About

Thursday 20 December 2007

Finishing the year in the toilet

Well, it's as good a place as any to say Happy Holidays!

Among the accessories recently purchased for the toilet and bathroom was a funky new toilet roll holder. It's a triumph in both design and practicality - it looks exceptionally cool AND holds two toilet rolls at once! Whooppee! The way I see it, with two toilet rolls on the holder, you should never run out of toilet paper (or at least, not without considerably fair warning). You start with your shiny new, empty toilet roll holder, add two new toilet rolls, and when one runs out, you're left with another to start on meaning you can replace the empty toilet roll at leisure, for ever and ever amen.

Except, somehow, this happened, leaving me amused and the husband scratching his head. After some consideration however, the husband has decreed that my analness (excuse the pun) has reached new heights, and I'm compulsively evening up the toilet rolls without even realising it.

Could be.








I'll see yus in the New Year sometime.

Argh

My rings won't be done by Christmas.

My rings will be done by late January.

In theory.

I am an unhappy camper.

Next milestone - I hope they're done by my brother's wedding in February.

Wednesday 19 December 2007

'tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la, la la la la

Because there are only 2 more working days left before the holidays. It's certainly not because of the weather.

Things are moving along at home - the plasterers worked late and finished up on Tuesday night, which means that we can start painting. The husband has already done the ceilings and archi....whatever they're called. The bits along the top of the walls below the ceilings. Looks great too. Clever husband. He's sealing the walls tomorrow which Jess, for one, will be grateful for. Poor little border collie has been grey with plaster dust for the last couple of days. She starts off black, curls up on the floor or by a wall, and that's the end of that. Covered in dust. After trying to clean though for the last few days, I've come to the conclusion that it really is for the best that we're replacing the carpet at the end of this because I really wonder if the dust will ever come out. I can barely get it off the lino in the kitchen for heavensake.

Pluuuuus, my jeweller promised me last week that my rings would be ready this week, so as the week wears on, I'm getting more excited. It's been 3 months of waiting, but the design is gorgeous and I can't wait to have them back. 2 more days to go at most. Unless of course, he doesn't get them done, in which case, bugger.

In the meantime, to keep me distracted, I've got to work out how to turn that SPCA logo into a linky. Help? Anyone? I'm completely backward with all things technical. It's a wonder I even managed to start a blog.

The Husband - Puppy Collector

I was asking for it, really. Tempting fate and all that.

At this very moment, there is a stray dog secured on our property.

That makes it 4 to the husband, 2 to me.

He's like the dog/boy equivalent of a crazy cat lady.

Ginger - Kitty Rescuer

The husband, bless him, didn't even bat an eyelid when, after leaving the house with 2 dogs for a walk at the park on Monday afternoon, I arrived home post-walk with 2 dogs and 2 kittens.

Ahem.

It makes a change at least to the husband arriving home with an extra dog (this was my first kitten collection - he's come home from walking the dogs with an extra one three times!).

Poor little (gorgeous black fluffy) kitties were on their own at the park, and they were too teeny tiny (about 4 weeks old) to be ok on their own, so I took them home and phoned the SPCA (Funnily enough, I wasn't allowed to keep them. It seems that after being talked into 1 kitty and 2 puppies already, the husband was not to be broken a fourth and fifth time) who came and collected them straight away and took them through to a vet for special care.

I absolutely adore our dogs for the way they behaved at the park - Jack for protecting the kitties and flushing the area to make sure there weren't any more and Jess for circling the wider area to make Jack's self-designated job as chief kitty-protector easier, while I tried to work out how to get both dogs and the kittens out of the park with only two hands (Apologies to the other park walkers who saw waaaay more of my flubby tummy than they probably wanted to after I bundled the kitties up in my t-shirt to carry them out. Thank goodness I was wearing a t-shirt baggy enough that I could tie them up in that to secure them and still remain largely clothed). I did make absolutely sure that there was no mother cat before I took them though - I sent both dogs in to the surrounding bush but the only scent was the kittens'. Also, had there been a mother cat, I'm certain she would have been there protecting her babies.

Yay for the SPCA too. Spare them a thought at the moment while their job is especially full-on and they are doing their absolute best.

Tuesday 18 December 2007

I should've made a list

Walking along Broadway in Newmarket at lunch time yesterday, I came across a woman trying to organise three children on a very busy sidewalk. Triplets. Boys. About 3 years old, maybe a bit more. Chaos. Which made me realise that I forgot to ask the hospital last week whether they had a refund policy for triplets (or worse). I could do twins, but triplets is a bit rough, so just a partial refund would be fine. Bugger.

I didn't get a particularly positive reaction though when I asked about return to sender options if they should mix me up a bratski. They laughed. Laughed! Fancy that. Then they had the audacity to say that they couldn't be held responsible for the results of any particular genetic mix! Honestly! Like it would be me and the husband's fault if our kid was spawn of the devil! How rude!

No one is accountable for anything these days...

It's a sad, sad world my friends.

Sunday 16 December 2007

I do not like green eggs and ham

It's important to put this post in context.

Half a dozen years ago, I didn't eat meat. One year ago, my steak went on the BBQ approximately half an hour before everyone elses. Including the people who like theirs well done. My idea of risky eating is adding mint to my boiled spuds and I was particularly surprised when Pal Sarah served me up cous cous recentlyish and I liked it.

So, don't fall off your chairs kiddies when I tell you that on Saturday night I had a fabulous dinner out with the husband, Pal Stu and Pal Sarah ... at a Yakatori bar. Me!! Japanese!!

Aaaannnd, guess what else?

I had beef tongue.

Beef tongue!

Beeeeeeffffff toooonnnnngue.

How completely brave am I?

(Admittedly, I had a lot of sticky rice as well, but we're focussing on the braveness. Baby steps and all that)

I also had something which I can't remember the name of but which was basically a plate of seared beef (read - I'm still not convinced that it wasn't raw), very thinly sliced and cooked in some clever Japanesey (obviously) way. I think I even had more than one bit.

Very clever Ginger if I do say so myself. Next, I'm going to take over the world.

(The husband feels it's important that I fess up to wussing out on the seafood, but I think it's important that we all focus on the beef tongue and raw meat and move on to world domination)

Thursday 13 December 2007

Orientation

Well, we've been sufficiently counselled, oriented, scared shitless and Al wished happy birthday by any number of medical staff who thought that IVF orientation was a rather horrific way to spend your 30th birthday, all things considered. But, aside from crawling home sporting a flaming headache, I'm feeling good, or at least better, and so is Al. I think the headache is purely a build up of tension pre-orientation eeking itself out. It all seems less scarey now, and however we cope or don't when the time comes, we know it's ok and normal and nothing more than what we need to do is expected of us. The clinic isn't imposing, the medical staff were absolutely lovely, and probably most importantly for me, I've seen the tools they use for egg pick up which was the one thing that was really bothering me. That doesn't seem so bad now either, although it is an effing long needle.

The counsellor took in both of our naked wedding ring fingers and queried straight off the bat if we were in fact married. I don't know if our respective stories of why we weren't wearing our rings (I lost mine, Al hung himself off a plane with his) inspired confidence, but at least the telling of the stories took some of the edge off the counselling session. Having to do the counselling thing was the worst because she wanted to know about the early parts of our journey when things were at their worst, and I'd rather not remember. There was also a tense moment where the nurse had to check that my being a rhesus negative blood type and not having had an anti-D (I think that's what she called it) injection after my miscarriage would possibly compromise an IVF pregnancy, but the answer to that was no. All of our tests pre-orientation came back with excellent results, so even though the chance of success through the cycle is a statistical average of 25% - 40%, we're on the higher side of that.

We were given an indicative time frame of March/April when we got our orientation advice, and the cycle month has been confirmed as March today. I have a good idea now exactly when it'll start, but I'll have a better idea by February and I'll let you know then probably.

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Say what?

The plasterer, who was due to start on Monday, forgot about us. Forgot about us!! How on earth does someone forget about us? Honestly. On the bright side, he started today and it looks great so far ... good enough that I'm not even going to whinge that the house smells like wees (from the lime in the gib compound apparently).

Other redec progress is as follows ...

The electricians have been and gone and forgotten to send us a bill. Woohoo! No doubt they'll work that out pretty quickly, but in the meantime I'll live in hope. Le sparkies put the much needed extractor fan above the shower in the bathroom and my only gripes are that said fan comes with a very bright light which is a bit rough at 6am when you've just woken up, and also the husband has taken great delight in pointing out that now the shower looks like a display case. Pervy bastard that he is, he finds this inordinately funny. Me? I'm getting a builder in to put a lock on the bathroom door. We also had the power point for the fridge moved so that it now lives at the back of the fridge cavity (behind the fridge) instead of at the side. We have a fridge-hole in the wall which the fridge almost fills (it's a seriously tight squeeze - we even had to remove the skirting to wiggle it in there), so there's never been enough room to plug the fridge in where it should be - we've been running an extension cord into the pantry for 4 years. Various new kitchen power points were added to. Very exciting. We just need the new kitchen now ...

Speaking of which ...the kitchen design has been finalised (including redoing the pantry/scullery) and the quote gave us a collective heart attack. Enough said. The kitchen is booked to go in towards the end of January. Happy joy.

The accessories for the bathroom and toilet are all sorted. Towel rail, robe hooks, toilet roll holder. The bathroom is finally completely finished! The toilet is no where even close, but has a nice shiny (double!!) toilet roll holder at least.

Bedspreads for the bedrooms have finally been chosen and cost a fortune, but I swear the money was worth it just so I didn't have to look at any more duvet covers and bedspreads. Bless you Harrowset & Hall for providing all the help a girl could want, as well as stocking scrummy linen. And, as always, the big finger to the unhelpful ponce at Emma Lea who just looked at my wall colour and curtain samples and told me I'd never find anything to match, then proceeded to tell me that I should have chosen my duvet first and decorated around that. I wonder if he'd have been more helpful if he had a crystal ball and saw how many dollars Harrowset & Hall was on the receiving end of ... Plus, seriously, what an arse - who does that? Decorates around the least expensive furnishing in a room? (and, erm ... no offence if any of you have done that ... ahem)

Two sets of curtains have come back, and they look so cool. I'm busting for the plasterer to finish so I can hang them up. The other two sets have gone off for altering now too, and are due back early next year.

We've got the blinds for the kitchen and the weird shaped window in the end guest room which proved a 'mare to find a curtain for. We were going for cedar/wooden blinds but it turns out they cost lots and our windows are all weird shapes apparently. So, hats off to Freedom Furniture for their eco blinds which are recycled plastic and wood, cost a fraction of wooden blinds and are designed to be cut to fit. Oh, and yay for their pre-Christmas sale too which made it even more economical. Kind of sets off the Harrowset & Hall visit. Slightly. That's what I'm telling the husband anyway.

The first lot of insulation went in last week (1x internal wall), and you saw yesterday what happened with the second lot. Ahem. We'll give that another go at the weekend and hope for a slightly less messy result. I have to say though that the stuff we already have in is great.

The plumber didn't turn up. Why doesn't that surprise me?

Tuesday 11 December 2007

When Air Foam goes bad

Air foam is insulation that gets pumped into the walls - it goes in as a dense liquid, foams up, fills the wall cavity and does its insulationy thing. Hehe. It also does this if you've got a special combination of factors in play ...













I would have taken a photo of the inside of the cabinet that had the drawers in, but I got chased out of the kitchen so all I got was the drawers. The chasing also resulted in the fuzzy pic quality sorry. Who knew that a highly amused Ginger leaping around in the rapidly expanding (where it shouldn't be) insulation brandishing a camera wouldn't be appreciated?

(Fantastic product by the way - completely not their fault that we have shite gib in the kitchen)

Thursday 6 December 2007

Motorway ponderings

I have decided to end a week (and let off some of the steam which seems to be steadily gathering in the midst of the redec!) in which an extraordinary amount of time has been spent sitting in my car on the Southern Carpark wondering how it is that Aucklanders don't seem to be able to drive in the rain, by picking on middle aged blokes.

Two things.

Firstly, what on earth possessed Porsche to make a lilac 911?? And what on earth possesses someone to buy one? I mean, you're a middle aged bloke, feeling the decline a bit, so you decide to buy a Porsche. You walk into a dealer, past all manner of lovely shiny sleek black/grey/cool coloured European cars, spot the lilac Porsche, clap your hands in glee and hand over your American Express? Seriously? Doesn't buying a lilac Porsche, to compensate for whatever one buys a Porsche to compensate for, negate the purpose altogether?

I don't think even a hairdresser could get away with a lilac Porsche.

And secondly, full kudos to the middle aged bloke I saw driving an MX-5 to work the other day, sporting the number plate DWIFED. You've got to give a guy a cigar for being prepared to advertised that a) someone stole his wife b) he's having a midlife crisis and c) that the wife didn't leave him with enough money to buy a decent convertible by which to express his midlife crisis.

Meow.

'twas three weeks before Christmas

and the redec at home is kicking up a notch so it's going to be veeery quiet from me over the next week because the plasterer starts on Monday and we have a power of prep work to do between now and then so not much time for bloggy puddling come an evening. I don't even want to think about what sort of state we're going to be living in while they're working. As it is, our furniture and worldly goods are mostly being relegated to the garage, and good luck to you if you try to find linen in our linen closet - you'll find booze, books and general crap, but no linen. To be honest, I can't actually remember what I did with the linen ...

So kiddies, over and out for a day or two. Or three. Maybe. We'll see how it goes.

And just as an aside - apologies for the sudden addition of word verification for comments, but I've had to delete a couple of spammy ones lately so I'm hoping to nip that in the bud.

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Curiosity and all that ... well, Jazz.

The problem with this (pic below) is that that hole leads to two cavities - the roof, and the wall. Very, very easily the little bugger could have either fallen, or, more likely, jumped down the wall cavity (and having her running around in the roof was less than desirable also). Getting back up would be the problem because there aint much room in the wall cavity, so it would have involved removing walls (and kitchen cabinets) to get her out again. We won't think of how le feline may have injured herself.

It took quite some time, a lot of calling, talking, encouraging, waving smelly cat meat across the hole, and, in the end, brute force executed at just the right moment to remove her. I doubt she'll be talking to the husband for a few days , though she's already been back on top of the microwave trying to work out how to get past the newly installed barriers.



Monday 3 December 2007

Today's lesson kiddies ...

Always check with the husband how he intends to spend his day before doing the vacuuming






Friday 30 November 2007

Ha! Hahahaha!!

Silly husband!



What a dork.

Thank goodness he hasn't been out in public looking like this.

The hazards of redecorating

The husband is stripping wallpaper remnants off the pelmets in the lounge, and there is much swearing going on (pelmets are evil to strip) so I retreat outside to hang the washing out.

The next thing there is a loud bang from inside the house.

Obviously I finish hanging out the washing. Very concerned and caring wife, I know, but honestly from experience I know that if the husband had hurt himself the bang would have been followed by a whump and/or yell or some such similar injured-husband sound. So, I'm assuming that it's the house that's injured, in which case, I'd rather delay establishing the seriousness of the injury.

On taking the empty washing basket back inside, I opt to yell from the other end of the house (the husband hates when I yell from the other end of the house, but sometimes it's best to be away from the eye of the storm until you know what's going on) ...

Me "Did you break something?"

Him "Yip"

(He's completely calm, which doesn't really equate with the husband having broken something)

Me ( *sniff* *sniff*) "Can I smell burning?"

Him "Yip"

(Obviously now I'm curious ... and once I make it to the lounge, I see that there is a power point hanging off the wall)

Me "Did you blow that up?"

Him "Yip" and I swear, he sounded really pleased with himself.

(This is, after all, a man who removed the safety guards from an electric fly swat to maximise carnage, and is able to assure me that yes, it really does hurt when you touch it ...)

Apparently it added a little bit of interesting to the wallpaper stripping ...

Thursday 29 November 2007

Do you know what today is?

(Aside from pay day that is ... whew. Big Visa bill this month)

Do ya? Do ya?

Today is 29th November. Which means that tomorrow is 30th November.

Guess what's special about 30th November?

It's the last day of this ...




WHOOPPEE!! *Happy dance*

No, no, not the husband - the mo' (and it's difficult to appreciate from that angle exactly how hairy the mo is).

Yes, it's all for a good cause, blah blah, except I'm pretty sure that the husband managed to get through the entire month forgetting to actually register which means that I've been tolerating le fuzzy face for nothing ... although I'd bet my right arm (which is the one I use for swiping my Visa whilst shopping, just so you understand the gravity of the bet) that he'd argue that it's just as much about supporting his fellow mo' bros as registering with your own, in an attempt to wriggle out of being accused of being hopeless (with great affection, of course).

Or, when you think about it, perhaps not, since I bet my Visa swiping arm ... he'd probably be perfectly cheerful to be accused of all sorts of things (he's pretty well used to it anyway).

Tuesday 27 November 2007

Has anyone seen my dignity?

It's about yay high ... slightly battered looking ...??

No?

Poos.

I dealt with the last of my pre-orientation tests today, so, in preparation for what's to come, I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself tonight, and trying not to dwell on the thought of exactly how many people are likely to be acquainted with my bits before this is over (today's tests were obviously bits-related, but since I have boy readers, I'll spare you all). What I'm endeavouring to focus on is a level of comfort in the precautions that are taken before the IVF cycle, and that these are intended to ensure the highest possible chance of success.

I'm also focusing quite intently on a packet of Shrewsberrys because, on a scale of 1 to 10, thems gooooood comfort food.

Anyone else noticed it's only 4 weeks till Christmas?

I turn the pages of my diary 4 times, and there it is.

Ack.

Monday 26 November 2007

I heart my Moleskine

I'm a creature of habit and it can't be helped.

Every year, around the beginning of October, as soon as they hit the stores, I buy my diary for the following year. I also only buy one type of diary. I'm a Moleskine girl all the way baby. Perhaps there are better diaries out there, perhaps not. I'm yet to find one that I love as much as my Moleskine though. Moleskine has history and soul.

I heart my Moleskine.

I did break out of the box this year though, and instead of my traditional soft cover black weekly diary, this year I went all out - and got a red daily one. In Hardcover. Oooooohhhhh Flaaaassshhhhh (actual serious flash too - it even comes with 3 sheets of stickers for appropriate days - little cakes with candles for birthdays, suitcases for holidays, shopping bags for shopping days!!, forks for dinner dates, sad faces ... probaby for when the Visa bill is due, little hair dryers for hair appointments ... I have no idea what the lightbulbs would be for but they're very cool...) Hopefully it'll work out a bit more successful than the great 18-month diary incident of 2006 where I bought a new diary in July (after the great coffee all over diary incident of a few weeks before that), and ended up noting all my end of year appointments at the end of 2007. Slightly disastrous.

The plan is that I will start transferring information (such as birthdays, holidays, appointments and budgety type things) well in advance, so that I'm ready to kick off the new year with my flas new diary. Except I don't. Ever. I end up carrying the new diary around with my old one (ending my relationship with my old diary is a long, slow, painful process. Every year. My diary is my blankie) for the last 3 months of the year, and the for around the first 6 months of the following year because I can't bear to part with it. This year is no different, and I've been carrying it around for a month and a half already, and transferred the sum total of no information across.

It does look very cool sitting on my desk though.

I heart my Moleskine lots.

Thursday 22 November 2007

CSI Manurewa

Crime Scene Exhibit A - The insulation fluff, all over the oven (and floor and surrounding bench).




Crime Scene Exhibit B - The hole above the oven, created by the husband on removing the rangehood a week or so ago.







Crime Scene Exhibit C - The paw marks on the wall.




Ergo, the perp who got up into the roof and dislodged crap all over the place.



Life's little questions

You know how, when you're following a laden car carrier on the motorway, the thought passes through your head I wonder what would happen if those cars weren't secured properly?

It turns out that a car shoots off the front of the carrier bit when the carrier comes to a quick stop because one of the cars has liberated itself.

I imagine though that the owner of the decidedly 'stang-looking classic car which I saw lodged between the front of the carrier bit and the cab of the truck, and no longer in what I imagine had been show condition, would have preferred to remain in blissful ignorance.

Just a guess.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Happy dance

Engagement ring:

The jeweller submitted his quote to my insurer and a year later, my insurer accepted the quote. From there, things become much simpler.

I chose the new diamond for my engagement ring yesterday (!!!), and nutted out the redesign of both my engagement and wedding rings with the jeweller. He's picked out a gorgeous (BIGGER! SPARKLIER!) diamond for me too, so I can't wait to get the rings back (with a few extra little sparklies in the wedding ring to make the new design work ... ahem. Happy wedding anniversary to me last month ...).



Renovations:

The last room at home was denuded of wallpaper yesterday, and the insulation is going in the internal wall around the master bedroom in the next day or so (supposedly today, but the installer had a bit of a crisis and couldn't get to us today. I know ... tradesmen and all that. But, seriously, the story he told us would have to be true. You know the old saying, truth is stranger than fiction? Uh huh. Apparently it all started to go wrong at the job before us when they drilled into the wall, and through some wiring ... woops).

Next on the list - finalising the new kitchen design, choosing colours and booking it in for manufacture and installation.

We also found a plasterer who actually turned up when he said he would (weeeellll ... within 24 hours of when he said he would anyway) and gave us a much better quote than 3 to 4 thousand dollar guy, so he starts on 10th December, and should be done within a week.

Curtains are due back this time next week.

After visiting a few more linen stores, the duvet situation still looks a bit of a worry, but I'll give myself hysterics over that at a later date (as in, when I have the curtains back and the material to match a duvet to ... or rather, not match a duvet to, hence the source of the hysterics).

The husband is also demanding that we buy the bathroom accessories this weekend, as he's well over hanging his towel on the floor.

I'm demanding that the husband has a shave.

I have a feeling that the bathroom accessories will happen, but the shave will not. 10 more days till the end of Movember!

Battening down the hatches

Sooo I did a budget. IVF is next March, meaning that we, at this point, need to plan for a single income from around the end of next year. We are also in the process of spending a lovely chunk of cash on the house. And so, a budget has been drawn up ...and turned upside down and shaken, just in case some extra money fell out. Which it didn't.

Suffice it to say, the budget is not pretty.

I suppose I must be honest, and acknowledge that it's all relative and it just depends on which way you are looking at it. But, the way I'm looking at it is that we have goals to meet, and stuff to do and so the marvellous shopping fun I have been having to date will henceforth cease ... meaning that said budget is an actual, serious, grown up, must-stick-to-it-and-no-cheating type budget. Ergo, it's not pretty.

Half the fun is in the cheating.

Bollocks.


I also seriously hope that mortgage interest rates go down before we have to re-fix our mortgage next March. Ha! Hahahahahahahaha!!


Stupid mortgage interest rates.

Sunday 18 November 2007

Hey baby

Noah, looking for all the world like he didn't spend the previous night keeping all the other babies in special care awake ... apparently he has quite a set of lungs on him.




Lola and her hairy uncle



To give you an indea of how teeny tiny she really is, this is her, holding her uncle's thumb


This one is quite fuzzy, but still gorgeous



And Sienna, having a marvellous time at the playground. Still dry. Before aunty took her to look at a water feature, and she ended up in it (in my defence, it was a logical assumption to a non-parent that the nineteen month old would stand on the side of the pond and look, as opposed to dashing in for the sheer fun of it. I also had no idea a nineteen month old would be quite so fast. Now I do.)





Thursday 15 November 2007

What?

I posted twice yesterday, so that means I get a long weekend. Naff off.


Oh, and for Nikki ...

Twins, I could do (there's about a 15% chance of identicals, 0% chance of fraternal).

If there are triplets, just because you made the joke, I'm posting the third one in your direction.

xo

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Babies!

I thought Michelle would kill me if I put the post birth pic of her and the babies up, so instead you get Noel and the babies...




Ah, what the hell, I'll just buy her some chocolates or something ...





Noel Sienna and the babies (Noah on the left, Lola on the right ... assuming they got the pink and blue tags around the right way ...)



And one more of the babies! (Noah on the *mumble* and Lola on the *mumble* It's a bit of a worry, the pink tag is on the left, and the name tag sign thing is on the right ... makes it a bit tough on an auntie!)

(ETA - Noah on the left, Lola on the right! I have confirmation!)




Irony

irony / n. (pl. - ies) apparent perversity of an event or circumstance in reversing human intentions.


I'm sitting in the cubicle at Diagnostic Medlab, having all my blood sucked out (seriously, how do they need fifty five million little tubes of blood? Can't they all share the same tube?) so that I can be tested for everything under the sun in preparation for IVF.

Then this sails through the waiting room walls ...

Little boy "You shush"

...

Little boy "No, YOU shush! MMMUUUUM!!! She told me to shush! She's not allowed to tell me to shush! YOU HAVE TO TELL HER TO SHUSH!"

Mum "Keep your voice down"

Little girl "I did not!"

Mum "Shhh"

Little girl "But MMUUUUUMMMM... I DIDN'T!"

Mum "Shhhh"

Little Boy "Haha! YOU shush!"

Little girl "No YOU!"

*Whop* *Whop*

Mum "BOTH OF YOU SHUSH!"

WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH from one of the kids.

I looked at the lady still sucking all my life force out and asked her very politely to stop the blood test, I've changed my mind.

She looks at me, then my form, bursts out laughing and says "It's worth it. I promise."

Well, if she's lying, I know where she works.

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Current mission

Trying to stop puppies from trying to sniff the wallpaper steamer while it's going.

Honestly.

The piccy omitted last night ...





From the renovation files, aside from the serious mess, things are progressing.

The first lot of curtains (the bedroom curtains) are due back from being remade in 2 weeks, and I've done some preliminary hunting for a duvet/bedspread for the master bedroom ... nothing serious, just enough to realise that finding the right something to fit with the curtains is going to be a pain in the ass. Oops.

We've had a plasterer through who has given us an indicative figure for skim coating the walls, although we're going to line up another quote for that as the guy that came through said $3,000.00 to $4,000.00, and if you ask us (which, technically you didn't, but your mere presence here will be treated as evidence of your curiosity) that' s a pretty loose figure. A variation of a grand? At that cost level? Hmmm. If it was $10,000 to $11,000.00, then maybe, but at this point I'm iffy. Does the $4,000.00 depend on whether his wife decides to buy a new handbag that week ...? Maybe the husband should investigate becoming a plasterer ...

Oooo and we've added insulation to the list - for the obvious benefits vis a vis ...well, insulating the house, but also for soundproofing around the master bedroom.

...

Because the husband works nights and the sound buffer might help with sleeping during the day if and when there are little people in the house, you filthy minded ...Yeesh.

Did I mention though that the original renovation budget didn't have insulation in it and the insulation is $5,000.00? Eek. No more new shoes for aaaaaages.

I think that's all the progress covered. I hope so, because all the lights in the office are taped down so I can't turn them on (wires hanging out the wall and such, and a slight propensity to accidentally do myself bodily harm with that sort of thing), and I'm going a bit cross-eyed typing in the dark.

Happy Wednesday for tomorrow.

Left the second picture out, didn't I?

Oops.

Blame the wallpaper. I'll post it tonight.

Monday 12 November 2007

You thought the gardens were bad?

You should see the power of crap spread from one end of our house to the other in the midst of wallpaper stripping ...except I didn't take a photo, so you can't. You'll have to use your imagination instead. Suffice it to say though, the place is a tip.

To distract you all from the distinct lack of content in tonight's blog post (am knackered after stripping wallpaper), I whipped this gorgeous one of my niece Amelia having a snooze off her Bebo page.



I do hope though that that ass is mostly nappy, or she's going to hate jeans shopping as much as her auntie does.

Hehe. So cute.

Oh, and puppies in the midst of this evening's disaster zone, wondering what on earth is going on in their big kennel.

Sunday 11 November 2007

P.S.

I added some extra info to the twins' arrival post, if you're curious!

Ummmmmm.....

I've pretty much been gardening all weekend, so it's a bit scant on the interesting-things-to-talk-about front. Actually, since it's a bit scant on the any-type-of-things-to-talk-about front ... I took a picture of the weeds in one of my gardens, because they were particularly impressive.

Wanna see?






There's a single miniature fruit tree in the middle, and possibly a ground-covery type thing, but otherwise? All weeds.

Obviously, it's a bit hard to beat the arrival of the twins on Saturday morning.


Now that I think about it, weeds aside, fascinating though they are, I did actually learn a valuable lesson about thinking out loud ...

As part of the house renovations, a new kitchen is going in. As part of the new kitchen, the breakfast bar is going bye bye in favour of a movable island, giving us more space in general in the kitchen, and around the kitchen table.

Even I, a person who largely expects the unexpected, was temporarily speechless after saying to the husband that we should take the breakfast bar out and see how much extra room it creates, and the next thing he and Pal Stu had picked up the breakfast bar and ripped it out of the wall.

It does create a power of extra space though, and aside from the fact that I keep turning around to put things on the bench and dropping them on my foot, they did good.

Saturday 10 November 2007

Welcome into the world babies!

Noah David and Lola Grace are here!

Woop! Woop!

(Very excited auntie and uncle!! obviously ... look at the blinking time that I'm out of bed on a Saturday morning!)

The babies arrived via drug-free (!!) natural birth (!!) in less than three hours (!!!!!!), with Lola weighing in at 5 lbs 5 oz, with Noah apparently having eaten all the pies, at 6 lbs.

We're going to visit next weekend (the husband applied for leave in advance (and had it approved, for a change), hoping there would be babies to meet by the time it rolled around, and bless them, said babies have fitted in with our schedule nicely), so I'll be taking heaven knows how many photos and posting them then.

Thursday 8 November 2007

I'm so proud ... I mean ... horrified.

(Look away Jan and Gen ... come back another day!!)


Jess caught her first rabbit at the park today.

Horrifying, absolutely. But, completely hilarious all the same.

She flushed it out, chased and caught it (Jack was busy sniffing undergrowth ... probably trying to work out where the bunny went) ... then put it back down again and gave it a nudge to keep on running so she could keep on chasing it.

Hehe.

(Bunny did get away. Completely unharmed. Jess is so used to chasing the cat - I think she probably just thought it was Jazz with longer ears and a shorter tail)

No babies yet, but I'm getting loads of exercise, leaping out of my chair every time my phone beeps ...

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Thank goodness for ...

Renovations which will keep me busy and distracted.

My niece and nephew, who may well be with us tomorrow (!! I am so excited) and who I will be taking a weekend away to visit, breaking up the time between now and December 13.

The fifty five million medical things I have to organise before December 13. It's a focus, and really makes it feel like things have already begun.

December 13. Once I make it to the appointment (without dissolving into a puddle of nervous tension hopefully), it'll only be 12 weeks until the IVF cycle.

Christmas holidays. They always go so quickly anyway, and by the time they're done, it'll only be about 10 weeks to go.

My brother's wedding in February, and meeting my gorgeous wee niece Amelia for the very first time. That'll leave less than a month.

Trying to convince the husband throughout that I really do need a new outfit for embryo replacement.

Every step of the way through the next four months I have things to look forward to, to keep me distracted, and which will make the time seem like it's passing quickly.

Thank goodness for all these things.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

13th December. 9.30am.

It was a plain brown envelope in the mail, addressed to me, with no return address.

Completely innocuous.

Not so much when I opened it though.

The Fertility Plus logo appeared, and I felt almost a little confused. Why were they writing to me again?

Oh, yes.

We have a list of blood tests and medical exams required, other information that we must collect, authorities, consents, and other forms to fill out, ethical decisions to make, moral stances that must be established ... and then at 9.30am on 13th December (Thursday thankfully, not Friday, or the superstitious Scot in me would not be amused) we have our orientation appointment with Fertility Plus.

Our IVF cycle will be about 12 weeks after that. So, mid to late March. Not so long, really.

Am I scared?

Yes.

It is the oddest sensation to have so many emotions, so neatly in check, rush to the surface with the simple act of opening a letter.

General order was restored to my universe pretty quickly though, when I went outside to tell the husband of the letter and found him sitting in the spa, holding an umbrella because it was raining.

(OK, OK, he's threatening to beat me if I don't tell you that the purpose of the umbrella was to keep his book that he was reading dry, as opposed to himself. Whatever, if you ask me)

Curtains and such

I've been debating on whether to show you my new curtains or not.

On the one hand, I promised to share (I think) all things renovation, which includes the new curtains ...But then, on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure whether you need to see them in the context of everything all together (walls done, carpet done, new quilts on beds etc) to avoid being completed horrified by my decorating ...erm ...skills. The colours haven't quite translated as richly in photo as they appear in the flesh, but you get the general idea.

For the lounge ...




For the master bedroom ...



For one of the spare rooms (we had to get a bit imaginative with this one, as we have a sliding door on one wall and a tiny window on the opposite wall, but there's not enough material to cover both the big sliding door and the tiny window. So, we're covering the sliding door with this, and we'll put in a cedar drop blind for the tiny window which will look quite different, but cosy and fitting) ...


We've still got one room to go, so I'm keeping my eye on Curtain Exchange in the hope that something completely perfect will come in. Thankfully, we're not in a rush, so there's a good chance of that. And, of course, my favourite pear curtains (in the piccy of Jazz to the right) will stay.

Tomorrow we've got someone coming around too to measure up and make all the necessary alterations to the curtains so that they fit properly as well. At the moment, all of them curtains are (miles) too long, the brown stripe curtain is just one single curtain, so we're getting it split in 2, the blue/red/yellow stripe curtains are in 2 sets of 2, so we're getting those remade to 1 set of 2, and the green ones are in about 4 or 5 sets, so we have to get those all joined up together as well. But, even though there's going to be a bit of work - and cost! - in it, it's still cheaper than buying new, and we've got a much better quality or curtain than we could otherwise afford too, so it's been worth it.

I also have new cushions (!!) (from the same place, so second-hand but new to me) AND a painting for the kitchen.








(the dodgy piccy angle is because it was 6am and I was still half asleep)

Sunday 4 November 2007

Operation Bikini Bum

Yes indeed kiddies, I am in possession of a new bikini.

Now, I just have to do some ... ug ... exercise in an effort to lift my sagging bum a bit closer to the general direction that it was in when I was in my early twenties ... and then there's the thigh issue to address.

Obviously, no amount of anything is going to make me look like Gisele Bundchen ...I'm a ginger, and she's a blonde, for a start ... but if I can reverse the gravitational pull temporarily without suffering too much (as in, having to eat salad), that'd be magic. As it is at the moment, the husband is dragging me up the farm track at the park (lots of hideous ups and downs and stairs and such *shudder*) every other day because apparently if I'm going to whinge about needing to tone up (ish) I have to either suck it up or shut up, and since I love to whinge, that's the price a ginger has to pay apparently.

I can see why some people just get lipo.







And just because, a very cute (rather fuzzy) piccy of the kitty doing GBH to a catnip mouse ...





Thursday 1 November 2007

Movember

It's the time of year that thousands of women dread, and this year I count myself among their number for the very first time.

The husband is registering for Movember.

I'm trying to convince him to go for a Chopper Read mo, but the enthusiastic wee soul is leaning towards full on handle-bars.

The whole thing is ...

I can't even talk about it.

I shall post pics of the hairy monster and his soup strainer later in the month, providing he doesn't wuss out and shave it off (or I don't wuss out and make him).

Wednesday 31 October 2007

The day the husband almost died

The husband and I have just been out to the airport to do a pick up.

As we were walking into the terminal, I was reading the security signs and very seriously (yet completely taking the p*ss) turned to him and told him "Make sure you do not leave your bag unattended".

So, he takes my hand.

Wanker.

He says I walked into it.

Ack

There was a slight situation with the blog post last night ...

I forgot to do one.

Woops.

All complaints to management.


Now, for a confession.

When the husband and I decided to go ahead with the renovations, we refinanced our floating mortgage to pull some of the equity out of our house to fund it all ...which is a little bit horrific bearing in mind current mortgage interest rates, but that's neither here nor there. So, obviously, looking at a floating mortgage facility that is twice as big as it was a week ago, I'm being very good and keeping away from all things shopping. Or, most things shopping. Some things shopping ... I'm cutting back anyway. As a general sort of goal.

...after I've been shoe shopping with a friend at the weekend.


Which is just as well really as I had a wee shopping-related accident today and placed an order at Sabato. Ahem. Technically, it was the husband's fault as he wanted posh olive oil, and once he'd sewn the seed, I started thinking about these gorgeous licorice pillows that Sabato stocks, and how I didn't know anywhere else I can get them, and from there it just kind of snow balled.

I'm such a bad person (as is the husband - we are a team after all).

But, you know, next week it's all on in the saving department. Definitely.

Monday 29 October 2007

The ring thing

It continues...

These things are never as simple as you hope they'll be.

They are progressing, though. Slowly.

As of a week and a half ago, the ring setting was hanging out with a manufacturing jeweller after Diamond & Time advised they couldn't replace the diamond. I'm not entirely sure how it took them close to 2 weeks to work that out, but the woman I’d been dealing with when taking the setting in was a bee-arch, so all’s well that ends well. The husband was lucky enough to deal with the same bee-arch when he uplifted the setting, and apparently she doubts that any jeweller will be able to restore the ring. We'll see.

So, Thursday before last I advised my insurer of the new jeweller's details, and last Thursday they arranged to have a quote sent through so that they could negotiate with the jeweller as to paying out as little as possible. From there, I haven't heard and can only assume that the necessary paperwork is being created, and that said paperwork will turn into an engagement ring at some stage before I'm ninety.

Ye gads.

So, 3 weeks down, and we've hardly even started.

(The husband is currently cheerfully running around behind me frying flies with an electric fly-swat. Jack is cheerfully running around behind him because apparently fried flies are doggy popcorn. It's very distracting.)

Sunday 28 October 2007

On seeing a man about a dog

Or, in this case, a Chinese herbalist about a fertility issue.

We finally made the trip down to Palmerston North at the weekend to visit a Chinese herbalist in relation to health and infertility. Although I'm firmly in the mumbo jumbo camp when it comes to most things alternative, this is one of those situations where I just can't be absolutely certain that perhaps there isn't some truth to it when people say it's done this good thing or that, and for the sake of that small chance, it's worth a shot. The fertility issue is definitely our priority, but even if it can help my endo, or just my general health, we'll be happy.

So, the husband and I trotted along on Saturday morning, after a Friday night flight down (thank you Air New Zealand for not bumping our sub-loading asses off either the flight there, or the flight home), had our pulses taken, our tongues looked at (??), and our medical histories examined.

Annnnd, we now each have courses of Chinese herbs to chug down, so from there we'll see what happens.

The husband's little pile of herbals ...





My little pile of herbals ...



Notice anything?

Mmmm hmmm. Exactly. All things considered, I'm a bit miffed about the inequality of it all. Apparently he just needs to relax between 5pm and 7pm and get better sleep, while I need to swallow half the plant life in China over about 8 weeks. Yeesh.

Apparently the husband is 'quite simple' *snort*, while I am 'more ....... complex' ...

I could have told her that.

Friday 26 October 2007

Summer is upon us

Ish. In theory. Sometime in the next couple of months. We hope.

And, to celebrate yon warm sunny season, I've been bikini hunting.

At least, bikini hunting in the sense that I know I need a new one and, as a result, am avoiding anything that even remotely resembles something you go near a pool in.

It seems that what I really need is something that starts around the shoulder area and finishes around ... well, realistically, my toes. Bikini shopping is a bit like jeans shopping, except there is no nice great expanse of demin to suck in all your wobbly bits, should you find a nice great expanse of demin that you can actually fit more than your big toe in.


Bollocks to bikinis.

Wednesday 24 October 2007

Oh, this is gooood

First, follow the linky and check out the Banana Guard.

Then, check out the FAQs. The last one, to be precise.

Oh, my word, did I laugh.

It does raise a bit of a red flag though, that my innocence is long gone.

Still, I'm not the only one.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

It's the little things in life

You’re on the first level of a shopping centre.

There are 2 escalators. One for up, one for down. One faces North (ish), the other faces South (ish) (Could be East and West, but you get the general idea. Directions aren't really my thing). One is broken, one is not.


Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you are me, and have just witnessed the following scene:

Three people walking up the North facing escalator, grumbling loudly because it isn’t working, then, upon reaching level one, looking across at the top of the South facing escalator and realising that the ‘up’ escalator is fully functional and they just walked up the broken ‘down’ one.

Tee hee.

Monday 22 October 2007

The renovation files

We've been through the redecoration/renovation thing, haven't we? (I'm too lazy to save this post and skip back to past posts to see what I have and haven't told you, so forgive me if I repeat myself) Essentially, the bones of the house are good, it's just that things haven't changed a lot since the 50's when it was built (and decorated), so it needs some lovin'. You'll remember the pre-renovation bathroom pics? You get my point then.

The plan for this weekend was to make some decisions, or at least progress, in relation to all things renovation-y. Obviously, for the occasion, all sharp kitchen utensils were hidden in case either one of us got the idea to use them on the other to speed up the decision making process.

Sooo, how did it go?

Carpet style chosen? Check.

Carpet colour chosen? Check.

Base internal house colour chosen? Check.

Kitchen designed? Check (colours still to go though)

Everything matches so far? I think so.

Marriage till in tact? Check.

Easy peasy. Ish.

Go figure.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Long weekends

My lazy ass is going to start its long weekend early...

See ya Tuesday!

Tuesday 16 October 2007

Kid pics

Apparently, geting the dogs to sit still and look at the camera is as simple as holding a treat in each hand. Pity Jess looks a bit freaky.



A cute pic to balance out the freaky pic.




I tried a new treat recipe on Saturday which proved to be very popular. Those brown blobs on the bench are treats. Textbook temptation.



And the temptation gets the better of the dog - risking a boot up the bum was apparently worth it. He escaped the boot though on the basis that, technically, it was entrapment.




Kitty makes a nest. If only I'd known when I bought her a bed that one of Al's uniform shirts in a courier bag would be the trick.




Confused puppy. He chased the cat into the room, and poof! She just disappeared!


Monday 15 October 2007

The husband would like to know

Yes, this is another one of those acorn things. So, I'm throwing it out there and sharing the love.

Today's question from the great enquiring mind that is the husband's ...

Why do people refer to pants as pairs? You have a pair of pants, and yet there is only one item. Where does the 'pair' come from?

What I'd like to know is not so much about the pair, as where he gets this crap from. Seriously.

And, he genuinely seems to want to know. I don't think he's doing it just to annoy me.

Thankfully though, right now, he's ensconced on the couch with an article on the New Zealand Secret Service and the pairs of pants seem to be temporarily forgotten. What a relief.

Sunday 14 October 2007

Heh. Completely, utterly, totally, hilarious.

I, for one, absolutely believe her when she says that, this time, she was telling the truth.

*Snort*

Everyone say it together now ....

Sucked in!!!

That story sooo tickles my funny bone.

Friday 12 October 2007

Anyone for a divorce?

Ooo! Pick me! Pick me! Then pick Al!

I'm not sure who wants to divorce who the most at the moment ...

We've made the decision to do some things to the house, but we've realised that before we can really get started on much at all, we need to establish a colour scheme. The combination of Al, me and colour schemes tends to get a bit messy however. We both have our ideas, usually very similar ideas, it's just that we end up banging heads long before we stopped arguing long enough to realise it and come to a compromise.

Take last night for example. It was almost World War III (both dogs were hiding in respective corners), and yet we were both thinking pretty much along the same lines for a base colour right through the whole house (it was the actual colour that we were having issues with), that we could break up with other block colours depending on the room. Badoompsh.

We were definitely both on the same page over the $23,000.00 oven though. Probably a little steep for our wee budget. If only it'd been $22,500.00 though, things might have been different ... (It's almost as funny as someone I know spending $600.00 on a toaster once upon a time ... and no, it wasn't me).

Anywho, watch out for thunder storms and lightening over the next few weeks - we have carpet to choose and a kitchen to design as well.

Still, since all my jewellery is with jewellers getting fixed at the moment, I won't be able to lose any more precious stones ... that's got to be a better start to the weekend!

Thursday 11 October 2007

You know it's not completely over when ...

And, I've drawn a blank.

The plan was that this would be a similarly long list of things that remind me that youth is still firmly within my grasp, despite the evidence to the contrary, but it all fell over when I realised that the only thing I could think of to put on the list was that farts are still funny ... and that pretty much solely relates to Jack farting on his nose by accident when he's cleaning himself (I'm presuming i's an accident, because he always looks so offended).

So ...

Subtle topic change - I read this in the Herald online yesterday about a new IVF clinic which has opened in Auckland. I wonder if a) it's any cheaper, and b) whether it will impact on the public waiting list?

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Eek

I just went to put on my Sapphire necklace, and that bollocksing I got on Monday started ringing in my ears, so I checked to make sure all the claws on that were ok since it's about 2 years old. They're not! Well, three are, but one is fatally wounded (it looks like it may have just worn away, although since it's a necklace, I'm not sure how it could have because it wouldn't suffer the same wear as a ring). Eek! So, that's not going anywhere either until it's fixed. Poo. Now I have no jewellery. Better that than losing it of course - even more than my rings, the necklace is my most treasured thing because Al chose it himself while overseas.

Still, as I said, Poo.

You know you're getting older when ...

... if you kept pulling grey hairs out of the husband's head, he'd also be having bald issues.

... you bought a skincare item which entitled you to a free gift with purchase, and there's a range of gifts to choose from. The sales person bypasses the body scrubs and hand lotions and recommends the eye cream.

... it almost seems like a good idea to give up shopping in favour of a new kitchen.

... you have a sexy nighty folded up on your pillow. You also have a pair of socks and a cardi to go with so you don't freeze to death.

... you're hairdresser uses the term 'age fade' whilst staring intently at your hair.

... sensible shoes. That's all I'm going to say.

... you went shopping, had brunch, got pampered, but it was a fantastic weekend because you managed to get all the washing dry. And folded.

... you used to get asked for your ID at the supermarket (6 months ago) when buying wine. Now, they just get a good look at your face.

... you're talking to a Generation Y-er and you hear the words "you're probably too young to remember this ..." come out of your mouth.

... you think this guy is a turkey.

... you have a whole new take on vintage cartoons, TV programmes and movies ... and they're insanely dodgy most of the time.

Shall I go on? Probably not. It's depressing enough as it is.

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Ring go bye bye

Temporarily of course.

I went to see my insurer yesterday, filled out the requisite paperwork and spent about 15 minutes trying to explain to the girl that no, I didn't know where the diamond was, and yes, it was lost... gone ... poof ... ta ta ... never to be seen again. They required me to tell them exactly what happened when I discovered the diamond was gone, which I did. Except, the girl got a bit stuck on the cardi bit and couldn't seem to get her head around that it wasn't the getting stuck in the cardi that caused the diamond to come out, getting stuck in the cardi was because the diamond had already come out and that's how I found out it had. We all know how patient I am with these things. Yeesh. I should have just said that the ring felt lighter. Much easier for everyone involved.

Anyway, next step, I took the ring into Diamond & Time who are going to quote on replacing the diamond, and that's that for about a week until I get the quote back (oh and the lady today at Diamond & Time was a complete cow ... just thought I'd throw that out there. Among other things, she told me off for not having my rings serviced annually. Doh! I had no idea you're supposed to).

Monday 8 October 2007

Oh good. How Helpful.

Just as I had run out of things to blog about ...

I had a gorgeous day planned for myself on Saturday. I'd been having pain on and off all week, and I was sooo looking forward to Saturday and treating myself ala happy credits. I had a hair cut booked, followed by a trip to my beauty therapist to get my eyes done, and the ever-fun bikini wax. From there it was to be home to wake up the husband, and then take the puppy monsters to the park for a good frolic. Dinner was planned as a nice lazy soup (Thai coconut curry with lemongrass and coriander courtesy of le supermarket) and bread affair, followed by an early night for moi (the husband got to go to work, lucky him).

So, come Saturday morning, I peeled myself out of bed (first appointment was 9.15am - a rude start, but meant a leisurely day with lots of time left over), had brekkie, hung out the washing whilst marvelling at what appeared to be a glorious day for a change, picked up the dog poo off the lawn (may as well start the day with the glamorous stuff), had a shower and then got ready for my hair cut.

I was just putting my cardigan on with about 10 minutes spare to do my hair before walking out the door, when my engagement ring caught on my cardi (at this point, you're probably thinking that I put a hole in a new cardi, and I was a bit pissed about it, right? Wrong). I detangled the ring without needing to pay a lot of attention, and went to adjust my wedding and engagement rings back together (the wedding ring fits around the engagement, but sometimes it spins off the engagement ring and it's viciously sharp when it does because of the shape, so I'm always adjusting them back together) with my thumb ...... eeeexcepppt ...... it felt ...... kind of ...... odd. Almost like ..... there was no diamond in there!!!!!!

AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Obviously, this was not a good start to the day.

By the time I'd hyperventilated, several times, used a string of very, very, very bad words, and stared at the gaping hole where a rather expensive diamond used to be hoping it would magically reappear, I had negative minutes to get to my hair appointment. There wasn't really a lot I could do about the diamond, save tearing the house apart, and I couldn't place when I was last sure the damn thing was in the setting anyway. Even if I'd lost it that morning, it could have been anywhere on our property. When you think that it could have dropped on Friday morning even, Jess (who is always close by when I'm home) could have even lain on it, picked it up in her coat and transferred it outside or even to the park (you'd be amazed what that dog can pick up in her coat!), I might have lost it at work (and the cleaners come through on a Friday night), somewhere in the middle of Newmarket, at Botany on Friday night ... the only thing I could really do was ring the insurance company. Plus, crawling around the house (later in the day) on my hands and knees had its own hazards - the husband kept sneaking up behind me.

So, early Saturday morning, 2 stylists, a hair washer, a salon manager, my hairdresser and another client, looked a bit cross eyed and a little afraid as a semi-manic, hyperventilating redhead tore through the door with her hair sticking very much on end (remember - the lost diamond was discovered before the hair was done, and after that, doing my hair wasn't really a priority). I did get an extra long head massage though, once all was explained. Bliss.

Sunday was an improvement - we went out for brunch (mmmmm eggs benny), to look at rings (depending on what the insurance company says vis a vis fix or replace, we at least wanted to know what we'd do in either instance, and what jeweller we'd use), and to a kitchen place to look at new kitchens in case we decide to do the kitchen at the same time(ish) as the windows (depending on how the quote for those comes out).

All in all, an eventful weekend, don't you think?

Friday 5 October 2007

Castle Walmsley and the new window fun

Long story short (and actually, for a change, when I say it's the short version, it really is), our old (wooden) windows are rotting out and something needs to be done about them, as disgusting a thought as that is. And, when it comes down to it, if we're looking at spending significant money getting them fixed properly, we figure that we might be better to replace them entirely.

Which is all well and good, but my brother is a builder, and when I ran it past him yesterday he said that the general rule of thumb with a house lot of windows is $1,000.00 per window (set, not individually, thank heavens) and $2,000.00 per door (eek), which, when one counts up how many sets of windows one has in one's house ... it's quite a lot. I seriously hope that that's an installed cost. Ug.

Why can't these things just be free? Sort of like a bonus for ... something. I swear, as a child and teenager you spend that much time fantasising about being a grown up, and how much fun it'll be when you'll be the boss of you, and yet here we are. It turns out that it's much more preferable for someone else to be paying the bills and grinding their teeth over mortgage interest rates and the like.

Still, it's very exciting to think about how completely broke we'll be at the end of it.

Thursday 4 October 2007

Pet peeve number .... who knows?

People who can't spell.

(We all know I'm anal - you're just lucky you haven't had to sit through this one earlier)

Typos (and being a bit dense temporarily) aside, the inability (or, even worse, the lack of desire) to spell words correctly annoys me something wicked (mental note - spell check blog entry before posting).

I'm hanging it around the neck of text messaging myself. A lot of people shorten words by missing out a letter, especially if you're stretched for space and trying to condense it, but seriously, why change a word completely for the sake of saving a letter? If you're comin over for dinner, I can survive, but if you're cumen over for dinner? Not so much. The thing is that evidence is popping up all over the place that there are those among us that actually think that these new versions of words are the actual way things are spelled, and because it seems to be largely phonetic spelling, it just kind of sticks.

Sooo, what set me off this time?

Sitting on the motorway yesterday behind a car, beautifully sign written, for a cleaning business called ‘Mr Sparkel’.

Uhhh … last time I read a dictionary (today, to make sure how you spell 'sparkle' as it happens), that’s not how you spell it. In fact, it’s not even in there as a variation to the spelling of sparkle (as in, dispatch/despatch kind of thing). So, it begs the question as to why? Did no one check a dictionary before they plastered it on all 4 sides of the vehicle in enormous, brightly coloured writing? Seriously? I suppose at a long (loooong) shot, it could be the owner’s last name, and therefore a loose play on words, but I’d say not.

OK, fine, I searched the Companies register (we've agreed, I'm anal, just go with it) for the Company details and checked that the owner’s name wasn’t actually Mr, Mrs or Miss ‘Sparkel’ before I posted about it (because then I'd feel a wee tad stupid if it turned out it was), which it wasn't, of course ... although I wasn’t entirely surprised to see that the company had been placed into liquidation. Getting the spelling of your name wrong isn’t exactly a good start now, is it?

It really does bug me though that there seems to be an entire culture/emerging generation of people that can't spell, but don’t realise that they can’t spell because they’ve essentially been brought up on this bastardised version of our written language and anything seems to go.

In the end, I had to overtake Mr Sparkel so I didn’t have to look at his car.

Wednesday 3 October 2007

Still good

I arrived at work yesterday at the much more civilised time of 7.50am, only almost fell off my chair twice, didn't smack into the wall at all, and continued to enjoy leaving at 3pm.

All's good in this here little world my friends, just a little on the I-have-no-news-which-is-incredibly-boring side of things.

Unless of course you count the gorgeous toilet bag that I found while out for a quick 10 minute walk at lunch time yesterday? Al wasn't quite convinced though that it was a bargain at $245.00, regardless of how long I've been stalking toilet bags and how earnestly I presented my case. Honestly, I don't know that he processed anything much at all beyond $245.00 because from that point on in the conversation it was all wide-eyed staring, and mouth opening and closing like a landed fish. I half wonder if, since we were at the park with the dogs at the time, he didn't consider drowning me in the stream and being done with it just for a brief minute there (I'll pretend it was brief anyway).

I think he knew this was going to happen though ... me, in Newmarket. It's a recipe for Visa-associated disaster.

Nothing but good times ahead.

(As a side issue - did I mention by the way that courtesy of blatant trickery and deception at Pak'n'Save (and possibly a failure to read the label on the product on my part), I ended up coming home with onion bagels last week, instead of my usual, beloved, plain ones? How on earth am I supposed to put cream cheese and jam on an onion bagel? Bollocks)

Tuesday 2 October 2007

Also ...

This little guy spent the night in hospital with pneumonia.

Get well soon Gus!!

(Notice how I took the photo before he started the food? Clever Aunty!)





AARGH! What have I done?

No, no, just kidding!

...

Maybe.

...

No, I am.

(I told you, they read the blog!)

Aside from arriving in Newmarket a 7.20am (!!! blimmin school holidays - I'd forgotten what a ridiculous difference it makes to the traffic in Auckland), sticking my finger through my brand new stockings (am a little unused to stockings, obviously), almost falling off my chair a couple of times (it hasn't got any arm rests to hold my butt on, and it seems my butt is a wee bit bigger than it was the last time I sat on that particular chair about 7 years ago) skidding across the office and into the wall (slidy plastic mats under the wheely-chair, and just sort of launching oneself into said chair is a bit of an OSH hazard ...although I suppose it could be argued that at 28, I should have learned to place myself on a chair in a ladylike fashion), and having to dig my poor brain out of cold storage, my day yesterday was great. I felt very naughty leaving at 3pm ... but that lasted about as long as it took me to get out the door.

And even better - since my clothes for work are either new, or haven't been worn ... well, since the last time I worked in this office! ... I don't have to do any ironing ALL WEEK. Happy skippy joy! (plus, and my clothes were actually still clean when I got home last night!)

(Bollocks. There's one drawback to blogging and eating bagels for breakfast ... jam on the laptop. Oops.)