Discussion Thread đĒˇ Sunday 11 May 2025
I'd like a large platter of breakfast pastries, floated into the room by balloons, please.
That was a loooooong drive home.
The GPS told me traffic was really bad on my route, but assured me if I followed the new route it had calculated I would be home before 7. I decided to trust it, and ended up going through a bunch of places I did not recognise (Ascot Vale and Travencore included). Once I was on that route the GPS informed me that traffic was actually bad that way too and there was no way I was getting home before 7.
When I did finally get home there were packages waiting though - Miss Meow's tree cat scratcher and the leaf shaped mats for the garden themed corner, Mr Woof's new fluffy grey rugs for the front bedroom, and the big rug for the lounge. The big rug looks nicer than I was expecting and is very soft.
That took a lot more work putting together than anticipated, and I still have to screw down the slats. I'm happy with how it looks though. I don't think I've got enough enthusiasm left to start on the side tables today, I might have a start on the dining table and cat trees instead.
I still don't have any power. Hopefully it will be done soon, I'd like to have it on before I leave.
My old water heater used about 16 matches and a complicated pattern of pressing and releasing the gas button. It never occured to me new ones would self light.
It is an instantaneous heater, so no waiting required.
I have house! đ
Still no power, but that should be connected some time today. I'll need to figure out how to light the pilot light on the water heater at some point, but's not urgent. I won't be actually moving in for a few weeks.
It is as expected a bit on the dirty side - just the expected layer of dust etc. that accumulates in an empty house. It does mean I won't have to do a perfect clean when I leave at least - but I definitely need to add window cleaning to my to do list sooner rather than later!
For afternoon fun I shall measure all the things, then assemble a bed and side tables and a couple of cat trees.
In other good news for the day, the accidental foam couch makes a quite comfortable temporary seat, so I have something to sit on before the furniture is delivered.
Miss Meow fully approves of the new L shape scratcher. So far she has been indifferent to the corner scratcher, I'll have to wait and see if she feels like investigating it after a nap.
I've also put plastic guards along the front of the couch and armchairs, which is her preferred scratching area but not mine.
The bed and bedside tables have now been picked up. The dining chairs and Miss Meow's new cat trees are in the van as well, I'm going to pack as much other stuff as I can around all that to take up tomorrow.
The mop to go with the mop bucket arrived today, so I'm all set to give the floors a quick once over to remove whatever dust has settled. The carpets can get a quick vacuum on a later visit.
More Temu has arrived. I may have gone a touch overboard on the suction cup hooks.
A couple of Temu packages have already arrived this morning. Some plastic shelves are the wrong colour and a plastic bin is warped out of shape, but most of the stuff is not too bad. One small rug/mat I don't remember ordering, so I will have to investigate what it is supposed to be. Miss Meow's window hammock looks good, and I think she'll like the window-mounted toy with ping pong balls inside too.
Edit: looks like I did order the mat, although I can't remember where I was planning to put it. I have four external doors in the new place though, so it certainly won't go astray.
How could it be anything but circumstantial? It's rare in any murder trial to have direct evidence, and poisoning is inherently a hidden and secretive crime. Unless she actually videoed herself picking poisonous mushrooms, putting them the meal, and saying she know's they're poisonous I can't see any way you could have direct evidence.
Circumstantial evidence is not bad evidence. Once you have a reasonable amount of different bits of evidence all pointing in the same direction it becomes very solid evidence.
Getting in the door was back to easy mode again today - package delivery was just two footstools. I now have two fluffy pink footstools to rest my feet on. They may be a touch small for Miss Meow to use as a cat bed, but I expect her to trial them out at some point anyway.
The water at my place gets discoloured if it sits in the pipes too long, which is most noticeable in the kitchen because it is furthest away from the connection. The pipes probably all need to be replaced, so I just make sure I run the water for a while before I use it for drinking or cooking.
What a shock. Those people are normally so reliable.
Appliances Online price matching was very easy. I found a good price on Amazon but didn't want to actually shop on Amazon. A few minutes on chat and I had $180 off. Very nice.
This means I am getting the upgraded toaster oven to the one I currently have, which has air fryer mode. My old one is getting very tatty and is just a standard oven, but I use it all the time. There are very few days I don't cook something in it. I made the mistake of using a corrosive oven cleaner on it and it did not go well. It still works fine but the inner surface is now all visibly damaged.
In a plot twist Miss Meow's missing garden themed cat tower arrived this afternoon - it was actually the other (slightly more expensive) tower which the couch was sent instead of. When I went through the refund process for that one they offered me $16 to keep the couch. And the one other one has been marked down $5 since I ordered so I was able to claim that too. I've now re-ordered the right cat tree and can keep the couch legitimately.
I'm looking forward to being able to take some stuff to the new house this week, things are a bit chaotic with both packing happening and new stuff starting to come in.
Miss Meow's garden theme scratching post arrived. Except it is actually a children's foam couch âšī¸
Now I have to take it back to the post office for a refund.
Edit: scrap that, I'm keeping the couch. I just had a look at what it is, and it is very similar to the foam mattress I was thinking of getting for the back of the van. And it's worth over twice as much as the cat tree. So I've just ordered another cat tree and won't return the couch.
More Edit: I just unrolled it. This thing is massive! It's basically two single mattresses on top of each other, which fold in the middle. Plus two wedge shaped cushions. It could easily be used for two single beds or one double bed.
I've been sussing out where the sewers etc. run at the new place, looks like the lines are all outside the property boundary so there should be no easemets within the yard. Which is good, I'm hoping the owner will let me create a bit of a garden including a couple of small trees. They'd be silly to say no as it would improve the property values, but there's no guarantee that they are not silly.
It is a great yard for a garden, at the moment it is just grass, but the whole lot is north facing. I'd be looking at doing the end with the outdoor area with low maintenance natives designed to attract birds, with herb & vegie garden including a lemon/lime tree at the less visible end. It will involve lots of digging, which is just what I need to improve my fitness levels. And buying a few plants etc. is probably cheaper than a qym membership.
If they decide to say no to the garden I will have to do a few things in pots instead, plus I'll do a bed or two of annual vegies and just pull it out when I leave. Either option will work ok, but I do like the idea of creating something for the future.
30/50 there were many guesses.