Jen - Out of sorts; Party and photos

Friday: Atti was really out of sorts today. Wouldn't cooperate, wouldn't go to the toilet. Ended up using nappies again. Cousins Jaz and Lori came over for the day and a sleepover.

Saturday: Lori's second birthday party! Also finally completed the photo books (spent a while scanning in pics). Ordered several copies for various folks. Yay for freebies!

Becstarr : rhubarb, pears, roasted tomatoes and AFL

Relaxation through cooking: poached rhubarb and pears, roasted tomatoes and pumpkins, beef and barley casserole, and a giant batch of banana and coconut muffins. Then for dinner, made pizzas (including bases). Listened to the AFL match (!) and spent plenty of time in the shady courtyard.

Shannon - One three more sleeps...

til were out of this place. Was thrilled to come home yesterday to find another brilliant blessay on Stephen Fry's Blog. They might be long posts, but they are so worth the read.

Becstarr : Long weekend ahead

Beautiful weather made it even harder to stay focused on work for the last few hours before the long weekend ahead. Lots of meeting juggling as we all remember to reschedule Monday meetings!

Jaime - Victory Not Vengenace

VNV was awesome. I'm very tired. Got 4 hours sleep. Saw Army of darkness twice yesterday, once before going out to VNV and once after. The same 55 minutes both times. Packing and more packing...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

falsedan - you have no power over me

Bought a practice contact juggling ball in Camden, so practiced my catches while I did my laundry.

Shannon - Tired.

Very tired this morning after the absolutely awesome VNV Nation show last night. There should be a rule about good shows not being scheduled mid-week - it's going to be a long day at work today.

Jen - Photo picking

Spent most of the day picking out photos and editing a photo book to give to my parents (in cooperation with my brothers), as well as choosing pics for one for Dan's mother (and one for ourselves if possible). There's a free offer going on, expiring this Saturday (email me if you want details - $39.95 worth of book for only $4.95 P&H).

Becstarr : Burn the folder structure, we don't need it anymore

Spent a chunk of the day discussing our team's communications with the working group (4 ppl all up), which is all part of the team review happening after Stephen's departure. If I could pick two things that I think would make the biggest difference, it would be (a) putting our doco in one place, accessible to users, and making it easy to edit for all team members, and (b) improving the team's search skills. If it were up to me, I'd try addressing (a) with a wiki and (b) with some training and removing the entire labyrinthine folder structure of our shared drive (-> getting ppl to stop even trying to remember where things are). I think the likelihood of either becoming reality is questionable...

Ben - bored

Ah, that happy moment after you get all of your work handed in! How quickly it gives way to the realisation that you have nothing to do.

Meh, holidays coming up, I guess there's the beach.

Jen - Tired

Late night last night, early morning today. Up at 6:30am, helped Dan get D to school by 8:15am. Took D to piano. Elora missed a sleep. Atti had three bags of wet clothes. Looked at old photos... aww.

falsedan - shot right through into a bolt of blue

Watched a heap of covers of Bizarre Love Triangle on youtube–mostly of the Frente! version, which makes them covers of a cover of the song…

Jen - Primary Proms

Toilet training Atti continues. Only one very small accident today. Hooray! Tonight we went to see Dante perform in the Dept of Education "Primary Proms" at Sydney Town Hall. His school Junior Choir (Yrs 1 and 2) were wonderful and hilarious and show-stopping. They were the smallest kids there but got the biggest cheer. We were so proud!

Becstarr : Dry dry dry

Moved from the cut and thrust of abattoirs and the mushy bubble of nutrition to... a day or two on academic honesty (avoiding plagiarism, etc). I know it's important, but ye gods! It must be one of the driest topics around. I'd love to spice up the text or add more images, but the project people aren't enthusiastic about that, so I'm just going to get it done as quickly as I can and move back to the fun stuff.

Anna : Spring is Sprunging

Getting nice and warm again. Yesterday went for a late workday wander to have another cup of the homemade chai from Cafe Ella. Always heard good things about CE but as I walked in I wondered "Would I fit in here?" Took heart when I turned off my iPod and the cafe was playing the same album as me to the song!

David - Did the Kessel Run in Like 5 Parsecs

Got home from 3 days in London (sorry False Dan - I didn't actually get any time away from work people to catch up) on work and had a surprise waiting for me. The Collectors Edition Millennium Falcon (a.k.a. the biggest Lego kit ever made in terms of size and number of bricks) was waiting for me. It is now sitting in the corner of my room, still in its box. Staring at me like a brazen hussy - daring me to caress its shiny packaging and tear into the goodies underneath. Yes - I realise that I am getting awfully close to inventing a new fetish but it is so big and shiny looking. And the worse thing is I don't think I will even have the time this week to unpack the ruddy thing - let alone build it!

But it is mine... teheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh if you will all excuse me I will now return to my padded cell.

Today I ate pizza, had a nice snooze and hung out with a marvellous dog.

Kit: Holiday Backlog

Jumping on the 'catching up on backlog' bandwagon.
1/9/07 - 6/9/07: Time travel. Spent long time in planes. Arrived in California, drove to the Wine Country near Calistoga, spent a few days at Mountain Home Ranch. Did the "Big Sur" drive with lots of hills. Saw sea otters! Couldn't find a campsite along the coast (all 500 or so spots were gone !?!?), so up and over the Santa Lucia Mountains.
7/9/07 -13/9/07: Drove to Yosemite National Park. Lots of bushwalking. Lots of grumpiness from me because of the extent of the walking. Saw black bears that looked brown. Visite Mono Lake and the eastern sierras. Mono Lake is a lake in the desert that LA sneakily started draining off to supply drinking water to its residents.
14/9/07 -19/9/07: Point Reyes area. Saw 'the fault'. Went to an Oakland A's game (they lost). Saw a bobcat! Time travel and lost a day.

Eugene - Home Song Stories

Went to see Home Song Stories today and was quite impressed. I have to admit that I didn't rcognise the Joan Chen of Twin Peaks until her makeup was off. Having a browse through her imdb entry, little did I realise how much of a presence she had in 80's tv.

Anyway, this was a consolation prize since the original plan was to walk to Bondi and see Stardust. Maybe tomorrow.

Jen - Toilet training begins...

Started the dreaded TT with Atti today. Three accidents, three successes. Not too bad, I reckon. Dante was trained at child care... too bad Atti's not there full time!

Ben - Lousy Damn Essay

That essay I've been enjoying writing has somehow expanded to the point that it'll end up horribly late.

Moral - schoolwork is a terrible chore to be barely endured and finished with as soon as possible; look at it any other way and you're dead in the water.

Speaking of backlogs, hello everybody: much earlier today I arrived in Tuscany for a week away from the Paris whirlwind, full of good intentions about catching up on my mail and such - watch this interspace for news on that.

Jen - Weekend ended too quickly

Saturday: Dante had his "rewarding day" at gymnastics - they get marked and receive a certificate and ribbon. I missed it cause the other two were sleeping. Later, did a grocery shop. Very interesting pushing a pram and a full shopping trolley. Started Dante on his school assignment.

Sunday: Family tennis. Satisfied my desire for quiche by cooking 3.5 of them for 8 adults and 7 kids. Yum yum. Dante finally completed his project (on woodchucks - his choice)... after much pain and frustration (for us!)

Becstarr : Dad's birthday lunch

Went for one of those slightly tricky "combined family" lunches at Dad's new partner's place. Sat on the deck, met Barb's daughter Jill (about Jess' age I think), and gave Dad his presents: 2 tix to Keating! and a bird-identification book, both of which went down well. It all went reasonably smoothly, but I was totally zonked afterwards. Took a lot of energy.

falsedan - hitman

I got asked if I was off to 'do' someone while walking through the park and putting on my new gloves.