Wet Weekend

Since Thursday night, when we got a great light show of a storm at around midnight, we've had lots of rain and the temperature has plummeted.  This is a good time to get into some serious cleaning up around my house for me.  And yesterday was the time for it. 

I began around midday and stopped around 2:30pm when I knew it was almost time to go out to my brother's house to celebrate his birthday.  I decided it was time to tidy up the lounge room and kitchen a little and it was a great success.  The coffee table was cleared off first from all the art gear and tea-stained coaster for the tea pot, then I got the Earth Choice spray'n'wipe stuff out and cleaned it up nicely.  All the spots of watered down paint came right off with a little work.  The vacuum came out of cupboard and I changed the bag over and went over the whole lounge room a few times to get all the carpet looking nice.  And it's nice when it does.  I even moved the lounge out of the way.

The kitchen was next.  I washed up everything that was dirty and wiped down the breakfast counter, put things away from my  painting and made sure that it was all tidy enough to be used today.  The stove even got a look at and I cleaned up underneath the elements (it's a gas stove and so I can take them off and clean underneath them!).  Then, I wiped down the door of the grill and oven and the side and I kept going along the kitchen cupboard and the walls around the stove.  There was so much residue from cooking that I didn't realise how much excess spatter would be around.  Once all that was done, I looked around and found the duster and did a quick wipe over of the stereo system and the new speakers of the Home Theatre System (it's only been three days and it's already gathering some dust).  

Last night, we went out to my brother's house for his birthday dinner.  I had bought him a vinyl of 'Truth' by Jeff Beck; a studio recording from 1967-68 in lovely condition.  Gabe was stoked about it!  He said it was something he hoped to get one day and said that Jeff Beck really took off when he did this vinyl.  I also gave him a bottle of Balintyne Scotch.  He loved both pressies; saying he really needed to get his turntable working again.  I said I thought he did have it working.  And he's got a beautiful turntable; better than mine!

Gabe made pizzas from scratch... they were absolutely gorgeous!  Mum and Dad took some home and gave a few slices of the vegetarian one to me as well for dinner to night.  We had some birthday cake, a refreshing fruit salad and Baked Custard that Mum made.  Absolutely delicious!  Then, we all sat on the lounge and had a photo taken... it was when we were all tired and full of food and it was late; so we all looked like we were ready for bed.  

We got home at around 11pm.  What a good end to a good evening.  I had a cup of green tea before going to bed and crashing; forgetting to turn on my alarm... oops.  Well, one of the neighbours woke me at 6:30am in any case and you know; it was still raining today and still cold.