Tag: slice of life

Pictures from the hottest weekend yet

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We were in Leicester last weekend, when the British summer heatwave came upon us.

We bought a little paddling pool for the beastie, which he quite enjoyed. We found out that he likes being attacked with a hose as well. As he loves fresh garden peas (we stopped counting after he ate a dozen pods). It was really nice in the evenings, because we could sit outside and watch Mel trying to burn down the garden with his chiminea while downing a pitcher of rather boozy Margaritas.

The weekend was actually really nice, until the drive back home when the beastwich had a heat-induced meltdown in the car (we still haven’t been able to make time to get the AC fixed). That put a bit of a downer on the weekend, but otherwise, lovely.

  
 

All pictures here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/leicester_jul_2010/

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Not in my happy place

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I am very anxious at the moment. We’ve just had the boiler replaced, and we had to do unexpected repairs to the car in the past couple of months (two tires and a catalytic converter). Now it would seem that the car’s AC has packed it in. I don’t know how much that’s going to cost, but I do know we don’t have that money.

Beastie is pushing all of my buttons by being a tired git these days. The only time I seem to be happy to have him around is when he’s sleeping. Otherwise, I’m very quite happy to be at work and away from the tantrums. This will get worse before it gets better.

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One of those days^H^H^H^H months.

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Katy and I suck at being frugal. To whit: in this month, we bought a new boiler, a new patio door, two new tires for the car and now, it would seem, part of the muffler needs replacing (of course, the part that wasn’t repaired less than a year ago and now under warranty). Fun times ahead!

I’m beginning to freak out a bit about our monetary situation. Over the course of a year, it’s not too bad but it just seems to be piling on all of a sudden and we still have a trip to Canada to somehow shoehorn into our finances, and since I now finally have my license, I’d like to be able to actually drive. MORE MONEY, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

*fret!*

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Ow.

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I don’t know what I did to myself this weekend, but ow. I must’ve pulled something in my shoulder because it hurts like a mofo. I had trouble sleeping because of where it is and how I normally sleep. Joy.

Weekend was meh. On the upside though, we went to the farmer’s market at Debden Antiques and we got some nice venison sausages that everybody (even the beastie) enjoyed from the BBQ. We also bought a really evil mushroom pate that is killer with jacket potatoes and even better in fajitas.

Feeling rather bleh at the moment. Probably a mix of shoulder, screaming beastie residue and overall anxiety/frustration. Meh.

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Bank Holiday gardening bonanza

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The in-laws were in town this weekend so we were finally able to put up the arch and the gate in the back garden to prevent the beastie from rampaging in the flower beds and eating every pebble in sight.

You can right-click to save/view a full-size version of this pic. I’m a bit annoyed that the pano software wasn’t able to fully remove some of the artefacts from the photo stitch but it still gives decent enough results.

We had a rather impressive BBQ on Sunday. For 4 people, I grilled sausages, chicken breasts, duck breast, pork koftas, venison burgers and sirloin :) This was accompanied by corn on the cob and roast potatoes and topped off with cheese cake.

It was a good meal.

More pictures are available here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/saffron_walden_may_2010/

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That’s how I like my weekends

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We had our first big bbq of the season last Saturday. It was a glorious day and – having done most of my prep the previous afternoon following great advice from Katy – I was able to get everything setup at an orderly pace. We had just under a dozen people over – mostly my work colleagues but also Sara and Nick, from down the road. People seemed to have a good time and there was enough food to choke a small horse, so it was all good.

The beastie gave me conniptions when he was running around the BBQ, but there were enough pairs of hands to keep him at bay.

On Sunday, we went to ikea to buy a child-size poang and to costco to stock up on bulk items. We were quite proud of the beastie because he fed himself most of a sandwich (roast beef and horseradish, if you would believe!).

 

He got a bit tired of Ikea but had a blast at costco. Sadly the Ikea trip was a bust. The baby poangs are out of stock for the next 4-5 months or so. Apparently, Ikea are having supply issues with them. Bummer.

We went home, chilled a bit, had more stuff on the BBQ and called it a day. I could live with weekends like this. The only downside is that neither Katy nor I really slept very well. Don’t know why, but I’m knackered today.

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Easter weekend in pictures

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All pictures and more: http://flubu.com/various_pics/easter_2010/

I had a 5-day weekend, woohoo.

Noteworthy facts:

1. We got a brand new gas tank for the BBQ. I gave it a good once-over and, despite the fact that it was supposed to piss it down with rain all weekend, I managed to use it 4 times.

2. Home-made BBQ baby back ribs. Nothing else need be said.

3. Beastie had his first haircut. Katy did a bang-up job!

Before:
After:
Delta:

4. We fenced off the backyard and filled in the pond.

I figure we dropped about 500 quid on the garden this weekend. Between the fence panels, posts, post holders, concrete and the baker’s dozen bags of compost it took to fill up the pond, it’s been a costly but productive weekend. Now to be fair, that amount also includes a large planter that will be used for a Japanese maple tree out front and also includes a small family of owls, several planters of cooking herbs, two large teacup planters and several plants for the rockery. It also includes an archway with a gate, that is currently in back-order and will be delivered at the end of the month.

Once that’s done, the garden will be beastie-friendly and we’ll be able to break out the foam-rubber play mats.

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