All these things that I have done
Things achieved this weekend
- Radiator in my study fixed
- New Roomba battery ordered
- 1.5tb drive for Fry ordered
- New futon cushion for our sofa ordered
- Bin for compostables bought (to replace series of random skanky plastic containers) and lined with biodegradable rubbish bag
- Removed out of date anti-virus and replaced it with free in-date one from Alex's work (great workplace perk!)
- Xmas pressies for Dad purchased
- Xmas pressies for brother purchased
- Xmas pressies for sister-in-law purchased
- Part of Xmas pressies for Mum purchased
- OU course for next year picked out (along with about 6 others I don't have time for!) but heroically not signed up for yet to allow people to buy me OU vouchers for Xmas if they want.
- Amazon wish list updated to facilitate purchase of Xmas pressies for me by other people.
- Lampshade for our bedroom purchased and installed
- New, brighter bulb for living room lamp purchased and installed
Seriously, that first one makes me so happy! With a bit of help from the internet and Alex, all it needed was unscrewing the thermostat, some WD40 on the pin and a little bit of firm pressure to release it and now I am warm in the cat cave again! Lots of these look like really small things but are actually little jobs that I have just not been getting around to for ages and ages and ages so it's really pleasing to have actually got them done.
The OU website is so addictive! I spent about an hour planning out qualifications I could take. I want to take enough second year courses to fill the requirements for 2 degrees! Still, one step at a time, so I'm going for a first year philosophy course which looks really interesting and doesn't involve an exam to get myself back into it. I also spent a certain amout of time being very amused how many of the shows I remember from my childhood can now be bought as complete sets from Amazon. I guess the nostalgia market is alive and well. Have added the Mysterious Cities of Gold DVD to my wish list :)
Well, despite the onset of PMT closely followed by, well, MT, I have actually managed to be reasonably productive this weekend. Mostly what I've been doing is taking advantage of Alex having disassembled the spare bed to turn the spare bedroom into an office for me. I spent a very pleasant few hours measuring items of furniture scheduled to remain and fixtures before drawing up a plan in Gliffy (I always have to have a plan. When I was about 13, I made a scale drawing of my bedroom with all the furniture as cut-outs I could move around and stick on with blu-tack, the better to plan my periodic furniture moves.) When I finally found some furniture I liked and a layout that would work, I was seized with a sudden urgent desire to just buy the stuff now and actually drove out to Ikea on Saturday evening to pick up the bits.
We built the shell of the desk when I got back on Saturday night and I did the drawers, doors and office chair this morning. Since then I've been tying away on my laptop at plans for lessons next week and taking breaks by clearing up the room and sorting out some of the things that need to be freecycled. I always find it interesting that one of the fundamental differences between Alex and I is that I enjoy tidying up - I find it restful and pleasing - and he not only doesn't but has such a visceral reaction to it that he can't understand how I possibly can.
So now I have a desk. And Things in their Right Places. This is good. And I have got over what should be the worst of the (P)MT on a weekend so should be all ready to be nice to my class next week. We'll see how it goes :)
Went out to see Stardust last night - first film I've seen in ages. I actually rather enjoyed it, although it was marred by the end of the final confrontation making no sense as far as I could see. Other than that and the usual amount of o.O at the behaviour of the female characters, it was good - nice amount of sass, very pretty and so on. The only thing was, it wouldn't have taken much to make it really good. Still, not a bad way to break the duck.
Have managed to put together all my flat-packs from the weekend so now I need to figure out what's going on freecycle and what's going in a corner somewhere for the new extension of the future. Annoyingly, they still haven't restocked my TV table according to the website so I don't know if I'll be able to collect it at the weekend. On the other hand, we may not have the new TV by then anyway.
Life update
I see that in my posting fit on Friday, I failed to mention the fact that I did my history exam on Thursday! Yes, it is finally all over and I think I did pretty well. I got lucky with question selection and think I produced a pretty creditable pair of essays and source questions at least up to my usual standard. I didn't end up feeling I should have worked harder or anything so I think even if I only get a grade 2 pass (I definitely didn't bomb it) I'll be happy that I did my best and gave myself the best chance of a distinction I could.
After the exam was over, Alex and I decided to have curry for dinner (well that was mostly me, but he agreed :)). We ordered and I watched some Location, Location, Location while we waited. The doorbell rang, I paused the computer and got the curry and then sat down to a blank screen! Our first instinct was to blame the computer. We fiddled with the connection, changed the wire & rebooted with no joy. Eventually we decided we must have somehow shafted the graphics card and decided to watch a video. I connected that to the scart and we then discovered that it wasn't the computer, it was the scart socket on the TV :( We managed to watch a video over the old fashioned aerial connection but now we need a new TV as all our other tech will only communicate via SCART, unfortunately. TVs have got a lot more complicated since I last bought one as well. Any recommendations? Brands to avoid?
Saturday was Jeremy and Jo Go To Ikea day! It was fun, and productive but extremely exhausting. I came back with a car literally completely packed with stuff, 2 items I hadn't managed to collect (sofa and TV table - the original items I was looking for :)) and a vision of the living room and how it's actually going to work and be transformed into a really nice room (Alex looks at me like I'm odd when I start squeaking about my rocking chair :)). Also, complete crockery set so that all our stuff will match and other miscellaneous bits and bobs which are of win. Of course my living room currently looks like a bomb has hit it because it's full of flat packs but I'll work on that tonight.
Sunday we went over for lunch with Sadie & Tim and managed to get onto the "shocking people with films I have never seen" game :) They were particularly shocked by Casablanca so after we'd eaten and drunk we repaired to the living room for a double bill - Airplane followed by Casablanca. Airplane was kind of fun in a silly way (and funnier by recognising bits from a House ep where he has to treat people on a flight). Casablanca was awesome. I had somehow managed to not know the story at all, just the famous quotes so I came to it completely fresh and had to have a little cry at the end, it was so sad. I was fascinated by the fact that it was made during the war, which to me made it more poignant because no-one writing or seeing it knew how the world situation would turn out - they really could have been stuck in Casablanca forever. Also, there's presumably a propaganda motive in there too - showing an American in the centre of the action, making a heroic sacrifice for the good of the war effort must have been a popular message.
I see that the Truck lineup is up (you have to click on the guy with the sign board in the middle of the page - lame, I know). Most of the regulars are there, although no sign of Fell City Girl this year, to my disappointment - I always like my late afternoon FCG. Still, looks like fun. I haven't been to a lot of gigs this year so there's quite a few names here I only recognise from other people's reviews. I feel sure I do know Idlewild, although I can't bring any of their songs to mind right now.
My plans for this weekend include a BBQ and a picnic. Looking at the forcast, I somehow doubt that I'm going to manage that! Actually, with the remains of the post Glastonbury cold still clinging on, I'm considering just staying at home - I don't think I could face being stuck at Didcot with the railway lines flooded out and given how suceptible our public transport is to that kind of stuff, I just don't have the energy. I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow - this has been receding so maybe I'll be more energetic tomorrow.
I'll need to be if we're going out because the house is in a bit of a state. Drying washing and tent as well as piles of to be washed and books and all the other various bits of our luggage spread across the place! And on top of that there is my course books and all the post I haven't processed yet - I got back from Glastonbury to find that I have 20 credit points from my first two courses! I was amazed that it took as long to mark my sociology course as it did for me to take and then have marked my science course! Hopefully my history exam (arg!) when I get it won't be anything like long to wait. I also got the sample paper in the post but I'm trying not to read the notes so that I can try to do the questions under timed conditions and then read over the notes and see where I need more work. Once I've got my slavery essay out of the way, that is.
Visitor
So, while tidying the kitchen this morning, I heard what I thought was a rustling sound coming from the fridge. I gave it a suspicious stare, but decided that it was just things settling inside as I had just rearranged it. However, when Charlie started taking an indecent amount of interest in the gap down the side it was time to reconsider and staring fixedly down the side showed a little mouse dashing across.
For this, I blame Cassie as she used to bring live mice in a lot more frequently than dead ones so I should have guessed that she would have managed to do it a time or two here. Usually she keeps hold of them and brings them right over to me, possibly hoping to train me to hunt, but I guess this time she must have become distracted and dropped the damn thing in the kitchen.
( Alex tries to extract the mice - click for amusing pics! )
The upshot of it all is that
(a) we have a mouse in our kitchen
(b) the fridge still appears to be working and has now been pushed right back into the alcove to allow the cats enough of a gap to hunt in the area (I'm pretty much betting on them chasing it out where I can get at it)
(c) I need a humane mousetrap and
(d) we have finally found Ruth's missing D12, which had been chased under the fridge by the cats in times past, apparently. There's also the big D20 and a pink D20 under there but we couldn't get at them.
Finally made it to Norwich after somewhat hellish journey involving closed roads and diversions via roadworks. Managed to do some sucessful shopping though, including some beautiful, if somewhat expensive curtain rail fixings for the bay window in our bedroom. I'm almost nervous about putting them up now!
I just love watching Relocation, Relocation. I love looking at what other people do with their houses. I love this house, particularly this living room; I really need to get on with doing the work I want to do here. I ought to at least get our bedroom finished - it's really close, after all.
We had a builder round this evening to talk about the whole extension thing and give some very rough ball park figures. He's a friend of a friend apparently and actually lives on our road, both of which are great recommendations and actually, we really hit it off. It made me feel much more hopeful about the project as a whole - I think we could manage it, although we'd be pushing things. It'd be worth it though.
Since Alex fixed the roof of the conservatory I actually quite like sitting in here when it rains. The sound on the roof is really loud (because the roof is made of corrugated plastic, for those of you who haven't seen this) but I like that. I like the sense of being safe indoors while the elements rage. I guess the fact that it used to be so leaky exacerbates that even more. When we have the extension done, gone will be this simple pleasure, I guess, but to be replaced with a whole range of other pleasures :) We've asked the architect to make drawings and he's coming over tomorrow lunchtime to take measurements & photos of what's here already.
I'm just having a bit of a relax, having finished the mad hoover and clean-up of doom, for we have Alex's sister and her man staying over after Ben's gig this evening. And this requires a more than usually thorough job as Jo is allergic to cats (amongst lots of other things!) so I've been scouring the spare room (usually the province of Cassie) to within an inch of it's life. I suspect she's still going to need anti-histamines though.
Currently, both cats have joined me to watch me write. Cassie has bagged a spot that Charlie usually uses when I'm hanging out in here (the canvas bag that came with my OU opennings course - Charlie has a big thing for sitting on bags) and Charlie is wandering round sniffing at everything, trying to decide on a second choice for curling up.
Squee! Emailed an architect and got an actual response and now have arranged a meeting for Monday after we get home from Norfolk. The extension project may be on it's way!
- [when | 7th January 2007]
- [mood |
tired] - [music | Why do I keep counting? - The Killers]
- [under | house]
Well, we've done it. We've alphabetized the fiction collection. As this involved a lot of going up and down stairs with piles of books, I am now wiped out, but that's OK. There is also an actual increase in clutter because the extracted non-fiction and multiple author stuff is all higgledy-piggledy on the bed in the spare room. I'm saving that for next weekend :)
Still, it is rather satisfying to look at Eco next to Eddings and think "Yes, that's exactly right" :P
Well, domestic weekend going fine so far, although I had been hoping to get out into the garden a little bit. Ah well, maybe tomorrow. We de-duplicated the Pratchett today before Alex went to Oxfam, which will give us a bit of slack in our bookshelves. I'm sure no household really needs 3 copies of Interesting Times, after all! Turns out we're only missing 2 Discworld books of those in paperback, which is not bad.
The trouble with being domestic on a Saturday afternoon is that there's no good radio after the World at 1. You're stuck with Any Questions and Any Answers, which are unbearable and then the Saturday play, which is rarely my kind of thing (although listening to a few recent afternoon plays has changed my opinions of the possibilities of radio drama). Today I've been listening to Sams Town again. This was one of Alex's Christmas presents that we were both really pleased with. We had it on while we were driving to London in our Christmas round trip and it's definitely a grower - nothing really hit me the first time round then the second time (long drive), I started to get into Read My Mind and Uncle Jonny. This time, I've been enjoying pretty much all of it and I think it's actually more like the first album than I thought - the big anthemic sound is still in there when you listen. Highly recommended.
Planning and prioritizing
Well, I got in touch with a couple of architects today to set the ball rolling on our possible extension (yes, Mum, you can start squeeing now :) ), which is very exciting. And I contacted 2 people about floorboard restoration yesterday.
( what floorboards? )
But I digress. Anyway. The point is that the New Year seems to have put me into a kind of spring cleaning mode and things which I've been meaning to do for quite a bit have started to get done again. Unfortunatly, I let my list kind of pile up in December so there's quite a bit of stuff that I've either started or definitely committed to do which needs to get done:
- Opal for Scrapbook - this was
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camomiletea's treat for halloween so I really ought to pull my finger out!
- Brownie planning for this term (arranged for next Weds)
- Bills for Jan (really must do this tonight!)
- Cancel Sky subscription (this really ought to be easy!)
- Review finances re. extension project. Start making plans to move/re mortgage (to get good rate again).
- 2 more gifts for sekrit bunneh (should be easy - just have to remember to take posting time into account)
- Read chap 5 of course book. Decide which essay to do for second OU assignment.
- Do Brownies accounts for last term. Pay last terms rent. Call parents of Brownies we have places for now.
- Shop for Xmas coat with Alex
- Collect or arrange for visitor to bring chest of drawers for bedroom from Norfolk
I've been thinking about making one of those coloured timetable thingies assigning each of my evenings to one of my different project (Brownies, Support, house, etc) but actually, that's just a way for me to procrastinate and I wouldn't stick to it anyway - I wouldn't manage anything rigid. I do need to spread my energy better though - I tend to get all involved in one area and let the others tread water. Perhaps just try to make sure each area with pending tasks gets one evening in my week where I spend a little time on it.
Day 2
So, as my brief post from yesterday indicated I plan to make a post per day to my LJ this year. It will be interesting to see how that survives contact with (for example) Glastonbury but it's worth a shot. I reserve the right to do 2 word posts on slow days though :)
Looking back at last year's resolutions, I'm not doing too badly there. The routine thing started well but didn't really stick but up until the last month I would have said I'd got a lot better at making sure things didn't slip through the net. Still worth working on that one. All the others have actually been pretty much achieved, which is a nice thought.
This year is going to be the big party so of course I want to organise that and see it go sucessfully. I want to pass my OU course and choose my next one. I want to find out how feasible it would be to start a Guide company and, if possible, get it going. I want to keep more on top of the housework and keep the house looking nice all year round. I want to make better use of the time between getting home from work and when we eat (which has expanded this year as Alex gets home much later than me). I want to start playing my violin again (possibly in the early evening time) and to pass on my cello to someone who will actually get use out of it as, much as I love it, I just don't play it. I want to commission the extension from an architect
I also want to do something about my weight but I'm hesitant about making that an actual resolution because I currently feel rather powerless about the whole thing. I haven't found any strategies in the whole of my period of trying to lose weight (about 5 years now) which I've been able to maintain in the long term. Still, I do plan to go back to my doctor this year and see if she can make any suggestions for what I could do. I also plan to go to the gym after work for a workout once a week. That will need to be straight after work as my gym membership only allows entry until 5:30 and I find lunchtimes are not long enough for me to do a proper workout on the machines. I should be able to find at least one evening per week though. I also plan to cycle to work as much as possible - Fridays are out because of Brownies but other than that only heavy rain or the combination of a strong wind with a very heavy cold (as then I can't breathe enough) are allowed to deter me. Fingers crossed, I guess!
Missing
So it was going to have been a really nice weekend. My parents arrived on Friday evening as planned, we headed into town and had a very pleasant dinner in the resturant at QI. We did fail to watch QI though as the TV didn't record it - did anyone watch it on BBC4, and if so, what was the topic as I'm assuming the machine thought it was a repeat. Then Saturday, we got down to it and started work on painting our bedroom in white (ceiling and down to picture rail) and lilac/purple below. Which looks very nice, despite Mum's initial reservations.
It also took much less time than we anticipated so we were able to make a fairly leisurly weekend of it. I introduced Dad to Dinnerladies (which I love to bits) and we got out my old I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again tapes. All jolly nice. On Sunday, I did roast chicken for the first time ever, which came out very nicely although I'm always worried about whether I carve enough meat for people. Still, all seemed to be enjoyed.
A pall, however, was cast over the weekend when I realised just as Mum and Dad were heading off that I hadn't seen Cassie at all on Sunday. That is very unlike her - normally she is very vocal and attentive for at least one meal per day, although she may turn up late for others and so to see not a sign was rather unnerving. I spent the rest of the evening trying not to worry and watching TV as well as checking all our cupboards, shed, other possible and impossible cat hiding places but still no sign, even this morning :( Hopefully she's just been minouing about out there and has perhaps managed to provide her own dinner with hunting prowess (she does at least have a track record of having caught things before, after all) but still I fuss because she is only little. Keep your fingers crossed for her turning up tonight...
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