tuesday. Purely mercernary, that's the only day that won't be covered by holiday leave.

~=o>
Ah, I laughed so hard... :)




~=o>

Forecast: 19-32°
Attained: 19-33°

Hee, Branagh's Hamlet is coming up this weekend at the Astor. Just in time for my birthday!



~=o>

Forecast: 16-31°
Attained: 15-32°

[sigh] Another week's worth of 30+° forecast, but hopefully that'll be the end of it and we can start the slide in to what passes for winter here. :)

~=o>
There's a chance the library may have to close over the Easter break, as part of the health service's budgetary measures. I'm kinda hoping we do, actually, even though the boss is resisting. Feeling the need for a break...

~=o>

Forecast: 15-29°
Attained: 14- ... hm, there's been no Melbourne BOM update since 6.30 this morning. Melb airport readings say it got up to around 28°. Felt like it was at least that here.

I picked up a copy of Anna Karenina (yay, ebooks for instant gratification!). Up to chapter 7 so far and I've already had a few 'oh, so that's what that was about!' moments in regards to the movie. I can also see where there's been cuts and how some dialogue has been shifted to different characters. Fairly standard stuff when it comes to movie adaptations of books, but interesting to see nonetheless.

~=o>
Speaking of adapting books, the cubs - one of them at least - has expressed an interest in doing a creative writing degree! I've checked out the course details and it looks like heaps of fun, and quite useful. There's a lot covered in three years - fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, advertising, journalism etc. I think it's an excellent idea, but they (he) will need to have excellent marks in English, and a portfolio of sorts. Will keep reminding them of this throughout the year. :)

~=o>
Just for interests sake, let's list what I'm currently reading, distinct from what I've started reading but put aside for the moment.

(Careful, these links are pretty spoilery.)

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Faceless killers - Henning Mankel
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (see above)
Black Wings has my angel - Elliott Chaze

Hm, that's quite a high proportion of non-English authors than usual, for me.

~=o>

Forecast: 14-27°
Attained: 15-26°

I went to see Anna Karenina this evening. There's a lot of hate for this movie but I loved it! Visually it was stunning, the blend of theatre/reality was fabulous, and Bill Weasley Domhnall Gleeson can certainly act. :) There was a lot of extremely good performances from lots of people I recognised.
I may have to read the book now, though. Oh alas...!

~=o>

Forecast: 14-24°
Attained: 15-24°

Weird dream last night. I was at a very rural, quite dilapidated hospital, waiting to start treatment for cancer. I asked the nurse when was I going to start feeling like shit. My support person alternated between my brother and the cubs' dad.
Mind you, this was after waking up in the middle of the night and not being to go back to sleep for ages. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 16-20°
Attained: 14-21°

Every day this week has felt like a thursday, except for today - thursday - which has felt like a friday.

~=o>
I'm not sure if I'm actually adjusting to my new glasses or if they're just pissing me off less.

~=o>
On the way to work this morning I saw people bundled up in coats and scarves, for heaven's sake. It was 16°, not 6, sheesh.

~=o>
(By way of soulsis, on FB..)




~=o>

Forecast: 20-26°
Attained: 22-27°

More rain today - yay! - and a little less steamy.
It's finally cool enough that cuddly cat can actually cuddle. We do miss our cuddles when it's hot... :)

~=o>
There was a cricket waiting for me in the kitchen sink this morning. Daft thing. If I hadn't seen it it would've been squashed under plates, or washed down the drain.




... it was actually bigger than it looks.

~=o>

Forecast (25/2): 22-30°
Attained: 22-28°

Forecast (26/2): 20-27°
Attained: 17-27°



Happy birthday, Joules!



(Transformers birthday card by silverwolf05 on DA)




(Did we ever work out who this was...?)

~=o>

So, this is me, sitting in my car this morning before work, around 7.45 am, being very reluctant to get out cos it was raining heavily.



I had an umbrella, yes, but it's not especially big. Works well enough for quick dashes between buildings etc, but not for 10 minute walks through parks. A third of me was wringing wet when I got in to work. Fortunately I always get in early so I was able to spend 20 minutes in the loos trying to dispel the worst of the water from my shirt with the hand dryers. It wasn't a comfortable start to the day.
(Oh yes, and then there was the lightning, very close, and me scuttling through the park while trying to stay close to anything metal I could find! Good times. ;)

And then the temperature rose during the day so it all got niiiiiiice and steamy. Bleurgh.

~=o>

Forecast: 21-32°
Attained: 20-34°

All the various online bookstores I frequent generally have a 'bargains' section. Currently most of these sections have a high proportion of paranormal fantasy and (het) erotica titles. I don't often find anything interesting there. :)

~=o>
This isn't for sale apparently.
The teasers!



(There's some very interesting things on this site...)

~=o>

Forecast: 21-33°
Attained: 21-32°

The Cubs' school camp happened very early this year, basically their second week back. It was supposed to be two days - with an overnight stay - at a local university, to get a taste of tertiary life and learn some stuff about good study habits. It ended up just being two days, with no overnighters, because of work-to-rule actions by teachers.
Unfortunately the industrial action will impact on other school activities, too. Both cubs are in a production of 'Twelve Angry Men' - they're studying the book this year - but because of the work-to-rule the cast can't rehearse outside of school hours, and it looks like they'll only be able to perform during school hours as well.

Despite the inconveniences I still support the teacher's union actions. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 20-31°
Attained: 21-32°

Kitty really wants in... :)



~=o>

Forecast: 18-30°
Attained: 18-32°

...
Nope. I got nuthin'
:)

~=o>

Forecast: 15-27°
Attained: 16-29°

One of my work chums attended a big library conference in Brisbane last week. She brought back stuff!

All of the staff monitors now have their very own LGFT. :) (Little green fuzzy thing.) Green, and sparkly!




As always there'd been plenty of free goodies given out at the trade displays. I rummaged in the free-for-all bag and picked up some rad postcards, a little jar of mints, and this:

1GB usb.
No idea what the rational was for it being surrounded by liquid. Other than looking neat, I guess...



~=o>

Forecast: 20-24°
Attained: ... um.

At midnight it was 29°. When I got up, around 6.30am, it was 21°. From there it dropped to 19-20° and has sort of lurked there for most of the day. It's only just now dropping further.

~=o>
Because it was going to be an all hands on deck kind of day at the main campus, the boss had asked me to proxy for her today at the department heads meeting at the secondary campus. Outwardly I was all calm professionalism - sure, no problem - but inwardly I was flapping a bit. I didn't have to do anything other than attend, look attentive and take notes but still, these are managers an' shit!
Not surprisingly it was all fine even if it was a little weird sharing oxygen with a dozen or so people whose pay scales are way way above mine. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 23-35°
Attained: 21-36°

A minor quibble but one of the things I dislike most about a string of hot days is the low-level headaches I get from lack of sleep.
Oh well, tomorrow is forecast to be milder - hopefully that'll help.

The back lawn. Quite brown. Don't be fooled by the green bits, that's couch grass (pronounced cooch), which is almost cockroach like in its ability to survive adversity. To whit, it's been at least ten days since the last drop of rain we had, and the previous shower was a month or so before that.



~=o>

Forecast: 21-34°
Attained: 20-35°

Cubs and I went to see Hansel & Gretel (3D) this afternoon. It was way more violent than I expected, and cos of the 3D there was a lot of icky stuff hitting the screen and making me wince. Still, the story was quite good, the costuming was excellent and Mr Renner has very pretty eyes.



(Image nicked from Google and cropped.)

~=o>

Forecast: 20-33°
Attained: 20-34°

I watched The Avengers this afternoon.



Happy now.

~=o>

Forecast: 20-31°
Attained: 20-31°

After work this evening I went to see the movie remake of The Sweeney. Really enjoyed it. I laughed and laughed! I even laughed at the bits that were sposed to be funny. :) Chee-hee-hee-sy fun, with lots of 'leave it aht, guv' dialogue in the first twenty minutes so you knew exactly who/what/where you were - y'know, London, with the hard men - and women - of the Met's Flying Squad. (Go look it up.)
Aside from that it also had some glorious aerial shots of London, and the best, most visceral car chase I've seen in a long time. Now that was ride! It also had a dub-step remix of the original theme in the closing credits, which I could've lived without but, eh...

(I was listening to Ben Drew (as George Carter) speak and thought 'hang on, I know that voice, that's Plan B, innit!' And I was right. :)
Also, whoever did Damian Lewis' (as Haskins) make-up should be knee-capped. It was terribly obvious: dark mascara on the upper lashes, none on the bottom, and pale pink lipstick. [sigh] Though I may not have noticed if I hadn't been wearing my new glasses...

Also also saw a preview for a new Arnie movie, The Last Stand. Didn't pay much attention until I recognised some of the locations from the Thor movie! Interesting that Jaimie Alexander is also in it? [She was Sif, in Thor, and she's got the same birthday as me!].)

Ok, done burbling. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 20-31°
Attained: 19-33°

[sigh] Two days in a row of above 30° and another four forecast. This is really not my fav time of the year...

~=o>
Had a preview today of The Astor's upcoming calendar. Avengers isn't showing. [wibble]

~=o>
Enough whinging. It's clearly time for a duck!



~=o>

Forecast: 16-30°
Attained: 16-33°

Coming to Melbourne Museum in November!

Designing 007 – Fifty Years of Bond Style

"Designing 007 – Fifty Years of Bond Style presents the craft behind the icon, focusing on the distinctly British luxuriance of the world's most iconic movie brand. As the world’s longest running and most successful film franchise, this exhibition looks at Bond’s influence on art, music, lifestyle, automotive design, travel, technology and fashion over the course of five decades..."

I told the cub studying design about this and he said, and I quote, "You had me at 'design'..." :)

~=o>
My 'phone's current wallpaper. Hee.



~=o>

Forecast: 15-27°
Attained: 16-25°

One of our library volunteers has finally retired due to ill-health (she was in her nineties!) She was essentially our archivist, looking after historical documents that go back to the founding of the hospital in the 1940's. Most of the stuff she was curating had been rescued when departments closed down/shifted location and were chucking out the unimportant stuff...
([taking a deep breath] Sorry, that sort of thing still makes me cross.)
... and room was found in the library.
Anyway, long story short, I've told the boss that I'm interested in taking over the archive. It'll be a volunteer positon and outside of my working hours, probably 2-4 hours a month.
I'm quietly excited about this: my main motivation for going in to the library industry was for the archival aspects. :)

~=o>
Currently my favourite song!
Bouncy yet deep. :)



~=o>

Forecast: 14-26°
Attained: 16-25°

Hee, Cubs are planning on going to PonyConAu in Sydney in April! I'm very excited for them and offered to chip in for transportation costs. :D

~=o>
Frankly, I don't know where to start with this clip. Love the song though...



~=o>

Forecast: 17-23°
Attained: 16-23°

I'm getting more culture. Yes, indeed.

Hollow Crown: Henry IV Pt. 2.

~=o>
New glasses. Still annoying, but I was able to wear them for a bit longer today. :)

~=o>
Napping this afternoon I had a really neat dream. :)
Was travelling - again, it happens a lot - I think on a ferry? Anyway, I looked up at the sky and saw a series of unicorn head shaped clouds, all in a row! Wow! They were identical and I realised they weren't cloud shapes, as such, but shadows of something big - which I think actually was a large cruise ship - projected on to the clouds.
Unfortunately, I had trouble getting my 'phone out of my pocket, and then it wouldn't focus, so by the time I managed to snap off a couple of pic we'd travelled past the best view...

~=o>

Forecast: 18-30°
Attained: 17-30°

Oops, almost forgot to do an update again.
I've been a little distracted...

Hollow Crown: Henry IV pt. 1.

Oh, and happy birthday, Mr Hiddles. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 18-31°
Attained: 18-29°

Dang, I think I was spoilt over the cubs' summer hols by them spending most weekends at their dad's. :)

~=o>
I picked up my new glasses today. The multifocal lenses weren't so much disorienting as annoying. There only seems to be a very narrow band that's in focus at any given time. Eh, I've only been wearing them a few hours I'm sure I'll adjust.

~=o>

Forecast: 20-33°
Attained: 20-30°

Getting ready for work early yesterday morning I looked out of the kitchen window and saw hot air baloons! Yay, hot air balloons, the traditional harbingers of autumn... :)

~=o>
Have you heard this stupid story from the US?

A dog in Tennessee is scheduled to die today, after his owner abandoned him after deciding that the canine was gay. The dog's original master noticed him 'hunched over' another male dog, which made him think that the dog was homosexual. The pitbull is currently at a shelter in Jackson awaiting his fate, but he is set to be put down at 1 p.m. unless a new owner can be found.

(Quote lifted from here.)

Anyway, last year there was this beautiful song from Macklemore called Same Love.
Makes me wibble...



So, some of the socially conscious peeps at triple J decided to put together a tribute/protest song for the dog.

Same Love: Doggy Style



[giggling]
"Have you seen that weird, gay ratdog...?!"

~=o>

Forecast: 17-37°
Attained: 16-37°

Today's google doodle was commemorating archeao/anthropologist Mary Leakey.
Fascinating woman but there was a line in her wikipedia entry that made me giggle.

"[After having been expelled from two Catholic convent schools for not really giving a shit:] After the second expulsion her mother hired two tutors, who were no more successful than the nuns, and mother and daughter visited Stonehenge..."

Now, I know wikipedia likes to keep the entries concise and lose any extraneous material but that sentence is just weird. Did they go to Stonehenge because the tutors didn't help...? :)

~=o>

Forecast: 15-24°
Attained: 17-22°

Holidays are over, schools have gone back - thought I - the schools' book shop should be empty! I should be out of there in no time...!

No.
Full of parents doing last minute buying, putting in late orders, arguing with the staff about why they can't pick up their late orders now because they put them in at least a week ago...
[headdesk].
I managed to get out with my good humour more or less intact. :)

~=o>
KittenKong was most put out when I nudged her off the keyboard.

On the plus side, I've reorganised the kitchen a little bit so I can actually plug in the laptop and work comfortably at the kitchen table. Woot. :)

~=o>

Forecast 2/02: 13-21°
Attained: 14-21°

Forecast 3/02: 16-22°
Attained: 16-25°

Didn't do an update yesterday cos of distractions...

~=o>
Apparently my life is binary: I am either writing, or doing other stuff. I can't squeeze in a few minutes of writing here and there - aside from jotting notes. I need to work in solid blocks of time or it's a wasted, frustrated exercise.
So, if I want to write, other stuff has to give way. But then, honestly, I've known this for a very long time... :)

~=o>
So true...

(Nicked from FB. Click on it for a larger image.)

~=o>

Forecast: 14-19°
Attained: 12-21°

I've probly jinxed it now but I realised I haven't really had a nasty cold for over a year. It could be because I'm eating better, or I'm generally less stressed than I have been for years. It could also be because I haven't used public transport for ages, nor am I sharing my breathing space with someone who works on a respiratory ward. I don't think those factors can be discounted. :)

~=o>
First week back at school and the cubs have been in on time everyday. At least, I assume they have, I haven't received any 'omg, ur childz r l8!' messages.

~=o>

Forecast: 16-27°
Attained: 16-24°

Suddenly, winter!

Sort of. :) It's not actually cold enough for slippers. That won't happen for weeks yet.
Mind you, it's good to have a decent amount of rain, enough that it washes the dust off my car instead of just turning it to mud. (Possibly an insensitive comment given the flooding etc up North.)

~=o>

Forecast: 13-26°
Attained: 12-28°

As it was their first day back today I offered the cubs a lift to school. The catch was they had to be ready around 8am cos I still had to go to work. They declined, and managed to get themselves in on time on their own anyway. :)

~=o>
Misread yesterday from something vaguely inspirational/aspirational about personal management/getting ahead in life.

"Organize and execute pound puppies..."

[snicker] The actual quote was:

"Organize and execute around priorities..."*

[*Googling the phrase brings up sites refering to '7 Habits of highly effective people', by Stephen Covey. [shrug] I wasn't paying that much attention until I was directed to execute the puppies...

~=o>

Forecast: 16-20°
Attained: 15-21°

Heh, cubs are back to school tomorrow, starting Year 12.
Are they ready? Dunno, I've mostly left it up to them to get themselves sorted out. So if they don't have clean uniforms, or their lunches made, or their bags packed, that's their problem...
Mean mum? Perhaps, but they're not going to learn to look after themselves if I do everything for them. My job as a parent is to teach them how to do without me! :)

~=o>

Forecast: 14-24°
Attained: 16-24°

New radio. Digital, though it's also able to pick up regular AM/FM. :)
Interesting, this thing about making new tech look old.

The dial is purely decorative, alas, but it does look kinda cool. I remember my grandparents having radios with tuners just like this.

This purchase was pure indulgence, admittedly. I'm replacing an old radio/cd player that still works perfectly well, though the new one takes up much less space.
(I'm also getting rid of the toaster - hardly ever use it - and contemplating getting rid of the microwave. Probly not yet, the cubs use it a fair bit. Eh, if it's still functioning if/when they move out they can have it. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 15-22°
Attained: 15-23°

Cubs and I went to Sarah's 17th birthday party today: cubs as guests, me as primarily support for Penny. :)
Was a lovely day for it, too. Not hot, and not rainy.
Sooo much food...

Pics!

Rainbow themed!

Aftermath of the cake cutting...
(Cake was very nom.)

Mixed signals from a cat.

:)

~=o>

Forecast: 15-23°
Attained: 16-21°

Oztraya Day!

I celebrated by eating lamingtons and listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 Countdown. :) Over 1.5 million votes registered this year, woohoo!

Of the ten tracks I voted for, five were in the countdown, with another eleven - from my 'short list' of 40ish - also making an appearance.

In no surprise to anyone, Macklemore's Thrift Shop was No. 1.



~=o>
This is the reason I don't chase some spiders out of the house...

(Hah hah! Take that, wasp!)

~=o>

Forecast: 26-31°
Attained: 26-31°

I have a list of biggish things-to-get-off-my-arse-and-do this year; one of them is to get my eyes checked again. It's been four years.

So, did that this afternoon after work. I knew there'd been changes in my eyesight, but still...
I'm long-sighted, which means I've needed glasses for close-up stuff, but my long-sight has deteriorated too. I can still see fairly well but it's been getting harder to focus on things like street signs. Interestingly, the prescription I had for reading is now juuuust about right to correct the deficiencies in my long-sight, which explains why my glasses have been comfortable to wear around in general, but not so useful anymore for close work. Heh.

Long story short: I'll be wearing glasses full time. I will in fact be getting... multifocals. [dramatic chord]
When I heard that my heart gave a little thump cos multifocals is one of those things I've always associated with old people, like my mother. :)

I've picked out some nice frames - pale pink and fairly subtle. I did try some bolder colours but as soon as I saw the pinkies I squeaked, and that was that. I'll be able to pay them off, too, which is a good thing cos damn, having no private health cover makes it awkward.

(The optometrist discovered a couple of potential problems, specifically, there's a smidge of an inkling of a foreshadowing of possible glaucoma. Perhaps. A little more in-depth testing will be carried out soonish.)

~=o>
One of my favourite Umbilical Brothers sketches...




Of course, it's completely ruined Pachelbel's Canon for me. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 15-36°
Attained: 15-36°

I found this on the floor of the library this morning. I suspect some doctor is missing their adorable sleep mask...

It was a bit weird going in to work this morning. I was at one of the outer campuses, and I was driving in to a pall of smoke. Fires in Gippsland, apparently, which is way east of where we were but the smoke drifted...

~=o>

Forecast: 16-26°
Attained: 17-23°

Hm, it only got to 23° today. Felt hotter. Perhaps it was me...?

~=o>
No invertebrate life and death dramas being played out in the kitchen today, for which I am grateful.

~=o>
Cubs and I watched Brave this evening so now of course my inner voice sounds vaguely Scottish... :)
(Excellent movie, btw. I laughed, I cried, I meeped.)

~=o>

Forecast: 17-25°
Attained: 18-25°

Life and Death in the Kitchen...!

So there I was, doing the washing up, minding my own business, when I see one of the huge orangey Australian wasps dragging an almost full grown, paralysed huntsman spider up the kitchen window. (On the outside, fortunately.)
Fascinated yet repelled I wasn't quick enough to grab my 'phone and take a pic but that wasn't a problem cos the spider was obviously heavy and the wasp dropped it - I heard the thump! - only to struggle up the window again a couple of minutes later.
That's when I got the pics.

For size comparison, the wasp's body is over an inch long (about 3ish cm).*

The wasp dropped the spider about seven times in all, and I mused that it was going to be mush by the time she got it back to her nest.
Anyway, next thing I'm watching the wasp drag the spider inside. Squeaking ensued (from me, duh) but they dropped behind the freezer and didn't reappear. There was a good chance they'd fallen foul of the daddy long legs that live down there and I thought no more of it...

Until half an hour later when the wasp was flying around the house, freaking us all out. No spider in sight but one of the cubs casually mentioned he'd seen a huntsman in front of the toilet. Feeling very brave I took a peek - yep, paralysed spider sprawled on the floor, wacko - then made asked the cub to take it outside for me.

And then a bastard European wasp came inside to check out the kitchen. These things really bother me, but I managed to catch it, more by accident than design, yay for almost empty icecream containers. That went straight in to the freezer, where it could expire relatively peacefully without sending up a distress signal to the rest of the hive. [shudder]

[*I did try to find out what sort it was but the stuff on google images was making me twitchy so I stopped. :) ]

~=o>

Forecast: 15-29°
Attained: 17-24°

Cubs and I went to see the rerelease Monster Inc 3D this evening. The 3D made the backgrounds really stand out this time and the door chase scene is just wow. :)

Bonus: I was entitled to a free ticket for renewing my movie card membership plus, I'd racked up enough points on the card to get a second ticket free!

~=o>
Earlier today I took the cubs shopping for their back-to-school stationery. Went smoothly: the cubs had worked out their own lists, and picked up their own bits and bobs so all I had to do was fork out the money, the place wasn't too crowded and there was Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing. All good. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 14-26°
Attained: 15-24°

Heh, I've been using the momentum left over from the inspection cleaning to Get Things Done. :) It should last about a week, or until the next stupid hot day.

~=o>
Just cos. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 16-22°
Attained: 17-23°

I am re-enamoured of my recently dusted shinies.

Yay, dusting... :)

~=o>

Forecast: 25-29°
Attained: 26-30°

(It got down to 26° last night at 2am. By 5am it was back up to 30°, but from there the temperature steadily fell throughout the day. Much nicer...)

Yesterday when I got home from work, I opened the front door and felt a wash of cool air. Sure it was 30° inside, but that was 10° cooler than outside.
Tonight when I came home I opened the door and felt a wash of hot air. 22° outside but still almost 30° inside.
Not complaining, just commenting. :)

~=o>
I've been watching some of Justified, season 2. Consequently my inner voice has a bit of a Kentucky drawl goin' on. :)

~=o>
Rubbish picture of moth inside the loos at work today. (It's a Southern Old Lady moth, apparently.) Had about a 4 inch wingspan, quite large.

No, I didn't rescue it, because I am a bad person.

~=o>

Forecast: 17-39°
Attained: 16-40°

... 16° to effing 40°...

So!
Inspection came and went and all's well. Even though the cubs had to drag themselves out of bed at a ludicrously early hour - 8.30am - to be ready. :)
Well, one of the cubs did, the other was still asleep when the agent arrived and barely stirred, apparently, when agenty person glanced in to his room. (I hasten to add, this was done with his permission. His brother asked him and got a grunt of acknowledgment.)

Cubs and I went to the Piggy Place for dinner, to celebrate, then we came home and watched Captain America. Yay! I finally got to see it! Thoroughly enjoyed it, too. :)
(Oh, Hugo, you am awesome...)

~=o>

Forecast: 15-26°
Attained: 15-25°

Welp, the house is as ready as we can be bothered make it. Just a smidge of tidying up before I go to bed and I. Am. Done.
There's a bottle of cider left over from NYE: I contemplated having it tonight but think I'll wait until tomorrow. The forecast is for stupid hot so I'll probly need it more.

~=o>
Hey look, I got a double-yolker today! Been years since the last...

~=o>

Forecast: 12-29°
Attained: 13-26°

Kitchen's sorted (omg, there's a table!) and I'll wash the floors tomorrow night.
Cubs have been very helpful though they still have a fair wack to do. Eh, doesnae matter: the house is presentable enough as it stands, what's remaining is cosmetic fixes.

~=o>
This has got a squillion hits cos it's apparently connected to Assassin's Creed, or something, but I'm bowled over by the visuals. Song's growing on me, too. :)




Annoyingly, the track isn't available in Oztraya. Hmph.

~=o>

Forecast: 14-23°
Attained: 14-21°

Took one of the cubs to the dentist today for his first filling. He said yes when I offered to sit in with him. :) It's only slightly less traumatic being in the same room watching someone having a filling than having a filling yourself. Spent most of the time with a reassuring look on my face, and fluttery anxiety high in my chest. But, it was over quickly then we went and had milkshakes.

~=o>
Spent the afternoon tidying my room. Little bit of rubbish, and more stuff for the op shops. The cubs, on the other hand, turfed out huge amounts of junk from their rooms while tidying up. [scowl] If they'd picked up the rubbish in the their rooms everytime I suggested it (and I do, regularly) it wouldn't be this bad.
Pfft, yeah, I can talk. :)

Next biggish thing to sort is the kitchen, but that should only take a couple of hours, can do that tomorrow after work.

~=o>
German electro-goth, with visuals from various Vampire animes. (They're listed in the credits on the youtube page.) It's a good match.



~=o>

Forecast: 16-20°
Attained: 16-21°

Got a rental inspection later this week so spent a few hours today blitzing the lounge room. Looks much better now.

This is the sewing/spare desk. You can almost see the desk top! Considering it was piled 3 feet high this is definitely an improvement.

Also managed to sort out more stuff for the op shop, stuff that I've been hanging on to for spurious reasons. Is good. :)

I'll need to do the same with my bedroom tomorrow on my day off but the rest of the house won't take long.
And then there's the cubs' rooms. Again. Doesn't help that they've been at their dad's all weekend, but they're home now and know what's got to be done. :)

~=o>
Poking about on IMDB today, as one does, I discovered that Mr Hiddleston is slated to play the lead in the film 'Black Wings has my Angel', based on a 1950's crime novel by Elliot Chaze.
Being an obsessive sort I immediately went in search of the book and found an ebook version on Google Play. It was only $1, of course I bought it! Unfortunately, it's scanned-page rather than flowing text so it's awkward to read - a little bit of the text is missing down the side of each page - but not impossible. Even with the few pages I've struggled through I have to say that I'm impressed; the writing is excellent. I may have to see about getting a print copy cos I think this is going to be one that I want to keep.
But anyway, I can absolutely see Mr Hiddleston as Tim Sunblade. Now I just have to exercise patience and wait.
[fidgets]

~=o>

Forecast: 17-24°
Attained: °

Penny and I went to see The Hobbit this afternoon.
Second time around it was just as exciting plus I was able to pick out more details, like the texture of Gandalf's cloak, and his faaaabulous silvery scarf! Also, there was Bilbo's adorable patchwork dressing gown and his lovely waistcoats. :)
You can say what you like about the elves - I do! - but they use the best fabrics, and goodness, weren't Saruman's robes rich yet understated, the show off. Hmph.

~=o>
I don't have many love songs* in my music but this is currently on high rotation. I sing along with it, especially when I'm driving; it makes me smile.



[* Of the 700+ songs on my 'phone there is 28 in the 'Torture' playlist. :) ]

~=o>

Forecast: 19-37°
Attained: 19-38°

The thing is progressing. :)

~=o>
I had planned on doing useful stuff online tonight but somehow wandered in to the Tom Hiddleston tag...
2 hours later.
And now I have to go to bed.

~=o>

Forecast: 12-26°
Attained: 15-25°

Patience... :)



~=o>
Dammit, Snape's birthday was yesterday!
Happy birthday, Sevvie! [wondering if it's possible to duck an Avada Kedavra...]

~=o>

Forecast: 13-20°
Attained: 13-20°

From 30+° to cold and rainy. Yay, Melbourne :)

~=o>
Hee, helped with the new interns' race around the hospital today. Didn't actully involve much, just sitting in a room with one of my colleagues and giving a short spiel about the library to each group that came in before directing them to their task of interpreting ECGs. When the group was finished, we stamped their 'passport', gave them a mark, and sent them on their way...

~=o>
Odd and weirdly pointless but it's beautifully atmospheric, and the horse is pretty.




~=o>

Forecast: 18-31°
Attained: 19-30°

Made it through my first day back at work, getting there early on top of a patchy night's sleep. :) However, new year, new batch of interns. I spent a few hours this morning processing registrations.

...

Why can these people not write clearly?!
By the time I'd reached the end of the pile I wanted to scratch my eyes out after repeatedly trying to decipher some of the archaic scrawls. 'Is that an S, or a J? 5...?' [sob] Anyway, mostly done now, just have to brace myself for the med student registrations in a couple of weeks...

~=o>
ROFL! This is gorgeous...



~=o>

Forecast: 17-32°
Attained: 16-30°

Cos I'm going back to work tomorrow - back to early starts - I had planned on getting up relatively early on this, my last day of holiday, to sort of ease myself in to it.
Pfft.
Slept through the alarm and eventually dragged myself out of bed at 11 a.m. [sigh]
Oh well, we who are resigned to using the horrible secondary alarm for the next few days, salute you...

~=o>
Instead of dropping the cubs' booklists off at school this year, we were given the option of taking them directly to the book supplier. Finally got 'round to doing that today. There were a couple of minor hitches, though. First, was learning that the orders will be ready to be picked up the day before the cubs go back to school. Fair enough, that could've been my fault for not getting the lists in earlier, or not, I really don't know what the policy was. In previous years we had to pick the orders up from the school quite late in the hols so...
Second, they needed credit card details, or a cash deposit. [sigh] I don't have a credit card and didn't think to ring and check for any peculiarities beforehand because everyone uses EFTPOS, right? [grump]
True, I could've trekked all the way back to the shopping suburb to get some cash, but was mighty reluctant to do so as I'd just come from there, and it was sodding hot again today and I just wanted the day to end. However, book supplier was happy for me to leave the lists with them and I'll go in on Saturday and hand over the deposit. I didn't have to eviscerate anyone with my teeth, or burst in to tears. It could've gone either way today.

~=o>
I started a thing today! One of the crafty things on one of my abundance of lists.

This was four hours worth of work, with a ridiculous proportion of that time going in to threading the needle and finding the holes in the canvas. [sigh] Really need to get my eyes checked again.
But! It was an entertaining four hours cos I was watching episodes of Rome at the time. :)

~=o>

Forecast: 17-29°
Attained: 17-25°

The next door neighbour's dog seems to spend a lot of time barking at my cat. Of course I suspect that KittenKong, being a cat, is something of a cow to this dog and lolls about near the fence, teasing it.

This afternoon there was the usual barking, and then a screaming yelp that sounded like the dog was being knifed. I glanced outside and saw the cat puffed up but relatively unconcerned - the dog had taken off - so concluded that dog must've stuck its nose through a hole in the fence and been given a swipe. Perhaps now it will know not to bother with the cat. :)

~=o>
Not all that fond of dogs, to be honest, but how can you not smile at such exuberance.



~=o>

Forecast: 20-25°
Attained: 20-25°

Gah! I'm back to work on Tuesday! Has been a good break though :)

~=o>
A couple of different takes on iconic pop songs.
First, from Joules, a Swedish Goth Metal band does ABBA.





And now a balladic version of KISS from a pair of Australian singers.



~=o>

Forecast: 23-41°
Attained: 24-41°

OMFG at 11pm it's 35° inside the house. It's also 35° outside the house. One of these days I'm going to live in a house that can be heated/cooled adequately without racking up the equivalent expenditure in energy as rent. [grump] (Though to be fair, these ludicrously hot days are not common, they just feel interminable while they're here...)

In other news...!
Cubs and I took their dad to see Raiders of the Lost Ark at the Astor this evening. Hee, it's still such a fun movie and I'm very glad the cubs got to see it on the big screen.
Would anyone be surprised to know that I was quoting along with the script, and sound effects, in my head while I was watching the movie? Anyone? No, didn't think so. :)

~=o>
Found on Joules' favs list. A slinky on a treadmill. For 3 and a bit minutes. I couldn't look away...




~=o>

Forecast 2/1: 16-24°
Attained: 15-22°

Forecast 3/1: 14-36
Attained: 14-37

(Forgot to post yesterday. Too distracted by tumblr and AO3...)

So, today!
Prised Lured the cubs out of the house today with the promise of new phones. :) They've been sharing one for several years but they're big boys now and can have one each, especially since we were able to spread the monthly cap from their single phone between two. They've happily spent the afternoon customising their new toys.

~=o>
The song is cute but the extras in the video clip should have been more closely supervised!



~=o>
This is the super pretty comb Joules gave me for xmas. :)
It's lovely to use.

~=o>

Forecast NYE: 12-27°
Attained: 14-24°

Forecast 1/1: 15-26
Attained: 15-25

NYE was understated but fun; a delicious dinner at Niki's then episodes of Black Books until we watched the relatively uninspiring countdown broadcast. (Not sure if it was cos I didn't have my glasses on but at certain points of the broadcast, the fireworks reflecting off the buildings made it look like the city was burning. Bit disconcerting...)

Bye, 2012, it's been interesting.

~=o>
And today I took the cubs and their cousins to see Wreck-It-Ralph. I expected it to be fun, I didn't expect it to be good, a well-scripted, clever story. :)

~=o>
I've managed at least to start the new year having completed some niggly naggly tasks that have been put off, and put off...
Behold - lights, in the lounge room!
(Thank you, William, for being a: tall and b: on had to change the light globe for me. We also have light in the loo again.)
Egad, I can see the keyboard...

~=o>