A platter of bits and pieces

Poo bum, really no time to do a properly thought-out post (if I've EVER done such a thing). I think it's time for the [DA DA DA DAAAAA] dot points:

-- Best Beloved's sister and her family have moved to the US for a year and have asked us to be their mail recipients. Suddenly our mailbox is awash with magazines featuring pin-ups of the Pope and articles about Intelligent Design and newsletters with lists of 'Events to Pray About' (actual headline). The upside is that each piece of their mail has a bright yellow sticker announcing that it's relocated mail, so at least the mailman doesn't think he's found us on the road to Damascus.

-- Bumblebee is attending circus school for this week of the school holidays. I wrote a little bit in the last post's comments about the trouble we've been having lately with his school, and we thought a bit of positive and confidence-building activity might be a goer. Yay! He's bouncing out of bed, happy to see the day, learning to ride a unicycle and to juggle, and tomorrow he's apparently going to be part of a human pyramid. He's had no gameboy or tv for two weeks, and it's been really easy (and pleasant). Next week it'll be undone when he spends a week with the Albatross; they do a lot of hands-on making and fun stuff, but they also spend a lot of time in front of predominantly commercial tv. It's amazing how many ads B can quote verbatim after a week like that. Sigh.

-- TJ has just posted an hilarious overview of her latest book find. Read it and weep.

-- Ms Maker is asking for contributions to Slow Making. If you're interested in the idea of helping people to understand why what you make/design/do is valuable and/or worthy of respect, drop her an email on slowmaking [at] gmail.com.

-- I've got a mystery tool at the Book Studio which I'd love some help in identifying. My dad says I should send it in to The Collectors for their mystery item segment, but I think the whole point of that is that they know what it is before they ask everybody. in this case, I haven't a frigging clue!

POSTSCRIPT: I love teh interweb. Foo knew, and emailed me with a link as proof: it's a grinding wheel dress, for keeping grinding wheels toned and buffed and thus your knives and tools sharp. Who would have thought? I think we may still have a grinding wheel around here somewhere, too! Thanks, Foo! I owe you a beer.

-- Craft Australia have a new bloggy thing called Youth@craft.design which is a resource for young craft makers (although I'm sure your eyes won't be burned out if you happen to gaze at it with older eyes. I managed to survive the experience). There are four blogs with different purposes, like a knowledge portal. It's a nice concept. Check it out.

-- My birfday was great. I got brekkie in bed (pancakes with stewed rhubarb/apple mix & yogurt), had a nice picnic at Floriade, got some nice pressies, including a dvd of the first series of Absolute Power (gawd knows when I'll be able to watch it!) and cosmetics (old things need moisturisers!) and chocolates (mmm, Terry's dark choc Orange...). And much wine was imbibed, and back-episodes of Extras watched. It was the eenie-mini-break I needed.

-- I hate the fact that Canberra is full of brand new cars with defective indicators.

-- I went to a fitball class last night run by a very young woman who seemed to think keeping up with the beat of her utterly boring and very fast dance mix was more important than actually making sure your muscles were doing the right thing. I think I'll stick to the more sedate Saturday class, where the pace is slower, the exercises feel more productive and the instructor plays Arty Fufkin so that your mind can move along too.

-- I love this time of year for riding my bike. Today was glorious. Hooray!