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Our local greengrocer has had some very nice black currants (not actual blackcurrants, which are a kind of berry, but black currant grapes) in lately, so I have been buying a few at a time and hording them until yesterday when I had about half a kilo to make jelly (with the idea of having black currant jelly as a substitute for red currant jelly). But alas I was a little hasty in making it yesterday and I took it off the stove before it had reached the correct setting point. Even after sitting in the fridge overnight it still remained little more than a thick syrup. No problem, thought I. I'll just put it back on to cook a bit more tonight. So I did. And it promptly boiled over and spilled thick syrupy black currant goo all over the stove. And then I think I burnt it the remainder.
Liam came by while I was mopping pink goo off the stove.
"What happened here?" he asked. "Jamfail?"
"Yes," I said. "Jamfail."
Not Bruce, apparently
Feb. 8th, 2013 10:14 pmSo I went to bed last night utterly exhausted after four hours sleep the night before and three hours of talking at work (I had a new staff member I had to show the ropes, and talking is exhausting to us introverts). And at 3:15am the phone rang. I sat up with visions of parents in hospital running through my head, while Andy flailed zombie-like at the alarm clock.
'Hello' says I.
"Bruce? Is that you?" says a voice on the other end of the line.
"I think you have the wrong number," I say.
Phone hangs up.
It's 3:15am, I think. 3:15am!
We lie down and pass out again.
Sometime later Ashwyn gets in bed with us. The radio is not going, but it seems kind of lighter than normal, so I check the time. It is an hour after the alarm normally goes off. Andy had switched it off in the night. I leap out of bed and rush about like the proverbial chook.
Now my brain hurts.
Still I suppose it's a good thing Ashwyn is not a slug-a-bed like his siblings (or his parents!) or I would have been late to work.
In other news Ashwyn almost knocked out another of his teeth the other day. For those who are unaware, Ashwyn knocked out one of his front teeth when he was thirteen months old. He wandered out into the garden and managed to find a place where he could fall onto a screw sticking out of an old piece of wood. There was a good reason we used to call him Danger Baby. That child couldn't fall over without landing on a corner. Anyway, the dentist wouldn't put it back in, and he's had a distinctly piratical gap ever since. The other day he was apparently trying to get into a tupperware tub which had some cookies in it. He couldn't pry the lid off with his fingers, so he decided he would try it with his teeth. And all he pried loose was one of his teeth.
Given he is nearly six he was probably close to losing it anyway, but it looked rather alarming the next day. I think the gum was just a bit bruised, because it seems ok now, and we called the dentist and they didn't seem particularly disturbed, so we'll just wait for it to fall out I suppose.
'Hello' says I.
"Bruce? Is that you?" says a voice on the other end of the line.
"I think you have the wrong number," I say.
Phone hangs up.
It's 3:15am, I think. 3:15am!
We lie down and pass out again.
Sometime later Ashwyn gets in bed with us. The radio is not going, but it seems kind of lighter than normal, so I check the time. It is an hour after the alarm normally goes off. Andy had switched it off in the night. I leap out of bed and rush about like the proverbial chook.
Now my brain hurts.
Still I suppose it's a good thing Ashwyn is not a slug-a-bed like his siblings (or his parents!) or I would have been late to work.
In other news Ashwyn almost knocked out another of his teeth the other day. For those who are unaware, Ashwyn knocked out one of his front teeth when he was thirteen months old. He wandered out into the garden and managed to find a place where he could fall onto a screw sticking out of an old piece of wood. There was a good reason we used to call him Danger Baby. That child couldn't fall over without landing on a corner. Anyway, the dentist wouldn't put it back in, and he's had a distinctly piratical gap ever since. The other day he was apparently trying to get into a tupperware tub which had some cookies in it. He couldn't pry the lid off with his fingers, so he decided he would try it with his teeth. And all he pried loose was one of his teeth.
Given he is nearly six he was probably close to losing it anyway, but it looked rather alarming the next day. I think the gum was just a bit bruised, because it seems ok now, and we called the dentist and they didn't seem particularly disturbed, so we'll just wait for it to fall out I suppose.
What else is going on...
Jan. 31st, 2013 09:55 pmMy keyboard is being a bit odd, so I apologise if I skip letters. Actually it seems to be okay now. It just seemed to be struggling to keep up with me in the last post.
So mum and dad got away at 4:30am on Tuesday. That is a real time. I should know. I was awake. And they were only stuck in Brisbane for one day before the waters receded enough that they could get home, although apparently it was a bit hairy getting out to my sister's house. And once I'd gone back to bed and tossed and turned and then gotten up again I discovered that my mother had left her handbag here. Her handbag with her Kindle, her keys, her mobile phone, her wallet, and the parking ticket for the airport. So if you've always thought I am a bit absent minded, now you know where I get it from.
Also Ashwyn's bug seems to have hit the rest of us. Liam got it on the first day back to school, which seemed awfully convenient, but he does seem to be genuinely sick (getting called up to school today because he had diarrhoea was one clue). In myself and Andy it seems to have manifested as exhaustion, headaches and bilious nausea. Fun, fun, fun. I'm half tempted to suggest that it's listeriosis, but it's hard to think of something among the usual culprits that cause that that the boys would actually eat.
So mum and dad got away at 4:30am on Tuesday. That is a real time. I should know. I was awake. And they were only stuck in Brisbane for one day before the waters receded enough that they could get home, although apparently it was a bit hairy getting out to my sister's house. And once I'd gone back to bed and tossed and turned and then gotten up again I discovered that my mother had left her handbag here. Her handbag with her Kindle, her keys, her mobile phone, her wallet, and the parking ticket for the airport. So if you've always thought I am a bit absent minded, now you know where I get it from.
Also Ashwyn's bug seems to have hit the rest of us. Liam got it on the first day back to school, which seemed awfully convenient, but he does seem to be genuinely sick (getting called up to school today because he had diarrhoea was one clue). In myself and Andy it seems to have manifested as exhaustion, headaches and bilious nausea. Fun, fun, fun. I'm half tempted to suggest that it's listeriosis, but it's hard to think of something among the usual culprits that cause that that the boys would actually eat.
So this made me happy...
Jan. 31st, 2013 09:10 pmOr it would if I could get the frigging HTML to work...
Except then of course I started to think like a statistician. 'Your writing is most like 'x'' is not any guarantee that your writing is at all like 'x', just that it is more like 'x' than any of the other options in the list. So then I wondered how many fantasy writers were in the list of 'great writers' available for comparison. As an experiment I took another sample of text from my book, and this time found one which did not contain the words 'Elf', 'Elves' or 'Elvish' (which is surprisingly tricky for a book in which the main character is half Elvish). To my distinct delight I got the same result. I scanned the sample of text more carefully and discovered it contained the phrase 'company of riders'. Hmmm, thought I.
So then I found a part which was basically description of landscape. I got Rudyard Kipling. Which is still kind of cool. Then I picked another section, which contained a small amount of dialogue. Mario Puzo. WTF?
So my book is apparently a Tolkienesque tale set in far Mandelay where everyone talks like mobsters.
I can haz earworms
Jan. 28th, 2013 10:06 pmAndy and I went to see Les Miserables last night (the film that is - I did see the stage version when it was in Adelaide lo these many years ago). Now I have all the earworms. Even Andy has earworms, which is rather amusing because he doesn't like musicals, and only came with me because he is a good husband. All day he has been randomly going "Dum dee dum dee dum dee dum...singing a song of angry men..." It was actually very good, although Rusty was distinctly lacklustre and his voice was rather shown up by that of some of the other cast who were clearly trained singers. Anne Hathaway was awesome.
My parents have been staying with us over the long weekend. They are flying out early tomorrow morning, but it seems fairly certain they won't be able to get home. The flight won't be an issue, but all the roads leading from Brisbane to the town where they live are currently closed due to flooding.
Ashwyn was ill most of last week with some kind of stomach bug. He spent most of Monday afternoon alternating throwing up with having stomach cramps. Then he more or less refused to eat most of the week. He capped it off on Friday with a bout of diarrhoea and then a massive vomit at 2am (which I was fortunate enough to sleep through). After that he seemed perfectly fine and has been eating more or less non-stop ever since. He seems to have gotten the impression that this was caused by him eating chips off the ground at the swimming pool. Now he has sworn off 'ground chips', so I suppose there's a silver lining even to a house full of vomit.
School goes back tomorrow. Andy is deeply relieved. Me less so. When the kids are on holiday I can often get up and have a quiet breakfast and go off to work before they wake up. Now it will be hauling reluctant Erins out of bed, and getting breakfasts and chivvying and so on, and maybe ten minutes to read and eat.
My parents have been staying with us over the long weekend. They are flying out early tomorrow morning, but it seems fairly certain they won't be able to get home. The flight won't be an issue, but all the roads leading from Brisbane to the town where they live are currently closed due to flooding.
Ashwyn was ill most of last week with some kind of stomach bug. He spent most of Monday afternoon alternating throwing up with having stomach cramps. Then he more or less refused to eat most of the week. He capped it off on Friday with a bout of diarrhoea and then a massive vomit at 2am (which I was fortunate enough to sleep through). After that he seemed perfectly fine and has been eating more or less non-stop ever since. He seems to have gotten the impression that this was caused by him eating chips off the ground at the swimming pool. Now he has sworn off 'ground chips', so I suppose there's a silver lining even to a house full of vomit.
School goes back tomorrow. Andy is deeply relieved. Me less so. When the kids are on holiday I can often get up and have a quiet breakfast and go off to work before they wake up. Now it will be hauling reluctant Erins out of bed, and getting breakfasts and chivvying and so on, and maybe ten minutes to read and eat.
I was playing Skyrim last night (much too late), and I discovered there is a certain amulet your character can wear and people will start expressing a romantic interest in him/her. To cut a long story short my character basically asked her long time, favourite companion at arms to marry her. But due to a misunderstanding on my part (yeah, yeah that's everyone's excuse I'm sure) I was late to the temple for the wedding, and thus failed the 'attend your wedding ceremony' quest. Now not only is my character not married, but her friend has disappeared and I don't know if she is coming back! And, of course, I don't have an appropriate save point to go back and try again.
I am far more annoyed with this than I ought to be.
I am far more annoyed with this than I ought to be.
Stay cool...
Jan. 5th, 2013 03:24 pmI hope all of you out there are managing in the disgusting weather. The slight reprieve today is nice, but I'm starting to regret deciding not to go back to work next week.
Ashwyn had a massive nose bleed last night at 2:30am. He tends to get them when he is hot (and he also tends to cover himself up with a quilt in bed even when it is 30C overnight) and when he gets them he really gets them. I guess I'm not the only one in the family who's talented at bleeding. He then woke us up again at 6:50am because he'd had another, but at some time during the night. Besides smearing himself in blood he'd also somehow managed to splash it all over his mattress and the walls of his room. And I mean splash. There were spatter marks. It looked like a slaughterhouse in there.
Also the other day in the car Ashwyn declared he was very hot and 'all my water is coming out of me'.
He's a card that boy.
Ashwyn had a massive nose bleed last night at 2:30am. He tends to get them when he is hot (and he also tends to cover himself up with a quilt in bed even when it is 30C overnight) and when he gets them he really gets them. I guess I'm not the only one in the family who's talented at bleeding. He then woke us up again at 6:50am because he'd had another, but at some time during the night. Besides smearing himself in blood he'd also somehow managed to splash it all over his mattress and the walls of his room. And I mean splash. There were spatter marks. It looked like a slaughterhouse in there.
Also the other day in the car Ashwyn declared he was very hot and 'all my water is coming out of me'.
He's a card that boy.
It's always the way...
Jan. 1st, 2013 10:01 pmWhen you suddenly realise you have less of a medication than you thought you had, that is the time you realise that you have lost your repeat prescriptions.
Of course it also tends to be the case that this revelation occurs to you when you are on the way to bed, and instead of going to bed you then spend half an hour fruitlessly turning the house upside down looking for said prescriptions.
I may have left them at work. Or I may have accidentally thrown them out. The one thing I can be fairly sure of is that, unlike most other things that go missing in this house, they are unlikely to be in Ashwyn's bed.
Also this evening for some reason our TV randomly decided that we should be watching Bridget Jones' Diary.
"Oh no, Dad!" Ashwyn cried. "This show is rude words. It has the fucks in it!"
Of course it also tends to be the case that this revelation occurs to you when you are on the way to bed, and instead of going to bed you then spend half an hour fruitlessly turning the house upside down looking for said prescriptions.
I may have left them at work. Or I may have accidentally thrown them out. The one thing I can be fairly sure of is that, unlike most other things that go missing in this house, they are unlikely to be in Ashwyn's bed.
Also this evening for some reason our TV randomly decided that we should be watching Bridget Jones' Diary.
"Oh no, Dad!" Ashwyn cried. "This show is rude words. It has the fucks in it!"
Merry Christmas to all...
Dec. 24th, 2012 11:41 pmJust waiting for the kids to go to sleep here. Liam is lingering....
I spent most of today cooking, and remembering why I don't make caramel very often. Caramel eludes me. I think about 3 out of four times I make it, it doesn't work (if you do caramel wrong the sugar crystallizes instead of remaining a clear liquid and you end up with a crusty, opaque mess). Today I managed to get something more or less acceptable on the third try. And I think I might have cracked my problem, namely that I have been cooking it too slowly over too low a heat.
So anyway, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, whatever that involves for you.
I spent most of today cooking, and remembering why I don't make caramel very often. Caramel eludes me. I think about 3 out of four times I make it, it doesn't work (if you do caramel wrong the sugar crystallizes instead of remaining a clear liquid and you end up with a crusty, opaque mess). Today I managed to get something more or less acceptable on the third try. And I think I might have cracked my problem, namely that I have been cooking it too slowly over too low a heat.
So anyway, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, whatever that involves for you.
No, things are actually pretty quiet at work at the moment, and I have more or less done my Christmas shopping. And I even remembered to post my Christmas cards to England early enough that they might just possibly actually get there before Christmas. No, I have pulled a muscle in my back. I actually did it last weekend, or maybe in Monday yoga, but it was getting better until Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I don't know what I did to make it worse. All I did on Wednesday night was go to the kids school concert (sitting on the oval in a coolish breeze maybe?), but when I got up on Thursday I noticed it was worse, and walking up the hill to the bus stop I began gradually to realise I was actually in rather a lot of pain.
I have spent a lot of time lying down since then, and it has helped, though there's still a very distinct sore spot.
Time to bring back the home practice methinks...
I have spent a lot of time lying down since then, and it has helped, though there's still a very distinct sore spot.
Time to bring back the home practice methinks...
Another reason not to watch Fox News...
Nov. 30th, 2012 07:10 pm...although I hope none of you are silly enough to actually watch it in the first place.
But here is more cause, namely that they are contributing to the denigration of my profession and that old saw 'Lies, damned lies, and statistics'.
But here is more cause, namely that they are contributing to the denigration of my profession and that old saw 'Lies, damned lies, and statistics'.
If a random stranger comes to your door and asks if you would like any gardening and/or maintenance work done then whatever you do, don't ask him to chop down some trees you've been thinking of getting rid of for a while. Because he will:
a) chop down a large part of the cherry tree that you did not ask him to chop down, and that was swathed in bird netting and hence clearly desirable in some way
b) charge you $800
Still not happy.
a) chop down a large part of the cherry tree that you did not ask him to chop down, and that was swathed in bird netting and hence clearly desirable in some way
b) charge you $800
Still not happy.
I may have mentioned that we were getting a bumper crop of cherries this year. In fact I might go so far as to say there were more cherries on the tree this year than I have ever seen before. You'll note the past tense there.
Tonight I came home to discover that Andy had gotten someone to come and chop down some annoying vegetation in our garden. They cut down this big, fast-growing thing that has been growing in between the cherry tree and the orange tree and crowding them both out. In doing so they also cut down most of the cherry tree.
Not happy.
Tonight I came home to discover that Andy had gotten someone to come and chop down some annoying vegetation in our garden. They cut down this big, fast-growing thing that has been growing in between the cherry tree and the orange tree and crowding them both out. In doing so they also cut down most of the cherry tree.
Not happy.
Damned if you do, part ii
Oct. 29th, 2012 09:52 pmThis is where you're damned if you have a father (or father-in-law) who is a complete techno-phobe and damned if you have a father who is a techno-phile. One might even go so far as to say my father is an early adopter. He should have known better, but he installed Windows 8 yesterday. It wiped most of the stuff from his hard drive. Uninstalled all his programs, cleaned out his inbox and so on. He lost 600 Gb of stuff. If you're thinking of getting it, maybe back-up to an external place first....
Yesterday I took the kids to the Innilgard 30th Anniversary Foundation Picnic. They had a fairly good time I think, especially Ashwyn, who was into everything. I spent an awful lot of time telling him to leave the harp alone, leave that coronet alone, leave those swords alone, come out of that bag, go put that goblet back, no really put that sword down....
Also Erin seems to have given half the house a cold that she brought back from camp.
And in celebration of Halloween - disgusting cakes - don't look if you have a weak stomach (no, really)
Yesterday I took the kids to the Innilgard 30th Anniversary Foundation Picnic. They had a fairly good time I think, especially Ashwyn, who was into everything. I spent an awful lot of time telling him to leave the harp alone, leave that coronet alone, leave those swords alone, come out of that bag, go put that goblet back, no really put that sword down....
Also Erin seems to have given half the house a cold that she brought back from camp.
And in celebration of Halloween - disgusting cakes - don't look if you have a weak stomach (no, really)
It's throw things at the telly time on QandA tonight and no mistake.
Some amusing links to take my mind off it:
http://xkcd.com/1114/
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/03/avengers-hawkeye-archery
Some amusing links to take my mind off it:
http://xkcd.com/1114/
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/03/avengers-hawkeye-archery
Ack! Itchy!
Oct. 2nd, 2012 08:59 pmOur garden is in full bloom at the moment. It is very lovely, and I spent a pleasant day outside yesterday with Ashwyn playing various games which involved crawling under said flowering bushes in order to retrieve balls. And now I am so itchy! My eyes and forehead and scalp have been itchy all day, and anti-histamines only help a little (I am beginning to believe the things that say they work better if you take them before exposure to an allergen - the trouble is when it rains and is cool I get complacent and stop taking them and then a sunny day comes along and I go outside to enjoy it and argh!).
Where do I start...
Sep. 6th, 2012 09:43 pmWe had a pretty mad weekend. Saturday my parents flew in, for a short visit on their way back from a trip to Europe. Their plane landed on Saturday afternoon, when we normally do our grocery shopping, so we had to do that in the morning, except Andy also managed to flood the bathroom, and Liam got up with conjunctivitis and had to be taken to the doctor. Somehow we managed to squeeze bathroom cleaning, parent collection, grocery shopping, doctor visit, the usual Saturday three loads of washing and making cheesecake into the one day. It was pretty hectic.
It was nice to have my dad in the same state for father's day though. We went out to lunch. Then we had Andy's parents and brother over for dinner, a grand total of ten people (which is not much in comparison with 150, but my kitchen is much smaller than most hall kitchens). I made Indian - lamb korma, potatoes madras, rice, pappadums, naan bread, raita, samosas (with lots of shortcuts). And then the cheesecake (cherry) for dessert.
A busy weekend. Also our house filled up with enormous blowflies. There must be something festering in some secret hole somewhere (a charming thought, but then the kids quite often leave apple cores or melon rinds in odd places, so not entirely surprising) and giving birth to them. Andy sucked most of them up with the vacuum cleaner. But not before they freaked out Liam. He has been very anxious and nervy lately.
Liam is still not entirely well but is being annoying about taking medicine. He freaked out over the eyedrops and ointment for the conjunctivitis, so we had to hold him down to put it in. Now he has a cough but is so disgusted by the cough medicine Andy got that he gets all in a state and practically throws up whenever he has to take some. One has sympathy for one's sick children, but sometimes they try it greatly. I tried making him a honey and lemon drink and he complained that it tasted like metal.
Andy has also not been well. I think he has finally succumbed to the lurgy that has been going around.
Also it was so nice to see the sun for a while over the weekend, but Tuesday's weather brought on a nasty bout of hayfever. Honestly plants, what is it with you? A couple of sunny days and all you can think about is sex?
And then the wind knocked down a tree in our front garden. Fortunately it fell on the lawn. If it had gone the other way it would have taken out the power/phone lines into the house (and also the peas and beans that are just coming up).
It was nice to have my dad in the same state for father's day though. We went out to lunch. Then we had Andy's parents and brother over for dinner, a grand total of ten people (which is not much in comparison with 150, but my kitchen is much smaller than most hall kitchens). I made Indian - lamb korma, potatoes madras, rice, pappadums, naan bread, raita, samosas (with lots of shortcuts). And then the cheesecake (cherry) for dessert.
A busy weekend. Also our house filled up with enormous blowflies. There must be something festering in some secret hole somewhere (a charming thought, but then the kids quite often leave apple cores or melon rinds in odd places, so not entirely surprising) and giving birth to them. Andy sucked most of them up with the vacuum cleaner. But not before they freaked out Liam. He has been very anxious and nervy lately.
Liam is still not entirely well but is being annoying about taking medicine. He freaked out over the eyedrops and ointment for the conjunctivitis, so we had to hold him down to put it in. Now he has a cough but is so disgusted by the cough medicine Andy got that he gets all in a state and practically throws up whenever he has to take some. One has sympathy for one's sick children, but sometimes they try it greatly. I tried making him a honey and lemon drink and he complained that it tasted like metal.
Andy has also not been well. I think he has finally succumbed to the lurgy that has been going around.
Also it was so nice to see the sun for a while over the weekend, but Tuesday's weather brought on a nasty bout of hayfever. Honestly plants, what is it with you? A couple of sunny days and all you can think about is sex?
And then the wind knocked down a tree in our front garden. Fortunately it fell on the lawn. If it had gone the other way it would have taken out the power/phone lines into the house (and also the peas and beans that are just coming up).
