Monday would have begun our week off.  Except it wasn't really a week off for us.  Well not that we could fully relax anyway.  But, I did get stuck into the house work I wanted to do.  Monday I cleaned out the spare room cupboard and organised everything in there.  Had sausages for dinner.

Tuesday I cleaned out most of our bedroom cupboard, although we still didn't find Stu's fitbit.  Kit cooked us some ribs on the bbq for lunch which was nice.  In the afternoon I cleaned out the ensuite cupboard.  Chris and Zac came up for a swim, then Chris Bell came over as well.  With Dumpling Inn apparently closed for the break, we did a big pickup from Chong Co instead.

Wednesday I cleaned out one of the kitchen cupboards which had been annoying me for a while.  That one is a lot more organised now.  Cooked up some pasta for dinner, and we watched Wag the Dog, which seemed a bit far fetched for me.

Thursday morning I didn't really get anything useful done.  Went out during the day to Bunnings then to the chemist and had lunch, and finally our food shopping.  Did a bit of sorting of stuff in the afternoon.  Mum took us to the Labor Club for dinner with Chris and Zac.  Had a swim in the pool afterwards.

Overnight I woke up at around dentist time and couldn't get back to sleep til around 5am because I was just too hot.  The cooler was working really well before Christmas, but this entire week has been stoopidly humid which means the cooler is pretty much useless.  No fair.

So Friday was a slow start.  Mum went home, then got stuck into sorting the year's receipts and other such things.  In the evening Ben and Serena came over for a swim, and we got pizza for dinner then chatted for a while.

And so now we're up to the last day of the year.  I still have a few more bits and pieces I need to blog today.  There's *heaps* of stuff on my todo list that I wanted to get done this week but couldn't because it was too hard to concentrate.  But at least I have another couple of days left which I might be able to get some of it done.  The ftp backup of my blog is *still* going :/  I did manage to do an sql dump of it all though which was good.  123mb, although a huge chunk of that is the search terms that people use on the sidebar.  Go figure.  Might see if I can delete some of that.

Edit:  deleted nearly nine years of activity history, and the sql dump was cut down to 25mb :)

Saturday we spent the entire day cleaning the house, and then didn't even get anywhere near through the todo list.  In the evening we got pizza and Kit came up and I inflicted Love Actually on everyone, and then we had on the end of the carols and made fun of them the whole way through heh.

For the third night in a row I had insomnia for several hours.  Hurrah.

So Christmas Day was a very slow start.  Then I spent the entire morning cooking and doing food preparation.  The sweetie spent the entire morning cleaning the yards and house.  Such a good sweetie. 

Chris and Zac came up and then mum arrived and we had roast pork for lunch (the crackling barely made it to the table), with home-made apple sauce, also epic potato bake, Jamie Oliver's glazed carrots, mushrooms fried in butter, and baked vegetables.

I ate too much.

And then felt bloated all afternoon.  So I wasn't much fun for the rest of the day.  Whoops.

Late in the afternoon Annie and the family came over and we had dessert and did the whole present thing which was fun.

And people braved the festy green pool and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Thursday night I felt pretty flat on account of me being a retard.  We watched Star Trek and the first episode of the new season of Fuller House.  Then there was a picture of Yosemite on the Chromecast screensaver, so I said we should watch Star Trek V.. so we did.  The chemistry between Kirk/Spock/McCoy is pretty much at its peak in that movie, and that's about its only redeeming feature.

Friday was Star Trek, Fuller House, and Die Hard 2.  Because it's Christmas.  :)

Saturday was house stuff in the morning, then we went over to Aquila and Glenda's for afternoon champagne and cheese.  Nom.  We didn't need dinner.  So much cheese!  A very lovely afternoon.  Although did have a bit of a late night cause we went down to Kit's later in the evening.

Had a bit of a slow start on Sunday.  After lunch headed out to get some photos from my Canberra photo project which I'd missed because I didn't realise where they were taken (I'd assumed they were taken at the base of Black Mountain Tower, but they were actually taken further down the hill.  And I redid the ones of Black Mountain Peninsula now they've reopened that area.  

And I walked to the top of Parliament House because you can.  But not for much longer.  Hence why I did it.  To get into the middle though you need to go through security.  I'll save that for another day, as the sweetie wanted to go and do our food shopping and go home.

Tonight James and George and Josh and Rachel were passing through so we went to Bella Vista for dinner (definitely a tradition now!) and Cold Rock after (which is now starting to become a tradition).  Can't believe it's been four years since the last time we saw them down here. 

Friday night we finally did a big food shop, then we went down to Kit's for hamburgers for dinner.

Saturday was just getting stuff done around the house.  In the evening we watched a documenatory on Leonard Nimoy and then Die Hard.

Sunday was more house stuff.  Went out for lunch and did a Bunnings run.  Did more house stuff and repotted plants in the afternoon.  In the evening did a three cheese and bacon roast chicken and Kit came up for that, then we went over to Annie's to give Noah his birthday present.

All in all a nice weekend.

Before the last big club event we decided we needed to clear some freezer (and fridge) space.  Which meant eating as much as we could of what was in the house.

We haven't actually been proper food shopping in weeks.

With leftovers from a Melbourne Cup event at work, and the big club event, we've managed to get by with only buying a few essentials here and there.  But we really do need to do some proper shopping very soon ..

Wednesday night I started coughing.  Spent the next few days feeling like crap.  And the next few days coughing non-stop.  Fun times.  Not.

Saturday we fed about seventy people at the club.  The sweetie had to do most of the food preparation though, because I didn't want to spread germs. 

Dave and Kat came up for the weekend too which was nice, other than feeling like crap of course.

My back hurts, I think from all the coughing :(

Stu's high school friend Tom came to town this week, so we went along last night with him and Damien to the Durham in Kingston.  It was trivia night so the place was packed, and we had fun playing along with the first two rounds of trivia, even though we weren't officially participating (the table next to us might have overheard some of our answers ;) ).  The food service was pretty awful though.  They got our order wrong to start with.  And didn't bring us any sort of cutlery or napkins (they had been for other tables).  Had to go to the bar and try and get some stuff, although didn't end up with any forks so ended up eating salad with our fingers.  And the ribs we had were overcooked to the point of being a bit burnt.  Quite disappointed.  But other than that had a good catchup, and a lovely pleasant night to be sitting outside.

So aside from a plane blog entry, I haven't blogged in two weeks.  Whoops.

Monday two weeks ago I took a six hour lunch and finished a photo project that I'll get online soon.

The next Wednesday we won another damned trivia night.  Even without DC's help.  So will run the next one, which could very well be the last.

The Friday that week I went to Chrissie's for dinner.  She cooked a really nice pumpkin, gnochhi and sage dish, and for once we actually watched a movie (usually we talk about watching a movie but then just end up chatting all evening).  So watched Independence Day.

Saturday Chrissie brought up her steam cleaner to attack the bathroom.  

I'm too short to see this so never actually knew how bad it had gotten

So I made lunch (as you do).  I cooked up a bit of a hanami lunch - teriyaki chicken wings, tuna sushi and okonomiyaki.  There was heaps of food and Serena had been planning to have lunch with Kit so invited both of them up as well.

This was my first ever attempt at sushi!  It turned out pretty well

Chrissie finished up in the bathroom later in the afternoon, and Zac mowed the lawn.

On Sunday I went to pick up the sweetie from the airport.  And sorted Zac's Lego which Chrissie had brought up.

Monday I wore new jeans to work.  But backing up a little.  I am thoroughly sick and tired of paying a fortune for Jeanswest jeans that only last a year.  And I hate that you can't get decent quality demin in girls jeans anymore.  Why don't they make girls jeans in *real* demin and not that thin crappy stuff that is the only thing you can get now??  #hate  Even at 40% off, Jeanswest jeans are still pretty expensive.  So I thought screw this, and tried somewhere cheaper.  I tried Target first, but there was only like one style of jeans there that weren't already ripped to shreds.  wtf??  What idiot fashion designer thought that would ever be fashionable??  At least the idiots that wear jeans like that will look back at photos of themselves and wonder what in the world they were thinking.  Suckers.  So nothing at Target so tried Kmart.  Found some clearance jeans that were $7.  Each.  And they were more comfortable that the Jeanswest jeans as they have a slightly higher cut.  The next day I took them to get tailored and they were having a special - $10 jeans hemming.  So for $68 I got four pairs of jeans in the right size.  Normally that would be the cost of *one* pair of jeans.  So even if these cheap ones only last a quarter as long, I'll still be ahead.

Thursday we went down to see the two day old chickies!

Friday the sweetie and I went into town for dinner.  We ended up at Jamie's Italian, which I'd never actually been to before.  The service was pretty slow but the food was delicious.

This crispy squid was crunchy and delicious

These polenta chips weren't bad, but quite heavy.  Nothing like the awesomeness of the polenta chips we had at Pandanus on Lord Howe Island in 2007.

Stu's Pumpkin Panzerotti.  I only got the smallest of mouthfuls and then got distracted by the waiter, shoulda had a bit more.

This spaghetti carbonara was sooo tasty.  It's making me hungry just looking at it.

Salted caramel and chocolate sundae

After dinner (it was getting a bit late), Stu took me around to finish off the night shots for my photo project.

Saturday we had Nat and Andrew over for hanami lunch take two.  Same menu basically, although sushi options modified slightly for the fussy eaters :P

Okonomiyaki (Lisa's recipe)

We chatted all afternoon and then put on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which was fun.

In the evening the sweetie and I watched The Silence of the Lambs, which I hadn't seen in years and Stu had never seen.

Sunday was more food shopping, and more Lego sorting, with a roast dinner thrown in as well.

Also yesterday we realised that our sewage pipes were blocked.

Oh crap.

Literally.

So called Six Star Hot Water this morning and the same dude who replaced our hot water system came out and brought an eel.  He dug through a big clump of roots and everything started flowing again.  He said we could spend $5-10k getting it all dug up and fixed, or just spend the few hundred dollars every couple of years to get it cleared with an eel.  So we'll probably end up doing that.

Other than that, today was just Lego sorting.  In fact I only left the house to go hack a portal.  Step count will be a bit sad today.

Oh, and I blogged.  Finally.

On Wednesday night Neil and I went to Sage for a super nice dinner hosted by Brokenwood wines.  A night of delicious food and a *lot* of wine ensued.  All the food was amazing, I'd like to go back again some time.  We happened to be seated next to a lovely couple from Nicholls (Vicki and Stuart) who (after it got way past last bus time) gave us a lift home.

This was cured salmon.  I typically prefer cooked salmon, but this was *awesome*.  And that yellow thing?  A slice of lemon that had been baked (or fried?) and was crunchy and sour and delicious.  A wonderful opening course.

This was pork belly with cauliflower and some odd prawn-chip style popcorn stuff??  (I really wish we'd had a menu so I could tell you what everything was!)  The only problem with this dish for me is that all that pork?  It's just a lump of fat :(  There was no meat at all :(:(  I ended up doing a bit of a swapsie with Neil so I could get some meat.

This was lamb I believe.  Lovely and tender.

They also brought out some sides of a creamy mashed potato and salad which were just lovely, but I didn't get photos.

A couple of cheeses to end the night.  I loved the creamy one.

To go with the cheeses.

So this weekend consisted of:

* photographing Cotter and Stromlo
* driving to Sydney and a dinner with mum for our birthdays (had pork ribs - yum!)
* awake at stoopid o'clock
* finally getting to see the Sea Cliff Bridge up close
* driving home
* house tidying, bed changing, sheet washing, Survivor watching, tuna bake cooking.

I'm still trying to get through old food in the house.  I dug out four tins of tuna that had gotten mouldy from being out at the club (the labels, not the tuna) and two small tins of creamed corn that had been in the pantry forever.  Mixed them with a small thing of cream from across the road, a sachet of cream of mushroom soup, and a clove of pickled black garlic, then over half a pack of pasta, topped with cheese then baked for forty minutes.  For something so random it was quite delicious, and there's a bunch less things in the pantry now.