Becstarr : Shelves and shelves of carbohydrates

My carbohydrate obsession is now beautifully showcased on the new "step shelves" I bought from the retro shop around the corner. Please invite yourselves over to admire my fully functional collection of carbs as varied as barley, black lentils, chick peas, couscous, burghul, and quinoa.

Becstarr : What a beautiful day!

I woke up and the fridge was clean! I walked outside and it was sunny! I looked up and realised the purple wisteria covering next door had started blooming! I looked at the garden beds and the carrots I planted at the start of the fridge clear-out were already growing downy new fronds! And it was Friday! I made pineapple jelly and went to work late. Awesome. :)

falsedan - gum

Sat in someone's chewing gum in the park—boiling water & elbow grease sorted it out.

Shannon - Congrats Steve and Alex

I woke up to the news that our friends Steve and Alex (Aussies living in Germany) have finally had their first baby, Emilia. It's wonderful news.

Becstarr : From unclean to renewed

In the evening I finally bit the bullet and cleaned my fridge, the contents of which had deteriorated through disuse over the last month or so (lots of sleepovers elsewhere). Most unpleasantness was over in about 30 mins and then there was a thorough wipe-out. I had pledged to put nothing but butterflies and rainbows (cut-out ones, if necessary) in there for a while to celebrate, but frankly I'm too excited about being able to drink milk again to wait! :)

Ahhh.... it feels like paying off a debt. A weight off my shoulders!

Tancred - QoS malarkey

Yesterday I was given the job of designing and deploying Quality of Service on 45 switches so our new Voip system works as it should. This is proving far more complex than I thought it would be. So far I have worked through about 200 pages of documentation and there are several pdf's still to go :(

One of the documents starts "After reading through this document, you will quickly conclude that QoS is quite a complicated topic and there are many different technologies, standards and implementations to consider. Furthermore, there is no single QoS technology or standard that can be used across your network."

Yup really inspiring stuff.

Joe - The Day My Computer Said...Hello...

Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.
Hello...
Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.
Hello...

Today I spent 3 hours trying to find out how one gets a German dictionary into Word 2003. It was not the most thrilling 3 hours of my life. Elle's sister had a baby! Called George. Off to Canberra on the weekend to visit the new being and, you know, buy a bunch of porn and fireworks.

Ben - Rockin' On

Got back that assignment I was so proud of writing in a day; got a solid credit, setting me up for a credit over all, or maybe a D if I do really well in the exam. Feelin' good, which I wasn't this morning, when I was feeling terrified. Marks are worrying me a lot for obvious reasons, and it's counterproductive; I used to get much better marks back when I didn't give a shit whether or not I passed. Mind you, I'm not getting so many absent fails, so swings and roundabouts.

Think I might have possums in my roof cavity. At least I hope it's possums; they're the least unpleasant of all the things that could be making scratching sounds late at night. Better find out for sure before I put traps down; I'm not the most sentimental soul where animals are concerned, but I don't want to see a dead possum staring up at me from a rat trap.

Shannon: A new apartment: Take 2

So we decided our new apartment was just too yucky to stay in. So we're moving on Oct 1 to an apartment in mum's building. It'll be more expensive, but not as much as we were paying in the last place. Plus we'll be across the street from the beach, on the twentieth floor. We can practically see Australia from there.

Jaime - Today was a day to call in sick

Had to catch a cab into work this morning since my boss mixed up schedules and needed me to be in asap. Least I'll get refunded. Systems crashing, networks sproinging and technicians at othersites not answering their bl**dy phones has made this a day to call in "sick". I'm calling for a do-over.

Jen - Oops, missed a day

Yesterday: Went shopping for a new oven and encountered the most unhelpful sales person ever. When my dad answered "No" to her question "Are you going to buy it today?" she immediately left us and offered no further help whatsoever, brushing me off when I dared to ask a question. However the lady at the photo printing section was exceptionally helpful to my parents. And Atti and I had fun with the display EyeToy.

Today: more washing. Panicking about packing and getting ready to haul the kids to Canberra tomorrow evening. Popped out to buy a pressie for my cousin's son (we'll be visiting her while we're there). Procrastinated instead of doing the dishes.

Evelyn - Grow up will you!

I'm starting to get really pissed with all the women at my work who talk in little childish voices. How can a woman go through law school and still sound like she's only nine years old?

Dan - Made it to Canberra

Rushed around like a headless chook at work. Managed to hire someone, get a whiteboard installed, write an abstract, fix some stuff, arrange other stuff, prepare and print stuff for the conference, and still leave in time to pick up D after school at 3pm. Took the kids home, hurled them in the general direction of Jen, threw stuff into bags and into the car, and drove in a perilously sleep-deprived state to Canberra. Got lost in Belconnen, but found the motel eventually, and am now basking in the warm glowing warming glow of free wireless broadband. In the cold foyer only, but even so it ain't too bad. Last hotel I stayed at cost $85 crajillion dollars per minute for slow web-only internet.

Joe - woooo-oooo-ee-oooooo-It's the theme from Dr Who

Got a bunch of stuff done at work today. And Elle had her interview!
Achieved nothing on any of my upcoming assignments...Boxing in a sec and then setting meat on fire for dinner!

Shannon

Still feeling pretty glum about my surroundings. Going to my first pilates class in aeons tonight - hoping it will lift my mood somewhat.

Becstarr : Yogi Trish

Hooray! I made it to yoga this morning and the wonderful Trish was back! Her break was obviously a good one-- in one position she mentioned that she couldn't get her knees together any more, which I thought was strange until I looked more closely and realised she was rather pregnant! She's due in Nov, which I'm guessing means she won't be back for too many more classes... :)

Dan - stuff and nonsense

Trying desperately to catch up on enough work that it won't be a disaster when I go to Canberra tomorrow arvo. Going to conference for the rest of the week, to be joined later by Jen + kids.

Anna : Lazy Days

2 weeks leave before I start my new job. Yesterday was spent on the couch watching the first season of The O.C (I ♥ Seth Cohen) and cleaning the shower. Then boxing. Now I'm all sore and will probably spend the day on the couch.

Marina - interchange at burlesque

Good drugs, bad women at the Metro.
The show was great and I'm sure there's plenty of reviews out there for it.
For me, a stand-out interchange was during one of my fave numbers - Women in Uniform.
As the song started, a little blonde thing elbowed me out of the way to meet and chat to the guy beside me. By the end of the song, they had their tongues down each others throats. By the end of the next one, she'd agreed to go home with him.
I guess one-night stands are still alive and well.

Jaime - Back in shorts

Finished a full week of work (minus the public holiday) and its great to be back. Also did some more unpacking in our slum. About to hit hour 15 in FF12. Weathers doing the ol' "I'm sunny, but its chilly, figure that one out" ... its great!

Yen Li - Ben's title posts are funny.

The moment I saw Ben's post title I thought - definitely gotta read this. Lol. What could it possibly be about? Knowing the lateral way Ben's mind works, it could be anything from Master and Commander to A lesson to 7 year olds of the physical dynamics of hurricanes. Fortunately it was Dr Who. I had a momentary mental image of Ben trying to tell some cheeky 7 year olds to behave!

Jen - Sunny break

After days of rain, I finally managed to get a couple of loads of washing done (still two or three more to go). And have 10cm of knitting left to finish the cardigan. I'm very pleased. Still haven't caught up with email or blog... sorry everyone who's waiting for a response :(

Becstarr : Combatting the CSS of the slaughter floor

Students let in to Abattoir site after lecture. Still a few items to fix. Finally sat down and read properly through the diff between visibility and display properties in the CSS spec.... I'm occasionally a bit shocked at how long I keep guesstimating these things.

Best thing I did today was make it to Combat! Class was tough but I worked hard and even almost made it through the new jenga hip-hoppish track! Now that's some fancy footwork.

Ben - You Will Obey Me

Not much over the weekend - a little work, a little gardening, a lot of slacking. But THE high point of the new Dr. Who series - Derek Jacobi as the Master! Derek Jacobi... The Master. And he did it right - he's a great actor, but he knew that when you're playing the Master, you don't skimp on the ham.

And then they killed him off and had him regenerate! God damn it! All I can say is that the new guy had better be bloody good.

Dan - Mostly sitting, and some walking

Quiet(ish) day at home after yesterday's noisiness (big family dinner at our place). Played with kids. Played some Civ. Went for a walk towards Campsie with Dante and Elora.

Jen - Various nothings

It's getting hard to think of what we've done each day...

Ben 10, piano practice, visiting next door while my brothers were there, cooking wontons, knitting, trying to catch up with email and blogs, looking for clean clothes for the kids, trying not to be buried by the HUGE pile of laundry.

Becstarr: South American yum cha

Visited King's Cross for yum cha in the evening at a South American bar called Favela for Marina's birthday. Avoided the bleak Russian film that consituted dessert.