No longer home alone

Things are now back to normal. B is home again.

My week home alone (except for my four legged companions) did not provide me with much to report on; work, study, feed and interact with said four legged companions, and sleep. I had to cook my own dinner each night and am pleased to report NO BURNT OFFERINGS, although I made up for that when B got home by burning the Basmati in the microwave.

Friday, picked B up from the airport and shopping with mum.

Saturday, we had a flyby visit from the littlest sister and her partner, in the area to look at tiles. A also visited for dinner and to show off her new phone. I was meant to study but was easily distracted searching out Blythe sites.

Sunday, another success on ebay with the purchase of Hollywood Blythe.

Back at work today.

Family Fireworks a Tradition for Fathers Day

Being Fathers Day today, the family gathered for lunch at mum and dad's. It was a bit of a frantic day for B & me. We had a few things to finish off at home - like replacing the backyard light and planting the last of the plants bought on Friday, all before 11am when we needed to hit the road to Willoughby for the Fathers Day celebrations. For B the celebrations were only in passing as after a quick bite to eat he had to be at the airport to catch his plane to Wagga Wagga to attend a conference on Weeds.

I drove B to the airport and returned to Willoughby to enjoy pudding and a cup of tea, and this is where it got interesting.... The 'sister-next-in-line' and SIL had an altercation, which saw both end up in tears and the favourite brother (actually the only brother), littlest P, and SIL leave.

Now by 'getting interesting', I don't mean I took any enjoyment in words being said, feelings hurt and tears being shed, but I seem to recall that last year on this very day, the littlest sister and I, got into a heated debate, that saw a similar version of events take place and end with me (and B) leaving the party early. I think this could be a tradition in the making, I'll let you know next Fathers Day.

its been a little quiet in my corner....

for the following reasons, and not in order of priority or significance:

• career blues,
• uni study,
• competition for the computer, and
• work.

Each of the above has been in combination at some stage or another which has ment a very up and down week for me. I do believe however, that the week ended significantly up, not only because I had a day off on Friday (organised on Monday, because I didn't believe I would make it through a week at work), but because work and the career blues thing might be sorted. The turnaround commencing Tuesday afternoon with a phone call from my manager, and a discussion about some options for the direction of our unit. I think I am valued! This is always nice to have reaffirmed.

So whilst the work front work might be on the up and the career blues put away until next season, study for uni took a turn for the worst with my complete lack of understanding of the calculations required to determine a firms optimal output with regards to marginal revenue and marginal cost. I just don't get it!! and its not likely I'm ever going to have to use it again if I ever pass this subject.

Is Father's Day going to be the appropriate time to get the littlest sister's fiance to give me a tutorial? Oh hell, is he even going to be at mum and dad's tomorrow? I need to finish this blog and further consult the textbooks. And besides B has just arrived in and will no doubt be wanting the computer soon.

GAL today!

Well, what a day!

Today we went and picked up the MIL and then headed down to GAL (Gardening Australia Live). We had a great time, looked at lots of great ideas for the garden, lots of interesting plants, and we even managed to buy a couple (more than what the budget allowed)!!!

We were there almost all day, and I was very tired by the end of the day! By the time we eventually got home, I was TIRED!!!

At one of the exhibitors, they were doing some cooking with herbs,mainly cooking a chicken breast on Kaffir Lime leaves, and another one on Lemon Thyme. For dinner tonight, now A, NO drooling here, I stir fried some chicken, then added some of the Kaffir AND Lemon Thyme finely diced, and then added some Vietnamese mint before some Coconut cream to make a bit of sauce. This I added to some rice, flavoured with the same mint, YUMMMO!!!!!

I have just gotten onto the pc, as L has been studying, and I am about to go to bed.

Night night!!

what's in a name I hear you ask?????

I have been asked, (again) as to how we got to the name of our website/blog!

Well, here 'tis.

When we were looking at some of the other blogs out there in cyber land, I was on the puter and L was (trying) to cook dinner. If my memory is correct, I think it was sausages. Why, do I hear you ask, if I remember it was sausages?

Well, L was definitely cooking sausages, on HIGH, and was distracted out to the puter room for what ever reason, and it was the sound of the smoke alarm that convinced her that "Houston, we have a problem"! No, not really the smoke alarm, but there was enough smoke there that should have set it off though!!

This is one (of many) attempts by L to add that lovely, smoky, atmosphere to the house. Her attempts in the kitchen, whilst are intended to be very helpful and is gratefuly accepted, come to the end result of either being a 'burnt offering' or there is something wrong with it. Like on Monday night for example:

I was on my way home from work, and talking to L from my mobile (hands free of course *grins*) and she suggested "Why don't we have the chicken Kiev we purchased from Baiada" these were a very cheep *giggles at ones own joke* buy.
I says, "ok, but can you get it started"?.
When I get home, the oven was on, and the chicken was on the side of the bench and still FROZEN. L did not think that it needed to be thawed out before going into the oven.

Now after seeing a show on the ABC (which name escapes me at the moment), we saw exactly how food poisoning happens from un-cooked chicken, and wanting not to have this happen, I suggested to L that this needs to be thawed out so she put it in the microwave.

But, we did have some (limited) success on the weekend with some Friand's. In fact, there is a pic of them in the 'Pics' section of burntofferings website, so go and have a look. They tasted as good as they looked, and nice and (very) crunchy on the edges, whilst being a little raw still in the center!

Well, had better go now, cya!

B

what a weekend.......

WOW!! What a weekend! Firstly, on Saturday morning, we had the Gardens of the Future Expo which went really well, (even though L was not there for my presentation)!!! A got to see it though!!!
We had a really tiring day on Sat, after the expo, we got some rolls for lunch, worked on A's blog a bit, went to the video store to get some DVD's (Shattered Glass a story about a disgraced associate editor who fabricated many articles for the The New Republic; you can read more here) & (House of Sand and Fog you can read all about it there!!) Two very good movies.....

On Sunday, we took B (not me) and A (not the previously mentioned A but A.... are you confused????) to the airport to see them off to Fiji! It was sad to see them go (only because I wished it was I, not them, going through the magic doors....), but I hope they have a good time!! After that we went to the new Westfield at Bondi Junction. L bought herself a new Spencer and Rutherford bag Go Fetch. I will get a pic of it loaded shortly so as you can see why L HAD to have this bag. Then we went on to Manly Vale to go to the Nursery there, and finally we got L her Globe Artichoke, then went home to rest when it started to (finally) rain.

B

gardens of the future expo.......

well, the day is here tomorrow when I am making a presentation for the 'Gardens of the Future Expo' at Central Gardens.

I have spent most of today mucking around trying to finalize what I am going to say, make some posters up, and locate, work out how to set up and stick on works banners!!!!! AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!

Now all that I have left is to get my posters laminated, and go home!!!

I hope that tomorrow is as fine a day as today, even if we got about 2 mins of rain this morning, but after that, I hope it pours down rain on Sunday!!

B

Greyhound for sale, going cheap!!

no, not really, although I suspect that L is a little hopeful!!

Yesterday, whilst having a break from studying, L was out the back pulling out the Poa annua (Winter Grass) from our yard. Now hear is where the problem is, she was using her kneeling pad and it got a little damp. So, by the end of the day she put it on the outside table for it to dry and promptly forgot about it.

Roll clock forward about 4-5 hours.

Macc the lovely Grey was wandering around the lounge room making us all know he would like to visit the men's room. So, I got up from the computer, trying hard to work out how to put in thumbnail's (and that's another story), and let him out, and promptly forgot about him and went back to the computer to make some bids on eBay.

Now roll the clock forward about 2 hours.

I was going to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, and I glanced out the back door to see the said Grey lying like an angel (not) on the cold tiles on our verandah, DUH!! So, I let him in again.

Roll the clock forward 2 hours.

"Ok Macc, time for bed", I heard from L as she went to the pantry to get M his sardines, and as she went out the back to what appeared to look like it had snow in our courtyard! oooohhhhhh!! she yells.

So, as a result, he was now out for the night in disgrace!! Oh, and I worked out the trick of thumbnail's, won 2 eBay auctions and managed to put the clock on our website!!!

Cheers

B

They went the way of the muffins

It's true really! I didn't eat them all by myself. Macc is to blame.

The triple chocolate muffins and now the pancakes. I'm suprised he didn't succeed in getting the choc chunk cookies I made yesterday. This has been a very domestic week - cooking, cleaning, and x-stitching. Probably because this is infinitely more exciting than the economics I am supposed to be studying.

Macc and I have just been to the park, it was as we were leaving that I thought I would take one of the pancakes for him as a reward. He gets a bit of time off the lead to chase a ball and some form of yummy enticement reminds him that he needs to bring the ball back to me. However, the plate upon which the freshly made pancakes were cooling was bare. I can't say I was overly disappointed though, as they were a bit burnt. However, this continual thieving when it comes to food is getting to be a bit of nuisance.

B and I are going to have to work harder to establish that the kitchen, Jasmine's dinner, and any food generally that is not in his bowl is off limits.

duh!

Well what a coincidence!

Yesterday, L made a post to welcome A to the WWB (Wonderful World of Blogging). But when she did the 'update' thing, she saw that my post (almost at the same time) was there too!! AND, what's more, the title on both were THE SAME! What are the chances!

I have now had emails from Loobylu, FluidPudding & UGC all saying it was ok to link to their sites, Thanks all concerned, your sites are really good reading for L, and a pain for me as she wants me to work on our site, to make it worthy of yours. L is always looking for some sort of inspiration (as an excuse to get away from studying I say!!)!!

On Monday morning, we had the construction of the townhouse development up the back, put in the cables for Telstra. What this meant for us is, that they had to dig a trench from the corner of our property, to almost the 7- Eleven up the road! Whilst they did an ok job of it (particularly in front of our place) it is pretty ordinary the rest of the way. What is really disappointing is we could not water it until today, and only up to 10 am thanks to the water restrictions in place, thanks to Sydney Water. So hopefully L is out there watering it now.

Well, that's it for now, whilst I am at work, and L is at home studying, or at least I hope you are L!

Cheers