I've been hedging aroud replacing the stove element. Got the replacement element last Tuesday, but am not sure about removing the screw holding the old one in. It looks like this (dead element is the one at top left):
I hope to get out and go shopping early today. Apart from a real need for food (mostly minor stuff, but I was broke until today) I'll be buying some more flea bombs. Fleabombed the house a few months ago, but after the hot hot days of last week, they've become really active down my end, where the carpeting is. I have vacuumed but it doesn't seem enough, so some more flea bombing - today if I have the time.
The beauty of not having anyone down the other end, is that I can retreat down there while bombing my end. If I move my stuff down there as well, I can just hook up to my internal network and the net as well. Handy having a door between my lounge and kitchen.
Did my three pages this morning, and finally read Chapter 1 of Artist's Way this afternoon.
That was after I'd done my washing (everything on thye line), cleaned up my lounge, hallway and study (bedroom's later tonight) and then vacuumed all of it. And I thoroughly enjoyed doing the house work. Still lots to do but the floor is clean! Did a test set of affirmations as well, but will really start on that tomorrow. Lots of exercises to be done this coming fortnight.
Also, I've been letting the pups in my end of the house off and on. Bobby's been barking and growling a lot at them, but there have been quiet moments as well. The idea is to get him used to them, and for that he needs safe exposure (watched more than supervised). It was pleasing to discover that my vacuum cleaner has heaps more suction than K's.
The first time I've been on the computer in the study today was about 10 minutes ago (about 3:50pm). It makes a nice change not to be perched in front of it all day long. Maybe I should do that more often. When I swapped from reading LJ/FB in the mornings to afternoons, I seemed to get more done in a day. Granted I was using the media PC in the lounge, but that was to watch some recorded TV shows (Prisoner remake + K9). Today's been well rounded - not something I can say for every day.
Didn't get any web comic pages done, but...
My brother Mark and his wife Dee dropped in Tuesday evening. We sat in my study chatting and Dee pointed out that I had mould on the ceiling above my PC. In fact, it looks like this:
Now I had until then thought that mould was only a problem for the building, and didn't really affect the inhabitants (which is why I haven't done much about it). However, according to Dee it can cause respiratory problems, exacerbate asthma, and induce depression. All of which I've had in abundance of late.
It was never this large before but there's been a fair chunk of wet weather in the last year. And, though this is the worst patch, it's also spread throughout the house. On Wednesday I bought a container of bleach and a squeegee mop and over the weekend will see about removing some of this. It's a big job, but I guess it's got to be done.
No, I'm not talking about Kevin (he's become all sweetness and light with a fiancée) but the LJ group ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
housematehorror[Bad username or unknown identity: . Been reading a few stories over there and feel a lot better about my home.]
[Unknown site tag]
It's been chaos here after re-arranging the lounge room and Kevin cleaning up his end of the house for his girlfriend's visit tomorrow. I have an appointment today but couldn't find the card, and was afraid I was too late. Luckily I thought to phone them and it's at 1pm, so I have plenty of time to continue cleaning up.
I couldn't get through to my friend in Bathurst, so I guess I'm not going there for a short break. Hmmm.
Not checking email/LJ until evening may have benefits, at least for today.
Today, I have:
Happy with that, and don't feel "guilty" about anything.
Haven't been asleep at all since 6:06am yesterday.
Kevin's due in at Broadmeadow Station at about 4:30am this morning. I'll be expecting a phone call from him in under an hour. He should catch a train to Teralba where I'll pick him up.
Don't know what I'll do after that - I guzzled the best part of a 1.5 litre bottle of L.A. Ice in the last day, it it normally keeps me up like this. Mind you, I've got things done and am pleased with the house now. It may not last, but I always feel more focussed after I "tidy up" the house.
Funny, I used to get insomnia about once a month, roughly around the time of the full moon. I haven't lately. I wonder if having the head of my bed under a window had anything to do with that? After the move the other day, that's now up against the wall joint with the lounge room. Still feels funny, but I'll get used to it, and the room "feels nicer" now.
I still haven't got to my web comics though. Debating whether or not to start drawing now, or leave it until tonight (after sleep?). Maybe if I'm still awake by the time I get Kevin back here, I might take Pegasus for a walk. It'll be about 5:30-6am by my guess, so that's reasonable.
Had a funny time while Kevin's been away - I've been semi industrious. It'll be good to have him back (not that I have to stop being industrious, of course).
Got the front room the way I want it (more or less).
I'm not really a "neat" person in my home, but I am an "ordered" one. That is, there is a system to my clutter. Once I'd finished sorting out stuff in the room, I put down this deodorant powder on the carpet and then vacuumed it 10 minutes later. Ebony was not impressed!
I also got the 2nd set of shelves up in the kitchen. Probably not as sturdy as the set that Kevin put up, but it's only got plastic containers and some appliances on it.
Whew - still got more to do tonight - I have a Hunter Apana Committee meeting in a few minutes, and then washing up, putting the sheets away in the linen cupboard, and then maybe do some web comics.
Long day, as I'm off early in the morning to meet Kevin, who's returning from Brisbane.
Kevin's away until Thursday in Brisbane, and I'm using the opportunity to do some cleaning up an rearranging - it's so much easier to move things in the morning when you don't have to worry about waking up an insomniac. I've already put up a "bin frame" (it allows you to use old plastic shopping bags to put rubbish in) and defrosted the freezer (it has 1/3 more space now)! I also hope to finally add the second set of shelves in the kitchen - something Kevin was going to do but then got sick/forgot.
I desperately need to do this for my bedroom and the craft rooms in the front of the house, and a thorough vacuuming after killing fleas would help too. Having Ebony lurk in the front rooms has been very disruptive. When I came back from Sydney after getting the new monitor, I found that she'd knocked my digital prints down and they were lying in the cat litter! Luckily, none were permanently marked/damaged.
Know I'll feel better after it's all done.
Almost forgot to mention the kitchen knives I bought today.
I was in Woollies checking out cat food when the announcer mentions about "FREE GIFTS" from the demonstrator in front of isle 16. I went over to check it out and there must have been two dozen of us there but no demonstrator.
The demonstrator turns up and the free gift is a paring knife, which we'll all get if we just listen to her demonstration. OK, so I do. She's selling a razor sharp kitchen knife that "never wears out" and "never gets blunt". OK, both claims are impossible, but the thing is that if they do wear out, the company will replace them free of charge. And for $33 dollars you got not one, not two, but three of the things. Not only that, you got a "bendy" scaling knife, and two citrus fruit juicers as well. I couldn't resist - I bought a set.
Now I probably shouldn't have, but I bought a set. Sounded like a good deal to me. I saw the demo blade cut through a hammer! And yes, I realise that a) that might have been a magician's trick, and that b) I don't actually need to cut through hammers that often, but....
...something told me "buy it" so I did.
Probably been conned, but I did need a new kitchen knife, and I have a friend I can give at least one to for Xmas. I'll post further when I actually use the bloody things. 
This time's council clean-up has been a bit different from the last one (six months ago).
That was rather odd, in that the gear I put out varied substantively from the stuff that was picked up. People took the stuff they wanted (fine) but also added to my pile! In the end, it didn't matter since it all went.
This time around, I have very few items to put out: an old bath tub; a sofa-bed; a kid's wading pool (damaged); the metal frame of a seat; a strange wooden pot plant holder made in the shape of a Negro jockey (something I munged from the bush tracks to put cat food tins on); and bundles of branches strung together last Sunday.
The bath and the bundles were picked up on the Monday. The rest of the gear is still there, minus the metal seat frame and the pot plant holder (gasp, who took that?). In the meantime I got my trolley and munged a sofa from the other end of the street. It was in good nick, and is now in my backyard under the trees, and enjoyed by Pegasus and myself. And this morning (after walking the pooch) I munged a foot rest and a small sturdy table.
There were two saw horses out there on the streets as well. I was sorely tempted, but had no way of getting them home easily.
I have a rat problem.
At least, I think it's a rat problem. Every night I can hear them in the ceiling and walls, running about from spot to spot. I also hear signs of them in the kitchen and laundry, and find evidence of them afterwards.
They chewed through the plastic top of the dry dog food container, and ate some of the dry food. I found that they'd chewed the remaining two sticks of silverbeet that I had on the kitchen bench. There's a hole in one bottom corner of the kitchen, and also in a wall at the top of a partition that divides the bathroom from the laundry. And yet, they don't seem to eat the bread, which sometimes I've left out, still wrapped in plastic.
Anyway, I've decided to take steps about this. Gabby (who's mostly an "indoors" puss) sometimes tries to stalk them in the kitchen, but mostly she's given up on this. I've been afraid to set "standard" mouse traps in case the cats or Peggy get caught in them, and afraid to set baits in case they ate them.
However, recently I bought two different sorts of traps. One is a long tube with a bend in the middle at a slight angle. You put the bait at one end and when the mouse/rat runs down to that end it tips down, and a trap door at the other end closes shut and locked. The second trap it some sort of circular spring driven trap, that shuts after they enter it. I might try these in the kitchen.
I also got a set of three baits. I intend to put one in the dry food container, and two in the roof. None of my pets should be able to reach these baits in these positions (unless one of them is getting into the roof, though I doubt that), so they should be safe to deploy. I think this is reasonable - these aren't pets, like some of my friends have, but a nuisance.
We'll see - I'll place them tomorrow morning before I go to uni.
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zvi and krja
