GOING CRAZY

Last night my keyboard stopped working again.
And it took me 3 hours to get it going again.

I'm NOT computer savvy at all.  So I tend to go around and around in circles, getting madder and madder until I either give up or smash the damn thing to smithereens.

I've 'killed' a few mouse's that way!  Yep, not a very patient person.

Anyway, I DID get the damn thing going again... I really don't know HOW I did it.  

But one things for sure.  It ain't happening again tonight.  I'm ringing a computer repair outfit at 8am this morning, and they can come out and sort it out for me once and for all.

It's bound to cost me more than the price of a new keyboard, but as I already have TWO keyboards that are playing up, it will be worth it.

*sigh*

Today... well as long as it doesn't clash with the computer repair person (presuming he/she can come today), I have another FBG walk on at 1 pm.  It includes THE MASSIVE HILL on (get this), 'Carter's Flat'... Ha ha ha!  FLAT????  Who the hell came up with calling that area FLAT?

Oh well... I'm doing it again.  This will be about the 5th time I've done the hill from hell.  I'm looking forward to it!  Crazy.

After that I will be home painting those drawers.  I finally got all the undercoat on last night.  It's gone on rather weirdly... looks like the wood has seeped into the paint?  Oh well... let's see how the next layer goes on.

When I was in Resene's yesterday, they had a small display of bedroom furniture painted, and this was there:

ABOVE: It's similar to what I did to the little drawers in the spare bedroom, but they hadn't used crackle under the last layer of paint.  This was just rough brush strokes of different colours.  I don't think it looks as good as mine, but then, I am a bit biased.  *smiles*

I'm doing the crackle/multi-coloured effect again on the larger set of drawers.  It's rather fun.

ABOVE: Marley looking like a sheep in the back of my little car yesterday... poor Denim was stuck down low by her cone.  They both look so good now!  And any day now Denim can have her cone off.... she's going to go nuts!

Right, I better get off here, do some washing then ring that computer company (Geeks On Wheels) ... fingers crossed they can come out today.

ONWARD...

Well... the 'Geeks' are coming at 3 pm, so I will be back from my walk by then.
I did some painting this morning, and for some reason the paint went all funny on two of the drawers and I had to wash it all off again.  Grrrrr.  I think, even though I sanded the wood back, there is still something leeching out of it and affecting the paint.  So frustrating.

But, I will persevere and hopefully get them done over the next few days.

So typical of the Waikato, we have a fog.  So it's damn cold... it seeps into your bones cold.  I loathe this sort of weather.  Nothing gets dry.  The house feels cold even with the heat pump on.

Did I mention it's 10.20 am and the fog is still down?  Yep... shitty.

11.35 am:  STILL GOT FOG!  Starting to think I need to get dressed for the walk, but I don't want to take my electric blankie off!  I'm cold.  I don't like being cold at all.  The only time cold is good is when I'm out walking, cos then I get too hot!
I. CAN'T. WIN!   

ABOVE: Whoop!  Whoop!  I got up the dreaded hill without stopping!  And I wasn't gasping for air at the top either.  I must be getting fitter.

It was another lovely walk today, though we started out in fog.  By the time we finished though, the fog had finally burnt off and we have clear blue skies!

Having a late lunch now, before the computer geek arrives.

So the computer guy has been here for over two hours already! BIG BILL COMING MY WAY... but more on that later. Hes now backing up and saving all my photos as my computer is not going to last much longer.  DAMMIT.

Right.... computer geek left after almost 3 hours here. My HP Keyboard is dead, so I have to use my 2nd spare one from now on.
My computer has been playing up for a while... the guy sorted out and got rid of all the virus's and Malware... cleaned up everything... then he found all my photos, which were in several different placez and he's sold me an external hard drive to store them all on.

That is happening now and will take about 10 hours to finish!

I have over 120,000 photos on my computer!!!  He said an 'average' person might have 10,000 photos on their computer....seems I'm NOT your 'average person' then. *laughing*

I'm unable to use the computer till the photo download is finished as it would just be too slow... so blogging from my phone till tomorrow. Oh yaaa.

So...I'm going to sign off for the day.
Catch ya tomorrow.

COMPUTER ISSUES

I don't know what happened last night, but we moved my computer from one desk to another, and ended up buggering up the keyboard.

The damn thing just stopped. Nothing happening. Zip. Nada. Grrrrrr.

No matter what I tried, it wouldn't work.

So I went and got the keyboard from the laptop in our room, and plugged that in.

Still nothing! Then I tried going to the Control Panel and trouble shooting, something that has never worked for me before, and dang! It worked. So here I am typing again.

It is so HORRIBLE when you can't use your computer! I literally go mental. Like some bastard cut off me hands!

I know I could do things using my phone, but seriously, that is so LABORIOUS. Ya can't touch type on ya phone for a start, and I'm a fast touch typist. Thank goodness I got a keyboard working.

Crisis averted. On with my day.


Which involves another walk ... this time at 10 am. I think the weather will hold so it can go ahead. I'm excited about this one cos it's my last one 'this side of the river'.

After lunch I am going into Hamilton so Marley and Denim can get a groom.  They both need it really bad, and our local groomer is away till the end of the month, and I don't want to wait that long.  Denim is getting knots on her face from the cone, and she won't let me near her face to sort them out.  And muzzle knots are the pits to sort out!  Best to leave that to experts!

So, while the dogs are in the groomers (at least 2 hours), I will probably wander around the mall, or Spotlight ... ahhh no!  NOT Spotlight, that shop is the pits.  Silly me.  I only go in that shitty shop when I really need something from there.

Maybe I will check out some Op Shops?  

Either way, I will have a couple of hours to kill.  Till then, I better get ready for the walk.

ONWARD...

Well... we had a perfect morning for walking!
No rain, sun shining, cool breeze.
For our 'walk' photo today... I stopped a tractor driver and asked him if we could 'pose' in front of his tractor?
He said fine, and jumped off and even took our photo!

ABOVE:  Anna even got in the driver's seat... and that tractor was still running!   It was rather funny.
It was a road sweeper tractor, this area is still being developed with new houses.  I would have loved to commandeer a BIG dump truck ... that might have been pushing my luck! lol

So Brylee has gone off to spend the day with Anna and her daugther Emily (in the photo), so it's just me at home. Griffin is a work.

Lunch time for me, then off into town with the dogs for their groom.

4.50 pm:  Finally home from Hamilton.  Trip went well, got my test pots from Resene, dogs got groomed, had a wander around the mall.

Brylee ended up coming with me.

 ABOVE:  We got the girls a bunch of new chew toys.  The keys... well they chew through those fairly quickly... so I got two bigger sets this time.
Hopefully they last a while, they are not cheap!

ABOVE: Both girls nice and short.... the groomer said Denim LOVED being out of her cone for a while.  Awwww poor girl, I can't wait till she can have it off for a while.
Then sadly, she will get speyed, and end up back in it!  But that won't be for a while, I'm going to give her a good break from it.

ABOVE: While at the mall, Brylee got hungry, so we stopped in a cafe and I got her a pie and hot chocolate.

She had a little accident with her drink, tipped almost the entire cup full over the table, herself and onto the floor!

Rather surprisingly, she missed me! LUCKY.

That photo was taken AFTER the cafe lady had done a quick wipe up! Still plenty left on the table and floor to be cleaned up.

Having walks on two consecutive days has made me AND Brylee a bit tired!  We really didn't feel like Op shopping, and we ran outta time anyway.  So we might end up doing that on another day out.

Right now... I better think about dinner.  I might just make a silly bugger dinner.
Bacon.  Eggs.  Chicken Rissoles. Spaghetti on toast?  Something like that.

BLOODY COMPUTER KEYBOARD DIED AGAIN.
Calling computer repair company first thing in morning... can't do blogging on damn phone for long.

LEADING A WALK.... MAYBE

Today I am leading an FBG walk... IF it's not rained off.
I hope it isn't cos it's one of the walks I've not done yet.
This will be the first walk I've lead this year... mostly because I just didn't want the stress involved in doing it.

I lead many last year, and had a few that just turned out to be a nightmare.  Mostly with people who wouldn't walk with 'the group' and got too far ahead of us.  That's stressful, because as the leader you are 'responsible' for everyone's safety, particularly when it's a night walk.  I have NO INTENTION of ever leading a night walk again because of last year's shitty walks.

So anyway, we are expecting showers today, so there is a good chance the walk will be cancelled.  

Before the walk I'm heading into town (local), to get some test pots for the new set of drawers.  I'm going to paint it the same as the other little set I did a few weeks ago.
I might have to give it a light sand before painting too... so it could take a few days.

But I'm sure it will be awesome once finished.

And that's about all I have for now... so catch ya later.

ONWARD...

ABOVE:   10.30 am.  BRUNCH.  Cos I felt like something warm.  Almond meal waffle with Sugar Free Maple syrup.
NEED to get some cream!  That would have made it even better.

Now... might just sand those drawers before the walk, which looks likely to go ahead.  Just a few showers so far this morning.

3 pm:  So typical!  The walk went ahead as it hadn't rained for a few hours... and guess what happened 5 minutes into the walk?

IT RAINED.  For about 3/4's of the walk! Then the sun came out and it was like a sauna.  But, it was a good walk! 

ABOVE:  Another one done and dusted, just ONE MORE to do tomorrow and I will have finished the first half of the Urban Challenge for this year.  Yaaaa.

HELLO??? Anyone out there today, or do ya think it's still the weekend?  Days like this, when it's so quiet... I might just sign off for the day really early!  
All I'm doing tonight is finishing the sanding of those drawers anyway.  Nothing riveting.

BOO BOO

When the kids arrived yesterday, I really wanted to show them the new 'bedroom'... with the new beds for them.
Now they won't need to sleep in the lounge with Steve and Bex.

Well... they just LOVED the new bedroom!

 ABOVE:  They wanted to get in the beds immediately.

Only I made a BIG BOO BOO.

I didn't consider little Archer did I?

He stood in the doorway and said "Where's my bed?"

Oh dear, I felt so bad.  So Stew is going to get the camp stretcher down from the attic and Archer can use that, in the same bedroom as his brother and sister.

Problem solved.  
I still feel stink about disappointing him yesterday though.

 ABOVE:  A happy little girl is our Keera.

 ABOVE:  I asked Steve to take a photo of the kids and me... the idiot took 75 photos ! ... I found a couple of decent ones....

ABOVE:  Of course, there is always ONE person who can't help pulling silly faces... and there were at least 20 of HIM doing THAT!!!  Little shit.

So Stew got the camp stretcher down:

ABOVE:  It has an air mattress that gets zipped inside the cover, but we are going to buy a foam mattress,  cut to fit today.  The air mattress makes a lot of noise when you move, so a foam one will be better.

Now Archer will have his very own bed too. 
Need to get him some sheets too, I promised him I would. 

The next thing I did to include Archer in the bedroom... I bought a 2nd hand set of drawers last night on TradeMe:

ABOVE:  Once we've picked them up, I will paint them the same as the last set.  This way each child will have a drawer for their clothes and pyjamas.  And Archer will be a happy wee man.

I can't wait till he comes down next, and see's his own bed and drawer.

So today we are going into Hamilton to get mattress/sheets/drawers/paint.  And goodness knows what else!

ABOVE:  See how Denim's little tail is now curling up and over like 'normal'?  She's getting happier, because before yesterday her tail was hanging down all the time.  Once her hair grows back you will hardly notice her tail is shorter than normal.  So happy it's going to be OK.

ONWARD...

3 pm:  Another busy day!  We stayed in bed till 9.30, then got up, got sorted and went into Hamilton.

It's a horrible, wet, miserable day out there.  Freezing cold... unless you are Griffin.  Who likes to do the 'macho' thing and walk around in a t-shirt.  

Though, we did end up buying both kids a couple of warm sweatshirts each... the winter sales are great right now.

We went to Briscoes and got a warm sheet set for Archer:

 ABOVE:  Sadly all the car and boyish ones were gone, but this set looked nice enough.    It wasn't on sale anymore, bugger.

After that we got a couple of things from Warehouse Stationery for my market... just stands and bright star lables.

On to Spotlight, where I got more batting, and spied these:

 ABOVE:  Three Minky blankets for $5 more than the price of ONE!  Normally $70 each, got three for $75! 
We can always use more blankets in the house, and little kids can use these ones as they are singles.

Obviously, our 'spare bedroom' will be used by anyone who comes to stay ... including other grandkids (if they are ever allowed to come and stay!), not just Steve and Bex's kids.

I just felt the need to clarify that point.

After shopping at the Base and Spotlight, we picked up the little set of drawers I won last night:

ABOVE: They are just adorable, not too big for the room.  I am itching to paint them.  *smiles*
That will probably be tomorrow.  In the family room, cos it's too damn cold in the garage!

It's now warm up time... My feet are like blocks of ice.  

Stew cooked dinner tonight.
He got some of this:

ABOVE:  He cubed up some chicken and simmered it in this stuff, with some red onion and carrots.  The kids had it with rice, Stew and I had it with steamed cabbage.  It was really yum!  It didn't have a high sugar or carb content either, so perfectly fine for us to eat.

It's now wind down time... it's been a quiet blogger weekend... not many visitors.
Maybe I should just blog Monday to Friday, and forget about the weekends.  What do ya think?

TWO WEEKS TODAY

Well... we've had our new cars two weeks today, it sure doesn't feel like it's been that long!

Stew is still discovering things in his car that he didn't know it had.  Like the other night he was driving around a corner in the dark and noticed that the lights actually turned to illuminate the corner as well!  Pretty cool!

My car sure doesn't have half the stuff his does... but I still love it.

We are expecting Steve and the three kids for lunch today.  Bex is staying home in Auckland with the rabbits.  Her rabbits got de-sexed last Tuesday, so she's keeping an eye on them.

Steve is going to be making a 'Jiggly Cake' once he gets here.  He swears it's A...MAZING.  So looks like I will be trying a little bit of that once it's cooked!

I'm looking forward to seeing Keera and giving her her birthday present.  And of course it will be lovely to see the boys too.

As they are not due here till late morning, I might pop into town for some more batting for the sewing.  I sure go through a lot of that stuff!  I'm making a heap more coasters and placemats right now.  

ABOVE:  I added fabric strips to my bamboo screen (it goes all the way around), that way I can pin things to it easier.  It was a right pain in the butt before, only being able to hang one thing per 'section' from the top.  Now I can hang 2-3 in each section.  And I can move the strips to where ever I need them to be, they have elastic on the back making it easy to move them along.

Right, that's me for now, I shall endeavour to come back sooner than I did yesterday.  *smiles*

ONWARD...

Right, it's 2.25 pm and I've finally managed to get back here and update. 
Steve and the kids arrived mid morning and we've been kinda entertained since then.
Photos:

ABOVE AND BELOW:  Kids checking out the new cars.

ABOVE:  kids 'n' dogs.

 ABOVE:  Stew and his youngest grandson, and Coco, who Archer just loves to bits.  Coco doesn't seem to mind him either, which is so sweet.

 ABOVE:  Keera and her birthday presents, Lego and clothes.   

 ABOVE:  We found the box of old Lego and gave it to them.  I wasn't sure if we still had it all, thought I might have given it to the Hospice shop in Manukau before we left Auckland. 

Glad I didn't, as these kids are old enough to play with it now, with some help from the parents.

ABOVE:  Steve in the kitchen ... baking Jiggly Cake!
It came out lovely, we ate it hot!  Archer had double helpings, seems he loves it!


ABOVE:  Jiggly Cheesecake video with recipe.  It's the best one I could find.  Sorry it's quite long.

This 'cake' has a very interesting texture... nothing like cake as we know it.  Quite eggy, not too sweet, interesting.   I've seen some recipes where they put raisins in the bottom of the cake pan before the cake mixture too.

Right, it's been a quiet evening as per usual.  I've watched TV in the family room (boring shit on) and Stew's watched sport in the lounge.  B & G have done their own thing in their rooms (Playstation/Sims)... so  yeah, quiet night.
Maybe when we get Netflix we will finally have something worth watching over the weekends?

Time will tell.

But for now, I'm getting cold so... bedtime soon.

STITCHES BE GONE

Poor wee Denim will be getting her tail stitches out this afternoon at 2.30.  I am sure she will be a much happier girl after that.

ABOVE:  Those stitches have been bothering her something rotten!  No wonder too, I bet they catch on everything.  I can't wait till she's back to her old self again... and minus that bloody cone!
Once her lovely long tail hair grows again, you won't even be able to tell she's lost half her tail (I hope).

OOOOOooooh , just realised it's BLACK FRIDAY.
Just as well I'm not in the least bit superstitious. 

I'm off on an FBG walk this morning, Yaaaa!
I only have 3 sections left to go to finish 'This Side of The River'... and they were early ones that I missed due to being a bit unwell.
So, fingers crossed today's goes ahead, as it's one section that I have missed.

I'm pretty sure we will be going to morning tea after the walk, which will be lovely. I've not done many walks where there's been a morning tea afterwards.  I like to have a hot chocolate drink with the girls, and a yak.  Let's not forget the yak, it's the best part.  *smiles*

Yeah.  'Nuf said.

ONWARD...

OH SHIT!!!  Sorry, I forgot to update all day!

So, I went on the walk, which was nice, if a bit cool.  We had a fog till after 9.30.  Then it was just a miserable, grey old day.

No one was keen on going for morning tea, so I came home and got stuck into my sewing.  (first chance to update, and I forgot).

Then I had lunch, and sewed some more.

Then Griffin had to be dropped off at his after school/holiday job... and then I took Denim to the vet's for her stitches removal.

That went well, but she has to stay in the cone for another week so she doesn't chew and open up her wound.  What a pain in the butt that is.  For me, cos I have to make sure she can get outside often for the bathroom, and she has to be hand fed too. (Stew does that bit).

After that, I got dinner made, the kids had macaroni cheese with franks (hot dog sausages), and Stew and I had the franks, onions and broccoli with the cheese sauce... no macaroni.  It was OK, the sauce was a bit stodgy tonight.  Not my best effort.

After dinner I have been doing more sewing, and will continue with that until Coronation Street comes on, then I will stop for the night.

Well... I've stopped.  Sewing. Watching TV. Time for bed.  Bloody tired.

NO EXCITEMENT TODAY!

Well ... after the long wait for my blood test results yesterday, and the ensuing jubilation... today is going to be rather quiet!

I'm hoping my new cat fabrics arrive in the post today... looking forward to getting cat stuff made for my next market.  I've got so much on the go in the sewing room right now!  Nothing like being busy and productive.

I'm also working on making it easier to display wall hangings and longer table runners on the bamboo screen I use at my market stall.

I will show you what I dreamed up later, once I've finished doing 'it'.

There's the usual housework to get done too... and with both kids home for school holidays, I will TRY and get them doing a few odd jobs around the house too.

Denim's tail is looking good, healing well.  She is still in the head cone, which is driving her mental.
She's clearly bothered by her tail ... it's probably itchy!  She gets her stitches out tomorrow, which reminds me... I better make an appointment for that!

She will have to keep the cone on a bit longer even with her stitches out, cos she will just gnaw it I'm sure!  

I heard from the doctor late yesterday afternoon.  He said I needed to halve the pill I take in the morning.... and see how I go.  The nurse said I should go to the chemist and get some glucose sachets that I can take if I have a 'hypo' incident.  Apparently they work much faster than sucking a barley sugar sweet.

If I have too many hypo's, I have to go in and get advice from them.  But I should be fine, I've not had many hypos!  

I'm going to be focusing the next 3 months on dropping my portions a bit more.  Now that I have the HbA1c level under control, I want to get the weight shifting a bit more.  I know I can do it!

Someone said I'm an 'all or nothing' type of person, and yep, I guess I am.  Bring it on, another challenge.

Right, I'm off to start the day, catch ya later.

ONWARD...

So... I went into town (local) to get a couple of things for Keera's birthday, they are coming down on Saturday.
And for THE FIRST TIME EVER, I managed to park beween two parked cars ON THE CURB!

Admittedly, there was a HUGE gap for me to get into, but still, I've never been able to back into that sort of park before.
I was so happy with myself, I had to take a photo:

ABOVE: See?  VERY BIG GAP, but I did it!  And OMG my car looks so small!  But so cute.  I'm so very happy with my darling wee blue car.  *smiles*

Now I'm home and have a vege bake in the oven for my lunch, I am so cold I decided I needed something warm.  So no left over dinner for me after all.

Oh forgot! I checked out the local op shops for things for my stall... and found this:

ABOVE:  It will be perfect for slightly taller coasters and placemats.  $5, not bad.  

ANON asked me if my car had back doors:

ABOVE:  happy to say it does have back doors.  The door handle is higher up the door... arrow pointing to it.  This car is called a '5-door' vehicle actually, as the boot door opens up wide as well.

The cat fabric arrived this afternoon:

ABOVE:  Some are kinda nice, some not so... but then I'm not a 'cat sorta person'.  I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will like them enough to buy them!

I will be making them into placemats and coasters.

There is pork belly in the oven...  so dinner is pretty much sorted.  On to some sewing!


End of day and the pork came out perfectly.  Family were happy with their dinner.
Not enough meat for me, so I had peanut butter on Burgen bread, was bloody yum!

Not doing much else tonight, watching Coronation Street then bed I suppose.