You can't make this up .....

Stripping Cabbies

Look at the name of they main guy they are interviewing .....

There's also video footage ....

I'm 12 again ......

After getting my flu vac jab this morning the doctor gave me a lollipop.

These flu vaccinations were arranged through work and all took place this morning.  Every second person walking up to my desk is sucking on a lollipop.

I just left a manager's meeting where all participants were older than me and they were all licking lollipops. 

I prairie dog over the top of my cubicle and see over half the staff with lollipops in their mouths ...

Very very surreal ......

Mel's Sunday Update

Well believe it or not, I have been plodding along with my stitching .... I just can't show much of it :)

Finished here is another of the Subversive Cross Stitch Anti Valentine patterns.  This is for Stephen's birthday in a fortnight's time.  As well as the humour in sending a "not nice" sentiment - there is also personal meanings attached to this one ... his blogname has Teddy bears in the title, so he is my Teddybear!  He even txted me at 6:30am this morning my time with the message "Do you know where your Teddybear is?".  The answer was going to bed finally after watching Cricket all night :)

The teddy bear is pink because he's naked and also to highlight my abhorrence of the colour :) :)

In other stitching news, I finished Part 3 of BoInk and some more of the border, but you will have to wait another week or so before I can show the pictures.

And finally the gift I completed and took to the framers is back.  Again I have taken pictures but cannot show them until the recipient receives it in the mail.

Oh speaking of which there are three outstanding RAKs I sent to the US over three weeks ago.  Anyone received anything and haven't gotten around to letting me know?

Just to off set all my latent cyncism ....

here are three very sweet blog posts I just read all in a row .....

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/sweet-surprise-of-strawberries.html

http://www.websnark.com/archives/2008/04/i_know_the_thou.html

http://ursulav.livejournal.com/766424.html


Feeling lonely?  who me?  Nah - figment of your imagination  I'll be back to ranting about why School Holidays should be banned and how Barbie (tm) is a symbol of the complete corruption and degradation of our "civilisation" tomorrow.

The Light - its burns !!!!!

Woke up to a txt msg this morning at 7:15am.  My bedroom was flooded with light !!!  I was sooo disoriented that I wasn't sure what was happening ....

It was sunlight. 

Its been raining here for 16 days straight.  I haven't woken up to a sunlit filled bedroom in nearly a month .....

Two hours later and the sun is still shining brightly - I think I might spend today out and about ....

Read much lately?

Hmmm - I seemed tyo have missed this last time it went around - oh well here I am late as usual ::) :) :)

Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t
interested in. (Movies don’t count.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Quintessentially Australian

Anzac Day - a public holiday where we hold a Dawn Service for Australian and New Zealand military personnel who have died.  Where every town and city hold marches for those that are still alive, or for family members to march to hold their memories alive.

The RSL (Returned Serviceperople's League) clubs serves free beer and its the only day that two-up is considered legal.

For the rest of us its a day off work and a somber way to remember how screwed up the world (and our place in it is).

For most of us, the thing we most learned about Anzac Day at school is this:  Some time before we were born, in some huge war overseas, lots of our "boys" went overseas to foreign places because the British told us to.

The British Military command (who is always portrayed as being complete and utter nincompoops) sent a bunch of ANZACs to some place in Turkey.  They were off course and landed on some beach that was miles from where they were supposed to be (this was the Poms fault too).  Many ANZACs died there trying to do what they told until they got fed up and left.  Because the Poms were so useless at everything else, the ANZACs created their own ruses, such as a self-firing rifle which fooled the Turks and allowed many more ANZACs to leave than if we'd done it the Pommy way.

OK the official version is here.

Basically the role of Anzac Day in most Australian minds is: We always help our mates.  If someone in a position of power over us lands us in the toilet, well .... we are Aussies and we will bloody well get ourselves out of it!

And that my friends describes the quintessentially Australian approach to life, in as such as there is one.

Why we haven't done this in the Middle East is beyond my understanding but that's a rant for another day.

Finally I'd like to leave you all with the last great Anzac Day tradition - ANZAC bikkies.  This is the recipe my mum made before we both found out we can't eat rolled oats.

Please be aware all you furriners, that yes you do need Golden Syrup to make these work.  Corn syrup, Crisco, glucose syrup - are all rubbish and wont work.

About the only alternative I can conceive is treacle with a touch of honey in it.  The origins of these bikkies can be found here.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon boiling water
pinch salt

1. Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together.
2. Melt syrup and butter together.
3. Mix soda with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup.
4. Add to dry ingredients.
5. Place teaspoonfuls of mixture well spaced on a greased slide.
6 Bake in a slow over (150-160 degrees C) for 20 minutes.

Makes 50

Recipe typed out from the bible of Australian cookery, The Commonsense Cookery Book.

Hmmm - time for a diet methinks ....

Just did a run out after lunch to grab a chocolate bar at the local general shop near the library.  Got to the front of the queue and the nice man behind the counter said:

Oh we're about to put those ones on special.  I'll charge you the reduced price seeing as you are here most lunch times.

I'm not!  Am I ???  Oh dear .....

Bad Minion !!!!!!

Received a lovely gift from Kay in the mail today.

She sent a lovely card (that you can't see in the photo) which says: "I would hate to see you sat home bored and lonely so here's a few bits tokeep you occupied"

Inside the parcel were the following charts:

X's and Oh's   Seanicorn
X's and Oh's   Seed of Life
X's and Oh's   Fire Dragon
Vickery Collection   Celtic Emerald Cross
Vickery Collection   Royal Cross Trio
Vickery Collection   Celtic Cross
Heart in Hand    Wee Kite

Also included is a fire engine red shower cap with yellow horns.  I have a devil's shower cap !!!!

I can't wait for a visitor so I can get a pic of me wearing this !!!!!!

Bad bad bad Minion !!!!  When on earth am I going to find the time to stitch these gorgeous charts !!!  Thank you sooo much, you are such a sweet person !!!!!

Hugs Your Mistress - plotting revenge.

Mel's Sunday Update

Afternoon all,

First of all the sinusitis seems to be settling down - YAYYYY!!!!!  I can talk to people in person and on the phone for more than five minutes without my head exploding !! Of course this means that I've done noooo stitching today.  Oh well!

This week I finished off the present I've been stitching FOREVAH.  Pics will be shown after it comes back from the framers and recipient receives it.

I spent the latter part of the week on BoInk.  I started and finished Part 2 and also did another small section on the border.  I'm so glad that the cricket is back on the TV - I stitch so much more while the cricket is on - it really ramps up my stitching mojo !!!

Close up here.
Progress to date here.

This week will be more on BoInk and hopefully a small birthday present next weekend.  Another subversive cross stitch methinks :)

Also this week I remembered that I hadn't put up a picture of my Round Robin.  This is the dragon stitched by Laura.

Thanks so much Laura !!!!!

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy week ahead.

Habits of the Modern Stitcher

Pinched from: http://mymarkdesigns.wordpress.com/
My Mark Designs blog.

1.) How do you hold your fabric? with q-snaps.  I'm trully converted
2) Floss licker? No
3) How do you thread your needle? Hmmm tried explaining this one before.  I hiold the e4nd of the thread squashed between the thumb and forefinger pads of my left hand - then I squash the eye of the needle over the threads with my right hand.
5) Are you a needle loser? Only on the train
6) What fabric do you prefer to stitch on? Depends on the project.  I prefer the trexture of linen or evenweave but there are times when Aida is appropriate.
7) Bobbins or floss bags? Both.  DMC on bobbins, everythign else in floss-A-way bags.
8) Are you a scissors collector? no - but I'd like to be.
9) Do you do your own framing, and if so, do you lace or pin? Nope - nowhere near this corrdinated.
10) Are you a floss floozy? Not as much as some people :)  I adore fondling gfloss but I'm more likely to buy charts.
11) Silk? Adore sils - would stitch with silks only if I could afford it.
12) Railroader? nope.
13) Are you a pattern or designer snob? Kinda - I tend not to look at simplistic designers like Bent Creek, San Man etc.
14) Do you get antsy when you give someone a stitched gift? Yup - I get very very antsy until I am sure they have received it - International Post gives me sooo many white hairs!
15) Have you reached S.A.B.L.E.? {laughs hysterically}  Anyone know where Louis or Lestat are hanging out these days?
16) Do you wash your projects?  Not really.  I rinse in warm water and check for bleeding before ironing projects are I finish stitchig them.

Next?

Picture Perfect - Fragile

OK I had to follow mum and put up a pic of a web.  No spider.  Do click to enlarge the picture though - it looks better up larger.

This web as you can see was on the path I had to walk up to the car everyday.  This web is over 6 foot in diameter.  The spider itself is tiny ..... smaller than my thumbnail.

Picture Perfect

~ Each week a theme will be posted up on Thursday, and you are invited to put up your best picture with that theme in mind, it should be just

 ONE and ORIGINAL,

 i.e not off the internet,

Then come back and post a comment on the PPF page
so that everyone can link to your blog and see your pic.

My nose

As a couple of you know (mum and Claire mainly) I had a bad bout of the flu last September and the usual accompanying sinusitis.

The sinusitis had never gone away.  I suffer a constant low level sinus headache which occasionally flares up to worse pain.  I wake up each morning to gunk running down the back of my nose and my throat and I have pretty much lost my sense of smell.

Both the doc and I originally thought this was an infection as some smells have just turned ghastly. Anything protein-based: cooked meat, bodily wastes, opening the mixed nuts packet, all produce the exact same disgusting smell.  Chicken is the worst.  I can't eat chicken without blocking my nose.

The doc has had me on a range of antibiotics and saline rinses etc and they did nothing.  So doc thinks that its not an infection, I've just gotten sensitised to something in my environment.  She's had me on a range of antihistamine's ever since - but like Claire's steroids, its just masking the issue, not fixing it.

The doc keeps asking me "do you have a cat?"  Ah yes - but we've lived together for 12 years - look elsewhere !!!!

I took a standard allergy skin test yesterday.  To do so, I needed to stop taking any antihistamines and any other form of pill, spray, tablet or supplement.  I needed to be off these for a minimum of three days before they would do the tests.

I woke up yesterday thinking someone had packed my sinus cavities with expanding acid !!!All my lymph nodes were swollen and I had a sore throat - is this the flu?  It is the sinusitis coming back in full force? is it withdrawal from the antihistamines?  Can you get withdrawal from antihistamines?

Was very grumpy at work, took tests and came home with sinus headache and screaming kids on the train.  {delete rant on Boganspawn}

The immediate results on the test. I  reacted badly to wheat and milk, moderately to peanuts and mildly to cat hair.

I did not react at all to any form of pollen or grasses or common hay-fever causes.  I did not react to cockroaches, dust mites or paper dust.

The doc will tell me week Monday what that all means.

The thing that worries me is the wheat one.  I am gluten intolerant.  However I am also allergic to wheat?  A lot of gluten-free flours are wheat flour with the gluten removed.  I'm going to have to go through my cupboards and be extra careful.

Either that or just go back onto the low-carb meat and veggies and fruit lifestyle I did years ago.  No pre-processed foods, very little cereal-based foods. I never felt healthier than then and I lost 30 kilos in a little under 3 months.  I've just gotten lazy over time.

I'll see what the doc says. 

Anyway the clock says I can have another dose of pseudo ephedrine now so I'm going back to bed until the sinusitis calms down to a dull roar.

You can't make this up

I was watching this on You Tube when the Jehovah's Witnesses ladies knocked on the back door .....

And yes the sound was up loud enough to carry ....  be warned its too risque for some work and uses words you may not want your children to ask the meaning of ......

And yes I adore Tim Minchin's work.  Such a pity I didn't find out about his gigs here until after they were sold out ......

hmm embedding isn't working today - try here instead:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=e6raVzrbqrM

Too Much INformation

Yes its one of *those* posts ....

This morning I dropped my car into be repaired (small bumper accident some may know from just before Easter).  Anyway as it is the next suburb over I thought I would walk home.

Made it in 40 minutes.  The first 25 were fine. The next 10 were up a hill that most cars have to take in second gear.  The last 5 was up my own driveway which most cars do in 1st gear.

So walking vs sex.

My legs are trembling so much I can't walk - yes for both.
My heart is going so fast I think I might pass out - yes for both.
My hands are trembling so much I can't lift a glass of water - yes for both.
I'm all sweaty - I get more sweaty during sex.
I can't talk because I can't catch my breath - correct for both.

The main reason I prefer sex over walking - there's no AfterGlow from walking up a damned hill !!!!!

Nor anyone nice to cuddle while you catch your breath ....

Just thought you would like to know :)

Cuteness Overload!

I got a txt this morning from a friend telling me there would something cute waiting in my email when I got to work.

I know this friend and his tolerance for cuteness and I was *still* blown away!

Warning: Cuteness Overload !!!!

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/cuteoverload/741668.html

Keys to your Life Quiz

The Keys to Your Life Anything good in your life comes from you having the strength to make good decisions.

You know how to assess a situation before you leap into action.

Anything bad in your life comes from not taking charge when you should be.

You are a natural leader. So be aggressive and take the reins!

http://www.blogthings.com/thekeystoyourlife


Gee like this is a surprise to anyone !!!!

Mel's Sunday Update

Not much to report that hasn't already been reported.

Most stitching during the week has been on a present. Its a small present but it seems to be taking an inordinately long amount of time to get anywhere !!!!!

The weekend I did some more on BoInk.  As I'm doing BoInk on black, I'm finding I need to stitch on it when I'm fresh - so I've been stitching it on weekends instead of trying to cram a few stitches in on weeknights.

BoInk album is here: http://gothtigger.multiply.com/photos/album/85

Also this week I picked up FireFlower from the framers.  I haven't managed to get a good pic yet - I think the batteries in my camera need changing or something  ....  Anyway pic is here: http://gothtigger.multiply.com/photos/album/2/Finished_pieces#133

I think that's it for me on the stitching front this week .......

3 New Items on My Amazon Wish-list

(This blog entry was automatically generated by Multiply's Wish-list Cross-posting feature.)

Below are items recently added to my Amazon wish-list. If you are familiar with anything below and have any comments or alternate suggestions, please leave a reply.

Click here to see my full and current wish-list.

---

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition) Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video Price: $17.90 Learn More

---

Owen & The Dinosaur Manufacturer: Dragon Dreams Inc. Price: $9.95 Learn More

---

The Golden Compass (New Line Platinum Series Two-Disc Widescreen Edition) Manufacturer: New Line Home Video Price: $22.99 Learn More

Being Creative

Reading the blog of one of my favourite artists yesterday, she said "Damnit, if I can't cuddle, I might as well paint!"

Well I'm not an artist and I can't paint - but I think she has a point.  So today in amongst lots of phone calls and PMs and IMs and txts and all manner of wonderful communications with sooo many people (THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!)

I soaped.  And then I stitched.

Vanilla Soap
Inspired by my sweetie - but who knows if he'd even like it :) :) so I made a whole batch of 12 bars in case anyone else thinks they may like it ....

250gm Coconut Oil
250gm Grapeseed Oil
250gm Lard
250gm Rice Bran Oil

250ml water
137 gm lye
30ml Vanilla fragrance.

Simple plain recipe.  Nothing fancy, no hassles.  Used full water amount to give me more time to play but this soap will take at least 4 and preferably up to 8 weeks for minimum cure for use.

The creative part is in the vanilla fragrance.  This fragrance is known to discolour soap.  It will turn the whole batch a tan or coffee brown over time as the soap cures.

So what I did was pour two thirds (roughly) of the raw soap into the square mould, then mixed the fragrance with the remaining one third and then poured it in as a swirl type pattern.  I then used a spatula to mix it around a little.  This is known as a blind swirl because I wont know until the soap cures what the swirl will actually look like.

I think I may have over-mixed so it will look more marbled than swirled - but the fun part is I have to wait to see what the results of my creation are .....

White Witch Soap
This is a fragrance I bought at Christmas to suit a fragrance a friend wears.  I think she's liked the bubble bath powder I sent her with this in it.  Anyway I thought it was time I had a play with some new mould and a patchouli-based fragrance appealed :) :)

250gm Coconut Oil
250gm Macadamia Nut Oil
250gm Lard
250gm Rice Bran Oil

250ml water
138 gm lye
30ml White Witch fragrance.

I used grapeseed oil in the first recipe as I wanted to keep the base bar as white as possible so the blind swirl would show through .... I much prefer the feeling of macadamia nut oil so I used it in this recipe and it will be a softer more yellowish hue to the bar.  Also played with some 3D two part moulds instead of the usual cavity pour.  When the soap got too thick I poured the rest into a standard cavity mould.

Again I used full water so I would have more time to play with pouring before the recipe got too thick.  Also as it was in individual moulds, there was no gel phase so curing will take longer with this soap.  Definitely up around the 8 weeks for a good hard long-lasting bar ....

Stitching
Finally tonight I stitched - got some more done on BoInk.  Hope to get a progress pic put up tomorrow when I get a little bit more done.  I've got the first Barfy done and just need to outline him.  I've started on the green but need to add in the gold to outline the second installment before I take a picture - hopefully tomorrow - or should I say later today.

Have no idea what I'm talking about - see here.

Thought provoking

I'm going to list here links to two very interesting articles I read today. 

One about proposed systems to map and predict human group behaviour - and the implications of such research.

http://blog.steinberg.org/?p=7

The other is about why children lie?  And when is a lie a lie and when is it actually socially acceptable and when do we determine this difference.

http://nymag.com/news/features/43893/index4.html

These are not cute or funny - but genuine thought-provoking pieces.

Impulse Shopping

What do you do to get out of a funk - go shopping of course !!!

While doing the usual weekend shopping I saw this was on 50% off sale so I bought it for Trubs.  She of course has completely ignored it since it came in the house. 

I also picked up FireFlower from the framers today :) Bad pic here.  Don't know why the black looks sooo pitted - its an effect of the camera, not the fabric.

Why Saturday ????

I had a good night last night.  I cooked calamari and baked vegetables. Had a glass of chardonnay with dinner.

Spent the rest of the night on various phone calls and IMs and PMs chatting with friends and then just as I'm about to finally head off to bed, someone escapes out the back door.

Mutter grumble !!!  She wont come back in? Fine spend the night out.

Woken this morning at 5:30am-ish by the sounds of a catfight. Roll out of bed, don't bother putting glasses or light on, let the cat in.  That's what happens when you spend the night outside.  I give her a cuddle then put her down and head to the bathroom on the way back to bed.

There are black things all over my arms - great she's been rolling in the mud.  These things are not coming off - they are moving - HOLY CRAP !!!!

Sprint to the bedroom for the glasses - sprint back to the kitchen - HURRY UP YOU STUPID FLUROESCENT LIGHT !!!!!  Who the hell puts a fluorescent light in a kitchen when I'm going to be going in there in complete darkness with with black THINGS all over my arms !!!!

My arms are covered in leeches.  My cat is covered in leeches.

A few minutes, an entire container of salt and a cat brush later my brains stops gibbering and we are both free of the horrible black squirmy things .....

Except Trubs has lots of flea dirt too - oh well while we are at it I may as well give her her drops of Frontline or Revolution of whatever the stuff is .....

Twenty minutes later I'm on the net with a cup of tea and a purring cat in my arms - typing one-handed ...... smelling vaguely of Frontline where she'd smeared it all over me ..... with no possibility of getting anymore sleep ....

Depression

This is emo stuff so feel free to delete without reading.

In the last few days, for varying reasons, depression has reared up and slapped me in the face again.

I'm coping with life as best I can - but that's not really saying much.  I'm just riding the session out until thing get better.

Part of that is that I haven't been very communicative with anyone except to return emails or txts that are sent directly to me.

Part of depression for me is the desperate need to reach out, to rail at the deities and *demand* I need a hug !!!  I need someone to hug me and hold me and tell me that everything is alright and I'm not really a bad person.

At the same time I'm sooo scared of reaching to anyone, to talk to anyone because well face it, who really wants to talk to someone crying down the phone at you .... and the rebuff would just make everything worse.

So instead of reaching out, I stare at the phone and cry for hours - stupid huh ???

I have nothing truly terrible going on in my life, I have no-one dying, I have a job I have a wage I have a roof over my head.

Some hassles have just all converged together in the last few days and its all gotten on top of me.  I'll ride this out and be fine in a few days or a week as per normal.

I'm writing this now for two reasons:  One to apologise for any odd behaviour or if I've been distant lately. And two, I wanted to see if I was actually brave enough to blog about this.  I do get depression, especially when I don't get a weekly endorphin and cuddle fix, which I'm not and don't foresee getting for a long long while.

I know people love the happy bouncy Tigger Mel - well this is the other side that I never talk about.  This is the dark sister that visits occasionally and I just have to wait for her to go away.

Off for a shower and thence to work - I hope so very fervently that today is better than yesterday.  Anyone have a spare winning Lotto ticket lying around?  Or a tall blond?

Many hugs to my friends and again I apologise for not being the happy bouncy Mel you all know and love.  Sh'ell be back at some point - hopefully soon.

Only in Melbourne ???

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7531/1498

Bad Joke of the Day

Denise:      This is very ... very ....

Mel:            Illuminating?

The Good News ...

Daylight Savings is finaly finally over !!! Yay !!!!!!!!


The Bad News:

I have no hot water ..... not sure if its the off peak that's broken or the thermostat on the actual heater.  So not sure if I need to call a puilber or an electrician.

All I know is, its Sunday morning and I'm not going to be able to call anyone until sometime tomorrow .... so going into work on Monday after two days of cold showers .... ooooh  yuck!

Denise Debbie and Mel's Big Adventure

Yes Claire we did go - see here is us outside the shop with the sign.

From left: Denise, Debbie, Mel.

Our big adventure to visit Stitching Post (ex Dragonflydreams) yesterday 5 March 2008.

Favourite new art work

From Ursula of course .....

http://ursulav.deviantart.com/art/Very-Minor-Sins-Envy-81830801

Mel's Sunday Update

Yes after a long long wait - I actually have a Sunday update this week !!!!

For those that can access - I have pics of Lothario in his folder - he looks soooo well - so well fed and happy! Especially compared to his first picture !!!!

I received a gorgeous present from Mariann this week.  A great chart, inspired by Karen, charted by Mariann - and then she sent me a personalised version just for me :) :)

Also I have finally uploaded my latest finish in my 2008 Finished Photos.  Be warned this is a Subversive Cross Stitch chart and is *not* child friendly !!!!

EDITED and added to on 6 April: SUNDAY !!!!

Debbie, Denise and I had a fun trip to Katoomba yesterday. Pics here for those who can see them ....

While there, Debbie Denise and Karen (proprietor of Stitching Post ex Dragonflydreams) helped me to find just the colours I was imagining for Tracy's Mystery, Book of Ink Circles.  Pics of the various floss tosses and the final choice here.

Lets see what else, oh my new favourite artist is putting out a limited edition print of an artwork to help pay her tax bill this year.  I went shopping :)

And finally, the most important thing - I have been stitching !!!  I have finished my section on Claire's RR.  Pic of whole project so far is here. Close up of the bit I did is here.

Now that I have my stitching mojo back, I'll finally start BoInk tonight and try and get caught up on that before the next RR is due to be posted out :) :)

Its cold !!!

There is nothing more likely to snap me out of lethargic melancholia that a sudden cold snap.

It was 23 degrees at 6am when I got on the train.

when I got off the train nearly 2 hours later, it was only 12 degrees and with a wind chill factor even lower.

Translation: Fuck I'm cold !!!!

Ok this just tickled my fancy .....

http://www.tothepointnews.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3114&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=76

Cuttlefish !!!!

OK this:

http://www.twolumps.net/d/20080319.html

is from one of my favourite web comics.

And this:

http://jpolka.blogspot.com/2008/03/cuttlefish.html

was pointed out to me by Stephen today .....

Just wrong ......

I was caught short yesterday when Mother Nature decided to visit a day early and I didn't have my supplies at work with me. So I end up with not my usual brand.

Here I am sitting on a toilet, feeling crappy, trying to clean up blood and wondering if menstruation is an adequate defence for murder - gruesome, horrible messy murder ..... when I open to packet to see this ...

                     
     
What the flip is the purpose of this ?????????

Am I supposed to think "oh wow - that's interesting? I think I'll go back to work with a smile on my face and relate some of these interesting facts to my co-workers"

I'm a librarian you stupid marketing people !!!!! We don't do "interesting facts" without a response of:

Where's your bibliography?
Show me your empirical data?
Do you know this for sure or is another case of Disney and Lemmings?
Do we need to send this to Mythbusters ??????

{pant, pant}

Copious amounts of chocolate reduces the homicidal rages. I'm going back to finish my breakfast bowl of Cocoa Puffs now ......