it's a picture, steve

Today Don and Joe/Frank ventured out to acquire Joe/Frank's Christmas present.

Today Joe/Frank has been occasionally using it as a prop for posing, shirtless, in front of the many mirrors in the haus, and playing discordantly.

But mostly someone other than the intended recipient has been having a good deal of fun with it.



After this evening it will be packed away until Christmas (except I suspect someone will sneak it out during quiet times).

I do love the whole single, terribly expensive combined Christmas/Birthday present, especially when someone else does the shoppering. Though I have scored the worst present task of all - ferrying the lovely Joan to ikea for her dressing table.

.

beloveds

It occurred to me today that I have known and loved and utterly adored some of my fave imaginary internet friends longer than I have known and loved and utterly adored my Fabulous Husband or any of my Real Life Pals.

Make of that what you will.



of course I have adored many imaginary pals for less long, but adore them just the same. Also if I have forgotten you, my sincere aplogies and you may curse me to some nasty place and back.

.

16/103.13 + 17/103.13 + 18/103.13 + 19/103.13

Police: Reggatta de Blanc (1979) (p.428)

Don: Pretty good

Carol: 6/10 Without Roxanne, what's the point?

Joe/Frank: 8/10 Generally a good album, picks up points for Message In A Bottle

Bessie: 7.5/10 Very good, except for the title track
===============

The Jam: All the Mod Cons (1979) (p.402)

Don: Is okay, but topical in a way I can never get.

Carol: 6.5/10 Pretty Green pushed it over the 6. Love The Jam, but there are better albums (I like to convince myself that I get it).

Joe/Frank: 7.5/10 Some parts seemed a bit "meh" and it lacks that x-factor, but still a good album/

Bessie: 7/10 Sounded good, didn't hear a lot.
===============

Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove (1978) (p.408)

Don: It grew on me on the second half.

Carol: 7/10 Would have been much less, but the second half of the album was so influential and marvellous (the first bit was mucho lamo though).

Joe/Frank: 6/10 Intriguing mix between funk and rock. Unsure whether I'd listen again.

===============
Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) (p.725)

Don: The scale cannot contain this album!

Carol: 9.975/10 Started out at 9, but Cut Your Hair and Range Life tipped it over the edge.

Joe/Frank: 8.5/10 A lot of stuff I like about music and it's got some ripping tracks on it, but some is a bit unaccessible.

===============

demanding

I had an absolutely, marvellously, brilliant birthday. It was sedate, I drank far too much wine and a fun time was had by all. By golly! I have the most wonderful family! I am an exceedingly, exceptionally lucky woman.

Joe/Frank has been encouraging (nagging) me to post on the other blog, and being the slackard I am, it looks like I've about a month to catch up on (that and all that pre-September posting - ack!).

He's also keen on an update from last night's 1001 album's project, but I think we'll wait until tomorrow. As can the food thang.

I'm nothing, if not very belatedly, dutiful.

.

planning

Viewing the approaching Big Day with some trepidation and wondering if it is time to add 10 years to my age so people who ask will react with, "no way are you that old". Fortunately I think I'm still good to go for another year because people still (thankfully) react with that comment.

I find I'm increasingly disinclined to want a huge fuss made of the event (or really desire any gifts)¹. While still occasionally hyper-critical of myself (though not constantly hyper-critical - thanks therapy!), I'm nothing but amazingly content with my lot and definitely want for nothing. Okay, I could do with a shiny, new employer and that whole health thing could use improving. Oh, and a holiday please!

So it was a simple pub lunch with Heather and NotHeather today. I'll be having another pub lunch with TeamCareerDeath next Friday (tried to have both groups at same birthday lunch last year: Did Not Work). And tomorrow sees a combined (belated) Thanksgiving/Birthday with beloved husband and beloved kidlets (turkey defrosting as I write).

And all is right with the world.

¹I'm hoping this is not viewed as martyrish by those around me, because it is not at all meant to be that way. After all, I do try very hard not to be anything remotely resembling my mother.

.

13/103.13 + 14/103.13 + 15/103.13

Am totally not going to phone-in my November daily posts with this renewed project ... except for this evening.

Van Halen: Van Halen (1978) (p.412)

Don (playing air-guitar): "Is a classic, you can't rate it".
(I think this means he likes it)

Carol: 7/10 "gods, I'm so conflicted, I don't know if I should like it ironically or whether I should sneer" /hipster

Joe/Frank: 7.5/10 "excellent air-guitar album"
=============

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976) (p.355)

Don: "Pretty Good".

Carol: 6/10 "Would have scored more if it had Refugee. Rather underwhelmed".

Joe/Frank: 6/10 "Sounds a bit MOR, but I'm probably inclined to agree with Mummy".
=============

Tom Waits: Swordfishtombone (1983) (p.506)

Don: "Still under evaluation, but generally leaning pretty good. Loving Frank's Wild Years".

Carol: 8/10 "Would listen again, suspect it is an acquired taste - but suspect I could totally acquire it".

Joe/Frank: 4.5/10 (who wrote out the following) "It's interesting, but challenging. Not really something I'd have a desire to listen to and I imagine only musical wankers will enjoy it. I can see why people appreciate it though".

=============

Now, if you are not be-dazzled by our musical reviews, enjoy a distracting snap of Don's hands taken with Bessie's Xmas camera.



DLSR FTW!

.

12/103.13

Wire: Pink Flag (1977) (p.381)

I wanted to score albums out of 10 for the revised project, but Don is all like, "no, I'm not going to rate albums like that (because of blah blah blah ... musical superiority), I'll rate it on an I like it scale".

Don gives this album an "I really like it"

I'd give it an 8/10. Is really pretty good.

Joe/Frank also scores it 8/10, he thinks it is pretty good too.

.

10/103.13 + 11/103.13

Remember back at the beginning of 2008 when I bought Don the "1001 albums you must hear before you die"?



And how we were planning to listen to 13% of them during that year?

And how we only listened to, like, 9 of them before the project went into hiatus?

Well, Don has a new enthusiasm (and new super-computer - and has hooked it up to the amp) and we're back on board the 1001-albums train (and since 2008, some delightful soul has made a torrent of all the albums - not that we would condone that sort of thing at all, downloading is bad, kiddies!).

So tonight, we've crossed off:

Bruce Springsteen: Born in the USA (1984) (p.528)

Haircut 100: Pelican West (1982) (p.494)

And, my goodness, we'll do our best to knock over the remainder of the 1001.

.

artful

Don spent a not-quite-small-fortune on a camera for my last birthday and while it is teh awesome for taking snaps, it does not measure up to the DSLR in photo quality. Unfortunately the DSLR is ENORMOUS and is quite cumbersome, so we rarely use it.

Given that lately Bessie is photography crazed, we've been busting out the DSLR a little more and had a blast and taking family snaps last Saturday evening (which saw much air-guitar and dancing about).





We felt like photo-journalists, albeit somewhat drunken photo-journalists. The output has been tres fab though (I foresee prints slipped in with various Christmas gifts).

.

waiting

I promise not to evangelise too much more about my beloved kindle, but it was with great sadness that I returned the rattling kindle (Rattly) to Amazon last week and we, once again, became a single kindle haushold.

Don, who originally turned up his pretty nose at e-book readers, quickly boarded the kindle adoration train when he had one for his exclusive use (while I was sorting the logistics of the return) and was coveting one of his very own.

So, verily, I ordered one for him and was aghast to find that delivery would be 2-3 months!! This compared to the 4 days it took mine to arrive. It would seem that everyone is getting aboard for Christmas.

Curses! I knew I should have kept Rattly and simply cracked the case to return that loose screw to its rightful position.

I did include a rather dishy case for NotRattly in the order - which did arrive in 3 days.





I ordered a case for Don too - which he can now hold and pretend it contains his new kindle and his half-read book.

.

being jolly

With the season almost upon us, we've made many Christmas-related decisions this weekend.

Christmas Menu: goose! Radical because 1. we have to order a goose (never having ordered any sort of foodstuff before), and 2. we have to establish how to actually cook one (Joan's Nigella book is proving helpful in this regard).

Gifts:
Joan: an entire day devoted to schlepping about inner-city second-hand furniture stores - where we hope to purchase a mid-century-modern dressing table
Joe/Frank: Electric Guitar + amp
Bessie: DSLR + camera course (camera acquired last evening!)

Don and I? No gifts required!
Except for that camera course Don will take with Bessie (and if I don't complete that accursed jumper by Christmas, holy goodness, I will unravel it!)

.

qwerty

Given that we've donated mucho $$ worth of stuff to St Vinnies over the past month, it was payback time!

Bessie and I ventured out today to see what karma would reward us with. And verily, while I had no success, Bessie achieved hipster Nirvana:


Portable typewriter!

It did take some doing to re-thread the ribbon. Really should have taken a photo before I un-ravelled it.


The consequence of vaguely remembering how things were threaded.


Finally - re-threaded!!
(Photo for remembering the threading methodology for later)




Message to my beloved.
Teaching Bess that one can type on anything with a typewriter.

.

placeholder

This is me not posting.

.

we did what?

Joe/Frank has spent this week at the campus he'll be attending for Year 11 and 12 - about 5 minutes walk (exciting because he can sleep in), and last evening, Don and I headed out to a "parent orientation evening".

We had no idea what to expect and joked about being offered wine.

But goodness me, there was wine!

I blame that for making us sign up for the P&C.

.

envy

Astute readers will probably have guessed that one of those "Congratulations Baby" banners was congratulating Don on his fabulous new job!


Obscure cartoonal reference.

NuJob is closer to home (no more hideous parking costs)! Closer to me! We'll be able to occasionally have lunch together! Good times ahoy!

There's a currently bit of an exodus at EasternSuburbsPowerDrinkers. Not quite akin to those heady times at the SaltMinesLimited (where we were almost at 90% turnover - hence the erstwhile MarieCeleste moniker), but ever-so-slowly heading in that direction.

One of Don's fave colleagues left today after ten years with ESPD(!) to stay at home full-time with her very small adorable son. I totally blog-stalk her¹ and loved an amazingly touching post she wrote about the woman who has been a huge influence on, and mentored her throughout, her career.

That sort of experience is a rare and wonderful thing. I can't think of anyone even remotely mentor-ish in my life - apart from DishyBoss who has mostly taught me not to give a fuck about the politics at the SaltMinesLimited, which isn't really working out very well career-wise for him at the moment, but despite that, he's quite impressively chillaxed.

Though really, on reflection, chillaxed is a quite brilliant lesson indeed.

¹No links, we don't want worlds colliding!

.

on being a grown-up

"Why do you feel you need to be doing something productive at every moment and feel guilty and stressed when you aren't?"

Thus spake my lovely husband this evening (or words to that effect).

And he is correct as usual, I have been experiencing an undue (and honestly, quite irrational) amount of stress recently about my lack of output in the non-werk arena. I'm plenty inclined, just rarely have any follow-through, so I'm feeling rather GRAR and under-achieverish.¹

Of course, when I take a step-back and look at it objectively and engage the brain, I realise that I do actually achieve many, many things and I am in fact, pretty gosh-darned awesome and that really, I should just chill the hell out.

Because I am only just becoming aware that being go-go-go all the time is not entirely optimal, that it is more of a challenge (confronting even) and can be quite marvellous indeed to just sit quietly and revel in doing absolutely nothing.

I feel as though I should insert some sort of soft-focus, stock image here, such as one might find on one of those personal improvement blogs. Just imagine one. Someone on a beach perhaps. Or maybe a stream. Or rocks, they'd be good.


¹The InformationSuperhighway in general and certain super-creative, super-foodie, super-parent, super-fashion-maven blogs in particular are not good reading-fodder at times like this.

.

freaky powers

I have inadvertently discovered the mystical and magical combination of forces required to absolutely ensure rainfall:

1. Spray Pest Oil on garden
   
2. Plan to walk home from the SaltMinesLimited

Simple really.

.

pause

We managed to achieve a good deal this weekend, despite the quite enervating heat.

• Hauswerk completed.
  
• The majority of the garage cleaning completed (alas, there was no power-point lurking behind the cupboard).
  
• More books/clothes/toys delivered to St Vinnies.
  
• Non St Vinnies cast-offs put on footpath (as I write there is only one item left)
  
• New artwork delivered and hung
  
  
  
• Quite lovely and rather romantic dinner enjoyed.
  
• Herbs+spices re-containerised and alphabetised.
  
  
  
  
• Impromptu Thai lunch devoured.
  
• Clives read.
  
• Garden fertilised and watered.
  
• Napping achieved.
  
• Paella consumed.
  
  
  And, most importantly,
  
  
• Work avoided.

.

excuses

Can't blog.

Too full of 7 course degustation with matching wines.

Mmmmmmmmmmm........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

.

we'll make the space

NanoBloPoMo = fail.

I missed posting yesterday, but free booze and art and a fabulous date with my husband kind of distracted me.

I really did mean to post, but unfortunately my fingers were too fat and I lacked the requisite dialing wand to post in any sort of coherent manner.

Yes, it was ArtSydney time! And yes, of course, as is our tradition, we did drunkenly purchase new artwork.

There was an absolutely sickening amount of (etsy-style) whimsy and wistfulness this year. We bought from the only artist we absolutely and utterly adored in the whole place and who was super-super-lovely. And how could you go past an artist named Carol? Who was born in the same hospital as my good self!

I am so pleased that our art collection (such as it is) is not from artists with tortured, wanktastic artist statements and are people we really, genuinely like ('tho, truth be told, we've only met 3/5, but we're convinced the ones we have not met must be lovely).

Delivery is tomorrow - now we just have to find a space for it (with all the mirrors in this place, hanging room is at a premium).

Oh! And must contact my lovely personal banker for contents insurance update (whoever would have thought I'd be in the position to have both a personal banker and art worth insuring?!?)

Pix to come.

.

productive

Speech therapy for Joe/Frank today and because of the incredibly inclement weather, I chose not to take my usual walk around Balmain.


Usual delightful every-second-Wednesday view from my walk about Balmain.

(As an aside, it was really wonderful to hear that Joe/Frank is progressing marvellously and is doing much better than SpeechTherapist ever imagined. Yay!)

So instead of walking, I worked.

In the car!


Don's retired laptop in GerryScotti.

Really all I needed to be all connected and such was to tether the iPhone. I failed to do this however, as I did not plan ahead (as it was, I just checked my email with the iPhone). Nonetheless, it was pretty effective, albeit rather squishy.

A++ would work from car again.

.

punished for competence

Was going to post at length about how I walked out in fury the middle of a meeting with DishyBoss and TeamCareerDeath today because of the ridiculous disparity in workloads, but will save the sordid details for another time - primarily because I my mental health really doesn't need a rehash.

After a protracted discussion afterward, things have been somewhat sorted. Although the disparity has not been addressed in any way at all, the 12+ weeks of work I was expected to fit into three weeks have been more realistically distributed - over 8 weeks. Whereas Anxious Mum still has approximately 2 weeks (allowing for several hours of phone calls and internet browsing per day) work between now and year end.

I don't anticipate that this issue will not raise its ugly head again. Possibly before the end of the year because DishyBoss is mucho spineless and is really keen on inaction.

Perhaps I really do need to polish that resume.

.

enslavement

While I really enjoy working from home three afternoons a week, I find that it has an effect that I really did not anticipate: I'm working much longer hours than I really should.

There's very much a nudge, nudge, wink, wink "oh yeah, working from home" segment of the SaltMinesLimited and I know the CEO is not very on board that train (it was a shock to all when I received approval), so I feel very much the need to prove myself. Often I'll be beavering away at a spreadsheet and look up and it will be 7.30pm. Unfortunately, I'm mostly working through lunch too because things are rather crazy-busy for me at present.

All this would be well and good if there was a culture of this sort of thing at the SaltMines, but there isn't in any shape or form.

So it really, really needs to stop!

For example, this evening, rather than churning out pretty graphs, I could have been: hanging out with Don and Joe/Frank, starting the neck-band on Don's interminable jumper, de-cluttering moar, organising our tax info, cooking a cake, fertilizing the garden, completing my current clive, plucking my eyebrows, forcing Joe/Frank to do his speech therapy homework, masking my face, napping, sewing a skirt, cleaning, poking myself in the eye ... anything-ing other than working!

So I will be attempting to slacken off a bit and force myself to do walk away from the computer at 6pm.

.

treasure

Today Bessie and I made a brief foray into tackling the garage.

There were a good number of stuffed animals and many children's books to be packed up (hopefully destined for new, loving homes) - though of course we saved our favourites. There was, inexplicably, a box containing a costume Joan wore to her work Xmas party 3 years ago. And, of course, there were several unused electrical items. There were also abundant university essays from 1996/97 (I am completely unclear why I was hanging on to those).

Once done, there will hopefully be a very pleasing amount of room, where we would love to put a freezer, but lacking a power-point (that we are able to find), at least room for one of those roof pods for GerryScotti's camping adventures.

But best of all there were a stack of gorgeous mother's day cards from past years (bundled carefully and wrapped to within an inch of their lives)- of course these were not going anywhere but upstairs to be enjoyed by everyone. We all agreed that while Joan's and Bessie's cards are awesome, the highlights are Joe/Frank's.

Dear Mum,
I love you.
Thank You for [unintelligible] every fortnight.
From your loving son, Joe/Frank
PS. Where can I hide the Mothers Day card?
===============
Dear Mum,
I here to say I <3 you. I love you because

• You're a great mother
  
• You care for all the things that I do
  
• You're never cross on me
  
• I'm asking you these questions as well:
  • How's work___________
    
  • How's the tipping going__________

===============

What delightful sprogs I have!

.

from little things big things grow

Back in the day, we planted various random fruit seeds in small containers to see what would happen. Many, many failed, but there were some successes.




from April 2007

Now's the time to revist:


Mangoes: Going swimmingly


Avocado! Planted much later, mentioned here. Thought I had an embryonic photo, but am stuffed if I can locate it.

I think I treasure these wee trees more than I do the proper plants we've bought and nutured.

.

fail

Was planning a token blog post (for NaBloPoMo - shout-out to curious and haze who suckered me in) with a random snap from my iphone. Whereupon I realised I don't actually have any random snaps from the iphone - gone are those delightful days where I wandered about taking random artful photos.

Work with me while I grapple with this.

Grappling ...

So, as a part of the beating myself up for not doing stuff, I've decided to check where I'm at re: those resolutions (which are not resolutions) from January and which I've completely forgotten about.

• 2010 will be the big year of hard core savererering. No more puzzling at what happened to the YTD earned when we look at our pay slips - because it will mostly all be going into the bank.
  That operation kind of got in the way. FAIL
  
• Compleat Don's sweater before the end of January. Keep up with the knitting (loving it - thanks again for the push, my beloved Harriet). Aim toward a garment a month (fortunately, hats can be considered garments).
  FAIL
  
• Accept that I am not going to learn Italian any time soon, but that I will definitely return to Roma in the not to distant future (despite not chucking any euro-cents in the Trevi Fountain).
  Planned to take babies to Rome at Xmas. FAIL.
  
• Keep on silkscreening and learn the photo-emulsion method.
  FAIL
  
• Make that quilt I've been planning (and have had the fabric for) for the past 7 years.
  FAIL. Are we seeing a pattern here?
  
• Sew at least one article of clothing - preferably that skirt
  FAIL
  
• Extend adjectival vocab (yes, I know) carried forward - for the last several years
  FAIL
  
• Get the hell out of Marie Celeste at a reasonable time each day
  FAIL
  
• Stop swearing. I know, y'all have fallen down at that one. I do think it unbecoming of a woman of my advanced age.
  OH FUCK NO! FAIL
  
• Keep up the most excellent work at the gym.
  Quit Gym last month. FAIL
  
• Continue with my reading project - so far has been a hoot! After the Live & Let Die memoir, I love Roger Moore even more (ha!) than I would have thought possible. And cannot quite believe I've not read Ngaio Marsh for a whole year, but is true - my goodness that year did go fast </old lady>.
  Distracted by Clive. FAIL
  
• A Big Project - details of which will be revealed at a later time.
  FAIL. That would be the plans for the baby. So very glad we didn't go down that route.

Well, that was uplifting!

I did have an unblogged un-resolution item which was "always wear oven gloves when near the oven". I am pleased to note that thus far I AM FULL OF UN-BURNED FINGERS & WIN!

<edited to reformat, it was hurting my eyes>

.

and in charge

As a celebratory gift for something I am unable to mention at this stage, Don bought himself a new computer, primarily because CIV 5 was a little sluggish but also because it was overheating and randomly crashing (possibly as a result of the bottle of beer that it swam in a good while back).

I think I've previously mentioned our increasing lack of enthusiasm for laptops, which are horrible, crashy, breaky things. So desktops are where it is at for us henceforth.

The computer was ordered on Sunday and arrived yesterday, thanks to the fab folks at auspcmarket (superbly serving the family for years and years).

Let us take a brief moment to compare our machines, shall we?


My computer: 11 x 25 x 25 (cm) with two drive bays (one for DVD one for HD) and I have no idea how much it weighs, but it is not a lot.


Don's computer: 51.4 x 20.5 x 51.4 x 59 (cm) with eleven drive bays and 16.25kg unstuffed¹.

Is pushing CRAY dimensions.

And they say I'm the computer nerd.

¹I don't even want to talk about the cpu, ram and hard drives contained within.

.

not hoarding

The decluttering/minimalising is going along quite pleasingly (and I've not yet missed anything I've ridded us from).


This was the latest bunch of donations to St Vinnies which we dropped off on Sunday.

Call me a philistine if you will, but because of the fabulously brilliant kindle, I've happily dispensed with many, many of the volumes I had been holding on to in the event that I might want to read them again (after having located an electronic version first, of course).

When we eventually take the garage plunge (I keep putting if off because it will take half a day and who really wants to spend even a little of their weekend that way?) there will be several additional boxes of books and other emphemera for St Vinnies. And hopefully more room for the camping equipment and suitcases (and not much else!) as a result.

I really do get not a little delight from being utterly ruthless. If only I could apply this to other areas of my life. Work for example.

.

'topes win! 'topes win!

(let's try that again ...)

While I did not get to see the game and was in a meeting for the last 3 innings (and I am a Rockies fan - go The Todd!) ... YAY! for Don's fave sports team, who won the World Series today!


Wearing The Hat of Victory!

Since they've been in the post-season, we've been experiencing Giants games via the various media (we've appropriated the InformationSuperhighway radio from Joe/Frank for the kitchen) in the haus.

This is the first time I've experienced American radio advertising and the highlight has been the very, very, very quickly spoken disclaimers at the end of each, often longer than the actual advertisements themselves.

Which would explain some of those Simpsons references.

.