A week off, or, what can be accomplished when not working.

Admittedly I'm still spending too much time on Mafia Wars and Frontierville, but since I finished the last lot of work I've been very busy.

Saturday morning the boys and I did gardening; the bed in front of the lounge is now all done except where the carrots are.   As a reward they got the Wii for the afternoon which went down well.

On Sunday the boys and I baked; well, mostly me, but they were quite happy to help eat.  I made chocolate muffins; put enough in the freezer for school lunches this week and we ate the rest.   Most of the rest of Sunday the boys got to vege out on the Xbox, partly cos Ian's really tired after his throwing up bug the previous Monday.  He's much bouncier now.

Monday was my first day with the boys at school and Thomas in Wellington.  I took a couple of photos:

The pile of fabric I planned to cut out, all for me.  I actually got most of it done.  One lot I decided wasn't me and there's another that I still have to decide on a pattern for, but aside from that it's done.  4 winter t-shirts, 1 summer t-shirt and a pair of cords.  Sewing will come in the next week or so.

 The view through our front door, needs some work as you can see.

 Our peach trees, all the leaves are gone now which means that it's much easier to see just how far out the cats get!  They're not up there on this photo, but they don't stick to the thicker branches; they're right out near the edge.  I swear they're really squirrels.

And finally, this arrived on Monday.   I won it a wee while back from Wiley Crafts, but the first package went missing so had to be resent.  This copy is not autographed, but they will be sending a signed one and another book to make up for the wait.  The yarn that came with it is enough to make the Pump Jockey jacket in the largest size.  Unfortunately Thomas wouldn't wear it in this colour, so I'll probably use it either for Ian or me; probably Ian as green is his favourite colour.  The yarn feels nice, springy and resiliant, I like that in a jersey type yarn.

I also did some more knitting on my Spring Garden Tee, still working on it now but there's only about 2.5" plus border to go

I've tried it on and I think it's going to look good.  I've had to make more increases, so changed from every 5th row to every 3rd row to take it up to the 2nd to last size for the hip. 

After school we baked; only pikelets, but they all got eaten. 

Tuesday:  More cutting out, more knitting and more pikelets!  Both boys really like pikelets.  It did mean Ian wasn't really hungry when Emma turned up for his food tests, but he quite happily participated anyway and kissed his bits of orange.  Emma and I shared the unkissed bits when he was done.   Hopefully by the end of this study Ian will have a wider range of foods he'll eat.

Wednesday:  The final lot of cutting out and I decided to add some trim to the cords.  They're going to have a contrast pocket lining and a stripe of the same fabric down the outside pockets too; the main fabric is fawn coloured and the contrast is a bit of black kiwiana fabric which has kiwi's on it as well as pohutakawa and NZ.  Works really well with it and it'll make the trousers stand out.

More knitting of course and have determined that Ian wants mittens too.  He'll get his after George's are finished.  Ian wants green and orange mittens so I'll have to dye some orange I think.  His will be colourwork too, but no special pattern as that would detract from George's special mittens.
Here's George's so far:

Looking good so far, though the colour is inaccurate.  The cream isn't that buttery looking.
Baked again today too.  We picked some of our apples on the weekend, they're bruised in some cases, a bit birdied and also have codlin moth so I grated them and made a spiced apple cake.  My oven is definitely dodgy; I've made this before and it's been perfect, but in order to get the inside cooked the outside burned a little.  It's still yummy though!

Photo's a little blurry as Ian took it.

On the subject of the oven, I rang EQC this morning as payment still not through.  Last time I rang 3 weeks ago I was told ours was approved for payment, had been for 3 weeks already and they get paid out in 6 weeks max, or in other words it should have been paid out by today.   No money today, so rang them.  No, it's not approved yet, no they don't know when it will be either.  So I asked to be transferred to a supervisor as I'd had enough.  I got cut off.  Rang back and had to sit in their queue.  Finally got through and then to a supervisor who listened very nicely to my complaints (I was perfectly polite if a little upset) and said she would escalate it but still couldn't give me a time frame.  They'll ring me when it's approved and I'm to ring back in 2 weeks if haven't heard anything to get an update.  Unfortunately though we still have to wait.   I can cope with this for the oven, we're learning it's new ways and just not leaving it alone.  The washing machine isn't spinning properly any more, and it's getting worse.  I think we're just going to have to replace it and hope  they pay out reasonably quickly. 
After it's paid out we have to hold onto the big items for 6 months after that date; don't know where the heck we'll store them; cant' keep the car out for 6 months and the garage is really the only place sufficiently weatherproof.  Might have to put them on the covered deck and put tarps around them for extra protection.
I'm calm now, but this morning I was really pissed off with EQC, partly due to the delays, but more because of the complete misinformation I was given last time.

Tomorrow: I'm planning on paying a visit to Oxford for the area open day; they're holding it for Christchurch.  I don't have much money, but I'll take the camera and hopefully I'll remember to take some photos.  Will need to come home in time to get the boys from school, and also to drop into the supermarket as we're out of most things atm.   Either that or we'll be buying dinner.  I think groceries will be on Saturday this time.