paper toys

Paper stuff - top of the list is spongebob and a pineapple house (perfect pastime for Sponky), but if you scroll further down the downloads, there are 3D paper puzzles - print them, build them and then attempt to solve them (perhaps a pursuit for Betty Sue).

coffee loophole: closing

djbebe's local coffee shop used to have flat whites for 80c less than a latte, while still making the flat white on mostly milk. djbebe switched from latte to flat white to take advantage of this loophole and has since been saving 80c per day while enjoying something close to her coffee of choice. The coffee shop staff recently underwent barista training, with no discernible change in coffee quality - burnt milk, half-filled cups and wildly fluctuating coffee strength all remain. (Unfortunately it is the only coffee shop within reasonable distance.) But now, several weeks later, they are changing the flat white to be more like a real flat white so djbebe may have to go back to lattes and be charged the full cappuccino price. Damn baristas.

speaking of geeks

An opportunity to wax lyrical for djbebe and her fellow femme-geeks. Suggested topics include female geek bonding and feminist commentary on geek culture.

djbebe's feminist spines have recently been made to bristle by reading some of 1978's Superwoman by Shirley Conran (actually reading this article I feel a bit better but the book made me cringe) which outlines techniques for various domestic duties, but mostly cleaning. For example it helps to have a routine - clean the kitchen on Monday, fireplaces on Tuesday, bedrooms Wednesday, bathroom on Saturday etc - of course if you "work", it may help to share these duties with a friend, but try to find one that doesn't talk too much. But of course if you are "working", make sure you count the real cost including make-up and hair which you wouldn't bother with if you were lounging around the house with the kids.

Superwoman opens with the phrase "life is too short to stuff a mushroom". The sentiment being that in order to have the bare minimum of clean house, happy husband, healthy children (career optional) you just have to eliminate some of the luxuries including manicured nails, spotless walls, and, it seems, stuffed mushrooms. djbebe disagrees: if you just re-prioritize, you can have your mushrooms and stuff them too. Sometimes a stuffed mushroom is at the top of the list. So can one femme-geek have it all - a fulfilling relationship with one's ipod, the occasional stuffed mushroom, as well as a career and optional partner that fit in with all of the above?

advice for the home-maker

• if one has a toupe that is prone to shedding, it's best to remove it before preparing food
• if one has numb lips (for example, one has just returned from the dentist), one should use a pincushion
  

mmm, salmon korma

Recipe number one in this week's "while HandyMan's away, djbebe cooks fish" series.
It may sound bad, but it's very good. Succulent salmon in a fragrant, creamy, slightly spicy sauce.

djbebe believes that for the most part, food dislikes are psycho-somatic: if you clear your mind of all previous conceptions of the food and whatever it may have been before it ended up on your plate, then you should be able to just eat it. djbebe offered to pay for a hypnotist to banish HandyMan's inconvenient dislike of seafood, but so far he's not willing.

toons at work

Darth 'Tater and a Spud Trooper arrived at work the other day, a gift from a colleague's wife who is an avid Star Trek fan. Around the corner is Spongebob, a favourite of our friend Sponky. This mix of 'toons and sci-fi is almost too much for djbebe. And the other problem djbebe has is that the Star Wars garb of the Messrs Potato Heads almost precludes the rearranging of their facial features, which is their reason for being. Or at least their reason for being entertaining. (One nice touch though is that the Spud Trooper's weapon of choice is a potato masher.) djbebe took Darth's face mask off and put his nose on while the colleague wasn't looking, and almost got in trouble. Now djbebe makes a point of rearranging them every morning before the colleague gets to work.

And one last P. Head link, the family reunion.

scenic NZ

djbebe's latest os trip (scary thought: could be the last one before having children) was to NZ. Everything you hear is true: it's green, there's lots of sheep. HandyMan says our next trip should be across the Nullaboar, we have filled our quota of windy mountainous roads.



The sulphurous mud pools, in contrast to the rest of the green sheep-filled countryside, are smelly and steamy. Fascinating.

number one quilt

djbebe made a quilt for her number one nephew (who is now 8 weeks old). Machine-pieced and hand-quilted, using a Japanese sashiko design. Gender-neutral colours because that was a surprise.

a new toy for HandyMan

In payment for HandyMan's help, he was given a present from the aforementioned friend's shed (significantly cleaner and tidier than his kitchen): a cylindrical mower with only minor mechanical faults. Despite dutifully watching HandyMan work his magic on her mower, djbebe still doesn't know much about the world of lawn mowers. Apparently, a cylinder mower, unlike a regular mower, has the power to give your lawn the texture of a bowling green. As soon as he arrived home, HandyMan unloaded the lawn mower, fiddled with some spark plugs and whatnot to get it to start, and mowed some diagonal lines into his lawn. Apparently, the cylinder mower calls for diagonal mowing. HandyMan is very pleased with his new toy.

HandyMan gets a name

djbebe has finally settled on a blog-name for her boyfriend. "Husband person" is taken, and also discounted because it isn't anatomically correct. "Mr Right" is also taken, although the boyfriend himself suggested "Mr Right Now" which was received with much disdain. The name chosen, after much deliberation, is HandyMan. HandyMan has shown himself to be quite handy with spanners, shifts, inlet valves and spark plugs, and other assorted things which djbebe cannot be expected to remember. djbebe's family members are always getting HandyMan to fix stuff. Only recently has djbebe managed to get HandyMan to use his powers on her own leaking toilet and faulty lawn mower - which are now respectively leak-free and running smoothly.

djbebe has almost recovered after a heady weekend of drinking and karaoke with HandyMan's country-music-lovin', beer-swillin' friends. HandyMan's powers were required at a friend's home-made "Octoberfest" (unfortunately only serving one kind of beer). HandyMan's annual duties at this event include:

• rigging of various kinds of lights (halogen lights as well as the more traditional party-coloured light bulbs)
• configuration of tv, dvd player and stereo in the outdoor party area
• use of wire and hole punch to make amusing toys out of beer bottle tops
• reconfiguration of tv, dvd player and stereo in the indoor lounge area (made more difficult by mild hangover and help from hungover friends)

djbebe was given kitchen duties, and as a result will suffer from filthy kitchen nightmares for some time to come. Just thinking about the indescribable griminess of that kitchen is making djbebe nauseous, and quite thankful that she didn't get food poisoning.