Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Factoid

Dear Diary,

It's been 8 days since my last confession.....

And any comment I was going to make about a singularly boring and quiet week has been completely blown away by a disturbing but hardly surprising fact.

I dashed out to the kitchen this morning to fetch something and discovered that NO ONE HAD WASHED UP LAST NIGHT'S DINNER DISHES.

Hardly surprising I know, but f'rfksake, we have a DISHWASHER people! I cooked, so I'm exempt from said duty. But I have a sneaking suspicion that if I hadn't scraped the leftovers into a container, they would have been left there as well.

Silly me wandered past on my way to bed and noted SOMEONE standing at the sink washing up. Thank you I said. And this morning discovered that the only things that were washed were a couple of mugs and a couple of plates. Everything else was scattered across the bench. Exactly where it had been left. Wait. I fib. There were some stuff added to it.

Go figure.....

But the rest of the week has been quiet. Very quiet. I did manage to get MOTH to leave the house on Sunday. On the spur of the moment, we took Karen out and drove into the city to hunt for and hunt through a cookware shop. I purchased a crepe pan. Not cheap - around $40 - but the absolute cheapest there was! And some piping bag equipment which we shall use to make sausages. Instead of trying to use the attachment with the mincer, we shall pipe them by hand. I hope *crosses fingers*

Just for something to do, I laid down a request for a tamis, but they didn't have any. A phone call yesterday revealed that they couldn't source one either, so they've delegated it to the too hard basket, but advised the manager/owner who has more experience of my request.

I did test the pan. I need practice! Lots of practice. I have a few recipes for the crepes themselves, but working the pan, getting the right quantites ... THAT'S the bit gonna take the practice.

Nice with icecream, melted butter and sugar though. Hmmmmmmmm.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen. Please be seated.

No truly. You'll see why if you keep reading....

So the odd one or two of you - very odd - will know that I've been on holidays the last week. For most people, that means a trip away doing exciting stuff that involves children - other people's and your own, animals, sunburn and the spending of money.

But not on this occasion. Although there was some spending of the money.

With not much better to do, I decided to go into the city during the week. Just so I could sit and eat breakfast and watch all the losers on their way to work. Just because I could. And I did. I caught my usual transport, wandered the mall for a little while until I settled on a breakfast nook with a menu that looked ok. These places are all well and good, but a continental breakfast I can get at home. The hot breakfast they usually offer is a tad too much. I can handle two poached eggs on toast. Never mind the thick buttered toast, the fried tomato, the hash brown and the bacon/sausage as well.

So, I chose. And I ate my poached eggs, and sat and read sipping my cold cranberry juice in a tall glass with ice. And for that privelege, I paid $12...

But I got to watch people walk past on their way to work.

On Wednesday, they also hold Farmer's markets at the top end of the mall. I've seen them as I rush past on the way home from work on a Wednesday afternoon. I thought they may be worth a look.

They have some wonderful stuff there. Seafood. Fresh produce. A german bakery. Tucked among the loaves were what appeared to be heart shaped gingerbread biscuits Ich Liebe Dich iced on them. Freshly made pasta. I bought some of that! Flowers. Jams/spreads. Chilli. German sausages.

Just as well I was behaving myself at that time. I found a couple of strays wandering between the stalls. We've known each other for years - their daughter is besties with the Elder.

Over the space of the week, I've managed to do some housework. See, I told you to be seated. I've washed walls. I've swept floors. I've vacuumed floors. I've done washing. I've pulled weeds. I've carted dead branches and helped cut them up. And do you know, it looks like I haven't done anything at all.....

On Friday and Saturday night, we had visitors. They travelled from Rocky to attend a day long conference on the Saturday, and left on Sunday morning. We had a late bbq dinner on Friday night, and laughed a lot. Sausage jokes abounded.

Sunday morning, MOTH told me there had been some excitment during the night/early hours of the morning. I, of course, slept right through it.

There had been a couple of cars racing along the boulevard. Lots of noise. Loud cars. Screeching tyres. Bang! Car, speeding away. Loud voices. Lots of swearing. Revving engines. A tow truck eventually arriving an hour later and loud cheering. And to the best of our knowledge, unfortunately, driver/passengers weren't injured. Fools. Here's the damage ... Just ignore the spectre dressed in black who wandered into the camera frame....





Apparently they've clipped the roundabout, come up the boulevard, mounted the curb, over the eighteen inches or more of retaining wall, crashed through two columns of trees and come to rest almost in the creek. In the photo 2, that is a piece of the car resting in the centre of frame, not a tree...

Beautiful.

Sunday afternoon, when the Teen came home from her weekend adventures with Wogboy, we watched the Wiggles movie. Yep. Wiggles movie. The one with Wally the Great. But alas! There was a scratch in the dvd, and now we don't know how it ends!

Boo hoo!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hoppy Easter eberybodee!

Wow, I have just realised that it is now Tuesday, and I'm a day late with my blogging. Darned public holidays, all falling at once and confusing a person...

It's been an odd week. I've been running in holiday mode and haven't really accomplished much at all. The entire week. Holiday mode, you see, because I have this week off work.

Uh huh, uh huh *does victory dance*

And a well deserved one too, thank you all non-believers.

So this leading week, I've been going about in a bit of a fog and not taking much notice of anything at all.

Except I did take time out to notice a cyclist in the city. Dressed up in all the gear. He only had one arm....

Oh look something shiny. It's a sleek black car. Nicely done! Stopped at the traffic lights. I think it's a Maserati. *snort* The plate is HAIR. What kind of pompous ass would have that as a plate? Oh... Stefan...

The Easter weekend was great. Relaxing. I haven't been doing altogether too much. Just expending the odd burst of energy doing some housework slash gardening stuff. And not much of that either. I've a scrubbed a couple of walls. Odd how the red crayon lifted quite easily, but the yellow didn't.

I didn't think the bunny would be bringing me anything this year. He doesn't have his own source of income. But he did. I was presented with a box with a small Lindt bunny and two eggs. *hmmmmm delish!*

It's been quiet. The Teen has been out most nights this weekend. One thing I've never really done is make everyone stay home because it's a 'rental birthday. Or any Hallmark Commercial Days. Only if we had already made plans. I think the Teen likes this arrangement, and her friends find it odd.

So yes. Easter has been quiet. I'm looking forward to my holiday, although I suspect it won't be much of a holiday. We have inspection next week, and there shall be more wall scrubbing and gardening lined up for me. Housework stuff, at least. I don't know if it will stop raining long enough for me to venture out to the garden.

I think I shall need to go back to work. For a holiday.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Mmmmmm. Crunchy nut bars.

This week has been very quiet. No really. I've not even committed anything of note to ... well, notes. I keep them on my phone so I have something to remind me of the week.

But no. Nothing.

The one big thing this week is the Teen has her results back from her English oral. At least, I think that's what it was. An A! How exciting! I'm really pleased for her.

Saturday I took the opportunity to get up early. No wait, what am I saying? I'm always up early. While all were asleep, I grabbed the gumption and washed a wall. Really, I did. Progress is very slow. I start, but can't seem to keep going. The wall is one in the meals area, but there are so many others to do. First inspection is on 23 April, and I guess I had better have them done before then. We were paid by the realtor to clean it, so I had better try get myself organised. The walls are rather dirty, and there is the distinct artwork of a child on some of the walls. How could you not clean up after the kid has written on the wall? In red crayon? Luckily, it wasn't soft crayon, so the mess isn't too ungodly.

But that's for another weekend.

I had been planning to go all week to the movies on Sunday. I left the invitation open to anybody who wanted to join me. But I was dead set and determined that I would go. Even if I had to do it alone.

Sunday rolled around and I managed to catch up on an episode of Deadwood. It was the first time I had to watch an episode, and the dvd is to go back tomorrow. Yeeps, I had better get some viewing in! Then watched Dr Dolittle 2 with Sunny.

I had planned to go to the movies sometime during the day, but Sunny was skint and talked Judah into joining us for the viewing. He was working, so it meant that I had to hold off the viewing until the evening.

I went to see Monsters v Aliens. There is sooo much adult humour in this one. I spent a lot of time laughing. It's a brilliant movie, and I'm going to spend a lot of time rewatching it when I get it on dvd. Mmm mmmm yes I am.