Beef stew!

Yep, it's that season of the year again. Don't know why I love beef stew so much, but I do. But only when I cook it mind.

The conference draws closer and the preparation ratchets up. This week saw me fall in a heap. One of the tasks assigned me didn't get completed. This was to source labels for tagging cables to avoid loss. Between procrastination from the supplier providing the first quote and myself taking too long to provide the exact information required for price comparison the deadline was missed and people were not happy. I was devastated because this is very much out of character for me. When it was decided on the second quote there wasn't enough time to have the labels printed. The solution was to obtain them from a stationery store and print them ourselves. I can't use the work credit card so I assumed they would be purchased by one who could after I gave them the price. It never occurred to me they weren't passed to me for printing. And they weren't purchased. And it was my fault for not completing the task on time despite being reminded. Of course.

It's been a long week. Any joy I've had previously helping to organise the conference has well and truly been washed away under the tide of ... criticism, hopelessness, and thanklessness.

Things have been quiet on the home front. MOTH can't decide if he's happy or not that he will have four days by himself. Usually he would come with me but this year we don't have a house sitter/pet feeder. He's going to use the time to begin prepping for our next house inspection at the beginning of June.

Elder informs us they finally have a house to rent. WHOO! I don't know who is more excited, them or me. There will be three of them there. The dogs are welcome but the realtor doesn't know about the cats. I believe. The rent is very expensive so they won't have any money to play with but I'm hoping it all works out well for them.

The Teen will be turning 21 soon and is hosting some do or another to celebrate this milestone. Seeing as she's our daughter and all we kind of feel obligated to travel to attend. You know how it goes. I'm not looking forward to the drive *it's 8 hours of tedium with no scenery to look at only endless rolling brown hills with occasional trees and cattle* but I am excited to be seeing both the girls. And their respective other halves. I wonder if I can get into "party mode" this time? No facebooking any incriminating evidence ladies! Also this will be a great way to make an impression on Harry's parents whom we have not yet met.

MOTH is excited about the trip because when we travel up, Sheldon and Penny will travel with us. We still aren't sure what we will do with Jerome. Maybe we should bring him too? But then again, he won't get to visit Teen unless she comes to visit us while we are there. That might be something to consider.

Winter is finally coming and the temps are beginning to fall. Minimums are dropping to less than 10C overnight. There are only a couple of things I like about winter. And that's flannette sheets, doonas, minkie blankets and beef stew with dumplings. *ok, so maybe more than a couple* MMMMM! First stew of the season this weekend. And it's not even winter yet. I have to be careful not to have it often of course. Don't want to get sick of it. And MOTH doesn't eat much of it. Piker.

Decided to treat myself this weekend. MOTH saved a voucher from the shopping with a DVD rental discount on it. I like those. The day was bright and I had every intention of walking up to the shops. But I did some washing. And I pegged it out, unpegging the stuff that was already there. I prepped the beef stew for dinner. I cleaned up after the cats. And by then, I decided I was too pooped to walk so I drove. I brought back The Hobbit. I brought back Resident Evil: Retribution. And I brought back Wreckit Ralph. I watched them all one after the other and I loved them all. I thought The Hobbit might have been drawn out a little but no, I actually enjoyed it more than the other trilogy; a little faster paced I think. I was also surprised to find that this is also part one of a trilogy.

Conference next week so I suppose I should start planning what I'm planning to take with me. Who knows, I'm pretty sure that in spite of all my planning I will forget something... *too much planning = brain burn*