Please explain...

...Why I always get called by idiots with the wrong number who don't understand when I tell them they've got the wrong number!

*Sigh*

Some quick, random catch-up points:

Embarrassing event of the week:
Had to take my car back to the panel beaters on Friday. Since it had been worked on it was taking in air by the windscreen (which is an annoying sound, according to TSC) and also had a weird rattle or two. I like my cars quiet. This is genetic. Rattles drive my father mental and I have inherited the low tolerance for cars that make noises they shouldn't.

They fixed the air problem in about 30min. I got in my car, drove off and drove back in 5 minutes. The rattle was worse than ever. I made the mechanic get in the car with me and drove him up the street so he could hear it rattle.

After about 2min, he took hold of the little air freshener strung around my rearview mirror. The rattling stopped.

Such a blonde I am.

They'd obviously adjusted the string of the air freshener when they worked on the car and the bottle of scent was now vibrating on the mirror as I drove, causing the rattle.

I sheepishly dropped him back at the panelbeaters and left in disgrace.

To be fair, I did figure out the other rattle on my own - the Honda service team fiddled with my door when my car was in for a service and they didin't fully clip the plastic inner back into place, so the loose plastic was vibrating against door. I've sorted that out now.

The most awesome part of the week:
Just booked and paid for a weekend away at the end of April. Seeing we're off to visit the outlaws for Easter, it's necessary to have a break scheduled when we get back for yours truly to recover. Can't wait. Bushveld, camera, good food and just the two of us... recipe for awesome.

Stressful bits:
I have so much work at the moment it's insane.

TSC is working ridiculous hours because a) he LOVES his new job and b) he has to make up the hours he's spending at class, plus the two days leave he's taking to visit my outlaws for Easter.

The challenge is that he's a morning person; I'm a night person.

Basically, he gets up before the sparrows have even considered farting and comes home in the evenings. We have a little time together after gym, supper, small group or whatever else and then it's time for bed. We go to bed at the same time; I wait for him to fall asleep and then I come back to the study and work into the early hours of the morning.

I crawl back into bed and we sleep for three or four hours, then he gets up to go to work again. I wish him a bleary-eyed goodbye and go back to sleep for a bit longer.

Neither of us is getting enough sleep and we're both running on empty. My love language is quality time, so I'm really missing having enough "us time".

It's not a permanent situation - it's learning to adapt to a new routine and getting through a particularly busy period of tests and learning the ropes at work for him and loads of projects with insane deadlines for me.

We'll be just fine. But it's tough at the moment to engage with each other and other people because we're both walking around wearing permanent yawns and headaches.

The silver linings:
As I said, he's loving his job. So aside from being dead tired, he's happier and more secure. And although I have no idea how I'm going to fit all this work in, at least I'm getting new clients (and mainly by referral, which is great) and managing to pay the bills.

Also, we're looking at hiring our once-a-week cleaner on a twice-a-week basis from April, so that will mean less time spent on the un-fun stuff like ironing (*shudder*) and cleaning cat pawprints off of every imaginable surface.

One thing that I didn't think about...

...Is that when I'm sitting in bed, typing away, my cats have easy access to my lap - they simply climb on top of my laptop ;-)

I love my cats. If it were up to me they'd star in the LOLcats newsletter from ICHC every day.

Here are my darlings...

In pleasant news, while the office politics continue, I have my third feature article from the nice magazine I've been writing for. Happiness! The deadline is super tight, but the topic is great.

And, TSC and I are planning a long weekend away near the end of next month, so I'm happily trawling the internet for nice, reasonably-priced places to stay. If anyone has suggestions (must be somewhere warm. Maybe Limpopo or North West?), please drop me a comment and let me know. And before you international smart asses start, I mean somewhere within a few hours drive, still in the country, k?

We're more than halfway through our first full working week in ages and I actually feel just fine. I'm going to enjoy the sense of calm that seems to have randomly fallen on top of me while it lasts.

Have a good evening, folks.