fred_mouse

• slept until 11. Piked on park run. Didn't go walk around the lake instead because Artisanat was heading off dancing at 1pm.
• I've been stashing adverts for jobs that didn't sound dreadful in a tab group; today I cleaned it out with a goal of keeping three to apply to this week. I'm no longer stressed enough to consider McDonalds as a viable option, which is nice. I did look through what is on offer at Woolies, even though I don't trust them as an organisation. (I didn't actually get to three, but the goal for the week is to apply to no more than three; I did clear out about half).
• illiadic came past on their way home from Tai Chi. I'd offered them one kids bath toy for their grandling, and the half a garden clam shell. Sadly, when I dug the clam shell out, it turned out to not be safe for little fingers, so i'm going to do something else with it. The bath toy though was a good one, and we managed to find several other items that they were happy to take with them (moose pop up puppet, domino train, a stack of little kid books).
• Middlest and W came for dinner; this is the first family dinner we've done together in a while - we'd lost the habit of it before Middlest moved out. We went through the DS/3DS games and I have a stack to rehome; we went through a basket of things to see what they might want (and the other kids also went through). I'm not sure what else we decluttered, but there was something.

Stated goals were 'get currently reading list under 20' and 'do some craft'. I didn't state 'have an administrators meeting', catch up with M, or 'accidentally join an orchestra'. The first two were on the required list, and the last wasn't even on the horizon.

Reading: Finished the last couple of chapters of two books yesterday; read a lot of one of the library books over yesterday and today. Plus marking as read one I'd finished in the middle of the week. And so I have 19 books on my currently reading list.

Craft: during the online administrators meeting, there was enough time where I needed to focus but didn't have anything specific to be doing, so I pulled out the lowest energy knitting project and cast on. This is 30 stitch squares, and I either do stockinette or garter, depending what catches my fancy, until it is square. I'm doing these on size four needles, and have had a sudden sinking moment that I was previously doing them on size 5, so they aren't going to match. purrdence, if you see this, is it going to matter? Over the meeting, and listening to one and a half episodes of the Ditch Diggers podcast, I finished one square.

Orchestra: M, Artisanat, and I met at the Canning River Cafe for brunch, then went for an amble. M brought small dog (small variant poodle, but I can never remember which size is which), who had a lovely time wandering along and sniffing things. Saw the smallest skink I ever remember on the path (about 2cm long) and shuffled it off the path. And we got to talking, and M talked about missing swing dancing, and Artisanat will let them know when the next social gathering is, and then talked about joining a beginners orchestra. Who are in need of a viola player, because they only have the one. And they rehearse two suburbs north of here, and I reckon I could fit that in to my life. So, hopefully, I'm off to investigate an orchestra tomorrow night! I've pulled out the viola, and found the replacement string, and found my shoulder rest (and discovered that the rubber has all perished so it has lackey bands around the grips) and the good viola bow, and strung the viola, and tuned it about four times, and done just enough playing to be confident that my hand spacing is currently set to viola and not violin. And tomorrow, I have to relearn how to read a c clef. Bah.

Today is better. I made the considered decisions to go in to work for a half day for my day off; to count the hour of work I did yesterday, and apply for sick leave for the rest of the day; and to not schedule anything specific for the afternoon beyond 'come home and rest'. So far, so good -- I'm flopped on the bed eating lunch and reading whatever I have open in browser windows.

Languages in Medieval England (Gillian Polack, Ph.D.) -- mediaevalist and author Gillian Polack is a long time friend of mine, and I support their Patreon so that I can be alerted to what they are writing.

Experimental blood test accurately spots fibromyalgia - the video at the top summarises the text but does not have closed captioning that I could find. This is an interesting pilot, in that it shows different marker patterns between three conditions. What it doesn't show is what the pattern looks like in an unaffected control group. content note: use of 'blind' not referring to visual disability.

Assorted film reviews at Fiction Machine -- reviewer Grant Watson is a long time friend, and I support their Patreon, so I know about all their film reviews, of which there are many (seriously, I couldn't write that many reviews in a week, let alone watch the movies!)

I have been flat tack this weekend, and not dealing with sleeping very well, so have ended up napping this arvo, which is out of character.

Yesterday - slept late. Went skating (artisanat, Youngest, Middlest, and myself) with friend Cricket; finally cracked on the 'need to get my skate fitting checked', and have spent more of my tax return money* on new skates (but ooooh, they feel good -- my little toe, the damaged one, felt okay! Different brand, heavily discounted). Home for a brief lunch/lie down; headed to friend S's to help with tidying/decluttering -- came home with a pair of runners for me, a hoodie for youngest, and some chocolate. Did more reading, then noodled on the internet. I only had the one coffee (in the morning) so my excuse that my bad going-to-sleep pattern of some of this week was related to caffeine intake is shown to be an excuse, and I should stop it.

Today - slept not as late as yesterday, but got startled awake and as such was a tad on the grumpy side for a while. Family pootled down to Freo, I collected the book that was waiting for me, and we had burgers. This took longer than expected, so we were late getting to the Fannish Olympics organised in Kings Park. Fun enough afternoon. One of the many J's and I won the water balloon egg and spoon three legged race, mostly by dint of being the only pair who didn't drop our water balloon and have to go back for a second. Home again, planned to do more reading, slept instead. Am now attempting to get some amount of paperwork done, even if not everything that needs doing.

* I'm not sure that this is strictly true. New skates have been on the list for a while, I just hadn't done anything about it because 'these ones are fine'. I have hopes that the better fit will cause my jumps and spins to improve

I've not been blogging, because I'm failing to get the motivation to do so. I am still reading, and trying to get it together to comment on at least a couple of posts each time/day. leecetheartist has been making that somewhat easier to do than usual, putting up a freehand drawing each day for Inktober. 

I have ~ 2 weeks to do the next assignment, which is going to require detailed stats, lots of background reading, and approximately the writing of a full research paper. aarrrrgh. Writing, we hates it, precious. 

Saturday, people will be coming to visit, so I need to have found the table (and preferably bits of floor, and the kitchen counter, and the missing bits of the lounge) from under the scattering of mess. Youngest has additional choir rehearsal that day, and middlest has different timing on the ballet class, and I have no idea how it is going to go together. Also argh. 

Chickens grow; garden is not yet dying (including the new plants that I put in - I repurposed an old clamshell sandpit/paddle pool into a strawberry patch and a pumpkin patch. Yet to see if I do better than usual with growing such). And I just watched a rodent running along the beam of the verandah roof outside my bedroom. So all is not argh, it just feels like it. 

Note: although this was started yesterday, two derailings meant that several planned things didn't happen, including finishing this post. 

2/3 of the way through the holiday, and I'm nowhere near even *starting* a whole heap of things I wanted to have finished. Even the 'basic' task, of halving my to do list (by dint of doing all the five minute tasks) isn't looking good. On the plus side, I've been journalling, which makes me happy! And I've been crafting, and catching up with people, and am feeling generally rested. But really wishing I didn't like me job, so that I could consider being at home full time as a desirable thing. 

exercise: putting things in boxes for feh2o2 and paddington. 
blogging: none
house: 10 minutes in the study means that the Tiv costumes are ready for sorting, and the couch is mostly clear. 
work: no. This is Not Good - I'm just not 'remembering' to do it

( house, garden, children, boxes, and two derailings.... )

 today

1. had lunch with tikiwanderer and family, and talked about their plans for the garden and house. Briefly lost eldest, found zer talking to J, which they described as 'geeking'.
2. Went to Wandilla Nursery, with intention to purchase plants to fill in gaps at the front of the property that were identified yesterday while weeding. Such plants need to be 'drought tolerant', as the front is only bucket watered, which requires someone to keep track in the summer. 
3. bought a sapodilla, a second olive, and a purple artichoke (to go with the green one that I already have). Failed to buy papaya, but probably good, as not sure that I should be putting them where I want to put them.
4. planted not only those three, but a large number of lurking plants as well - an arbutus unedo ("irish strawberry"), a goji berry, a hibertia scandens, a caper, a passionfruit (mostly eaten by snails) and two curry plants. Still have another curry plant, a curry leaf plant, and a dragon fruit that have to be planted out, plus two papaya that probably shouldn't stay in the pots that they are in (both are volunteer plants - not sure where the seeds came from). 
5. got the kids to clean out the old worm farm, and make up some potting mix from some of it. Need to work out what to do with the rest. 
6. potted up some grevillia that have wandered in from the neighbours - have four in three pots, if anyone has a desire for them. No idea which specific grevillia they are - small red flowers is my memory, but the source plant has been removed.
7. more weeding
8. finished transferring notes made while away into blog posts. Have still to do the presentations, might get on to that this evening. 

 Argh. I often forget, when writing in the iPad, that I have to go for shorter posts. The end of the last section has been munged, and I can't access it to fix it. So, I was at

• Youngest's leotard - loose at the waist but fine at the hips and top, bunching up in the small of the back. Definitely not built for a kid with curves (which is not the way that I would have thought of youngest). I have some photos, but was having dreadful time getting zer to look at the camera - tried suggesting ballet poses, but that was so bad that middlest felt required to step in and correct zer posture. I have a couple of photos of that that I'm hoping will come out.
• the half squares project has gone along great guns. I'm doing the half squares by laying two 6.5" squares face to rice, and then sewing seams around the outside, and then cutting in quarters. I have 28 pairs, and I sewed, pressed, cut and pressed open 14 of them today. I now have to clear the design board, so I can start with working out which of the designs in my head will get made.
• To do that, I have to finish the current quilt top. I ironed flat all of the sections, and pinned them on the board (because I managed to knock half of the off by pointing the side of the vacuum cleaner at them). And then youngest and middlest and I agonized over what the middle panel was to be. I had fabric, but when I put it in the middle, it looked dreadful - the background colour doesn't match with the existing colours. I'm seriously considering some kind of pinwheel - I have enough left over fabric to do that. Or I could take it down, do the triangle pattern, then use the leftovers to make a 12" square and put in calico sashes. Or I could do the pinwheel and the calico sashing. Needs to be slept on, me thinks.
• And to test that the project I want to start is going to have a point, I cut up a huge piece of wadding, and masking taped up two pieces in open gaps between the front and back of the house. Really noticeable effect of keeping the front area warm when. Put on the heater. One set of masking tape didn't survive the eating of dinner, as we ate in the nice warm lounge, and all the trips back and forth put too much strain on it.

And there was other stuff, but this post is too long, and I can no longer see what is being typed, so I'm going to leave it there.


 

 Tis half past one, and I think I've managed my 8 item day already, even though I'm procrastinating on a bunch of things, and flat out not doing some others. So

1. middlest to PEAC (and youngest to school)
2. middlest back from PEAC
3. acquire kneel/sit ergonomic chair for home (more expensive than I would have liked, but oooooh, so comfortable)
4. buy work trousers (Gazman, regular chinos, designed to come up to the waist. Size 32. one pair in dirty brown/grey/won't show the dirt, and one in navyish blue. Work trouser problem now sorted for the winter)
5. lunch with lilysea 
6. cutting of patchwork pieces
7. paying of bill
8. sorting out contribution to dinner (most of this was dealt with yesterday, but I didn't have it sorted in my head. I probably need to do a bit more work, but it is pretty much fine. I cooked a mix of millet and buckwheat in a mix of water and olive brine, which has given me a lovely tangy lot of grain. This is going in lettuce leaves, along the lines of sang choi bao)

and you'll notice, there isn't a speck of work in there. Which means I'm behind. But a dreadful nights sleep (or rather, two in a row), pulling a muscle (or something similar) plus general crankiness, means that I'm horribly not motivated. And the disruption to the day of PEAC seems to have just made it worse (lunch with lilysea was relaxing and less cranky making though). 

I have an hour and a half until I have to be at the school to collect youngest and middlest (eldest will get zerself to piano, then ariaflame  will collect zer, and we will meet the two of them at termagent and owl's place). Then I have to remember to take youngest to the bank (school banking day was a public holiday this week), sort out afternoon tea, get kids changed, and head out the door in time to make challenge stadium by 4:30pm. Which means that there are various organisational things that need to be done Right Now. I guess, five minutes here, then rest, then five minutes there, then rest, and I should continue to be functional through everything that needs to be done!

Holidays are definitely on the way out in the mouse household, with the second of youngest's weekly activities starting up today. Eldest and middlest are back to swimming/dance tomorrow, all three of  them have activities on Tuesday, and the big event of Back To School happens on Wednesday. And despite gradual plodding on the being prepared for this, I'm still going to have to pull out all the stops to be done. Hopefully, there will be nothing left to do that requires me to leave the house and/or spend money, but I'm betting that  middlest is going to notice RSN that this terms haircut hasn't happened yet. 

I had the bad news that the circus class that eldest has been attending has been moved to Thursday, which is going to muck with the piano. Which means talking to the piano teacher, and hoping that another of her students has the need to rearrange, because we didn't have much luck with finding a compatible time previously. Otherwise, we might have to look at finding another teacher, and maybe starting to work on a different range of material (Simply Music is interesting, and a good start, but I don't think that the goals are lofty enough, and thus the progress isn't fast enough). 

What else? Got to take several archive boxes (14?) of costumes back to where they belong, replacing them with a whole seven more. I have a vague hope of working through these in the next week (hah!). Took the various new parents on a tour of where everything was, watched B bulldoze the lot into thinking about what they can give to the group (have one set to learn lights, one big sister set to learn sound - could be a good year in that way). Managed to come away from the rehearsal a) not on committee, and b) without having to sit through the AGM. Then needed A Good Lie Down to be in fit state to visit kitsune_iii for what I think is the first of a monthly afternoon tea gatherings (there have been others, but I don't think as part of a planned monthly schedule). Caught up with a range of people there that I don't see enough of, and now have a plan for my 40th. Now, I just need to do the invitations part (always the hard bit to get done in a timely manner - somehow I just can't keep in mind the length of time required for sufficient notice) and then get the house in a fit state for many people to visit. Dinner contained pan fried raddish cake - I think this was a better approximation of what I'm trying for, but I'm obviously missing something, because my version is a lot more like rubber than the version that the local yum cha place sells. I'm thinking more water might be the go, and possibly longer cooking (it had about 90 mins in the slow cooker, starting with boiling water and a slightly pre-warmed slow cooker). Very tasty anyway, and using the very find side of the grater may have tired my arm, but did make for better texture. I'm thinking precooking in the raddish and then putting it in the food processor might give a better texture. All of these are things to test, and I might be motivated to do it properly (then again, I'm likely to make all of the changes at once). Physical crash on coming home hit before I started eating dinner, and was worse than some I've had recently - difficulty with managing the pain in order to eat properly, even though I *know* that making myself eat has a positive effect.

Oh, and we have two new chooks! These are barnevelders, and are about 12 weeks old. artisanat bought them off a colleague/friend who breeds them out in Wattle Grove. The big chooks are being the types of bullies that might be expected - not too bad in the large area, but when we put them away for the night in the small pen, all hell broke loose. In the end, we have separated them - little ones in the safe space, big ones at large with sub-optimal roosting space (we know the cat won't risk having a go, and we have left them out a few times accidentally, so we aren't too worried about them). I think the plan is to keep the little ones in the small space, and to spend time petting them, so that they become as attached at the big pair. And when it looks like they might have got used to each other, we'll have another go at mixing them.