What a Christmas We Are Going To Have!

So it has been confirmed that my adult niece, age 21, who is currently studying in Germany, will be coming to stay with us over Christmas. She is bringing 2 friends! I get to cook for people!

The, on the 28th, Simon’s sister and her family are coming to visit, after spending Christmas itself with Simon’s parents. Not enough room in any house for all of us, hence the split celebration. More people to cook for!

Now I just need to sort a tree, some more decorations, food, booze…presents! 🙂

I am very excited.

‘Tis The Season…

For the first time ever, Simon and I have the space and the inclination to have a ‘real’ Christmas.

So I’ve been shopping. I’ve bought some new ornaments. A card display thing.

And this cookie cutter set, the acquisition there of leading to a discussion with my husband, and this MN thread about whether or not Christmas Cookies are a UK tradition. The consensus on MN is, sometimes. The consensus in my house is, nope, not at all. So Simon doesn’t get to eat any.

Because sometime in the next couple of weeks there will come a blog post about Adam and I making Christmas Cookies. Rolling and cutting and decorating!

I also need to finish unpacking so that I can find the rest of our ornaments and my nieces’ Christmas presents that are to be sent to the US!

I am also planning on sending cards this year. I hope people don’t faint from shock.

So, do you bake Christmas Cookies, US or UK?

 

Why HP Sucks

Because in order to set up a wireless printer you need a USB cable. HUH?

I actually found an old forum with instructions on how to do it without one but anyone who is not even just a little bit technically minded would have no clue.

So our printer is set up. Wirelessly.

Which you should be able to do with ease. Since it’s, ya know, a wireless printer.

But it took some tech know how and a lot of searching and help from a wonderful person on MN, @boborama, who found how to get a network configuration page out of the printer (Hold down the scan button for 4 seconds. Yes. Of course. First thing I would have thought of. O_o).

And now we can print.

But still.

HP sucks.

Hand Update…

Well, went to the GP yesterday to have the hand looked at.

Was a GP I’ve never seen before and I was a bit O_o when she said ‘It might need to be sutured. I can’t do that, so let’s see what the treatment room nurses think.’ She can’t suture? Really? I would think that would be a basic thing a person would learn in medical school. But I could be wrong.

In any case, went to the treatment room and waited. Not too long, for once. They use a ‘take a number’ system and I was 35 and they had just called 32 as I sat down.

Anyway, first nurse looks at it and disappears. About 5 minutes later I hear ‘Yes, it needs to be re-bandaged and maybe sutured, can you do it?’ So first nurse apparently not able to suture either.

Second nurse comes in and takes a look. ‘Oh, excellent job with the steri-stips, Robyn. I’ll just get more bandages and more strips, Robyn….here we go, Robyn…’ You get the idea. I wanted to say to her ‘Yeah, I know my name, thanks.’

In any case, no sutures, just more steri-strips, an antibacterial bandage to be on the safe side and some waterproof strapping/bandaging. She offered to put it in a sling so I could milk it a bit, but I declined. 🙂

She also suggested that if being a graphic artist didn’t work out, I could be a nurse, based on my steri-stripping ability. Ok.

So the bandages come off on Sunday and the steri-strips to stay on until they fall off. It mostly feels okay, although pushing the pram with it today hurt. I was going to try to do some stuff while Adam slept today but I’ve decided to just rest instead.

So since we’ve moved into the house 3 weeks ago, Adam has had D&V for 2 weeks and now I’ve given myself a lovely scar across my palm.

And we’re still not unpacked…

And It Was My Best and Favourite Vase, Too…

So while unpacking the other day I unwrapped my favourite vase. It was an engagement gift to Simon and I, lo these many years ago. A fabulous perfect cylinder with etching around it. It was great for any and all varieties of flowers, just so long as they had long stems.

Vase

Very much like this, only with etched in circles around the circumference.

Source

And last night, while giving it a ‘just unwrapped from packing’ wash, it slipped out of my hands and broke against the side of the sink. That part was bad enough. The gouge in my hand is also fairly horrific.

I was home alone with Adam and he was right there so I grabbed the nearest clean tea towel and pressed it against the wound, as blood dripped down my hand. He was totally un-phased by it all until I shouted at him to keep out of the way as I wasn’t sure if there was glass on the floor and he was in bare feet. Then he got upset because of the shouting.

Anyway, I managed to get into our first aide box and steri strip and bandage it, while comforting an hysterical toddler. Then I got Simon and the phone and suggested he get home as quick as possible and that we order pizza for dinner!

Both of those things occurred as well and once Adam was in bed we took a look at the wound. We both agreed that spending the night in A&E wasn’t necessary (thank god!) as it was barely weeping at that point.

I am about to call my GP’s office to get it looked at as the bandage has evidence of it still weeping a bit, mostly if I use it, which I am trying not to do. But it’s my right hand! How do lefties manage?!

Of course the horror of how much worse it could have been immediately floods your mind. Three inches lower and my wrist would have been cut and I would have been calling 999, dealing with a scared toddler and trying not to pass out from blood loss.

Instead I’ve sent Adam off to day care with Simon (one good part, I don’t have him to cope with today) and I’ll mostly rest today and try not to use the hand.

And try not to cry at the loss of my absolutely best and favourite vase.

Nobody Gets My Humour

for the second time in just about a month someone has taken something I have said as a joke as serious. Both times the person became angry with me. One of them happened face to face and I apologized right away and we worked it out. The other one was through email and the apology I sent has not been acknowledged so I have no idea what’s happening with that.

The thing is, I know I can have an odd sense of humour and I am very careful to not crack wise with people who don’t know me. Not until we’ve had a few interactions and I know they get it when I am joking.

Which is what makes both of these instances odd. Because these are both people I have made the same sort of jokes with previously and they have joked right back. Until these two times.

One of the people I have worked with for, literally, years. The other one just a few months, but we have certainly joked around together.

So I just don’t get it. Did I hit too close to home both times? Get them both on bad days?

Or maybe it’s just time for me to find that deserted island and take only people I actually can stand to be around for more than a few hours with me. The island would have a population of about 10.

Sounds perfect.

Going Casual…

So I have mentioned previously, I think, that I’ve taken to wearing jeans and t-shirts, even when working at a client’s, unless I am meeting with outside vendors and/or doing one of my video shoots. Then I wear leggings and tunic tops and my boots.

Well, recently I managed to leave my good bracelet watch that Simon gave me as a gift in the pocket of my jeans, along with my engagement, wedding and claddagh rings, and they all went through the wash. Rings all fine. One dead watch.

So I went watch shopping today. My budget wasn’t huge, the £20 I had left from my wedding anniversary money that had been burning a hole in my pocket, but with Christmas just around the corner, cheapish watches are a dime a dozen. So I looked. I looked at bracelet ones like the one I had, but it didn’t feel right any more. That watch had been a real piece of jewellery, not just a watch. And it had some meaning since Simon gave it to me.

So I didn’t want to buy something to replace it as it was irreplaceable. I just wanted to be able to tell the time.  And to match my current style of casual clothing and a less stressful life.

And I found this:

My new watch

The picture isn’t great, but the strap is blue, to match jeans. The face is silver, which won’t surprise anyone who knows me.

And it has no numbers. I rarely have to be somewhere at a precise time these days, so not knowing if it is 135 or 137 doesn’t much matter.

I love the look of the double strap, giving me a little more style than a plain watch strap.

So that’s me. Going casual.

And loving it.

Dear Google: Stop.

So the other day Google changed the look of their Reader. It is now stark white and gives me a headache to look at. No exaggeration. So I have stopped using it and moved over to Netvibes instead, on the recommendation of a friend.

This is after they changed the way their chat works so that if you have GMail for Domains, which I do, it no longer let’s you interface with AIM. I speak to my mom and my sister via AIM. So now I have to be logged into an additional programme in order to speak to either of them.

You are suppose to be able to be logged into multiple GMail accounts, for domains or not, in one browser. Except it assumes that if you log out of a user name in one programme, i.e. the aforementioned Reader, you want to log out in all the others. So I am constantly logging back into YouTube and my Designed To A Tee calendar. YouTube is through Simon’s account since he was not stuck in the hospital for 5 days after having a child that people wanted videos of. And our family Calendar is on DTAT, so I use it quite a lot. It all worked fine for about a week. And then they launched Google+ which I can’t use thanks to the previously mentioned use of Google for Domains.

So, Google. Stop. You aren’t making things better with these changes. You are making them worse. Stick to what you do well, which is search engines.

Thanks.

Oh God, What Have I Done?!?!

Every year I think about doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWrMo to those in the know) and every year I chicken out citing lack of time/inspiration/don’t need the pressure.

What did I just do?

Signed up for NaNoWrMo.

Why? Not sure. I have less time than ever. But I have had a novel in the back of my head for, at least, 20 years. Maybe the pressure of 50,000 words in one month will be enough to get me to actually sit and write.

After all, just after I signed up I wrote 23 words.

It’s a start…

My New Schedule

So, today was the first Monday since we moved into the house that Adam has gone to nursery and so I was able to implement my new schedule.

So today I took him to nursery and came straight back home. I put on a pot of coffee and put in a load of wash. Then I did work for my main client for about 4 hours. Then I had lunch.

You may recall me mentioning previously that I had to assign days to housework or I’d never get it done. Well, with a house over 2 floors, rather than dividing tasks, I’ve divided the floors. Each floor will get it’s clean every other week. So today began the week of the upstairs. Within each half I have a list of tasks such as dusting and hoovering and bed changing. I give myself the entire week to do it due to my physical and mental limitations. I got about 1/2 of it done today, so that’s quite good.

I will finish a good part of it on Wednesday, unless I have to run to see my client, which I may have to do due to an issue that so far we haven’t been able to resolve on the phone. In which case the cleaning will be completed on Friday.

And this is why I have a week. Because I need it!