A week in the life of the Shmack
My Lush order still hasn't come yet. The grab bags aren't expected to all be sent out until Tuesday, but I'm feeling really anxious about it. Might call tomorrow morning to double check the order went through (as apparently some people had problems, argh). If there's an issue with the order, I swear I'm going to hurt something or someone. It'll probably end up being some sort of food item, I tend to take my anger out on eggs.
Anyway.
I was productive last week despite it being Olly's first week "back to work" in a very long time. It was odd, having him suddenly be gone and having to be the stay-at-home mom. The internship which was promised to him is actually just a possibility of an internship placement, and the general "job" is bullshit which won't count for anything on a resume, so it's frustrating, but hopefully he'll get something out of it. But back to productivity- I had Olly and Claire go over to his parents' house on Tuesday evening and I got a lot of work done on my project. Thursday, I met with my supervisor and he okayed my sound files for the experiment. I'm doing trial testing next week, and hopefully I can get the actual testing done the week after that. It's good to be on the practical part of the project, finally.
Tuesday a few people came over for Pancake Day, and it was a nice relaxing experience. Made pancakes from scratch, and by the second batch I'd changed a few things in the recipe to make some pretty yummy pancakes, if I do say so myself. Claire had a lot of fun with Steve's daughter, Faith, even though I think she was too much at some points. She's definitely got some sort of recessive un-shy gene, that's for sure. At least, for kids her age- adults she can be frightened of but never with children. Anyway, I made American pancakes (rather than the British crépe-like ones which are typically served with lemon juice and sugar or filled with fruit) and they were well-received by the Brits. Claire, was somewhat wary of the blueberry pancakes, but once I made a batch of chocolate-chip pancakes, she was in love.
Thursday night I went out with some friends from Uni. We'd never really hung out at night before- so our drinking has always been contained to a pint or two over lunch. It was a blast, complete with card games and anti-social conversation in crowded restaurants, and it was very obvious by the end which two of us were the general non-drinkers. Steve and I got ourselves so silly that we couldn't stop laughing, while Kate and Adrian watched us, amused at the oldies who can't handle their liquor. We're already planning more outings and get-togethers, mostly because Steve's going to be a dad again at the beginning of March, and after that his chances of freedom are going to be slim for a while- and we'll all be graduated and gone soon... If only we'd needed the excuse to hang out in our first year! Having no classes together this term has really made us make time for hanging out, that's for sure.
Saturday, Chris came to stay. It's always fun to hang out with him, and though we were both exhausted and Chris was sick, I think (and hope) it was still a pretty decent weekend. Punctuated with shopping, Nandos, and movie-watching galore, was relaxing and just generally a nice time.
Today while we were in town seeing Chris off, we finally got to Debenhams to spend the multiple gift cards we'd been given for Christmas presents. We asked for them as we never really got good quality pillows and such when we were married, and had really only one set of nice-quality sheets. Ended up using all but £1 buying: 13.5 tog feather-touch quilt made up of both 4.5 tog and 9 tog quilts which go together to make the thicker one (essentially 3 quilts in one- thin, medium, or thick, also came with a free vacuum-seal bag to store the extra quilt in when it's not in use), a quilt cover with matching pillowcases, 200 thread-count 100% Egyptian cotton percale sheets and extra pillow-cases (we use 4 pillows, quilt cover set came with 2), and two new "dreamfill" pillows. The sheets and quilt set are all creams and browns, I'll take a picture of the pattern when the bed is all made up as I can't find one online. It's really gorgeous, and totally not was I was looking for- isn't that how it always is? Now I just need a few matching throws to go with it.
Anyway.
I was productive last week despite it being Olly's first week "back to work" in a very long time. It was odd, having him suddenly be gone and having to be the stay-at-home mom. The internship which was promised to him is actually just a possibility of an internship placement, and the general "job" is bullshit which won't count for anything on a resume, so it's frustrating, but hopefully he'll get something out of it. But back to productivity- I had Olly and Claire go over to his parents' house on Tuesday evening and I got a lot of work done on my project. Thursday, I met with my supervisor and he okayed my sound files for the experiment. I'm doing trial testing next week, and hopefully I can get the actual testing done the week after that. It's good to be on the practical part of the project, finally.
Tuesday a few people came over for Pancake Day, and it was a nice relaxing experience. Made pancakes from scratch, and by the second batch I'd changed a few things in the recipe to make some pretty yummy pancakes, if I do say so myself. Claire had a lot of fun with Steve's daughter, Faith, even though I think she was too much at some points. She's definitely got some sort of recessive un-shy gene, that's for sure. At least, for kids her age- adults she can be frightened of but never with children. Anyway, I made American pancakes (rather than the British crépe-like ones which are typically served with lemon juice and sugar or filled with fruit) and they were well-received by the Brits. Claire, was somewhat wary of the blueberry pancakes, but once I made a batch of chocolate-chip pancakes, she was in love.
Thursday night I went out with some friends from Uni. We'd never really hung out at night before- so our drinking has always been contained to a pint or two over lunch. It was a blast, complete with card games and anti-social conversation in crowded restaurants, and it was very obvious by the end which two of us were the general non-drinkers. Steve and I got ourselves so silly that we couldn't stop laughing, while Kate and Adrian watched us, amused at the oldies who can't handle their liquor. We're already planning more outings and get-togethers, mostly because Steve's going to be a dad again at the beginning of March, and after that his chances of freedom are going to be slim for a while- and we'll all be graduated and gone soon... If only we'd needed the excuse to hang out in our first year! Having no classes together this term has really made us make time for hanging out, that's for sure.
Saturday, Chris came to stay. It's always fun to hang out with him, and though we were both exhausted and Chris was sick, I think (and hope) it was still a pretty decent weekend. Punctuated with shopping, Nandos, and movie-watching galore, was relaxing and just generally a nice time.
Today while we were in town seeing Chris off, we finally got to Debenhams to spend the multiple gift cards we'd been given for Christmas presents. We asked for them as we never really got good quality pillows and such when we were married, and had really only one set of nice-quality sheets. Ended up using all but £1 buying: 13.5 tog feather-touch quilt made up of both 4.5 tog and 9 tog quilts which go together to make the thicker one (essentially 3 quilts in one- thin, medium, or thick, also came with a free vacuum-seal bag to store the extra quilt in when it's not in use), a quilt cover with matching pillowcases, 200 thread-count 100% Egyptian cotton percale sheets and extra pillow-cases (we use 4 pillows, quilt cover set came with 2), and two new "dreamfill" pillows. The sheets and quilt set are all creams and browns, I'll take a picture of the pattern when the bed is all made up as I can't find one online. It's really gorgeous, and totally not was I was looking for- isn't that how it always is? Now I just need a few matching throws to go with it.