Ert. I don't want to go anywhere today. Laying in bed this morning, I thought how nice it would be to stay home and not have to get dressed up or do anything. But we're bloody well going, and I have to make a batch of peanut curry pasta salad for lunch. D's parents were supposed to come over on the 24th but D's mum rang when we got home on the 23rd and was all "oh I've just got too much on, and we want to go to church." Lady you are the one bitching all the time about how Giftmas is about family but you prefer to go to church instead of see your son. She wants us to stay after everyone has left today (not likely) and have a little family Giftmas thing then, but she doesn't realise that we will have spent the whole afternoon with them, and our patience will not go that far. Because it's never just a little family Giftmas thing, it takes hours to exchange gifts and then she wants to do something else and then it'll be here have a cup of coffee oh we have cake we should listen to some christmas carols and pop crackers and here's a wine I got do you want some Roshi NO FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND SENSIBLE IN THIS WORLD I DO NOT WANT ANY FUCKING WINE YOU DAFT BITCH I HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR 10 FUCKING YEARS THAT I DO NOT DRINK WINE YET YOU STILL OFFER IT TO ME EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. TIME.

(I do technically drink wine but so far I only like a sweet sparkling white, I drank a bottle of it yesterday and then had the most awful indigestion and was running to the toilet every 20 minutes while I was trying to watch Scrubs season 8 with D. I wonder if it was the wine or the food, I can get another bottle of it and find out I suppose. I can't stand red wine and still can't find anything to like about dry sparkling whites or whites in general.)

The old diagnosis stands, she needs friends of her own. And she needs to learn who her son really is instead of who she wants him to be. It's fitting that we see D's family on Boxing Day, as a general rule most of the gifts we receive from them will be returned, regifted, recycled, or just plain old thrown out.

Giftmas Eve was great, here. No drunken fuckwits in the street, no burnouts, no screaming matches, no domestic squabbles. There was one car honking their horn a lot as they drove off from somewhere a couple of streets away, but they shut up once they couldn't see the house they just visited any more. We're the noisy ones now, but we're not a pack of cunts and we do consider other people's peace and quiet. Our next-door neighbours are away I think, there's no cars there, and I haven't seen Joyce for a couple of days (Joyce actually was a teacher at my high school and we get along alright even though she never taught a class I was in) so I am guessing they're visiting family for Giftmas.

And one good thing about being in a house with a decent yard and distance from your direct neighbours, you can make a bit more noise than you would in a flat with a tiny yard crammed up together with five other people's yards. I don't think we could ever go back to living in our neighbour's armpits. The plan is to not have to.

Oh well. I've had my preemptive whinge. I suppose I'll go start this pasta salad and figure out what I'm wearing today. I bought a dress for today but the weather is not as hot as I was expecting so I don't know if I will wear it after all. I'll find something else.

Well I've had a brilliant Giftmas Day so far. Okay I had to get up and feed the dogs first thing, when I crawled out of bed I found a note taped to the bedroom door handle. "Look in your handbag." I thought, oh good, D's found the Hello Kitty Pez dispenser that Mum gave me and I misplaced or left at Mum's place (it's at Mum's). Get to my handbag, there's a gift wrapped and shoved in there with another note telling me to look on the microwave.

On top of the microwave was a package suspiciously CD-shaped and sized. The next note told me to go back to my keyboard. Another CD-shaped gift, and a final note saying to look under the tree. There's a large boxy gift under there...

I'm now the proud owner of a Nintendo DS Lite with two puzzle/adventure games and a bunch of accessories and spare covers and things for it. I kind of burst into tears because I was not really expecting anything from D. I didn't get him anything, and it was just a sweet thing to go to a bit of trouble with the notes and everything.

I've had two glasses of champagne and I think I had better put off having a third until I've got lunch on, or else it may never get cooked.

I've been extremely spoiled this year, I must have done something right.

Oh and food today is:

Chicken Satay skewers, sans skewers (I threw the skewers out when we moved and didn't buy any more, so we'll just have Chicken Satay Morsels with dipping sauce)
Indonesian Gado Gado salad (chinese cabbage, sweet potato, bean sprouts, with a peanut sauce)
Szechuan Lamb (it's been marinating since last night)

and various nibblies. D is getting stuck into some brie and caviar at the moment. I just had a taste. I think I like the caviar better than the brie, but that's not saying much.

Completely and utterly pooped, got back from Mum's place a little while ago. I got so spoiled. I said I wouldn't mind some garden stuff (secateurs + pruning saw) and a cookbook and ended up with a heap of stuff. Secateurs, pruning saw, garden gloves, little garden trolley thing, a book on Australian natives (which is heaps better than the one I already have - this one is all about listing plants and what conditions they like, my other one is more about propagating, planting, repotting and so on), a huuuuge italian cook book, nice homemade bickies and a pina colada cocktail set.

Mum got a second cat. It is still a tiny kitten and, naturally, adorable. I spent a lot of time this afternoon annoying it and then it spent a lot of time this afternoon snoring and purring on my belly. D wasn't impressed, but he's generally disapproving of having cats in the house so that's to be expected.

I am very tired. I think I will go wash what's left of my makeup off and then flake out on the couch and watch some more Looney Tunes.

Merry Giftmas Moviehouse! Enh who am I kidding I'm next in line for the position of Grinch, but hope everyone has a nice time anyway.

Growing basil again this year, from seed, and it's been moderately successful this time. Actually, compared to all the other times I tried to grow basil, this is a fantastic result. The plants are not dead. The plants are not tiny. I can safely take a few leaves off them for dinner and the plant will not keel over and die.


Another success story, well compared to other years' efforts, is the tomatoes. I have three thriving tomato plants in the back yard. They have tomatoes on them already. The plants are healthy and kind of going spastic to be honest. This makes me happy.


I couldn't step outside with my camera and not take a photo of a bee. This is on one of the few flowers that sprouted and survived from the packet of mixed "cottage garden" seeds I put in when we first moved here. The plants are about a metre tall now. There are some flower buds coming up on a different plant, I don't know what sort it is. I don't know what this is either.


And another unknown Australian native plant in the backyard. It's a huge bushy thing but I suspect it should be a tree. Most of the plants in this garden need pruning, I will see if I can do it without killing anything after Giftmas (I asked Santa for some secateurs and a pruning saw and stuff, and I've been a very good girl this year).

I am so glad our wonderful new landlord put airconditioners in before we moved in. Christmas is easy when it's <25°C. Try cooking and eating a roast when the whole house is an oven. Bleh.

Well, I'm officially on holidays, for 3 weeks. Yay!

I haven't started them off in much style, I... did laundry and grocery shopping today. Going to Mum's tomorrow, I've got a salad to make in the morning and then head over there for lunch. It's going to be 35-40°C tomorrow, so that will be fun.

Gave myself a manicure last night but the polish is starting to wear away from the edges of my nails already. Just once I'd like my nail polish to stay looking good for more than 12 hours. What's the point of having something that stays on for weeks if it only looks good for the first few hours of that time? Bah. I reckon I'll crack the shits with it and take it all off, or attempt a touch-up job and then crack the shits and take it all off before Friday. It's an interesting colour, though. Really glittery metallic coral/pink/bronze, depending on the angle you look at it. In some light it's very bronzey, others it's almost fuchsia.

I watched Paprika last night, too. I'm slowly catching up on things. Paprika was very good, it was colourful and bizarre but not all sugar and spice, which is a good thing because dreams are not all happy cartoony fun times. I really enjoyed it. Next time I have the girls over for a DVD, Dinner and Drinks evening, we can watch that.

So today I've done laundry and ironed a couple of things, I have to stitch the crossover bodice of the new dress I have so it doesn't gape open, and I am nearly ready to shave my head again because my hair will not sit nicely at the back. It keeps kicking out and I get that shaggy "I need a hair cut" look. It doesn't behave itself even with wax or mousse or whatever other gunk I have to put in it. I'm remembering why I never grew my hair out when I was a kid, (growing it out with it already undercut as a teenager was different, no poky bits at the back) because I have a serious case of lego helmet hair. [sigh]

Not much else to report. This week is basically a write-off, visits and lunches and blah-di-blah. And then it will be a crappy New Year's Eve, because nobody has organised anything yet. I think Giftmas should take place around November 20th to be honest. So we can have a full month to recover and return gifts, and so New Year's Eve can be properly organised. Or maybe it should be in August. There's a few months of no public holidays in Victoria, that would solve that problem.

September 6, 2009

"Debra," says Victor, "it's absolutely not personal, and I hope you understand that." He's sitting on the desk in the back room, with Lanie behind the desk in the chair.

"Not personal? Victor, you're basically putting me out on the street, and unless I'm misunderstanding something, it's because I cost too much." I try to keep as calm as possible, remembering some of the lessons I learned about my relationship with supervisors a couple of years ago.

Lanie jumps in. "That's not exactly fair, Debra. With business down overall, we just don't feel like we need a manager on duty every weeknight. Pat has seniority, so if we're going to keep only one of you, it really has to be her."

"Well, I'd be happy to go back to being a barmaid. I'm not too proud to take that step backwards if that's what you're worried about. And I have good relationships with all the girls."

"We know you do, but the problem is, we've replaced you a couple of times over, and they're making less than you were when you moved up. So even if we got rid of one of them..."

"You'd still be spending more money on me," I finish for her, and she nods.

"Listen, we won't contest your unemployment claim," Victor says, handing me an envelope that contains two weeks' severance pay, something I'll be assured later by a lawyer friend that they weren't in the least bit obligated to give me.

Lanie adds, "And you're an incredibly capable woman, we know you'll find another job."

"With business down overall?" I ask, and Lanie winces a little. "Sorry. Okay. Can I have a letter of reference, at least?"

"Debra, of course," she says. "In fact, why don't you write it? Just say what you'd want us to say, and we'll sign it."

I laugh, pondering all the possibilities. It's not until I'm on my way home that it really starts to set in - six years of my life. Six years of dedication to a job is supposed to be a good thing, employers are supposed to value and honor that.

Oh, God, what am I going to tell Jenny? She's only just barely recovered from what happened this summer, this kind of bad news could set her back. I'm so exhausted from it all... and I can only imagine how she feels.

I have two weeks' pay in my hands, some money in the bank, and unemployment insurance on the way in a few weeks. If I get another job in the next month or two, I'll be just fine, and there's no reason she has to know I lost this one until I actually start the next one. I'll just find some place to hang out on the nights I would've been working. I'll even get some writing done for a change. This is absolutely the right thing to do.

It'll be much better this way.

Dragged the house planning software out last night and had another look. I'm trying to figure out the kitchen.



This is the most recent idea. I did have a straight galley layout on a couple of the earlier plan ideas but with the reshuffling of the pantry and overall location of the kitchen, this is what I've ended up with.

Green area is my "work triangle" which I always turn into a "work quadrilateral" and the blue lines are likely paths for non-cooks when they need to get stuff in or out of the kitchen. I want it so if I'm cooking, people can come and get a drink or a packet of chips without getting in my way.

The dishwasher may move, too, to along the short section of bench under the sink. Which would make the most sense.

Corner cupboards are mostly useless so I will have to see about what can be done with that space. I can get folding doors and a lazy susan shelving unit, I can get corner drawers, or pull-out wire basket drawers for shelving. Or I can block off the deepest part of the corner cupboard and lose a bit of storage space, which, honestly, doesn't get used. We had 2 of these corner cupboards in the flat, both with single doors on one half and the other half just blind corner cupboards, and there was stuff crammed down the back of the cupboards that I had forgotten we ever owned. They aren't useful for me, I can only use what I can reach, and last time I checked, I was a shortarse with a very modest reach.

I'm a bit worried about where the stove/oven will go. Mainly the oven. Because the space inbetween the island and the long wall bench has to be big enough for the oven door to come down and for a rotund individual such as myself to bend over or squat (or whatever unflattering pose) in front of it. If I have it visually "cut off" by having half of it behind the island and the other half not, that will bug me and the kitchen won't be "perfect." (Did I mention that I am just a little bit finicky?)

[sigh] I've got to find my house sketchbook and find the picture of The Kitchen I Would Like that I scribbled out one evening. Things might make more sense then.

Also, planning a garden is hard. I printed a mostly-to-scale picture of the block, with the house on it in roughly the right spot/orientation, last night. My sense of scale and size kind of sucks. I don't realise just how big things really are, when I'm doodling on paper. How big a herb garden will I need? Draw a box and write "herb garden" in it. When I measure it, my herb garden turns out to be size of a tennis court. And trees! Geez. How big is a tree? I've got an oleander outside that I think is about 2 m in diameter and about 3 m tall. That's actually just a tiny blob on the drawing. Irises are single pencil dots. I'm going to need a lot more plants.

Mainly I have been treating the garden layout like a fill-in-the-gaps abstract painting. I have this weird parallelogram shape with a circular corner cut-out. A boxy shape goes there. Figure out the rest. I've got arcs of garden beds or lines of trees, that are concentric with the circular corner cut-out (for the "bulb" at the end of the court/road) and I'm generally connecting point A to point B to point C with lines and will plant within the shape that results or along the lines themselves. And yes I am taking into account that the garden has to look good when you're standing in it as opposed to just when you look at it on GoogleMaps. Height stepping, layering, depth, shape and shade... Like I said: planning a garden is hard. I think I was making it harder than it needs to be, though. I was looking at the sun/shade preferences for all my plants and putting them on the plan and then trying to design stuff around them. What I need to do is do broad planting areas and then use the plants to suit that area. Unfortunately that means I may not be able to have a small field of irises bobbing their heads just outside my kitchen, but it does mean I can have that field of irises somewhere, and I'll make it work.

I was supposed to go into town and do the Giftmas grocery shopping today. Meh. I'll do it tomorrow. No rush.

The neighbours have a new set of windchimes? No, it's a small flock of sheep, many with bells around their necks. I was standing at my back fence when I took this. They are a bit skittish if you make noise or sudden movements, but were otherwise focussed on eating the new grass coming through in the paddock.


Some of them have the sweetest faces.


This one was the only one that paid attention to me. I gave him a handful of the juicy overgrown stuff from along the fence for his bravery.

Dara finally comes down to the Pub on Wednesday night, for the first time since I started working here a few months ago, and parks herself at the bar for a chat. We spend a little while catching up - on her wedding plans with Dennis, my Dad and how he's been dating the doctor who treated me in the ER a few years ago, and photos of Jessica's toddler Noah (who's just turned a year old!). We studiously avoid any mention of what happened between Jenny and me, partly because we discussed it to death while it was happening. Truth be told, I'm still considering whether even to blog about it, and we've covered that meta-topic enough, too.

Jake, the tall, blonde bartender who trained me when I started here, wanders down the bar from where he's been serving a bunch of college kids on a break from studying for finals. I introduce him to Dara. "Congratulations, when's the big day?" he asks with a smile as he shakes her hand.

"It's in June. How did you -- " She looks down at her other hand, where her engagement ring is revealed only by a bump in the half-finger of a convertible glove-mitten.

Jake spreads his arms wide. "Dara, I'm a single male bartender in Manhattan. It's my job to divine the relationship status of every woman who drinks in here, if I'm able to do it."

"That's impressive," Dara says. "And if I'd been single, or you thought so, what would you have done?"

Jake shrugs and winks. "We'll never know, will we? Anyway, welcome to the Pub, I hope we see you here often." He returns to the other end of the bar, where patrons await, and Dara watches him as he goes. When she looks back at me, I'm grinning.

"What? I'm allowed to look," she laughs. "In a way I'm kind of glad men are allowed to serve drinks here. I mean, some of the girls you worked with at the Bar were fun, but how about some eye-candy equal time, huh?"

"Vince and Diego the barbacks weren't enough for you?" I pull another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from the tap for her, and she takes off her glove-esque things.

Dara shrugs. "Vince was taken almost as soon as I knew him, and, well, Diego was a devoted father. I think I might've just known them too well to look at them that way." She pauses to take a drink. "You know, I just thought of something."

"What's that?"

"Your new job at a new place, being single in a new apartment, starting up the blog again, even your father dating - it's kind of like one of those TV shows or movies that reboots. You know, like the new 'Star Trek' movie this past summer. Or that sitcom with Christina Applegate where at first she was a waitress at her father's bar, and then suddenly you were supposed to believe she'd been working in a doctor's office the whole time? They start down a completely new path, with new characters and new situations that never would've happened the first time around, and it's like the first time around never existed."

I think about it for a minute, nodding. "There's only one problem with your analogy."

"What, you don't get to hang out with Zachary Quinto?"

"No - the stuff that happened the first time around really happened, and I don't get to pretend it didn't." I excuse myself briefly to take some orders from a group of men that's just arrived, and I see Dara looking at her hand and fingering her engagement ring.

So far the irises are not dead but they are not growing either. It is filthy hot here at the moment.

Came home to a car parked almost over the driveway, in the shade on the nature strip out the front. First bad thing about living so close to the pool. Screaming children is the next one. Tempted to leave a note out the front saying "if you park over our driveway please be aware you probably have more to lose than we do, and we believe in learning through experience."

I am sleepy. I lost all track of time last night playing Sims 3. When it wasn't crashing and rebooting my computer, I managed to make one family have triplets. I was not expecting triplets. So I had to extend the house and try and juggle 3 babies with 2 parents. In between crashes and reboots (Sims 3 is the ONLY game that does this) I somehow got them to the Child age, and saved, and stepped away from the computer to find it was almost midnight. 11 is absolutely the latest I normally go to bed on a work night. So I'm tired today.

It was D's birthday yesterday. I was going to cook hamburgers for us for dinner but he had taken the day off and spent the day gourmandising a heap of cheese and smoked oysters and kabana and who knows what else, so he wasn't very hungry last night. So I had a sandwich. Hamburgers will be tonight's dinner.

Finally got my secret santa gift. A pretty box with a pretty bracelet and pretty earrings in it. Not quite as awesome as I would have liked, but still nice. Even if she doesn't like the jewelry, the box is useful. The box actually cost more than the jewelry did. Not that the jewelry is terribly cheap and tacky, it was just well priced.

Tonight is my last night off for a few nights. Tomorrow night I've got to go to the butchers, and clean up, and plan menus and cooking schedules and shopping lists. Friday afternoon I'm going to get Brother Dear, do shopping, prepare a few things for Saturday, and do some more cleaning. Saturday is lunch with Dad. Sunday is another day off, sort of. Oh and now D's parents are apparently going to be here on the EVENING of the 24th. When I will be busy. Doing stuff. For Giftmas Day. Which I spend with people I like. And not with people that are ignorant fuckwits. She's not a love thy neighbour christian, which is what she claims to be. She's a Spanish Inquisition slave-trader witch-burner christian.

My father lights the Shamos, and after he uses it to light the one other candle in the menorah, we quietly say the two standard Hannukah blessings followed by the Shehechianu, which is only spoken on the first night. We exhange gifts - a beautiful pendant with aquamarines for me, a necktie for him - and long, warm hugs. Then we sit down at his dining room table, which is conspicuously set for two instead of three - or four.

"Where's the good doctor?" I ask as I spoon out some applesauce and sour cream for my potato pancakes.

Dad smiles. "She's with her father tonight, too. We'll have our own candle-lighting tomorrow, though without the latkes this time. Two nights in a row of deep-fried foods isn't allowed when you're dating a physician, I'm afraid."

"It's not allowed two nights in a row when your tips depend on maintaining a girlish figure, either. Which is why I'm having as much as possible tonight." Dad laughs, and we eat in silence for a few minutes.

"Have you heard at all from Jenny?" I take a deep breath, and Dad apologizes.

"That's okay, Dad. No, not since before Thanksgiving. And I wouldn't be surprised if she never speaks to me again."

"I'm sorry," Dad says for the second time. "And how's the new place working out?"

"Not bad. I like Emily well enough, for as much as I ever see her. I haven't figured out how to get her cat to stop scratching at my door in the morning, though."

"You know, you were welcome to stay here as long as you wanted after..." He stops there.

"It's okay to say it out loud, Dad. After Jenny threw me out. That is what happened. And I know that, but honestly, waiting an hour and a half after closing for the first train of the morning got pretty old pretty fast." I manage to add a smile.

"How is it you're not working tonight? I thought Fridays were great tip nights."

"They are, but I've only been at the Pub for a few months, so I don't have the seniority I used to at the Bar. And I probably would've asked for the night off anyway, or at least for a later shift - I wouldn't have missed your latkes for the world, you haven't made them in five or six years."

"Yeah, I probably won't do it for five or six more, after the mess I made."

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Dad, I'll clean it up - it's the least I can do." I take another few pancakes, despite starting to feel full. It's once a year, I remind myself.

My father wipes some applesauce off his moustache, and takes a long swig of his wine. The silence fills the space between us, and I can practically feel him reading my mind, until the tears start forming in my eyes.

"Debra, what happened to Jenny isn't your fault. It just doesn't work that way, no matter what you think you did or said wrong."

I move some pieces of browned potato around my plate. "Daddy, I lost the woman I love, and it wasn't because of anything she did or said wrong. So tell me, when is it going to start feeling like it wasn't my fault?"

"I don't know, honey. I don't know."

Okay, I'm bad. I tend to call 7 days, and ya know, enjoy myself, with the excuse that it's my "birthday week." This year, it began with a fun little excursion with megiloth, yaqui, and mzsassyazz1 to see Jim Norton at The Uptown on Saturday. Last night, I slacked off from schoolwork, had a few phone chats, and had some mad cookaholic fun in the kitchen. Which brings us to...

Today.
I'm about 2 1/2 hours into my 38th year of life now, and I received this lil' ditty from saimne, my friend and ukulele buddy!

The birthday song Lou wrote for me!

Lou, you rock! Thank you!

And thank you also to Jim H for the bday ecard, and Joy-Bee for the bday text!

It's only a couple of hours in, but so far, I'm lovin' my day...

Just for future reference, the varieties of irises I got yesterday are:

Spatzel - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/5587/
Schortman's Garnet Ruffles - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/140230/
Roman Song - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/56797/
Gypsy Romance - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/32365/
Villain - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/251379/

And for even more future reference, some other ones that I think are pretty are (this will be long):
( georgia o'keeffe would be proud )
Yeah there's a theme there. Black/dark/burgundy. Surprise surprise.

I have potted the irises and I am switching my brain off for the evening. Early night tonight, I'm pooped.

The market was good. There was a stall there from a woman that works with slumped glass and kilnworked mosaics and stuff, picked up a pair of rather pretty earrings. I was looking for something for my secret santa recipient but nothing was the right colour, and I've already given her a necklace a few years ago when I had her before. I tried on a gorgeous bracelet that was I liked the look of, for secret santa, but it wouldn't even do up around MY wrist, and secret santa lady's wrists would have to be a bit bigger than mine. Poop. I could have spent a LOT of money at that stall, so much lovely stuff, and while the jewelry was not intricate, the materials were gorgeous. Beautiful slabs of glossy colour, some with iridescent foil inlays, some with a weird glittery finish. The earrings I got are rectangular pendants, the top two-thirds of the rectangle is black glass, the bottom third is one-third clear glass, above black glass with a blue-yellow-green iridescent foil inlay. So fucking pretty. I'll take a picture of them when there's light, but it won't do them justice.

I picked up a heap of irises. They were bare-rooted, just the rhizome and some trimmed leaves, and they're still in the plastic bag outside. I need to buy more potting mix and more pots so I can put them in some soil until we get the house built. The fellow selling them didn't have any of the nearly black ones but he had some very pretty purples and maroons and bicolour ones. I basically just went for dark purple ones, some are purple and white, but no lilac coloured ones.

What else? Oh yes, my first case of sunburn for the summer. Stupid me forgot to put sunscreen on and I was in the sun for nearly an hour. Yep, I burn that quickly. Fortunately the moisturiser I use on my face has sunscreen in it so I don't have a burnt face, but my back and shoulders are very warm and very red.

I've been wearing my new boots a bit today, they're a bit easier on my feet already, but the ankle/calf bit still needs work. They would have to be from the 70's, at least, the craftsmanship is beautiful, but the lining is nylon mesh. There's no year on them so I have no idea how old they are. They are possibly, probably, older than I am. But oh so pretty. Beautiful shoes: $4. Yep.

It's my last week at work for the year, this week. I have no clothes ironed to wear. It's got to that stage again, where I can't be bothered even though I have nothing to wear. I'm going to iron for a week solid over the holidays. I will reduce the pile by half, if I've got the coathangers.

The rest of my December looks like this:

18 last day of work, have to go and pick my brother up, and get one dish for Dad giftmas half-made so I can bung it in the oven in the morning to be ready for lunch
19 Giftmas with Dad, brother and sister, here
20 brother goes home
21 yay a day off, let's iron
22 preparing something to take to Mum's
23 Mum's for Giftmas lunch
24 was going to be a day at home doing nothing but D's mum has of course started whinging at D about "waah waah Giftmas is a family time when will we see you" well, Boxing Day, but you want a whole other day to yourself. they're coming here. which is preferable to us going there because a) we can drink b) if I don't want to deal with them any more I can fuck off and play on the computer or read or something and c) we eat when I say we eat and not 3 hours after any sane person would have had their dinner. I have to prepare/marinate some stuff for Giftmas Day, gives me an excuse to get away from D's mum bitching about immigrants even though she is one herself (show me a non-indigenous Australian who isn't an immigrant: you can't)
25 i am going in to town to feed Dad's dogs and then I am coming home to get very drunk very slowly
26 Boxing Day bash at, yep, D's parent's place. but that's not good enough. sigh.
27-30 probably more ironing and cleaning and trying to organise a New Year's Eve bash
31 another disappointing New Year's Eve when no bugger turns up, woo

Cynical, me? Never.

Yesterday was a bit weird. I spent the morning looking at dog adoption websites and sobbing, perked up over lunch, went and fed Dad's dogs (and was fine) and St. Vinnies was still open when I went past so I stopped in and had a look.

Exhibit A:

Possibly the most awesome pair of boots I've ever seen in an op shop. Yes I bought them. No they don't zip up. They are leather so they will stretch. They spent last night bulging over a tin of lychees and a bottle of cider vinegar. I will make them comfy and wearable, dammit! I need to get some Dubbin and leather stretch spray stuff.

Exhibit B:

I actually burst into tears when I got home after finding these. I tend to have delayed reactions to things like this. Okay, doesn't seem like much, but I had sheets exactly the same as these when I was 5 or 6, and I remember them clearly. We had a green set and a reddish-brown set. I have no idea what I'm going to do with these, they are single bed sheets, but when something from your childhood that you could remember but had given up all hope on ever seeing again just turns up in an Op Shop on a Saturday afternoon and makes you cry, well you bloody well buy it, don't you?

I wouldn't be surprised if other people my age remember the sheets as well. Well, Australians my age at any rate. And these ones are in surprisingly good condition too. I think we had to throw our original ones out because they'd been worn through, these are still pretty strong and not threadbare or thin. They're not very fluffy but you wouldn't be either if you were 25+ year old flannelette.