1. This really has been an OMG, long week. I am so glad that it is Friday.

2. Not sure the boy is speaking to me anymore. I've come to the conclusion that I'm happy to just be friends, but he's gone all odd and when we ran into each other by accident on Tuesday it was awkward to say the least. I guess all I can do is leave him to it and either he'll get over it or he won't. I'll be sad to lose a friend, but what else can I do?

3. It's payday today, yay \o/

4. Tonight Helen and I are going to the Sun Bookshop for a wine and cheese event and then onto Mad Moose for pizza. And the best thing about going to both of those places? We live less than five minutes away from them so there's absolutely no problem with having a few drinks than trying to figure out how to get home.

5. I'm having a haircut tomorrow. I'm thinking shoulder length or shorter. Anyone who has met me in real life, or has at least a photo of me with my hair out, knows how think it is and I've been feeling like it's weighing me down lately. I really want a bit of a change, but I'll see what happens on the day. My hairdresser might have other ideas. He usually does.

6. Did I mention it was Friday and it's payday?

Hellooo interwebs!

I'm still alive, although I'm finding that the longer I go without posting the harder it becomes to do so. I'm still sans internet at home, which seems to shock people more than I thought it would. When I tell them that I have no access to the WWW outside of work hours its like I've told then that I've cut off my left foot or something. Very odd.

So, what's been happening? Not a lot, really. I spent my birthday in a meeting in Wollongong, which was novel, have traveled back and forth to the old home town many times over the last month and ate too many party pies at my niece's fifth birthday party on Saturday. Seriously, I cannot look a meat pie in the eye at the moment. The very though of it makes me want to gag.

I've also been doing a lot of sewing. Dresses mostly. I can't get enough dresses these days and as a result my wardrobe it about to burst at the seams, so to speak. But still. DRESSES!!!!!

*ahem*

Not much happening on the fannish front. I seem to have lost all interest in fanfic, both reading and writing it, and I'm barely keeping up with the shows I do have a passing interest in. Put it this way: I've only just watched the first episode of season six of Supernatural. That's how far behind I am. I can't say if this lull is permanent or temporary. I'll just have to wait and find out.

*waves at you all*

ETA: So now I'm eating my words about the fanfic thing because I just found out that celli posted this perfect little Dan/Casey ficlet for me on AO3 and I just love it!

*hearts*

Grrr, one of the major Australian banks has had a computer meltdown which means that all organisations who bank with it are unable to pay their staff. Guess who the university I work for banks with?

Fortunately I had savings to fall back upon. Some of my friends are not so lucky...

God, I haven't posted in aaaages! I must get better at remembering to do so.

Meanwhile, here's a short update on what's going on in Layleeland:

• I'm still internetless at home and I'm not really missing it, except for those nights when I'm watching a movie and I can't remember the name of the actor playing the second best friend or some such. That's when I really wish I could jump onto IMDB to find out, although the feeling subsides after I'm ambled off to make a cup of tea.
• Mousey Mousey has reared his(her) ugly head again. Every now and then I see a flash of tail or whiskers and I've become paranoid about wiping the kitchen bench down ever since I found some suspicious looking black deposits near the tea caddy. Grrr!
• I'm going to a conference in Brisbane in September, yay!
• I'm also going to a 'We're not getting married but mum offered to throw us a party anyway' party in Adelaide in October. Note to self: you'll be with your very stylish sisters-in-law. Buy new dress and shoes!
• My bike wen't through a period of need new pedals and needing a service and breaks failing. Who'd a thunk that owning a bike could be just as complicated as owning a car?
• My internetless state has seen me become obsessed with knitting gloves to while away the hours at home. I can't stop buying wool and trawling the intertubes for new patterns. I may be a wee bit addicted to knit one, purl one :~\
• I've just been invited to my 25th year high school reunion. Oh god, I'm not that old am I???

I just accidentally deleted most of the contents of my departmental statistics folder. The same folder which contained the spreadsheet I had had been working on all afternoon. The IT guys can probably do a restore from last night's network backup, but it won't include that particular spreadsheet because I only finished working on it half an hour ago.

I'll just be hiding under my desk crying if anyone needs me.

*sobs*

ETA: Thank god our email saves a copy of an attachment into another folder when you send it to someone. I had only just sent the spreadsheet to the subject librarians and was able to forward it to myself. I've still got to get the rest of the files back, but at least I don't have to redo last months' filled report. Phew!

Note to self: it is not a great idea to watch Jerry Springer's episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, wherein he traces his long lost grandmothers, both of whom died at the hands of the Nazis during the second world war, and then start reading the section of Lee Miller's biography where she photographed the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau just days after they were liberated. No wonder it took forever to get to sleep and you had very odd dreams when you did.

Back to work today. It wasn't too bad, although I am so incredibly vague that I have to double and triple check myself just so I don't let some glaring error pass me by. I also wrenched a muscle in my neck while I was brushing my hair this morning and I can't turn my head very far. Didn't make for the most auspicious return to work, I can tell you. I was so exhausted by the time I got home and I couldn't be arsed cooking the chicken I'd defrosted so I scrounged up some leftover curry and rice instead. God bless my deep freezer that allows me to freeze extra meals for those days when cooking is way too much to contemplate.

I've been watching the latest series of City Homicide and it's actually been quite good. It's good to see Aaron Pedersen back in the thick of things after his character spent most of last season in a coma, and it ain't half obvious that they're trying to pretend that Nadine Garner wasn't on the verge of giving birth during filming. Why else would Jennifer be spending most of her time doing 'research' behind a computer or only be shot in close-up during interrogation scenes?

The other fun thing about it is playing 'spot the local landmark'. For some reason the area between my flat and work is a very popular place for local film and TV productions to do location work. I'm always cycling past a line of production vans near Yarra Bend Park or watching them go through their paces outside some down-at-heel terrace house in Clifton Hill. I'm sure there's even the odd scene where, if you look hard enough, you can see in the distance a cyclist on a black and silver Giant, wearing an ugly yellow jacket and a red helmet :~)

Hey, is anyone else hating the new Firefox update as much as I am? It's made my connection so frigging slow it's almost at a standstill. Grrr!

Meh, I've been feeling out of sorts all week, largely, I think, because of that guy. Which is stupid because I shouldn't let people get to me that way, and yet they do. It didn't help that yesterday we have to deal with The Most Annoying Law Student On Earth. He rang my department no less than five times to check on the progress of his requests, despite the fact that he knows it takes three working days to supply most items and that putting a need-by date of today (Saturday)is a little futile considering ILL isn't open over the weekend. He also drove the staff on the telephone inquiry service to distraction with incessant phone calls that ultimately got him no where because we are not miracle workers! I was so drained by the end of the day it was a wonder I was able to stay upright on my bike on the way home.

But it's Saturday now and it's a beautiful sunny day. As soon as my washing is finished I am going to cycle over to Station street for coffee and newspapers, then pop across to Carlton where the coat shop near work is having a sale. I have K's birthday dinner tonight in Chinatown and a side offer to drop in on best work friend and mutual fried H if the post-dinner karaoke becomes a little too much. Tomorrow I'm having coffee with A&O and then it will be Monday again, but I'm hoping that TMLSoE's articles will be waiting in the Ariel station first thing and we can be rid of him for the moment.

Also, for the first time in ages I have a fic rec! All you C6D peeps must go forht and read 1500 Kilometers (& A Caboose) by ariastar, a due South/My Life As A Dog crossover wherein Benton Fraser is soundly beaten at table hockey by a twelve year-old boy and learns the power of communication.

yay, m y washing is finished and coffee awaits!

My first day back at work was not unpleasant. Having to get up at 7.30 when I'd gotten used to sleeping in until nine was a bit of a shock to the system, but I got over that, especailly when I got to work and found the 'Welcome Back Glorious Leader!' sign the troops had made for me on my PC. It really made my day and I hope they don't take it back after we've done the performance reviews later in the week.

In more amusing news, at the brother-in-law's party on the weekend, one of my sister's friends thought that best work friend and I were a couple! I'm not quite sure how she got hold of that particular stick, but we've been laughing about it ever since because M probably had to work up a lot of courage to say something. Then we went and crushed her by proclaiming our enduring heterosexuality. I even have a date on Wednesday!

Supernatural is killing me right now. Really, it is. The rift between Sam and Dean is just, so gah! and DTs Sam is not a pretty sight. Ruby is such a bitch, but then again Castiel is also being pretty bitchy at the moment. Bobby, however, is awesome, which is just how it should be.

All of a sudden I am either very hungry or very tired. Bit of both, I think. Maybe I'll have some hot chocolate an go to bed.

So, this week I'm doing this thing where I wear a dress or a skirt to work everyday. Don't ask me why, I just decided to do it. On Monday I wore the grey check pinafore that I recently made, yesterday it was my Joan Holloway secretary skirt and a plunging v-neck top, while today it's my denim pencil skit, a turtleneck jumper and my new boots. I love my denim pencil skirt. It's so figure hugging that you have no choice but to swing your hips as you walk. But it's also very comfortable because the fabric has a bit of elastine in it to give it some stretch. And believe me, with a skirt this tight a bit of stretch is a godsend!

Tomorrow it's a toss-up between my tweed sheath dress and my black pinafore that I can wear with lacy tights and a little 3/4 sleeve jumper underneath. And heels, of course :~) Friday is casual day so I'll be a bit risque in my above the knee tunic and chunky boots. But then I've also got the silk dress that I hardly wear, my other tweed shift dress, plus there's my other skirts... Oh, decisions!

ETA: Why do I have an unbearable craving for smoked salmon pasta? Guess who'll be dropping by the supermarket on their way home...

...how stupid people can be so stupid.

Discuss.