I'm melting!

Yesterday was absolutely stinking hot. I went to a symposium at uni (how good a word is 'symposium'? I wish I could use it more often, just in general conversation). I took a photo of the building next to the one I was in as I left - 41 degrees!

Because I always worry about Lucy when it's really hot, I kept her inside all day with the air conditioning on. Either not understanding how heat works or just wanting to punish me for not letting her go outside, she would not leave me alone when I was trying to work.  I accepted all of the cat hugs without complain, though - could you ignore a face this cute who was purring at the same time as shedding massive amounts of hair on your keyboard, clothes and general vicinity?

I thought not. 

Needless to say, no knitting got done at all. Mum will not be getting a pair of handknit socks for her birthday this year...

Happy weekend, everyone! I hope you have a great one :)

WIP Wednesday: Outdoors Edition

Bite news

Thanks everyone for your commiserations on my insect bites. The itching has (mostly) gone away and some of the bites marks have started to bruise, which I think means they're healing nicely. While all of this is good news, I was pretty horrified when I looked at the marks this morning and realised that the marks that are bruising (not the ones that are still red) have two puncture marks rather than one, which my one-minute google search extensive research has told mean means I was bitten by a spider. EWW!!!!

I am more creeped out by that than I can describe, so I've decided to ignore the knowledge and just continue my life as normal. But can I say again EEWWWWWW!!! I will not look at a park bench the same again.

WIP Wednesday

When I started this this series of WIP Wednesdays, my aim was to reduce my number of WIPs from 17 to five. I got quick results and finished a lot of projects fast but then failed to weave in the ends, block them and take photos, resulting in a marked lack of achievement in the number of WIPs. I have a pile of six completed but ends-unwoven-in projects sitting on my desk starting at me right now. I keep starting new projects and according to Ravelry, now have 18 projects on the go! It feels like I am just not getting anywhere.  

This sock is supposed to be one of a pair I am giving my mum for her birthday next week. Based on past experience, I am no chance of getting them done for her on time. Maybe I can suggest we do her birthday celebration on Friday instead of Monday? That's wrong, isn't it?

In happier news

Remember when I planted all of the things?

How do I take such awesome photos all of the time? It's a gift.

This is what they look like now.

It's so gorgeous and verdant and fresh. I love having fresh herbs whenever I feel like them. The chilli plants are going nuts too and based on the number of flowers on this plant, my house will be a chilli cornucopia very very soon. I heart nature!

Except for all of the spiders. 

Ouchie and itchie and a prize for me

Happy Monday, everyone. I did go to a BBQ in a park on Friday night and it was heaps of fun. Unfortunately the almost-summer fun times were not without penalty - look at my leg on Saturday morning.

Based on that bite pattern, I hypothesised that a a mosquito took a bite, imbibed the alcohol that was in my bloodstream, couldn't find its way out from underneath my dress and just wandered around drunkenly stinging wherever it landed. It was a long and itchy Saturday!

This morning all of the itch was gone but the marks had transformed from what looked like mozzie bites to angry red welts (how deathly pale does my leg look in this shot? It's corpse-esque). I now suspect I was bitten by another vicious type of bug. Sam, however, thinks I am over-reacting but either way I am definitely getting some superstrong insect repellant before my next park outing!

However, Friday was not all lost because this arrived for me in the post:

Seriously, how much do my photos suck today? I honestly didn't realise how craptastic they looked until I uploaded them.

t won this book in a blog competition at Reading Matters. I loved 'The Sense of an Ending' and I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one. Plus, how good does it feel to win blog competitions? The blogosphere can be the best :)

WIP Friday: Hospital Edition

Today is WIP Friday. It was meant to be a WIP Wednesday but the stupid trackpad on my stupid computer isn't stupid working anymore so I had to go and get an external mouse so I could use it. It's getting fixed tomorrow at the stupidly named Genius Bar (if they were geniuses would they be working on an Apple shop? I don't think so!) under warranty but it's been really bloody annoying in the meantime.

Anyhoo, today's WIP Friday is brought to you from the Radiology department of the hospital I was admitted to when I broke my leg. I'm not in for anything serious, just a routine check-up, but I'm sitting near the wards, it's lunchtime, I can smell the food they're serving and I'm having all sorts of flashbacks to the horribleness that is hospital food (the $120 food blog just wrote a post about this very topic. It gives great advice. Also, if anyone you know gets admitted to hospital, take baby wipes. They're the best). Don't get me wrong - I am so very thankful to live in a country with a great public health system where I can get ongoing care and expensive tests and scans for no direct cost to me other than the parking (which, by the way, is a complete gouging of people who have no other option for parking and are too ill or disabled to park further away for free and walk or to get public transport) but hospitals always give me the heebie geebies. Fingers crossed it'll be a long time before I have to stay in a hospital again.

Happy Friday, everyone. I'm off to a bbq in a park tonight and I can't wait - eating charred sausages and caramelised onions cooked on a public barbeque of dubious cleanliness while attempting to balance a plastic plate and a paper cup while sitting in a rickety camping chair is one of my favourite Melbourne  experiences. Bring on summer :)

Radiohead-resultant emptiness and self-defeating behaviour

I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to wax lyrical and explain how today feels but I can't capture my emotions in words. Instead, I give you this:

I saw Radiohead on the weekend and they were amazing. Unbelievably good. Hauntingly wonderful and experientially sublime. The thing is, I've been waiting so long to see them (over eight years!) and I enjoyed it so much that now I feel empty, like my Christmas, birthday, New Years and just because celebrations were rolled up into one, were fantastic, and now will never happen again. 

I also learned that iPhone photos are not kind to those who wear dark lipstick and take photos without a flash while inside a darkened stadium. No surprise there though.

Oh, and I started a new pair of socks. Completely made of leftovers. I know I said I was trying to get my WIPs under control, but I am completely hopeless. An empty pair of sock needles does me in every time...but aren't they pretty?

WIP Wednesday: Race Against Time Edition

Today's WIP Wednesday is brought to you by the sound "AARRGGGHHH!!!" I mentioned last week that I needed to get two projects finished by this week. BUT I spent too much time watching the cricket and playing on Ravelry and now I have four hours to finish the toe of my anniversary socks (happy anniversary, Sam!), meet my 1,000-word deadline and send out invoices for the jobs I finished last week.

WHAT AM I DOING BLOGGING I NEED TO FINISH ALL OF THESE THINGS STRAIGHTAWAY!

Wish me luck :)

Pizza Procrastination

Nothing says procrastination like a sparkling clean toilet and homemade bread products so, to spare you the sight of my clean-enough-to-eat-off-but-I-would-never-do-that-because-ewww-gross toilet, here is my dinner:

It's Pizza Casareccia from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. It's super easy to make - I just put 250g of white flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 heaped teaspoon of yeast and 150m of water in my food processor, blitzed for 30-ish seconds then moved the dough to an oiled bowl. The bowl went outside into the sunshine for an hour, then I divided it into four.

What makes this pizza recipe different is that you top the dough with canned tomatoes seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper and cook it like that in a 240 degree oven until the base is cooked then you add the toppings (I used tuna, fetta, mozzarella and green capsicum). You end up with a crispy, delicious base and it somehow tastes fresher than many homemade pizzas.  And, because I'm procrastinating, I cooked up all of the dough with the tomato topping and have popped it into the freezer.

Ah, procrastination. My freezer is never as well stocked nor my bathroom as clean as when you visit. But what about my f(*&^ng lit review?