Realm of the InterNutter

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

It's raining, it's pouring...

Every time we try to fix the house or our land, it effing pours with rain.

When we tried to fix the patio, it rained almost nonstop for two months and Southeast Queensland got flooded.

Now we’re fixing up Mayhem’s room, it’s pouring nonstop. For two weeks, now.

At least the drainage ditch is working and we don’t have a small swamp happening in the back of our house.

OTOH, we have miniature lakes forming where the drains let out from our land to the gutter…

Still, I’d rather have the lakes than the swamp. Those readers fortunate enough to have good drainage have no idea how heartening it is to see a kilolitre or so rushing merrily through the area designated for it to flow. It means no swamp. No mildew creeping up newly-painted walls or infesting newly-laid floors.

Of course, with all the rain, the ditch at the back of the house is filling a little, but the key point is that it isn’t filling permanently. Or as near to permanently as it got last time,

We had algae growing on the grass, last time. Ick.

And the thing that’s stopping the small jungle that used to be our lawn from being mowed is that the mower has burned out one or more of the belts it’s needed for making it go. And three guesses when the shops are shut! That’s right! The weekend, when everyone actually has time to get the parts.

I swear to the Higher Powers, I would buy a scythe and do it myself, except there’s no real way to juggle a scythe and an umbrella.

Maybe I should invest in a raincoat. And one of those ludicrous brolly-hats to keep my glasses clear.

Alas, all thoughts of trimming the jungle have made it rain harder.

Rats.

If anyone wants to take some of my rain, they can have it for free. Just loan me some of your sunshine and I’ll call it square.

By the time the sun comes out, I’ll need a machete. I love the “banana leaf” ones. Anyone know where to puchase them legally in Sunny (cough) Queensland?

One more kilo

Including the standard daily wobble, I’m losing roughly a kilo a week. That’s progress of a sort. I did have an alarming jump of more than a kilo upwards, but I’m back down again.

Not by the kilo and a bit I gained, of course.

Weight is easier to gain than drop. Everyone should know that.

The slow diet is working. Exercise, chia and determination help.

Of course, since I am being good at my diet,

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Spinning my wheels...

I hate wasting time.

Lots of things that need to get done depend highly on other people doing them. Because I lack the skills, the knowledge, the money or the resources to do it myself. So I end up sitting around waiting for other people to get the thumb out of their collective butts.

Time bleeds away. Hour by hour.

I’ve organized and packed the kids’ bags so they’re ready for school. I’ve matched and

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Progress and AntiProgress

Sir Terry Pratchett argued convincingly that everything must have it’s opposite. Not just the light-dark opposite, but the opposite that goes through the conventional, traditional opposite and out the other side.

We have progress. What I’m having is a kind of anti-progress that has gone through retention and out the other side.

I am getting fit enough to take the dog around two blocks -yay- BUT, on the anti-progress side, I’ve been struck from asthma as

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Frugality Check: Benefits of line-drying

I’ve been cleaning my house, lately [it’s mostly OK now BTW] and in the process, I have been doing absolute shittons of laundry. Y'know, mostly because there were drifts of dirty clothes in there that were a foot deep.

I had been doing a load a day, but thanks to my unsister, Powerhouse, I’ve been going through load after load after load. And putting it all on the clothesline to benefit from the absolutely vicious summer

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mikeo56: Bank of America Gets Foreclosed Bank of America has little patience for homeowners who have fallen on hard times and behind on...

mikeo56:

Bank of America Gets Foreclosed

Bank of America has little patience for homeowners who have fallen on hard times and behind on their mortgages.  The lending giant is in the midst of foreclosure battles in every state as well as defending against allegations that they engaged in fraud and misrepresentation during the foreclosure process. 

Given all the increased scrutiny you would think the bank would be extra diligent before pursuing homeowners in court.  Think again.

First the mega-bank wrongfully foreclosed on

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Quick diets and why they fail

I’m more aware of them, now that I’m trying to lose weight. The advertisements. The shill proclaiming their new product and ONLY their product will help you reach your target weight and stay there.

It’s all bullshit.

Especially the ones where they claim you -yes, you!- can drop an extravagant number of pounds/kilos in an amazingly short time.

What they never tell you is that you -yes, you!- inevitably yo-yo back up again

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An Open Letter to the President of the USA

First, before anything: if you had bailed out the homeowners and not the banks, you would not be in your present pickle. There would likely not be throngs protesting in the streets, right now. There would not be thousands deriding you for following the whims of your owners campaign contributors instead of actually fulfilling so much as one campaign promise.

Secondly: If you continue to allow yourself to be bought by psychopathic corporations instead of concerning yourself with the interests of the

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Take good from the bad

The dog got out of the yard. I don’t know how. What I do know is that when I discovered the resultant mess, Chaos was out of the yard chatting with the Neighbour Who Loves to Complain™ and both Mayhem and the hound were nowhere to be seen.

I got Tessa inside and at least got a direction to look out of him. That was almost all the helpful he was. Only after I’d gone running up

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I'm losing weight at last!

I started this year at 95.4kg, just a few small kilos away from 100kg. I made a resolution to lose weight and get fitter, so immediately I went out and stuffed myself for the annual new years’ rello visit.

Hubby didn’t help, either. Next night, he took me out to Sizzler’s.

Today [the 5th of Jan] is the day where I finally dipped below my starting weight. I’m now 95.2kg. You might not

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