Despite ProjectFrugality, my plan was to escape early from the SML Xmas party and go lash out on a new laptop this afternoon. I got talking and talking and was surprisingly having a fair bit of fun¹ – looked up and it was already 6pm.  No laptop for me today!

This was quite fortunate because when Don came home his laptop displayed the same connectivity (or lack thereof) symptoms, then Joe/Frank told us he had experienced similar a couple of days ago. Joe/Frank told us what he had found to fix it … and voila … all better! This was indeed momentous! That excellent moment when the offspring know more than you do.

I definitely intend to muddle along with my lovely dell for as long as possible.

xxx

¹ Though I am now quite a bit sunburned from being outdoors for most of the afternoon.

spontaneous river

We’re having quite the time with technology here in ThePalace(OfLove). And those times are not good times.

Yesterday Joe/Frank’s computer was hit with the dreaded black screen of death (cursor and nothing else after logging in). We tried loads of solutions, with no luck, so will have to go nuclear over the weekend and do a clean install. Fortunately he has a dual boot thing happening and can use the other operating system until them.

My internet connection has been really flakey over the last couple of days and I’ve been needing to reboot a bunch to get it back. Tonight irrespective of what I tried I could get nothing – even with a wired connection. Network is fine. Poor old laptop. Possibly time for retirement.

I do very much love futzing around with computers, but this is rather challenging my enthusiasm!

Blue mouse is one of two and was part of a wee kitty starter pack we bought from the Cat Protection Society when we adopted BabyKitty, gosh, over FIVE years ago! I can’t remember what the original tails looked like.

Every night after we’ve come up to bed and turned off the lights she “kills” one of the blue mice downstairs and yowls piteously to get our attention so we can tell her how clever she is. 

Sometimes she’ll come up late in the night and leave one of her kills in one of the bedroom doorways – the accepted wisdom is that she thinks we’re too dumb to feed ourselves and she needs to take care of us.

It’s been a while since I’ve had to buy cough medicine, but I was compelled to during the recent horrible cold.

I was surprised and pleased when I opened the box to find a wee medicine glass sitting neatly on the lid!

Perhaps this is something that has been around for ages? Nonetheless, it’s just brilliant, I’m forever trying to rummage through the medicine box for a medicine glass when people are ill.

Over the weekened I grabbed the yarn I’d bought to knit uncia with the intention to sit and knit a while. The only needles of the correct size I had were metal, so I cast on and gave it a good go. The needles were quite heavy and horribly unbalanced, so that stitches were slipping off everywhere and it was not at all neat.

It was not quite the pleasing experience I’d hoped for.

750th attempt. i’m not really jazzed by this yarn either

I decided that life was really too short to work with unsatisfactory materials, so bundled up my small collection of metal knitting needles and have gifted them to Clarissifer, the beginning knitter. She was thrilled – as was I with the unexpected decluttering. 

begone!

I need to apply this to more areas of my life!

Today I clicked the buy button on some hideously expensive event photos from the Balmain Fun Run. Frugality be damned!

I usually pay the not insignificant fee for every event where photos are available because when I am old(er) I think I’ll appreciate evidence that I could and did run. Goodness, even now I appreciate evidence that I can run (and I always look so happy!). I’m still surprised and delighted that I can run at all (albeit very slowly)!

When I compared these photos to the ones from the Melbourne Mothers Day Classic in May, I was a little taken aback – clearly I’ve put on a little bit of weight since then.

november | may – gosh!

Just what am i thinking with those red pants? I love them, but could they be any more unflattering?

Now I’m by no means suggesting that I am fat (because clearly I’m not fat), but the difference came as a bit of a surprise, I had no idea. Weight really sneaks up on you – holidays with loads of feasting and drinking, general drinking and snacking, being rather sedentary and not pushing the exercise.

I definitely chose the right time to quit with the drinking! Xmas would have been dire indeed. Now I need to push the exercise a bit more.

Despite my early to bed last night, I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight and then slept really pretty badly.

I was up crazy-early as usual and so tried to grab a nap in the afternoon as we were out to see a play tonight (and I was keen avoid potentially nodding off in the middle of it).

I didn’t sleep one wink, but I had pretty good company!

You’d think with giving up drinking and limiting myself to one coffee a day, my sleep would be of supremely good quality – you’d be sadly very wrong

sunset: monday 28/11

That was a week! Not loads of activity, but I am completely knackered and heading off to bed – at 8:53pm.

For the last couple of days, I’ve been enjoying trawling back through the archives of two blogs which I think I came across when searching for replacements for items on my 50before50 list. Both have seemingly been around forever, but are completely new to me (clearly I need to get out more).

chookooloonks

hula seventy

If you’re interested in interesting¹ blogs by women over 40 (aren’t we all?) which have great photos, these are worth a gander.

And if you’re looking for hilarious and you haven’t yet come across Welcome to McMansion Hell, you should totally go there right now.

xxx

¹ interested in interesting? I really am tired.

seagulls spotted on my walk to work

Of course pretty much everyone is saying this today, but how on earth can it be December already?!

I really need to construct myself an Action Items list for the remainder of the year (or even just catch up on the incomplete actions from lists past) – fortunately we don’t really do Xmas gifts so I’ll escape that particular stressful horror. One thing we do need to do is optimise our meal planning to maximise our time away from the general December shopping chaos.

Or I could, you know, just relax and not be so uptight and Type A.

clean, crispy sheets with tail of new kitty

Tomorrow I face back-to-back meetings from 8:30am to 5:30pm.

Fortunately these are all good, useful and necessary meetings (and I do love a good meeting), but I suspect I’ll be rather wrecked by day’s end. And really, don’t you want to encounter as many people as possible in close quarters when you have a GIANT cold sore on your top lip?

But hey, clean, crispy sheets!

And HolyGoodness! do I ever need some exercise (for its magical mood enchanting powers). Hopefully I’ll be able to manage something light on the weekend.