The Brick House

I didn’t write a blog post for last week because I got sick too (darned plague-rat children), but at least they were both still sick and didn’t really do much anyway.

Sunday 26 May

• D&H: neither kid felt up to going to the second day of rapier training,  and didn’t feel like just coming up for the tournaments either, so we left them at home

Monday 27 May

• Dan: had a Tumblr post they wrote go viral in a smallish way (more than 1K users have reblogged it)
• D&H: had one final week off youth rapier, hoping to be back to normal next week

Tuesday 28 May

• Hugh: one-on-one swimming lesson 
• Dan: received confirmation that they have been appointed as a Youth Ambassador to the Youth and Children’s Commissioner in 2019, and notification of the three upcoming meetings

Wednesday 29 May

• Dan: singing lesson
• Hugh: started researching a possible day of cooking only Lebanese food, but seems to have decided there’s too much wheat and meat/dairy/eggs (not to mention eggplant) involved in Lebanese cooking and is veering back towards Chinese

Thursday 30 May

• Dan: optometrist appointment (following up on contact lenses)
• Hugh: he and Izra discovered the downside of their free video editing software after several days of work – a huge watermark on the video which can only be removed with a $60 yearly plan. They’ve found another free one which doesn’t do that and are going to use that in future.
• Dan: roller derby, Silver Words
• Hugh: cooked Massaman Curry for dinner (with beef because the vegos weren’t home)

Friday 31 May

• Hugh: tried recording more game videos but ran into problems with the free recording software he was using
• Hugh: lit the fire without assistance
  

I changed to recording Saturday-Friday so it works in with my weekly dashboard on Trello, so I can update all the daily task cards in one go.

Sunday:

• Philip went home late morning, and Hugh mostly did his own thing for the rest of the day, although he did watch a show(?) with Eric in the evening. He also cooked dinner for both of them, improvising a dish of chicken with cream cheese and spinach sauce.
• Dan is very ill, and spent most of the day in bed.

Monday:

• Dan is still very ill, and spent most of the day in bed. 
• While supervising Q in the courtyard Dan had a surreal encounter with a weirdly tame rat, which Q watched pootling around for at least ten minutes but completely failed to try to eat or play with even when it came within a few inches of him (which it did several times).
• Hugh cooked himself an improvised, complicated multi-part lunch and learned about the importance of planning the timing of different dishes so they are ready at the same time.
• no rapier for Hugh tonight as both drivers are too sick to make it to town safely.

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

• Dan: no singing as Eleanor is away this week

Thursday:

• Dan: roller derby, AYCC meeting  – didn’t go due to illness

Friday:

•  Hugh’s swimming lesson

Saturday:

• Little Bit of Rapier training day and feast. Dan was too sick to come, Hugh came but didn’t fight. He helped Suzanne in the kitchen and serving the feast instead. 

Didn’t finish this entry due to getting the same lurgi the kids did and being too sick to feel like doing anything all week.

Sunday

• Hugh: cooked scrambled tofu for Mother’s Day breakfast, but is coming down with a cold so was feeling too unwell to cook dinner as planned
• Dan: helped Eric record several songs for the Lochac Knowne World Bardcast episode by accompanying him on guitar

Monday

• Dan and Hugh: rapier (even though Hugh was still sick, he really wanted to go)

Tuesday

• Dan: went to bank with Eric to find out about their debit card
• Dan: found a sick/injured pademelon in the back garden, we caught it and a Bonorong wildlife carer came to take it to the vet
• Hugh: still sick and miserable

Wednesday

• Dan: singing lesson:we have a (TBC) date for the AMEB exam in June, so I need to book a session with the accompanist. The week before we have booked an extra-long lesson with Eleanor on the Monday to run through the exam and then work on whatever comes up. The AMEB exam is also on on the same day as the student concert (23 June)
• Dan: plotting a new Les Mis fanfi; they feel that the reason they haven’t finished a few previous ventures is that they haven’t worked out the plot beforehand so it’s just petered out. They are disappointed that no-one is reading the fanfic they have posted though, because they are less interested in writing if they aren’t able to share it with people and get feedback.
• Hugh: still sick and miserable, but is learning how to lay and light the fire

Thursday

• Hugh is still sick and miserable, but is cleaning his room in preparation for a sleepover on Saturday
• Dan is getting sick too, but has an optometrist appointment to pick up their contact lenses, roller derby and AYCC meeting planned for the day. Unfortunately they were feeling so tired and ill that they couldn’t even finish derby, let alone go on to the AYCC.But at least they have contact lenses now!
• Dan has been reading about the new, incredibly restrictive abortion laws being proposed or enacted in various US states.
• Hugh decided that he can’t run his Unturned server as a role-playing server any more, because it requires too much work from the owner/admin to make it fun for other players (ie. someone has to play “God” to structure the role-playing aspects and manually provide resources) so has switched it to something less demanding of his time. He’s been advertising it on various lists and getting more players (his server is restricted to a max of 12).

Friday:

• Dan had a sleepover organised with Eli and Alison, but Alison ended up not being able to come down due to conflict with parents. Eli came down anyway and stayed the night, they practised music, played boardgames, and generally amused themselves

Saturday:

• Eli went back at lunchtime on the bus, he and Dan went down to the village together in the morning and Dan came home after the bus left.
• Hugh: had a sleepover organised with Philip here: they played on Hugh’s computer/tablet, then played outside making weapons and targets with various bits of wood and boxes. I invited them to have a bonfire in the evening to help me dispose of some garden waste, so they used the blocksplitter and hatchet to break up some logs and branches as well as the woody waste. Hugh was very conscious of fire safety and took all the precautions I would have suggested without being reminded, they started it by themselves (under supervision) and looked after it for a couple of hours.
• Election day: Dan followed the coverage, but Hugh is less politically engaged.

Sunday

• Hugh: wants to start making props from foam and PVC piping. Did some research into what equipment he would need (eg. heat gun, exacto knife, Dremel), prices, and where to buy them online
• Hugh: cooked BBQ-glazed chicken breasts and coleslaw for his and Eric’s dinner
• Dan: made apple crumble to my recipe without needing to ask for help with the ingredients

Monday

• Dan: made themselves tofu laksa for lunch (still needs help with remembering the recipe)
• Hugh: did more research into his plan to start making props from foam and piping
• Hugh: made up a marinade recipe and cooked chicken legs for snacks
• Hugh: his new Unturned server finally went live
• Dan: needs to renew their Spotify premium subscription
• Dan: applied to be a Youth Ambassador to the Children’s Commissioner
• Dan and Hugh: youth rapier

Tuesday

• Dan: visited UTAS information stall on exploring pathways to study and courses, at the Huonville library – came home with two booklets and info on Bachelor of Music and the bridging course for learning study skills etc
• Hugh: cooked lentil-walnut tacos for dinner (Dan helped)
  

Wednesday

• Dan: singing lesson – cancelled because Eleanor is sick
• I told the kids that what I would love most for Mother’s Day is not to have to cook anything all day, so they have started hatching plans. Dan is not mad keen on cooking but they are more enthusiastic about baking and making desserts, so the two of them are splitting responsibilities that way. Current plan is scrambled tofu for breakfast, some kind of vegie soup for lunch, and Massaman Curry and Salted Peanut Butter Crunch Torte for dinner
• Hugh: helped cook dinner (Mexican-style loaded fries)
• Hugh: we played Ticket to Ride and talked about strategy after I won (again)
  

Thursday

• Hugh: planning another cooking day, wants to do Chinese (mostly), has been looking up recipes
• Dan: roller derby, followed by AYCC meeting

Friday

• Hugh: swimming lesson
• Hugh: I showed him how to make a cheese sauce so he could make GF mac’n’cheese
• Hugh: we discussed how the GF experiment was going and noted that his keratosis pilaris had greatly lessened in severity, and he reported that his fingers were less puffy and his knees didn’t tire/hurt after activity as badly as they used to

Saturday:

• Dan: songwriting sessions reunion at Peregrine School – cancelled due to low attendance

Sunday

• Hugh at Philip’s house (12:45-5:45)

Monday

• Hugh and Dan: youth rapier

Tuesday

• Hugh: has been employed by E to redo the family recipe book. This involves going through the folder, making a list of all the names of recipes, sending them to E to find out how many we have saved on my back-up drive, then reformatting those which need tidying up, and locating online and saving to disk those we don’t have copies of
• Hugh: one-on-one intensive swimming lesson – put his head under the water seven times!

Wednesday

• Dan: singing lesson

Thursday

• had to postpone Dan’s optometrist appointment for two weeks due to having no money for the contact lenses
• roller derby – Hulk told me they will be asking Dan to move up into the squad, and asked if they would be available for a training day/scrimmage in Devonport on Sunday 26 May – will have to miss the tournament at LBoR but will be able to do the training day on Saturday (assuming it actually goes ahead)
• AYCC meeting – timing after roller derby (plus trying to find parking in the CBD) did not work out

Friday

• Dan: went to the SchoolStrike4Climate Day of Action at Parliament Lawns, then was one of the small delegation chosen to walk up to Eric Abetz’s office and deliver the sign filled with signatures from the main rally (there were too many people to safely gather outside Abetz’s office). They went into the office, but Abetz locked his door and wouldn’t speak to them
• Hugh: swimming lesson – continued to work on putting his head under water
• Hugh: made tofu fish fingers for dinner

Saturday

• Hugh: working on the cook book – he’s using OCR to scan the printed recipes so he doesn’t have to retype them, then tidying them up  
• pizza and boardgames

• Hugh wants to earn money for an Unturned server, so he brought in a load of kindling from the Hundred Acre Wood and arranged it on bread trays in the woodshed to dry
• Hugh cooked dinner (made spicy TVP mince for ricepaper rolls)
• Dan and Hugh playing Hangman

And I’ve confirmed a playdate at Philip’s house tomorrow.

Yesterday (Saturday) was Hugh’s Cook For The Day experience.

Today Hugh is doing some C# programming with Daddy.

I found some free performances in Franklin for the Ten Days on the Island: one opera highlights and the other Peter and the Wolf (kids performance, but nostalgia).

Currently coming up with ideas for what we could do with Nan and Pa while they visit this week.

Hugh has spent several hours inventing a rubber band gun. He’s using cardboard, plywood and duct tape in the construction, and keeps coming up against problems he needs to address. I think he needs his Daddy to be able to explain some of the physics principles he is working with – I made an attempt to explain force and how the elastic band was acting as a way of storing the energy used to extend it, but I really only have a fairly hazy understanding, oops.

Dan was ecstatic at receiving their very own copy of The Brick (the original novel of Les Miserables) for their birthday from us, pleased with the $50 from Grandmoogi and Grandda, and suitably mystified by the presentation of a Mystery Travel Voucher to transact some business in Hobart (ie. the music store was shut yesterday because it was a public holiday, so they get to pick their own new guitar from Nannie and Pa). They headed up to town early with Daddy and will stop off for birthday breakfast and Daddy-enby bonding time at DS on the way up.

In response to that I offered to take Hugh with me to Huonville this morning to have Mama-son bonding time with breakfast/coffee at DS, although I will also drag him through the tip/op shops and the supermarket, lol. But then I remembered he’d missed most of yesterday working on the stuff he wanted to work on because he’d been up to town with Eric, so I offered to take him to the patisserie later in the week for just the mama-boy bonding and not the being-dragged-around-the-shops, and he thought that was a better idea.

Dan came home with a gorgeous new guitar and is absolutely thrilled. Eric took a lovely photo of them up by the shed serenading a random chicken, to put on FB, because why wouldn’t you?

I gave Hugh a book on beginner cake decorating and he hauled out all his cake decorating stuff, read the instruction book from the Betty Crocker kit, and worked out how everything fit together (there is a mysterious large syringe which doesn’t fit any of the nozzles). There was some plan afoot for decorating Dan’s birthday cake but Eric didn’t make enough icing so in the end they just opted for walnuts. There is now a plan to make cupcakes for decorating purposes tomorrow.

Earlier, Hugh helped me make the koftas for Dan’s birthday dinner – I prepped all the ingredients and gave it to him to mix into a dough and roll into the koftas while I made mine. He is a useful small boy in the kitchen these days!

No singing this afternoon, it’s moved to Wednesday afternoon.

Hugh is going to see Captain Marvel with Daddy, and also go shopping for Dan’s birthday present. He will drop Hugh in for rapier and then go home.