Friday, April 2, 2010

Blogger Is Getting Really Buggy

I guess it's probably because I use a Yahoo account to check in. They're trying to Nazi us all into Gmail/Google accounts, probably to try and shepherd us into the ever-expanding cloud of Googlegarbage. I'm not big on social media at the best of times. The only reason I put Dirk Flinthart on Facebook was because people kept noisily inviting me to do it. Now I have possibly the planet's most derelict Facebook page... yippee.

Anyway, I really don't want to try to jump through the hoops associated with shifting the ID on this blog to my Gmail account. But one of these days I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do it. As it stands, I'm having a lot of trouble lately in commenting on other people's blogger output. If you haven't heard from me in a while, I probably just got tired of error messages...

Meanwhile: it's Day Four of the the Solo Parent Trek. Natalie's in Canberra, at the National Folk Festival. I keep getting text messages with questions about whether I want a silver-and-blackwood whistle (fuck, yes... I mean, is the Pope a Nazi? I mean, kiddie-fiddler? NO! I mean Catholic. Jeez, what an embarrassing set of confusions, eh? Sorry about that, Your Holiness.) and what size tricorn do I think the boys take, and does this electric fiddle make my bum look big? You know: the usual stuff. I think the bank account's gonna take a hit here.

It's been a challenging week. I allowed myself to take Monday night off sword training, but made up for it by having dinner with two (totally gorgeous) medical students. When we first organised it, Natalie was supposed to be home - but then all kinds of stuff went pear-shaped, and she realised she'd booked a flight on the Monday afternoon, so it was just me, the kids, the lovely medical lasses... oh, and Mike the Historical Neighbour who dropped by just on sundown as he does from time to time.

Good timing on his part, I must say. We had grilled kebabs of chicken, and separately of vegetables (one of the medical maidens was a vegetarian) with a spicy peanut sauce, and we had a part-stir-fried, part-steamed dish of tofu and Chinese cabbage (the vegetarian medical maiden can cook, as well as being tremendous fun, and cute) and then we tackled the making of profiteroles.

Strangely, that didn't go well. I've never actually had profiteroles not work before. It was disturbing. I think the mix was too runny, and I think I should have set the oven to all-over heat, not just base heat. But it was unnerving. I didn't like that. Neverthless, they tasted damned good, so we ate 'em anyhow.

Wednesday went peculiar because on top of the usual martial arts classes, the primary school had a Movie Night, and Elder Son went. So... on top of the bizarre do-si-do of children (I actually pick up six kids every Wednesday arvo from the school, and take 'em to ju-jitsu. Various other parents get involved in sorting 'em out afterwards, usually.) with Natalie being away, and Elder Son needing to get to the movies... yeah, it got very complicated. Very complicated indeed.

Meanwhile... yeah. Today I managed to finish stitching together and decorating a medieval-style tunic for Younger Son. There's a medieval fair tomorrow over Exeter way. Chances are I'll take the kids for a while. We need an outing, and they'll be delighted by the chance to prance around in their cloaks and hoods. I'll break out the Big White Shirt, dust off my best Elizabethan English, and we'll see what havoc we can raise, eh?

House is in good order. So are the grounds, more are less. Children clean, fed. I'm a bit behind on a range of different work, but I'm doing the best I can on that... Natalie gets back Sunday night. We'll do the Big Easter Egg Thing on Monday, to include Nat's sister, and Little Cousin Zanna. After that, maybe I'll get a bit of time for myself.

As it is, I'm trading off on sleep at the moment. That only works for so long...