I'm attempting to learn grammar, at the grand old age of, well, nevermind.  I last had a grammar lesson at school when I was about 11 years old.  It was about apostrophes.  And that was it.  Shame, since there was still so much to learn.  And Mrs Spit is teaching me.  Look!  I got a gold star, metaphorically speaking.

I have also bought a dress.  Essentially, this, but in black, reduced to £28.50 and MACHINE WASHABLE!!!! Which means that I care not that it has lost its straps (I think I have some black satin diamante bra straps that will do - if I still have them.  I can't remember when I bought them.  I think, about 8-9 years ago, when I had a Wonderbra).  Am thrilled, since I shan't need to buy anything to go with it.  It's black.  I have black shoes, and a black bag, and a black hair doodad.  It'll go nicely with diamante earrings and necklace (which I also possess already) and will have an outing to the James Bond party in November.

xxx

Some things, one really does not need to know.  Hearing, from his own mouth, that one of my colleagues (old enough to be my father) is a naturist, is one of those things.

I honestly did not know where to look.  And, almost 24 hours later, I must confess, I am still a little freaked.

Apparently he's a member of a club in one of the Chalfonts...

xxx

There is a flying ant infestation just outside my office.  Not keen on going outside again any time soon.  Blech.  Yuck.  Totally vile.  And home time!  I went out to get an apple and a banana (it works better, I find, if I buy these things randomly: otherwise they merely glare at me, balefully, as I fail to eat them) and ftztp.  They are everywhere.

Oh.  I finished a sock.  Alert the media, as they say?

Why yes, I did walk across the park this morning so I could take a photo.  Sock #2 will be started soon.  Or poor Eff will have no new socks (these socks want to belong to Eff).

xxx

• Close off both general and Pack Holiday Accounts for the year.  Pack it all up to send to my daddy.
• Laundry
• Bake blueberry muffins  I baked muffins: however, the bottom of the oven revealed that I had not properly removed all the cleaner, so I jettisoned them.  Shame, as they looked like reasonable wheat free muffins.  I also think that the washing up brush is tainted with cleaner, as the scrapings from the bowl have left an odd aftertaste, which is rather soapy.  So that, too, has been jettisoned, and everything else will go through the dishwasher.  The cleaner merely says corrosive, but I'd rather not be ill...
• Finish skirt
• More on Rosa shawl
• Sort out what to send to Henry Smith Charity.  Address envelope.  Re-date letter these can be done at work when I print it off.
• Tidy out all leftover lost property from Pack Holiday.  Put tea towels in kitchen, flannel in spare flannel store, prizes into cupboard, small floral rucksack to charity shop, nail varnish in v. padded envelope with extra padding ready to be mailed and the rest can be binned.
• Seriously consider re-potting basil  have pulled out the dead stuff.  May chuck some more compost in.
• Sort out date for Pack Holiday Evaluation meeting, or just decide to do it Online.
• Tidy up just a tad
• Sort out card for Etsy seller
• List stuff on eBay photos taken I have listed approx 20 items, out of nearly 60.  I'm fed up now.  It's a start.
• Sort out migrating laptop (yes, still wiffling over this) Believe it or not, frustration at how badly eBay was uploading pictures precipitated the move.  I have moved.  I have even mostly moved iTunes.  I decided that I cared little about my playlists and my play-stats.  I may have to recreate two vital playlists from the data on my iPod, but, otherwise, I am very happy with the result of just unplugging and re-plugging the external hard drive. 
• Clean oven and grill pan
• Source a new powershower eBay - I only need the electric unit, and I can apparently get that without getting a new pole/head/etc.

Things I've already done today

• Shifted the shed (with help)
• Re-planted the Japanese Maple (again)
• Mailed the latest selling on eBay
• Changed $10 to pay for something on Etsy: her paypal doesn't allow extra-USA funds, and I cannot face the fees for a money order/cheque.
• Paid in money and a cheque for Brownies.
• Bought 4 white cloud mountain minnows.  I'm toying with naming them Blunt, Philby, Burgess and MacLean, or Eenie, Meenie, Mynie and Moe....they are currently acclimatising themselves to the fish tank.

Spent much of the morning shifting the garden shed two metres to the left.  We now have a lovely bit of sunny wall, and I'm planning clematis or honeysuckle there, with a Brownie Rose in front.  My sweet peas resolutely refuse to flower, but are no longer growing through each other and making more use of the canes.  I gave the pot some more compost, and I live in hope that flowering will happen.  In the process of all this, I discovered that my 4 man tent has gone slightly mouldy.  I haven't used it for years, but it's still in reasonable condition.  Just not good enough for Guides to use any more.  Oh well.  It hasn't been moused to pieces, which is some sort of blessing.

Supper beckons.  The laptop is going through a mighty noisy and annoying virus scan.

xxx

If you'd like to do this 'meme' yourself, here's how:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.  It helps to set up an account first....

1. What is your first name? Jane
2. What is your favorite food? risotto
3. What high school did you go to? NHS
4. What is your favorite color? Jade Green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Samuel West
6. Favorite drink? Champagne (Pol Roger)
7. Dream vacation? Amritsar
8. Favorite dessert? Death by chocolate (no-one said I had to be able to eat it without being ill...)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Someone's Mum
10. What do you love most in life? Smiles
11. One word to describe you. knitter
12. Your Flickr name. Well, that would be telling, so I put my Xanga name in.

1. Jane Krakowski and Evan Rachel Wood, 2. Risotto alla mela verde in crema di spinaci e basilico, con gocce di mozzarella di bufala , 3. what I do at work, 4. Jaded, 5. Samuel - Untitled, 6. Corked, 7. E Y E S. Amritsar, 8. Death by Chocolate..., 9. Fragment, 10. Smiles = Award = Happiness, 11. Freestyle entry - knitter-mounted police, 12. Pink hebe

From Craftycocktail.blogspot.com

I'm covering helpdesk while the guys are at the Staff Summer Shindig.  I'm back sitting downstairs, in my old office: the one that I was moved out of when I had a bit of a meltdown one day.  The one that was constantly noisy, and constantly full of interruptions from the guys on helpdesk, since if they didn't know the answer, I generally did.

There are four clocks in here: London, Melbourne, New York and Tokyo.  Their ticks aren't quite in synchronisation with each other.  The sound they make is a sort of Te-Ter-Tick, endlessly, round in circles.  I have always found it very soothing as noises go.  I couldn't sleep to it, not by a long chalk, but I do enjoy the sound it makes.  Because, when I could hear the clocks, it meant that my noisy colleagues were probably not there, and I could do some work.

And then two calls came in.... guess I should pay a little attention.  I can't really do any of my own work at this point, but I'm in a pre-mid-summer-rush lull.  For which I am profoundly grateful.

Anyone want to see a piccy of The Welshman?

xxx

It's, like, instantly gratifying compared with knitting.  Last night I cut out, and partially assembled, another skirt.  I have no idea why I'd been putting it off: really, we're looking at two more (short) nights of work, and it's only two nights so that the thing has a chance to let its hem drop overnight.  I got in at about 10pm, and then decided that I'd iron the material.  Then I thought I might pin it out.  Then I decided that I may as well cut it, and, well, it was silly not to sew a little at that point.  I stopped short of zip insertion.  It was 11.30pm by then.  I also put the laundry away and tidied the sitting room a little between sporadic bouts of sewing.  I considered a bath, but didn't quite get to it.

I'm rather enjoying this sewing lark.  And that's what it is: a lark at present.  I shall make my skirt, and a second, and then I may tackle a dress.  I should keep an eye open for some nice material in the sales.  Which means actually looking at material.  Frogspawn21 gave me some John Lewis vouchers to spend on yarn, but I think I could stretch a point?

xxx

Oh.  Nearly forgot.  Photos of the shrug.

p.s. photos courtesy of The Welshman, and taken in the park at lunchtime yesterday.

They're quite long....

But very pretty

And so shall these be....

While dreaming that one is kissing Captain Jack Harkness may be wonderful, the attendant dreaming that aliens have taken over the Earth and that one has been condemned to a life of slavery is less fun, and slightly panic inducing.

Moral.  Do not watch Torchwood DVDs just before bedtime.

xxx

• Morris dance in Windsor
• Go to ball
• Sign contract festival
• Sit down and organise with F re what to make at festival
• Re-make spare bed begun: I need three pillow protectors and two spare pillowslips.  Not risking another flatmate who does not change sheets for months.  Also got duvet protector.  To be doubly sure.  I am declaring this done, although technically speaking I'm one pillow shy of completion.
• Collect duvet so can re-make spare bed
• Pack Holiday Accounts
• Brownie Accounts If 1.50+1.50+1.50+1.50 = 4 and I have failed to readjust the formulae to take into account the fact that the spreadsheet is longer, it is hardly surprising that in the world of me, accounts are a TRIAL.  I am now out by a mere £3.21, which is essentially two weeks worth of subs for one child, or bad arithmetic on my part.  I can live with that.  It's not as if it's lost: it's more that it's extra found.
• Baste skirt
• Change bulb sitting room (tis like sitting in the dark in here: the middle one has gone)
• Pack up eBay badges
• List books for OHP
• Start listing things on eBay
• Sort out Dad's birthday present 3/4 done: just to buy bottle wine.  Have credit card holder inserts and a t-shirt reading "Senior Citizen: now give me my damn discount!"  I believe this will be helpful on feisty days.  Most recently, he was wearing "What part of No don't you understand?"  I have followed this tradition, of sorts, with "To save time let's just assume that I know everything."
• Laundry (can you believe I spilt stuff down two guide shirts today?  And a pair of jeans.  All of which were clean on) on the last load.
• Change sheets (why no, I do not do this weekly.  I wear pyjamas, and move across the bed ). New sheets on, old sheets washed, and hanging around getting in the way.
• Tidy sitting room can merely report that it looks better.  Am not hanging about on line to report completion.  Besides, it won't be tidy until the last of the Pack Holiday detritus is done, and I have photographed the Vinca socks.
• Tidy bedroom begun

I want an early night, however the natives appear to be somewhat on the restless side.  I may have to resort to earplugs.

xxx