Fragments from a fractured week

Hosted by Mrs4444.

I've had better weeks than this one just gone, but I've had worse too. I'm writing this sitting in my sun drenched lounge room looking out at blue sky and listening to birds in the garden and thinking life's not so bad really. It helps that I've just unloaded all the brain clutter from the week here for your entertainment. Or not. Whatever :-)

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On Wednesday morning I was woken early by Jack as he sneaked up on to the end of our bed and stealthily crept right up my leg, over my hip and settled on my ribcage. Pretty much a complete failure of covert operations I have to say - there's a lot of cat there and the paw pressure is quite significant. The dog wasn't fooled either and she has a policy that states that if Mummy is cuddling someone else then there must be simultaneous Clara cuddles. So I end up with a husband on one side, a dog on the other and a cat on the top. Cosy. Then Clara snuggled a little closer and stuck her nose right up against Jack's. I held my breath for the inevitable claw-swipe...and Jack reached forward and began grooming Clara's forehead. We've come a long way from the mutual loathing and murderous impulses of their initial relationship.

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I wrote a fairly long paragraph here about a stressful afternoon with one of my kids but then decided there's really no need to record the details for posterity. Suffice to say that I spent Wednesday afternoon and evening going through a very familiar cycle that involves a lot of raised voices, at least half a box of tissues, lots of challenging conversation and very little school work getting done for the time involved.

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Thursday started with an alarm that didn't go off and us therefore waking up about 30 minutes before Adam and David were supposed to be heading off to work and school respectively and an hour before Caitlin was due at school (for an extra before school thing). I therefore didn't shower before driving Caitlin and Tom to school, arriving 6 minutes late. Adam and Dave left about 15 minutes late. I came home, got myself sorted out and headed over to the high school 30 minutes late for canteen duty, only to find that I wasn't even rostered on this week - I'm on next week. Brilliant. I stayed anyway because they were short-handed and now won't have to go next week, so that's something I guess!

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I do this thing when I have paid work to do at home where I just can't seem to get stuck into it unless either the house is empty or everyone in it is asleep. I had work to do on Thursday that needed to be finished by Friday morning and, because I wasn't home while the kids were at school, I didn't end up starting it until midnight. I sent the critical email off at 4am and went to bed cursing myself for being an idiot. Adam very kindly left me in bed when the alarm went off and got the kids off to school and I spent a lovely relaxing morning pretending I had no responsibilities. I hope that doesn't mean I forfeit a similar experience on Sunday.

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My very lovely husband has purchased tickets for us to go and see Bill Bailey perform at the State Theatre on July 23rd, can't wait!

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That's all from me folks! Now, head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time for more Friday Fragments!

Busy day

I'll tell you all about it later, meanwhile have some more Tim Minchin, because he is awesome and it saves Ariane from having to go looking for it.



Click here if you can't see the embedded video.

Seventeen years

In September of 1988, one month shy of my 18th birthday I went to a party I had not been invited to. My best mate's girlfriend had been invited so we figured that was close enough. I knew a fair few of the people there, well, their faces and names at any rate, they were people who had been 2 years ahead of me at high school. It was a pretty good party, we danced and were silly and there may have been some booze involved (ok, there was definitely half a bottle of vodka involved but SHHH don't tell my mum!*). My parents were away on holiday for the weekend, I don't remember why I didn't go with them, I didn't have a job or anything, maybe I was supposed to be studying for the HSC? Anyway, at the end of the night my friends and I were heading back to my place to continue festivities and, um, I took this guy home with me (it's ok Mum - NOTHING HAPPENED!). Except here we are twenty years later and I still haven't got rid of him.

Three and a bit years later we got married.

Yesterday we abandoned the kids with my mum (or perhaps abandoned my mum with the kids?) and took ourselves off into the city for a bit of celebratory eating, theatre going and...er...sleeping, yep, that's what hotel rooms are for you know.

We had dinner at East Chinese Restaurant at Circular Quay then popped over to Portobello Cafe for coffee and tiramasu before wandering down to the Opera House to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). We were a little early for the show so we sat on one of the benches looking over the harbour and watched the sun set.

The show was brilliant and hysterically funny. Adam and I had seen it before but neither of us remembered it very clearly and it has a significant element of improvisation and topical references, I'd go again in a heartbeat, in fact we're thinking if the opportunity arises we'll take the kids next time too. Nothing quite like laughing so hard it brings tears to the eyes, good for the soul that is.

On the way back to the hotel (we were staying overnight at the InterContinental) we picked up some chocolates from the Guylian Cafe, there's still half of them left for tonight, I'm hiding them from the kids.

This morning we were not woken by a dog's tail wagging with great force against the bookshelves beside our bed, or by a small boy climbing onto our bed and talking non-stop to said dog, or by the sound of children fighting. Instead we woke of our own accord - AT 6:15AM! Well, I did anyway, Adam was snoring gently still. I managed to drift off again till about 7:45am and then took another 45 minutes to actually get out of bed. We had breakfast at the buffet and then headed for home.

Happy wedding anniversary Adam. Thank you for a lovely evening and for 17 years of putting up with me. You're my best friend, a wonderful hubby and terrific dad, I love you.

*I know, this will be the day she finally remembers to check that link I sent her *waves* Hi Mum!

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

via Shakesville.

Link-fest No. 7

Random linkage for your amusement/edification.

Zero Punctuation - "Zero Punctuation is The Escapist's groundbreaking video review series starring Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Every Wednesday Zero Punctuation picks apart the games so you don't have to." Is funny :)

Darths and Droids - webcomic of Star Wars as a Dungeons & Dragons game.

Gagging For It - "An Australian Comedy Portal: news, reviews & performance details - where to find your comedy around Oz." Wish I could go see more live comedy.

Geek Crafts - a blog collecting links to all sorts of, well, geek crafts. Check out the crocheted Dark Mantle, click through to the original post too for more photos.

Joss on Whedonesque, with the latest on Dollhouse