Yrae Chronicles

Frig, over a month again, damnit. I'm 33 now! Yay! Also we have a new PM. Again. In the past eight years we've had two elections but six Prime Ministers. Wtf.

August has been my month of getting shit done. I made a big list at the beginning of the month of all the stuff that's been piling up to get done, some big and some little, and I've just about crossed it all off. I've cleaned the oven, washed the kitchen walls (I have no exhaust fan, so the smoke and steam from cooking congeal and drip down the walls. It's great), cleaned and reorganised the fridge and cleaned and reorganised the pantry. Fixed a shelf in the studio that Rory broke by jumping on it too many times, so he's not allowed in the studio anymore.

I've organised for more quotes for turning my cupboard into a display cabinet, this time contacting glaziers, because the only quote I managed to get out of cabinet makers was over 5 grand. So. Emailed ten glaziers, five said it's outside their scope (of whom two said I should go to cabinet makers), three didn't get back to me and the other two came around on Tuesday morning to get measurements. I've got one quote back so far, which is a titchy smidge over 2k so that's aaaalmost within my 1.5-2k budget. I'm just waiting on the other quote then I reckon I'll make a move and get this thing installed. Woo!

I bought a duster and dusted, turned the posts on the cat tree upside down so he can scratch at the top of the posts again (he's all but destroyed what was previously the tops) and swapped over the hard disks in my laptops. Shwiggy, which had a shiny new solid state disk installed about 2 years ago, no longer charges so it's exclusively used for Foxtel now. And then there's N00b, bought at the beginning of the year, which had only a regular 1TB hard disk because it was $300 cheaper and I already had a shiny SSD. So finally I got around to swapping the disks over.

Dry cleaned my coat, wherein they lost one of the buttons that made me buy the thing in the first place and then tried to blame me for it. Thankfully I had a spare, but I'm totally going to leave them a Google review on this =| Not happy. On that note, did some clothing maintenance and sewed up holes, reattached other buttons, chucked out some beyond repair stuff.

Done weeding, swept the shed, swept the cobwebs out and sprayed it over with surface spray, cleaned and vacuumed the car interior (not exterior cos it'll get rained on within the week), done my taxes, done the last bits for getting my home loan refinanced and reopened a bank account that had closed itself due to inactivity.

I have an outline for the Tsayth NaNo which I'm pretty happy with, though I'll revisit that in a month to see if I'm still happy.

Finally, and I mean that in every sense of the word, I finished Kate Hawtin's website! She's currently in Greece so haven't been able to see it, but I'm pretty stoked. Still a bit of back end stuff, like obviously getting her domain/hosting and then converting it to a Wordpress site she'll be able to update herself, but this is the beginning of my portfolio of websites. It's been a looong time coming. I'd like another one, maybe two websites, then I can pretty confidently prove to prospective employers that yes, I can design a goddamn website you blind arseholes. Now I've got this one, though, I'm going to start applying again. Never know, that one could be enough to prove myself.

Two things yet to cross off the list, but I'll get them done this weekend, I hope. I'm so excited for the glasses cabinet! It actually feels doable now! I was so close to giving up and either leaving it as is or halfarsing it somehow, but now I feel like it's going to happen really soon. WOO!

At last estimate, ETSA* reckons power will be back on in roughly two hours. They also said it would be back on by 10am, lunch time, 3pm, 6:45pm and 8:30pm. One ETSA guy on the scene when I was walking home said half an hour (this was an hour and a half ago, btw) and another reckoned a couple of hours. I have an hour and 52 minutes of battery power left. I'm thinking power won't be back before I go to bed, so that's annoying.

Plus side, Dad got me mobile broadband for my birthday :D So at least for as long as my laptop lasts, I have internets.

SO YEAH. Lacking anything else to do, and because I've been lazy on the whole thing, birthday celebrations! Actually happened on Wednesday night, because half the family was unavailable on Tuesday. Boss got donuts at work, though :DDD

For dinner~ I just requested lamb for mains and chocolate for dessert. Nibblies we had Thai fish balls, so with chilli and lemongrass and lime and all very Thai and delicious X9~ Entree was fabulously summery and makes me want summer even MORE--skewer with a prawn, piece of pineapple and a piece of halloumi cheese. Mmmmm halloumi X)~~ SO GOOD.

Then the LAMB which I swear is the best Mum has ever cooked lamb. OMG it was perfect. Slow roasted for, like, three hours, so it was soooo juicy and tender, and had a lemony mushroom sauce, and oh god it was awesome. I love lamb. Probably my favourite red meat.

Dessert~ was a chocolate roulade with Tia Maria cream. SO DECADENT AND DELICIOUS. I want more of it now.

Restaurant meal will hopefully be at the Bridgewater Mill, which is one of Adelaide's top restaurants, just up the road from us, but Colin and I have never been. Ideally you go when it's gorgeous weather, though, so I'm postponing that until probably late spring, then we'll each book for consecutive weekends under different mobile numbers and cancel if the weather's not idyllic enough >>

I did go out with Anna P tho, to the Hahndorf Inn (beware, website plays German music with no provocation). Was tempted by filet mignon, but took the roo instead, because mmm, roo. And it was cheaper than the filet. It did end up being a bit of an expensive night out, though, due to speed camera~ =( So I shouted Anna P to her meal since that one'll be costing her about $200 in the coming days, poor love.

As for the birthday haul! Col got me a new keyboard, which is lovely and quiet, and doesn't have a nearly broken Shift key. Dad got me Powderfinger ticket~ which I knew about but EEEEE os exciting to unwrap *^^* And also mobile broadband, hence the using it now. Perfect timing, I think you'll agree X3

Mum got me a HUGE bag of stuff <3 New winter sheets that are soooo fluffy and warm, and spotty to match the pjs I got at the beginning of winter. Another pair of pjs, so I'm set for them now. Traditional packet of sour cream and onion Pringles, and a block of chocolate. Pearl earrings from hers and Dad's trip to Broome earlier this year, and they're GORGEOUS <3 They're not round pearls, sort of... deformed, I guess, but they're so much more interesting, I think. A set of cooking scales for moving out purposes, annnnd I think that's everything. The rest is upstairs and in the dark, and I can't be arsed looking through my room with a torch trying to find it all. Suffice to say, it's all pretty awesome X3

OH and Gran gave me $100, which has technically already been spent on the Hahndorf Inn and petrol, but I'm saying it's going to the scanner cos that's more fun than petrol.

Shanra~ got me a BOX of books which is really very awesome <3 Again, up in my room in the dark, but just know there are about ten of 'em and I'm happy X3

Sallie drew me arts~ which I have spazzed about in comments and eeeee so much love for my Sallie <3! Ku also drew arts but it's on the server~ which is of course not turned on~ so I can't show it off. Give ETSA more time and I will. Cos it's awesome sexy Sahid and I love the Ku so much~ <3! Maybe he'll upload it and put it in comments here >3

And that's the lot! On track to hit my $5000 target with my next paycheck, then I'll buy scanner and printer next weekend. ALSO. Show on next Friday with Anna P :DD And footy this Saturday :DD We might lose, we might not, I have no idea. Tipping the Crows this year has been bloody impossible.

One hour thirty-nine minutes. GO ETSA GO. Maybe I'll get MojitoDS when Calvados!Laptop runs out of juice.

eta~ 9:45! I go to bed around 10. Yeah~ no chance.



* Electricity Trust of South Australia, people who give us power. Except when it goes out. But this is a bloody big tree that killed four stobie poles so we'll give 'em this one.

Holy crap weather. No way is The Lane happening this week. Knew we should've gone the Sunday before my birthday, now it's going to end up in September when it's nnnnnot so much my birthday anymore. Now, birthdays in this family tend to stretch out for a week or two with regards to free nights and when restaurants are open and whatnot, but September is pushing it XD; Maybe I should give up on The Lane and pick somewhere indoors. Mrr.

Plus side, Gold Coast is having mid- to high-twenties for the next few days, so fingers crossed they'll keep that up until next weekend.

WOO THUNDER.

I have boots! =DD The look like ( this! )

Also got a pair of jeans to go with 'em, skinny around the bottom so they can fit inside the boots. Daaaark blue with white stitching (yay racing stripes!) and snazzy patterns on the back pockets. Also $40, so that's all my birthday monies spent =D I had a productive afternoon yesterday.

Emirates just emailed me to let me know I have 22,100 miles expiring in a week or so, and would I like to spend them in their online store? Don't mind if I do =D I found a lovely little Swarovski necklace for 21,000 miles, got excited because yay! Free necklace! Only the postage was going to be $50, so bugger that.