Talk Like A Pirate Day got off to a slow start because I couldn’t figure out how to print from my laptop, and eventually had to go and use Meerkat, where I discovered that there wasn’t a graphics program installed which knew what a jpeg is *sigh* So I rang E and he suggested I install Irfanview, so I did, and was able to resize and print out some skull-and-crossbones at different sizes. K painted her flags black and put red accents on some of them, and B made up her own flag because she pointed out that the skull-and-crossbones would have belonged to a specific pirate and we should have our own designs too. So she painted a flag, and named her ship the Lady’s Wrath. K was the captain of the good ship Cubbyhouse. K also painted a hat shape I cut out of cardboard and we stuck a smaller skull and crossbones on it, but until it dried she was wearing a bandanna. We broke out the treasure chest, covered over its contents with gold paper, and filled it with all the bling we weren’t wearing. Then we stowed it away on board the Cubbyhouse, where it was later stolen by the dastardly raiders from the Lady’s Wrath. There was lots of playing outside, so by the time H was tired enough to haul off for a nap, the girls were happy to come in and watch Pirates of the Caribbean on the computer. In the afternoon the ended up discarding their piratical gear and playing with water in the sandpit. We didn’t end up having our usual TLAPD dinner because E didn’t get home with the mince until 6:30, and he and B had to head straight out to Cubs. I put H and then K to bed, but decided it wasn’t worth making the meatballs since B and E wouldn’t get back til after 9:30. The buses are useless for Cubs since the closest leaves the interchange at the nominal time Cubs finishes, but since they are always late in closing she has to wait another hour. Aaargh. They had dinner at the food court instead, and I had toast…

On Saturday we actually managed to get some stuff done – possibly because with no car I was rather less interested in heading out for some Mum’s Time Off, and of course we had no way of getting to the markets. The house was an utter tip, but in the morning I cleared some kitchen space, did loads of laundry and washing up, and cleaned the dining room (not that you’d notice now of course). E did a bunch of tidying in the playroom but didn’t really finish it. We talked about how to ramp things up a bit towards the aim of getting this place on the market next month, and ended up renting a ute (E and B cycled over to Jamison to pick it up), a chainsaw and a storage unit. I packed some more boxes while they were out, and when E was chopping up tree bits and loading the ute. He and K dropped off the first load, while I stayed at home making spaghetti and meatballs. B’s friend Chris cycled over to visit and they took the dog for a walk. In the morning she helped me with laundry and keeping K amused, and this evening she has been sorting/culling her clothes drawers, before going to bed early with a little light reading on Pirates’ Ships and Weapons. K played in the garden and watched Finding Nemo, but she also volunteered to clean the windows – or as she puts it, to “make things ‘weak”. She was very taken with the squeaking of the cloth and the Windex and considers it the most important part of the window-cleaning experience.

Tomorrow Nannie is coming in to collect the girls and take them out to the farm for the day. E and I will start humping boxes across to the storage unit as well as clearing out the rest of the rubbish from the garden and hopefully from the green shed as well (plus the usual packing, cleaning and so on). The house had been filling up with boxes and it was having a negative impact on my mood…it will be nice to get some space!