22 Foxhole East

Nonnadiluca

Apparently the way to avoid the the nutter on the bus is to be the nutter on the bus, so you obviously look extremely un-nutterish!

mark55man

'Cause I gonna make you see
There's nobody else here
No one like me
I'm special (special), so special (special)
I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me

(Brass in pocket - The pretenders)

Yes special as a word is not always a compliment (cf Creep by Radiohead), but I think in this case it is !!

f0xh0les

Another Wednesday, another trip to the tip for recycling!

I have got a furry lodger, DS1 has seen him/her, so humane mouse traps baited, so far 3 food stashes have been uncovered and disposed of, apparently they nest within 10 feet of their food stash, so that would place the little bugg3r firmly under the hot water cylinder in the upstairs bathroom, which has pipes running from the boiler in the kitchen, up the unused chimney, so he/she/they has(ve) his/her/their/zee own version of a fireman's pole.  Grrrrr!!

But it does mean the bin goes out at night, and the washing up is being done, so there is nothing for the furry-fiend(s) to eat at night anymore.  Sadly that means I am doing it, but I am home full time for the next 3 weeks before my next week of work.  Makes me wonder how long furry-face has been resident..... I feel like a total slovenly wench. Mum-guilt!!   The little mousey holiday chalets have been baited with tasty peanut butter and carrot sticks.  They have exactly one week to get caught and relocated or I am resorting to Madame Guillotine measures.  So far there has been no sign of mousey visitors in the pantry, just robbing from under the dining table, and out of the kitchen bin (vegetable peelings mostly). 

It is making me utterly resolved to get rid of all the clutter (the kitchen is nearly clutter free, and the dumping ground that is the downstairs bathroom has today been reduced to half of what was in there - still a work in progress, but there is maybe 2 days worth of sorting and disposing left to do in there. Luckily I have two days!! DH, bless him, is back in the lecture hall  so is out of the house and I am not freaking him out by the quantity of stuff I have removed, and he has not noticed.  He is so knackered after his first week back teaching, he probably thinks I have boxed it and put it 'away', well I have, just much further 'away' than he expects. I have a queue of people coming to pick up pairs of 'too small for anyone in this house' wellies, and bags of bubblewrap. 

DS4 made supper tonight - he made a pasta sauce at school yesterday, so it went into the fridge and we had it tonight, we could not have it last night as DS1 made a spinach and potato curry (and then promptly fell asleep and missed supper - he was called, and answered, but had no memory of it apparently).  So he had his later on.

Tomorrow is volunteering day, and Friday is people picking things up / more stuff leaving the house day.

Feeling motivated, and in budget. Still have £42 of the £60 weekly budget left, so sat and filled out postcards for competitions from the competition forum, used some of step-gran's massive envelope collection instead of postcards after I ran out of them, and free stamps from the postal survey thing.

f0xh0les

All competition entries sent, postal survey done, got another to post today. All up to date, and I won a daily bonus what-not, so now have £18 in my account to convert to shopping vouchers. The question du jour,  is which one? Do I go South-American-Big-River, as usual and randomly buy things, or do I go Mr T's emporium of Foodstuffs, and stock up (I do not need to stock up, I need to make more lentil soup (I love lentil soup!))

Well, actually, what I need is to get a fridge and a freezer that is not child-size.  Then I can batch cook and freeze in portions and tell the kids to pick a box and microwave it!!  No more 'What's for snack/lunch/supper mum?'  - they can go to Uncle Freezer for their tea.

Still no mouse found.  Getting increasingly annoyed with his/her/their non-compliance. Resistance will be met with swift retaliation of a permanent nature. It will hurt Zee more than it hurts me (although DH might well divorce me - he seems willing to share his pantry in a gesture of goodwill to all creatures - my goodwill ends as soon as they enter my house, and do not respond to vegan-friendly first attempts at removal ).  Oh well, I was going to hell anyway

f0xh0les

Oh, and if anyone can tell me why I am feeling really anxious about spending ANY money, when I have £130 in the budget until the £200 child benefit comes in on Monday, and £2,000 in housekeeping and wages coming in on Tuesday, can they let me know because it is really annoying me. 

Supper tonight is going to be stuff on crackers, we have not-cheeses, salady bits, pickles, loads of crackers and oat cakes. I am on Operation Pantry Use Up (OPUP) now.  It might distract me from my pointless money-worrying

And the new recipe for this week is going to be mushroom soup (damn you Lee DL and your 20p field mushrooms) because I do not have anything that goes with them, and I am going to get down to 11 stone something in February. 

mark55man

Everyone is worrying about money these days - specially those like me who are normally laid back.  I think its because money decisions feel more serious these days as we all have near term plans that will be under threat by the C of L crisis

badmemory

Why when reading about the mouse/mice did I think "resistance is futile".  However I am sure it will be.

Flying_By

@f0xh0les This might not appeal - and I would understand why - but if you have any friends or neighbours who have cats which use litter trays - apparently the smell of cat wee petrifies mice and rats!  They recognise it as a predator's scent and should bunny off (ha!) PDQ. That's if you can put up with a few receptacles filled with widdly litter in your house for a couple of days .....

in_my_wellies

My neighbour swears by chocolate in her mouse traps, pea sized pieces. They run round the edges, e.g. along skirting boards. A dusting of flour on the floor will tell you where they are going so you can set the traps. 

I suffered mushroom soup last week curtesy of LEEdl for 20p. I like the taste but I do wonder why homemade mushroom soup is black but bought it's creamy white. How do they do that?

f0xh0les

The mushroom soup was Delicious!!  Went down a bomb with everyone. I can probably whip it out every month without anyone crying, and it is another lovely, healthy soup for the list.

Had to go and get emergency contraception for the first time in over 25 years! -whoops  Hooray for B00ts, and progress, and over the counter medications .  Best to be on the safe side. Good deal less complicated than in the '90's.

Limbo time until pay comes in - but I have plans.

 Will order a sofa bed with the MXX money for the living room, then if in-laws come to visit then they can just stay here and I will at least know where they flippin' well are!  Also, when the roof is done and three kids have to get out of their bedrooms, I will have an extra bed to put them in for the few days it takes to get the work done, replastering, and redecoration.

I am going to ring builders tomorrow. I have to pull up my big-girl pants and just book 3 people in and get them to tell me what is actually possible in this house. My total wealth before payday tomorrow is £105k, there is no reason for me to be living in a house without a working shower, or a decent bathroom.  I need to give myself a bl00dy good shake, and now DH is back in the office 4 days a week (on non- strike weeks anyway) there is no reason not to get the work done while nobody else is going to be disturbed by it (except DS1 who is proving to be just about as lazy as they come).