esmerelda in residence

the week off

is almost at an end (wahhhhh!) but it was most relaxing. What did we do?

1. the boys well & truly vegged out, neither one of them surfaced before noon the entire week. 
2. A. & Miss Scarlet bonded.  
3. We ate all the chicken soup I made.  
4. We didn't finish off the spaghetti sauce I made.  
5. Mr H & I attended a wedding (more on that later) and managed to polish off almost a whole bottle of scotch.  
6. It wasn't cheap scotch either.  
7. I didn't even get dressed on Monday.  
8. The rocks finally got moved from around the tree in the front garden. 
9. Mr H revised the plans for the "one day when we have money" renovations seventy-eleven times.  
10. The boys got to build a fire last night (we set up the old wood burner as a fire pit) and roast marshmallows.  
11. I discovered that marshmallows in Oz are absolutely disgusting and will be making them from scratch from now (unless one of my relatives takes pity on me and sends me marshmallows from the US along with some Natures Seasoning which I am out of and am going through withdrawals because I am OUT of NATURES SEASONING!!!) 
12. I made the best silverside (corned beef) dinner ever.  
13. While searching through expat blogs I discovered that if there are older women (and by older I mean someone over 40) from the US living in Oz, they certainly don't blog about it. 
14. I discovered the battery in the macbook is only good for about 3.5 hrs.  
15. I took the iphone in to get fixed because it died last week, the guy at the counter gave me back my sim card and said "we'll ring you when it's fixed". The look on his face when I said "how are you going to ring me if you have my phone" was priceless.  
16. The blog about the appalling speech the best man made at the wedding will have to wait.  

Machine vs Nature

Round one - the final scores

Wisteria Trellis - 1 

Rear view mirror - 0

A good result

After 5 months and 10 days (not that we were counting) mr h & I moved back into the master bedroom on sunday. Of course all the photos taken with the decent camera are on the mac waiting to be uploaded.
But we have our house back.
We also have a moritorium on building for at least a month but probably longer, as we have to save up for the new mattress & soft furnishings.

wanting

Ever since I first saw this  I wanted it. More than the chatty cathy I wanted one year for Christmas. I saw it first in an  advert in the Sunday paper, then again on-line, then again in person. I almost swooned when I saw it in person. Until I saw the price tag. When I saw the price tag I said "get the fuck out of here." 

So I put the wanting aside, (not very graciously) taking it out every now and then and worrying it, gazing longingly at the picture in the catalog, but knowing the cost of this was out of our budget. Hell, we could renovate 2 more rooms for the cost of it. Mr H knew I wanted it, and we were going to have our current bed painted to look (kind of ) like it. 

Until yesterday when we went to the warehouse sale of the store that sells it & they had it! In the back! Missing some bits! Which Mr H, being the resourceful type of husband he is, can have made! And it was 1/4 the price of the original. 

Hurrah! Hurrah! 

They deliver it Tuesday morning. 

Now to save up for a new mattress & box spring. 

snippets

The sale of the house across the street proves that people will buy anything, (as well as proving one man's trash is another man's treasure) however, the hastily erected "for sale" sign, with the big "SOLD" sticker plastered across the front and covering up the realtor's name also proves something else. 

The spotting of a strange and exotic bird last weekend by Mr H resulted in identifying said bird as a budgie. So much for the sighting of a new exotic species. 

Practical completion of the bedroom renovation has been promised to be this coming weekend by the builder (Mr H). The 50% off warehouse sale at one of my favourite furniture stores may impede on time spent sanding and painting shutters.