.. I was too busy today taming 'Contact' to think about it - 'Contact' as in the generically referred to brand of self-adhesive, clear, book covering stuff that I usually avoid like the plague. Now I've decided to be a library volunteer, I have to use the stuff... (Last couple of years I resorted to covering the kids school books in non-adhesive plastic because I get in such a mess with the contact.) I spent a few hours in the school library, and got to do exciting stuff like repair a grand total of three books and type up some labels for some shelf markers. With the contact, as usual I ended up with one side sticking to another side - and I was only using small pieces. You should see me when I try to cover a whole book.

It didn't seem like I achieved much, but I suppose every little bit counts, and I can feel that in the absence of doing any paid work anywhere, I am contributing to my community. (Despite the fact that I know mums who work AND put more time in helping up at the school than what I do - What's wrong with them, I wonder? I suppose they just haven't discovered the world of blogging, and the intellectual stimulation reading and writing blogs for hours a day can bring.)

So anyway - if I stick to this (hah! very 'punny') - I might end up becoming expert in the highly sought after occupation of library book repairs.

I also contributed to my local community today by standing in the netball clubhouse for over an hour this afternoon; selling a few lollies to kids, and ringing the hooter at the appropriate time, and trying to answer questions about a twilight social netball comp that I didn't organise myself. And I played bad cop, by growling at kids who were playing in the loos.

I am trying to talk up the virtuosity of it all, and divert attention from the state of my house. Is it working?

So, yeah... um... no more news from any of the Bobs today (still wondering why it is so hard to get a price on a cargo barrier)... but I did order the tyres after due consultation with Marc in KL last night. And the Building Designer rang - Marc and I went to see him last Friday - and he's done some more rough sketches for extending the living area down on this ground floor. I'll pick them up this week, and I guess I'll scan them in, email them to Marc, and we'll talk about them when we can. If I leave it till he comes home, it will just prolong the whole process... and it's been prolonged enough over the years we've not got round to doing anything about it. (see, there's another thing on the List of Things That Must Be Done that can be marked In Progress.)

Household domestics just never seem to get crossed off the List - they are just constantly In Progress. Partly because I keep putting stuff off till 'tomorrow'. But mostly because I find cleaning, and putting stuff away, mind sappingly boring, and it never stays done for more than a day. Vacuum and mop the floor? By the time the kids have been home half an hour, you wouldn't know it had been done. The mowing will stay 'done' for longer than the vacuuming, so no prizes for guessing which I'll be most inclined to do first tomorrow! Which I'll be all bright eyed and bushy tailed about because I have gone to bed so early again .. NOT.

And there's the Christmas thing to start stressing about as well...