Six Cat Weekend!

It’s been a mad weekend so far, today has been kind of quiet, nothing much happening other than a few errands around the place, the madness comes in the form of six furry little critters, plus an additional two dogs that we’re proxy parents too at the moment.

Aside from our own two cat, and two dog menagerie, we’re house and pet sitting for 2 other families. One is a one cat household, and the other a three cat household. Thank the lords for antihistamines!

All the furries are healthy, happy, fed, petted, cuddled, kissed and tucked in for the evening. Now I have the fun task of de-furring myself as each and everyone of the little critters is moulting.

“Shear” insanity!

Let there be Lawn!

After a day of rest yesterday, today was a day in the garden. A big day in the garden.
From 10am until 3.30am I was whipper snippering (weed whacking) the grass in the back yard which in some places was over a metre tall down to lawn height. A task that felt like it was never going to end.
But, it did, and now I have a lawn. It’s a bit scraggy at the moment, but I’ll run the mower over it properly over the weekend to pretty it up, otherwise, the yard looks so much bigger it’s ridiculous, and the dogs just don’t know what to do with themselves.
Jungle warfare is over!

Progress Hurts!

The upside is my heart is stronger, and physical exertion doesn’t tax me too much anymore, which I’m loving, as this week has been the best so far for progress around the house.
The downside, my body in general isn’t used to the hard work anymore, so today has been a whole world of hurt, spent primarily sleeping in, then relaxing, with the odd chore thrown in.
The best bit, is we’re off to see Inception, I know nothing about it, other than it’s supposed to be awesome! 🙂

Progress at Last

After several months (all year so far actually…) I finally had the energy, and motivation to attack the back lawns.

They’ve not been mown since before Christmas, which initially wasn’t a problem as it doesn’t grow over Winter or in the cooler months. Unfortunately when it did start growing madly I was too ill to mow it.

Fortunately, I’m getting better in leaps and bounds. That being said, the grass was far too long for either my mower, or the one a friend loaned me. So it’s gone unaddressed for even longer.

Until it finally occurred to me last week that perhaps I could hack it all down to a manageable height with the Whipper Snipper / Weed Whacker. In practice and with a whole lot of hardwork and sweat, this method works. After almost 7 accumulated hours I’ve completed 75% and if the weather stays good for tomorrow I’ll hopefully finish it all tomorrow. Then it’ll be time for the next project… 😉

I must say though, the yard looks so much better already, and a lot bigger. The dogs can also run around and actually see where they’re going. 😉

Projects That Beget Projects

Apparently we bought into the Money Pit rather than a home. It seems everywhere I look there’s something else that needs fixing or updating.

The whole painting saga has been going on for months, but fortunately is coming to a close. Paint still needs to be applied, but at least the ever ongoing process of picking a colour is coming to a close, and happily with colours and their names that sound a little less Disney than previous options.

The current and hopefully final crop are:

Tibetan Orange
Pyramid Gold
Crepe
Ultra White

Nice, warm and earthy.

As for the other projects, the kitchen is being painted also, and since a few of the tiles from the border (applied by the previous owners) are falling off, I’ve decided to help them, and replace them with something a little more appropriate and modern, and to install a splash back for the stove instead of leaving it painted drywall.

All of this, and the outside of the house needs painting too. For that, I’m getting a quote, as I think it’s a little outside my abilities, primarily as there’s some repairs to be done.

Now seriously would be a great time to plant a money tree…

Painting a 200 Step Process

That’s how it feels anyway…

On the upside, two colours choices have graduated from 8oz sample flat to 1 Quart Satin, which means progress! At last!
So here’s crossing everything that can be crossed without incurring pain.
Of course the process again won’t start for a while as it’s far too hot inside the house by day, and not much cooler by night. The paint dries on the brush before it hits the wall…

In other news… That’s it, my life right now really is that boring! 😉

Cutting it Close

Today has been another hot Summers day, it’s not quite sweltering but the house isn’t all that cool, so we picked up where we left off last night watching DVD’s in air conditioned comfort while entertaining the Miller kitties. A much more comfortable way of beating the heat.

We’re home now though, fans running, windows open, the house is slowly cooling down a little, but it’s still pretty warm.
Too warm in my mind. Warm enough that I decided on the spur of the moment that I needed a hair cut and reached for the clippers.

Thirty minutes and a whole lot of buzzing later, my head is a whole bunch cooler, and I feel several kilograms lighter, apparently my hair was longer than I realised. Not any more, and I can actually feel the breeze from the fan on my scalp. Love it!

We really do need to investigate proper cooling for the house, but I don’t believe that will make the top of the To Do list until next year.

A Cool Saturday

The weather of late has been nice and Summery, which is a far cry from a few weeks ago. The only problem with that is our house heats up like an oven and stays that way, so it’s generally not a pleasant place to be, especially as we have no air conditioning. We have fans but they’re only moving the hot air around.

But, no stress here. We’re house and pet minding for some friends while they’re away, and they have air conditioning, and a home theatre, and three very affectionate cats who are just itching to have extended periods of attention while their family is away.

Problem solved. We hired some DVD’s and spent the afternoon and evening in the cool, sipping cool drinks and cuddling with kitties.
Our own pets at home enjoying the warmth and snoozing inside (the cats) and the dogs lounging outside in the shade while periodically swimming in their paddling pool. It’s a hard life.

All up, everyone wins. 🙂

Ain’t I Pretty?

Today was a relatively uneventful day, the only excitement being a trip to the Orthodontist. As masochistic as it may sound, I enjoy these visits. Not only are my teeth being slowly put into their new and prettier positions in readiness for future surgery, but my Orthodontist, and his staff are AMAZING!

Every visit is laughter filled, even when I’m in what could be referred to as a less than dignified pose. For my part, dignity or not (and I tend to not have too much dignity… I try, but our dalliances are so fleeting.) I can’t help but laugh at my appearance during certain procedures.

On this visit, an adjustment, I’d just had my wires removed from my braces when it was identified that one of the brackets had come off a porcelain crown. This is pretty common as porcelain doesn’t have optimum adhesion for the orthodontal fixatives, and this is the fourth time this one particular bracket has come off.

To fix it, the tooth has to be etched, to make the surface less smooth, before the bracket is reattached. The etching solution is corrosive, so your lips have to be manually retracted to avoid injury. It’s a very glamorous look. So glamorous in fact that on the last two occasions this has occurred, I’ve had a photo taken. The most recent one is now my profile photo on Facebook. Share the joy I say!

See for yourself…

As a side note, it didn’t escape me that my photo is reminiscent of a Japanese character, a Domo Kun… 😉

Earthy Richness

That’s the theme for the current colour selections. Darker than the original selections, but richer and warmer, and in my opinion more modern than some of the previous options.

One day this will all come to an end and I’ll be able to quit harping on about painting for a while. For my part, that day can’t come fast enough.

Away, away, with my brush I shall play!