I’m not sure how managed to get to the 3rd floor, but we didn’t have the heart to dispose of him after all that effort.

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The Forsyth St Bad Kitty.

The very undignified bib prevents him menacing birdies.

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I’m not entirely sure he’s recyclable.

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I’ve mended him here and there, but today my trusty umbrella finally gave up the good fight against inclement weather.

I estimate about $2 per year of carrying.

My new, very similar, one cost $10. It should need replacing in 2016.

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I swear those pumpkin scones will not become another 6 year jumper!

They are very high up on the action item list for this weekend.

Handsome poppet he is

Admire my perfect sleeve seam

All that remains!

A gentle hand wash (hopefully will reduce the itchy) and a block (hopefully will even out the stitches) still to be completed, but by!golly! I think we can call it over!

And you can all breathe a sigh of relief at the end of accursed-jumper-blogging 2009-2011.

I have completed and set in the sleeves of the accursed 6 year jumper!

Only the (very long) side seams and a small amount of weaving in remain.

This weekend for sure!

And as The Universe is my witness, I will never knit another adult-sized jumper again.

Boy!howdy! it knocked me about.

I’ve been channelling sedate and relaxed, so not a great deal has been going on, but here are some low-key highlights …

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After ExtremeProcrastination, I unravelled the way-too-long sleeves of the six year jumper and recommenced knitting.

Please Universe, make the very finite wool supply last to the bitter end.

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Joaquim has made a re-appearance (who knew possums hibernated? we’d hoped he’d found a new family to terrorise) and decimated the parsley.

So we’ve admitted defeat and are attempting a parsley crop in the kitchen.

Already I have found TWO caterpillars, which makes me wonder if the plagues we’ve had in the past have originated on the plants themselves and not high-flying moths.

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The most excellent Prudence shared her super-secret pumpkin scone recipe and I plan to whip up a batch this weekend.

Pumpkin acquired!

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Given Don’s complete lack of enthusiasm for anti-fatigue mats in the kitchen, I purchased supremely comfy footwear for kitchen use and thus have brought everlasting shame to Bessie.

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Acquired Bessie’s Year 10 formal dress. Thankfully Joan directed proceedings in a most excellent manner and we were done in less than 2 hours.

Dress is very pretty, very retro and suits her very well. Now we must find shoes.

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Meeting at school tomorrow morning to discuss Joe/Frank’s less than stellar exam results and how the school can support him going into the HSC. I very much appreciate how proactive they are about these things.

There is some talk about splitting Year 12 over 2 years, which J/F is totally not on board with.

Hopefully he might realise it is time to attempt more than a 2 on the 10 point “how much effort am I putting in” scale.

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There is a tropical island family (well, Joan and Joe/Frank, sans Bessie) vacation in our not-too-distant future. I think we are all desperately in need of it.

Booked flights last evening and now are awaiting a response from Qantas as to why Joan’s ticket, booked 3 minutes after ours (on the same flight and both via Qantas website) was $90 cheaper (per ticket) than ours.

Still … holiday!!!!

May The Universe be merciful.

“Pharyngitis? CEO had that two weeks ago.”

“Pharyngitis? My doctor said it must be really bad if I caught it.”

“Pharyngitis? [Random person] was off work for that.”

Rinse. Repeat.

I think there is no question as to how I became afflicted.

Earlier this evening I was at the point where I had a very husky, extremely sexy voice.

Now I am at the point where everything comes out in barely audible squeaks.

This, however, is not the story of one of those times.

It started with a simple enough looking bikkie from the CWA Biscuits and Slices cookbook, as requested by Joe/Frank.

Monte Carlos p.17

I sensed when mixing that the consistency was a bit less moist than I thought it ought have been, but persisted despite my better judgement (first time with the recipe and all).

The rolling into balls and baking only confirmed my suspicions.

from above they don’t look too bad

But when you get up close the full!horror! is revealed.

The Humanity! Let us not even discuss the icing disaster.

As Dishy(ex)Boss noted, I can’t just have a simple cold.

Thanks to that stack of drugs, I’ve pretty much been asleep for the past two days.

The dreams have been quite a trip.

Big Day Out: 2001

He was rather sad to see it relegated to the St Vinnies stash, so I’m planning to construct a beach-tote from it.

I’m not terribly confident at sewing stretch fabrics without an over-locker (though tutorial gives me a good deal of comfort), so we’ll see how it pans out (at the moment, I’m mostly conceptualising (and avoiding work)).

If it is anything like Don’s jumper, it may be completed around 2021.
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Bessie and I realised today that the most spectacular choc-chip cookies we’ve ever made (and by!golly! we’ve been baking cookies together for many, many years) have come from recipes from the side of choc-chip packets.

Admire our m4d cutting sk1llz!

Must scan and post them (though the results from the link above are pretty gosh-darn fabulous)!

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If you are like us, you print out your fave recipes and shove them in a binder (and if you do not do this, you should get on board!), you totally need to get on board with this:

pegular genius

Who would have thought a tiny peg and wad of blu-tak could make such an amazing difference to our cooking experience?

But holy!goodness! – serious! positive! impact!

I am so pleased to have a break from the relentless grind of SaltMinesLimited (even though I must do some work today to get some stuff squared away).
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If you read comments, you’ll be aware that Bratson, having a new mentor in MrT’s RightHandHarridan, has now busted out, “Carolbaby does not make things clear”, “Everything is so complicated”, “I am scared to ask CarolBaby questions”.

Despite my screenshots and detailed step-by-steps [which he does not read], dumbing work down to a 5 year old level, his constantly bombarding me with questions and my total availability, “Everything is so very hard” (yes copy/paste /search is so very difficult) and “I need my headspace”.

He’s very much ramped up the game-playing and runs to RHH as soon as I leave my desk to grab glass of water with “I don’t know where Carolbaby is”, “I don’t understand what to do”, “Carolbaby has not explained this at all”.

Now I have RHH approaching me with “your relationship has soured”, “Bratson wants a fresh start”. And so we have the endless chats and fresh-starts and the advice (reputation is everything, you have let me and yourself down innumerable times, we have had to pick up your slack way too many times, we need to see some commitment …)

The most horrid thing about this is that Bratson can go about telling these appalling and distressing untruths and, because I am new to the division and not the son of MrT’s pal, I am not getting any sort of benefit of the doubt.

I thank the Universe that HR is totally on my side. And they suggest that RHH, despite being completely in MrT’s pocket, will rapdily become aware of what Bratson is up to.

In the meanwhile, I’ve now handed Bratson off to MrsCranky who is light-years less patient than I and already he is starting the “I’m scared…” bit about her.

Horrible little monster.

It wasn’t personal, but is rapidly becoming so.

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Nonetheless, long weekend!!

And cookies!

And more cookies!!