I cannot even remember where I was hosting them, but the host was long-gone and the links long-dead. Fortunately I had taken backups at the time (I know! who was that well-organised person?) and simply had to re-upload the pix and update the links. I say simply, but it was not a little time-consuming. Fortunately I had mucho wine to accompany me.

And By!Golly! it was a very, very different life back then.

For a start, I looked about 10 years old:

And Bessie? HolyGoodness! What a wholesome poppet!

It was also quite astonishing to find that at least 1 in 3 (possibly 1 in 2) links were completely and utterly dead. I was forced to the fabulous waybackmachine to uncover what some of the “ZOMG! you should totes check out … “ links were all about. And so sad to see so many of the blogs I once utterly adored now lying fallow.

Now all that remains is to update those mrshardly pix hosted at photobucket – afterwhich I will blow the mrshardly blogger account away (all that will remain will be a single link to here). Then I must deal with the seemingly endless donandcarol self-linking before I can have everything all in one place (where it will remain for ever and ever – much as I loathe the typeface and the horrid access to archives).

In retrospect, I really should have amended the XML file before I imported it to wordpress.

Is back to the grind on Monday and let us all hope that I remain as chillaxed as I am now, because I am tres, tres chillaxed!

The reading! The de-cluttering! The baking! the sloth! The wine!

The celebrating of resignations:

The bumping the kindle typeface up to olde-lady size!

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The babies and I have done mucho decluttering this week. We’ve cast out several bags of clothing and are down to the very nitty-gritty (with more to come as we embrace the ruthlessness):

Way too many Simpsons figurines

A paper-making kit I’ve been holding onto for roughly 17 years, which I made paper from precisely once … 17 years ago

While those above are being delivered to St Vinnies, other discoveries have just been cast unto the bin:

Remnants of a past life (what exactly I expected to do with all of these, I am not sure)

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While waiting for the printing of a Bessie project to be completed at Officeworks, we browsed. And I found the telephone of my wildest dreams. Both water and dust proof!

Is Red! (am rapidly getting to the point that everything I own is red)

I would pay very good money to have a mobile of the colour, dimensions and heft of my new red phone!

With news like that, she can text me any time she likes!

And thankfully MrT is also currently on vacation and quite unable to talk Bratson out of his decision.

The year is off to a stellar start.

After the babies woke and breakfasted, I decluttered our (very large) tub of plastic containers, baked cookies and then forced aforesaid babies to go through their clothes and discard what they no longer wanted (I joined the party and cast out quite a bit too).

Tidy plastic – we’ll see how long it lasts

Craisin and cornflake cookies

Then, because Bessie could not drag herself away from playing uno with Joe/Frank, I carted the two GIANT bags of discarded clothes to St Vinnies by myself, whereupon The Universe rewarded me with … Boardgames!!

Yes, more than 18 months after we divested ourselves of the terrible, horrible, no-good, ghastly, revolting, dumbed-down 25th Anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit, I found the original genus version (circa 1983) for $4. After paying $50+ for the Stupid Edition, this was mucho gratifying. Also scored Scotland Yard, which I had read very good things about, for a fabulous $5.

I had to ask the lovely staff if they wouldn’t mind charging me $10, rather than $9, so I could EFTPOS my purchases.

Truly, St Vinnies is where it is at for board games! Most of our current collection has been sourced from there for under $10 per game and we particularly adore finding never-opened very obscure games.

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When I arrived home after my long trek (where I also gathered baby spinach, wine and corn chips), my lovely husband whipped up a batch of guacamole.

Truly, he is A Catch.

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Now the chickens have been gifted away, we very much miss the fabulous and plentiful fresh eggs from Bessie’s Other Haus and have to rely on inferior Supermarche eggs (free range, organic simply does not cut it).

I am terribly envious of this most excellent poultry wrangler and dream of what might be if we bought ourselves an actual haus.

Bessie’s first taste of the first batch of paletas – spectacular!

cheesy bacon muffins – for Don to breakfast upon when he returns to work

double chocolate muffins (there were another half dozen in the oven)

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Togetherness (or kicking some family butt in bocce):

1. More Blog
   ACHIEVED!!

2. Less Twitter
   ACHIEVED!!

3. Achieve saving goal
   ACHIEVED!! (moar than achieved, actually)

4. Claw back my health / Lose that pesky 5-10 kg / fit into my clothes
   • No more second (or third!) helpings at dinner
   • More walking home from work
   • More eating proper meals
   • Less snacking on junk
   • Take vitamins regularly

   PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – it was up, it was down

5. Make at least 2 camping trips
   NOT ACHIEVED (was particularly sad about this one – am still very keen to bust out equipment – else we must rid selves of it)

6. Spend more time on self-maintenance / grooming / pampering
   PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – the short hair, it was a grooming revelation!

7. Keep up the diversity in all things cooking
   PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – again, it was up, it was down. Abandonment of the toast project let us down – really, if you want to be accountable for stuff, put it (or plan to put it) on the InformationSuperHighway

8. Add a few more non-meat meals into the rotation
   PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – one more added – we need to work on this

9. Take more of our own food to the footy
   NOT ACHIEVED

10. Change work hours (again!) for more time away from the ghastly SaltMinesLimited
    PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – did and then got new job which is causing me to spend ridiculous amounts of times at, and thinking about, SML

11. Stress less about the SaltMinesLimited. Accept that I’ll be there for another year at least because there is no way I’ll find the flexibility elsewhere
    NOT ACHIEVED – completely and utterly not achieved

12. Procrastinate less
    NOT ACHIEVED

13. Act more like a lady
    ACHIEVED!! – totally have boozed less & embraced much less profanity – in public

14. More projects / less computer
    NOT ACHIEVED

15. Let go of perfectionism
    PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – perhaps a little

16. Complete Don’s accursed jumper!
    ACHIEVED!! – Woo! Though to my horror, after washing it grew and grew and became 2 sizes larger and almost unwearable

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1. Read more widely (have kindle and should not be afraid to use it)
2. Wear reading glasses at home ALL OF THE TIME (to avoid the recently discovered, non-glasses-wearing, debilitating headaches)
3. More supporting (financially and otherwise) issues I am passionate about
4. More listening to radio
5. Reduce electricity consumption
6. Reduce buying of things
7. Continue decluttering (hol accom made us realise how very delightful it is to live in an uncluttered/minimalist space)
8. Blog moar / twitter moar (but teh twitterering should not be at the expense of teh bloggering)
9. More quality time on InformationSuperHighway (less mindless scrolling)
10. Think about SML less (leave it at the door)
11. Reconnect with those contacts who might help me get the hell out of SML
12. Get the hell out of SML (do we sense a theme?)
13. Socialise / be in touch with friends more
14. More variety in / experiment more with foodz
15. Reclaim health
    • full plank 3 minutes
    • keep up yoga
    • run at least 2km at least 1x per week
    • run loop over bridge by end 2012
    • keep up yoga (so nice, I said it twice)
    • less boozing¹
16. Watch all of those DVDs &etc we’ve acquired
17. Another tropical island Xmas vacation (to same locale)
18. Improve French (see above)
19. More embracing of life

1. Get a golf handicap (however bad it might be)
   ACHIEVED!! – 22

2. Complete 4 post-grad nerd subjects
   NOT ACHIEVED – unfortunately, some less than stellar life things got in the way

3. Play guitar four hours per week
   NOT ACHIEVED – as with Joe/Frank, the guitar has been packed away. Ahh! Enthusiasms!

4. Repeat another magnificent victory in fantasy baseball comp
   NOT ACHIEVED – can we say dead last?

5. Achieve savings goal
   ACHIEVED!! – well exceeded expectations, in fact!

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1. Golf handicap under 20
2. Finish in Top 4 of fantasy baseball
3. Buy home
4. Keep up the yoga (at least 7.5x per month)
5. Cure more meat

1. save money for a holiday
   ACHIEVED!! – see New Caledonia Xmas

2. go to the gym and shed pounds
   NOT ACHIEVED – don’t even get me started how much lecturing Joan receives from everyone for paying for gym membership and never visiting

3. get career direction
   ACHIEVED!! – acquired new, more challenging job & commenced lawyerly learning

4. stress less
   PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – much less stress than previously, but still somewhat cray-cray

5. keep my home in order
   ACHIEVED!! – each time Don and I have visited we have nearly collapsed in shock at the tidiness of her home

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1. Pass all Law subjects
2. Have a more healthy diet / cook more
3. Shed pounds
4. Be less neurotic
5. Broaden horizons (try new things and whatever)

1. Get an A in any subject
   NOT ACHIEVED

2. Get a part-time job
   NOT ACHIEVED

3. Beat siblings in School Certificate
   PARTIALLY ACHIEVED – beat Joe/Frank in all, beat Joan in Maths and equalled in Science

4. Make birthday gifts for 4 friends
   ACHIEVED!! (I think 3 is close enough!)

5. Perform a hard song on Guitar
   TBA (am assuming this was ACHIEVED!!, will have Bessie confirm)

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1. do more crafty projects
2. spend less time on the Internet
3. have a more broad cooking range/ harder
4. read more
5. do reasonably well in all my subjects