xans

Watching the Amanda Palmer street party live-streaming on the internet, heh. She's got over 24k backers and raised 1.1 million for her album, that is pretty damn cool.

So, I bought a couple of those 'Ahh Bras' that I've seen the ads on tv for, and I have to say, holy fucking hell every woman should own at least one of these. They are not sexy, but they're not unsexy, and they are very, very comfortable. There's no underwires, no cups, no elastic, it's all just one fabric that is knitted with some extra reinforcing at the bottom and a bit of shaping to the bust. But I'm feeling incredibly supported with minimum sensation that I'm wearing anything.

When we bought Alan's laptop last year it came with a year's free subscription to Norton that would protect up to 3 PCs, and that subscription ran out about a month ago... there was an option to renew online but it was $120, and we saw in a mailer that we could buy the same thing for $100 and also get a free $40 gift voucher to the store we bought it from. So we did that instead, and gave the vouchers to Joe as part of his birthday present.

There's a wedding expo in Palmerston North in a couple of weeks, I am making Alan take me with the bribery that we can stop by JB Hi-Fi so he can drool over electronics and we can check out the DVDs and blu-rays there.

We bought a new tv just after Christmas, a Boxing Day Sale. The tv stand we have is quite old, and ratty, and doesn't fit the tv properly. So today we bought a new one, it will arrive in 3-5 weeks. And we decided to peek at dining suites. Aaaaand they offered us a deal. So, we've got a new dining suite coming as well. Hell, we've been meaning to upgrade it at some point. Now's as good a time as any. Next bit of furniture is a new mattress. Looking at maybe putting the electric blanket back on the bed soon.

Gratch hates the change in the weather, it was raining last night so she came into the bedroom at 3 a.m. to complain. At the top of her lungs. Noisy little tart. She's going to have to get over it though.

I also spoiled my darling a bit today, and bought him a pair of hush puppies for work. The floor at Mega is hard concrete and his shoes just haven't been doing the trick. He spent some of his pay buying some new black trousers but was going to have to wait until after the rent pay before buying new shoes. I can't stand the thought of him being uncomfortable for that long though and offered to buy a pair for him.

I set up an OpenID over at dreamwidth. I've been looking for new fanfic lately and a lot of stuff I find on lj is several years old. Have a sneaking suspicion I haven't kept up with fandom and they've all snuck off without me. Going to try to get reacquainted with it all and also leave comments and stuff.

Fin.

So despite feeling rather un-christmasy (but not in a totally bah humbug way), I did get around to putting our tree up, and it became a daily game of fixing the tree skirt because Gratch kept raking it up. We put no presents under the tree, so it became her favourite bed as she is the only Christmas present we could possibly ever want or need.

We also had stockings but I never filled them with goodies. Meh. There were parcels from my mum, which was mostly presents for me but a cushion for Alan that has Reese's Peanutbutter Cups on it because he loves them so. I got a cushion too that folds up to look like a cat. Gratch hasn't really freaked out about it, but she may have been jealous of me cuddling it earlier. Possibly. Or maybe it was the fact I picked her up and held her when she didn't want to be and made her make eye contact with me when she really didn't want to.

Had phone calls from both mum and dad. Dad was more interested to hear about possible wedding plans and any intentions of returning to university. Mum, I think, wanted an excuse to blab and told me a bunch of things. The main thing is she didn't put a tree up this year because her divorce to Gary is finalised next month and she will be moving out. Sadness, because they had been together about as long as she was with my dad, and it hasn't worked out. Again.

We had ham and potato roasties, salad and bread for Christmas lunch, just me, Alan, and Joe. Nice and quiet, was really good. Plus the sun was shining although the wind was annoyingly strong. Still, sunshine on Christmas day, was better than expected. Pancakes for dinner.

My other pressies from mum included some new mascara and eye shadow, plus make-up brushes because mine were all old and disintegrated, a couple of tops, some lingerie, and a pair of sketchers because they are probably my favourite brand of shoes ever. They have funky designs and comfy shoes and I loff them.

Being Boxing Day, it's a big shopping day equivalent to the Americans Black Friday following Thanksgiving. So Alan and I went shopping, to get presents for the grandkids (hey, doesn't matter when we get them so long as it's before we see them haha), and also I demanded we get some new sheets for the bed as ours are getting thin and holy, plus new pillows for the spare beds. Horribly domestic, I know. But necessary.

Also got a nice business shirt for him and two new pairs of jeans for me, LEGO (castles!).... but the biggest purchase of the day was a 50" HD plasma television.... it was on special! And our tv is a mere 32" and just... it was on special! Alan is wrapped.

Of course now that we've shelled out for tv I am pointing out with a tad more frequency that I am still wearing my grandmother's opal ring and not the sapphire ring I really, really need to show the world my taken status. Haha. Still the tv is pretty cool. We christened it by watching Angels & Demons which we bought a few weeks back and I had to rescue from Joe's rooms because he watched it half a dozen times.

Was most unimpressed, he's away for a few days with his new gf and was asked to tidy his rooms and clean out the front garden, neither of which has been done. Not only that but his computer was still on; he'd turned the monitor off but there was a full-screen game running. Waste of power for the FAIL. And a good portion of our dvd collection was down there, and I'm sure we're still missing some dvd's and no idea if he took them on his trip or not, without asking us. :( Like I said, not impressed.

Anyway, that's me... hope all is well with my f-list too.

Fin.

My grandmother died back in June of 1996. We called her Grandma Kuia, which is kind of funny since Kuia is the moari word for "grandmother" but it differentiated her from Grandma McFarland. We had Granddad and Grandpa McFarland, so they were easy to diffentiate. Also, Granddad died back in 1980 long before Iain and I were born. But when he was a toddler my brother had a dream where Granddad took him trout fishing, and he told mum about it so since then he has been Granddad. My Australian cousins (mum's sis's kids) call him Koro, which is maori for grandfather.

So when she died he was 84 years old. I was scared of her, because she was old and frail and I was terrified she would have a serious fall or something happen in front of me and I would be unable to help her. I was just shy of my 11th birthday, and she had been in an old people's home for about 6 weeks when she died. She had been living with us in a granny flat, but she was so frail and mum was really exhausted, looking after us kids and working and also looking after her mum. So it had been decided Grandma Kuia would spend a little bit of time in a home, and she just sort of faded away.

I didn't cry when she died. I was relieved for her, because it meant she would no longer be frail and old. And she was with Granddad again. Mum had her cremated, and for a while the ashes were stored in a cupboard in the granny flat. Every time my brother and I walked past that cupboard we felt obligated to say hello to her. We were scared of what would happen if we didn't. Eventually mum got permission from the council in Napier, Grandma's home town, to have her ashes buried in the old cemetary behind the headstone of one of our ancestors. When Alan and I went there a couple years ago I took him to there and at first I couldn't find the headstone but eventually we did. I can't remember if I said hi to her that time.

So when Grandma Kuia died, she left some money for my cousins, brother and I. It was put into a trust for each of us that we could not access until we were 25. Not a huge amount of money, but enough to go on a nice trip, or maybe put towards a car or house or something. Well... as the youngest, I turned 25 just last July. I've been sitting on the check for the last 3 months, sort of trying to decide what to spend part of it on. And today... I spent.

First of all I bought some new shoes. My boots, sandals, and walking shoes all need replacing, but the boots can wait until winter. The sandals and walking shoes got replaced today. As did my beach feet, the new pair funnily enough match my wetsuit and kayak, lol. I got some pretty gothy black pants, Thai size XL (12). I am so very, very glad that somehow in the last year I have managed to lose a significant amount of weight. I was up to 14s and pushing it, now I am back to 12 and very comfortable with that.

However the big spend of the day was that I bought a new computer box. Remember my old one crapped out? The Display Driver stopped working. And we called in geeks-on-wheels and the guy charged us $400 and didn't fix the problem. So it was running, only kind of, in safe mode. Now I have a new comp and it's pretty and shiny and new. :)

I know mum wants me to spend part of that inheritance on a trip to the States, we shall see how that goes. I think we still need to wait a bit because Alan needs to save up some cash, too. But a trip to the States would be cool.

Fin.

Our house hasbeen put on the market. Kinda stressful, since there's no guarantee it will be bought as an investment property and we can stay as tenants. Back to trademe to look at possible houses.

On the upside, Joe and Heaven will definitely have to find their own place. They need to do that ANYWAY but this gives them a deadline. Plus it means he has to keep the sleepout super ultra tidy ALL THE TIME NOW. I really, really hate the way they go through our food. They just don't understand that they cost us more than they're paying in board. And we totally wouldn't be able to support them without board. But they go through SO much food.

Heaven bought the Sims Life Stories which, admittedly, I have played a little. Okay, more than a little. But I try to restrain myself because Alan hates the game and doesn't want to become a Sims Widow. He's lucky I'm not even remotely interested in WoW for the same reason. It's been fun, though.

Also? Really kind of creepy, but when I was at the 4 Square the other day picking up some laundry detergent (and forgetting milk, but that's what joe's around to be ordered to do) and waiting in the cue, I felt this pressure on my butt, and there was this old lady pressed up right behind me totally in my personal space. I gave her this odd look, but thought all was good when I could get up to the counter, but then she followed and stood right up against me again! I'm just like, WHOA! Not only is it rather weird to have some old lady pressed up against my ass, but seriously, this is New Zealand, where people have the biggest personal bubble spaces ever and even if I'm not that uptight, I don't need some random stranger getting that up close and personal outside of a mosh pit.

Um, two weeks ago was Tarn's birthday, so she had a party on the Saturday before last that we went to. And Alan brought Jon over from the Hutt to join in the fun. We got her an $80 Farmer's card which she used to by a wallet to match her $179 purse (it's one of this big names like prada or something, but I never pay attention to that so I can't remember what it is). The party was fun. Lots of laughs, and then Alan and I got to leave Joe, Heaven, and Jon there to party til late while we went home like a pair of nanas. What can I say? I don't do all-nighters anymore. And then we had them over for dinner on Sunday after Chris and Tarns picked up Lochy and Jasmine from their dad, so Jon could meet them as well. It was pretty good.

Gratch is happy as a lark... back in August we ran out of cat biscuits for her and I asked Alan to get her some more, but he didn't feel like going to the supermarket and only went to 4 Square where her Friskies biscuits cost an arm and a leg. So he bought Pams biscuits instead. Gratch did not like this cheap shit. Would not eat it. Whined. LOTS. Eventually we bought a box of Friskies and mixed the two brands together. Gratch learned how to eat all the Friskies biscuits while leaving most of the Pams biscuits in the bowl. Gratch learned her bowl did not get refilled until it was empty. She whined. A LOT.

It took a couple of months, but eventually, we got the the bottom of the container and we bought her some new biscuits. I have forgotten what it's like to have to refill the bowl twice a day. It's kinda funny, because she really sings for her food now. You should hear her when I dare to lift the bowl off the floor, and then open the cupboard that has her packets of Whiskas Singles (aka kitty crack, not to be confused with the kitty crack treats, little vitamin treats that she damn near takes my hand off to acquire). My cat is loud. And demanding. She's also learning not to sit in the kitchen begging when I am preparing a meal or doing dishes, because I run the tap and get my fingers wet, and then sprinkle it on her. I get sworn at then.

It sucks to be pandoras_evil_t atm... severe post natal depression on top of Sorcha needing a body cast for the hip displacia. :( I told her she's got a damaged baby and she should demand a refund. That got me a laugh.

Anyhow, slightly stressed at the thought of having to move, maybe a bit PMSed and cranky as all hell... and I fucking need a job. My savings look like shit and I'm suppose to be going to Vancouver next year.

Oh, some good news was that we won about $100 from lotto so we went out and bought a pair of jeans each. I had to get size 14s. :( That's actually a size 12 in the US, but still. And I had to get the wideleg style, which yes, it looks great on me and everything... but I had to get that style because my old fave the low-rise bootcut would not squeeze in my thighs that well. Damn things are like tree-trunks.

I do need to lose weight. Not a lot, but some. A comfortable size 12 is more than acceptable. Utterly achieveable. I just have to get motivated and kick my ass into gear.

Fin.

It's becoming more real as we went to Paraparaumu on Friday to look at places. We've settled on one that is about two blocks from the beach and is $330 p/w but also gotta remember to get power sorted and then phoneline+broadband is in around the $100 p/m range so maybe hang on that until Alan is getting paid. His first salary (monthly) doesn't come until the beginning of January so my savings are going to get us through the month of December before we work out a repayment plan that doesn't leave us flat ass broke to meet costs. Also, need to know if my job/transfer is secure or I gotta hype up my CV yet again.

Will post new address and other contact details for those interested at some stage, because everyone will want to visit and hang out in our sleepout. Which reminds me, pandoras_evil_t I don't mind paying the train fare for you to come visit for a week as a b-day pressy or some such, if you can scrape up some spending money and we hit up Welly and other touristy attractions. We can work out details when I'm up in Hamilton.

Gratch is not happy about the boxes, although she thinks they are a wonderfuly set of stepping blocks. She is addicted to achieving high perches. Thankfully she's only got stuck once. But she also tries to attack the bubble wrap because she likes the popping noises. Will not adore us for shutting her up on moving day and then caging her to travel down. But the new place has a cat door so she can be an inside/outside cat... until we go up to Hams and she's in a cattery.

Having to stop myself from buying dvds, particularly ones on special at the Warehouse or Whitcoulls. Having to keep myself from spending much, period, especially 'til after we move.

Anywho... have I mentioned enough that packing sucks?

Fin.

Thank you, thank you... :D

I had a wonderful birthday. Shopping with my darlin', then dinner at Gengy's with Ange and my darlin'. Gengy's is a mongolian place where you can choose the ingredients of your dinner and they cook it for you. And pancakes for dessert. It was very nice, and a lovely evening, really.

Ange got me Love Actually on dvd, as well as some chocolate covered coffee beans and jandal (flip-flops to you american buggers :P) shaped erasers. Alan bought me the Stargate movie and first season of SG-1 on dvd. My collection begins. Dad and Suzy gave me dark chocolate M&Ms and a CD, "The Pit and the Pendulum."

I also bought myself Chocolat, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a warm fuzzy zip-up hoodie from Jay Jays that was all of $20. Had a great time hanging out with Ange. Laughed as Alan just about tried to sneak dad and suzy's long-haired chiuaua Truffles home in his jacket. He was leery that Truffles would be like most little dogs, snappy and yappy, but Truffles is just a little cuddle slut. Mind you, I was all set to steal the cats, I swear. I miss Yoda and Pearl lots.

When I got home from visiting la familia in Hams, there was a parcel of goodies from my mum to go through, as well... clothes, of course, several bits of lingerie and a couple nice tops. Some really nice leather Mary Janes that are working out well as work shoes. They haven't cut up my ankles yet. :D Wild Cherry Pepsi and Vanilla Pepsi lip gloss. A really weird cow ornament, crab earrings, and a pretty celtic keychain... Penguin bookmark, wallet... lots of goodies, really.

It was a lovely time off with my darling. Adore him to bits, do I mention that enough? 'Cause I do.

Did a bit of shopping for presents for my mum and step-dad and brother. Dad and Suzy will take them in their suitcases to the States, hand them over to my brother who's visiting from Japan, and he'll keep his book while passing on the presents for my mum and step-dad. There's also a little wee gift for shiseiji: A NZ shot glass for her collection. :D

Fin.

What an interesting weekend we had... Friday and Saturday being our weekend.

On Friday we came into town to meet up with Alan's sons Chris and Joe (my first time meeting Joe). I also bought this celtic triquetra necklace at Lotz of Potz... see if I can find a picture online of sort of what it looks like. ETA: Something like this only pointing down. And we had coffee at cafe cuba after chatting with the boys. Thought about seeing Sweeney Todd, but missed the afternoon screening and didn't want to wait until night. Had things that needed doing at home, like the dishes. And when he was preparing dinner, I was sitting on the floor sorting out my CDs while listening to Josh Groban (the CD is slightly fucked though. Maybe there were too many scratches on the one we copied, but the sound is off on some of the tracks... but plenty of it is just fine and his is a beautiful voice.)

Anyway, we were doing the dishes when Alan got a text from his youngest, Jon, asking if he could come see him. Jon's had to go to hospital since he had been having these nosebleeds that wouldn't stop, and he was falling over from blood loss. They've cauterized about seven veins in his nose, but they think the one that is not stopping is up too high in the nose. Have to cut in from the side and such. But the poor boy is confined to the bed, alone in Wellington hospital, his gf unable to visit (she having just had a minor op on her ovaries), and yeah... he wanted to see his dad.

Oh, I should mention that Chris had his boyracer car stolen, with his gf's computer and his cellphone in it as well. We were going to borrow Tarns' comp to attach Alan's computer as a slave and back up some files before reformatting it since his XP's gone caput. And Joe is staying with them at the moment because he just broke up with his gf. As I said to Alan, about all we need now is a text from Kathy saying, "Dad, I'm pregnant and I've broken up with Scott."

So Saturday we didn't go to the gypsy fair, buy my computer from Harvey Norman (more about that), and see Sweeney Todd. We went to Wellington, visited Jon, didn't see my friend Glenn (had hoped to), bought my computer from Harvey Norman (hang on, I'll detail that in a bit), visited Alan's brother Steve in Greytown and got his dragons back... it was an eventful day, and we did rather enjoy our weekend. And now I have my computer.

For now, it's name is Orlando. It was the first name to come to mind, but I may change it if someone can suggest something better. My other option is Mr. Burns. My account name is Bitchcakes.

Anyway, this is the info from the catalogue, for the curious:

HP Pavilion M9070A Media Centre PC with 19” Wide LCD
• Intel® Pentium® Dual Core 1.8GHz • 1GB RAM • 320GB HDD
• Dual Layer LightScribe DVD±RW SuperMultiDrive
• nVidia GeForce 8400M GS 256MB Graphics with HDMI output
• 15-in-1 card reader • Built-in wireless • Built-in TV Tuner & Remote
• Windows® Vista™ Home Premium.

All that for NZD$1798 (down about $400), plus we got speakers worth about $70 or $80 for $30, and then there was the 2GB flash drive they were selling for $26 that had been about $60. So all up I spent $1854 to get my baby. Lord, but I had that moment of nervousness of having it say DECLINED on my purchase, even though I knew I had to have close to twice that in my account.

And the Vista thing isn't too much of a problem, except that my darling gave me the Dungeon Siege game, and it's incompatible with Vista. We have no internet at home at the moment, so I can't just hop on and dl a patch so I can play it. Mostly the problem with having Vista at the moment is that it's not very good without an internet connection. ~le sigh~ We need to speak to the landlord, see about the kind of internet they have-if it's just dial-up or it is possible to get broadband out where we live, but it'll suck to just have dial-up. It's a little annoying that not only can they not sell me an XP disc, but that Vista comes pre-loaded onto the computer, so I don't even have a disc for that. Should I have a problem and need to reformat, I'd have to go out and buy a disc. That's just not cool.

Anyway, mostly I'm happy with my shiny new computer. It is a thing of dark beauty. That being said, it shows my priorities are straight when five minutes after getting home, I'm not on the computer loading some other game, but stripping the clothes off my darling for a bit of lovin'. And that he's letting me, instead of heading back out the the car to grab his tobacco and rolling a ciggy first. We're so in love with being in love with each other.

Fin.

“I bought a doughnut and they gave me a receipt for the doughtnut... I don't need a receipt for the doughnut. I give you money and you give me the doughnut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a doughnut. To some skeptical friend, 'Don't even act like I didn't get that doughnut, I've got the documentation right here... It's in my file at home. ...Under "D".'”

So there's The LJ's Prayer & Th3 L33t Pr4y3r, and also:

( The Lad's Prayer ) & ( The Girl's Prayer )


^^^MY NEW AWESOMELY SWEET HEADPHONES

They are so nice and light I can barely feel them, BUT music comes out and it feels like I'm sitting in a room listening to the stereo, not blasting music directly to my ears only. Plus the armband to hold the mp3 player, which is pretty sweet and useful... lastly, it was down from $59.99 to $39.99. And they are brilliant. Yay!

Um... so... utterly distracted. Better post this before I get too lost. :P

Fin.

Have been doing terribly domestic things like baking and laundry and loading/unloading the dishwasher, plus little things like making dad a cup of coffee before he's even got up. Oh, yes, not to mention being the last to bed and the first to rise. And that means locking and unlocking the doors and feeding the animals and all that jazz, too.

What the hell happened to being the lazy little twat I usually am?

Also, keep not getting around to watching the rest of the Black Books DVDs, v. terrible of me, really. Am far more excited at the prospect of watching the first season of SG-1 at Ange's this Saturday (having spotted it in the Wharehouse and persuading her starting at Season 1 to introduce Damo to it was a far better idea). I mean, obviously we won't watch the whole damn thing in one sitting, but we can make some headway, and hopefully Damian won't fall asleep like he often does.

Have mysterious scrapes on two knuckles... not a fucking clue how I got them, or why they're one different fingers of both hands. 'Snot like I've been getting into any sort of ruckus... (unlike my cousin John, the cop, who sent another entertaining email about the shit he gets up to in his job) Heh.

Iain has arrived up from Wellington, was here for all of five minutes, and promptly buggered off with his mate Ben. Ah, well, obviously we can play catch-up and all that jazz later. Yay.

Am I a terribly boring person with a terribly boring life, or what?

Wednesday, Ange, Damo and I went up to Auckland, well, Manukau city really, and the mall there, whatsit...Westfield? Whatever it's called. A shopping mall. Had lunch at Wendy's first. I have not had Wendy's in a long time. In fact, this is the first time I've had Wendy's in New Zealand. Sooo...about two years since I've been to Wendy's. It was good, anywho. And then we went to the mall...

...wherein I did not spend a whole lot of money on myself. Although I was sorely tempted on a couple of occasions. I resisted. Instead, only bought a little extra pressy for dad that, well, will probably be more played with by me and any other children. But there was this one store with a bunch of dragon stuff and ooooh how I wanted to buy all sorts. Again, resisted.

Ah, well... there's bound to be Christmas money to fritter away, and all that.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Exalted Highness Duchess Hana the Purple of Under Yockenthwaite Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Fin.