Little Cookies

Mother of a compter.

Hmmf. Hmmf double hmmf.

My computer is currently in at the computer place being fixed. It started to get sick last week when my internet connection would drop in and out. Wiggling the cord seemed to help. Then on Monday Poof! the whole thing stopped working.

After I turned it on and off a few times, wiggled more cords, hyperventalated and swore at it, I gave in and took it to a computer place. It was jard handing over my (other) baby. It looked so afraid being taken into their workshop.

I do however trust the people who are fixing it because  the conversation I had went with them went a little like this:

Compter man: "You think it's the ethernet port? You'd want to hope it's not the mother board."

Me: "What if it is the mother board?"

CM: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Hey AL, we've got ourselves a broken ethernet port"

Voice from out the back whom I'm assuming was Al: "She'd wanna hope it's not the motherboard."

CM: "That's what I said. Hopefully not the motherboard."

So I'm hoping like hell it's not the motherboard, and got my fingerscrossed the guys can fix it for under the price of a stamp.

Otherwise I'm hoping Santa leaves me a beautiful new iBook under the Christmas tree.

Christmas has gone to my head (and I feel a little giddy)

I just wrote a list of all things I hope to get done before Christmas. Actually, I had to put a direct threat on the top of the list (eg. get this done or else!) to try and get me moving a little faster. All of a sudden I've decided I want to make stuff, and bake stuff all before next Monday.It's not like i didn't know Christmas was coming. I probably should have thought about all this a wee bit earlier (say, around easter?).

This is what my list resembles:
* Finish sewing ''My first Christmas" stocking for the member of the family whose first Christmas it shall be.
* Put together this quilt with these colours.

I found all thse great greens on a bargain fabric table. Usually bargain tables only have fabric on them that have cats or birdhouses on them. I hate cats and birdhouses.
* Find my sister in law a birthday present. She was born two hours before Christmas day. Lucky? Nup, having a birthday the day before Christmas still sucks.
* Loose 50kgs so I can fit into cheeky elf outfit and suprise my parnter on Christmas morning."lookie here what santa left for you under the tree."
* Finish of the two Christmas cakes I've started decorating. Can't finish them till I work out how to get the ant out of the top of one of them. I like it there, but somehow I don't think others will appreciate it.
* Stop thinking about this fabric combination.

My other sister in law has her birthday on Jan 3 (unluky family in the birthday stakes.) and I'm going to make her a quilt. She likes black. And only black.
* Make biscuits in the shapes of things that make the biscuits taste better. Going to use recipe I found on this site. Yep, they have a site dedicated to Christmas Cookies. I really should not have been suprised.
* Rustle up the c.card numbers so I can get some Oxfam presents for people who will appreciate them.
* Clean the house. Have I mentioned clean the house? Um. maybe that would have been at the top of the list. At this stage it's the least likely to get done.
* Work out how I can get a Harley under the Christmas tree without anyone noticing before Christmas morning.
* Try to stop feeling guilting about putting Miles in this all the time so I can get aformentioned baking and sewing done.

* Construct very delicious gingerbread houses. I stupidly made one of these back in july. Bluddy July! Now its a week before Christmas, and I want to make another. Well, it's not like I have anything better to do.
* Make rumballs to go along with Oxfam presents. Then they get to save the world, and fill their bellies. The perfect present combination.
* I think that's it, but I'm reserving this bullet point for when I undoubtedly remember something else I want to get done.

This week is going to be an absolute belter. Wish me luck as I don my santa hat, put "Chipmunks sing your Christmas favourites" on the record player, and whisk off to start my list.

(Just so you know I'm just going to finish writing this, grab a glass of wine and finish watching a movie from last night. I wouldn't be caught dead in a santa hat.)

Tour de Portarlington

Back from my few days down on the coast (and with photos to prove it.)
There's still sand in between my toes, in Miles' car seat, in Miles' ears, and a few unmentionable places.

This is pretty much what we did. Lazing around interspersed with a bit of eating, some wine drinking, and a few ventures to the beach. Miles chased the dogs a bit. The dogs ingnored Miles a lot. And we all took turns ignoring the fact that it was so stinking hot.

Miles was very happy to get back home to his own bed.

Check out photos from the trip over there in the Tour De Port photo album.

Testing... testing...

This is a test post.

If your reading it, then it means that my blog is back up and working. For some reason known only to the cyber gremilns, half the stuff on my blog disappeared. Poof! Gone.

There has been much screeching going on as I've tried to work out what the heck happened.

I've still got no idea. But like I said, if your reading this, then something must have gone right.

Hazy shade of summer

Half way through my trip to the south coast and living it up.

As most know, the weekend was a scorcher, and the smoke reached all the way down here. The sun was a ball of fire trying to break through the haze all weekend. Very eeire. Nothing, of course, like it would be closer to the fires. From the balcomy here I can see the ocean this morning, but haven't been able to all weekend. The cool change has arrived, and strong winds are here now. It's even rained. Fingers crossed and dancing a little jig that the rain reaches the fires.

No photos of the trip yet (forgot to bring the computer cord. Suprise, suprise.) But I can vouch that there are many lazy holiday photos.

I hope wherever you are there is no smoke caught in your throat, and the rain is threatening to fall on your shoulders.

On the road, again

I'm off on a trip, again.
This time I'm hitching the horse to the cart and heading off down the coast to Portarlington. Miles and I are going to help Lara house-sit. I use the term ''help'' loosely. It is more likely I will do more book reading, sea gazing, and food consuming than actually helping. And Miles, well, he'll probably just scoot all over the place and make sure nothing is left untouched. Sure, we're helping.
A common thing I can be heard muttering about is the fact that I never go anywhere and do anything. But as I was kicking off this post I realised I've been on many a junket in the last little while - Perth, Merimbula, many trips to Melbourne in between. I still hadn't even completely unpacked from the last trip. I was very glad to find my fabourite pair of knickers in the bottom of the suitcase. I thought I'd lost them to the open road forever.
It's going to be a good trip - catching up with lots of rellies. My way of catching up is turning up on people's doorstep when they least expect it. Facial expressions are gold. (Am still tossing up whether to ring ahead and tell the grandparents I'm coming. Not 100% sure about the condition of their tickers.)
I'd better run, I've still got to pack, and glance on a map so I have some vague idea which direction I'm going in. I'll be back mid next week. Probably without a tan (this is the Victotian beach I'm going to after all) but with sand between my toes.

Freezing day

I've almost finished this quilt. All I have to do is (re)sew the binding on. Then I can pop it in the post and hopefully get it to it's new owner by the end of the week. The quilt is sort of useless though. It's square, and not a very bug square. Just a perculiar sized square. You can't really snuggle under it, it's not really big enough to adorn the end of your bed, and the handiwork is not eaxctly good enough to hang on the wall. So it's a pointless, but pretty, quilt. (My favourite thing about it though, is the purple gingham on the back. There really isn't enough gingham in day to day life.)

This is what the inside of my freezer looks like after a serious morning peeling, chopping, boiling and mushing. It was very hard going. Preparing baby food is not the most challenging of cooking experiences. I do however get a kick out of the combinations I can come up with. This morning I ventured into a concotion of apple, pear, mango and blueberry. It came out a great purple colour that I'm sure I'm going to appreciate when it turns up in the nappy.

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This is the very first Christmas card to be popped into my letter box. It had a voucher for a manicure which was very much appreciated. I've never had a manicure before, so it'll be interesting. My nails are fairly average, so I've always been too embarrassed to go in and get them ''done''. Plus I'd rather spend my money on other things, like fabric, or CD's or chocolate. But when a giftvoucher for a manicure turns up in the post who am I to not honour it? Don't worry, I'll post pictures.

Dark Side of Top 100

Did anyone else watch ABC's My Favourite Album last night on the tellie?

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon came in the top spot. It would not have been my choice. Dark Side, as well as most of the other albums in the list, felt more like they were chosed because of their status, as opposed to whether they are actually a really good listen or not.
Dark Side of the Moon was groundbreaking, experimental, socially and politically relevant and had a kick arse cover, but to me it was snooze-o-rama. My favourite in the top ten (favourite meaning album which made me laugh because it was in the top ten) was Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell. Gold.
I will unashamedly endorse Jeff Buckley's Grace coming in at number two. Like Kram said on the show, "you just can't argue with a Jeff buckley fan. They usually can't tell you why they love him, they just do".
First Aussie band was Midnight oil's, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 at number 23, and first female was Carole King at 18.
Like any best of list, for every inclusion, there are 10 good ones left out.
But I was so glad to see Delta Goodrem's Innocent Eyes clock in at number 80. Without her, I don't think the list would be complete.

Quenching the movie thirst

I ventured out into the big scary world last night. (Yes, I can hear you all applauding from here.) A friend and I movied it up, followed by a touch of wine and desert. Ah, nice.
Went to see Borat, and chuckled our way from start to finish. It was irreverant, mocking, clever, full of cringe-worthy moments plus a little slapstick thrown in for good measure. All the things I like in my movies. It was the perfect film for my reintroduction into the social world. If we had of gone and seen something dreary and harrowing I think I would have run home sobbing feeling terrible for going out and leaving the baby at home.
Now that Miles is conked out by 7pm at the lastest every night, and we don't hear boo from him till 6am (on the dot mind you. This kid would give any rooster a run for its money), I am able to get out and about on my own. Sitting in the darkened movie theatre my friend asked me what was the last film I'd seem at the movies. It took so long for me to answer that the previews finished and the movie started before I had managed to remember.

The next edition of Practical Parenting with my column in it has hit the stands. I re-read what I'd written (I write them about 2months in advance, so it's easy to forget inbetween) and I realise I come across as a completely scattered mother who has a monster child. Oops. I know I can be pretty scattered, but Miles does not resemble a monster.
I just try and be honest, and I write about all the crap that comes with motherhood. No one wants to hear that a baby has rolled over, can sit up, or is juggling frypans already. Boring, and I reckon if you bang on too much about how amazing you think your kid is, then it's just gloating.
Hearing about accidently leaving the nappy bag on the roof of the car and driving off or having to use one of your cardigan to wrap the baby because you forgot to bring an acutal wrap is much more interesting. And funny. And if you can't laugh at the pathetic things you do, then your doomed, doomed, doomed.