Dear Diary

A 3743-post collection

Nothing to see here

It's hard to be entertaining when there's nothing to bitch about. Things are kind of okay.

I finally chatted with the counsellor people and got some useful advice to going forward with the whole mental care thing. As a result of having all that stress no longer important, my current energy levels are low.

Discoveries this week: Food is expensive. Especially the stuff that only diabetics are allowed to eat. Especially the recommended fish like salmon and tuna. We need to learn how to farm that nonse. Seriously.

Beloved and I powered through most of our money in the space of a very few days. The time between now and next payday are going to be a massive bitch. I have stocks of things, which is good, but I also got rid of a whole bunch of stuff that would skyrocket Beloved's sugar levels.

Note for diabetics: Fresh tomatoes are okay. Tinned or processed tomatoes are not good. They might as well be poison.

Diet wise, I'm doing well. I'm at the high end of ninety kilos, and my tricks with getting cake seem to work with having ice cream at the end of the day. And it's good that I get toasted wraps for lunch.

The bad news is: when I do goo, it goes very quickly. I seem to have the knack of doing tasty stuff. Which is good because people want to eat my cooking. The bad news is that we're out of money and can't easily afford new food. The other good news is that I probably have enough doings to do goo for the rest of the fortnight.

If push comes to shove, I can raid my dreams account. And I'll be fine after I sell KFZ. But right now... it's not looking that great.

I'll manage. I'm very good at managing. When in doubt, goo. When certain, stew. Rice and flavour and additives answers a lot of food problems.

...now if only I could stop Chaos from nicking stuff out of my stash...

Glorb: It's what's for breakfast

So I usually call soup-and-bread-mush 'glorb' and is one of my very many horrible food choices.

But I've come up with a healthy one.

Two Weet Bix, one snack-sized tub of fruit, and enough almond milk to turn it all into moosh. Voila. Brekkie Glorb. At 995 kilojoules and whole grain goodness, it's the best start to the day that I can manage.

...and then I go and make my heinously over-sugared coffee...

But I am looking after myself. I even have

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Unexpected inconvenience

Today's sideways happenings are the direct result of a pupil-free day in both Chaos and Mayhem's schools. We found out about this via the radio because I never have the time to read the school newsletter.

Mayhem's school was empty of kids. Chaos' school was empty of kids. So long half an hour of our precious time, hello my little darlings having party time all over the house.

At least we got a walk in, this morning.

The local ants have decided

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Things done, things to do, things in waiting...

Checklists have this way of growing and mutating if you're not watching them.

Like:

  • [X] Hat repaired
  • [X] Chaos' bodysuit futzed with
  • [X] Makeup organised (more or less)

But still to do is:

  • [ ] Garden watering system
  • [ ] Unmuck the kitchen gizmo's cupboard
  • [ ] Fix the heart rig
  • [ ] Chaos' chest gem (entire)

The last of these includes doing the wiring and batteries, printing the case, and arranging a way to attach it to Chaos' chest without visible means of support.

We have a fun weekend

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Maybe today...

I didn't get to half of what I wanted to get done. Part of my brain was really thirsting to do some Minecraft, I guess. Procrastination helps the mind re-set and lets it rest between emergencies, and therefore it is a good thing. In moderation.

I'm making myself get to all those little side-projects, today. All those tiny five-minute tasks that end up taking two hours and all the patience you have to spare. Sooner started, sooner done, and all that associated

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...sigh

Beloved stayed up later than they should have, last night. As a result, I've had my first sideways morning for a majority of a week.

BUT... the house is not in chaos, I have plans to tidy up one of my piles, and I have other plans to do some minor fixes for costume parts for Halloween.

What I really have to do is hurry up with this blog, today's Instant, and the thousand words I usually do on Fridays so that

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Anti-entropy

The house is starting to look firkin fantastic. The kitchen countertops only need a little bit done, the bathroom's gorgeous. We start our day with the beds being made.

Today, I'm talking with the school dental van about braces for Miss Chaos. Something that's happening in TWENTY MINUTES.

Yikes.

I'm also doing some minor and major futzing to get Chaos' costume done. This is going to include some shopping at Jaycar later on. The dollar shop light I got only does red.

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Ridding the house of time vampires

Anyone who does housework knows what time vampires are. You want to work on the hobby, but you have to do this bit or that bit of housework that just sucks your time away.

Well, Mt Laundry now has its last load in the machine and I am waving farewell to that set of time vampires. Now I should have more time to deal with mental health and Halloween costumes and assorted whatnot that has been biding its time until I finally

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Living in the procrasti-nation

The scary thing about my levels of procrastination is that Beloved is worse. I've procrastinated doing my daily duties by writing the starting paragraphs of a book that I'm not due to start until 2018. I love the concept and it's so shiny. I had the perfect starter sentence and I could not resist setting a scene.

Of course, since the Mou editor is slower than frozen molasses, I started editing in my old friend, TextWrangler.

Everything old is new again.

I've

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Ow ow ow ow ow...

Beloved has a day off Mondays, because working on Saturdays is a thing during the Melbourne Cup wind-up. This, I thought, would be a prime opportunity to get them to adhere to the rest of the house's rules.

No.

Such.

Luck.

Beloved had a great case of persistent inertia and gave me the Irrits. Which culminated in a crescendo of me yelling about all the things that Beloved does to piss me the fuck off.

Good news - cleaning the gritty bits

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How I eat cake and lose weight too

It's not easy and it's not fun, but oh, how the cake is worth it.

I'm currently using a diet app called Easy Diet Diary to keep track of how much I eat, and how many kilojoules I consume. My goal for safe dieting, according to the app, is eight thousand kilojoules.

On an average day, I make it up to around eighty percent of that noise. One slice of cake is roughly a third of my allotted kilojoules.

Therefore, the rest

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So close...

You would be surprised how few avenues there are for making one's own costume, out there. Generic, cheaply-made dress-ups are all you can find.

I purchased an allegedly 'adult' costume for Mayhem that barely fits him. And it has massive static cling issues. Which just re-enforces the idea that I need to learn how to sew. Costuming from pret-a-porter is not what it used to be.

I have to solve Chaos' Gem issue, fix my hat, repair my heart, and find some

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Sideways!

It doesn't matter which order things are done in, only that they are done. Therefore, it's no surprise that my little darlings have adapted to the 'get up and do it' routine whilst my Beloved still drags their heels.

Mayhem has taken to sorting the laundry as part of his morning routine. Chaos still needs a lot of reminding, but she is getting used to the way things are meant to go.

Beloved... is working late because Melbourne Cup. Their work gets

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S-L-O-W-L-Y

If there's anything more irritating to live with than a case of the Slo-Mo's, I can't think of it right now.

I couldn't get to sleep until Beloved came home. Well, not properly. I managed to cat-nap until that time. And then I woke at four in the morning. Too tired to sleep.

Which is a bitch if there ever was one.

Since Beloved was home late, I gave up on the morning walk and dived straight into getting the kids organised.

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Yoiks and Awaaaaaay...

Once again, I got rejected. Once again, I do this nonse:

[Shown: Daffy Duck repeatedly swinging into a tree]

I figured this was going to take some time. When I run out of likely candidates in one agency, I will try another. Until I run down to the bottom of my 30-person list.

Only then will I put up Kung Fu Zombies on Amazon and Smashwords.

But in the meantime, there's a new short story for free. It's currently only available in

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