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.

falsedan - plethora

I have easy access to internet ATM, so unburdening my backlog:

2007-09-11 Saw Withnail & I as part of the local cinema chain's celebration of British films. Thought we would look a bit derro for bringing cans of Stella into the theatre, then noticed at the end of the film that the other people in our row had finished off two bottles of red.

2007-09-18 Had lunch with Moondiamond at the Prospect of Whitby, forgot to give him his book back.

just then Watched a German Shepherd stalk a squirrel in Shepherds Bush Green.

Becstarr : Partyplanning

Pub yielded further plans for a Wisemans Ferry / St Albans 1-day bikeride next Monday (public holiday), and for Eugene's housewarming (Sat 6th Oct, details coming soon). We also had a still-hyped-from-jetlag Karinne, fresh from the US.

Jen - A week of hiding out

Spent all week recovering from the Canberra trip and hiding from the online world.

Monday: We all slept lots. Loads and loads of washing.
Tuesday: Hanging around at home. Finished knitting the cardigan!
Wednesday: Mama and Papa went away for another holiday (just up to Nelson's Bay). Took D to his piano lesson.
Thursday: A quick jaunt to Bankstown shopping centre. Elora lost a sock. Bought nappies. Cooked dinner.
Friday: Quiet day with the two kids. Atti made a new friend at the park. Caught up on my RSS feeds and this blog :)

Anna : Searing Stress Shoulders

Exceptionally long day (6.30 start, 30 minutes on the rowing machine, complete with first rowing blister in 8 years, work, work, work, 16 laps of the pool and then over the bridge for film meeting with the Peach Production girls, back home and into bed around 11.30) followed by fitful and disturbed sleep.

Highlight of my night? A nightmare about a box of scorpion spiders stinging and biting my hands. What's a scorpion spider? Trust me, you don't want to know.

Becstarr : Dusk run

Dave bullied me into actually going on our planned after-work run despite the cold and drizzle. I managed 6 laps of the Sydney Park oval and it started coming back to me that running is very much a mind-game... convincing yourself to keep going is much harder than the actual act! We met up with Wei for a cheap Vietnamese dinner afterwards. I slept exceptionally well. :)

Evelyn - Cycling at dusk

The sun setting has moved so much earlier so quickly. Last night I took the bus home instead of walking so we'd have time to go for a bike ride before it got dark. We found yet another park - Edinburgh is so pretty sometimes.

Ben - Huh?

Writing a essay. Actually a) learning something through writing it and b) kind of enjoying it.

I'm sure it'll pass.

Oh, and for the record, I did like the new Master. He lacks some of the gravitas of former Masters, but makes up for it through sheer psychosis and moustache-twirling nastiness. Looking forward to the season finale.

Becstarr : Rmv BETH guilt

Built a lovely simple 5-qu, ~5min site eval survey for the Bioethics sites and popped it into 3 of them. Now to see if anyone uses it! (there's only about 48 students all up atm).

Becstarr : Massed choir

Dinner at Wagamamas with the sibs, then off to the Basement to see Mum perform with her a cappella group Voices on the Waters at a fundraiser choir night for the Sydney Street Choir (like Melbourne's Choir of Hard Knocks). It was a fun evening, and good to have time with the family before everyone starts heading off. Rach leaves for Ireland next month and Jess is aiming for London soon. Christmas looks like being a lot smaller this year... so got to make the most of having them here now!

Dan - the boys* are back in town

So, we're back in town. All are tired and cranky. New staff member started, so hopefully more stuff will get done. Got my new Mac Mini yesterday. 'Tis very shiny.

*And girls, of course

Anna : New Job

Back at work, 2nd day at ICT, names that I have known for years are getting faces to go with them. I have a temporary computer, a phone on order and I've been desk squatting at for the last two days and will have to shift tomorrow when the desks owner comes back to work. On the plus side I am going to take advantage of my new "Gym Adjacent" location and go for a swim this afternoon after work.

Kit: Tech Deprived and nearing the end of a Holiday

Have arrived back in Berkeley after nearly three weeks on the road, and no 'net access, and no mobile phone coverage. ARGH! I guess Yosemite National Park is one of the last bastions of "we don't want 'em hick mobile transmitters 'ere. They might affect thar' bears or sometink". Plus I saw a BEAR!!

Becstarr : Now five jumpkicks!

Small but extremely vocal Combat class tonight. RAR! Definitely helps to get the week started well. We had the locally-famous (in the WebCT world) Peter Love in this morning to start scoping our middleware project. He showed us the admin interfaces he's put on UWS and UNSWs' systems and we were drooling! Can't wait to move to something more functional and efficient, so we can spend less time hand-formatting data.

Jen - Canberra trip

Thursday - Busy day: Dan went to Canberra Wed night so I had to drop the kids off at school. Had morning tea with work colleagues, lunch with an old friend in the city, then walked from Martin Place to Holme Building via Broadway so Elora could have her immunisations. Picked up the kids, drove home, fed and bathed them, packed our bag and the car and drove three and a quarter hours to meet up with Dan. It took Atti 75 minutes to fall asleep and Dante 15 minutes! Arrived at a quarter past midnight... Elora woke up at Goulburn and cried almost all the way to Canberra. The boys were too excited to sleep and didn't quieten down until after 1am. Ack!

Friday - Tired and raining: Boys woke up at 6:30am. Tried to get them to go back to sleep but ended up turning on ABC Kids and went back to bed. After breakfast the younger two went down for naps and we finally left the motel a little before 11am, taking my mother to the railway station so she could train back to Sydney (she came for the drive, to help me out... not much of an exciting trip for her). Bought lunch and had a picnic in the back of the car beside Lake Burley Griffin (it was cold, windy and rainy... compared to 28° in Sydney!), then had a lazy afternoon in the motel room while A and E napped again. Dan came home a little early and we had takeaway Chinese for dinner. Ready for bed by 9:30pm.

Saturday - Questacon: Yay! Questacon day! Dante was excited and unable to control his actions... we almost didn't go 'cause he was so troublesome. Met my cousin Cecelia Mary and her son Seth and had a wonderful time at the Questacon. Dan met us up at lunch time (and incidentally we bumped into another distant cousin - small world). The two Ds stayed on while the rest of us went home for naps. Picked up some Oportos and went to Cecelia's place for dinner, driving along the "Limit of Maps" (she's in a new suburb).

Sunday - Floriade and home: Everyone slept in this morning. Then while we were having a leisurely breakfast, an annoyed housekeeper knocked on the door wondering why we hadn't checked out as she really needed to clean the room right then! Dan had already cleared a late check-out with reception so we sent her away, although the whole affair did get us moving, packing and clearing up. Went to Floriade and looked at all the lovely flowers, had lunch, then went to the Art Gallery. None of Ian's artworks were up and the Fog Sculpture was off. Disappointing. But bumped into a family friend from Sydney, and Dan had fun in the shop. 'Twas a long tiring drive home. The kids slept until Goulburn and then Elora screamed and screamed, and Atticus yelled and yelled until I finally got Dan to stop (two cars - me with all the kids) at Pheasant's Nest. Moved Atti into the other car, fed Elora and the drive home was much more relaxing. Phew.

Jaime - Bang Zoom straight to the moon

Found a new place that is far less crapulant. Transfered internet and hydro over. Talked to the current landlord and squared it with him we were moving. Thankfully there was no major tears over it. Packing (again) ahead.

Shannon - Membership has its privileges

Rob's mum is in town from Pennsylvania, so Jaime and I took them the Museum of Anthropology. As I technically work there*, we all got in for free.

*The Museum looks down on the Archaeology folk as illegitimate cousins from the wrong side of the tracks.

Yen Li - 1 day at a time?

It's been an interesting 7 days. I dont think I'd repeat it again but it was at least interesting. I passed my psych practical long case which is good. Just the written to go on Wed. And then life proceeds.

Well life is sorta proceeding anyway. I think if I just take it one day at a time and dont think about the future or how happy/unhappy I'm going to be, it wont matter so much. Yes, denial and just dont think about it. Yay for poor coping skills.

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.

Becstarr: APECapalooza

The circus was in town and we went to join in. Saw the riot squad and water cannon, naked men wearing 2 pairs of socks (promptly hauled into the converted jail-buses by the police... they know party people when they see them!), and Grandmas Against War.

G&A's "APEC a-party" was the evening fun, and it was great to see a bunch of people there. And I hear that October is shaping up to be a month of many birthdays! Huzzah! I'm looking forward to it.

Jen - Big screen goodness

Got woken up by Dante every ten minutes from 6:55am until we finally got up at 8am (when he woke up his siblings)... grr. Visited my brother at Rookwood, had lunch at the noodle shop at Flemington, then had a visit from Grandma who stayed for dinner (Dan's chicken wings in tar) along with my folks and brother Tim and his family. Dan bought a new 24" monitor (Acer - $599 from Officeworks. Bargain!) which goes very nicely with my laptop... *grin*

Jen - Ratty day

Took the kids to go and see the latest Pixar film, Ratatouille since it was the APEC public holiday for those of us in Sydney. Quite enjoyable. The cinema surrounds and shopping centre were packed when we came out of the movie. The kids had a very late lunch and way too much lollies which made for a ratty afternoon (pun intended).

Evelyn - Quiet Night In

We had a quiet night in to let someone recover. Apparently full-time work is tiring.

David - Hell, Stupidity and Travel

The last few weeks have been remarkably interesting. Interesting in the sense of having a hand grenade constantly exploding inside your skull from the shenanigans. Political warfare exploding all over the shop. Am now staring down the barrel of 7 weeks in the Trafalgar Hilton in London. On the one hand "London, YAY!" - on the other hand - "7 weeks in a hotel - CRAP". So far this year I have spent a third of my time in hotels. Getting. A. Little. Over. It.

Ben - All work and no play

Stupid goddamn rain! I was going to slack off this week and catch some rays, but this stupid rain has kept me indoors, and working no less. Assignments driving me crazy - I'm supposed to explain the importance of 3d geometry in the syllabus with reference to recent research. So far as I can tell, there is no recent research to prove that 3d geometry is important. 3d geometry is important because we live in it, and not even the most pedantic and obvious of academics seems to find it necessary to say in more than a sentence. My other assignment is about Aboriginal health, which is less frustrating, but very depressing.

Next semester, I think I'll take Cheerful Studies 101, and write some essays about puppies and balloons.

Tancred - teh winner is me :)

Spent the day setting up and deploying Nortel switches into edge roles. The Nortel CLI is really crap, but Nortel does have an interested graphic application for switch management. You end up having to use it as it seems impossible to get detailed port information on the command line. Grrrr

I did get to shine at work today. For several hours other support people could not ping a laptop and could not work out why even though DHCP worked. I suggested the laptop must have a firewall badly configured. I was right :) and the other guy said D’oh hehe. Teh winner is me :)

Shannon

Still getting use to the new, but slummy, apartment. Am very happy to have the interweb and telephone back.

I am choosing to believe that I feel like death because I was rude to a gypsy lass in the shadow of Notre Dame, rather than because I drank too much.

Jen - Sleep catch-up

Yay for longer long weekends! Dan took the day off work today and hence I was able to catch up on some much needed sleep while he went for a walk with Elora.

Becstarr: Editing and quizmaking til late late

Big meeting with Rob D for Abattoirs this morning-- we'll open the site to students either this weekend or Monday- exciting! Spent the afternoon making edits and building the quiz we worked out this morning. We're planning pre- and post- placement evals and hopefully a paper out of this, which I'll get my name on! WOO! This would be a first paper for me... so I'm pretty keen to make it happen. :)

Shoshe: 4/m 3bar 2/m or 622?

Sunday: made excellent salsa with my department.
Monday: dropped Quantum Mechanics and Geochemistry classes -- yay! Noticed that the trees are starting to turn colours
Tuesday: went looking for bookcases
Wednesday: trying to figure out Hermann-Mauguin point group system so I can do my Mineralogy problem set (due tomorrow). Makes no sense at all :( Also, got free pizza for dinner. Pizza here has a whole lot of cheese. And often comes with dipping sauce.

Jaime: We're back baby

The internet is back and the water is fine. New apartment is ok, but kinks to iron out... I have a sneaking suspicion I just ran two sayings together and caused an accident. Right now the little people are running around on fire. Maybe I can get an inappropriate comment in there to really get the fires burning high.... ya mum! There that will do nicely.

Yen Li - still no rain.

Never have I been so keen for rain to test the leaking windows. I've decided to sell the apt, organised agent & am moving. These medical text books are damned heavy. As soon as the window is rather fixed, I get to move on with my life. It looks like my family might break even on the sale of this apt. This would be a good thing.

Tancred - first day at a new job

Finally started my new job today - Network analyst at Queen Margaret University. It's all a bit of a mess at the moment. The University has just started to move from buildings scattered across the city to a new purpous built campus. At the moment it's a building site with a small area for the IT group to work in.Yup I have a hard hat and safety vest to walk around in.

My first task is to learn all about the BlueSocket wireless LAN solution and deploy about 100 of the access points. The cool thing is they run POE, the problem at the moment is there is noone has run any UTP to where I need to deploy them. The other "interesting feature" of the new campus is the buildings are all "green". This means all the acadamics will be working in open plan offices. I wonder how many of them know about this

Jen - Still coughing

Picked up Dante from school and bought him a few books at the Book Fair. Then took him to his piano lesson. And coughed all day, again.

Sitting around waiting to be offered work, accomodation, etc. is proving surprisingly effective!

Jen - Visit from Eugene

Had a visit from Eugene today, who borrowed my father's ute. Atticus found a "pet" butterfly... let's call him "Squashy". R.I.P. Squashy.

Becstarr : Reunitions

Finally got out of meetings at 2pm and escaped to lunch at Macro. TWO PEE EM!! Afternoon, reunited with bike (now with shorter stem so hopefully less wobbling), ipod (so much RN to catch up on!) and gym. Evening, jelly with Joel and Zoe.

falsedan - parks

Taking Aija on an extended tour of London parks, and currently trying to find a place in Islington that will sell me Tom Yum—only 3 Thai restaurants on Upper St WTF!

Jen - Typical day

Nothing of note happened today. Just the typical day at home with the two youngest kids. Still knitting that cardigan and coughing my guts out.

Becstarr : Last minute abattoir dash

Last minute dash to get all Rob's post-China readings and links up for the abattoir modules.
The site is looking V Good. Skipped Combat again and went straight to Dave's for dinner and ate a large pile of oranges. Wei keeps them in the fridge, which I find strange but on the other hand, he does always seem to have the most delicious oranges around, so I may have to try it!

Joe - No need to huff and puffa

Great weekend. Did things. And also stuff...Actually spent entire weekend on cough drops and Bex Powders. No idea what the hell went on. Woke up this morning with a traffic cone and a tattoo of the Dutch national anthem in 12 point font across my thighs.
I blame APEC.

Guy - They pay me to be mean to kids

Tired, tired. The weekend was spent sleeping/recovering. Today I got to do the lesson where you divide the class up to represent the rich and poor in the world. Most kids either didn't get a jelly bean, or only got one. But the four kids representing the 23 wealthiest nations in the world got 26 each! They objected that I was being slack, I told them they'd gotten the point of the lesson.

Bez - That which should not be fried

Went to the State Fair yesterday, and ate things. Terrible, terrible things. Suprisingly, I balked at the deep fried Oreo/Twinkie booth - I have grown weak! Today was Salsa Day, which involved many more vegetables.

Anna : Cooking

Guy's old's were coming over for dinner on Saturday so that meant the morning was spent rushing out to Flemington Markets, buying huge amounts of food and then rushing back to help Eugene move. Afternoon was spent playing Okami to calm down before the cooking began and then frying eggplant, tossing salad and baking a WHOLE salmon ... mmm fish!

Ben - Summertime, and the living is easy

Went to the beach yesterday. Water still cold, but I did some sunbathing and took a nice walk out to the lighthouse, then around the cliffs. My home internet's down for the count, but I'm getting so much more work done I don't think I'll bother fixing it until the holidays.

Dan - Chaos: Theory and Practice

Got to sleep in! Got woken up by Dante cheerfully and excitedly poking the Fathers Day card he made into my face. Later, hordes of Wongs arrived next door and we all ate too much food while 8 children ran screaming around the yard destroying all in sight.

Jen - Day for Dads

Let Dan sleep in until 9:30am! Had a Father's Day family BBQ. My dad's cousins, no. 4 (from Singapore), 6 (from the US) & 8 came, as well as his brother (no. 7) and sister. Ate lots. The kids played and played and got on really well (the eldest two grandkids are off skiing - amazing what a difference their absence makes). Got tipsy on the tiramisu.

Becstarr : Sociable stinkbug

Took Dad for a Fathers' Day coast walk and picnic at Rose Bay. Rach brought excellent Vietnamese fresh spring rolls. A stinkbug came to the party and set up camp in the garlic dip. Went on to Dave & Wei's housewarming in Darlo and admired the LARGE study. Mmm...space....

Nerida - Father's Day

Chilling out at the parents. Loving the long weekend (took Friday off). Waiting for America's Next Top Model to start on Fox8 - Tyra is so wrong!.

Did a bit of gardening. Contemplated housework then figured that anything is better than that. Still getting over the weekend of non-stop birthdays.