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Dear Diary

A 3831-post collection

Well hello!

Just unveiled a Christmas card from the nice dude we pay to mow our lawn. Which included a $5 scratchie with the potential to win us $1K a week for five years.

I haven't scratched it yet. I'm waiting for Beloved to awaken to share the suspense.

I know my luck with scratchies. Never have won anything greater than a free ticket. I came close, once. Only once. And then I confused a 2500 for a third 25000. That's it. That's my brush with wealth.

Of course the game is rigged. The people running the lotteries earn way more from the selling of tickets than they ever give out as a prize. I just want more than a zero chance of getting something nice, for a change.

Let me tell you, $1K a week would take a lot of stress off my shoulders. I would never have to worry about paying the bills. I would never have to worry about clothing the kids. I wouldn't have to fret about this Yule.

Heck, three weeks and I could have that split system air con I've been pining for.

But those are dreams. The reality of it is, I will be lucky to get $20 out of it.

Sigh. Such is life, alas. Those who need never get, and those who never need get everything.

Grump grump grump grumble mutter snarl.

Small progress is still progress

I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do yesterday. I got my daily Instant up. Of course. I got my five hundred words in.

I got some more chicken and I got dinner on.

And I got the floor cleared of the mountain of debris that had built up through collective apathy.

Today... if I'm lucky, I shall clean up the spare room a tad, make it nice for incoming visitors, and attempt to keep the cat out of it.

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I have to push myself

I have a routine, now, for exercise. I can make myself do it every day. But setting time apart for the things that need to be done?

WAY more difficult.

I have to exercise. My future career as a writer kind of depends on doing something on a daily basis, whether I'm 'feeling it' or not. I have to apply the same self-enforcement to cleaning. And if I can drag my loving progeny into helping out, that would be brilliant.

Todays goal:

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Coming soon...

I've been working on something of an epic Lorefic concerning the earliest days of my favourite automatons. And as soon as I'm done with another round of tech support for MeMum, I'll get right on back to finishing that monster off.

Then I shall think about a better title, chapter divisions, and correcting any extraneous minutia.

After that's done, dear readers, you get a bonus fiction, one chapter a day, until the story is done. With helpful linkages for navigation.

I'll have

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Aaaah holidays

There's something about the school holidays that just makes me want to lie in until my back aches. At least I wasn't waylaid by Steamworld Heist, today. Just a solid dollop of The Lazies.

I want to take care of a drift of boxed debris as part of tidying up for Yuletide, but Beloved insists that all boxes going into the big shed must be sealed and labled. I'm thinking of making Beloved to it with my help. It's a cool enough

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What has two thumbs and a copy of Steamworld Heist?

::Points both thumbs at self::

Yup. Me!

I got Beloved to help me tweak my 3DS's internet settings. Then I immediately purchased the game I've been waiting for ever since Steam Powered Giraffe and Image and Form games announced the collab they were working on.

...and then I spent a majority of my morning lying in bed and enjoying the heck out of it.

The music is fantastic (of course). The gameplay mechanic takes all the annoying things about shooter games out

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Contemplating fixes

I've been working on an SPG lorefic for... well... quite some time. Ever since I posted that free plotbunny a while ago. It's getting immense. As fanfic is wont to do.

It's so immense that when I try to export it to my inbox, it cuts off just as Iris is trying to coax Peter into eating human food. (tiny spoilers)

I'm way past that bit. Way, way, WAY past that bit. I haven't done a word count, yet, but I'm fairly

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Achievement Unlocked!

I made it all the way around the walk without needing my puffer this morning!

Alas, however I carry my brolly, it's going to hurt my wrist. Carrying it under my elbow actually hurts more because I have to wrap my arm around it for stability. I may have to make that scabbard, after all.

I'll look very silly, but at least my joints won't ache.

It's humid, this morning, and I'm feeling the heat. Air conditioning would be marvellous, but I

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Lovely dawn, this morning

I woke up before it happened, so I got to see most of it.

Chaos' appointment went well enough. Regular appointments on a yearly basis with reports from other experts seem to be the order of the day. Finding said experts to suit my budget [$0] is going to involve a lot of running about.

Occupational therapy, speech therapy, psychiatry... I'm willing to bet that none of those are exactly cheap. Even with health benefits and whatnot.

So many 'Igottas'... I gotta

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An ounce of prevention...

Weighs heavily on my wrists, unfortunately. The good old Bunnings Brolly is many things. Hardy, durable, reliable, engineered to last in high wind conditions, it opens with one button, it isn't a struggle to shut...

But it isn't exactly the lightest of things to tote around.

If you ever want a bargain brolly that's going to last you, get the big golf umbrellas at Bunnings. They only cost $10 and they look they'll last a lifetime. The place makes their money back

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I learned some things, today

Well, technically in the last 24 hours since I last blogged. In no particular order...

  • An ounce of prevention is worth squid-all nothing if you don't have it with you
  • Plovers can defend their territory in family flocks
  • If you move while they're backing up for another run, you're out of the area much quicker
  • Asthma is a harsh master
  • We don't have enough cellophane to wrap all nine gift baskets
  • When getting bottles from a dollar shop, always buy a spare
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Slow Progress

I took the precaution of packing a parasol on my morning walk. Alas, the plovers who perplexed me previously were not present to persist in piercing my pate. Ah well. Better to look a fool than be one.

So far, I have washed all the bottles [one of the larger jars did not make it through the journey home and I must then nip out and snag a replacement]. I have all my stuff lined up and I have a surprisingly large

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Good morning, territorial flying saurians!

As you know if you read my personal blither, I've taken up walking around the block for my daily fitness regime. In the pre-dawn twilight, it's generally peaceful and nothing much is going on.

Not this morning.

This morning, a lovely pair of nesting murder-birds [aka "plovers" aka Masked Lapwings] decided that my morning walk was personally offensive and invasion of their privacy.

Now, plovers will warn you with their signature 'back off' call of sharp, harsh shrieks [spelled "kee kee kee"

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Whooof...

I made it. Sweat-drenched and out of breath, but I made it. For the record, I made it partially into vertex 6 before I needed the puffer. But just barely.

And I forgot my preventer again. Rotten night, horrible sleep because Beloved was up late working on their side-job, slept in until ten past five. I'm now late for everything.

And I'm currently out of spoons to chase the kids around.

It's going to be an "interesting" morning.

I also have to

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Achievement Unlocked!

Despite going to bed early, and the subsequent early wake-up [approximately 2AM]. Despite the subsequent early morning fanfic session and needing a napnap at a quarter to four in the morning... I managed to trundle myself around the block, starting at ten to five.

And I made it all the way back home.

Without.

Needing.

My puffer.

I think I'm ready for a double-block walk. Which used to be my upper limit before I had my toenail cut in half.

Let's see

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