I think we accomplished quite a lot today (for a change! 😉 ) Mornings, of course, are always a bit of a “set routine”… get up, shiver a lot, weigh-in, dress, Stair Walk, come back, check ye olde email, have a cup of tea whilst deciding if there’s anything interesting on TV that evening, and set up to record anything worthwhile, breakfast… pretty much “same old, same old”, until that point. However, we did manage to get out this morning – but we didn’t go rug shopping! I decided that it would probably be better to look online first, and then if we saw anything that looked suitable, we could go and eyeball the rug to see if it lived up to its online potential or not. Much more easier than driving around from pillar to post, and having to walk out disappointed, or with a tired and frustrated “Oh, that’ll do! Hopefully it’ll look alright on the night!”, as is so often the case when you only have a more-or-less vague idea of what it is you’re looking for (a case of the old “I don’t know exactly what I want, but I’ll know it as soon as I see it!” syndrome) Nor did we go underwear shopping for me – I’d rather do that next week, and maybe cart my eldest favourite daughter along with me, as I know she’ll need a few items too (it’s very strange, you know – she always seems to need a few items when she comes clothes shopping with me… very odd…*shakes head in perplexity*) 🙂 Somehow or other, though, we found ourselves in David Jones, looking at dressing gowns (of all things! 😉 ) – of which I do not possess one – so we rectified that small problem by buying me a lovely warm and fluffy dark blue one – maybe I won’t shiver so much now, when I get out of bed in the mornings! 😉 We also called in at Mecca Maxima, a new shop that has recently opened up its doors over the road there, and which I’ve been breaking my neck to get to ever since. I needn’t have – it was just another, slightly more up-market (and more up-price!) makeup outlet like Priceline. Very disappointing 😦 We also went to Mecca Cosmetica – yet another makeup outlet, only this one is a lot more classy (and once again, with prices that show it!) I did get a “souvenir” from each of the “Mecca’s” – a nice cherry red lipstick from the Maxima, and a rather nice eyebrow pencil from Cosmetica. I normally don’t do anything with my eyebrows, which are virtually non-existent (well, they’re very thin (probably from over-plucking during the ’60’s) and terribly pale – you have to look hard to see them, but as they’re usually hidden behind my glasses frames, I’ve never worried about them!) But when we were at the photo shoot, the makeup girl “gave” me eyebrows, with a hard-ish sort of light brown pencil. They didn’t look too bad, either, so I determined that I must immediately learn how to give myself eyebrows! Which (said in a sing-song voice) is why – I bought – the eye-brow pencil! They had a really nice one in David Jones, at their Channel kiosk/stall – it was a proper “pencil” pencil, and was probably a bit better than the one I ended up getting… They were both $48!  (I probably could have done better buying a box of crayons and using the brown one!) Oh, we also looked at Napoleon Perdis – where the staff were not only uninterested in helping us, but they were totally unhelpful when we did manage to catch their attention – so my reaction to that very uninterested and unhelpful place? “Nah! Give it a miss!” Last on my list of “Wot I Want To Do Over At Shoppingtown” was… go and talk to the people at Oscar Oscar, about my hair *gulp* I spoke to a middle-aged, gray-haired guy at the front desk (I didn’t catch his name – it’s really terribly difficult trying to hear people when they’re way taller than you are, and they’re talking to you from about two feet above your head – because you’re busy sitting in a wheelchair! We need taller wheelchairs!) Anyway, I told him that they’d been highly recommended to me as having the best colourists in the Centre, blah, blah, blah… and who was their best colourist and stylist? Apparently someone called “Brooke” – so I have four weekly appointments booked in with her, starting next Friday. I’ll see how I go over there, and if I think she’s any good… I hate having to go in and talk to people I don’t know like that, where I have to appear relaxed, and confident and poised, and all that sort of thing – when inside I’m absolutely quaking in terror!

So then we came home and had lunch – and a well-earned cup of coffee, and then I persuaded Julian to set me up a Flickr account where I can bung photos and stuff so that you can all see what I’m talking about instead of me floundering around trying to describe whatever-it-is (who knows! This might end up being a “graphic blog” – I could do my blog in cartoon format, with additional photos and pictures to add a bit more detail! 😉 ) Then, of course, I had to get him to show me how to take photos with my poor neglected and very seldom used phone, which he’s done (and I have made myself a pretty little cheat-sheet of step-by-step instructions which is clipped to my stand-up clipboard! 🙂 ) So here you go – a photo, taken by Julian, with my phone, of Flipper having a snack in the Den here (hopefully that worked!) And here is the Bookmarks Wallpaper thingy I’ve been working on… I took that photo… 🙂 (Crikey! I hope they worked!! If they did, I’ll probably post bits and pieces of… whatever… whenever… 🙂 )

Weigh-in this morning. Well, it wasn’t too painful 🙂 I went down two points to 93.8kg – but don’t worry, it’ll be up again tomorrow morning! That’s the way it nearly always works – I go down a few points, and get all happy about it, then the very next day it damn-well goes up again, just to upset me! *sigh* I know that I am getting there, and I’ve lost 40.9kg… but I still have another 23.8kg to go! It’s like wading through a swimming pool full of molasses…

Yikes! It’s getting late! I still have to do my evening Stair Walk! So, as I started out saying, I think we accomplished quite a lot today – I even managed to get myself a new Kindle cover, in Fuchsia pink! (or a very light magenta – whichever, it’s pretty, and that’s the main thing!) It’s a very clever little cover, too! Simply opening the cover turns the Kindle on, and turns it off again when you close the cover! 🙂 I’ve got my Flickr thingy working (I hope!) and I’ve got a nice, warm dressing gown so that I don’t have to shiver so much in the mornings 🙂 I’ve gritted my teeth and made four hair appointments… and scratched the Napoleon Perdis and Mecca Maxima itches (which turned out to be but mozzie bites, after all! 😉 ) So there you go – there’s really not much more to tell you about today – though I’m sure there’ll be lots more news for you all tomorrow night, so tune in again, and don’t miss out on all the fun and exciting things that we’ve been up to! But until then, bee good 😉 don’t keep opening and closing the new Kindle cover, just so that you can watch it turn itself on and off again, and above all… stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Ah, yes… another interesting day. Another day which started out with me fully intending to out and “do things”, like…  look for a lounge room rug… call in and talk to the people at Oscar Oscar about getting my hair done… poking my nose in at Napoleon Perdis to see if they had anything new and exciting in the way of makeup… chuffing off to Autograph to get myself a couple of new pieces of underwear, as what I currently have is slightly on the “large” side… and, getting myself a new Kindle case. But as you’ll have guessed by now, I did none of those things, for which I am, very deservedly, thoroughly disgusted with myself. I got out of bed this morning, fully intending on going out today. I had my weigh-in, I got myself all ready to go out. I went for my before-breakfast Stair Walk, came back inside, had breakfast, and sat down to sort out my Minions… and all of a sudden, I didn’t want to go out and do any of the things I’d planned to do, after all! (Minions can do that to you, you know! Nasty things, Minions – very distracting!) So I thought confidently to myself: “we’ll go out after lunch!”. Then I played a bit of Rift with Chryzanthemum, and finished off Iron Pine Peaks – only to end up with no more quests, and the only breadcrumb I had was to do that long and terribly tedious one about a Dwarven Artifact that had been found near Meridian. So I (reluctantly!) started that one (and as you’ll probably have gathered, it’s not one of my favourite quest chains!) where at least I’m finally out of the [mumble] snow flakes! I worked on that for a bit, then decided that I wanted to do a bit more work on my Desktop wallpaper project – I’d been neglecting it far too much lately – so I went and had another look at what I’d done so far… quite pretty, actually… there wasn’t all much more to do before I could use it. I decided to test it as it was, to see if there were any placement issues – occasionally the graphical elements are either too high for the screen, or too low, or need to be shifted, just a bit, to the left or the right. Anyway, I turned what I’d done so far into .jpg format and tried it out as a normal desktop wallpaper. Hey! It wasn’t bad at all! I scrunched up my eyes and squinted at the screen… the right hand swirly graphic did need to be moved a bit more to the right (squinting at the screen helps you see this!) ….mmmm… half an inch? About that, anyway. I tried moving it 20 pixels. Not far enough… 30 pixels turned out to be just a bit too much, so I ended up compromising, and moving it 25 pixels. It looked good. I finally got it looking good enough to replace the Desktop wallpaper that I’d thought was too stiff and formal – I opened up the HTML file, and… swapped file names (after making sure that my new file was in the correct folder!) (these computer glasses of mine are hopeless! I can’t read the [*censored*] screen!) And… guess what happened?! Nothing! Oh, the old file vanished alright, and I was left with the background colour of the old wallpaper, which was a sort of dark, brownish-gray. The text was there too, but no image! All I’d done was change a simple file name – it should have worked! Julian and I both wracked our collective brains trying to figure out what had gone wrong, to no avail. The final deployment of my new Desktop wallpaper, which should have taken about fifteen minutes from beginning to end, including the final tweaking to get the images and text “just so“, ended up taking a couple of hours! In the end, it turned out that it was something to do with the file name. We changed the file name, and all of a sudden, hey presto, and all that, it worked perfectly…. but by then it was far too late to go out. I must ask Julian if there’s somewhere, or some-how, I can put up pictures of things to show you – I’m sure there must be, as other people show images and photos in (on?) their blogs, all the time! I’d love to show you what my new desktop looks like now, perhaps some of our photos wot we had taken on Tuesday, when they’re ready, and the occasional Rift screenshot now and then… 🙂

Anyway, seeing as it was far too late to go out anywhere today (what a shame! 😉 ) Julian decided to install some proper speakers for me, so that I could listen to music, and hear the dulcet tones of my girls giving their battle cries in? on? the Rift entry screen 😉 By the time he’d done that, my desk had suddenly become extremely overcrowded and messy – Things Had To Be Moved! Well, I’ve tidied things up as best I can – I’m still not sure of what the final layout surrounding me is going to be like, but… I just don’t have enough room! I need a fizzy drink! No! No-one needs fizzy drinks, it’s just malicious rumours, and evil marketing! However, what I do need is a half acre block of land sized desk, and a golf buggy to drive around it! (I wish! 🙂 )

Weigh-in this morning. Again, marginally better – all this see-sawing up, down, and the same, is starting to make me feel sea sick, and I don’t get sea sick! I went down one point, to 94.0kg – the thing is, what will it be tomorrow? Probably up two points! 😦 I just wish I could settle down to a nice, slow and steady downward slope, for a change! (I’m just looking at the time – I have about half an hour until it’s time for my afternoon “walkies” – I wonder… will I have time to finish this and get it edited, proofread, and Published inside half an hour? I wish I could type faster…)

So, hopefully, (and knowing us, quite a bit of luck!) tomorrow will be our Big Day Out shopping, seeing that we didn’t go today, and Saturday is a Public Holiday. Tonight I’ll attempt to look for some decent rug shops that aren’t the other side of the black stump, that we might be able to go and look at, and I’ll flip a coin as to whether we end up at The Glen or The Pines, for Autograph’s underwear department. Before Doncaster Shoppingtown was renovated and prettied up (ages ago I can’t even remember what year it was – 2004? Pre 2004? Dunno…) there was both a My Size and an Autograph there, but they opened elsewhere during the upheaval of the renovations, and never came back – probably because the rental on the shops was so horrendous, and because of the opening times that Centre Management insisted on (if the Centre was open, all shops had to be open too, regardless of what holiday it might have been) Shoppingtown lost a lot of excellent shops due to those two policies… Anyway, so tomorrow we’ll be off… er…. Maybe 🙂 So… there’s really not much more to tell you all at this point, so I might take my leave of you, and hope to see you all back here again tomorrow night, when I shall once again regale you with our Day’s Doin’s 🙂 However, until then, bee good, don’t eat that before dinner, you’ll spoil your appetite! and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Well, they say that a change is as good as a holiday – but which holiday? Mmmm? 🙂 Anyway, consider yourselves all refreshed, and rested, and ready to get back to work (or school, or whatever it was that you needed a holiday from!) from this (probably not totally unexpected) sudden “holiday” of a change. Yes, it is a different Theme, and yes, it is one of Word Press’s “Free” ones, so… expect the unexpected, and be prepared for even more changes if it all falls apart at the seams, the way all their other “Free” Themes have done – consistently!

Last night I told you all about our adventures at the photo shoot – and I think I might have mentioned that I was a little “tired” by the end of the day? Tired, be damned! I was exhausted… zonked out… aching all over from the tumble I took (no bones broken or sprained, and very surprisingly, considering I’m on Warfarin, no bruises!) and almost weeping with tiredness, I took myself off to get ready for bed – I’d suddenly remembered I had to take all that makeup off. When the lovely makeup girl – I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten her name – was applying all the powder and paint, it didn’t seem as though she was applying a lot (maybe because we were busy chatting – I dunno) I do know that she managed to get it in my (freshly washed) hair, and on my earrings, when she was putting the makeup on my ears (yes folks, your ears get made up too! I suppose to keep the facial colouring even all over – who knows?) She certainly seemed to know her stuff though, because I actually looked brilliant in the photos (and it takes a lot to get me to say something like that!) But anyway, there I was, drooping with tiredness, thinking “I’ll just get rid of this makeup, and then I’ll go to bed…” So I sat there in front of the mirror, with a packet of facial wipes/makeup remover, and… used about half of the 2″ high packet of wipes, and there was still stuff left on my face, especially around my eyes! It was a real eye-opener for me! I used to be pretty big on makeup, and especially eye makeup, when I was “younger” – I’d go along to my favourite cousin’s Studio and chat to the models, picking up lots of ideas and “tricks of the trade” regarding makeup, hair, facing the camera, and presentation stuff. Anyway, face wipe after face wipe came away liberally coated with a lightish ochre “goo” – If I hadn’t been so tired, I’d have been stunned! There was so much of the stuff! (no wonder I looked good in the photos – I don’t think there could have been much “me” left under all that goo to do otherwise!) I didn’t need face wipes, I needed a trowel! In the end,I thought “bugger it!”, and staggered off to bed, not caring if I left makeup streaks on the pillowcases on not (I must have been able to get the worst of the makeup off after all, because I didn’t mess the pillowcases) But who would have thought there’s be so much makeup! I had a bit of a look through her stuff, too – I tell you what, the Napoleon Perdis shop over the road will be getting a visit from me tomorrow! 🙂 She had some of their lipsticks, and a really good light brown eyebrow pencil, which I want to see if I can get hold of too… Yes, I’m still into makeup, but as I get older, it’s getting harder and harder not to end up looking like “mutton dressed up as lamb”, if you know what I mean…

This morning I just Rifted… I took Chryzanthemum, who is still in Iron Pine Peak (which I have decided to make my most hated zone in Telara, demoting Stillmoor to my second most hated zone!) I hate the constant snow falling! It almost makes you dizzy, trying to find your wretched cursor in all the snow flurries! Still, I’ve progressed a long way (I’m close to the end of Iron Pine Peaks, truth be told!) I managed to get ‘Zanthe up from level 31 to level 35 this morning, all without resorting to experience enhancing potions, too! (because I can’t afford them – I’ve bought, and used, far too many Credits this month, already! 😦 ) Poor ‘Zanthe 🙂 I left her standing on the side of a mountain in the middle of a snow storm, when I went for my lunch time Stair Walk. I’ll have to go and rescue her soon… I was going to go back after lunch, but I wanted to see what I could do with this Theme… and I’m afraid I got a little carried away 😉 It’s now a quarter to five, and if I want to get this blog finished and online before my evening Stair Walk, I’m afraid little ‘Zanthe will have to stand and shiver for a bit longer!

Weigh-in this morning. I’m really cross, you know? After all that pounding up and down stairs, and getting up from the floor under my own steam, and everything else that happened yesterday, you’d have thought that I’d have lost weight, wouldn’t you! But no!… my body has to be different, doesn’t it! (can you hear that funny sound, like two rocks rubbing against eachother? Don’t worry, we’re not about to have an earthquake – that’s just my teeth grinding in annoyance!) My weight didn’t go down, and it didn’t go up… it stayed the ruddy same! 94.1kg… again! Grrrr! What do I have to do to get the weight moving steadily downwards?! (don’t answer that – it was a rhetorical question!) I am so not pleased! 😦

I think I’d better get ‘Zanthe off the mountain tonight – I have a feeling we won’t be home much tomorrow – hopefully we’ll be out looking at rugs, and I have to go and talk to the people over the road at Oscar Oscar about doing my hair (I hope they’re as good as I’ve been told that they are!) and I want to go and have a look in Napoleon Perdis. Julian’s Kindle died last night, after five years of faithful service, so a funeral service (of sorts) will need to be held (we could wrap it up in a nice piece of cloth, or paper, and bury it in the garden either over at Glen Waverley, or in Moorabbin/Hampton East/whatever they’re calling it this week, and Julian could say a few words? 😉 ) So he went racing over the road today to get a new Kindle (how can one live without them? 🙂 ) and he also got a snazzy new cover for it… My Kindle cover is as old as the hills, and terribly dilapidated, so I want a nice new cover for mine, too! He said he nearly got me one while he was getting his – so I’ll go and see what colours they come in… 🙂 Oh, good news for anyone reading this who happens to be a fan of Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six! The band sort of split up last year to try things on their own – but I think they must have missed eachother too much, cos they’re re-forming the band! They say they’ll have a new Studio Album out by the end of the year with both old and new numbers on it – I think “Matilda and the Screw” was one of the ones mentioned – I wonder if it’s the same “Matilda” who got carted off to prison for murdering her husband in the “Get Religion” Album? After all, her last words were “This world ain’t seen or heard the last of little old me” – I hope it is! (I liked Matilda! 🙂 ) And now, finally, I think that that’s probably about it from me for tonight – more news and tidbits tomorrow, or as they come to hand (I still have no idea where we’re going to go to look at rugs! – I guess that’s what Google’s for! 😉 ) so until then, bee good, save your wails to save the whales, and just do it! and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Today, I feel like a mountain goat! Truly! I feel as though I’ve been climbing up and down stairs all day (and climbing back up from the floor, when I slipped and fell, at the photo shoot today) We were in a bit of a rush this morning (well, I was, he wasn’t!) I got up, got weighed, got dressed, and raced off for my Stair Walk. Three floors down, three floors back up – the usual. I came back, had my shower and washed my hair, and got dressed again. We had breakfast, and I replied to email from my favourite eldest daughter – “where’s my weekly meal plan?” she wanted to know. I sighed. I barely had time to unpack my Minions, and send them off again when it was time for me to squeeze in my pre-lunch Stair Walk. Off I went again. Three floors down, three floors back up again. Arriving back at the apartment, I quickly put on my (much hated) shoes. Time to go off to the *gulp* photo shoot. Of course, we got there early (so much for rushing, eh? 😉 ) so we sat in the car and ate our lunch – I’d brought an Optifast Cappuccino bar with me, but I’d forgotten to tell himself to make a sandwich that he could bring along for his lunch, so he’d grabbed an Optifast Chocolate bar on his way out the door… We arrived at Studiomax (Studio Diva section) just after 1.00pm, and were shown around and made welcome. And guess what! The studio was up two flights of stairs! Oh Joy! Extra exercise pour moi! (I groaned) I looked at Julian. “Did you ask them about disabled access?” I asked him sweetly.  He had the grace to blush… “er… no….” he replied. I pursed my lips slightly…  The nice photographer was very kind and said that they could bring everything down for me, and that the makeup artist could work on me downstairs. I shook my head. “No,” I said grimly, “I’ll walk” – and so I did. It wasn’t so much two flights of stairs, just one very long one, and one very short one, which I counted as I came down after the photo shoot. The short flight was 6 steps, the long one I counted to “quindici”, or fifteen – so 21 steps up, 21 steps back down. The fire escape stairs are (16 steps per floor down, 16 steps per floor up times three floors equals 48 steps down, 48 steps up, so I’ve actually done 69 steps down, and 69 steps back up again today, and if that don’t wear off another few lbs, I dunno what will!) So, yeah… I climbed the stairs, and was given a cup of coffee to drink, and a bar stool to sit on for my makeup session, which took about half an hour. Julian didn’t get any makeup – I guess that’s because he’s a guy 😉 The makeup girl exclaimed over my hair, and what a fantastic colour it was, and (as she was doing my hair) how well it had been cut! (you reading this Josh!? Get some business cards made up immediately and start handing them around! I’m making you famous! 😉 ) Then the nice little photographer arrived and we were ushered into the studio. Yup, and she also started gushing on about what a wonderful colour my hair was! The studio was a bit like my cousin’s used to be, only not as big. White studio paper on one wall, lots of white screens or various sizes, a couple of couches and footstool as props, and a few shaded lights. And so it started – her name was Laura, and she was a very good photographer – knew how to “direct” her subjects “Chin up a bit… look over here…. put your hand there… nose down a bit for the glare” – you know, just like a movie director! 🙂 She took dozens and dozens of shots – some just of me, some just of Julian, and quite a lot with the two of us together. Then we went and changed clothes, and I slipped and fell over. Arrgghh! The last time I ended up on the floor like that we had to call the ambos because I couldn’t get up under my own steam, and Julian didn’t know how to lift me properly. It’s funny, you know – it was only last night that I said to Julian (I’d contemplated actually sitting on the floor, you see, as it’s a very long time since I’ve done that…) “I wonder if I could get myself up off the floor now..?” and he said “I don’t know, but don’t try it!” So there I was, sitting on the floor in a very small room with a very slippery floor – luckily there was also a couch there! I guess it just goes to show how much weight I have lost – the only thing I had any trouble with was squirming myself around in order to be able to kneel in front of the couch – then I put my hands on the couch, and pushed myself up with no problems! I was quite proud of myself! 🙂 But I did hurt the side of my foot when I slipped – it seems to be alright now, though (but I’ll probably get a nasty bruise out of it) Back in the studio again, even more photos of us alone and together were taken. Eventually we finished, and we climbed down all the (*censored*) stairs again (they were steeper than the fire escape stairs, too!) Laura went off to “process” the photos for fifteen minutes, and we went into the little Theaterette to read our Kindles while we waited. When the photos were ready, Laura showed them all to us as a slide show, so that we could “weed” out the ones we didn’t like, or didn’t think were good enough. This process took quite a long time – in the end though, we ended up with eight photos – some of just me, some of just Julian, and some of both of us. I was very taken aback – the ones of me actually look rather good! … stunning, even! Julian looks very handsome, too, and some of the ones of us together are really nice! So, kudos to Laura! She’s a very good photographer! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Not as good as I would have liked – I went down one point, to 94.1kg. Hopefully I’ll have scared/surprised/jolted (cross out those which do not apply!) off some more weight with that fall this afternoon! 🙂 We’ll see what happens tomorrow morning (and because I said what I just did (stupid me!) I’ll probably go up instead of down! When am I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut, mmm?)

So it’s now nearly half past six – I’ve done my regular evening Stair Walk (I bet I sleep well tonight! 😉 ) as well as all the other stair climbing, and I’ve finished off, and emailed, Lee’s Weekly Meal Plan, complete with all the calorie and kilojoule values, a full list of Additional Food Allowances, and the url to a good place where she can work out fruit and vegetable calories/kilojoules. I don’t mind admitting that I’m just a trifle tired – I feel as though I’ve been through a washing mangle or something – we were going to go rug shopping tomorrow, but I’ve vetoed that – I just wanna stay home and relax, play a bit of Rift, do a small amount of graphic work, and generally, bludge! We’ve gone this long without a lounge room rug, another day’s not going to make any difference! Thursdays are much more betterer for rug shopping than Wednesdays, anyway! 🙂 So now that I’ve brought you all up to speed on the Great Scary Photo Shoot, there’s not really much more to tell you! My new tops both fitted (as I suspected they would), I decided not to paint my nails because I think they’re still a bit too short (and besides – when would I have had time to do that?!) so all I can say is – stay tuned again tomorrow night! Find out if my foot develops a nice, big, black and purple bruise! …and if my weight did what it was supposed to do (go down!) or not (that is, stayed the same, or went up! Ye ghods! I hope not!) – and I’m sure there’ll be heaps more to tell you by tomorrow, anyway! 🙂 So, untill then, bee good, don’t rip the photo, it’s bad luck, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Well, this is another fine pickle I’ve gotten myself into! Not only have I got The Great Dreaded and Humiliating Photo Shoot tomorrow, I’ve also managed to talk myself into making up a weekly Optifast Meal Menu Plan for my favourite eldest daughter. And it has to be finished and emailed off to her tonight, otherwise she says she doesn’t know what she’s going to eat tomorrow! Me and my big mouth! 😉 Ah well – she’s a good girl, and new to this Optifast diet-thingy – I guess I can make her up a weeks worth of meals and then she can mix ‘n match from there. It’s just a matter of adding up calorie values, and converting them to kilojoules. If anything is going to throw my calculations out of whack it’ll be the fact that breakfasts have to be quick and easy, because she has to race off early to uni, and ditto with her lunches, because lunch time is when she’s usually in transit. Hmmm… An Optifast milkshake for breakfast. Package up 14 almonds for morning tea. An Optifast bar for lunch, one medium-sized carrot (raw) for afternoon tea, then one of the Optifast soups for dinner. She can make up some diet jellies for “dessert” after dinner, and because she’s not having the fiber from breakfast cereal, she can have three prunes sometime during the day as well. The trouble is, the carrot is on the Optifast “Free” list, so it doesn’t have a designated calorie value – I’m going to have to work that one out by Julian (he’s a very good calculator, don’tcha know! 😉 ) The dinner soups can be alternated with one of the Lean Cuisines listed on the Optifast site, and I might be able to talk her into eating breakfast cereal on weekends, when she doesn’t have to race off to catch the bus. So, there I am – finished all that – now I just have to make it look all neat and tidy in a Word table, add the calorie and kilojoule value to each component, and add the whole lot up at the end. Now all I have to worry about is that wretched photo shoot tomorrow. We’re supposed to be there between three and three thirty, but they said we could go in earlier, at one thirty, instead – that way we’d be able to see the photos tomorrow, instead of having to go all the way up to Ringwood again, later in the week. I keep telling myself “This time tomorrow evening will come!”, but it’s not calming me down any more than it did when I used to say it on my way to the dentist! I wish I could go to bed tonight and not wake up until Wednesday morning! But I’ll have to get up early tomorrow, cos I’ve got to fit my Stair Walk in before I wash my hair and get ready, and then find the time to fit in another Stair Walk before we actually leave. I dunno when we’re going to have lunch – I think I’ll just put an Optifast bar in my handbag, and eat it there… I’ll tell Julian to make himself a sandwich that he can take with him, tomorrow morning.

I wish it was Wednesday…

My favourite eldest daughter and I watched three or four new episodes of “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” after lunch – apparently there are still a few problems getting episodes of “Person of Interest”, and “The 100” – and now “Orphan Black” is back, so we have to start looking for episodes of that, as well! Good fun 🙂 I mean, it’s all so far-fetched – you really do have to suspend common sense and physics for the duration – but hey! Surely nobody really thinks that things like that could happen, do they? It’s a bit of fun escapism – which does the soul good, every now and then 🙂 When himself left to drive Lee home, I went with them as far as the lift, and then headed off to the fire escape for my evening Stair Walk – it really does save me a lot of time if I get this blog started early! Besides, I’ve just bought myself a new Big Fish Solitaire game, “The Far Kingdoms: Age of Solitaire”, for the vast and exorbitant sum of $7.30! It’s a bit corny, but the solitaire game itself it fairly good – if you’re the type who gets bored easily, and you need something to take your mind off things for a while, it’s worth a “free – try before you buy” look at for thirty minutes.

Weigh-in this morning. Was pretty good, for a change! I went down 3 points to 94.2kg – which means, I suppose, that unless I manage to worry another couple of points off, thanks to the [censored] photo shoot tomorrow, I’ll probably be back at 94.5kg in the morning! I hope not, but one never knows one’s luck in this body…

So, there it is – not a terribly exciting day – as it turns out, I didn’t go out looking for tops to wear, I looked in the My Size and the Autograph online catalogues, and wrote the style number and size down for Julian and Lee to pick up (well, when else was I going to get a chance to collect from, and re-set my Minions today?! 😉 ) I got two – one purple (my favourite colour! 🙂 ) with a black swirly rose design on it, and black sort-of patch pockets (it’s really rather “dressy”!), and another one, in purple (well – it’s really more of a “magenta“) black, and gray horizontal stripes, and buttons from the neck down to just below the bust line – I think it’s what they’re calling “smart casual” these days. And, I completely forgot that I also have a beautiful long-sleeved black velvet top – which is very much “party” wear – so I’ll take that with me too! (mind you, I haven’t tried the two new ones on yet, but they’re size “S” (small!) the same as the black velvet one, and I know that that one fits me, so these should too… they’re all made by the same company, anyway!) I think three different tops and two different pairs of slacks should be sufficient for any photo shoot! (Oh! I wish it was this time tomorrow night!) Anyway, as soon as I get home tomorrow afternoon/evening, and I’ve done my Stair Walk, I’ll tantalize you all first, by telling you all sorts of other trivial news, like what my weight was in the morning, and lots of other stuff like that. Then (and only then!) will I tell you all about the photo shoot, what the photos are like, and if they look any good (but I doubt it! I do not photograph well – I always look as though I’m about to burst into tears or something! ) Anyone want a copy, if they do (by some miracle, or Photoshop magic) turn out alright? No? 🙂 I thought not! I don’t blame you – I don’t want them either – I’m only doing this for Julian! 🙂 So until this time tomorrow night – please try to contain your impatience, and remember to… bee good, don’t eat too many carrots – they turn your skin a funny orange colour, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

This morning we started our Rifting a little later than we’d planned – my favourite eldest daughter rang me with an Optifast problem. She’s a lot more overweight than I was when I stated this diet last August, and she’s (finally!) accepted the fact that if she doesn’t do something about her weight, she might not be around much longer. She’s already been getting some chest pains (though after a grueling series of tests, heart disease has been ruled out, thank heavens!) and she has quite a bit of trouble with her joints – she gets exhausted walking more than a house block. Her husband was recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, which he’s holding in check with a healthier diet, and there’s the worry that she might develop Diabetes too (it runs on both sides of both sides of our family) Anyway, she’s decided to take a leaf out of my book and use Optifast to kick-start her weight loss – but because people (including her husband, who should know better!) gave her real chocolate Easter Eggs over Easter, instead of prettily dyed hard-boiled ones, of course they had to be “disposed of” before she could start dieting. She ate her last chocolate Easter Egg this morning – the diet starts “officially” with tomorrow’s breakfast. The problem that she rang me about this morning was that she couldn’t work out the Optifast site’s menu planner – it didn’t seem to work properly. I had pretty much the same problem, when I started getting everything set up for my diet last year. Besides, I didn’t like the way that they had what I considered to be “silly” things, or badly thought out meals, like a big bowl of stir fried vegetables for morning tea, or a curried something-or-other for afternoon tea. I just felt it was all wrong. So what I did (and which I will explain to her in greater detail tomorrow morning when she comes over) – what I did was count the calories that Optifast allocated to each meal and snack, and then worked out from their fruit and vegetable chart, what I could substitute for those weird choices for so-called “snacks” (and from the pictures provided, didn’t even look vaguely appetizing!) In the end, the “personalised” menu that I made up had quite a few calories less than the more “official” (and gross sounding!) Optifast one, but was still balanced and nutritious – I took it along to my doctor to see what she thought of it, and she OK’d it as “sensible and well thought out”. I can see though why the Optifast site recommends that you follow their diet under the supervision of a Medical Practitioner – it would be too easy to “mix and match” your own version (like I did, but without the moderation of Medical advice) but overdo the Milkshakes and Desserts, and neglect things like fibre and vitamins. I see my doctor about once every two months, for a chat, a catch-up, and a blood pressure check. She also makes sure I get regular blood tests, too, and as she’s also Lee’s doctor, I know Dr. B. will pull Lee up if she’s not doing things properly – as will I! 🙂

So, we entered Dusken a little later than we’d planned, and when Julian grizzled a bit, I said “Well, we’ll just have to fight faster!” I don’t know if we fought any faster, but I know we sure fought harder! At one stage we came across one of my most hated types of Rift – Hell Bugs, with lots of (terribly phallic looking) tower thingies – I think they’re called ‘Blast Pods’, or something, which keep stunning you. Himself had the bright idea of “Hey! Let’s close this Rift, shall we?” – to which I think I muttered something along the lies of “*sob* we’re all going to die! *sob*” – and in we plunged! Well, miraculously, we didn’t die! Not even once! We came very close to dying though, and we both had to use Feign Death a fair bit – I ran away a lot, too, and came back again when the Bugs stopped chasing me. In the end, we did manage to close the wretched Rift, on our own, too – but we left Hell Bug Rifts and Invasions strictly alone after that! 🙂 They’re tough sods, those Hell Bugs… (*shakes head grimly*) We actually finished Pelladane, the first (more-or-less baby and training) area in Dusken, today – and have moved into the next area along, Seratos. It’s quite a large area and will probably take us a couple of weeks to complete (well, we very seldom play during the week – we mainly only play on Sundays!) We were both very pleased with our progress so far – we actually went up two whole levels! Which is really quite remarkable, seeing that when you get to about level 48 or so, leveling  up really starts to  s-l-o-w  d-o-w-n  a whole lot! And when you’re handing in completed quests, but can hardly see the experience bar move – well, it can be very discouraging, leveling up so slowly, so it’s not surprising that we’re so pleased that we went up two levels! 🙂 We’re both level 52 now… Only 13 more levels to go! 😉

Weigh-in this morning. Was boring! I stayed the same – 94.5kg …again! Well, at least it wasn’t up, which is something – I suppose that’ll happen tomorrow morning (*glum look*) I’d better not go up too much though – I’m out of “dates” room on the (graph) page before, and I haven’t allowed for anything higher (heavier) than a “.5kg” on the current page.  If the worst comes to the worst (and let’s face it – this is me we’re talking about – and my weight is likely to skyrocket on me, just to be mean, and to make me feel  miserable!) I’ll just have to tear the page out and make another chart, allowing for heavier weights…

Is it dinner time already?! – just as well I’ve already done my evening Stair Walk! 🙂 Back later… (tick-tock, tick-tock) It’s now later, and I’m back! 🙂 We’ve just finished watching Game of Thrones, Season 4, Episode 2 – Thank goodness! Nasty little King Joffrey is finally… no more 🙂 Great books, extremely well done series by HBO – I just hope I don’t die of old age before George R. R. Martin finishes the damn series! (I hope he doesn’t die of old age before he finishes the damn series!) And so another day draws slowly towards a close… Tomorrow my favourite eldest daughter will be coming over – little does she know that she’s going to have to assist me in purchasing something… suitable… for this (very scary) photo shoot on Tuesday… I wonder if I should do my nails? They’re still a little bit too short to look good though… What sort of top should I be looking for? (forget dresses! I don’t wear dresses, my ankles are too deformed…) I’m not looking forward to Tuesday, I can tell you! Oh, I know! I might wake up with a migraine on Tuesday morning, mightn’t I?! What a shame! I’d have to miss the photo shoot! Wouldn’t that be awful! Just kidding, but I’m really not looking forward to it… Tomorrow after lunch will probably be taken up with watching episodes of either “Person of Interest”, and/or “The 100” – it shouldn’t take me too long to find a “smart casual” or “evening” top for Tuesday – if I go with Julian to pick Lee up, we can stop at The Glen on the way home – there’s a My Size as well as an Autograph there – I reckon we should be home before lunch time. And so… that’s about it from me for tonight  – I’ll let you know tomorrow night what I manage to procure in the way of a semi-glamorous top 🙂 and if you happen to hear what sounds like a cave full of bats fluttering around, don’t worry, it’ll only the kaleidoscope* of butterflies in my stomach, at the thought of the photo shoot. I’ll also fill you in on the major events of the day, and what we watched in the afternoon – I’ll probably even let you all know what my weight did, or didn’t do to me! So until this time tomorrow night – bee good, make sure you mend the hole in the butterfly net, and above all… stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*I didn’t know what a large number of butterflies was called, so I looked it up: What is a group of butterflies called? a Kaleidoscope. Also known as a swarm, rabble or flutter.

Well, didn’t the day start out miserably this morning! I liked it though! Lovely grey skies, cold, but not freezing – nice wintry weather! 🙂 When we woke up, it was pouring with rain – not nice “going out in it” weather at all! Still, this is Melbourne! Don’t like the weather? Give it a few minutes, and it’ll change… or so they say 🙂 However by the time we’d made our morning ablutions, I’d been on my pre-breakfast Stair Walk, and we’d broken our fast, it was still raining. So we didn’t go rug hunting today, after all! Instead we made a shopping list, and himself braved the (still nasty) weather and went over the road to do the shopping – and to have a hair cut – he was looking decidedly… er… like a Plushie toy! (there you go, dear 🙂 I didn’t say that word that you don’t like! You know the one, “fluffy“! 😉 ) In hindsight, I probably should have gone out this morning – goodness know when we’ll be able to go rug hunting now! Tomorrow’s Sunday, and our day for walloping nasty creatures in Dusken, so tomorrow’s out… Monday, my favourite eldest daughter is coming over – after I go shopping for some suitable clothes… because…. Tuesday is the day we have our photos taken – you remember, we got the nice gift-type voucher for a photo shoot from our Vets? Yes, well, it’s some time on Tuesday – but they haven’t contacted us to tell us what time to arrive yet. Apparently I’m to turn up with no makeup on, and my hair freshly washed but not styled in any way – their makeup artists and (I presume) hairdresser will do all of that (why am I getting the sudden urge to flee the country?! Rio sounds good – maybe we could go there?!) I hate having my photo taken at the best of times (because I’m horribly UN-photogenic! I look hideous in all photos, I kid you not!…), and trusting a complete stranger to do my makeup? All of a sudden, I’m just a teeny bit terrified! 😦 The reason for the new clothes? They also said to bring a couple of changes of clothing with us – for different “looks” – and all I have are casual tops (most of which are now miles too big for me!) and a few pairs of slacks (also a little on the large side!) I should get something a bit more dressy… which will be a gross waste of money because I’ll never wear it again – we don’t “do” dressy type places… So it’ll be Wednesday before we can even consider looking for rugs… Oh well, we’ve lived without a rug in the lounge room for |< this >| long – I guess we can wait another couple of days! 🙂

While himself was out in the weather doing the shopping, I was having a ball creating “Wardrobe Sets” on Rift! This new way of handling gear and items of clothing is really good! In the past, if you looked at what some other character was wearing and thought: “Hey! That’s cool! I’d like to wear something like that!”, you’d have to go off to the Auction House (or the Rift Shop – but more usually the Auction House) and try to buy an identical item of clothing. Now, just as in “real life”, there are (believe it or not!) “Fashion” trends in Rift. Certain items of clothing (or weapons) become popular, and everyone starts wanting them… and everyone who can make that item – or can go and “farm” for it if it’s a “drop” (an item that “drops” from a certain type of creature which you can kill) does so – and even if that item would normally be worth only a few pieces of silver, because it’s become popular, the sellers can, and do, ask exorbitant prices for these items… and get them! Just like in real life! 🙂 If it’s popular, it’ll sell – never mind the price! But that’s not all! If you had more than one character, and you wanted both of them to wear that item, you’d have to buy two of them! You could only wear what you had on you, or in your bank! Now, however, only one character has to have the item (on them, or in their bank) and that item is automatically “copied” into a sort of “clothing pool”  – a “clothing pool” that’s shared between anyone on your account, regardless of shard! All of a sudden you can find yourself with hundreds of different outfits that you can mix and match and re-colour to your heart’s content! You can even add prettier, or more impressive weapons to the Wardrobe, regardless of whether your Class can even use it! If it’ll go in the “weapon slot” in the Wardrobe, you’ll look as though you’re using it (you won’t be, of course, you’ll still be using your “regular” weapon – it’ll just look like you’re using this really fancy-schmantzy sword, when you can really only use a staff!) Cool stuff! 🙂 I set all my characters on Hailol up this morning with two Wardrobe “sets” each, and I was half way through doing all my Laethys characters when I stopped to start writing this! (plus, I was getting a bit bored… even though I’d only been doing it for three or so hours 😉 ) I did do a bit of work on my Bookmarks wallpaper – it’s coming along slowly, and it’ll be really fantastic when it’s finished, but… you can’t really hurry these things along, y’know?

Weigh-in this morning. Maybe things are starting to settle down again – this morning was quite pleasing – down to 94.5kg – two points down on yesterday. I had to draw up another graph sheet! The “.5” mark was on the bottom line, so I’ve had to go over the page. Mind you, if I go up again tomorrow I’ll have to stay on the same page, but I’m all squished up in the bottom right hand corner of the page! I have only two more days marked off along the bottom – tomorrow (Sunday), and Monday – then I’ll have to go onto the next page, willy-nilly! 🙂 I hope I don’t go up though! I’ve started the new page at the 94.5kg mark!

So that was my day today – there’s not a hoot on TV tonight that’s worth watching, but himself brought me home a little present this morning 🙂 Season four of “Game of Thrones”! Hopefully we can watch an episode or two of that tonight (that, or a series that my favourite eldest daughter has lent us – an American version of Sherlock Holmes, called “Elementary” – with a (*gasp! shock! horror!*) female Dr. Watson!) I’m dying to see both of them! I’ll let you know what we watched, and what we thought of it/them/whatever! 🙂 So drop in again tomorrow night for a review of “Game of Thrones”, Season 4, Episode 1 (and maybe 2), and/or “Elementary” (Season 1, Episode 1) You’ll also get to hear how himself and I got on in our Rifting in Dusken, and whether we died or not (hopefully, “not”!) If I’m feeling particularly generous, I might even tell you how my weight went! 😉 (Down, preferably! 🙂 ) So until then, please bee good, try not to drip water on the floor, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

What??! It’s the end of the week, already??! But… but… it was Monday, only a couple of days ago, surely?! Where did the week go! *sigh* Oh well, I must have been too busy to notice it… Today was a lot better all round – we went over to Shoppingtown to have my Warfarin test – the results have just been SMS’d to us – seems my INR* is creeping back to where it should be, in order to prevent my blood clotting too readily (the cause of my two bouts of multiple blood clots in both lungs) and I’m to continue on my current dosage of rat poison (Warfarin – it thins your blood, which is exactly how rat poison works) My next test isn’t until May 15th, which means I’m doing well at the moment.  I also had a chance to have a good play around with all the new “cosmetic toys” in Rift  – and I had a look in the Shop for the new 30, and 36 slot bags! Fergit it, Freddie! The cost of those bags makes the new fangled Dye Buckets wot I bought for 16200 Credits yesterday look cheap and tawdry! (er…and I’m not going to tell you how much it cost in real $$ to buy those Credits, either! Let’s just say, as my maternal Grandmother and her sister used to say: “It cost a lot of money!”) and anyway, you can only buy the bigger, 36 slot “Crafting” bag with special, extremely difficult to get, and hard to make Craft rewards. Nah… I think I’ll give those two a miss for the moment! When I make my first million platinum on the Auction House, then I’ll buy… one… Our cleaning lady arrived at about 11.30am, and sat and chatted on about how good my hair colour was, and how different I looked (having lost a bit of weight in the month since she saw me last) I got exactly the same reaction from the blood test lady, and from one of the guys over in the Valet parking area across the road (I like using the Valet Parking facilities – it’s clean, it’s quiet, it’s uncluttered, and you don’t have to drive, bumper to bumper, around the parking lot a few times, waiting for someone to pull out so that you can grab what is probably the most inconvenient parking space in the whole of the Shoppingtown parking area! In the Valet area, you pull up, get your bits and pieces out of the car, and walk off – the guys there park the car for you, and it’s all quick, clean, and efficient. It costs about $12 to park there, but it’s true value for money, I reckon) Anyway, I haven’t seen one of the guys there for yonks – but he was there today, and gushed on about how different I looked (and how nice my hair colour is! I hope you’re reading this, Josh!) and how much weight I’ve lost… which is all well and good, I pointed out to him, but I still have another 24 kilos to lose! There’s got to be some sort of moral to all that, you know, how you feel proud, and good about yourself, because you’ve accomplished something – and then you think of how much further you still have to go, and with a mental screech of brakes, it sort of pulls you back down to earth again with a painful “crash (tinkle tinkle)” *sigh* Still, this time next year will come! I should be through with this diet before the end of the year, hopefully (“should” being the operative word there!) Just think! I’ll be able to have some Christmas Dinner this year! 🙂

After lunch, I started doing a bit of work on my Bookmarks wallpaper… it’s not working out quite the way I wanted it to, or expected it to, either – it seems to have taken on a life of its own, and is insisting on going its own way… surprisingly well! It’s… very different – what else can I say? It’s (probably a bit like me, actually!) extravagant, flamboyant, eccentric… slightly paranoid, definitely neurotic… but nice, in an overblown sort of way 🙂 I can’t wait to see what it’ll be like when it’s finished! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Much more pleasing! Down three points to 94.7kg – but don’t worry, I’ll probably go back up again tomorrow… However, I’m happy to report that finally… finally… I can see a difference in my stomach and thighs. I’m definitely thinner, and about two dress sizes less than I was when I first met Julian, back in 1986. Up until now, I’ve looked at myself in the mirror and thought (to myself) “I can’t see any difference – I still look like a blimp!” Now, I look and think “Oh look! My legs are actually beginning to look thin(ish)!” Mind you, without the clothes to hold everything in and make me look “neat”, I really do look pretty horrendous – lots of loose skin, looking like raggy-daggy, badly hung drapes… I feel that there are going to be a few tummy, thigh, and arm “tucks” in the future! (and a face lift! Don’t forget the face lift!) 😉

So there it is – “My Day, by Winter Thyme!” – a somewhat better day than I’ve been having, anyway. Let’s see what the future brings… Tomorrow, I believe we’re going rug shopping. I said to himself, “Where?”, to which he replied, somewhat impatiently, “Well, we’ll have to look, won’t we!” – so I guess that’s my next job – researching rug shops online! (Why do I always have to get the “fun” jobs!) I also have my letter writing to do – I think. Yesterday was an extremely difficult day – I’m not sure where to go from here. Sort of “Full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes!” (actually, the correct quote is “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”, but why quibble?) So, from rugs, to writing, to… looking for antique restorers. And Optometrists. Himself and I both need to have our eyes tested again – I can hardly see the screen, with these so-called “computer glasses”, and he’s in the same boat. Over the years we’ve been to just about every Optometrist over the road, and a few elsewhere, but they always seem to get it wrong! I mean, they test your eyes, one at a time, and try to get each one right, individually. But does anyone look at things with only one eye at a time? I don’t! However, if I do close one eye and look at the screen, after a second or so everything comes into focus, and I can see the screen. Then, if I close that eye and look at the screen with the other one, the same thing happens – and I can see the screen fairly well. But… if I open both eyes and look at the screen – bingo! Everything’s blurry! So looking for a good Optometrist, and looking for a good antique restorer is somewhat like buying a pig in a poke. You just don’t know what you’re going to get, which can sometimes turn out to be an expensive business! Anyway, tune in again tomorrow night, and see if we’ve managed to find a suitable rug for the lounge room. Look for news on my upcoming Bookmarks wallpaper, and what my weight decided to do to surprise me this time! There’ll be lots of news for everyone tomorrow night, so don’t miss out! But until then, please continue to bee good, “watch out for that tree!”, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*INR = International Normalised Ratio (the rate at which one’s blood clots)

Quite an exciting day all round, today! 🙂 Last night as I was starting to finish off with Rift, sorting out and re-setting my Minions, a small and polite message flashed up in the middle of my screen, informing me that the server was coming down for an upgrade, in 10 minutes, and to please get somewhere safe – the server was expected to be down for three hours. WoW! Shades of, anyway… 🙂 When we were part of the World of Warcraft stable, a player who went by the name of “Oxhorn” used to write many humorous songs about the lives of different characters in the game, all sung to well known tunes. One of our favourites was set to the tune of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, and told of the miseries of being in the middle of a miss-matched group, trying (unsuccessfully) to run a Raid. The end of the chorus stated “And the thing that makes us frown, is that the server’s coming down…. in just fifteen” – well, I guess you just had to have been there, but it was the sort of catchcry that every WoW player knew, dreaded, and sighed glumly over (mainly because nothing worked properly for a few days after a big upgrade, until all the “bugs” were ironed out!) Well, it appears that Rift is no different! No mere “patch” this! This was a gigantic upgrade – 5 Gb worth! And yes, there were a few hiccups today (and no doubt there’ll be some tomorrow too – it was a very big upgrade!) As far as I can see, so far, they’re mainly cosmetic changes – the other, more mechanical game “tweeks” are not likely to affect Julian and me. There are new, larger bags both for sale from the Rift Shop, and as “recepies” from the Outfitter Trainer, to the point where I can see a lot more people paying to add another Skill to their list, in order to pick up Outfitting – just so that they can make these (much!) bigger bags! *gloom* More bad news for the Auction House… The most interesting changes were made to the Wardrobe. Sometimes the “really great armor” that you’re wearing looks pretty crappy, and of course, everyone likes to look as pretty, as decorative, as imposing, or as strong – as possible, so we were given “Wardrobes”, where we could hide our pretty crappy looking but strong, durable and magical armor under a costume. Anything from fancy-schmantzy voluminous robes, right down to fairy costumes. And we could change the colour of both proper gear, and costumes, by buying various colour dyes! Now, they’ve added weapons to the Wardrobe, so that you can disguise your weapons to look more bad-ass, or more dainty – whichever floats your boat! All good stuff! Mind you, the new “cache” of “special” dyes costs a Pope and an Emperor’s ransom, at 16200 Credits – but – it’s a once off, they’re Account Bound (everyone on your account gets them), and you can use them as much as you like and they never run out! Of course, there was more to the upgrade than just the Wardrobe stuff, but I simply haven’t had the time to look into them today. I didn’t even get a chance to work on any of my graphics! 😦

The other exciting thing that happened today was that our new coffee table arrived this morning! 🙂 It’s not as big as I thought it was going to be (I was expecting it to be “squarer” for some reason) but it’s really nice, and I like it – it looks a better size in the room (especially without a rug – the floor looks big and bare without one!) than the old one. Speaking of which, Julian was going to start removing the tiles from the old table – we had intended having the tiles made into three wall plaques, or hangings, while the rest of the old table was destined for the tip. Instead of the tiles being loose under the glass table top, as we had thought, we found that… someone (probably my father, actually) had glued them onto the wood. Two of them are already broken, one rather badly (and equally as badly “repaired“! Probably not by my father, in this case!) I do want to have the two broken tiles properly “restored”, and we do have to have them taken off the wood so that they can be properly framed in three lots of six – Julian thinks we could take the whole table top to a picture framer, but picture framers don’t do tile restorations, and I think the tiles would look… not good… in a coffee table sized frame hanging on the wall! No, they have to go to a restorer, if I can find one – and how do you know if they’re any good anyway? My mother once sent an antique ceramic seagull off to a “restorer” because it had a crack down its back. They had it for months, and when we got it back, it looked worse than it had when we sent it off! It’s a shame I don’t remember the name of that restorer, so I could be sure not to take the tiles there! (actually, they’re probably not in business anymore – if the work they did on the seagull was an example of their “expertise”! Good! So that means I don’t have to worry about “accidentally” taking the tiles there! 😉 ) Now, the only things left to do in the lounge room are… get a rug for the floor, get the curtains changed, clean the black marks off the wall where one of the paintings fell down years ago, and double wall off the section of window opposite the television, so that we have some hanging space! Nearrrly finito! 😉 Poor Flipper nearly had a fit when the delivery men man-handled the new coffee table into the lounge room this morning – she’d been sound asleep in her cat cave on the couch, and all of a sudden there was a lot of loud noise, clomping feet, strange men, and an extremely large box! Julian had to scoop up a terrified, horrified, squirming cat, convinced that Armageddon had come – and bundle her off down to the safety of the Den 🙂 Poor little girl! She’s deliberately ignoring the new coffee table now! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Not nice. I wish my body would decide whether it was supposed to be losing weight, or gaining weight! I went up a point to 95.0kg! Not! Happy! Jan! Who knows what it’ll decide to do tomorrow morning – probably go back up to 99kg! 😦

Tomorrow I’m off for my Warfarin test again – I was supposed to go today, but I was feeling distinctly off-colour last night – everything ached horribly, my head felt stuffy, and my nose couldn’t decide whether to run, or remain blocked up. We decided that perhaps I shouldn’t go out today, so I didn’t. I’ll have the blood test tomorrow… and I’ll be able to tell you tomorrow night if they’ve decided to increase my dose of rat poison or not 🙂 (I call it “rat poison”, because that’s basically what it is! True!) Our cleaning lady will be here tomorrow, which will be good – the place is looking decidedly “unkempt”, but it’ll also mean that I won’t get as much of a chance to do anything meaningful tomorrow, as she’ll want to talk (at least while she talks, I don’t have to! 😉 ) Anyway, that’s about it from me for tonight – drop by again tomorrow night and find out if my rat poison dose has been changed, whether or not Flipper has decided to acknowledge the new coffee table, and whether my body has finally managed to work out that it’s supposed to be losing weight, not gaining it! So, gentle readers, until this time tomorrow night, bee good, please pass the mustard, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

And now it’s Wednesday. Wednesdays are good, as far as Rift is concerned – on Wednesday nights we get two Patron’s gifts, instead of  just the one nightly bag of goodies, which usually consists of one Artifact (which I immediately pass on to my two main receivers of Artifacts, Satai on Hailol, and Jademoss on Laethys) and a couple of useless (to me, anyway) tokens towards the obtaining of better PVP gear. What is PVP, you ask? It stands for “Player Versus Player”, and it’s where some very strange players don’t think that it’s fun enough to run around bashing computer generated monsters, and getting experience, earning platinum, and gaining Reputation by doing so… Oh, dear me no! They think it’s much more fun to run around bashing each other to pieces, and getting experience, earning platinum, and gaining Notoriety by doing so. There is a dedicated shard, just for PVP players, called Seastone, but anyone can turn their PVP flag on whenever they like and whichever shard they’re on, but it’s usually regarded as a bit…. uncouth. So anyway, that’s what’s usually in the “nightly” Patron’s gift box. The weekly Patron’s gift box is usually just a little bit more exciting. In that, we generally get a piece of either blue or magenta gear (much, and much, much better enhancements than “normal” gear, respectively) which is “Bound To Account”, so if you don’t want or need it, you can pass it along to another one of your characters, who might appreciate it a bit more than you didn’t 🙂 There’s also a special key, which can be used to open extremely rare and hard to come by “Locked Boxes”, but in all the years I’ve been playing Rift, and with all the hundreds of characters that I have, I’ve only ever found a Locked Box…. once! I think Julian’s found one twice…They are, as I said, extremely rare – and yet here we are, being given keys for them, once a week! – go figure! 🙂 The third item in the weekly gift is…. a chest. No, not one of the exotically rare “Locked Boxes”, a locked chest, or crate. Trion make a big deal about how you could get the current, fancy Mount out of it, or Dimension keys, or a new Pet…. or… or… something fabulous, anyway! The most noteworthy item I’ve ever received out of one of those chests has been a Soulbound (so that I couldn’t give it to anyone else!) piece of pretty ordinary armor that I wasn’t able to use anyway Julian’s had some interesting finds though – he’s had a couple of nice Mounts, some actually not too bad armor, and I think he got a rather fancy Mace out of a chest at one stage, too…. So there is good gear to be had from the chests – it’s just that sour grapes me never seems to! 😉 These little presents are doled out from the Rift store after nine o’clock at night, so this morning I just Rifted. Chrysanthemum could have finished off in Stonefield last night, but it was dark, and there were Rifts all over the place – and I didn’t much like my chances of completing the quest under those conditions. There’s this great big giant of a Titan, who looks like a vastly overgrown Darth Vader (complete with the black, Darth Vader helmet, too!) that you have to locate, and then “lure” him in front of some magical cannons which will weaken him enough so that you can finish him off. I much prefer to do it in daylight, so that I can keep an eye on roaming mobs, and I also prefer it if there are no Rifts pouring out all sorts of nasties that you really don’t want, or have the time to have to deal with, when you’re busy playing Delilah to a gigantic Darth Vader! So I did that this morning instead 🙂 I was then supposed to go on to Scarlet Gorge, but I really don’t like it very much – I always get lost, and I’m not terribly fond of the end Rift that you have to close. The only other choice I had was Iron Pine Peak, and I don’t really like that place, either! It’s always snowing! It’s always snowing so hard that half the time I can’t find my own cursor amongst the snow flakes! However, it was a change from Scarlet Gorge, so I went there. Well, actually I spent quite a long time trying to find out how to get there, without having to go through Scarlet Gorge. After wasting more than half an hour on Google looking for a way in, the forums (plural) consensus was that you do have to run right through Scarlet Gorge, through the Guardian settlement in the north, dodge all the guards on the way to the rickety wooden elevator, ride up it, accelerate your Mount hard, and just bowl your way through the Guards at the top, where you can then charge off into Gloamwood, a Guardian occupied territory. It’s a barrel of laughs, if you’re a Guardian, but not quite so much fun if you’re a Defiant. Which I am. This time around.

This afternoon I waded through 94 pages of Brusheezy Photoshop brushes, looking for swirly brushes for my Bookmarks wallpaper. The styles were just not cooperating, and I was starting to wonder if it wasn’t the styles that were the problem, but the shape of the element (in this case, a font) that I was using… I finally got through all 94 pages about an hour and a half ago – and ended up not having enough time to play around with my new brushes I had just acquired, so I’ll have to leave that until tomorrow. I’ll let you know how they go… 🙂

Weigh-in this morning… Pretty good, actually – well, a start, anyway. Down two points to 94.9kg. I need to get down below 90kg by July 21st, and I fear that time is running out! Perhaps I should graft that fourth Stair Walk in on the way back to the Den after watching TV in the evenings… I’d jump up and down, but I don’t want to damage the building (or give any of the older denizens a heart attack!) but I gotta get rind of more than 4kg, in 97 days! Please wish me luck! 🙂

So, I’m not quite sure what’s happening tomorrow – I’ll probably be doing what I seem to be doing every day – Rifting in the morning, graphic-ing in the afternoon, with a bit of letter writing in between – though next week, I might switch it around, and graphic in the morning, and Rift in the afternoons, but still with the bit of letter writing in between – just for a change! 🙂 I was looking at my fingernails a few minutes ago – you know, I just might be able to get away with painting them next week! Wouldn’t that be cool! 🙂 It can’t be that long since I last did them, but it feels like months! Anyhoo, tomorrow it’ll be Rifting, Writing, and Graphic-ing – same old, same old. I sure hope my weight continues to drop! Oh, I forgot to mention! I did manage to get myself to Iron Pine Peak this morning – just as well I have an extra fast Mount though! I squeaked through, made my way to the elevator, went up it to all the snow, talked to the guy up there who gives you your first quests… and an Invasion Event started! The first thing I did on Iron Pine Peak was die! Three times! Looking at my Soul Tree (where I put my experience points!) to see if I’d done anything wrong, I couldn’t believe that I’d made such a stupid, fundamental mistake as to not give myself Feign Death as soon as I possibly could! I usually sacrifice Crowd Control abilities for a stronger pet, and Feign Death! Arrrggghh! That shall be rectified first thing tomorrow morning! Time for my evening Stair Walk – back shortly… Ecco mi! Sono ritornato! 🙂  (Here I am! I’m back! 🙂 ) Now, where was I? Oh yes (*dark look*) That was a truly unforgivable mistake on my part! I think I was so intent on getting a very nice Crowd Control ability that I lost sight of the really important things about being a Warlock-Necromancer Mage! Being able to Play Possum! Oh well, we live and learn! 🙂 (but I should have known better!) Anyway, drop by again tomorrow night – see if I’ve shed any more weight (or gone back up again!), and if I’ve managed to fix the problem with my Soul Tree! Hopefully I’ll have managed to get somewhere with these new Photoshop brushes that I picked up today (preliminary tests look… interesting?) and with a lot of luck, I might even have managed to incorporate them into my blog theme (but don’t count on it! 🙂 ) And that’s about it from me for tonight – all that’s left for me to do now is to tell you all: Bee good, remember to take the garbage out tonight, and, above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂