06.07

Well, this will either have to be cut short, to be finished tomorrow, or split in half, and finished after dinner (which I really hate doing!) Yes, I’m still experimenting through all the ruddy Templates – what do you think of this one? If I hadn’t been so ruddy-well annoyed with Word Press for causing all this wretched Template shuffling, I might have remembered that it’d probably be a good idea to write down the names of the Templates that I did like, and which did work properly! Oh well, at least I can remember what the last two looked like – I think! So later on I’ll go and find out what they were called, so that I can keep a record of them… just in case, like! *sigh*

As I think I told you all last night, my very favourite eldest daughter came over today (is this font too small for you all, by the way? Please let me know if it is – I don’t want you getting eyestrain from trying to read writing that’s too small!) We ended up watching two episodes of “Orphan Black”, which is such a good show! It’s getting a trifle scary again though – I can’t wait to see what happens next week! After that it was lunch time, and the three of us sat and watched two episodes of “Person of Interest”. I’m not sure how the writers and producers of the show are going to tie up all the loose ends, because this is to be its last season, and it’s a short season, too! I have a feeling that our “good” Machine is going to see that it’s going to end up with a “fight to the death” between herself and the evil Machine, “Samaritan” – and that our “good” Machine will nobly sacrifice herself in order to bring Samaritan down, and the world will be left with no super-intelligent Machine to either help us poor, weak humans – or to enslave us, as Samaritan wanted to do. As far as I can see, it’s the only way out for a “happy” ending, anyway. My very favourite eldest daughter though, is of a different mind! She thinks that the only way to sensibly end the series is to kill of one of the major characters, though how that’s going to end things, goodness knows! If they kill off Finch, the guy who built our “good” Machine, “she” (our good Machine) will become distraught at losing her friend, mentor, and in a way, “father” – she won’t, however, wreak vengeance on Samaritan, because Finch taught her that that was not the right way – killing, whether another human being or another AI machine, was wrong and to be avoided at all costs – and Samaritan, who is totally ruthless and just plain evil, will have won… and the human race will end up enslaved. To kill off any other major character would be a great shame, and fans of the show will all howl in outrage, but it really won’t do anything much to prevent Samaritan’s final victory! So, I think there’s only another two or three episodes to go. I do know that I’ll be very, very cross, if they end up killing off John, Root, Shaw or Fusco – because what possible effect could that have? If it drove Finch to try to teach the Machine to become a killer, after teaching it to “find a better way” from the moment it became self-aware – sorry, I just don’t think it would work. So – I guess we’ll just have to start biting our nails down to the quick, and wait and see what happens – but we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks, won’t we! 😉

After lunch and “Person of Interest”, we watched a couple of “The Flash”/”Arrow” crossovers – in which Oliver Queen, AKA Arrow, and Barry Allen, AKA The Flash, work together to thwart two nasty would-be villains (“would-be” villains, because they’re not terribly good or successful at being evil and wicked! 😀 ) and then it was time for my very favourite eldest daughter to go home, and I came in here for yet another attempt at finding the “perfect” Theme/Template! And if you don’t particularly like this one, don’t worry, there’s a few more for me to work my way through yet – like maybe about another 300 or so… 😉

The fishies.. as I said last night, after Julian had tested the water in the Fish House in the mid-afternoon, and declared it a bit better than it had been two nights ago, Auric had a mild return of his “floaties” for a short while… so once again Julian swapped out another 30% of the water for a fresh lot, and almost within minutes Auric was back to his usual self again… Hmm… it almost makes me wonder if it’s some sort goldfish attention-seeking behaviour! Well, whether it was or not, it worked! 🙂 I think that perhaps them-thar goldfishies be smarter than the average minnow! 😉

And now on to the good bits!

Food stuffs: Last night for dinner we had some extremely nice chicken breasts pan-fried with pepper, and a little of the lemon-infused olive oil, served on steamed rice which had been mixed with some finely chopped home-grown spring onions – a most tasty and delicious meal! For dessert I had another of my Corella pears, a small bowl of the Coles-brand, very low-calorie, yummy Rice Pudding, and the very last slice of cake 😥 We’ll have to make another one soon! Well, I told you all last night that whilst I’d sworn off Baker’s Delight fruit and white chocolate scones for ever and ever, I’d also had my fingers very firmly crossed behind my back – so guess what I had for lunch today! Yes… a reprise of the “naughty” lunch I had the other day! But on the other hand, I didn’t have my slice of cake tonight (because there wasn’t any!) so I think that in this particular case, we could just call the scone a “slice of cake”, and say that I’d had it at lunch time instead of after dinner. Yeah… That works for me – how about all of you, hmm? (*winning smile*) Tonight for dinner Julian made the Lamb & Harissa Lasagne with Feta and Oregano again – and although it’s a bit of a fiddle to make, it really is most delicious and well worth the effort, believe me! You’ll find the recipe up on my “Recipes…” page, if you feel like trying it out. And for dessert I had another of my Corella pears, and a small bowl of the Coles-brand, very low-calorie, yummy Rice Pudding… and that was it for dinner tonight, as I’d already had my slice of cake scone at lunch time! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Was much more betterer! I went from 5.0kg to 64.6kg – down four points! Don’t ask me why – I’ve totally given up trying to work out why my weight fluctuates so much, and the reason behind some of the more puzzling up-surges and sudden drops in my weight that my body seems to take such a thorough delight in inflicting on me! Who knows what lies in store – it’s adventure for me, tomorrow morning! 🙂

Which once again brings me to tomorrow! In the morning I have another Warfarin blood test, and if we start out early enough, and if we do a little bit of research tonight, and if the weather permits (hmm… lots of “if’s” there!) we might go looking for side tables for our new lounge suite – the teeny-tiny, or perhaps I should say “minuscule”, table I’m currently using is barely big enough for a box of tissues, and only one of our two TV remote controls! Actually, before we go table shopping, I think we need to measure the available space, and maybe try rearranging the chairs and couches… so maybe we won’t go table shopping until Thursday or Friday… Oh well, I don’t mind – it’ll give me all the more time to try out some more Themes/Templates! 😉 And I fear that once again it’s time for me to tell you all – “that’s about it from me for this evening!” – and so it is! But never fear – I’ll be back again tomorrow night with more tall tales and true from this side of the Black Stump! So do call in again tomorrow night, to find out if my weight went back up again (highly likely! er… sorry about the unintentional pun!) how Auric and Dapple are getting on, whether I have yet another Template up or not, and whether we did get to go table shopping after all… but until then, please at least try to bee good, remember that “forever” is composed of “nows”, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to always drive carefully, and to keep warm and dry, especially in this wild and woolly weather we’ve been having… but most importantly, please don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

09.59 pm

Well, I’m here, at long last… I’ve spent all day – apart from a couple of hours while Josh was here and while we had dinner – all day, stuffing around with different free Themes/Templates – does this one do what I want? Yes? No? Move on to the next one… and then the next, and the next. I didn’t even log onto WoW to check my Auctions! (well, it might not sound like a big deal to all of you, but it’s a fairly big deal to me…) Some of the free Themes/Templates were good enough for me to waste spend time creating a series of different Headers for them, but ultimately 99¾% of those free Themes/Templates were discarded as not being quite good enough… The one you’re looking at tonight is, I suppose, about the 40th one I tried? I’m thinking that I must have used it before, as it already had the Header in place – I simply changed the colours around it a bit – and at this stage, I don’t know whether I really like it, or if I just got tired of spending the whole day moving from Template to Template. We’ll see how it goes, for a day or two, anyway, as I’ll not be able to do any more Template fiddling for a couple of days. My very favourite eldest daughter is coming over tomorrow, and on Wednesday morning I have another Warfarin blood test…

In the meantime, let me catch you all up on my last couple of days! 🙂

Yesterday – Sunday. Well, Xãnthe and Jemimah spent a rather hectic day in Pandaria, after having finished off their last half a level to finally ding level 85. It’s quite amazing, the difference between the Alliance and Horde quests! I don’t suppose it’s something that very many people stop to think about – I know I don’t, usually – but as I was writing that, about the Alliance and Horde quests being so very different – it suddenly struck me that it would have taken quite a bit of working out and planning! OK, you have “a” country, populated with various “citizens” and monsters, and you have two factions – each made up of about four different races – both vying for control or dominance in that country. They compete, but neither ever really “wins” – the struggle is pretty much eternal, I suppose, because neither side is “bad”, or “evil”, they’re just… different. However. They “compete” with eachother by completing quests to get or find something, or to kill “x” number of a particular type of monster, or in some cases, to run off with the other Faction’s flag! But here’s the part that had me so – I suppose startled, when I stopped to think about it – and that’s that each set of quests for a particular area have to be (a) finely tuned to experience levels, (b) geared to a particular Faction’s beliefs and orientation and (c) complement eachother in complexity and difficulty. In all probability, I don’t suppose very many gamers stop to think about the work that goes into a game like World of Warcraft, or Rift, or any of the massive, interactive multi-player games – sure, people notice the graphics, and the music/soundtrack – which are in themselves extraordinarily superb – but the amount of effort and thought that goes into working out the game-play itself – let alone the programming involved – I’m not too sure that many people stop to think about it, really… I dunno – maybe they do, maybe it was just me that took so long to suddenly think about it – I can be amazingly dense sometimes…

Anyway, back to Xãnthe and Jemimah! They got to Pandaria, and have started to settle in there – I think we died once – before we got to Pandaria – because we thought we’d try for a five-person Dungeon in The Caverns of Time – well, it wasn’t really a “Dungeon”, it was more of an “Scenario” (er… mini Dungeon?) We thought that we might be able to manage it, but, umm… nah! We got deaded in very short order, and decided to run back in, collect our bodies, and then turn around and run away – very fast! Which we did! And then we went to Pandaria! We went up almost two levels, to level 86, so we only have four more levels before we can go of to Draenor! I’m really looking forward to next Sunday – we should make it to level 88 next week, and with a bit of luck – and maybe a few evening sessions in between – we should get to Draenor – and our Garrisons – the week after! 🙂 And then we’ll only have about a month and a bit before “Legion”, the next expansion, is released, and according to my very favourite eldest daughter, Garrisons will be a thing of the past, and won’t matter any more! 😦 *sigh* Oh well, I guess that’s just life in the ever-hectic world of WoW! 😕

And as I’ve already told you what I did today, I suppose I should get on with the “good bits” now…

Food stuff: last night, being Sunday night, was omelet night. As usual, it was one of the best omelets that Julian’s ever made – it had tomato, shallots, Halloumi cheese, pickled mushrooms, bacon, and sort of little baby red capsicums, called “Vine Sweet Minicaps™”, as well as the usual seasonings and herbs – and it was really delicious! For dessert I had a Corella pear, a small bowl of Coles-brand, very low-calorie, exceedingly yummy, Rice Pudding, and a slice of cake. For lunch today I had a very nice sandwich, made from that nice whole-grain bread which has the lovely sesame seed and poppy-seed crust, with garlic and herb sandwich chicken chunks and my favourite butter substitute, the basil-pesto hummus. Dinner tonight was pan-fried chicken breast on steamed rice that had been mixed with finely chopped home-grown spring onions, and dessert was a reprise of last night’s – unfortunately, that slice of cake tonight was the last one 😥 until one of us makes another one!

Weigh-in yesterday morning. Was not good! I seem to be going through another “upswing”, for reasons known only to my wretched body – why it’s punishing me, I have no idea! I went from 64.4kg to 64.8kg! Maybe it was the yummy fruit and white chocolate scone, but if it was, I don’t care! The scone was worth the small weight gain! 😛

Weigh-in this morning. Was even worse! I take it all back! I take it all back! I was only kidding! I’ll never, ever eat another fruit and white chocolate scone again, I swear! (said with my fingers firmly crossed behind my back, of course! Wot, me?! Never eat another fruit and white chocolate scone again, ever? Not going to happen! 😉 ) Oh dear… I’m afraid my gluttony will be my downfall! I went from 64.8kg to 😥 65.0kg! Oh well, back to the treadmill! Not that I ever left it mind you….

Which brings me to tomorrow, when my very favourite eldest daughter will be over, and we can catch up on all our favourite TV shows – “Orphan Black”, “The 100”, “Person of Interest”, “Arrow”, and “The Flash”! It’ll be good to see her and catch up on all her doin’s – last week she had a lot of uni assignments and stuff to get done, so she didn’t come over, and I just had to sit around and twiddle my thumbs and play WoW instead 😉 Oh, I forgot to tell you all – Julian tested the water in the Fish House this afternoon, and the Ammonia content is a little down on what it was two days ago, which is very good news! Auric and Dapple seem to have been doing very well for the past couple of days, but tonight Auric was showing a bit of his old “floaties” problem again, which is a bit concerning – we thought that he’d got over it, especially with 30% of the water getting changed out regularly. They do seem to have one strange – “habit”, it almost seems to be – I’m not sure if it’s a “goldfishy” sort of thing that all goldfish do, or whether it’s a “thing” they picked up when they lived in that dreadful little mud puddle outside – it just strikes me (says she who knows absolutely nothing about goldfish in general!) as “not natural”. They both swim up to the surface and swim smartly along, with their mouths up on the surface, seemingly “eating” the surface of the water! If they only did it after they’d been fed, I’d be inclined to think that they were still finding a few teeny flakes of food still floating around – but it seems to be every few minutes or so, all day! They get fed twice a day, the water is very well oxygenated, 30% of the water is changed out every two days, and their water is tested every two days, the results of which are good, apart from the Ammonia content being a bit on the high side – so why do they do that? Did they get into the habit of swimming up and gulping air when they lived in their little fishy hovel outside? They also seem to like swimming up, gulping air, then swimming down and blowing out the bubbles! They do that for up to five or so minutes at a time, and it seems to be a bit of a game with them – so, unless someone out there in Reader Land can tell us whether it’s “normal” goldfish behaviour or not, or give us some advice, all we can do is watch, test and change the water, and do our best… Anyway, that’s about it again from me for tonight, but do drop in again tomorrow night – if only to see if I’ve stuck up yet another Template or not 😉 as well as to see how much my weight went up again, what my favourite eldest daughter and I watched on TV, and how Auric, Dapple and Flipper are getting on. Until then however, please try to bee good, remember that courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen… and don’t forget to always drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep warm and dry in this terrible weather we’ve been having… but above all, please don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂