My house is a frickin pit

I'm trying to sort this just now and so far have got as far as the tops of the kitchen cupboards. Time for a brew. Started doing this 20 minutes ago and am dripping with sweat already. The plan was to have a day's break of solitude when the wee yin goes back to school, then tackle the bombsite I live in. Unfortunately, I forgot that planning bluddy anything is useless cos there will always be unexpected visitors/sudden appointments that I can't put off/anything else that will cause my split second planning to go awry.

Anyone seen Dylan Moran's 'Like totally'? He talks about how the night before work you plan to the millisecond what time your alarm should go off. Then there's the bit in the morning when you re-assess. I do that with everything.

Fortunately the clock at work had predicted this. I discovered on Thursday (the day before I finished there) that the clock was 5 minutes fast. For 2 months I've been worrying about being 3 minutes late every day. No, I didn't manage to adjust my timetable enough to cover this. I got up earlier, had breakfast earlier then re-assessed what time the bleepy thing on my mobile should tell me to GO TO WORK.

*feet up, watching Frasier*

My Dad and Step-mum are due next Saturday. This week I have to sort out the DSS stuff, meet P, meet ex, check out an address across the feckin road from Mad Woman that my niece has been offered by council and do a 'food shop'.

Also, deep clean the whole house and try to stay sane whilst being bombarded by bastarding hormoans. Thanks for that, Body (that refuses to behave)

In other news ... Mini is bloody brilliant even though him and his wee mates have been mega messy and farty all over the house. No, you can't have baked beans ever again. He's the best and I'm way lucky to have him. Not depressed then. Just overwhelmed.

Click it

Got pretty things at work today

My female boss won't be in tomorrow so she brought some little cute gifts for me today.

A heart-shaped Le Creuset ramekin, a Stuart crystal rose bowl (mini one) and a bunch of pink-tipped roses

Was very nice indeedy.

Had only a short time till I was to meet her for a job hunting chat, so didn't go home. Went for a pub lunch instead. Made the mistake of buying a glossy to read *bleugh*

Returned for the 'official' meeting with her (as a client again) and I'm planning a few advances towards exam data input and bank services at a local hospital. She was mega helpful and supportive. I'll miss her.

Oh yeah ... funny moment when I went in this morning ... 2 Tom Waits CDs in the other bosses 'in' tray ... ????

Me - "Blimey, does M like Tom Waits?"

Her - "Yeah we both do!"

blah blah blah

They both like Tom Waits, Frank Zappa etc

All this time ... how funny. No wonder we got on so well!

Anyway.

Came home to my back door lying wide open and the boy off somewhere *grrr*

But all in all a good day.

Just going to sign into MSN now, ok?

I've made a new game for myself.

You don't have to play

Guess what the post is about by the numerous pictures in new media

Ok I need to work on the title.

Some days it's trickier.

At least I didn't have a red throbbing toy to look at in my friends media.

In other news

I've given up answering the door. The back door's on the snib and I'll not be doing house work till Tuesday. Monday will be a day of complete bedrest.

*nods to the other parents reading this*

Much as I love blogging, and it's become a huge part of my life, I'm beginning to feel like I'm stagnating. Like there is nothing else to my life.

*halted*

Slowed right down. No momentum. Nothing doing. Blank.

And I'm more than a little pissed off at how vulnerable I feel, as was demonstrated very overtly recently with my spikiness at my beliefs being utterly trashed.

I don't like to see anyone I love being ripped to shreds and mocked in such a way, yeah he's big enough to take it. Still feels like a kick in the gut to hear alla that yak.

Anyway, I'm kinda bored now. Fed-up tip-toeing around and living a nothingness.

*whatever*

Go HERE

pssst they're on facebook too now, and have unseen postcards there.

BTW ... never stay to be abused xxx

I wonder why so many folk are looking at the post I did ages ago about Cherry B

(16 views of that specific page in the last 4 days)

Why? - a dude on a bike with his arms folded. Not a showy offy wee lad, a bloke commuting - why?

Cold stomach?

Sore back?

Why? - trousers with the waistband round the arse - why?

Is it to make their legs look short and stumpy and their arse look long and flat?

Is it a sign of coolness?

My trousers stay up by the power of my mind, I don't need a belt or hips.

Why? - the old man with big bushy sideburns, dyed red hair and 'odd' clothes.

And from my son ... "Mum, have you ever seen a condom?"

My head's been mush today. Waves of sadness. Finished my book. Mibbe it's that ... book grief again. If you find my sense of humour PM it to me, eh?

"The public prosecutor is trying to decide if Joseph Fritzl is fit to stand trial"

Oh do fuck off!

Poor wee lamb

Next week is my last week at work. Had a chat with my boss today. I'm seeing her on Thursday for help with job hunting, covering letter etc.

It's all so strange. I've usually left a place cos I got fired, or cos I was sick to death of the place.

They really have been good bosses to work for {now I know that the mood the other week wasn't directed at me! } I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to get a wee bit experience and I'm not bitter at all. I thought I would be, that first day when I was told, but it was just shock.

So, it wasn't quite 18 months. 7 months. Ah well. It's helped my confidence and given me a few basic skills. I feel a bit more grounded

Possibly the most helpful period of my life so far.

Can't be bad then, eh?

How funny.

I was poking about in Wikipedia, as you do, after Ceej said about Russell T. Davies leaving Dr Who. I had a wee look at Steven Moffat's profile ... another Paisley buddie. Checked David Tennant's while I was there ... he was at the same school as me, at the same time I never met him and I don't remember him at all but it made me giggle. He was 3 years below me. Wonder if he's on FriendsReunited

After much zebedee-ing around with my wireless dooda, I've discovered it's the fault of AVG 8.

I put off updating for a week or so, then thought 'ahhh go on.'

Not connect. Connect. Not connect. Connect. Open Firefox. Disconnect. And on and on and on.

Spoke to someone knowledgeable {ahem} and discovered it's a clash between Windows Firewall and the Link Scanner feature of the new AVG 8.

It seems that AVG 8 works so well that it's letting nothing through!

Thought I'd better tell you cos it was doing my head in the other day ... and I like you lol

Feck. Woke at 4ish and I only had enough dust for one rollie

Gizza fag, huh?

EDIT Oh yeah ... so disable the Link Scanner on AVG, yer covered by the Windows Firewall anyroads

When eating pitta bread with crumbly feta (and other stuff) inside it

... make sure you're not wearing a V neck.

End.

HERE

A string walks into a bar with a few friends and orders a beer. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, but we don't serve strings here."

The string walks away a little upset and sits down with his friends. A few minutes later he goes back to the bar and orders a beer. The bartender, looking a little exasperated, says, "I'm sorry, we don't serve strings here."

So the string goes back to his table. Then he gets an idea. He ties himself in a loop and messes up the top of his hair. Then he walks back up to the bar and orders a beer.

The bartender squints at him and says, "Hey, aren't you a string?"

And the string says,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Nope, I'm a frayed knot."

Dictionary.com (Unabridged)

–noun
1. a payment made periodically by a tenant to a landlord in return for the use of land, a building, an apartment, an office, or other property.
2. a payment or series of payments made by a lessee to an owner in return for the use of machinery, equipment, etc.
3. Economics. the excess of the produce or return yielded by a given piece of cultivated land over the cost of production; the yield from a piece of land or real estate.
4. profit or return derived from any differential advantage in production.
5. Obsolete. revenue or income.
–verb (used with object)
6. to grant the possession and enjoyment of (property, machinery, etc.) in return for the payment of rent from the tenant or lessee. (often fol. by out).
7. to take and hold (property, machinery, etc.) in return for the payment of rent to the landlord or owner.
–verb (used without object)
8. to be leased or let for rent: This apartment rents cheaply.
9. to lease or let property.
10. to take possession of and use property by paying rent: She rents from a friend.
—Idiom
11. for rent, available to be rented, as a home or store: an apartment for rent.

My wee dictionary with the broken spine (oh how apt)

- noun
payment for the use of land or buildings

to hold as a tenant

to let

That's all

Damn wireless connection

Borrowing Mini's incredibly long ethernet cable to connect.

Had a daft text conv last night. Sorted. Thanks, bro.

Boss was havin' a day off today so no rush this morning. Yay! ... got to watch all of Frasier. Got loads of paperwork done and sent off. Brought all the tea towels back to wash. Blah blah yadda yadda ...

Too minging to go into town, blobbed home. Message from ex - wasn't lawyer problem after all. He didn't have to send the paperwork in the first place.

Sorry cowboy lawyers.

Little bit down. No big reason why. Actually I don't know why.

Ah well, I should go get messages and munchies for Friday night in with telly. Aw crap, Mini's got a friend staying over. Nice lad but it means they'll be hogging the living room.

Housework. Shopping. Boredom.

I don't think they're proper lawyers.

Ex signed, returned, and was surprised to find the paperwork returned to him. With no explanation.

He phoned the office, not knowing which lawyer was dealing with it (why hadn't she included a letter with it first time anyway?) and there was no-one able to explain why the paperwork was returned

Playing at it

clicky to engorge enlarge

HERE'S the story

It's so nice outside and I've got loads to do. Time I wasn't here

The heat's making me tired all the time.

Alec, this is one time when I get like this but ...

I'm so lucky to have you lot.

Thank you xxx

here again

Happy Birthday

Sup

oh and ...

Decided to go out today as I've not been outside a radius of ¼ mile for over a week.

Hmmm what great excuse could I have for a wee jaunt into town and 'treating' myself to lunch?

I need bin bags Well, I need massive bin bags, the ones you can get from Lakeland. The unforeseen consequences of buying a nice shiny bin that needs polishing all the time cos it's coated with some kind of force field that attracts dirt.

Oooh ... and screen wipes. Exciting. You'd think I actually did housework, I don't, I buy stuff in the hope that I'll do summat.

Meltiness on the patio when I got back. There's no shade in my garden till evening when it's cooler

The one thing I can do ... hang washing on the whirly gig (spinny thing) ... cannot be done as I've lost my hole. It's happened before but I walked on the grass with bare feet and found it. This year ... it hath vanished!!

Tonight, kneeling on the grass, phone shouldered to my ear, stabbing the grass with a butter knife, I wondered how long it would be till someone locks me up.

My next move is to find someone who owns a metal detector.

In other news, I think my ex is gonna get a short sharp shock when he sees GTA4, or rather hears it. I told him how much I hate the language used in it and he said his house-mate will have summat to say about it. I told him he shoulda thought of that before getting me to buy it. Really hope he doesn't expect my house to be full of that crap while he side-steps it! I reckon Mini's gonna be in a bad mood when he comes back on Sunday.

*bracing myself*

*cough*

It isn't about having 'different rules' or being part of a club.

It's more about there being a better way to deal with things. As a Christian you are accountable to Christ for the way you behave and the things you say.

The 'normal' way to deal with things is to head straight for court. There's a less harsh way, a way that things may be resolved so that all parties will be edified and happier. That's all I was saying.

Maybe I should have explained. I forgot you have to explain. Too many misunderstandings surrounding church. My remark was more aimed at the Christians amongst us. I believe there are some.

*sigh*

A simple sentence and I end up all defensive. I'm not annoyed at anyone, apart from myself

WEBBY AWARDS WINNERS AND NOMINEES

Discover some new sites?

If yer missing his regular photies, go look on his flickr site

There's new stuff

Today's been tricky. Gorgeous weather. 2 boys stayed over with Mini last night. They sat up playing Xbox all night. When I woke the first time they had fallen asleep downstairs. When I eventually got up (didn't have to be in work by a particular time)they'd gone on, left the Xbox on and left the back door open.

I got ready, bath etc. They came back, multiplied. 5 of them. One wasn't allowed out at all. He was supposed to stay in my house cos his mum's grounded him. They were standing on a street corner, three smoking.

A neighbour called. A scratch on her car overnight (they were playing Xbox) and complaining about them smoking.

Closed the door. Shed a few tears. They came in the back door. I was about to start 'the lecture' when the phone rang. Passed to me. The grounded boy's mum. Mini was messing around in science class on Friday and bumped into someone, who bumped into grounded boy's sister and she spilled boiling water over her arm. The school ran cold water on it and said it would be fine. Now it's up in skin bubbles and 'weeping'. Taking daughter to A & E, been advised to take photos of arm and sue school for compo

I expect he'll end up being expelled or excluded on Tuesday.

I've kinda had enough. I clearly can't do this. Hope ex is prepared for what I want to chat to him about tomorrow when he comes back.

I has a sad. But please, no sympathy. Life is sucky.

Found this on my hard drive. There's a distinct possibility that someone posted it ages ago but I can't remember

FIRST

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND - Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a mobile phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone. Hold your mobile phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock... Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!"

THIRD - Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

FOURTH - How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #
... A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

Nicked Borrowed in a friendly way from Jack Frost

LINK

On my birthday

Number one in the singles chart ... The Equals - "Baby Come Back"

Number one in the album chart ... Small Faces - "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake"

Born on my birthday ...

1941 - George Clinton (vocalist, keyboard player; solo and with Parliament and Funkadelic)
1944 - Ric Davis (vocalist, keyboard player, Supertramp)
1947 - Don Henley (drummer, vocalist; solo and with The Eagles)
1962 - Steve Albini (eminent producer and vocalist/guitarist with The Big Black)
1971 - Chris Helme (vocalist, The Seahorses)
1973 - Daniel Jones (multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, Savage Garden)

They forgot

1968 - Rhys Ifans (actor)