Moggie Madness

Why do I procrastinate?!

Okay so I have been studying for a long time now and I have gotten pretty good at polishing off assignments in a short space of time - providing I have all the information at hand, which I usually do. You see at the beginning of the semester, I feel all gung ho about studying and I dutifully go to the library, research the available topics, decide on which one works best for me (based on personal interest and availability of material), sign up for my topic and get all the information I need to write the essay. I write out an outline, put in dot points and my sources and then…..

….I LEAVE it till the last minute to write the actual assignment!! I do this unfailingly EVERY SINGLE TIME! Why do I do this to myself???

You see dear readers, as I am typing out this little blog post about my problem with procrastination, my big fat essay on cyanobacteria and waterways is sitting open in another window. Despite the fact that it is due tomorrow, I’m instead in my blog writing about why I’m NOT writing my assignment. God is there no help for me? LMAO

It’s funny really. After so many years of not having enough hours in the day to study, work and keep up with my social life, I have grown accustomed to doing assignments at the last minute. It’s now to the point where unless I feel truly panicked that I won’t get it done in time - I just can’t think of anything to write! Fortunately, the panic is starting to set in now, so hopefully after I have finished this post, I can get back to the assignment and finish the damn thing. But I am willing to lay bets on it, that even if I have *most* of it done by dinner time, I will set it aside and do it in the few hours I have available before I go to work tomorrow at lunch time.

Bring on the summer storms!

Well the summer storm season seems to have come a little early this year - not that I am in any way complaining! I’ve spent the last few days trying to capture an elusive photo of a lightning strike to no avail. Fortunately it seems the storms will be hanging around for a while yet, so hopefully I will get one eventually.

The onset of summer also means that my year as a post-graduate student is drawing to a close. Hooray! I enjoy studying but I am always eternally grateful to see the back of it for a while. My family jokes that I will be the eternal student in the family - so far I have completed two undergraduate degrees and soon to finish off a graduate certificate which is a prelude to a masters degree. I was planning on continuing the masters next year but I think I will give it a break for a while and concentrate on my other immediate life goals - finish landscaping, get another job and shed a few (okay many!) pounds.

Mojo enjoys watching the storms with me….we usually sit at the front door and watch them roll over, until the point where the rain comes lashing in through the front door and he heads for drier territory. One of these days I will get a photo of my fellow storm watcher in action…it seems he feels the best view is obtained from the top of the flyscreen.

Not a moggie but a doggy!

Okay so she’s not a moggie.

This is Mischa, a 9yr old ridgeback cross who I found in a tiny pet store in Rockhampton when she was around 8 wks old. She was the last of her litter, the runt and the pet store owner was going to take her to the pound the next day. She had a small patch of ringworm on her flank, which the pet store owner knew about but had done nothing to treat. Consequently, even though she was lovely natured and sweet, no one was interested in buying her. Ringworm is so easily treated that I could not let her go to the pound where she probably would have been put to sleep. As it was, we took her home, the ringworm was treated and cleared up in no time.

She loves cats to bits having lived the best part of her life with one - Mojo has her well and truly under his thumb even though they no longer live together. She has left her puppyhood behind now and is a good solid companion for my mum. I took this photo of her yesterday looking out over Moreton Bay from the pier at Wynnum beach.

Another shot I took once we got home. I think Mojo is just a little bit jealous that Mischa gets to check out the new deck and he doesn’t.

Rosie on the other hand has not really been exposed to too many dogs. Mischa would have liked to have gotten closer to meet her but if she came within a metre of her, but Rosie wouldn’t have a bar of it. LOL

Still she didn’t try to run away, she stood her ground, so I think she will adjust to dogs given time.

Mojo’s dental work

Earlier this year, Mojo went for his third yearly dental checkup and plaque removal under anaesthetic. He just thought he would share his lovely dental work with all the viewers out there. He was a bit late for Dental Awareness Month in August, but he figured better late than never. What a lovely set of teeth you have Mojo!!

“All the better to bite you with, human!” LOL

If you want to avoid a very costly vet bill for your beloved moggie, you can:

Feed raw chicken wings or necks from a young age
Brush their teeth regularly with special meat-flavoured toothpaste and finger brush (would not recommend this if your cat is feisty and you like your skin remaining intact)
Feed them a special dental blend of dry cat food and ensure any meat given is in big chunks, rather than mince like consistency so that they have to chew more to get their food down.

It’s such a hard life for a cat….

“If I stay really really quiet and don’t move, she won’t find me with that jolly camera….oh goddammit she found me!!!”

“Muuuuuuummmm!!!!! Turn off the lights I’m trying to sleep here!!!!“

The Great Outdoors Project - Stage 1 complete!

Here is the photo of the completed project as promised….well Stage One anyway. By dinner time tonight the tiles should have well and truly dried thanks to the hot dry wind that is blowing our way. I can’t wait to clean all the tools away for however long it takes us to get Stage Two (the Spa) in motion….we’re guessing a good couple of weeks at least.

I reckon it looks pretty jolly good….not bad for a couple of DIY hacks I think.

Top 10 reasons to hate DIY!

So we have spent the last two days building a DIY deck with decking tiles. Relatively easy to put together, until you realise that the people who built your house (who shall not be named for fear of lawsuit) are incapable of building anything in a straight line. Resulting in a lot of deck tiles needing to be unscrewed, slats and supports removed, cut back and rescrewed on with an old-fashioned screwdriver because someone forgot to charge the cordless one (which made it a lot easier once it WAS charged). So the tiny bit we had left to do turned into somewhat of a PITA as we had to borrow a circular saw - which of course had no instructions and we have never used before. Nevermind, it all got done after some minor technical difficulties and we just have to oil the remainder of the tiles that were laid yesterday. After I have a finished product, sans sawdust and tools all over the place, I’ll take another photo. Needless to say I didn’t get a chance to watch the sunset with a cold drink in hand yesterday because we were still putting in tiles at that point.

Which prompts me to bring up my Top 10 Reasons to hate DIY!

1. Splinters and sawdust get everywhere…..and I do mean everywhere
2. Nothing is ever as easy as what it seems
3. To make it as easy as it seems, it is helpful if your builder can pour a concrete slab in a perfect square. Ours apparently could not.
4. Downpipes although necessary make the job more of a PITA than it already is.
5. Repetitive manual labour, if you’re not accustomed to it, makes you very sore very quickly.
6. Cats incessantly complain about you being outside working hard and not being able to be inside serving their every need….consequently they make it their aim in life to keep you awake the majority of the night so you cannot get the sleep you need to recuperate properly.
7. Being too sore because you were doing a lot of DIY over the weekend is not a good enough excuse to call in sick.
8. The washing that you thought was safely hung around the corner of the house has to be rewashed because it is covered in sawdust, thus wasting water.
9. No matter how good a job you do, someone always has to find the one part of the project that went a little awry.
10. The only people who appreciate your hard work are those who actually helped put it together and can appreciate how difficult it really was.