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August 29th, 2007 21:09
There are two mysteries that I do not understand.
1) What is a date (the food) before it becomes a date? Can you eat them before they are all dried up? I do not understand. I have seen dried figs and fresh figs, prunes and plums, raisins and grapes, apricots and dried apricots. But I have never seen a fresh date. When Biblical-era people ate dates, were they fresh or dried?
2) There is a mysterious smell here in Australia. It smells *exactly* like a skunk,but is not a skunk. I know it is not a skunk because there ARE no skunks in Australia. And yet—sometimes, walking in the bush, or driving, or whatever, the air is filled with that stench that is painfully, unmistakably, gaggingly skunk. So if there are no skunks here in Australia, what IS that smell?
When I’ve been around Aussies and smelled the skunk stench, I point it out but they inevitably cannot smell it. I howl and insist and they tell me that it just smells like the outdoors. As if! But other Americans look around with a haunted expression and it baffles them just as much as it baffles me: I know; I’ve asked.
Mysteries.
August 28th, 2007 7:48
I’m not usually a complainer, but I don’t know how much more I can stand this.
*Every night* I wake up sweating in pain, no matter how many painkillers I take before going to bed. I have to sleep sitting upright with a hot water bottle on me and that is so uncomfortable that I wake up even more.
I have eaten my way through my entire collection of painkillers except some leftover Panadol which is useless. I can’t buy Advil fast enough—I chew through it as soon as have it. And half the time painkillers don’t even work, regardless.
Breathing stabs: eating makes me feel sick even though I’m too hungry not to. And I think this damned disease is progressing because I am getting pains in my abdomen as well that I did not have before. I’m so tired from interrupted sleep that driving is really becoming difficult. I so very nearly had an accident with a motorcycle on my way home from work yesterday. He was doing some fast dodgy motorcycle thing and I could barely react quickly enough.
Diagnostic surgery is next week but that is just diagnostic: it’s not gonna fix anything. If they find anything (and I say “if” because when it comes to medical issues, I never seem to fall into the realm of the normal/obvious so I wouldn’t be surprised if they said they *couldn’t* find anything and it’s all in my head) I won’t be able to afford a real operation for the next year or so.
I hate being a pathetic whiner, but I am so discouraged. I’m making my very best effort to stay upbeat and normal but this pain is eating me alive.
August 23rd, 2007 19:36
Over the past couple of weeks I have become obsessed with two things: miso soup and Facebook Scrabble.
I never used to like miso soup. When I’ve gotten it in restaurants, it always tastes bland and creepy to me. But I bought some miso paste from the organic shop and it makes AWESOME miso soup! Throw in some fresh chives, parsley and coriander from the herb garden and you rock the house. I rock the house. The soup rocks the house? Whatever.
And yeah—Scrabble. I’m kicking ass. (Well, a little bit). When I was a kid, on the rare occasions my family was actually together we’d play Scrabble, and my mom would get all competitive and crazy, and I’d take an hour to make every move (agonizing, since I enjver had anything other than vowels anyway) and then my little sister would kick all our butts. Good times, good times. I love Facebook for making online Scrabble.
I was very proud for using an ancient history word: STOA. And TOMATO! I just made tomato. Worth crap but such a funny word to make in Scrabble.
It has been raining solid since we got back to Oz. I know it’s good for the land/drought/dam but it’s gotten old. I really dislike driving in a blinding downpour and everything is starting to smell mildewy and the dogs are in a bad mood because they won’t go in the yard and they have nothing better to do than fight.
But, on the bright side (hah) tomorrow’s Friday and we’re going to see Miss Saigon after work.
August 22nd, 2007 7:41
Not even a week back from our last travels and I have just bought plane tickets for our next travels!
This next one, however, is domestic, not international. It’ll be fun, though—we’re going to a rocket launch in South Australia in the last week of September.
The launch is in Woomera, which is completely flat and red and empty. I don’t know what rocket is being launched or why or exactly who is launching it but Zaubi was invited to go and he thus invited me! I’m looking forward to it: should be really cool.
Time to go to work!
August 20th, 2007 22:19
Sometimes I fell like I single-handedly keep the Australian ibuprofen industry in business.
I wonder how long it will be before I
1) Become immune to ibuprofen
2) contract some terrible condition from ibuprofen over-indulgence
Waiting to hear verification of surgery date by end of week. Bleh.
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Chloe (the spider that lives in the bathroom) is looking unwell. She has moved into the bathtub and has been sitting there all day. I wonder if she is on her last legs (pun intended as she has only 4 of them)?
Bed.
August 19th, 2007 7:42
So we bought another washing machine yesterday (I can’t believe I’m posting about this on LJ). Actually, it’s very cool: it is slightly larger than the old one yet more compact, it is a front-loader and thus uses only 2/5 the amount of water than the other one, which means I will be able to do laundry without feeling severe guilt complex due to drought. Plust you can put stuff on top of it since it opens from the front. Most entertainingly of all, it actually doubles as a dryer. I’ve heard of these but never seen them before: the same very machine can act as a clothes dryer as well as a washer.
Of course, it wouldn’t do if we still lived in Boston, because it can only dry a half-sized load and takes longer than a normal dryer, but for Queensland purposes it is perfect, since we line dry stuff anyway and would only need it during times of rain etc. etc. And it only cost $295 (it is actually a European machine that we bought off an old couple that had just bought a brand-new one). So as long as it keeps working, it is an *awesome* deal.
Ok, enough about the washer. I would now like to talk about jeans. While in the States, I went to my favorite jeans store—the store that has never failed me before—Bebe. Well, Bebe failed me this time. They have finally gone the route that all other jeans stores have gone—super tight-legged jeans that incomprehensibly go up to a very loose gapping waist.
Where are the girls that are shaped like that? I just don’t understand. 3 out of 4 girls I meet have this same gapping waist problem I have. How is it that designers do not understand that most women go IN above the hips, not OUT?
However, I found the most spectacular jeans shop in the world, in Aspen. It is called Boogie’s Diner and is actually a restaurant, but the whole first floor is filled with the most stunning array of every kind of jeans your heart could desire. I went in there and melted, and then bought (at 50% off) perhaps the cutest pair of jeans I’ve ever owned.
This is a ridiculous entry.
August 18th, 2007 16:21
I would like to take a moment to document hair. My hair.
I have straight hair. Too straight hair, really. Straight hair is dull and, worse yet, requires that you brush it every day (which I don’t) in order for it to look presentable in public places. Ergo, I rarely look presentable in public places.
So I was rather excited when, for the wedding, I was required, as a bridesmaid, to get my hair done, and the hair lady took some massive and frightening instruments and turned my head into a riot of lovely springy curls.
Of course, then she tied it all up so you couldn’t really see the curls anyway, but during the short period after I removed the 300 hairpins and before I took a bath, my hair was nice and curly.
August 18th, 2007 8:49
IT’S SATURDAY SO I CAN WEAR WHATEVER I WANT!
I don’t think that anyone really understands how difficult it is for me to NOT wear jeans. It’s like a constant wearing down of my personality to not be allowed to wear jeans etc. to work. I know that sounds strange, but, that’s the way it is!!
This is what kirilisa likes to wear on a Saturday.
(ignore weird hairdo and sarcastic expression)
August 17th, 2007 7:28
This is one of the coolest pics of downtown LA ever.
Zaubi took it as we were flying in from Aspen.
August 17th, 2007 7:14
Jetlag is kinda nice in that you get up really early. I like getting up really early.
But I don’t like going to bed really early: that’s the down side.
Washing machine has kicked the bucket. It was leaking before we left for the States, and we thought we fixed it, but no. The leak is not coming from its hoses but from its innards somewhere, so we have dragged the whole machine outside onto the patio, run the hose and the power cord through the window, and are doing all our washing outside! It looks pretty funny. I think this weekend calls for putting out the dough for a new one .
Tomorrow we are going to go rollerblading and test out Zaubi’s new blades! Oh, I’m so excited.
The trip back to the States was marginally disappointing, though, in that I have discovered there are some things that I thought would be easy to get there but which apparently do not exist in LA (or in Aspen): 1) inline hockey sticks 2) (and this one hurts) plain Nabisco graham crackers. They have the horrid Keebler kind; they have Nabisco honey grahams, cinnamon-sugar coated grahams, *chocolate* grahams, but those are all disgusting. Where are the plain grahams?!?!?
D. and JJ are going to cry. I promised them each a couple of boxes. Heck, I’m gonna cry.
Still, I suppose it’s for the best. That stuff isn’t good for you and I well know I need to drastically improve my eating habits.
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