04.51 pm
You know, I was ready to start writing an hour ago – but as usual, I went to check if there were any new Templates. There was one – not really new, but I hadn’t noticed it before – or maybe I had, but decided that it wasn’t for me because the page was in three columns – anyway, I had a look at it, and you could change the number of columns – from one to four, or you could have what they call “standard layout” – which in layman’s language, it’s like this one – the one you’re looking at right now. “ohh!” thinks me “Maybe it’s usable after all!” so naturally I set about Previewing it with my blog. It didn’t look too bad! It didn’t even force you into having a sidebar for your Widgets! This was starting to look better and better – so I tried out different colours and backgrounds – just to see what they’d look like, mind you. And then I saw it! The beautiful background! The trouble was, although the Template was eminently suitable (although the text “window” wasn’t quite as wide as this one) it wasn’t a “free” Template – it would have cost me $66, and I didn’t quite like it a full $66 worth! But… the background! I just had to have the background! So with a surreptitious glance over my left shoulder, and then my right shoulder, I right-clicked on the background image and selected “save image as”, crossing my fingers that there’d be enough of it to ensure that it tiled correctly (sometimes very nasty people put up a beautiful image, but chop a bit off – just enough of it to prevent it from tiling properly! It’s like seeing a yummy picture of an ice cream, so you go and buy one, only to find that they’ve chopped the bottom of the cone off and you lose half your ice cream as it melts quickly through the hole!) So I tried the small section of background that I’d saved, and yes! It did tile properly! I switched back to my blog and again tried to start writing – but I very much wanted to see how the background looked on this Template. Well, as you can see, it looks great! (well, I think it does, anyway!) but, erm… the header didn’t quite go with it. Never mind, that was easy enough to change, and I flicked into Photoshop to add another layer to my header “base” – but… what colour to use? Using the “magic eyedropper”, I sampled just about every colour that I could see in the background, and tried them all out in the header. In all, I think I uploaded about seven or eight different versions, all with different colours, but none of them looked “quite right”, if you know what I mean, so I asked Julian. He liked this one the best – and although neither of us are really into greens that much, he was right – it did seem to go best with the background, so I’ve left it there – for the nonce, anyway. I should put a different coloured header up every three or four days, and run a competition: “Which colour header goes best with this background?” – but because I have no idea what I could use as a prize, I don’t think I’ll go ahead with it!
So, what did we do today… well, not much, really, because I had to go off this morning to get my Warfarin blood test done – and seeing that we’ve now had my name and our address changed with Medicare, we had to try to explain all of that to the nice Vampire nurse who took my blood, who just happened to be very deaf. I’ll see if there’s some way I can get my green forms changed online, and sent out to me (they send you out a bunch of forms with all your medical particulars pre-printed on them, to give to the nurse whenever you have a Warfarin Blood Test) I’m a bit surprised, really – we went in fairly early this morning, and we haven’t had the SMS about my dosage yet, even though it’s now 5.38 pm! Oh well – it’s not all that urgent – yet! After that, we went off to Ringwood to change my name, and our address, on the Electoral roll thingy (we went to Ringwood because it was the only one listed on their website for our area!) Well! To enter the building, there’s either a flight of steps with no hand-rail on either side*, or an enormously l-o-n-g wheelchair ramp. I opted for the stairs, but I was most displeased! I’m old, and in shoes I’m ultra slow (I detest shoes!) and without a rail I was even slower than usual, as well very nervous. But I got up them, and we went in. The Electoral Roll office was… (drum-roll, please!) up two flights of ruddy stairs! Ah, but wait! There was a lift! (elevator, to Americans) What a shame it wasn’t working! (I was more than just a little “put-out” by this stage!) So, guess what! I struggled up the two [censored] flights of stairs which, thank heavens, did at least have hand-rails! We got up to the top, to find the place was in darkness – no, they weren’t closed, the lights were just out – someone in the office there muttered something about a Board Meeting or something, though what that would have to do with the lights being out was not made clear! So I changed my name on the Electoral Roll, and we changed our address from Doncaster to Vermont South – then we groped our way back to the stairs where I nervously inched my way back down, despite the comfort of the hand-rail, only half wishing that I could fall and break something, so that I could sue them! And then we came home. After lunch I worked at getting Akåsha all set up and ready to go questing for fame, fortune, and lots of fun – she’s now level 8! Julian made the almond and Ricotta cake, as featured in yesterday’s recipes, and cleaned out one of the drains, and I washed my hair, came back in here, had a bit of a pink fit at the time (it was a lot later than I’d thought it was!) and decided that perhaps I should start writing, but got sidetracked about the background and header colours – and that was, essentially, “My Day!”
Having rambled on a bit too long on mere trivia, I can now get on to the exciting and good bits, like…
Food stuffz: Last night we had pan-fried chicken on a bed of steamed rice, flavoured with finely chopped spring onions and a bit of soy sauce – no half a tomato though. For dessert I had my last Corella pear (I’ll get Julian to get me some more tomorrow!) a small tub of low-fat fruit yoghurt, and a large, juicy, sweet, delicious date (I was going to have a dried fig, but I’ll have that tonight instead – or maybe as well as, seeing that there are no pears left!) Lunch today was a very delicious and yummy wrap, with basil-pesto hummus, red capsicum batons, baby cucumbers, ham, and low-fat Halloumi cheese. Very yummy to eat – very messy to handle! 🙂 Tonight we’re having King Island Beef sausages – hopefully they’ll be a bit better than the marvelous shrinking beef sausages that we’ve been having lately! With them we’ll be having chips, green beans, and our usual half a tomato. For dessert I’ll have a nice big healthy slice of the almond-Ricotta cake, with a fig and a date chaser.
Weigh-in this morning. Still no rhyme nor reason for it, and definitely within the margin of error, I went from 63.5kg to 63.6kg – up one point. Oh well, I’ll probably go up another half a kilo tomorrow – as I’m still on those nasty little white pills! Although walking up and down those stairs today will probably send me sky-rocketing up, or plummeting downwards – weight-wise, that is! 😉
And so on to tomorrow – the beginning of the weekend! Naturally, being us, we’re postponing Mother’s Day for a week – our family Mother’s Day will occur on Sunday, May 15th. Why? I don’t really know! However it does give us the distinct advantage of going out somewhere for a special meal, and not have to “book early to avoid the rush”, or put up with a limited “special Mother’s Day” menu. I must remember to call my favourite youngest daughter to (a) find out how her new job is going, and (b) to tell her that Mother’s Day will be held on Sunday, May 15th! And really, once again, that’s about it from me this evening! What did you all think of my recipes? Have you tried out any of them yet? Do call in again tomorrow night and find out if my Warfarin results were good, bad, or indifferent, what my weight decided to do – or not do, and how young Akåsha is faring! But until then, please continue to bee good, remember that Tetris teaches you that when you try to fit in, you’ll disappear, and don’t forget to always drive carefully, to keep warm and dry now that the weather’s getting colder and wetter, and to always look after yourselves – but most importantly, please don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
*I look on this as a safety hazard! Just because you’re not old and doddery, or in a wheelchair, doesn’t mean that people don’t need the safety of a hand-rail, especially if it’s been raining and the steps are wet and slippery! I intend writing about it, in the strongest possible terms, to the local Council!
My Word! 