Tails’ Blography

So my new girls are getting settled, but they’re still not in the big cage with Macro since they’re still small enough to fit through the bars, the sneaky buggers! They’re so cute and feisty, where even Macro allows herself to be flipped and groomed by them (on the couch only, in the big cage, she squashes them like bugs!). There has been little fighting, so intros have gone smoothly but I’ll still only have Fats in the smaller cage with the babies when I’m around to supervise, just in case.

Today I’m assisting photographer, Moira West, on a wedding which should be fun! Its an eight hour wedding, so I’ll be home after 10pm lol Its my job to shoot the groomsmen at their getting ready location, which is something a little out of my comfort zone, having not really had much experience at shooting the them (they intimidate me a little, esp the serious ones) but that’s what assisting is all about, learning! And even though I have my own photography business, one is never too old or too experienced to learn.

Then tomorrow, my bestie and her bf are coming over to meet the new bubs and see our new kitchen Feature Wall (we painted it red). That should be fun, cos we haven’t seen them in ages

Another friend of mine moved into the flat opposite and one floor above me, so its been nice being able to pop on there, chat, and on weekends play dominoes with them (chicken feet is an awesome dominoes game!!). We play it a little differently to these rules, but there they are to get you started.

And get ready for a blog theme overhaul….gonna start looking for a new theme as this one feels boring to me now. Its been my theme since Sept 2008 so I think I’m allowed to change it up a bit now

Oh, and I need a new poll….any suggestions??

I think I’ve found a huge flaw within myself. I’m too impatient! Even as I’m typing this, my brain is working too fast for my fingers to keep up and I find myself just wishing I’d be done already.

As I sit and ponder over this flaw, I realise just how many areas of my life it affects. I choose quick, easy dinners to make, balk at cleaning the entire house in one go, planting a garden the correct way (waiting 4 weeks for soil to settle etc), even in something as simple as typing a blog post.

Part of me wonders if this could be considered lazy vs impatient. What tips the scales in the direction of impatient? It is a better flaw to be impatient rather than lazy? If someone calls you impatient, is it as much an insult as being called lazy for that matter. I think, for me, what tips the scales of lazy vs impatient is, I’m willing to do the work, I just wish it wouldnt take so damn long!

For example, I look at my garden. As per my other blog post, I want to plant a tree. Now, when I called for pricing, the guy on the line said “Do you want instant gratification or do you want to wait ten years?”. I replied, without hesitation, “Instant gratification please.” The price he gave me was R750 for a 2.5m tall tree, which is an awesome price. But an 80cm sapling is R89. So the fiance is arguing to get a sapling, cos its cheaper, and I’m fairly sobbing -on my knees- into the very soil he wants to plant it in, that I dont want to wait 10 years for it to grow! He doesnt seem to understand this idea. Sigh.

But, regardless, there are so many things I want to do, but they all take so long to do them. There’s this waiting business which drives me nuts. I cant stand it. I want to lose weight and I want to do it now! (Ok, who doesnt.) I want to bake and decorate cookies and I want to do them all in one night! Perhaps I have a short attention span? Maybe thats the real problem.

So, I think as a challenge, I will try find time each weekend, to work in my garden. Just take my time, digging soil, planting plants, etc. Stuff that I have to take my time with. When I go to sleep at night, it takes me a good hour and a half to fall asleep. And thats after reading something to make me sleepy. I have to read. If I dont, I lie awake with thoughts of stuff to do, stuff thats done, stuff that I’d like to do, all racing through my head at a mile a minute. Its actually scary how busy my mind is. I struggle to relax, if I’m honest enough to myself. So, in the words of Barney Stinson, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I will try use gardening to help me bring this under control.

In a nutshell, I need to learn to slow down.

All my posts lately seem such a tedium to write. I sit and think about stuff I should write about, but when the time comes to put finger to keyboard, I just dont feel like it anymore.

So a quick post, just to keep y’all updated.

Did some gardening this weekend. It was early evening on Sunday and the weather was gorgeous. Pulled out some grass runners in the bed and tossed up all the soil. Looks a little neater now.
Played some Sims 3 for the first time in ages! My sim is a bit of a tart and flirted with a guy she was supposed to be investigating as well as another guy she met through work. They both had girlfriends which they cheated on. My sim admitted to cheating and the guy broke it off, so she continued on with the other guy and he’s since moved in and they’ve purchased a small house (ala ‘motherlode’ of course lol)
Iso’s still pushing on, but the headtilt has worsened but she’s eating and being strong. I love this rat so!
Since researching healthy foods for my girls, I came across a book called The Scuttling Gourmet which I have ordered! It should arrive on the 9th (latest) so yay! So excited!
We’re redecorating our kitchen, going to paint one wall a nice red colour, the rest yellow (if I feel up to it). We bought a shelf to put up where I can put my cookbooks so they’re off the countertops, giving more space and a cleaner looking kitchen area.
We’re currently looking for a cabinet and a tv table for our lounge, and I’m looking for a table for the kitchen (M hates this latter idea for some reason).
And for those who are on WeightWatchers, I found an AWESOME food blog with WW points (both PLUS and REGULAR). I do hope you check it out, WW member or not: SkinnyTaste.com

Thats about it, I recon the only thing left to leave you are some pics from our Engagement Shoot that I won! What do you think? We got so many on the DVD, we’re going to print some and hang them on our walls in our flat

My Fav:

Which is exactly what I intend to do!

Our garden, as I think I’ve mentioned before, is almost as arrid as a desert! The sun beats down on it almost full time and thus even our flower bed struggles to keep plants alive within its soil. A while back M and I bought a half wine barrel for R150 (bargin!) and we sanded it, varnished it and thats pretty much where its ended.

I’ve been desperately looking out for a Dwarf Citrus tree of sorts (the dwarf variety is propegated off a full grown tree vs a sapling thats stunted as a bonsai) but there is nowhere that I can find that sells this elusive tree. Thus our barrel has sat empty, void of all soil and roots (ok my mom borrowed it for her avo tree for a bit) and I recently (read: earlier today) found an article in The Gardener magazine which spoke of “Designer Trees: Local winners for small gardens” which turned out to be a pretty cool article. It basically outlined 5 or 6 trees to consider for a small garden.

Two of which caught my eye and are available fairly easily:

Heteropyxis natalensis – Lavender Tree (pictured above)
Searsia pendulina (formerly Rhus pendulina) – Wild Pear

Both are sized 4-10m tall (obv pruned to stay at 4m) and are great with full sun, and dry conditions. So I found a place that sells em, and I was verbally quoted R1500 for a tree of 4m in height (the largest which can be handled by hand without machinery assistance) which is too big anyway, so I’m hoping the price will come down for a smaller (2m) tree.

Yay! I cant wait! I’d like any thoughts you have on which tree you prefer, and why!

And some more good news, possibly even better, Iso’s biopsy results came back. She has (had?) a benign tumour which my vet removed in its entirety vs just a small biopsy and all looks good for it not to bother her again! They suspect it was a saliva gland gone awry but they said it looked like the vet had removed it all so happy days all around!

So this weekend is going to be pretty busy for me, but also nice and relaxing. Got Skyrim so going to install and play that this weekend, heard its quite good. Actually, it was likened to crack by two clients of mine because its really addictive. I’m a fan of role-playing games, so I’m keen to see what all the hype is about with this game. I havent played Oblivion which was the game before this one, but apparently they dont need to be played sequentially.

Then, the Kenaf rat bedding I ordered should be here by now, so I’ll be collecting that at the post office tomorrow. Then its off to drop off the photos from my latest wedding for print, and then to Tygervalley to get my sister’s Christmas gift. Cant tell you what it is, as I’m not sure if she follows my blog, but I can tell you its super cute, and I ordered one for myself as well! If it wasnt so expensive, I’d order more, but they’re limited edition so the price is a little steep.

Then, lastly, its off to see my best friend who I havent seen in AGES! Could almost be months, easily. Her work hours and mine dont match up, so we rarely get to see each other. It’ll be nice to see her again, and her rats, and fish, and kitty. We also decided to do Thanksgiving again next year, for the first time since her sister’s death, which is nice. Even though I’m not American, I miss celebrating Thanksgiving. I’ll handle the turkey side, since she’s vegetarian of course. It’ll be nice, myself and her and our respective partners. And by Thanksgiving next year, it’ll be 4 months until my wedding!

On the wedding front, nothing really has been done, but I have booked an appointment to view Zevenwacht, which looks like a pretty stunning venue. They’re on the higher side of our budget, but if they’re worth it, we’ll make a plan.

Going to PE this Christmas, so going to miss my family, but at least M will be able to see his family, which is just as important to me. Going to try and also pop through to EL as well to see some friends of mine who I havent seen in ages, but they’ll also be in CT early this Dec so all is not lost if we dont see them during Christmas. They recently bought a house, so it would have been nice to see it along with them, but we’d have to borrow the in laws’ car to drive the 3 hr drive, and they dont really seem keen to lend it to us, which sucks, but I guess its their call.

So, thats about it from my side. Will check in probably next week.

Oh, one last thing. One of my hard drives crashed. Yes, its horrible to even type it. All my design items were on there. I am one sad puppy and I literally mourned for a day. Didnt get out of bed and I just slept. M is going to try and work some magic, but for now, I’m screwed.

Hmm, I cant end on that bad note, so I’ll mention I’m going to a girls night with some colleagues in a fortnight. We’re doing all you can eat sushi and chinese. I think its going to be fun, and it’ll be the third time we’re trying to organise it, so here’s hoping it actually pans out this time haha.