here I am!

Long time no blog. Naughty me! I wish I could say it is because I've been off having exciting adventures and no time to blog. But that wouldn't quite be the truth.

Things have been a bit mad around here; D is job-hunting, our kitchen is in the middle of being replaced, we have sneezy ratties, work has been uber busy, its WINTER, and errrm lots of other equally as uninspiring stuff.

We've spent this weekend putting all the stuff back in our kitchen and trying to make everything fit in a space with less cupboards but more drawers. The exasperating thing is that we'll have to take it all out again when the landlord gets round to having the new lino laid. At the moment we have bare floorboards. Lovely.

I have spent a large portion of the weekend relaxing and reading a pile of fiction I borrowed from the library. . I spent a lot of time sitting outside absorbed in books. Though looking at these pictures you wouldn't believe I was all wrapped up in a blanket!!

One of the books I read this weekend was a young adult's series by Philip Pullman called "His Dark Materials". A friend lent me the first two and I discovered the Newtown library had the third! I figure that if it is cool to read Harry Potter, why not another young adult fantasy? ;)

With D job-hunting, I've been getting the bus to work. It has made me realise two things. Firstly, its REALLY COLD and really dark at 7am.

WALKING TO WORK AT 7AM...

I almost expected a frost!!

We've also been watching bits of the 2007 USA National Spelling Bee. One of the children was from New Zealand! Sadly she didn't win, but way to go Kate. D and I had some very wrong guesses to some of the words, the kids were a lot smarter than us!

On the topic of spelling; I've kept up with my Oxford Word of the Day emails, however I have been quite disappointed with the daily words. I guess I was hoping for words I could throw into every day use to make me look smart! lol

generalissimo

• noun (pl. generalissimos) the commander of a combined military force consisting of army, navy, and air force units.

I mean "generalissimo" sounds so made up! It sounds like a word S, K and I would have made up and used at high school..."fabulastic" was one of our favourties.

Before I sign off for the evening, here is a picture especially for S. I told you that my lithops had a hole in the middle, before a new lithops formed!

For some cool lithops pictures see this website :)


M

the new additions

Kimiko, Hiro & Ando are 8 weeks old today! We got them from an accidental litter born in Otaki. Which really is a story in itself (involving a road trip from Chch, a stumpy tail, and Levin). The bubs are all agouti hoodeds, a colouring I just LOVE. (we lost our special gooti girl Yuri in Jan.)

Kimiko is a little nutter, as hyper as Kohana was when she came into our crew! It took a few intro's before she was fully intergrated into the manor but we got there in the end. There are still often scuffles - in fact right now as I write this I can see an agouti blur running from a white blur.
Pretty in pink:

Hiro & Ando are such characters! These boys are the first boys i've ever had and I am really enjoying them. They are far more chillaxed than girls and they love to curl up in my hair and snooze. That said they are babies too and go mad chasing each other around the cage. They are living separate until they can be neutered and go to live with their harem of girls!

Hiro:

Ando:

Its nice to have a big furry family. :D I wish I could stay home and hang with them all day, maybe become a real craftster?!!?! But alas, to work I must go.

Speaking of work, it is insanely busy at the moment. We are short staffed and our work load seems to have doubled. I suspect I'll be doing a fair few hours this week! I must say it is nice to come home after a full on day at work and not worry about study or the current assignment. My brain and my body are thanking me for the break.

I spoke with a university friend today who I haven't spoken to for a week so she didn't know I'd taken a break from school. It was really good to talk to her and I've found most of my friends from school are really supportive and agree with my decision. Many have said they think its a great idea and hope that when I go back that I go back fulltime and doing my Honours papers. We'll see what happens. I am quite happy enjoying life right now :)

And before I forget - today's word of the day:

vomitorium

• noun (pl. vomitoria)

1. each of a series of entrance or exit passages in an ancient Roman amphitheatre or theatre.

2. a place in which, according to popular misconception, the ancient Romans are supposed to have vomited during feasts to make room for more food.

— origin Latin.

and again - still not sure this is the kind of word extension I am looking for. Might have to take to reading the dictionary... I mean really!! "vomitorium"?? I could have guessed/made up the second meaning!!! (must remember for the next time we play taboo at D's folks' place)

I can hear D blending up the pumpkin soup I made this evening. I'd better go and give him a hand.

M

word of the day

I've really been feeling like my vocabulary could do with a spruce up so I signed up for AskOxford's word of the day. Today's word is:

sparagmos

• noun [mass noun] the dismemberment of a victim, forming a part of some ancient rituals and represented in Greek myths and tragedies.

— origin Greek, literally ‘tearing’.

I'm really not sure that this was the kind of vocabulary extension I was looking for, but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

M