How was your day dear?: April 2020 Archives

Wednesday last week.

Flowers!

Saw Stumpy for the first time in ages.

Had leftover lamb for dinner.  I cooked it with broccolini, snow peas, dark soy sauce and some brown sugar, served with rice, cashews and sesame seeds.  For something so random it turned out ok.  Well Stu really liked it and he even went back for seconds.  Looked like crap but hey :)

Then spent a good chunk of the evening blogging.

Thursday.  Slept well!!  What a refreshing change.  Beer, pizza, and Naked Gun 2 1/2.

Stumpy kept Stu company for a while at work

Friday.  Slept well!  (with assistance).  Finished scanning box 14 of Dad's slides (three this week!).  It takes about ten minutes to scan a batch of four slides, but I can do other things while it's going.  Had a productive morning churning through tickets.

Did our food shopping at lunch.  OMFG Coles had toilet paper!!  First time I've seen toilet paper in Coles since the beginning of March.  Still depleted on the flour/rice/pasta/tomato section though.  

Had a pretty stressful afternoon.  Trying to help someone fix something at work.  Couldn't figure out why it had broken - by rights it should never have worked.  Came up with a workaround, but then had to go with David to get new taps.  Remember a few years back the shower was leaking, and I took a year to regrout and seal it?  Well the shower was still leaking.  Not as much, but it was still dripping downstairs.  And the bath had mismatched taps after our last attempt to get the vanity working, and the vanity taps (at least the cold water) was broken as well.  So really we needed to replace everything in the bathroom.  So David finally had some time to replace the taps, and normally I'd could flex off an hour or two with no problems.  But with the issues at work, plus all the other work I needed to do that afternoon, I was feeling super anxious about being away.  Never a good start to a shopping expedition.  So we went to Reece's first.  They have quite a large supply room, but you can't look at that, you can only look at the show room...  which only had a couple of different options, and we couldn't get any service.  The only person in the room was on the phone (on speaker phone no less) and wasn't going anywhere.  We waited about ten minutes before giving up and going to Bunnings.  So we found a bunch of taps but when we went to check fittings, realised the gooseneck for the vanity is a couple of millimetres too big for the new fittings.  ie, a new gooseneck would be too small for our current t-piece.  #grunt.  So asked someone if we could speak to a plumbing expert.  They called someone and they said he was with a couple of customers.  So we waited.  Eventually he turns up, says, oh there's more options at the back of aisle 58, and I'm leaving for the day, bye.  Great.  So sure enough, the back of aisle 58 has more options.  But the why the #$^@ couldn't all the taps be together???  Idiots.  So looked at the options.  Not really all that many.  Especially because I wanted those fancy taps where you *know* the tap is off, you don't have to grind into the washer to turn it off.  They're called half turn taps, did you know?  But there was only one gooseneck available that was "guaranteed to fit" - because it had the two different sized fittings - we could see it through the plastic.  But it didn't have the half turn taps.  We tried again to get a plumbing expert.  Eventually one came along.  We told him the gooseneck was a different size now.  And he was like.. oh..? really..?   So much for an expert.  Can you tell I was having fun being there just waiting around and not knowing if we were even getting the right thing?  hrmm.  So in the end decided to forego the gooseneck and just get three pairs of taps - two wall mounts, one vanity top.  All the same half turn style.  And also.. OMFG Bunnings was *packed*.  It wasn't even after hours, but I guess because of the long weekend everyone was there trying to get stuff for their home improvements.  Busier there that it normally is even on a weekend!!  Craziness!!

So got home, and I got back into work.  Figured out how/when/why aforementioned problem had occurred (the shopping break was probably good for that).  Ploughed through my work for an hour, then gave David moral support in the bathroom.  The new flanges don't quite cover things on the vanity, we'll need some extenders, and the old ivory gooseneck does look a little odd with the chrome finished taps.  But it does seem that the leak has stopped!  And the new taps are *amazing*.  You can turn them off with just a finger.  Bestest brother in history! :)

I told him he could have anything he wanted for dinner (that was practically possible) .. takeway, delivery, or I could cook anything we had in the house.  He chose the butterfly lamb roast :)  So it was a late dinner, but very nice.  Photo makes it look scary, but it was pomegranate and rosemary marinade, so looked very pink even when cooked.

Saturday morning I woke up at ~1am.  Lay awake for two hours.  Got up for a while.  Still couldn't get back to sleep.  So Saturday was a zombie day.  

First real fog of the year

I was too tired to concentrate on anything much.  Did a couple of loads of washing, did a bit of tidying downstairs, and a bit of time on the jigsaw (annoyingly there's places where the picture on either side of the jigsaw is almost identical, and because the cut is identical either side, you can actually put in pieces that are wrong, and it takes a bit of effort to figure out which bits are right).  

I got this book when I was a little kid..

When I got to this page I literally blew on it!

Progress shot on the dungeon.  See that floor?  So can I!  First time since 2014 I've been able to see that corner.  It's been filled with Dad's slides, DVDs and records.

Oh, and I made Anzac biscuits.  Photo was a bit of an afterthought, but they were pretty awesome, and still chewy, despite looking brown in the photo.

Had a few drinks with EffanC before they Zoomed someone else, then had a blissfully early night (asleep by 9pm).

Going to have to call it there for now.  Need to wash my hair.  With any luck I'll finish this tomorrow :)

Thursday last week I went into work to get myself a flu vaccination.  Most of our team did the same thing so I took a Yum! Delicious! cake to share.  First step was getting a parking spot.  The mall carpark was full.  ?!?!  I was like WTF Canberra??  Why aren't you all at home?? But as it turns out the mall parking is free at the moment.  So anyone still working in the area is parking there.  Anyways, got my new laptop (I'll need to go in soon to transfer some of my personal stuff off the old one, both are still in my locker cause I just use my home computer to connect), got my jab, then packed up and headed to the mall.  I needed to go to the chemist for supplies, and to Coles for some food supplies, and the post office to post a web cam to Mum, and Dan's to pick up some wine boxes so we can fill them with books to give away (one day...), and then pick up some lunch.  The mall is probably open about 50%.  And the food court much the same.  And they've taken away or blocked off all the seating throughout the mall.  Picked up Ali Baba for the sweetie and Subway for me, then headed home.  An hour and a half later.  Sheesh.  And even though it had been over a month since I'd been there, the lady at Subway remembered my order :)  Watched Naked Gun in the evening, which I don't think I've ever seen.  OK I lied, I saw at least one of them in Junee in 2015.

This the process of making the Yum! Delicious! cake.  Recipe here.  Because my life and blog are so boring all I post is photos of food.  Hi Manish!

This was the mall.  Strangely deserted food court, and queuing at the post office started outside went down under the escalators.

It rained Thursday afternoon.  And there were rainbows!

We did more rearranging of stuff in Stu's study this week too.  I pulled out my paper craft to take downstairs, and OMFG!  It's a disaster!!  This paper ball had been in the one position for nearly two years, and it had sagged!!  Sadmaking.  Will have to try and fix it.. somehow..

Slept pretty well on Thursday night with medical assistance.  Dragged the sweetie out for a walk at lunch.

Friday night I couldn't get to sleep for hours, but still woke up at the normal time (at least no insomnia *during* the night), so pretty cranky Saturday morning.  Did lots of house type stuff in the morning.  Went for a walk up Mt Rogers with David in the afternoon.  Stu put on several episodes of Picard for David to watch.  I do enjoy the show but it's all a bit too complicated.  Well not even that, it's just that you're expected to remember the significance of something that was said a full two episodes later.  With my dementia I'm lucky to remember anything past the end of the show.  So seeing the episodes again means things make a whole lot more sense.  

Had an early night Saturday and actually slept well.  Fricken hurrah.  So rare these days.  And the sweetie cleaned the toilets.  Bestest sweetie ever!!  Did an epic lamb roast for dinner.

Mornday morning I woke up at 1:10am and never got back to sleep.  Literally five hours of just lying there feeling miserable.  So zombie day Monday.  Too tired in the evening to concentrate on any photo processing, so just blogged and did the jigsaw.

Went to bed early Monday night, read for a little while, tried going to sleep around 9pm.  But couldn't get to sleep for like an hour and a half.  Woke up at 2:45 and was awake for at least two hours.  Too tired in the evening to concentrate on any photo processing, so just did the jigsaw.  Bed at eight thirty.

Tuesday night.  You'd think after two nights of very little sleep that I would fall asleep quickly.  But no.  Took ages to get sleep and then really restless til like midnight.  Sigh.  This insomnia is killing me.  

Cranky day today.  Too much stoopid.  Then other people breaking things that I couldn't figure out how to fix.  

So yeah, pretty crap week all up.  

Backdating this because I'm a slacker .. again..

As of Tuesday last week I'd slept ok the past couple of nights.  Although I realised I probably shouldn't say such things as I'm likely to jinx myself.  I'd been stressing on the weekend about the neverending housework and how many times a day I cleaned the kitchen and I'd had to run the dishwasher *twice* on the weekend and again that Tuesday night, but then the little brother cleared the floor for me and the sweetie did some washing up and I felt better about life again :)  I cooked a bunch of veggies for dinner (a tomato bake - roasted halved tomatoes topped with basil and melty cheese at the end, asparagus caesar (asparagus, butter, lemon juice, parmesand cheese) and carrots).  And I made a Yum! Delicious! cake because David and found me self-raising flour.  

Wednesday I finally finished part picking the six sets I started on the weekend.  Sometimes it really does take all weekend (and then some) which is why I stopped for so long - if we had anything at all on the weekend I didn't commit to starting, because there'd be a good chance I wouldn't finish.  Cooked some pork leftovers up with some broccolini which was quite nice.

Thursday turned up to problems with SSO in the morning, and having to fight with router ACLs in the afternoon, so pretty crappy day.  Had some Corona with the sweetie.

We were going to try and get Chong Co delivery but their website wasn't showing up as available, and they didn't answer the phone either.  So had more deep pan pizza (getting a bit thicker) - but the second pizza that week - blerf.

And then watched Prisoner of Azkaban.

Tell me what this reminds you of..

Good Friday I started on Vic's Life on Mars part picking.  I thought there were twelve sets.  Turns out there was 22.  He had many copies of some of the smaller sets - eight of one of them!  Spent time on Saturday and Sunday doing that as well.  Also made some good progress on the big jigsaw we've had going since January.  It took us about three months to do half the jigsaw, and we did the second half pretty much over the Easter long weekend.  Helped by Ravensburger very nicely using the same cutter on either side of the jigsaw, so I flipped the top (mostly sky) round, lay it over the bottom, and smashed it out.  

On Friday we went for a walk around the block.  People were actually really friendly, everyone smiled.  I saw happy tree a bit closer up, but it's in someone's back yard, so can't get close.  Cooked sausages for dinner and watched the 1970 Airport movie.

Took ages to get to sleep Friday night - super restless.  House stuff, food shopping, jigsaw and Lego.  I went food shopping fairly early on Saturday, but Coles was depleted of different thing.  Like there was hardly any orange juice, frozen food, or bananas.  Still no toilet paper or liquid soap available, but I did manage to get some paper towel, garlic/echinacea/zinc/C tablets, and some brown rice.  And then felt like I was getting a sore throat all day.  Cooked pork leftovers red curry, and watched Airport 75.

Sunday, mostly just Lego and jigsaw.  There may have been pizza scrolls for lunch.  

I took a "before" photo of our dungeon room.  It's not before Stu started pulling out books to give away so that's why there's an empty few shelves.

Watched Airport 77 in the evening.

Monday was mostly just house stuff and rearranging shelves.  I put out a fun jigsaw for David to do to have a break between one hard one and the next.

And then made runny poo for dinner!

Actually beef stew, which looks digusting but tastes amazing

Finished up the Airport box set with Airport 79 - the Concorde.  The Concorde they used in the movie was the same one that crashed - so sad!!

Tuesday I woke up at Dentist Time and never got back to sleep :(:(  Started on the next section of the Disney behemoth jigsaw.

Wednesday was cranky day due to Skype sucking donkey balls.  I hate being on the phone at the best of times, but it kept dropping out and at one point left me with a big black square in the middle of the screen and I had to restart my vm to clear it.  Not happy Jan.  I asked the sweetie to cook dinner, so he ordered Chong Co, successfully this time.

Monday I went and did the food shopping at lunch.  Definitely less crowded than the weekend.  Almost no pasta.  No liquid soap or vitamins.  Still no flour, dry rice, paper towel or toilet paper.  I was able to get a couple of tins of diced tomatoes, but a squeezy bottle of tomato paste and a four pack of tomato paste sachets was "too much tomato" and the squeezy bottle wouldn't scan.  Sadness.  We don't eat a lot of dried/packaged food, primarily fresh food, but the pantry stuff that we do use regularly (tomatoes/tomato paste/rice) is the stuff we can't get easily at the moment.  Geotagged day 6 in the evening.

Tuesday I woke up at midnight for an hour or two, and again from 5:30.  Le sigh.  Our rose bush put out a couple of roses right at the end of summer.

In the evening I made nachos.  I don't think I've ever made nachos before.  Fry some onion and garlic, a pack of pork mince (that I was lucky enough to get on Monday), with one of the sachets of tomato paste, some cumin and some kashmiri chili, with corn chips I topped with cheese and grilled, and serve with salsa, cheese and sour cream.

The boys *destroyed* them.  So much for leftovers!

Wednesday was minifig picking in the evening for a bunch of sets.  I still hate how Lego changed the colours of their greys and brown back in ~2003.  It's a real pain in the @$$ to separate them, especially in low light.  I mean just look how similar they are.

With a flash it's slightly easier to see the difference

Wednesday was geotagging day 7 of our USA 2004 trip, finishing BBT season 7, and Friday finished scanning box 7 of Dad's slides (I'm smashing out two boxes per week).  777!

Thursday started on season 8 BBT.

Friday woke up at 3:30 with hurty.  Crazy busy couple of days at work.  I was so frazzled on Friday I really couldn't think straight at all.  But I did shut down access to an old test environment which was pretty cool.  In the afternoon David pulled the bumper off his car to install a new nudge bar and spotlights.  He managed to get it all done before 11pm, because he's "that good" ;)

Saturday woke up early with hurty.  Mostly house work and Lego part picking.  Had drinks with EffanC in the evening which was nice.  Even over Zoom.  Made coq au vin for dinner and watched half of Dr Strangelove (got too restless to watch all of it).

Sunday I woke up early with hurty, except this time it *really* hurt, even with codeine, not helped by running out of naprogesic.  Slept in a bit when I finally got back to sleep, but felt exhausted and depressed all day.  David spent all day installing stuff and running wiring in his car.  He made a complete mess, but managed to get puzzle all back together again before he went to work.

In the evening I gave the oven its first test with a full baked dinner (roast pork) which turned out pretty well, and finished Dr Strangelove (either that or started it Friday and finished Saturday, can't remember which).

And I watched the original Jodie Foster version of Freaky Friday that I saw once a very long time ago.  

Tonight we had pizza (because Stu got a migraine just after lunch and wanted comfort food).

And I blogged.

2020 is sure going to be a very strange year.