I wish Mondays were less regular

Weekends are so cool, even when nothing particularly exciting happens, which was the case over this one. Unless you're a rugby fan, which I'm not really.

The only real drama this weekend was that our cat, Marble, managed to injure his front left paw on Friday. My poor baby - I was so worried about him and convinced he'd fractured it. But once I got TSC to hold him still and had a good look at it, it turned out that it was just a small (but sore) gash on one of his foot pads. You'd never have guessed by the fuss he was making, hopping along on three legs and meowing piteously. He had managed to get it dirty, so we cleaned the wound, applied some soothing antiseptic cream the vet gave us last time one of the kitties had a little injury (why do they make this stuff lumo orange, I'd like to know?), and bandaged the leg.

After that Marble truly did feel sorry for himself and meowed as loudly as he could while hopping about and trying to shake the dressing off. TSc and I were convinced our neighbours were going to report us to the SPCA with the sounds coming from our house.

Marble took about an hour to get the bandage loose, but at least the cream had a chance to work a bit. Plus he was so exhausted from all his protesting that he just settled down in the sun and rested the paw.

Today he's walking almost normally again. I'm almost sure he exaggerates the limp when he realises someone's watching ;-)

We spent most of the weekend (aside for supper club on Fri) working and repainting some of the pine boxes I've been given from Red Tree's offices. One would think that would be an easy job. Not if you're married to uber-perfectionist TSC!

They had to be sanded on each side (that's eight sides per box), have the (miniscule) cracks filled with wood filler, be resanded, get coated with universal undercoat and then be painted with two coats of enamel paint. And I couldn't just slap the paint on either. I had to "cut in" neatly in the inside corners and then coat each side with a small paint roller.

We're not done yet. We've only done the first coat. Still, they do look gorgeous. And they were free. So the DIY was definitely worth the effort. I'll take photos once they're done.

Notes on the weekend

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was pretty good. Not fantastic, but not awful. There are those who say it's too long, and I do agree that it could easily have been a bit shorter. For those who criticise the believability of it all... I ask you: why did you go and see a movie about robot aliens from outer space in the first place? I went to see this film because I think Michael Bay does fantastic action sequences, even if plot is not his strong point. I also have enormous respect for actors that can be convincing when they're doing scenes with robots that aren't actually there at all (I mean, looking like you're actually scared of something that's supposedly chasing you but doesn't even exist outside of a PC monitor is pretty impressive). The CGI is also some of the best around, so I can forgive the movie for most of its faults (too long, a bit all over the show, a few plot holes and Megan Fox may be gorgeous but is also really annoying when she opens her mouth).


• The Irene Village Market is one of my favourite places to shop. For me, it's worth the trek through to Pretoria. I picked up some canvases at ridiculously low prices, a gorgeous rusted cup-and-saucer pot for my mini rose plant and loads of really yummy deli stuff (including the best hot chocolate powder ever, some Rose Cream Turkish Delight for my MIL, cabanossi for TSC (can't stand the stuff myself) and proper koffie koekies. Even TSC had a good time, and he hates markets.


• Our guest room is nearly finished. We have fixed and painted the walls and ceilings, repaired the crumbling windowsills, stripped the windowpanes and repainted those too, replaced the revolting light fixture and the ugly plastic cupboard handles, washed the carpet (which was NOT fun) and given it a complete clean. We're now busy moving the furniture back in, hanging the curtains and positioning the "artworks" I've created for the walls. I'm hoping to finish up this evening and take some pics to post here.


• Yesterday's Formula One Grand Prix was one of the more exciting races of the season. Mark Webber won his first race in his eight years of driving. I'm very glad for him, especially seeing he spent the winter recovering from a broken leg. I think it's also great fun that the competition between Webber and teammate Vettel is heating up and that Button is getting challenged by a host of drivers. The drivers of the McLaren team (which I have supported for the past nine years) had a mixed day. Kovalainen finished in the last points-paying position, which was pretty good, seeing he didn't have the benefit of all the new parts Lewis Hamilton had on his car for the race. Hamilton had a miserable time with a puncture at the first corner which sent him right to the back of the pack. Both drivers seem to be more competitive though, and are using their KERS-equipped cars (kinetic energy recovery system) nicely.


• Our church has started a new series called "Supernatural", which looks like it will be interesting. Last night's sermon was on Lucifer. Fascinating stuff! Can't wait for next week's on Angels and Demons (the beings, not the movie).


• TSC went back to varsity today. Shame, he was not keen, poor man. He was up and out of the house at 6am to miss the traffic. I admire him - I am not a morning person at the best of times, and getting up in dark in the freezing winter mornings is pure torture to me. I'm lucky in that I live 15 minutes away from the office, so I only have to leave the house just after 8am. In summer I do my exercise in the mornings, but in winter I do it after work so that I can postpone the crawling / falling out of bed until 7.20 am. This is me, every day: