iLove my new phone

It's shiny, pretty and as womderfully fun to use as I anticipated and then some. Need I say more?

This post was brought to you and typed on my new phone.

Shiny :)

A Gingerbread Family

Caution: Naked Gingerbread Women Ahead

I've had many blog entries in mind today. Each one of them writing themselves in my mind differently depending on my mood at the time. Believe me when I say they were largely variations and a tediously melancholy theme.

Not sure why this is. Think I just started the day badly. Not sure how though.

My lousy mood aside the day has been a lovely one full of things to be happy about.

For one my birthday present from my folks arrived just after midday in a courier van. A sleek black set of JBL Onstage II speakers. The remote control hasn't left me yet.

In an attempt to break Grumpus' hold on me I started to bake. After all any girl who's feeling down loves a good snacking session on something sweet and I do love my baking! Plus I got to try out the lovely new baking tray that we bought on the weekend.

Current Cookie Count:
- 16 raspberry jam drops
- 12 wildberry jam drops
- 28 chocolate "jam" drops
- a gingerbread family

After the delicious chicken & mushroom risotto that Gene cooked we sat around the table and decorated the gingerbread people that I'd baked earlier.



It was a wonderful way to spend time with my family. It's not something that I get to do everyday even though we're all living in the same house at the moment. We all have our own rhythms and routines and often spend our time doing our own thing but tonight we sat around the table, grabbing the various tubes of icing and made our own little family of gingerbread folk and that was the best part of the day.

I've spent a bit of time with my parents over the weekend. Driving up to Sassafras for another visit to Tea Leaves for yet another tea buying spree (this time for Dad who is now the happy owner of 500g of ceylon pekoe and 100g orange pekoe tea). Then gorging ourselves on the delicious Yarra Valley icecream (this is starting to sound like an ad for Mount Dandenong isn't it?). It was a great way to spend some time with my folks before returning to our normal routines.

So even though I'm feeling a out of sorts today I'm content in the knowledge that things will improve again and making a gingerbread family with my family was the best way to cheer me up.

Distractions

Well it's back into the rehearsal room again tonight for the "Scottish Play" Rock Opera. It's my last rehearsal with the group I think as I'm only filling in for a couple of days this week. It's been good to be back in a rehearsal room although odd filling in for someone you don't know. Anyhow I've learned a bit about Sibellius so that's been good.

I noticed that I fell off the face of the blogging planet again but I've been distracted by no only the joy of having an oven again or my knitting (sock has been stalled at row 49) but my shiny new laptop.

It's a bit of a tradition to name your laptop/computer at my place so I thought long nd hard about it. After all my iPod is Deep Thought. I had many suggestions for more Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy names but as my first reaction to the laptop was "shiny!" Gene suggested that it would be better named Serenity.

That pretty much sums up what has been entertaining me for the last couple of days. Synchronising information across the laptops and setting it up just the way I like it. Important things like desktop pictures and backing up music. I love it. It's just like setting up an office but with less physical effort. Perfect for a lazy summer's day. :)

Yesterday I was happily distracted by Sim City 4 Rush Hour. Yes, I'm a control freak at heart but I love these simulation games. My city's doing quite well thank you for asking!

Today I've promised myself that I have to achieve some of my to-do list before I can continue to build my thriving metropolis.

I'm doing okay so far. Aside from procrastinating while writing my blog. I just need to get to the bank so I can change my date of birth. According to them I'm born in September. News to me... Mum & Dad might be surprised too...

The only other thing I really should do is get around to baking the banana cake that I bought buttermilk for yesterday... The bananas are, to quote Mum, a bit on the nose. Might make some more sweet potato and green bean salad too. It was my favourite dish from dinner on Sunday which involved AU$80 roast pumpkin soup (that's Dad's story to tell so you'll have to wait until he tells it then I'll make the link), a simple roast garlic, tomato and mushroom pasta and the aforementioned and below salad. Tasty :)



I think it must be dinner party time. Anyone for dinner?

Mannerisms

I've migrated my blog to Blogger Beta and I'm really enjoying the new functions (the layout tool is MUCH easier for scripting-beginners like me). Sadly I can't comment on anyone's blog who hasn't upgraded... or at least that's why I think my comment didn't make it onto Naomi's blog... *sigh*

I've bought a new iPod and it's currently being couriered from Sydney. Ebay is a beautiful thing. With any luck it should arrive in the next 2-4 working days... I may get it as early as Saturday or Sunday in that case!

This means I can go back to enjoying my new Fabienne Delsol album "No Time For Sorrows" which I was enjoying on my ride home from work until the iPod was no more. Favourite songs include Laisser Tomber Les Filles and Don't Fall In Love With Me. Richard Ashcroft Live From London is pretty awesome too.

My parents have arrived home from their 25 day tour of China. I was starting to get a little worried when I hadn't heard from them on Sunday which is when I was expecting them to have arrived back in Melbourne. They were back a little late because of a typhoon in Japan. This highlighted to me how little I know about what's going on outside of Doha. It sounds like they had a great time but I think they're happy to be home too.

It's funny how when you get older you end up a bit like your parents. Well it's not surprising really because they're the ones who probably spent the most time with you in your formative years. I've noticed that I tend to get a bit snippy when I don't get an "I've arrived safely" or "I'll be home later than expected" message many hours after I was expecting my family to be home. Ah yes, the tables have turned. I've also noticed that my once legible signature has now turned into something much closer to my Dad's. Before I know it I'll have a couple of pugs running around the house and a great home theatre system... :)

Glow-In-The-Dark Mini Golf - Bad

So we probably should have realised that glow-in-the-dark mini golf was going to be a bit lacking... Call us optimistic!

Wednesday night saw us swing dancing in Glen Waverley. It was funny because we had been talking (and trying to dance our way through) the two moves we knew in tandem Charleston and the class was about tandem Charleston and we worked on those two moves! We also knew the instructor from the Shim Sham workshop we did last year. Now there's a fun dance! Originated from tap dancing I believe, the Shim Sham is a bit of a swing/tap line dance that breaks into a mad frenzy of partner-finding for the last third of the song. Fun for all involved! Anyhow, when we get back from Bris Vegas we're planning to go back to swing dancing and pick up our level 2 classes again to try and master the Lindy Hop. I think I'm going to give leading a shot at our next class too... although I definitely need to keep up the work on following.

Anyhoo, we decided to give glow-in-the-dark mini golf a shot after a bland dinner as a relaxing end to the night. Gene won by one shot so he's one up on the Melbourne Mini-Golf competition between the two of us. It was all in all a bit horrible though. The girl at the counter was, unsurprisingly, not thrilled to be there. When we tried to query the opening hours (the website said from 18:00-22:00 while the sign at the place said 10:00-22:00) she got all condescending and chose to express her displeasure by pointing out the first "tee" three times to us... It was also incredibly hard to see in their (so you couldn't actually see the holes sometimes. It should have been fun but they managed to make it rather lacking. Moral of the story? No glow-in-the-dark mini golf, got it? Okay, as long as that's clear...

Yesterday was a quiet day where we started to try and get ourselves ready for Monday's 09:00 start at Brisbane Festival. So the alarm went off at 08:38 (I like setting it for non-half-hour increments) and we got out of bed at 08:58. The first few hours of the day saw me knitting (I'm almost through Dad's scarf) and then we headed into the city to have lunch with Gene's Mum. We stopped off to buy me a new Palm (PDA) case and it's sooooo pretty! Surprise surprise, it's black! Aluminum with a belt clip. I was mainly after something black with belt clip so it works out well. Only thing I don't like is that there a widget that sticks out when you take it off the belt clip so it doesn't sit flat on a table unless you unscrew the widget and then it's likely to get lost. Poor design but pretty nonetheless. Gram, Gene's car, had a bit of a hissy fit as we were trying to find a park in town which was a bit of a pain, but she got us there and back so it's all good.

For the evening we went on our date to the Red Salmon in Knox and it was quite lovely. The service was a tad interesting (we asked for a dessert menu and instead of giving us a menu she told us that we had to pay at the counter) but not terrible. Food was okay, not the best in the world but pleasant to eat. After that we played a game of pool and a game of Time Crisis 2 at the cinema before heading over to good ol' Time Zone to pass our last half hour before the movie. We played on our old favourite, the rifle game where you shoot targets to make stuff move, and also tried a dodgy bowling game. A few games later and the half hour was gone so we went to the counter to redeem our e-tickets, apparently you don't get to watch the zillions of tickets print at the game anymore, its' all networked. We returned triumphant with a plastic yo-yo, a tub of putty in a toilet, a black bangle and two of those things that throw a ball in the air when you press the trigger and you have to try and catch it in the basket. All worth the $10 no doubt. Pirates was perfectly indulgent. It was all the cheese and humour that I loved about the first one with some nicely placed references. Same ridiculous and fantastic style and well, Johnny Depp. Mmmmm. I liked it. I liked it lots. It was fun and pretty good for a sequel to a film based on a ride. Yay!

Today is cleaning day. Time to re-box our stuff for the month in Brisbane and pack what we need because we're leaving tomorrow! Last minute purchases required include insect repellant, a bike light and some sunscreen. Tommorrow? Well we'll just have to wait and see.

20 hours to go

This time tomorrow night we'll be loading out the show. It's hard to believe that the briefing I received has now been visualised into a tangible show - albeit with some differences. I have no doubt at all that it will be nothing short of spectacular and I know I'll be proud of all the work that everyone's done to make this show the best they can.

We're all looking forward to a time when we can rediscover weekends and our friends, but for now I think we're just enjoying the ride!

Thanks to all who came to the dress rehearsal. It was wonderful to see you all, even if it was briefly. You brightened my somewhat lacking day yesterday.

I've got a new phone which I'm loving. It's the first flip phone I've ever had. It's a Motorola V3X and it has perhaps got a few too many buttons and the space bar is a different position, but it's been good fun to play with! It's also nice to have a phone that's a "normal" size for making calls from.

Well tomorrow's a big day so I'm off to catch some Zs... or at least try to :)

Blah-di-blah-blah-blah

My sleep deprived body is currently voting against both blogging and me playing with my PDA but apparently that's just not enough to stop me!

Saturday night's End of the World party was great and allowed me to get all gothed up and generally have a good time with my friends who I am unlikely to see for a month or two.

Sunday's swing dancing was excellent! Definitely inspired to go back when I get some free time again. Am still a tad sore after playing with the few aerial tricks that Gene and I remember but all in all it was a good alcohol filled night for all involved. Perhaps a little much alcohol as it was a smidge difficult to drag myself out of bed on Monday for work, but still good.

Saw Mum at the airport on Tuesday which was lovely. Had a McBreakfast with my folks before heading back to the grindstone (hamster wheel?).

Work is still good although the paperwork system is driving me a little nuts at the moment... Have to be up early but for some reason can't stop typing.

Gene got me "Bejewelled 2" which is a very addictive game where you make lines of same coloured "jewels". It's a little like Columns but not. While I'm now sleeping even less thanks to the game, it makes the tram ride home pass really quickly!

Okay bed now.

Victorian Have A Crap Day

I think I've finally had to admit to myself that it's not just my hayfever playing up but my stupid throat infection is most definitely back. I was trying to tell myself that this most definitely wasn't the case, despite having flirted with the idea yesterday. However I spent most of last night napping in between coughing fits.

A few people at work asked if I was dying over at my desk and I may have coughed out "I'm apparently giving it a red hot shot". It's hard to remember. The cough medicine isn't working. I've tried the Chinese random black syrupy stuff and the pharmacy's cough syrup. I'm still coughing and now I'm grumpy. It hurts to cough. Stupid dry coughs. For once I'm trying to be mature about it. I'm actually going to see the doctor tomorrow. Admittedly tomorrow afternoon so that I can still attend all my meetings during the morning and early afternoon, but still... at least I'm going.

It's a pity I'm feeling grumpy and unwell. The weather was lovely today and it's set to change tomorrow night if the weather bureau is accurate.

Based on Naomi's post and some of the people at work it would seem that I wasn't the only one who was feeling grumpy though, hence the title of this post.

On a geekier note... Today I went to Officeworks with a couple of guys from work and they had this great USB keypad that works as a calculator on its own. VERY COOL! As someone who touch-types and does data entry, it's the only thing that my laptop is missing.

Gene called to say that he's bought food to make dinner but he's gone to the pub to welcome home one of his best friends who's just returned from a trip to Europe. He wanted me to come down and meet them I think but I don't really want to cough all over everyone - like I did at work... I think I'll just make some food, shower and probably head to bed. I can't believe I'm thinking of going to bed at 19:05... I haven't done that since I was working at the call centre... Stupid cough.

New Levels of Geekiness

I was browsing through some software for my palm at Handango because Gene & I are looking for timesheet/billing software for our respective Palms and I came across Knitable which is a database designed for knitters who have PDAs. It's fantastic! (I am fully aware that I've risen to a new level of knitting geekiness). So as a result I've spent much of this morning adding my various yarn and needle details into the database and will be registering the program as soon as my credit card has money again (hopefully next Thursday). Aside from that I look at some "learn French" software which was cute. I've been getting into some sim games and a couple of puzzle games and word games. I've reached my game limit now. I've got plenty to entertain myself with. I did find several timesheet/billing programs and so far Time@Hand has been the one to catch our attention. For one it works on both Gene's Palm and mine, which not all programs do. Secondly it looks pretty, which shouldn't be important but for some reason it is. I just downloaded TimeClock and it's actually looking pretty good so far. It's got everything that we wanted... hmmm... except it can only be used like a punch card system, you can't seem to just enter your hours... hmm...

Given enough time there's so much you can find out there to take up your time. It almost makes you wonder what you might be missing. At the moment I'm missing the lovely weather outside... at least it looked lovely last time I peered out our window.

Time to get back into my knitting now!

Mainly Palms

Amazing how a couple of shifts at work can totally take over your life...

I've been working at my old-new job for a week now and the people are really wonderful there. They've all been showing me the ropes as the majority of the staff work part-time. Apparently I'm in the minority in this workplace as most of the staff members are mums and I think that's amazing. I can barely get my head around working and studying... these ladies are working and bringing up kids!

I spent the weekend trying to decide if I was going to make the marathon effort to study and work full time or go to part time study and full time work. Either way the work was going to be full time. So I've decided to be sensible and go to part time study. That way I can try to get good marks in one subject as opposed to just scraping through two subjects. It means I'd also get a little time to see my friends and family which is even better :)

Gene and I went down to Geelong on Sunday (after not making it to the house moving ) and visited his parents who are house-sitting his aunt's house. I love visiting different Aldis and Kmarts. It's amazing how different stocks can be between stores. We ended up buying miscellaneous things in Aldi - ranging from half a kilogram of wool (purple and bright red) to secure digital and memory stick reader/writers. Kmart saw us leaving with the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb and some lipstick.

I've been getting into lipstick again lately. I particularly like the long-lasting lipstick that virtually tattoos itself to your lips for many hours. I'm a terrible lip chewer when I have lipstick on. I tend to just eat it off apparently. With these "new" lipsticks I don't have to worry about it. I'm also finding that it makes me look slightly healthier after my latest trip to the hair dressers where I had the blue re-touched, a fringe cut and the rest of my hair dyed a jet black. Without a little colour I tend to look a little washed out. :)

Can't remember if I mentioned that Gene got a Palm too recently... but I have now. He got the PalmOne E2 and it's pretty cool. A newer model than mine but it's a little confusing for me because the buttons are in different places to mine. We've spent most of our spare time together playing with them to try and synchronise the two lots of information on our calendars - the whole point in both of us having Palms - and it's been harder than we expected. Definitely a niche market for programmers the whole "syncing two pdas for two people to share information on their diaries". I spent four hours trying to find a program to do it but we eventually just renamed the categories in Datebk5 and everything seems to have worked itself out. At least our icons and categories are right now. There's still the conflict thing to solve. Apparently if we can get the HotSync to sync off a shared database that would solve it but I'd need to edit the HotSync software and I'm not game to try that with my limited knowledge of programs.

Sorry for that rather boring last paragraph... I'm going to go and watch some Farscape with Gene and finish my dinner. We're having curry tonight. Then I think it's off to bed!

Stuff

I have succumbed to the wonder that is the eBook/eReader on my Palm. I started reading The Time Machine on my palm, just because it was there really and then before I knew it I was searching for other eBooks and now have The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce (everyone should read this one), The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (which I have already read in the traditional book format), Full-Blooded Fantasy (a collection of short fantasy stories I think) and The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley on there as well.

Yesterday I was incredibly awake... I woke up at 5:30am with Gene and couldn't sleep till 1am this morning. Today however I woke Gene up at 5:30am (well, the Palm woke us both) and after he left I fell back asleep (a first in weeks) and proceeded to sleep unhindered until 1pm. Apparently I'm not good with compromise on my sleeping habits. So while I achieved several things yesterday, today's to-do list will have to carry over to tomorrow.

I ended up hiring some DVDs yesterday figuring that I should occupy myself with something while I crocheted. In the end I got Closer which I watched yesterday and loved, Gosford Park, Angels in America (which I've only seen the last part of on tele) and Intimate Strangers. I tried watching Gosford Park last night too but I was a little too tired to follow the characters, plus I was distracted my an overwhelming urge to cook dinner. So I think I'll finish watching the movie now.

RSI

Stupid RSI. I'm in the mood to write today however my enthusiasm to finish crocheting my rug/blanket has rendered me in pain (my wrist/forearm is playing up again). Now if I was sensible I'd see the doctor (last time this happened he said I did good by coming and getting it treated because if left untreated, the inflamed tissue could scar causing permanent damage) however I'm lazy and between walking to the video store and the doctor... Well let's just say I'm looking forward to watching Gosford Park!

I went shopping today to buy actual food to cook (as opposed the the usual junk Gene & I buy). Speaking of junk food, Gene's decided he's not allowed to eat chicken munchies any more because they make him sick. I'm glad he's finally seen the link. These chicken munchies secreted juices that stained our nice white baking dish permanently. I doubt they can be good for you!

Having bought some actual food I've done some cooking. This is an achievement for me. Aside from the sore arm which makes it a little harder, I have a tendency to not cook/eat if there's only myself at home (just can't be bothered usually). Today I made a large (4L) stock pot of soup, minestrone-esque in style and caramel date pudding. The smell of the pudding is permeating the house and I'm trying very hard to save it until Gene comes home to cut it... trying being the operative!

Loving the Palm still. Enjoying writing lots of notes and lists and appointments (like try and help Naomi move house on the 11th September). Discovered I can even keep notes on conversations with people in a history folder... Solitare is good too. Okay. Arm hurts and ibuprofen hasn't kicked in yet. Ouch. I go.

Sleepy Still

What a great, if somewhat sleepless weekend! Saturday night was great fun. After a short nap in Geelong we got ready for the party. It's always odd going to a 21st when you only know a few people. Being the small world that it is, it turned out that one of Loz's friends used to go to high school with me! So there was a bit of catching up that night and a little dancing. We're a little (okay a lot) out of practice with our swing dancing so we're planning to rectify this by going to class tonight. Hopefully there's room on the dance floor for the class! I've heard they're packed right now.

Sunday morning saw us watching old videos of Gene when he was two, not sure how that came about... but he was such a cute two year old! Then we had lunch before heading off to my parents house to catch up with Mum & Dad. Picked up my pretty new Palm and have been playing with it almost non-stop since I've synchronised it with my computer. Tee hee hee... pretty. So I'm slowly updating addresses, birthdays etc. It's great.

This morning has been less fun so far, although I've managed to achieve one thing on my to do list today. We'll be able to recycle plastic and glass in 48 working hours according to the lady on the phone. Gene & I decided to trial the alarm on the Palm this morning as we woke up to the tune, can't remember the name of it, that you hear played on a bugle before a hunt.

I'd write more but I'm too distracted with trying to find software for my Palm so perhaps I'll have to write later.