Well, I’m not starting this as early as I would have liked, but by the same token, I am starting earlier that I expected! My favourite youngest daughter and her husband Terry came over today to “finish off” the two veggie garden beds – they’re still not finished though, as Terry wasn’t feeling terribly well – but all the “bits” using the sleepers have been made – all that remains now is to bolt them all together, fill the beds with the right sort of soil, and plant the seeds! Each “veggie bed” consists of four 2.4m x 1.3m frames made with the sleepers, one on top of the other and then bolted together, and each one is approximately the size of our dining room table, which is exactly what I wanted! This week Julian is going to have a go at putting in the flooring (thick flat planks laid between layers 2 and 3, so that we won’t have to use so much soil) Surprise, surprise, these two raised beds won’t be going in parallel to the back fence, but the way I wanted them to go – perpendicular to the fence! When I asked “Why?”, Julian and Terry looked at eachother, and I was told “Secret man’s business!” – whatever that’s supposed to mean – personally, I think it was just their way of saying “It turns out that you were right, after all!” without having to use the words “you were right, after all!” 🙂 Kate and Terry brought their dog Ralph with them today, and Kate and I sat outside and played with him while the menfolk worked. Honestly, Kate had the doggie equivalent of a Nappy Bag with her, containing a collapsible water bowl for Ralph, one of his favourite toys, his ball, some plastic bags for collecting his unmentionables, his leash, and she thought, some beef liver treats – only she’d left them on the kitchen table, hadn’t she, and she was gloomily predicting that one of their cats, Parsnip, would tear the bag to shreds to get at the liver treats, as being overly fond of beef liver treats, he’s done it before… Hopefully, he won’t eat the plastic bag too! 🙂 Anyway, the afternoon passed very pleasantly for us, and it was fun sitting outside on our entertainment deck instead of in front of a computer for a change! I can’t wait until I’m finally off this diet, and go onto Maintenance, when I can eat normally again – a BBQ on the decking, with fresh vegetables from our garden – I’m sooo looking forward to it! 🙂 We will need to get a couple of bug zappers though – I think something nibbled me this afternoon, and I know that mosquitoes absolutely love me! We’ll need two of them as it’s such a big area, but it’s all under cover, has clear, pull-down plastic curtains to keep the weather out, and would you believe it even has a ceiling fan? Now, that’s what I call “civilized outdoor living!” 🙂

This morning before the kids arrived – yes, you guessed it, I was busy with Rift! Still tidying up shards, this morning I worked on Laethys. I had one too many Defiants, and there was only one that I could move to another shard, and I really didn’t want to do that anyway, because she’s a level 60 Dreamweaver who makes all our Dimension keys! So after clearing out most of her worldly goods, and neatening things up, I realised that even if I did move her, I’d still have to create another Guardian to get things lined up properly. I didn’t really want to do that, either, so… think…. think…. Brilliant! My problem was that I had to replace a Defiant with a Guardian – well, there was one really easy way to do this – change Factions! That is, change the Defiant I was about to transfer off to another shard, into a Guardian! This would mean that she’d change sides – I’d be down a Defiant, but I’d have the extra Guardian that I needed! It meant buying some more Credits, but the end result was well worth it! 🙂 So that’s Greybriar, Hailol, and Laethys all sorted out… now on to Wolfsbane! 🙂

The cable laying gentleman who said he’d come to give us a quote this morning actually turned up right on time – on a Public Holiday, too! He seemed nice enough, and is going to ring or email through the quote tomorrow. Once we get this cabling done we can get the electrician in to change a few power points here and there, and to connect all the new cables in correctly – the cable man only puts the cables in, but he’s not licensed to hook them up to the power – you need a qualified electrician to do that. We could have had the electrician in ages ago, but Julian didn’t want to have to get him in multiple times, and so wanted to wait until the cabling was done. As it is, power points and light switches are going to have to be changed when my bathroom is re-done, but I think Clarke will probably organise that. Julian has finally come in from outside – he’s finished off laying the first two layers of the veggie garden beds, swept up all the sawdust, put away all the tools, and set up the final four veggie garden bed frames in another section of the garden, so that I can see what they’ll look like when they’re finished. I think they’re going to be very successful! Kate and Terry will be coming back next weekend – probably Saturday – for Terry and Julian to put in the final bolts that will keep all the layers in place – never fear, there will be Flickr photos of the finished article when they’re done! 🙂

It doesn’t feel like a Tuesday – it feels more like a Sunday, without the Rift playing… probably because yesterday, Monday, was a sort-of “unofficial Public Holiday”, and today being Melbourne Cup Day, was a Public Holiday – so I’m expecting that tomorrow, Wednesday, will feel more like a Monday! Oh well – Clarke starts next Monday, and I go to see Dr. Y. the day after! Hopefully he’ll be pleased enough with me that he’ll start organising my surgery…

Weigh-in this morning. Contrary to logical prediction, I actually went down two points, from 68.8kg to 68.6kg, despite being on those horrible fluid-retaining pills! Oh dear – I don’t think I should have said that! I’m sure the Gremlins will hear, and pass it on to my ridiculous body, that “Winter doesn’t think she should still be losing weight because she’s taking those pills again!” My body will say “Oh yes! I’d forgotten about that!” and promptly put on half a kilo! Bother, said Winter, as she got on the scales in the morning and found that she’d gone up drastically…

I was extremely pleased to see that a woman, Michelle Payne, was the winning jockey in the Melbourne Cup! The first woman rider ever to do so. Anyone else out there have any luck on the horses today? I used to follow the races avidly when I was in High School – most of us did… we’d turn up to school on Melbourne Cup Day with the race form folded up in a blazer pocket 🙂 (not that any of us had more than a couple of cents to bet with, mind you!) Tomorrow should be a fairly quiet day – we have to be out in the morning, but other than that, I think it’ll just be more of the same, mostly Rifting! 🙂 I’m supposed to be having my next Warfarin test done on Thursday, but seeing as we’ll be out tomorrow, I might as well have it done then, and save having to go out again on Thursday, just for that! Friday I have a visit to the hairdresser again, which is really a little earlier than I’d hoped I guess I’m just going to have to cross my fingers and hope that it lasts through until Tuesday and my visit to Dr. Y.! And that’s really about all I have for you this evening! Do drop in again tomorrow night though, to find out how our day panned out, and if those stupid Gremlins dobbed me in to my own body, making my weight sky-rocket! (they’d better not have! If they have, I’ll… I’ll.. I’ll… give them the sack! 😛 ) However, until then, do try very hard to bee good (it’s getting close to Christmas, you know! 😉 ) remember that “But” is a word you use when you’re afraid to try, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep warm – or cool, depending on the weather… but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂