And Stuff ...

Yawn. Am tired this morning between the *giant* thunder storm above our house at almost 3am and barely being able to breathe, I didn't get much sleep last night.

But lots has been happening. Tuesday was interesting, full of new people. I *finally* met my first Internet Dating boy (no one I've mentioned here before). And yeah, it was fine. I still think I find it a bit weird ... I think you find you like people over time and doing things together (which is why I'm sure you more often than not meet someone thru friends because you end up seeing each other on a semi-regular basis, if that makes sense). It's strange to me to sit down and try and fill someone in on exactly who I am and what makes me tick in a conversation (as opposed to just picking it up as you get to know someone). Yeah, I'd probably see the guy again, if he made the effort ... but I'm not practicing a new signature or anything. Lately I've been feeling very "Reciprocal at best" about these things.

And then on Tuesday evening Loulou, Bert and I tried another round of Speed Dating. Which was pretty pathetic. 5 boys and 6 girls. It was over in under and hour. And I didn't meet anyone I'd want to "match" with either. I dunno, I'm starting to lose interest in this whole trying to meet someone thing. I think I need a mindset change and not to look at it as "Could I date this guy?" but more as "Could I enjoy hanging out and chatting with this guy ... as friends?". I dunno. I refuse to think any further about it for now ...

Yesterday I took the day off to get my annual doctors visits out the way. Oh my, I may have had to wait a whole month to find a day when I could get them all on one day, but it is so the way forward. The stress of sitting and waiting in the doctors rooms for 45minutes because when you arrived at your appointed time, there were still 2 patients who had to go in ahead of you, is gone. It doesn't matter. You're not in a mad rush to get back to work or work in the hours lost or anything. I will definitely be scheduling it like this in future. Obviously this only works for annual check-up appointments tho ... but those tend to be mostly all I need.

Oh, and I managed to take Rex for his nail-clipping too. I was not impressed. 4ways Vet charged *double* the price of my regular vet (Boskruin) ... and the only reason I went there was convenience, since I figured for something so simple there was no reason to drive half an hour there & then back again. Sigh.

And in the evening I went to see The Joneses with CollegeInstructor. I enjoyed it. It's a pretty interesting concept, really. I mean it did get all Hollywood about the ending but hey. I generally enjoyed it :)

Oh, and here are a few things I forgot to mention:
Had a very nice Grilled Vegetable & Cous Cous Salad for dinner at The Metro Lounge on Tuesday night. No mushrooms - score! Seriously, I'd go back to have it again.

And one of the cats must've pushed the pump into my fish pond last night because when I got home from the movie, it was under water and no longer working. I don't know if this could've electrocuted the fish or given them enough of a scare, but one of the fish is still missing (presumed dead) and the other I found using a torch last night on the driveway, barely still breathing about a metre&half away from the pond! I picked him up and threw him back in (he is missing half a tail fin too!). He was mostly floating, but this morning he seems back to normal :) Yay. Will have to get him a new pump and some new friend this weekend ... and I suspect some netting to ward off the predators!

Skin Privilege by Karin Slaughter

Lena Adams has spent her life struggling to escape her past. She has only unhappy memories of Reece, the small town which nearly destroyed her. She's made a new life for herself as a police detective in Heartsdale, a hundred miles away - but nothing could prepare her for the violence which explodes when she is forced to return. A vicious murder leaves a young woman incinerated beyond recognition. And Lena is the only suspect.When Heartsdale police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, Lena's boss, receives word that his detective has been arrested, he has no choice but to go to Lena's aid - taking with him his wife, medical examiner Sara Linton. But soon after their arrival, a second victim is found. The town closes ranks. And both Jeffrey and Sara find themselves entangled in a horrifying underground world of bigotry and rage - a violent world which shocks even them. A world which puts their own lives in jeopardy. Only Jeffrey and Sara can free Lena from the web of lies, betrayal and brutality that has trapped her. But can they discover the truth before the killer strikes again?

Another book that I'm sure I've read before ... but again, I haven't blogged a review of it so it must've been an awfully long time back. So I haven't exactly gone about her Grant County series in the right order (I've also read Blindsighted, on the plane to Peru) ... but I do really enjoy them :) And would recommend, if you can, that you do try and get them in order. I'll tell you right now, that this one has a pretty damn hectic ending.

2 Months to Xmas!

On Friday Arkwife came over after work and we hung out catching up (so novel to be speaking face-to-face instead of over msn - haha!) until it was time to head off to Ghazal's in Sunninghill to meet up with RubyLetters and Jackson's Mom.

What a lovely evening we had laughing and joking and catching up. Sigh, I really must make an effort to see this lovely group more often.

I'm trying to remember what I did on Saturday morning ... there was a lot of driving around, doing admin type stuff, I think. In fact across both weekend days. Dropping off Recycling, collecting Post. Oh My Gawd, my post is about ready to drive me mental. I started off redirecting Varen's post to his house. But noticed the same things were still always showing up in my post box again and again. Obviously he couldn't be bothered to change his postal address. So I started doing Return to Sender's on them, hoping the companies sending the post would follow up with him and get it changed. Clearly places like ABSA and Telkom just don't care (which I'll admit surprised me). I plan to phone all the people who have sent him post this month and tell them if they either stop sending me his post or it's going in the bin. I don't care anymore.

And I cleaned the bunny hutch on Sunday, they have grass in their hutch again :) Looks so lovely. I walked both days. I got the first part of ThePeeb's birthday pressie. I did some other grocery shopping. I cooked, a full egg, bacon, tomato and toast breakfast for one on Sunday morning (so much more hassle than it was worth!) and a big pasta dish in the late afternoon. And I read my book. I caught up my #365 and dabbled with my currency.

Oh, and I finally bought the bunnies a harness & lead. I have tried it once ... on Coal. The other two weren't letting me near them. It was all working fine until she freaked out a bit and almost managed to slip out of it, but luckily I caught her. Will only try every couple of days. And I really must get Rex's nails clipped this week. Sigh, he's gonna hate me :(

On Saturday evening, I went to The Greenside Cafe again for a friend's birthday. I was *very* tempted to have the nut bake again, but decided to try something new, the schnitzel. Wow, if you can get past the lack of meat and alcohol in their restaurant, they really serve some tasty dishes!

Back Online

Wow, what a weird morning. I have a 10min snooze between alarms and this morning I kept falling back into the deepest sleep in between and having the weirdest dreams.

One was more lighthearted, involving 2 people I know (let me point out it is rare that I dream let alone about people I know!). And then another one with even more people I know, where we found out that 2 people from high school died in one weekend. One in a car accident on the Friday night and one just went completely missing on the Saturday night. It feels weird. I have this odd "should I warn them, but I haven't spoken to them in years" feeling. Meh, I'm sure it's nothing, I've never had any other dreams come true.

Sigh. The week has been fairly frustrating so far. Monday was SCM Dinner as usual. On Tuesday, The Housemate got home. I've kinda liked having the place to myself for the past month ... so I'm prickling a little at having someone in my space again. And then there is the internet.

I discovered on the weekend after The Housemate left that someone was using our wireless connection. We'd tried to put on security before but because The Housemate has the oldest work laptop in existence and doesn't even have permissions to upgrade or install anything new, we couldn't get it working so had left it off. I guess we just figured the other person was always using the rest of our bandwidth, but with him away and me barely online and our internet 75% used in the first weekend, I noticed. And I think it must've been a fairly new thing because we *never* use 75% in a weekend, even with both of us there.

Anyway, so I managed to get the security switched back on and working while he was away (with a little bit of @ClaudeTschepen's help). And all was fine in the world. Until Tuesday when he got back and, obviously, now couldn't get online. After a quick catch-up dinner at Nando's, I tried to change it to a security setting his computer could use, with no luck. And then tried changing it back to no security. And pretty much screwed it up and neither of us could get online at all. I spent at least an hour on Tuesday night trying to figure it out before giving up.

Last night I went to an early show and watched The Switch. Good lighthearted entertainment. I won't go into it here about how amused I am at the move movies are making in line with society (no surprise really) ... movies about women deciding to have kids on their own. Close to home, can't help wondering if that's the new direction my life will end up going in as opposed to the fairytale we all believe in as children. Ah well.

Anyway, when I got home I decided to try tackling the internet issue yet again. But this time I had asked for help on twitter and it came in the form of @corrie206 who patiently helped me for *2 hours* yesterday evening to eventually get it working again. Such a relief, I was really starting to lose my sense of humour about the whole thing.

So yeah, I haven't done too much other than stare at my router and swear for the last 2 days ;) Haha.

The Woods by Harlan Coben

Twenty years ago at summer camp, Paul Copeland's sister died in the woods, the alleged victim of a serial killer. Her body was never found. Now, Paul is the prosecutor for Essex County, New Jersey, immersed in one of the biggest cases of his career--a case that will change everything he believes about the past. . . and the truth.

I suppose it's enough to tell you that I read this 400 page book in a day (a Saturday admittedly). I started it in the morning when I was woken early by a nearby house alarm and couldn't put it down. Eventually I did tear myself away from it but spent the late afternoon and evening finishing it. I enjoyed it :)

Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas

Smart, entrancing and buzzing with big ideas, Our Tragic Universe is a book about how relationships are created and destroyed, and how a story might just save your life.

If Kelsey Newman's theory about the end of time is true, we are all going to live forever. But for Meg - locked in a dead-end relationship and with a deadline long-gone for a book that she can't write - this thought fills her with dread. Meg is lost in a labyrinth of her own devising. But could there be an important connection between a wild beast living on Dartmoor, a ship in a bottle, the science of time, a knitting pattern for the shape of the universe and the Cottingley Fairies? Or is her life just one long chain of coincidences?

Sigh, I absolutely adored The End of Mr Y and have bought both PopCo (disappointing) and now this since... Admittedly, I liked this a lot more than PopCo. I still like Scarlett Thomas, I think it's her style of writing, but I'm not sure I got what was going on in this book really and neither of the most recent 2 have lived up to the expectation My Y created for me. That said, I'll probably still buy her next one :) Haha.

A Lovely Weekend

Friday drinks got canceled and I don't actually now remember what I spent the evening doing. But I did end up going to watch Despicable Me at 10pm with CollegeInstructor and France.

Mkay, so it's animated and generally I'm not a huge fan, but I haven't been to movies in ages (there seems to be nothing worth seeing lately!). I did enjoy it, I even laughed out loud at some points :)

Saturday I did close to nothing, which was *awesome*. I started a new book in bed, I got up and went shopping (luckily I got 2 of the 3 items on my must-buy list) and then went home again. I played with my rediscovered hobby, Numismatics (have I mentioned how thrilled I am to have gotten my stuff back from Varen!!). I finished the book I'd started earlier in the day :) A lovely day all for myself.

On Sunday it was grey and cloudy, but I went for my walk at 9am. And then did a little shopping and had breakfast with CollegeInstructor at Doppio Zero. I know, I always ask myself why I go back there and why I order the same thing every time ... but this time we went to the Sunninghill restaurant and it was *so much* better than the 4ways one. Delish :) I may even go back! Hahaha.

A little later I headed off to a park down the road to meet up with some work-friends for an afternoon of Games on the Grass :) We only ended up actually playing 1 game of 30seconds, but we drank cocktails, smoked hubbly and just generally chatted as we hung out on the grass. Was so lovely :) Must do it again!

All in all, a rather lovely weekend really :)

About the Boys

Right so things are dismal in the boy-department these days ... and you may have noticed I haven't mentioned it at all here lately. I tend not to write about things that are really bothering me until after the fact.

The first thing has been annoying me since July but is thankfully over now. Varen. Now here's the thing. I've never been the least upset about our break-up (and don't get me wrong, I'm still not!), but I'm not a stay-friends-after-the-fact kinda girl. Hell, with him I didn't even like him as a person by the time we broke up, so why would I want to stay friends at all. On top of which (even if I did), he had a brand new girlfriend the day after I moved out anyhow, so I wouldn't have thought he'd bother with even attempting to interact with me. Which was all absolutely fine by me.

I mentioned briefly in August my attempt to get something of mine that he found back from him, which didn't end well. Would you believe it has been dragging on since then with him only delivering it to my office on Wednesday (yes, from his first email telling me about it in July it took till October to actually get it!). I won't even go into just how many times he said he'd drop it off by whenever and never actually did. Being dragged back into the situation and interacting with him has quietly driven me nuts ... relying on someone who never sticks to what they say they're going to do. It's like this weird kind of control it exerts which I don't like one bit. And yes, you may say I should've just gone and gotten it from him myself, but I'll remind you I tried that and he conveniently "forgot" he was going to be away that weekend and also forgot to tell me. So I wasn't about to allow myself to be strung around like that again. Anyway, I have my paws on my stuff once again (all of it irreplaceable and I am absolutely thrilled to have it back!) and hope to never have to deal with him again (highly likely as he leaves the country this weekend - can you feel the pure joy in my words as I type that? It's there, I promise). The cherry on top for me was the night a few weeks ago when he smsed to tell me about his impending departure and had the cheek to ask if I wanted to see him before he left. I laughed out loud at that one. Honestly, how can you convey to someone that even if you never date another person ever again, your life is still better off purely because you aren't with them any more. Because honestly, that's the truth. I was a miserable, depressed person while with him and although all is not quite 100% in my life (the hunt for someone who interests me is still on), I'm a much happier and emotionally lighter person these days. Although admittedly occasionally lonely, not for company, but for someone to share things with in a more-than-just-friends way. But for now, I have many friends keeping me busy too :)

The second thing that's been getting me down is this whole being single thing. I mean yeah, I knew the novelty of it would wear off before the end of the year, and I'm here to tell you that it has. Luckily I'm not the sort who will settle for just anybody in the meantime tho. So although I'm a little blue at not having found someone just yet, I'm still my ever-practical self and dealing with it as such. I think it's been worse lately because I did actually find someone I was interested in actually getting to know better, maybe even dating ... but after a lovely 3 weeks in Peru all I was left with was a 6hr time-difference, a few emails and an ongoing exchange of twitter messages. Sigh. Freaking typical. And I miss hanging out with him (we did spend an awful lot of time together in Peru and you get used to having someone around you). Although it did completely surprise me to meet someone I rather liked while in a tour group (it's never happened before in all my years of tour-group travel), I wasn't surprised it took me leaving the country to actually meet someone ... I'm so busy here, but I'm still not meeting anyone new. And therein lies my real problem. I'm not meeting anyone new.

Oh, and then there was InternetDatingBoy ... who I was still in vague email contact with after getting back from Peru. We even got to the point of agreeing we should finally meet in person and swapped phone numbers. But his last message said he'd call me to organise something and two & half weeks later I still haven't heard a word. And just like that, we're back to my sheer lack of interest in signing up for another unreliable person and so I haven't bothered to mail him since (neither has he). Although I wasn't really expecting anything more than a new friend to come of meeting him ... he must have other friends I could meet and potentially have been interested in ;) Ah well.

But I have just recently adjusted my internet dating write-up and become slightly more assertive, because let's face it, it's more true to life ;) And things are looking more interesting ... although there's no one I'm regularly chatting with yet. I've also signed up to go speed dating again. I think I prefer speed dating to internet dating, I like to actually meet the people in a non-committal way ... better than trying to do it in the more purposeful one-on-one kind of way that internet dating requires. I think at this point my ideal would be to arrange a speed dating evening with about 7 - 10 of the boys who's online profiles have caught my eye. Now that would suit me much better! Haha. Also, I wish all these over 40s would stop favouriting me and messaging me. Seriously.

So yeah, I'm trying to be as pro-active as I can and not get too down about the situation, but it is all rather out of my control honestly.

I'm okay

I spent Monday night at SCM Dinner. The mood was definitely lighter than Saturday. Tuesday was nothing special. And yesterday I took the day off to go to my friend's funeral.

Thanks to everyone who twitter messaged and emailed me to make sure I was okay. I really appreciate it. And I am okay. I am still sad, more so watching the heart-break of his Mom, girlfriend and close friends than for myself. We went to the funeral at the Russian Church in Midrand and it's the first time I've seen a funeral where there wasn't enough space for everyone inside (admittedly it wasn't a very big church, but there really were that many people who turned up to show their respects). In some ways it made it easier, we couldn't hear what was being said. But I assure you the moment they brought out the coffin and I knew my friend was inside it, I felt the reality of it. And seeing his mom's pure raw grief on leaving the church and most especially beside the grave as she said her final goodbyes was one of the most heart-breaking things I've seen.

The only way I can describe it was like a movie scene. This little old Eastern European woman collapsing on her son's grave crying out in Russian. Wailing. Her husband and eldest son having to hold her just to keep her standing. Watching his girlfriends pain as everyone left the grave site, as she cried out that he was going to be all on his own after we'd left and gone to the wake. She didn't want to leave him on his own ...

It was a very sad day.

I invited CollegeInstructor over for dinner yesterday evening to ensure I wasn't alone and would have something to keep me busy. I made some very nice Prawn in Coconut Sauce from my new cook book. He brought malva pudding for dessert and we watched a truly rubbish movie, Red Eye. It was just the sort of evening I needed.

Goodbye Naz

Well, that was one of the longest weekends I've had in a while ... emotionally. Not long after my post on Friday morning I found out that one of my SCM Dinner friends had died in a car accident in the early hours of Friday morning. He was only 26.

:(

Friday was a very long day at work with many phone calls between friends and, as you can imagine, I wasn't up for doing anything but crawling into bed and watching Series on Friday night.

On Saturday we all met up for what was supposed to be another of our SCM friend's birthday celebrations at Molly's, but turned out to be more about remembering. We finished the evening up with a vodka-lime at Red Room in memory of our lost friend. It was an emotionally exhausting day.

Sunday was better, I went and spent the afternoon lazing outdoors at Rocking the Gardens. Exactly what I needed.



As you can imagine, I've done a lot of thinking this weekend ... about life, the universe and everything. It was another one of those "life is short" wake up calls. And I'll admit I was sad to realise that even with all my friends in Joburg who I could've gone to if I needed a hug, when something like this happens and all you want to do is hold the people dearest to you near and tell them never to forget you love them ... I realised that none of the people I wanted to do that to are in Joburg with me. It's easy to be in a relationship when something like this happens, you have someone to comfort you and someone you can hold tight and be grateful for. Don't misunderstand me here, I wouldn't wish this on anyone I know and am grateful for all my friends. But it's different when you love someone and are expecting to spend the rest of your life closely entangled with them, you know.

And you think of all the things you hope you'll have done before you die. I hope before I die I've met someone that I want to spend forever with ... I hope that I'll have had children. I hope I'll have had grandchildren. And sadly not all of that is within my control. Although my bucket list on the side panel here is filled with places to visit, they're not the things I'm really hoping I'll have done before I die. I mean, obviously, they're like bonuses and I do want to do them. But they are within my control and I can decide. The ones that really frustrate me, and I guess become more valuable because of it, are the ones I can't just make happen for myself. Of course I know I could have a kid on my own, and one day I might, but ideally I'd prefer to be having that kid with someone special to me.

I dunno, all of this seems a very clumsy way to try to explain what's been happening in my head for the last few days.

Yes, it's been an emotional weekend.

Boring Title Oh-Two

So far it's been a fab week, mostly. Aside from and in spite of my general head space lately.

On Wednesday afternoon I went for a much needed (and probably long overdue) massage at the Renaissance Spa in Sandton. It's probably going to sound strange, but I went with 3 boys, @MarkGStacey, @ClaudeTschepen and @scottjorton. It all started about a week before when @ClaudeTschepen was raving about the massage he'd just had and @MarkGStacey & I said we were keen to go along the next time. Although it ended up purely fluke that we all ended up there at the same time - haha. Not that I even saw them there except as we arrived and were leaving.

The swedish massage was pretty fab. Better than some I've had. I had a swim in their Roman Bath as well (not very exciting on your own) and absolutely loved their shower with 6 shower heads :) Afterwards the four of us went and had dinner at Caffe Della Salute.

Yesterday we had our first Joburg thunderstorm of the season :) And I met up with @NoaNeo1 for a long overdue catch up dinner at Gourmet Garage. Such a lovely evening :)

Uh-huh

Okay, so I do have all sorts of stuff swirling around my head at the moment ... but none of it is in any state to be pinned down in a blog post yet (if ever?).

But life continues as normal in the background :) SCM Dinner on Monday evening, an evening spent at home in bed early watching Vampire Diaries last night (I heart stay-at-home-Tuesday evenings), a walk around the neighbourhood and slacking on my #365.

That's the one that I'm trying to let go of right now, the slacking on my #365. Since I took the camera along to Peru, I have realised that it is useful in a certain-place-certain-time kind of way. And while I have loved my #365, when I'm in an ignore-the-world hibernation escapism mood, there is no place to be trudging around trying to take a decent photo. Sometimes my mood requires that I don't pick up the camera because I know this will instead leave me feeling obligated by it and I don't want that. So I'm being less strict with myself ... I do have about a billion bonus shots from days where I was in a photo mood, and to be honest I don't have much more interesting subject than the bunnies on most days. And some days I like to just sit outside and hang out with them rather than stalking them for a perfect photo. Because I'd prefer they run up to me and say hello that eye me from across the enclosure because I have the camera in my hand!

And this afternoon I'm off for a swedish massage :) Yay. So looking forward to it.

Stolen by Lesley Pearse

When a beautiful blonde girl is found half-drowned on a beach, she has no memory of who she is or what horrors have left her there. But an article about her in a Brighton newspaper rings alarm bells for beautician Dale, who shows the police photographs of Lotte Wainright. The girls met working on a cruise ship and their friendship blossomed as they sailed the seas of South America, until Lotte fell under the sinister influence of an older American couple. To her regret, Dale hasn’t seen Lotte since leaving the ship months earlier … but the girl on the beach – although badly bruised – is indeed her much missed friend.

Their reunion only marks the beginning of a dangerous tidal wave of secrets, lies and nightmares. Where has Lotte been? Who is the man who seems to want to kill her? And what has become of the baby she’s recently given birth to? Dale and Lotte must dig deep and find the strength to hold on against the odds if they are to rebuild their friendship and survive Lotte’s stolen – and deadly – past...

About a third of the way into this I became convinced I'd read it before. I'm still sure I had, but couldn't remember enough of it to stop reading (it was just as I was reading that it was actually familiar, I couldn't remember how it ended tho). It's quite a good read other than that tho, not quite the fluff that the cover suggests.

Time for a Taste

So, this weekend was the annual Taste of Joburg festival :) I went (as always) to the Saturday afternoon session and I'll be honest and say I didn't think this was the best one I've been to, but purely from a food perspective. Usually I really struggle to narrow down my choices and leave completely stuffed unable to eat any dinner in the evening.

Like last year it was a sweltering hot day to be wandering around eating and drinking in the sun. But I did try some awesome things. I think *everyone* thought that by far the favourite of the day was The Dining Room at The Grace's Molecular chocolate and ricotta marshmallow with caramel and nougat sauce. (And it is unusual for me to think a dessert is the best item here, but it was divine!).

I generally stuck with my favourite restaurants (I think I eat at the same restaurants at Taste every year - haha!) but did notice that there was an awful lot of thai/asian restaurants this year. Which I've always tended not to eat at Taste ... I don't exactly know why, but it feels like a waste since I eat thai food quite often.

Anyway, I think my 2nd favourite dish was the Home-cured Scottish salmon marinated in curry infused olive oil, apple and cucumber pickle with sour cream caviar from dw eleven - 13 (a new one to try!). I had heard mention of this restaurant before but have yet to actually eat there myself.

I wasn't super impressed with the Crispy chicken, cranberry and pistachio ravioli with wild mushroom ragout from Piccolo Mondo at The Michelangelo. It was like they deep-fried the ravioli and the flavours were quite what I was hoping for. But, that said we did have the most delish Creme Brulee Milkshakes from their stall :) Yummy.

That said, there is always something that every restaurant is offering. Last year the thing that sticks in my memory is that everything seemed to be served with risotto, this year it seems to be ravioli. I far prefered the Black tiger prawn & pea ravioli with champagne chervil butter from The Attic to the one from I had from Piccolo Mondo.

I tried some Deep-fried Dalewood Wineland Blue camembert with Cape gooseberry compote from La Belle Terrasse at The Westcliff which was also very nice although I'm not a fan of the deep-fried bread crumb stuff.

I also couldn't come to Taste and not eat something from roots @ Forum Homini, so I had their Strawberry crumble with ginger ice cream. Wow, the ice cream was divine :)

I finished the day off with Karma's 3 nut curry (Creamy butternut, cashew nut and coconut curry with roti). Ordinarily I also wouldn't eat at Karma here, it feels too boring. But I haven't eaten at their actual restaurant in years (since I discovered Ghazal's!) and now we're even thinking of doing one of Karma's cooking evenings, it sounds like fun!

The only thing I missed from last year was the Amarula tent :( But this year I did buy myself an awesome little Indian cook book by Yudhika.

On Sunday I woke up with a plan to get stuff done. I hit builders warehouse in a quest for crafting supplies (wire, pliers, super glue) and got started on my digital dress-up outfit for a party later that day. I also bought some seeds and cleared out the dead pot plants and got sowing as well as cleaning out the fish pond. Wow is that a marathon task! Also, I sure hope my 2 remaining fish survive now that there's less place to hide from the cats :( It felt good.

And then it was off to ami for a party with the work-crowd dressed in digital.

Everything Else

Hmmm, the rest of the week has been okay so far. Got the lease signed and sealed with my new tenant :) Am super excited about this whole thing. And am kinda going to miss my little place ... not that I ever did more than pop in there to visit it about 4 times, but I think it's super cute and I love the little garden. All this makes me quite sure it was the exactly right purchase for me, even if I'll probably never live in it because it goes against my "inside the highway" rule.

Anyway, on Wednesday evening was our (now less than monthly) Poker night with the girls. I have been having the weirdest poker nights lately, I either have an awesome lucky evening or I have an evening where I fold ever hand as completely unplayable and go out on blinds alone. Luckily Wednesday was a lucky night for me and I won. I had two very memorable hands. One I shouldn't have been in for the amount I was betting on a hope (there were only 2 of us left playing so stakes were higher and I was feeling reckless trying to get to a final winner), but I got my flush on the river card :) And then one was *awesome* ... for the first time in our little group's poker playing history, we had to look up online to figure out who'd won. Landed up with 2 full houses, luckily I had the one with the higher set of 3. Shoo. Exciting stuffs.

Yesterday was not as exciting. I ended up going to Panarotti's with CollegeInstructor and France because my plans had been postponed. Please remind me, I do NOT like the place (or their adverts, which should be reason enough on it's own to never go back) and should not bother going back. Ever. Again. Ever. Sigh.

Is trying desperately to avoid a #vagueblogpost moment, so won't say anymore about what is swirling in my head right now. But feels a "Saved to Draft" blog post coming ... I'm not a believer in the password-protected post (even if blogger could even do it?!), since it's either for the world at large or it's not. It's never for merely a select few ... well, unless they're the real people in my life and then honestly, that's what conversation is for, and not a blog post :P

Oh, and I have some Bundle stuffs for you today :) I took some video of Coal playing with my keys this week and then put together a little video from 3 clips I had of her and Lily playing with things: Lily with the picnic blanket (they don't burrow under it like they used to when they were little anymore tho), Coal with an empty plastic bottle and then with my keys. The videos aren't great quality, they're taken with my bb, but they are good enough for their purpose :) And I managed to get a photo of Coal "playing" with me ... which actually means chewing on my clothes. Luckily she has never chewed right thru anything or I probably wouldn't find it nearly as cute :)