Wailing Children Need Mini-Cheesecakes!

Hi!

Well. Here we are on another lovely, breezy Sunday afternoon. The birds are all out there running their errands and sitting around gossiping, as Lorikeets and Crows are wont to do. The weather folks predicted rain all this weekend..... of which none has yet to be seen. Again. Maybe lots of sun rays raining down on us is what they really meant, not water rain. Either way, am just happy it's not stinking hot and humid like it was a few weeks back. Poor little laptop. I must say, whenever summer rolls around, I often consider getting a "proper" desktop computer, one rigged with tons of fans and a cooling system........... And then I consider the questionable wiring in the Palace and realize it just isn't worth the insurance claim when fire burns the Palace down...... So little laptop with its fan-cooling pad it is! Hey, y'know what? It just now occurred to me - the little laptop will be eight years old this December. Awwwww, what a little trooper. 'Course, it did have its brain replaced about four years ago..... Still, eight years for a little laptop is pretty good. Hooray! Otherwise, all is well. Got the tunes, got a breeze, is a bit early for wine but later will have a glass of the ol' Stoneleigh standby.... Ahhhhh, yes, life is good!

So work. Yep. Is good. Have been busy the last couple of weeks, which is always really good. Still no word tho about whether or not they'll make me permanent, or about the residency application...... A little gem I heard Friday afternoon - the HR Chicky looking after all my paperwork has been away for the last two weeks ANNNNNNNNND (~~~~drum roll~~~~~) she's a temp. Now, as you well know, I'm the very last person on the planet to bag out temps, but when you throw the HR 'discipline' into the mix, add a healthy shot of impending Xmas, there's a recipe for apathy if I ever saw one. Seeing as Xmas in these here parts practically closes the country down for a good eight weeks, looks like I'll be getting an extension on that ol' contract come March after all (well, that's even if my department decides to keep me..... I still have a Performance Review to get through first....). The contract the company swears to high heaven they don't/won't do - "Oh, no. We don't keep anyone on long-term contracts at any time, for any reason." Well, guess what HR suckas - this will be my fourth contract! "Incompetencia Esperaba", which translated from Latin means "Expect Incompetence" - the motto that should hang in three-foot letters over the door to HR. Otherwise, work is good!

And then there were a few weekends in there..... Apologies, again, for not checking in last weekend. I was busy baking and again underestimated the time it all takes. Last week's baking experiment were cheesecake cupcakes. And if I do say so myself, they were a success! If a bit of a labor-intensive pain. But worth it for mini-cheesecakes! So now I have a freezer full of mini-cheesecakes - yum! And just basically lost track of time. But don't worry, as I'm sure all one or two of you were, aside from baking, nothing else exciting happened. Just the usual.

In fact, minus the baking, this weekend has been much the same - quiet. Chores, laundry, rewiring the inherited surround-sound stereo system so it doesn't emit a dog howl-inducing screech, thinking about working on the Hollywood Sell-Out Blockbuster screenplay, y'know, the usual weekend stuff. And you know the age-old conundrum - if I leave the house I'll spend money...... And right now the bank really frowns on my spending money. So here we are, Dullsville, Queensland. That's ok tho, all is well, am happy, and if it weren't for two very small children within my neighborly twenty-foot radius, I'd even be rested too. And the even better part is, another small child is due within my neighborly radius in March, moving the tally up to three. As if housebreaking possums in the ceiling/roof weren't enough on top of two small, fussy (one incessantly whining and wailing) children. Good times within the Palace indeed.

So there you have it. I hope you're all well up there! Drop a line if you have any Xmas gift requests or need help planning your big trip down thisaway....!!!

BYE!
J!

Hot Enough to Bake a Cheesecake!

Hi!

Well. Here we are. Not Sunday afternoon like usual, but Saturday afternoon........ Not that it really matters. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to a blazing, mind-melting 95 degrees with at least 60%+ humidity, and today is about a third of that temperature, so I thought I'd get in while I can. Poor little laptop can only cope with so hot. But anyways, here we are - slightly early but late. Sorry for not checking in last weekend - it was hot! And I was a busy bee with the chores and baking (why I always decide to bake on the hottest days of the year is a mystery). Thankfully, today has a lovely cool breeze and lots of clouds that have been threatening to rain for what seems like a month now and nothing has happened yet....... Anyways, here we are with some hip n'groovy jazz tunes, a lovely cool glass of Story Bay semillon sauvignon blanc (a new stand-by for summer!), the birds are out there darting around trying to keep up with the breezes and still get to where they need to be. The Lorikeets are back for the summer in all their frantic screechy colorful glory, I love them even tho they wake me up at, oh, dawn. And bats. The 'hood has had a ton of bats over the last few months, which I don't mind as long as they hang out (literally!) in someone else's trees. Thankfully, they don't seem to like palm trees as much as normal trees, and the Palace has nothing but palms....... Anyways, the place is bursting with winged wildlife, good breezes, lovely wine, cool tunes - life is good!

So work. Yep. Is good. Quiet, but good. Still no word about my job (permanent or contract extension again in March) or the PR stuff. Tho the HR chick is apparently "doing something", which really just says to me, in my head, that all she's really doing is doodling on a pad of paper, wishing she was pregnant already so she could drop this whole pesky work stuff and go on maternity leave. So, in other words, nothing is happening. Status quo - which is the most I can expect from that vacuum of competence that is HR! Otherwise, work is good tho a bit quiet. We're getting to the end of the year and our customer always hammers us with a ton of work to keep us entertained over the holidays and into next year, so we're just waiting for that bundle of fun. As always, I don't mind as long as I have gainful employment! 

And then there were the weekends..... Well, last, last week was kinda fun - that Wednesday evening I met my friend Kim and her parents, who are over visiting from the Land of the Long Wet Cloud, New Zealand, for dinner before the three of us (minus Dad who went for a walk/nap in the car) went to see the musical Grease over at QPAC. Now, there's a reason I don't do musicals, live or in any form, and now I remember why. I mean, don't get me wrong, I quite liked the movie when it first came out, Olivia and John were awesome. So I was kind of hoping for something similar with this musical. Nope. They basically bounced, literally, from song to song with the faintest nod to the story...... Ehhhh. It was a super fun night out but I wish I hadn't paid for it..... Oh well. It was great to see Kim, I think the last time we caught up was early in the year, and to see her parents again, they're pretty cool if not a little screwy in the head for not buying a house over here already (why, when they can stay with their daughter......?!)! 

Then that next day, Thursday, I had to waste a perfectly good day off to supervise the real estate agent and her little blonde minion/trainee while they pawed through my little apartment for their tri-annual invasion. Thankfully, they were less interested in eyeballing my shower and cupboards like they usually love to do, and more interested in gossiping about the new neighbors, mainly the gaggle of middle eastern boys/students(?) that moved in to my old apartment downstairs, and to point excited, accusing fingers at my apparent leaking washing machine into the ceiling of the apartment downstairs. Well. I said it'd be pretty hard to miss such a leak that could get through their ceiling, but to no avail. So the next day I had to rush home early from work to supervise not only the owner, who fancies himself a handyman (serious fail), but the world's most expensive and questionably competent plumber while they looked/felt all through my kitchen (and bedroom (?)) for water leaks, via the cool flashlight app on the plumber's cell phone. Why buy an expensive moisture meter/indispensable plumber's tool and a proper heavy-duty flashlight when you have two hands (to feel for damp surfaces) and a flashlight app?! Good grief. Needless to say there was no leak to be found. I could've told them that, and did, numerous times, but no one listens to the gal who lives here. Back down to Luise's apartment to stare at the ceiling a little more..... Long story short, I deduced that there was a family of possums/rats/mice huddled within the little pocket of space between her ceiling and my floor, for whatever reason, and peed a lot. Again, there were nods of heads but no real acknowledgement. I continued and told them I'd come to this conclusion from having lived with them in my ceiling for six years, with graphic details of how their pee runs down the walls in my bathroom. More nods and not much else. This is what I have to deal with on a regular basis. To quote a famous internet cat, "I'm surrounded by morons". Indeed.

Then there was this weekend, or at least the first half of the weekend so far...... Chores, laundry ironing, and maybe some more baking. Heh, or maybe I should wait until tomorrow when the kitchen will be at least 95 degrees to do my baking.....! But last week's experiment, first cheesecake I've made in the little ol' trusty toaster oven, turned out a smashing success (and the neighbors were well pleased too)! Yay! This experiment I want to take a stab at making a cheesecake in muffin tins (or in my case, silicon), three with and three without cupcake liners, crust and all, just to see how they turn out........ I'm just thinking quick and easy gifts to bring to dinners and work lunches...... And easy to freeze and defrost them, which I just did with slices of this last cheesecake and again, a smashing success! In fact, I dare say freezing them the next day is almost better than letting a whole one go soggy and mushy. Well, if you're not going to eat it that same day or so that is. Yay! it's weird tho, I'm noticing a pattern where every summer I start baking. WTF. It's 95 degrees and 80% humidity for four months, why do my baking then and not during the winter? I have no idea. It's just weird and I can't explain it. Longer daylight hours maybe? No idea.

Anyways, all is well down here! We're all disappointed that we only had a week or so of spring and have now dived head first into summer, nearly two months early. That's a big bummer because summer won't really be over until March or so. That's a long time to cope with 95 degrees+ with 70%+ humidity - and no air-conditioning. I might have to consider getting something because I only get two days off a week and to waste most of them in a heat-and-humidity-induced coma is a crime. We'll think on it....... Otherwise, I hope you're all well up there! C'mon down any time! Well, any time after March that is........!

BYE!

J!