Da Weekend

Over the past few days Nic has been redeeming himself and reminding me why I married him in the first place. He's been doing a lot of housework, the cooking, the cleaning, the yard etc. And he's been taking care of Laurent a lot, giving me a break from changing diapers and rocking him to sleep at night. The issue is still there and that is not going to be one of the more fun conversations we're going to have as I'm still having issues trusting what he says to me on that subject... but despite his (major) screw-up, he is a generally genuinely good person and I've been seeing a lot of those qualities popping out. Maybe I won't string him up by his toes after all...

Saturday we went to the market and got all the things we needed to make a pasta Nic's mum used to make. (I'll post the recipe tomorrow.) It is super yummy and great for the cool weather. We made a huge batch so we shouldn't have to make dinner for several days to come! LOL

I also made out like a bandit at a resale shop and got Laurent a Gap cable knit sweater in ecru ($18), new Fred Bare shoes which are gorgeous chocolate and cream color ($10) and a very cool red coat with a bunny on it and French print on the inside from Absorba for $28. Both the sweater and coat were new, tags still on them! The shoes had maybe been worn a couple of times if at all as they're spotless. I figure it would have cost about $160 if I got it at the stores and it cost me $56... a $104 difference!!! He looks sooooooooo cute in them! (I'm including the brands only to illustrate the savings here... I generally don't care about brands, I go by if I think it's cute. I can think of lots of expensive labels I consider ugglleee and some really cheap ones I love. I am picky about what I think is cute though and do really like getting him French themed clothing or stuff with bunnies on it which several of the French name labels are big on right now, sooooo.... consider me a fashion snob if you like. *shrugs*)

I went outside and found Cade with a RAT today... a big, brown, ugly one! Dead of course. Ick! They like to scurry through the ivy on the garden walls while going to and from wherever rats go to and from and this one apparently scurried by at the wrong time. :-/ Luckily Cade was willing to trade his "prize" for a treat and Nic disposed of the rat.

We did end up getting the pram and wow - what a cool pram! Four wheel steering, shock absorbing suspension, adjustable handle, pneumatic tires, baby can face you or look out to watch the world. Pretty sweet! I still prefer to sling him but at least if we're at the doctor and I have to set him down, he has a cushy place to lay.

How we got the pram is going to end up being one of the stories that gets repeated for awhile though... as it happens, the pram was out Taylors Lakes. Not exactly next door to Hawthorn East and though I am less than great at navigating, I decided to go out and get it solo. It *should* have been a 45 min trip each way. I got lost... don't ask how, I just did... and I got reallllyy lost. In fact, I didn't realize I was at the Weribee zoo. It was pouring rain, visibility was crap, Laurent was [i]not[/i] loving the carseat - he HATES being strapped down... so I had to pull over a bajillion times to feed and comfort him getting soaked each time... and our new Bubblebub blew out. Urg. I did eventually find the place - 5 hours after I left - got the pram, gave the lady an extra $50 which she was honest enough to give back... and got lost again coming back.

Nic called, I was telling him how lost I was. ("Where are you?" "Um. Victoria. I think.") And now I was driving in the dark with a screaming baby and he told me to just sit tight where I was while one of his co-workers and he came out and he'd help me navigate back.

He'd previously told me to just ask one of the Maccas workers how to navigate and I'd told him I refused to ask them on account of their lack of brains. They proved me right 5 minutes later when I ordered a McNugget value meal and the girl asked me, "Which burger is that?" Uh. The MCNUGGET meal. With chicken McNuggets. While I was asking the McDonald's worker the street names (she had to ask 4 of her coworkers before ONE of them knew...) my cell phone battery died. So I had to run across the road to the service station where there was a payphone and call Nic. Apparently while fishing 50 cents out while juggling Laurent on my hip and the phone book kind of on my knee while he grizzled, I knocked the $50 out and someone picked it up and pocketed it before I realized it. I am stick kicking myself for this, we don't need to be throwing money away! :-( OTOH Rob, Nic's co-worker, is going to get a big bottle of a nice red wine as a thank you and as many cookies as I can bake! The person who took money that didn't belong to them will get theirs in karma.

Today we went to the annual Melbourne International Garden and Flower show today and spent most of the day there. What a GREAT day! We came away with a ton of plants... here's the list:
* 6 Helebore var. 'Alba'
* 3 Heliotrope Cherry Pie (which is dark purple oddly enough...)
* 4 Artemisia ludoviciana v. lariloba 'Valerie Finnis'... a bit different than the Powis Castle I was thinking of but still should fit in well with the roses in front!
* 6 Campanula carpatica 'Blue Chips' Bellflowers - these are going to go under our lemon tree!
* 6 Ajuga Caitlin's Giants
* 4 Penstemon 'Sour Grapes' - to go with our P. v. 'swan lake'!
* a lucky Chinese Bamboo
* a GORGEOUS chocolate-black cosmos! (I really wanted one last year but they ran out! I got it this year, HURRAH!!!)
From the same folks that I got my Odom, my Dendrobium Victoria Splendour and my Sharry Baby from I got: a cymbidium Freeling Green Ice (lime green petals with a white/red speckled inner) and an odom. Stam fordiense orchid that is BIG with TWO flower spikes! It was one of their stud plants but the guy didn't want to haul it back home so his loss is my gain! The petals are chocolate-purple and yellow speckled with a soft lavender inner.

Annnddd because we simply can NOT leave the flower show without yet more iris...
SEVEN iris from Tempo Two. This brings us up to 40 something odd iris here! LOL New tall beardeds include Touch of Mahogany, Cast A Spell, Witches Sabbath, Bronzette Star, Melon Rita and Median Bearded Iris Oklahoma Bandit
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We didn't get any roses... I know, I know... shocking isn't it? And I actually INTENDED to get some this time. Again, shocking I know, since I've been saying we need more roses like we need a hole in the head. (We have over 20 kinds already...) But I actually did need two standards to go in the front garden. I wanted something in the yellowish-orangeish-chocolate spectrum... maybe a Julia's Rose or a Remember Me or something. We found a stall but they didn't have them there with them, so we'll have to take a day trip out to their nursery sometime. All in all, an AWESOME day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To make it even better, this was Laurent's first flower show earth side! He attended last year but of course he was just a little bump in my tummy at that point! He was totally fascinated with all the flowers and colors. I can hardly wait to start planting some of the stuff tomorrow!!!