A curse on these damn quizzes and surveys...

You lot are seriously turning me into a survey/quiz junkie. Although this one ( was eeriely apt. )

Practicalities.

I like doing stuff with my hands, sometimes. Which is odd, because when I was younger I was known as "The Absent-Minded Professor" to my family. I'd do chores on our farm, but I'd often forget to do stuff, sometimes important stuff. But when I got to Melbourne and university, I found there were people a lot more inept than I was at practical stuff, and I became known as the person who could Do Stuff. Like change light globes and trap spiders. ;)

Any way, yesterday I was helping Mum garden. She had these old rosebushes (planted by the previous owner of the house) out the front of the house that she wanted to replace with standard roses, red and yellow ones. That meant digging out the old ones and digging in the new ones. *looks ruefully at her scratched hands* You wouldn't believe I was wearing gloves. :P And I've got a lovely puncture mark on my stomach where a particularly long thorn dug in. Mind you, mum got off worse - she got a scratch down her ear that bled everywhere.

But I actually enjoyed it. And Mum gave me one of the bush roses, the one with the apricot/yellow/pink flowers, to put in the space where the other one died. I'll be glad when the new fences are put up, because I'll be able to start laying out my veggie garden; judging fomr various noises, they started that today. :) I love gardening, it's great therapy. Nothing like attacking the ground with a spade when you're cranky. Or pulling up weeds, when you're aggravated.

What I do need to do when I log off is clean my bike chains. Yes, chains, plural. Part of the hazards of multiple bike ownership. But Cecil really needs it, as the chain went rusty from getting caught in the rain last week - the patio leaks, and we haven't gotten the shed up because we're waiting on... yes, you guessed it, the fence man. BRM offered, but I told I'd do it. I don't want him throwing it up in my face later that he does all my bike maintenance.

*sighs* Yes, it's getting that petty. Shoot me now.

Here, kitty, kitty kitty.

I had a nice surprise as I went out the back to work on my bikes - Raskus was there when I opened the door.

Oh, haven't I mentioned Raskus? Well, he's a lovely black cat that lives in the unit across the way from us. And he's the most schmoozy cat I've ever met. He loves being patted and stroked and will rub his head on your feet (very ticklish when it's summer and I'm not wearing shoes) or jump up onto the window sill so he can climb onto your shoulders. Purring all the while like a well-oiled engine.

I haven't seen him around for quite a while, adn I was starting to wonder if something had happened to him. But there he was today, looking well-fed and happy and seemingly as pleased to see me as I was to see him. I spent about ten minutes burbling at him in a rather silly way, while he nuzzled at me and purred and generally made me feel loved. I even had a cat scarf at one point. ;)

Of course, he took off once I started doing things with solvent and oil, but it was still lovely to see him. :) I wanna kitty now!