Jen - Musical Education

The kids are getting edumacated this evening. Dan downloaded some old music videos and played them for the kids at dinner time...

Charley Lownoise & Mental Theo - Wonderful Days
Mr. Oizo - Flat Beat
Apollo 440 - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub
Underworld - Born Slippy

Some old favourites.

Dan: mistaken for a grownup

Xmas was lots of fun, with all three kids now fully comprehending the gift extravaganza that is Annual Gift Giving Day. I was mistaken for an adult, and got cool things like a coffee machine while everyone else got all the lego. Ate entirely too much and am now suffering from a surfeit of tasty food.

Jen - Present giving

Had a great Burn Family Xmas late lunch yesterday - piles and piles of presents. The kids were reasonably well behaved and not too ridiculously spoilt!

This morning has been more relaxed. But now we are off to my side of the family and I'm sure it will be chaos and bedlam.

Merry Christmas folks.

YL - Merry Christmas & political pawnage

It was so good to see everyone. It is true, I still exist. Although even Dante said "I'm sure you were just a figment of my imagination!" And Atticus was sure I was "Cushion". At least that's a solid object right? Merry Christmas all!

However, work is not so pleasant. After weeks, people's true colours are showing up and it's not enjoyable to be used as a political pawn in someone else's inter-departmental games or to be used as a scapegoat/buffer to cover up your fallibilities or take the blame.

Oh and for the record, I don't always have to agree with you just because you're senior in age/years of medical training.

falsedan - strine

On the phone to Mum and couldn't help thinking, she has such an Australian accent.

Escaped London, in Embra now. My landlord runs a brothel in town and keeps asking me to fix the computer there…

YL - storm

It's kind of cool out there. That wind seems like it's tearing past my apartment so hard. I'm almost expecting it to hail or something!

Jen - End of Year Festivities begin

Went to a Golf Day this afternoon. 18 holes at Marrickville in 4 hours. We didn't win but had lots of fun. The winning team got 3 below par.

Next up - lawn bowls.

Kit - new is much the same as the old

Holidays are over, and like yenli, it's back to the grindstone. Budgets, forecasts, programs.
To the Federal Liberals (and the NSW Labor party): stop stuffing around and let your appointed leader lead, instead of stabbing them in the back.

YL - deja vu?

In the continued rat race, it's back to social hermitage and into exam mode.

Ben - Who ya gonna call?

I must have seen Ghostbusters at least a dozen times over the past 25 years; maybe more. But I only just yesterday noticed that there is a packet of Staypuft marshmallows in Dana's kitchen.

I've really got to work on my observation skills.

Happiness!

Such relief when I left work (at 7pm) last night. Going on holidays!

Kit ??

Did I just wash out my wheelie (rubbish) bin before breakfast?

Jen - Holidays over

Jaime and Shannon came to stay and it was GREAT FUN! The kids loved "Jaime-n" (as in Jaime 'n' Shannon) and Shannon and Holly, of course, and miss them lots now that they're gone. School is well and truly back - second week of term 4.

Shoshe and Bez - Bourgeois scum

We bought a house on Wednesday! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 3/4 acre. Come and visit!

Kit is Quality-Bee

Under Quality System Certification ISO9001 (I think), you are supposed to keep your records for seven years after. I just got a phone call about a project I was involved in 6 years ago, because the people who had actually done the work after me hadn't.

YL - London

London is great! I could live here. But there are times when being the driver, porter, guide, talker, organiser etc while travelling with elderly Chinese grandmother and protective parents can make it trickier!

Shoshe - Snow!

I meant to post 3-4 weeks ago saying that the leaves had starting turning, and that fall had begun. Last night we got about 4cm of snow.

Well, that didn't go well.

It doesn't look like I'll be graduating this year. Bit annoyed.

Kit: minor bokashi incident

I had a minor bokashi box incident in my car yesterday whilst hooning around a corner too quickly. The smell, to put it politely, is a bit like vomit, and a bit like horse poo.
I had to retreat to the shopping centre, two washes with bathroom soap didn't help, so I tried one of those odour neutralising ones from the supermarket (three washes so far).
I feel a bit like Macbeth, because I've scrubbed and scrubbed, yet "Will these hands ne're be clean?"

Becstarr : Is in love with Oliver Sacks... again

I have been reading Oliver Sacks' A Leg To Stand On, his autobiographical novel of breaking his leg fairly catastrophically, including a complete denervation - that is, he lost his ability to perceive his leg as part of himself. It's a fascinating reflection on being a patient, on illness and convalescence.

Kit: Note to Self

Do not carry indoors for squishing the caterpiller that you have just found on your plants. It will wriggle out of your fingers, you can't find it, and then suddenly you are scrubbing green stuff out of your carpet.

Shoshe - They grow up so fast

I caught our two young passionfruit plants trying to break into our liquor cabinet last night. One had a tendril all the way around the handle. The other had slipped a tendril between the door and the frame, and had a surprising hold on the inside of the cabinet. Our older passionfruit plant (the twins' progenitor) is grabbing onto the ceiling.

Jen - Apocalypso

The world is bathed in sepia tones this morning. What an incredible sight it was, the red dust blown in from Central Australia by gale force winds and blanketing the entire city. Stuff you, sunlight! Very apocalyptic.

Pics on flickr.

Shoshe - Preservation

Two nights ago we made tomato paste from tomatoes that we grew in our garden plot. Tonight I made elderberry cordial (from elderberries we bought at the farmers' market) and pickles from the Boston Pickling Cucumbers that we grew, using my great-grandfather's recipe.

falsedan - writing my CV

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
RRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGG

Kit - spring observations

1. Deus ex-Machina now trades at night time.
2. No column 8 online anymore!?!?!! :-(
3. Spotted the first Red-Bellied Black Snake of the season (actually, the first one I've seen in the wild). What a beauty!

Jaime - reintegrating into society

I'm still recovering from my long weekend of PAX and things are still a bit wobbly. Saw a lot of good upcoming games and played a lot of boardgames including the new BSG expansion, very cool. Also I drank a lot at the Taphouse. I advise anyone considering going to PAX to do it, much more fun than going to Vegas.

Kit - life, work update

1. Slight moment of panic this morning, as I thought I had locked myself in the secure garage, without house keys or car keys to get out. Just as I was thinking of breaking the car window to get to the roller door controller ... I found my keys. Phew!

2. In my absence from work last week (acting Dr Frankenstein), coffee truck 1 has stopped coming, and coffee truck 2 (who had given up the battle of wooing us in the month before), was less than interested in shafting his regulars for a quick profit with us less than loyal coffee drinkers.

3. Blooming Greystanes library must be the *only* library without an after-hours returns chute.

Kit's Frankenstein moment is delayed.

What was supposed to start at lunchtime yesterday started at lunchtime today. Kids! Make sure your red is connected to red, blue to blue, and white to white, otherwise you have to run around in the dark looking for phasing errors.

Shoshe - Long bugger of a day

It started out the night before, when we had no hot water.

We still had no hot water in the morning. Talked to the rental office; 3 buildings were affected. I knew I was going to miss my normal once-an-hour bus, so I walked the 10 minutes to the every-15-minutes bus.

Apparently my annual buspass had expired, even though I swear I'd renewed it months ago. The busdriver was a bitch, and I didn't have $1.50 in change, so I got off the bus and went to the bank across the road where a very nice teller gave me change for a dollar.

Ended up catching the next once-an-hour bus. Got to campus 45min later than I'd wanted to and went to the new bubble tea place that's right by my office. Put the bubble tea in the office fridge because my day was full of classes and I wouldn't have time to slurp tapioca until 4:30pm.

Rushed to class 1; had a short break; was late to class 2 because it turns out it wasn't in the room that I thought it was in, and I had to wait for the elevator because it had the nearest course poster saying where my class meets. Left class early to TA.

TAing was okay. There was a fair bit of banter between the prof and me in the "space news" section -- we kept forgetting about one after another of the several spacecraft that have had problems over the past few days. We currently have no decent weather forecasting on Mars, for the first time in a few years. And it's dangerous duststorm season.

Some of my students from last year came to visit me just after class, which rocked :)

Went back to the office with about 1/2 hr before the postgrad soc meeting. Needed to talk to my advisor, who was trying to meet with many people before they left for the day. Got my bubble tea out of the fridge. The tapioca pearls had somewhat congealed, so I shook the sealed cup a bit. Failed holding-onto-cup-while-shaking-it and dropped sugary bubble tea all over the corridor and my advisor's carpet.

I was really looking forward to that tea.

YL - Potion.

Wanted : 1 Potion of Un-weariness.
Anyone got a recipe?

Also thanks to Dante, I have a great understanding of the game of Bakugun & was able to indoctrinate another little boy into the game today! lol.

falsedan - I am more of a victim of the global credit crisis now

Being made redundant at the end of September! Not a bad thing: CEO told me in the meeting where I going to tell him that unless he could convince me that the company was going to grow & actually do something anytime this year I would be resigning.

Already had one person asking after my CV, so!

falsedan - vegetarian sausages in Berlin are pretty bad

how bad are they?
Why, they're the Wurst!

Seriously, this faux-bratwurst had bits of rice in it to give the toothiness of hard bits of gristle…

Kit has reached a milestone

End of a project ... time for a new haircut.
FRINGE!!!

Shoshe - S2K

Today is Spirit's 2000th sol* on Mars! She's old enough to go to kindy.

We're having a birthday party, and Spirit's playing in the sand (current project: examining and drilling into a soil target named Polyphemus Eye).


* A sol is a martian day, and is roughly 24 hours 39.5 minutes.

Dan ran a game

Ran my first roleplaying session in about a bajillion years last night. Discovered that google is an awesome GM's assistant for running a Vampire game.

Jaime - Feeding a baby actual food

Feeding a baby is like whack-a-mole but in reverse ... I stick by this statement.

YL - hot, cold, warm?

I had a hot summer surfing USA among other things. I put a pause on the grind of work, worrying about careers & just feeling the road running under the car while the possibility of "who knows what" approaches over the horizon. 3 packed weeks full of people, hearts and life experiences. Amazing. There is so much more to do. Not enough time!

Philosophically, where do I go next?

Job applications are now closed for next year's jobs. Who knows which direction I'm really heading in. Or am I just afraid to say it out loud? =)

Kit: Spring has sprung!

I had a nice week away from it all in Central Queensland - visited Carnarvon Gorge and Mount Moffat. A combination of "mountains" (Great Dividing Range), and desert weather. When I got back, I found that a jonquil has sprouted flowers; and the aphids have invaded and colonised my Ranuculus seedling.

Jen - Dinner and Peas

Dan's cousin and her husband visited from Brisbane this weekend. Always lovely - my favourite of his extended family. Tonight we had them over for dinner. The kids fought for their attention by seeing who could be most charming or cute. It was a nice change. As we were cleaning up I found a packet of defrosted peas which we forgot to put away earlier. I had a good laugh as I remembered Brian's stir-fry that time. Anyone else remember those weekly dinners?? We did a roast. What did you cook? I can't remember!

Kit will have Holidays!

Going on a summer holiday. Already in holiday mode. 1.5 days of work to go.

Shoshe - Google frustration

Trying to find information on how to plot a MiniTES (miniature thermal emission spectrometer) spectrum using the Davinci tool/environment/interpreted language. When you type "minites", Google assumes you meant "minutes". "davinci plot" is clearly of no use.

Ben - Internship

Just finished my first week of internship. Nice little school, unusually well behaved kids, and only a 20 minute bike ride from home. Not a bad little set up, all in all.

Tickets are bought: We're going DownUnder

Yay, finally bought our tickets. We'll be in oz between September 24 & October 20. Will likely be spending the first week in Canberra, but the next three weeks in Sydney.

Get ready to meet Holly-boo!!!

YL - holiday

It's good warm summer weather here in Columbus, OH. If you told me about the many many turns, steps and decisions it'd take to get to be at this point in time in my life .... I'd have never believed you.

Sometimes I think about starting over some place else. Where the road doesn't know my name and everything is different.

Kit - modern woes

Accidently wrenching the wireless LAN antenna off its connections in the modem can't be good. I have been reduced to using a public library computer for non-work emails and "oh look, a neighbour has left their network insecure"-type raids, whilst the toy is soldered back together... and hopefully works.

Ben - Well that's done

Just finished my DET interview. Think it went well.

YL - Statistic!

I was going to say I would finally become a statistic .... but I realised I'm already a statistic. lol =)

What I do also realise is I should have bought shares in Roche (company that makes Tamiflu) YEARS ago.

Hindsight is awesome.

Becstarr : Tax Pack Rat

I am just back form the post office, having sent in my tax returns for 2004, 5, 6, 7, and 8. It feels absolutely fantastic and when I sat down to it, it only actually took me one weekend. I can't believe everyone was right when they told me just to start it and it wouldn't be that hard. Why is it so hard to take advice sometimes? I guess I just need to be open to trying things.

Anyway, thankyou to everyone who has, over the last few years, encouraged me to get on top of this. And a special thanks to Mr McCulloch, whose scoffing on Sunday morning (when I "just" had to find my group certificates in order to lodge) spurred me on to the final burst of paper-chasing. :)

I may even get the stimulus bonus. The milky bars are on me!

Anna : Just when I thought I was out ...

They drag me back in ... bugger.

Dan - In the navy!

We hopped in the car yesterday and drove down to Jervis Bay to see Evil graduate today. Was very cool to see her in her fancy uniform, and the kids had a great time - mostly due to the novelty of the long distance travelling and sleeping in a motel.

Anna : Why do vampires suck?

After months of Twilight, True Blood (the show and the books) and then flash backs to Lost Boys I am left wondering, how can vampire stories have so much appeal while at the same time sucking SO MUCH??!?

Guess I'm off to watch Near Dark again ... cry little sister ...

Kit the commuter gets cultured

Went to see Reuben Guthrie at Belvoir last night with Anna, Guy and Lachlan. Funny in parts, but also depressing comments about the isolation of modern humans. During the post theatre discussion, Anna said that she wanted to have a notebook in which she would ask a person to draw their impression of a map of Sydney. For her, the north shore would be marked "here be dragons". I am embarrassed to say that the first thing that popped into my mind was: motorways. The second was: public transport routes. What would yours be?

YL - contemplations

On a day off where I don't have to be anywhere at any one time, I relish the simple pleasure of a full day of sunlight to myself. Granted, I'm going to go to a bookshop (sans sunlight) but then I'll have the pleasure of books!

Also, getting compliments at work from patients/their family is nice. Never been much good at processing compliments .... just a nod, smile and thank you seems to be a sufficient response. Apparently I'm kind. Who woulda thunk? Me? Pfft!

Shoshe - Amateur Robot Astronomy

Spirit has more power than she's had in about 2 Mars years, so the engineers have requested that we do more nighttime observations to use up power (when we don't use up enough power, we shunt it by waking up in the middle of the night and turning on our heaters for an hour or two). I thought it would be nifty to take a picture of Earth, and it turns out that Earth and Venus are in conjunction in the martian sky! They're about 1.5 degrees apart tonight, and will be close to each other a bit after sunset for the next several nights. I've spent the past few days working closely with the Pancam operators and an awesome researcher who's been studying twilight at Gusev. On 21 June at 19:07:28 UTC (19:40:05 local time), Spirit will start taking some pictures for me! If these go well, we might take images every day or two for several days and make a little movie.

Ben - Eye of the Storm

Finally, all my semester 1 assignments are in the box and I don't have any semester 2 assignments due until... let's see... two weeks from tomorrow.

D'oh! Lousy forth year.

On the plus side, I've lost enough weight this year that I can fit into my old suit. This will save me either buying a new one, or holding my gut in for the entire hour long DET interview.

Aching!

Did my second tabata class yesterday. How can 30 mins be so painful?

Kit doesn't want No. 3

The hot water heater broke down over the long weekend (whilst we were away), so a weekend's worth of camping grime had to make do with a cold shower and hot water from the kettle (the former won).
Then I had another toaster emergency.
I don't want No. 3.

Ben - 12 500

This thing's going to cost me a fortune in printing.

Ben - 10, 000

The assignment that I'm doing just passed the 10000 word count, and I still have a section and a half to do.

Join the teachers, they said. See the world, they said...

Also, my fridge broke down last week. For a few days I was eating like a king as I chowed my way through everything in the freezer before it went off. But since then I've been living on food made from supplies from my cupboard. It's surprising how quickly you tire of lentils, polenta, plain spaghetti and pea soup without any bacon.

If only I had a cask of fruity lexia and a bad haircut, I'd be a true student cliche.

Shoshe - Retro

Last Saturday night we went to the local roller derby, and then to a Pong tournament at a friend's house.

Kit needs a holiday

How hard can it be, when submitting something for review, to check back through all of the client's comments in previous correspondence to confirm that all issues have been addressed?

I'm an Aunt!

Christine had her baby!

YL - life

In summary, (*&$#$%^&*)()(*^&%$^%#^%__(&*&^%.

YL - work

In short, *&^#%$*^%$&*^(*&(DHW^%&)*##^)$^&%_*&^*.

Anna : Lurgy

Been a busy fortnight but largely wasn't at work. First I had three days at a IT conference and then last week I was in and out of the office with the flu. Starting to feel better and a bit more relaxed after some time off so had a nice weekend. Writers fest, started my Samoa shopping, sushi in the park and then Mexican last night with chilli shots (some spicy and fruity red goo in a shot glass) with a discount coupon that we found on the fridge just before it's expiry date.

Ben- So busy

I've been so busy lately that I forgot to do any shopping this week. So last night, when I went to cook dinner, I found that the only meal I was adequately prepared to make was tuna and cabbage cannelloni in potato sauce.

Surprisingly tasty with a bit of lemon juice and some pepper, but it really could have used a little tarragon.

Jen - up early

I was going to go in to work early anyway today, but I got woken up half an hour before my alarm clock this morning... by the rain! Not just the sound of the rain against the window, but by drops of rain actually falling upon my face. The window is about a 1m away from my side of the bed, and was open about 10cm. Obviously more than enough. Heh.

EC - Madness

So it's past midnight and Kim's playing Guitar, Drums and Microphone simultaneously on Guitar Hero.

YL - new Star Trek movie

No surprise but I did love it in all it's bright shininess. =)

Ben - thing

Coming to Uni this morning, I saw an ad.

"Be careful putting your lipstick on," it said. "We don't want to have to put it on for you. Drive carefully." The ad was for a funeral parlor.

As if the poor taste wasn't enough, the ad was on the inside of a bus, where it doesn't even make any sense.

Jen - Long day

Spent 10 hours at work yesterday... 11 including travelling time. Blargh.

Actually, it was quite fun. There was a scheduled power outage. No-one allowed in the building. No computers. No printers. No network. No pressure! I spent the time weeding a network cabinet, stopping regularly for cups of tea and the occasional game of Zuma (we had one computer hooked up to the generator). I wish all work days were like that.

Came home completely exhausted, of course. Poor Dan had all three kids all day... and then I was pretty much asleep by 10pm. On a Saturday night! How times have changed!

David - The Definition of Irony

One of the fascinating things about having lived in America for the last 3 years is the radical shift from "there is always more stuff" to "oh crap, the environment". When I first moved here the car ads were all "look at my big manly manly car that gets .5 miles to the gallon", now the ads are all "look at my big manly car that gets 1.5 miles to the gallon because of magic ingredient X". Its an improvement, but not much. The key point of course being that, as usual, its all about the show and not the actual, you know, doing.

So there I am, coming off a flight from San Francisco and I land at JFK. I am walking through the endless miles of corridors and I come across what can only be called the Exxon Mobil Edifice of Irony. Its an entire section of the airport devoted to pointing out how wonderful and new energy Exxon Mobil is, how every day they are saving Americans all this energy and therefore the environment... as if that wasn't irony enough, how did they choose to impart this message? Recycled paper banners? Eco friendly water paints? Oh no, they used 40 plasma screens playing the same graphic presentation over and over again. 40 X 72 inch plasma screens all pointing out the Exxon Mobil is dedicated to conserving energy...

The less said about the current American Power = Clean Coal ads the better...

YL - definitely skiing

With the cold snap, I'm reminded of snow in the crisp almost-winter air.

I'm definitely going skiing this year. Anyone want to come along? =)

Ben - Feelin' good

Okay - It's an hour and a half before the deadline of an assignment. Weeks of work. 40% of overall mark. Suddenly, I can't access files on the network drive, and so I can't get to my
work.

So naturally, I go and complain to the helpdesk person. No joy.

"God damned university computer helpdesk monkeys!" I muttered. "Why are they never any help?

"Wait a second! I'm a useless damned helpdesk monkey! I can do it myself!"

So I fixed it, and now it's printed out and ready to hand in. Also, I helped a couple of other people with the same problem.

So, returning to the post title, I'm feelin' good.

Anna : Don't Stoppard ...

Went to see "Travesties" at the Sydney Theatre Company and enjoyed it thoroughly. Dada-ism meets the Importance of Being Earnest with a dose of commie-rhetoric for good measure.

Best line of the play? Lenin talking of the 1905 and 1917 Russian revolutions :

"To lose one revolution my be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness"

Jen - It begins...

Dan and I were cleaning off the whiteboard a bit tonight whilst the littlies played around our legs.

Suddenly, Elora holds something up to me and says "What is it, Mama?"
I look down and she's holding up a plastic card. Dan's corporate card, no less.
"What?" exclaims Dan. "How did she get that?"

She'd managed to reach into the leg pocket of Dan's cargo pants and sneakily grab it out of his wallet all without him noticing.

It begins. The daughter raiding her father's wallet. We just didn't expect it quite so soon!

Jen - Cubing it up

Lawrence Leung has a lot to answer for. I spent all of last night and this morning figuring out how to do the Rubik's Cube. With help from the internet of course. And I still haven't broken the ten minute mark. Grr.

Jaime - Sick

Being sick sucks, cure please.

Dan - Longweekendtastic!

After the Easter long weekend I was a bit worn out, and decided to have another one. Starting today. Admittedly, it's also because of the horrors of school holidays this year (there's no vacation care for preschoolers, but also no spaces in childcare, so we have nowhere to send Superguy Dragon, which means Jen and I have to do a lot of staying at home, and grandmothers and Aunties are being conscripted en masse to look after him). Should be a bit easier next year, when he can go to vacation care, but I'm expecting to burn through a lot of leave this year.

It was an interesting work week, though, fitting a week's work into two days.

Ben - Computer go boom.

My computer broke down the other day, taking half an assignment with it. Fortunately, it was an easy assignment. Unfortunately, my computer is broken. I've been trying to play Age of Empires with plastic counters, but it's just not the same.

Dan - birthday shenanigans

We skipped Dante's birthday party this year (due to the One Birthday Party per annum rule), so I decided to take him to the movies with a friend or two. Which somehow turned into 4 friends and a bonus sibling. So I took six boys for lunch and to see Monsters vs. Aliens today, which was a lot of fun. The boys were good fun, and no trouble. Then we went up to see Jo and Vee at their get-together at the Coopers arms. All in all, a long and exciting day. Came home to a worn-out looking Jen, Atty, and Elora. Not sure what they got up to while we were out, but they were a lot more tired than us. I'm still looking for the keg and other evidence of the party they had while we were out.

Also, saw a 4WD drive into a wall this morning for no good reason. Have to call the police tomorrow as a witness.

YL - I'm not irredeemable!

Heh that's what one advanced registar said to me after the 1st week at the new job. Lol. I think it's improving Wk 2 and hopefully by the end I'll be sufficiently more competent. I did good on Thur. Real good.

It's so nice to have a 3 day weekend. =) My weekends are usually 1 day! Looking forward to seeing people tomorrow at drinks.

Anna : Website, website, website ...

Phew, new Arts Faculty website up and running ... I never have to look at it again now right?

Jaime - Flutter

Blggng.flttr.sck.n.ndrwr.

Ben - No longer disembenched!

I've been working on my studies, much of (but by no means all) the live long day. But I've also found the time to make myself a workbench. Which is a damned difficult thing to make, when you don't have access to a workbench. Kind of a Catch 22, I guess.

David - Surrendering to Technology

Given that it looks like I am going to be in New York for another 2 - 3 years (long, pointless, slightly psychotic story) I caved and bought an Amazon Kindle 2. For those of you who don't know what it is, its an 'electronic ink eReader'. Imagine a palm pilot twice the size with a grayscale display to read text. I have to admit, its pretty darn nifty. It has a wireless Amazon connection so I can buy 'eBooks' directly from the device itself and they download in 30 seconds.

A cool thing is that they have a bunch back catalogues for $1 - $3. So, I have been downloading a bunch of 1960's Arthur C. Clarke, 60-70's Harlan Ellison, late 1800's Jules Verne and PG Wodehouse!

And the better thing is that I now have 50 books on a device the size of a small diary, which will make the hours I spend in airport waiting lounges that much more bearable.

falsedan - G20 tomorrow

If I don't post something vapid about hippies in 12 hours, avenge my death.

YL - P plates

I am officially a fully qualified doctor. *happy dance*

Dan - Packing Fu

Spent yesterday doing a massive cleanup of the garage/shed in order to make space for more furniture from the family (Tim & Janet are renovating). The sheer awesome power of my packing-fu surprises even me - I cleaned out about 8 square metres in a previously "full" garage.

Now I ache.

YL - omg

Somehow between the madness of being sucked into work and being lured into the goal of "building a career" ... I actually forgot about this blog. Physically forgot. Amazing. Lol. I only just remembered.

Gads what is happening to my brain. It's been like 3 months since Guy & Joe's birthday thing. Damn!

So in 2 weeks I will be a fully licensed doctor.One of my Emergency department bosses was trying to recruit me for the specialty last month. Life is full of work and boxes. Oh the boxes! It hurts. I've donated and chucked a lot of stuff though. Up shot, the new sofa is really comfortable and my place is starting to look like I live here from time to time. Grandma turned 80 & had a great party. I kind of miss home. Oh and as Kim knows, my Fall Out Boy madness was fully released and momentarily exorcised. I went to my first rock concert/s!

Ben - Quis custidied quod qu - whatever

Saw the Watchmen today. Mixed feelings. I think they did the best they could with the central plot, and some of the the performances were wonderful. The action scenes were too slick and choreographed, the costumes didn't have that DIY look that they do in the book and - faithful though it was - the main plot really loses a lot from the absence of the subplots.

Anyway, upshot was I went to the movies and don't now feel ripped off. This is at least a minor triumph.

Jaime - Permanent Resident of Canada

On Thursday I finally became a permanent resident of Canada and in 2 more years can become a Citizen.

Dan: Stranglers

Saw the Stranglers at the UNSW Roundhouse last night. Very exciting - they gave an excellent performance.

They were down two of their original lineup - the singer/lead guitar was replaced in 2001 (ish), and Jet Black, their drummer, was having a rest (he's 70-something years old); but the rest of them gave an awesome performance.

And I was on the edge of the mosh pit, which had a median age of about 40 :)

Kit is excited!

She just found some tickets available in "the gods" to see Dylan Moran.

Shoshe - Harvest!

Over the weekend I thinned out the indoor lettuce crop, and we had miniature salads. The remaining lettuces have grown impressively over the past few days.

And my GI doctor has me eating plastic (literally).

Kit has given in

Despite trying to prove a point, and manage a contract without a work mobile phone, I have just given in and put in an application.

Ben - TKB

My camera stopped working again, and I finally decided to buy a new one. Then I reasoned that, since I was buying a new camera anyway, there was no reason not to try to make it work by hitting it against the table.

My camera is now working again. Here's a picture of my new ride (as per Dan's request), and also a set of shelves that I built (that nobody asked to see). I think my next project should be a proper workbench, the little portable thing I have is too lightly built and also too low for someone of my height.

Dan - house not destroyed

Went to inspect our house in Darlington. We were happy to find that the large quote for repairs and cleaning wasn't because it had been deliberately trashed, just rather enthusiastically lived in.

Anna : Dolphins!

Summer is slipping away down here in the southern hemisphere so beach time is seeming more precious. But the water has reached a wonderful swimming temperature and this morning we saw a pod of four or five dolphins swimming about 30 metres off shore.

Magical.

Shannon - Holly's first milestone!

Today her little umbilical stump fell off! Its amazing how exciting being a parent is :)

David - Fate is a Capricious Thing...

So, I found out today that LIU would like me to hang around New York for another 3 years. We are now starting negotiations as to what terms and conditions I require in order to spend another 3 years in the insanity that is the US of A.

At the same time I found out that Mutant Chronicles, the movie, (go to Apple.com to see the trailer) comes out on my birthday. 24 April. Sure it is cheesy, but how can I not go and see it? Its the first role playing game that I ever bought... for those who know the place, I picked it up after high school one day in that weird little Tin Soldier store in Liverpool. I think I then ran a really, really crappy game for Guy, Horns, Crans and Ferris one afternoon. Or as I like to think of it, the game that convinced me I am better of being a less imaginative wargamer!

Jen - excited!

Word just came in that Shan's off to hospital to be induced. I am bouncing with excitement and will eagerly await the news all day. Fingers crossed for an easy birth!

Guy - For Ben (who we assume is dead).

Kit remembers to hand stuff in

The pesky assignment, which was due in November (08), has *finally* been handed in.

Becstarr : A super-productive Caturday!

Joel's gone sailing for the weekend and left to my own devices in the house, I have surprised myself by having a super-productive start to the weekend!

I have not only but also: swept and mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors; done three loads of washing including a backpack, sports shoes and the shower curtain; used the final rinse grey-water from each wash on the lawn; sourced and fitted water aerators to the kitchen & bathroom taps; cleared several GB of space on J's laptop; met Karinne for a catch-up date over chocolate and churros in Glebe; and done a massive fruit & veg shops at the wonderful Harris Farm.

Woo!

Ben - Full throttle!

Guess who just got a sweet new motor scooter?

If you guessed 17th century science fiction pioneer Margret Cavendish, you were dead wrong. It was me!

Dan - school's back

It's the end of our first full week back at school - Dante and Atty were at school all week. We're all exhausted and cranky, and we'll be resting hard this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to recover despite the cruel and unusual heat the BOM has planned for us.

falsedan - I am a victim of the global credit crisis

My bank won't give me a credit card unless I show them the last few months of bank statements. :(

Shoshe - Sprouted!

The lettuce that I planted on Sunday sprouted today (Wednesday)!

Tancred - It's rather cold this morning

It’s cold today. According to the web it’s -6° and feels like -9°. Last winter the server room AC froze and tore it’s self apart (no one remembered to put antifreeze in the chillier).

This morning our AC stopped working. It’s now 41° in the server room. IT sits outside the server room doors which are open, and all our windows are open trying to make a draft to help get cold air in there. Damm it’s cold. I’m indoors and I can see my breath. I think we should all just get to go home.

Shoshe - Groundhog Day

Sadly, Groundhog Day doesn't mean as much when you know that there will be (way) more than 6 weeks of winter, and that spring is most certainly not right around the corner.

Shoshe - Go my brain!

I got brilliant insight into 2 of the questions on my Celestial Mechanics homework last night at about 2:30am, after finishing a teen vamp novel. I even figured out some stuff that the super-maths officemates didn't get! Clearly I should be doing more...light reading.

Over the weekend we set up the winter greenhouse. I re-potted the aloe and planted six little pots of lettuce, and we brought the bay tree, rosemary, and orchid home from uni. They're all in a bookcase sort of thing with growlights and mylar. The greenhouse is bright!

Tancred - Blizzard

It's not just snowing - It's a blizzard :)

Jaime - rubbing bellies for the win

Last night I won a poker tournament thanks to "Pixel" kicking at the right moments to tell me that it was the hand to play, baby is indeed getting a new pair of shoes.

Guy - First week done...

While I'm woefully unprepared, as always, I'm happy to be back.

The midgets are great and I like what I'm teaching.

In Studies of Religion we were defining religion and one student was very eager to explain to everyone the difference between a ghost and a spirit.

"A ghost is where it's a figment of your imagination and a spirit is real."

Something in my face gave away that I didn't agree with her, and so she asked if that was right.

I said that traditionally speaking a ghost was the spirit of someone who had died, while spirits were a much broader category, including spirits of trees and animals and the Holy Ghost and whatnot.

However, what I was thinking was; Of course it's made up! It's all made up! Everything in this course is a figment of people's imaginations. Ghosts, spirits, miracles, God.

I didn't say it because I probably shouldn't alienate any of the students at this early stage of the course...

David - Boy Howdy Is It Cold

So, I was in Chicago a week or so ago. The temperature was -21 Fahrenheit, -31 if you factored in the wind chill.

To put it in practical terms, the half frozen river was releasing steam because it was warmer than the air. I walked the 6 blocks to my hotel with a jumper, jacket, overcoat, scarf, gloves, beanie, boots and at least 3 hits of whisky. I couldn't feel my legs by the time I got to the hotel. I had to go to the bar for another 3 emergency shots of whisky to stave off hypothermia. How the hell Grizzly Adams managed to survive I will never know...

Kit is tempted...

The second coffee truck man told me today that he can do iced coffee (rather, he offered it to me). Real coffee shot, vanilla icecream, choice of flavoured syrup, whipped cream, chocolate on top.

My one (of many) weakness!!

Dan: Dante's adventures in MMOGs

Dante has discovered his first MMO game - Moshi Monsters. It's a silly thing where you create you monster, and it wanders around this little world, and you feed it and get it stuff, and meet up and chat with your friends' monsters. All pretty simple, and entirely within the browser. But he's so keen that he has decided to spend his pocket money on a 1-month membership. God help us when he discovers WOW.

I don't think that word means what you think it means

Becstarr : Emerging from a kid hurricane to an empty nest

Just got back from visiting a full house of kids (5, 7, 9) and 6 adults up the Central Coast to an eerily quiet house. That's right: Matt and Zoe have flown the coop over the weekend, and Joel and I are empty-nesters! For the first time in my life I am savouring owning every shelf in the fridge (and pantry, and bathroom) and so on. Come to think of it, that's not quiet true as I was in that studio in Camden St for a while. OK, forget that particular rhetorical flourish, but it's still Very Exciting!

Ben - a productive use of my time

I was watching TV, and I saw an ad for Valkyrie.

So I made this picture.

I love the holidays.

Dan - back at work

After 4 delightful weeks of holiday, I'm back at work this week, and very tired. Looking forward to the long weekend.

We went to the Olympic Park pool this afternoon - kids had lots of fun, but the lifeguards seemed to be in a bit of a mood.

Jaime - First Kendo class

Rocked!

Shoshe - Warm! (er). and then cold again

Yesterday it got all the way up to -4C! The hottest it got between Wednesday (when we got home) and the day before yesterday was -9C. Now it's -10.5C. The coldest it's been since we got home was -20C, which is even negative in Fahrenheit.

Today was the first day of the semester, and tomorrow is the first day I have class. I haven't felt as unenthusiastic about a semester starting for a long time, if ever.

Kit: internet curfew

I have decided to give myself an internet curfew on weeknights. Except that I've just broken it. Time to sign off!

Jaime - only a few more hours

Until I leave for Las Vegas. Go for the training, stay for continuous party.

Becstarr : Goggling (under the sea...)

Hot weather is beach weather and the Christmas presents of flippers (half-length training fins, thanks) and snorkel mask are calling to be put to good use. Clovelly yielded lots of hot and cold currents and a giant blue grouper. Manly's Shelly Beach had a giant seaweed forest and penty of stripey fish, but not the weedy sea dragons we were hoping for... yet!

falsedan - IT SNOWED IT'S SNOWING

IT'S SNOWING DID YOU SEE IT I SAW IT

Shannon - So I says to Jaime...

"Hey, let's go swimming". What the hell was I thinking?! Now I'm too exhausted to get off the couch to make dinner.

Becstarr : A new!

Something ineffable happened overnight with the changing of the years, and I now feel like I'm on holiday at last. The garden and the beach call, and I am heeding no others!

Dan - Happy New Year!

Happy 2009, folks! It's been ages since my last post, a lapse I humbly apologise for. Enjoying 4 weeks off work, seeing lots of friends and family. Spent the day putting together and painting chairs, and taking the munchkins off to see the fireworks (or, as Elora has been calling them, spiderworks).

Jen - Kaboom!

Happy New Year everyone! We took the kids to the 9pm fireworks - watched them from Glebe Island Bridge. They had a wonderful time. Can't wait until they're old enough to stay up for the midnight ones :)