Dan: Chaos and illness

Went to niece Jasmine's 5th birthday party. Very noisy, and ate more then strictly necessary. Atty has been out of sorts the last few days, and an illness has finally manifested and he's sniffling and coughing and generally miserable, and Jen has caught the same thing. I'm feeling generally crap as well, so I'm expecting to come down with is soon too. Got a big party tomorrow as well, which is next door so we can't really pike out.

In recent news, put in a large grant application yesterday, which lowered my stress levels since it was the biggest nastiest job on my task list. Also new project tracking system up and running as well, which should make life easier.

Becstarr : More unpackering

Still more unpacking!
Today Karinne, Joel and I boldly went forward and cleared the kitchen bench, resurrected the microwave, tamed the fridge temperature, stashed all the boxes in the roof, and started prettying up the backyard for the housewarming tomorrow.

Then we went over to Joel's and continued at his. The house has been transformed! And J has his study back again. It's all looking very cleared out - so much old furniture going out onto the street! So much recycling!

Shoshe -- Done! Almost.

I had my mineralogy lab final exam today! That's exciting because it's over. Now I just have a mineralogy project, a mineralogy lecture final exam, three planetary physics problem sets, a planetary physics presentation, a planetary physics term paper, and a seminar presentation (group project) to do by the end of next week. And then thirty 8-10 page papers to grade the week after. And then I'm done for the semester!

Ben - Free at last

Prac finished today. School swimming carnival. It was interrupted for an hour and a half due to an electrical storm, but the kids were pretty well behaved anyway. One girl wanted to know the odds of swimming fast enough to avoid a lightning strike;

Yesterday, a student from another class asked me if he could tell me all about the dinosaurs. If I'd had known that he was moderately autistic, I might have been more hesitant about saying yes. As it was, I heard all about the dinosaurs.

Tomorrow, holidays start which will mean a week of rain; but I guess my garden could use it.

Friday Afternoon Special

Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.

Could things get any worse? These disasters come in threes, right? I'm just waiting for the friday afternoon special to arrive.

falsedan - countdown

Molly Meldrum bought a pie at Aija's shop yesterday, and he's coming back for another today.

V-day!

I totally made it! The evil class gave me a round of applause at the end, a soft-of card and the comment "thank you for controlling us sometimes." I replied "it's been an education."

*sigh* Done!

And now two weeks of nice classes. Sweet!

Anna : Keep On Keeping On

Beating the inevitable post birthday crash into submission through the power of exercise induced endorphins. Had a "cooking emergency" on Tuesday when the freezer door didn't close properly and all the meat defrosted ... "I'll put this chicken in this pan and then put that pan in this bigger pan and then whack the lamb in the bigger pan and then put chicken, lamb and pans into the oven" ...

Jaime - Waitress

Cooked rack of lamb for the first time last night. It was delicious, now I have to improve on that. I think next time I'll take "20". Watched Waitress last night and it was one of the nicest little films that I've seen in a while. It was also a real shame as the writer/director/actress was murdered before the film was released, so much potential wasted.

Oh Fook.

You know when you have one of those days where everything is going along swimmingly, and then !Bang!, something goes totally wrong and hits you upside on the head and no progress has actually happened for the past 2 months? And your project timeframes are then shot to pieces?
Yeah, I'll have one of those thanks.
I hate local councils.

Becstarr : Sleeping in the new room

Got back to Combat after the move - I've been saving all my energy for packing and shifting boxes recently! It wasa new release, hard ("35% more kicks!") but lots of fun, especially the jenga (sp?) shuffle.

Finally made it home to make up my bed and sleep in my new room! Down to one row of boxes along the wall. Feels good to have a place to call home again.

Ben - One Art Please!

Taught my first art lesson today; I wore my beret and tormented the kids with my French accent. The look of disgust on one girl when I demanded to be called Monsieur Hilton was a delight to behold.

YL - Election Results & Procrastination

WOOT!!!! I hope there are good/better things to come ...

And yes *sulk* I am procrastinating with anxiety .... gah. grrr.

On the up side, Anna's birthday party at Coogee beach yesterday was awesome. I almost forgot how much I like it outside in the sunshine ....

Becstarr : It's a new day, it's a new dawn

The air seems sweeter, the sky seems bluer, the trees seem to have more leaves, and I can't stop smiling. Still watching the results come in, and Greens are looking good in Senate! Also amazement at the Costello news. I do feel sorry for him, but I think he's making the right choice in terms of his future happiness.

First swim of the summer at Anna's wonderful birthday BBQ down at Coogee. HURRAY!

David - I Have Been Converted...

I suppose it was inevitable. Being a stranger in a strange land, a continuing focus on style and being surrounded by rampant consumerism... it all came to a head today when I wandered (willingly I might add) into the Apple store. I... I purchased... a Macbook Pro... years of faithful devotion to the capitalist god of Microsoft cavalierly thrown away with the simple swipe of a credit card.

Of course it doesn't actually turn up for a couple of days so I still have time to go out and purchase an adequate supply of berets...

Ben - Back Again

Haven't written anything for months, so here is a random assortment of things that happened with me:

- Made homemade crumpets
- Read a stultifyingly dull book about Australian Prime Ministers.
- Read a quite interesting book about chemistry
- Built a solar cooker that doesn't work - I think I need to rebuild the lid entirely
- Was told by a five year old that I look like a gorilla
- Was told by a twelve year old that I smell like vinegar
- Planted a herb garden.
- Found out that year six kids can write excellent similes but aren't so good with metaphors. Go figure.
- And last night watched the bad man go bye byes.