She gits through 'bout ten rolls a weekof that stuff...

I'd love to know where I acquired my love of gingham patterns. A long time ago I bought a large scrap, or "remnant", of green gingham oilcloth, in John Lewis. It's lines about 4mm wide. First I used it as a picnic blanket, then I covered the dining chairs with it. Then when we got our new dining table I bought two oilcloth covers for it - the top one is a childly flowers-and-suns-and-insects pattern, but under it, for semi-special occasions which don't warrant ironing the real table linens, is a blue gingham print oilcloth, lines about 10mm wide.

And today I bought red gingham stickyback plastic in Lidl, lines about 3mm wide, to cover the children's play/dining table. It was untreated wood, and held every stain; now it's wipe-clean, so that's good. But where and how did I develop this love of gingham? Hmm?

(Other things from today: Linnea addresses me as Mother, or rather, Muvv-AH, and when asked why, answered "But Ailbhe, you ARE my mother!" which was unarguable. Also, when asked what the best part of her day was, she answered "Playing with Rob, but he's gone now." Emer had a wonderful two-hour nap, which bodes very well, and we ran out of Linnea-sized nappies and she refused my offer to buy more, so We Shall See.)

The five timeperiods poll

I've done this every year for a while now - Oct 19 2006, Oct 17 2001, Oct 19 2002, Oct 29 2003, Oct 2 2004, Oct 10 2005.

What I was doing...

5 minutes ago: Laughing at YouTube Thomas the tank engine re-enactments. And discussing the political messages in the stories.

5 hours ago: Playing playdough with Linnea while Emer slept; we made teeny weeny green plates, apples, bananas, carrots with carrot-tops, and potatoes. Immediately before that she ate three bowls of apple puree, which is a bit unusual.

5 days ago: We walked to the playgroup because the trike is out of action due to theft and vandalism, and on the way home we visited a Montessori nursery school and got a registration form for Linnea. Also, we unplugged the telly, mended the CD player, and found a non-digital radio for downstairs. And in the evening we cleared a big chunk of the attic out.

5 weeks ago: I was thinking of my second cousin and her son, and glad to be alive. I was enjoying almost every waking moment of my days with my children, and they were both being exciting and adorable. I had been cutting down on my online time a lot.

5 months ago: Linnea's first ever birthday celebration was over, and we had houseguests, briefly. I was training to be a Breastfeeding Network supporter and getting all lactivist again. I was beginning to seriously bake all our bread, and Linnea sunscreened my laptop. The month ended wih my sister announcing that she was bringing a surprise guest - unidentified - to my house for a weekend.

5 years ago: I think I did an Open University course. I went to alt.polycon 8 in Brighton. I was jobsearching and I discovered Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. Most of the year was eatenby my horrible job; Robgot punched while walking down the street; my nephew was born and my baby sister turned 21; I went to Open University Summer School in Stirling and Rob and Janice hiked all over loads of Scottish mountains. We went to the third DWCon and booked our wedding date. I got the first of many assumptions that I would change my name on marriage. I organised a lot of the wedding hooha; the politics began. Urgh. The year ended with a big Christmas in our home, with Rob's and Janice's parents, and Rob's sister, and my youngest sister, and seven tons of food, and the nicest turkey ever. That was pretty good, though the gift-giving part was a bit embarrassing. Still, as far as we know, everyone liked everything they got, and all the food. Good end to the year.

Gods, I hated that job.