Only just barely survived the week at work.  Only two people to do the work of five will do that to you .. hrmmm

Friday night was drinks for Lachie's birthday which was fun.

Saturday the sweetie wasn't feeling so well so had a quiet day at home, and then Mishi's in the evening for nibbles and games.  We played Ticket to Ride (which I won but was soooo close to losing) and a couple of games of Pirate Fluxx that L won both of.

Boundless merriment with friends getting together.
Please enjoy special delicious taste which brings you fantastic feeling.

Today we went out for breakfast and did some food shopping.  The sweetie cooked dinner of beans and ham hock, and I made dessert of white chocolate caramel slice - nommm!  We watched The Fifth Element, and then, needing more Bruce, we watched Surrogates, which was sort of like Avatar meets I, Robot.  

And there goes a week ..

Saturday morning we packed up and joined the rest of Canberra in heading down the coast for the long weekend.

I started a jigsaw and other people just chilled and read and programmed etc.

For dinner we went to the Little Restaurant and Bar again for more delicious food.  We couldn't get a seat inside because they were all booked out, but were able to book the outside bench.  But that's cool, cause you know we're Canberrans and all and we're used to the cold.

Then spa til about 1am.

Sunday we'd been intending to go to the beach, but the sun never came out, so we didn't bother.  Went for two separate walks to the shops (one to hack portals and another get some stuff to make pikelets (C had a craving)).  In between I did jigsaw.

Dinner was pizza's from Stevo's (the Sandy Foot cafe had run out of dough! *gasp*).  Oh my, Stevo's pizzas were insane!  Huge, and *heaps* of cheese.  Completely decadent and we mostly all stuffed ourselves silly.  I had one and a half pieces and that was *plenty*!  We ordered three large pizzas, but only ate two of them.  Had a full pizza's worth leftover.

Then spa til after midnight.

This morning was just eating and packing up and cleaning, then came home.

Battled Sunday night depression, and then lost it when I dropped one of my corningware dishes onto the kitchen floor and it *smashed* :(:(  But then watched a very moving docudrama on Hiroshima on Netflix.  Did my washing, now time for bed.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4. "Of course," he muttered. "That would have been too easy. Anakin, where are you?"
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can, What can you touch? The wall
3. Before you started this survey, what were you doing? Eating breakfast, and reading Dave2's version of this
4. What is the last thing you watched on TV? Sherlock
5. Without looking, guess what time it is 8:15am
6. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time? 8:25am
7. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? The water spray in the fish tank
8. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? Last night, coming home from EffanC's
9. Did you dream last night? Probably
10. Do you remember your dreams? Sometimes
11. When did you last laugh? Last night
12. Do you remember why / at what? Chatting with friends
13. What is on the walls of the room you are in? Paint
14. Seen anything weird lately? A girl who walks down three flights of stairs to use the girls bathroom on our floor
15. What do you think of this quiz? Not too bad so far
16. What is the last film you saw? Guardians of the Galaxy
17. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Germany
18. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy? An aeroplane
19. Tell me something about you that most people don't know. Um
20. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? Outlaw stoopid people
21. Do you like to dance? Sure
22. Would you ever consider living abroad? Yes
23. Does your name make any interesting anagrams? Probably
24. Who made the last incoming call on your phone? My neighbour.  She was a bit drunk.  OK a lot drunk.
25. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? A form to change my name with an organisation
26. Last time you swam in a pool? Last Friday night
27. Type of music you like most? Classical soundtracks (eg anything by John Williams).  Or rock.
28. Type of music you dislike most? Hip hop/rap crap
29. Are you listening to music right now? No
30. What color is your bedroom carpet? Beige with brown flecks
31. If you could change something about your home, without worry about expense or mess, what would you do? Seal in the laundry and put a toilet in downstairs
32. What was the last thing you bought? Lunch yesterday
33. Have you ever ridden on a motorbike? Yes - when I was about seven, at our neighbour's place
34. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? Yes
35. Do you have a garden? Yes
36. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? Yes.  Actually I'll qualify that - I'm a bit fuzzy on the second verse (which never gets sung) and don't know the other verses (which aren't official anyway)
37. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? What day is it?
38. If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be? I dunno.  Maybe David Bowie
39. Who sent the last text message you received? My neighbour
40. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Gosh I dunno.  Bunnings?  Harvey Norman?  Ikea?
41. What time is bed time? 11pm lights out
42. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? No
43. How many tattoos do you have? None
44. If you don't have any, have you ever thought of getting one? No
45. What did you do for your last birthday? Drank lots of whiskey then had dinner at Bella Vista
46. Do you carry a donor card? Yes
47. Who was the last person you ate dinner with? The sweetie and EffanC
48. Is the glass half empty or half full? Depends on the direction it's going.  If you're drinking a glass of something, then at the half way point it's half empty.  If you're filling a glass, then at the half way point it's half full.
49. What's the farthest-away place you've been? Scotland
50. When's the last time you ate a homegrown tomato? Month or two ago - some of Kit's
51. Have you ever won a trophy? Yes - for swimming when we were kids
52. Are you a good cook? Not really.  Stu is much better, but he rarely ever cooks :(
53. Do you know how to pump your own gas? Yes.  Who wouldn't??
54. If you could meet any one person (from history or currently alive), who would it be? Jesus
55. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school? Yes
56. Do you touch-type? Yes
57. What's under your bed? Dust
58. Do you believe in love at first sight? Maybe
59. Think fast, what do you like right now? Our heater
60. Where were you on Valentine's day? Gungahlin for supplies, then out to the club
61. What time do you get up? Usually between 6:45 and 7am
62. What was the name of your first pet? Bluey
63. Who is the second to last person to call you? EffanC
64. Is there anything going on this weekend? Tidying the house.  Trying to get rid of stuff
65. How are you feeling right now? Not too bad
66. What do you think about the most? Um. Work maybe.  
67. What time do you get up in the morning?
68. If you had A Big Win in the Lottery, how long would you wait to tell people? Dunno.  I'd probably be questioning the authenticity of it on account of I don't buy lottery tickets.
69. Who would you tell first? Stu obviously
70. What is the last movie that you saw at the cinema? Cinderella
71. Do you sing in the shower? Not really
72. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? 
73. What do you do most when you are bored? Read rss feeds
74. What do you do for a living? Solve people's problems
75. Do you love your job? Some of it
76. What did you want to be when you grew up? Pilot
77. If you could have any job, what would you want to do/be? Pilot.  Actually probably not.  Flying for myself would be fun, but I couldn't handle the stress of flying other people.  Getting paid to travel the world would be good.
78. Which came first the chicken or the egg? One of them
79. How many keys on your key ring? I dunno.  Lemme go look.  Six.
80. Where would you retire to? Probably here
81. What kind of car do you drive? Ford Laser
82. What are your best physical features? My hair
83. What are your best characteristics? Attention to detail
84. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? Europe? America? Antarctica? Cruise around the Mediterranean? St Maarten?
85. What kind of books do you like to read? Science fiction, adventure
86. Where would you want to retire to? 
87. What is your favorite time of the day? Sunset
88. Where did you grow up? Sydney
89. How far away from your birthplace do you live now? 285km
90. What are you reading now? I'm in between books
91. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Morning
92. Can you touch your nose with your tongue? Yes
93. Can you close your eyes and raise your eyebrows? Yes
94. Do you have pets? We have fish
95. How many rings before you answer the phone? Um, as long as it takes to answer?
96. What is your best childhood memory? Maybe our trip to America in 1983
97. What are some of the different jobs that you have had in your life? Pie packer, shop assistant, ISP call centre, desktop support, systems administrator
98. Any new and exciting things that you would like to share? Um, not off the top of my head
99. What is most important in life? um, friends/family/God
100. What Inspires You? Good music

Was generally having an ok day today (went offline for a while to Get Things Done).  Then frustrations with *people* ruined it right at the end.

*sigh*

Three years ago today we left the Dead Sea and headed for Jerusalem, stopping at Masada and Qumran, then going to the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, saw the Wailing Wall and went through the western wall tunnels.  

Definitely slept better last night.

But work was super crazy as ever.

Tonight was Rake and photo labelling and painting and doco watching.

Three years ago today we went to the bit of the Jordan River at the outlet of the Sea of Galilee where lots of people come to get baptised, went to Bet She'an, Jericho, and then on to the Dead Sea where we had a completely unique swimming experience.

Friday, September 3rd 2004...

FQ Topic: Funny

FQ1: What's something you find humorous, but probably shouldn't?
Stoopid people doing stoopid things

FQ2: What's something that others find funny, but you don't?
There's Something About Mary.  Stoopidest. Movie. Ever.  I barely raised a smile the whole way through it, yet the rest of the cinema was cacking itself.

FQ3: What actor/comedian/personality always makes you laugh? What movie? What book?
um.  I dunno.. maybe Robin Williams?  
movie - Flying High!
book - maybe something by Roald Dahl.

FQ STAND-UP: Tell us a joke or funny story.
This was always my dad's favourite joke.  Because I've heard it so often it's the only joke I really remember.  This is a brief version cause I couldn't be bothered embellishing it :)

So there's this little old lady who's lonely and goes into a pet store to buy a budgie to talk to.  But when she gets it home the budgie starts swearing its head off.  The little old lady takes it back to the pet store because she can't have a swearing budgie in the house.  But the pet store guy goes, "whenever it swears, just put it in the freezer for ten seconds - not to long otherwise it'll freeze".  So she does this.  As soon as the budgie starts swearing, she takes it and puts it in the freezer, counts up to ten, then takes out it.  The budgie is shivering and asks "If I got ten seconds for swearing, what did the chook do??"

Compare with last time ...

Yet another week goes by.

Thursday: after yet another night of Wednesday night insomnia, didn't have the energy to stay at drinks, so went home and had a tv dinner and watched Tangled (which was pretty good).

Friday: headed out to the club.  Pulled out the fridge that had never worked on 240V and did some jigsaw.  Quite a few people came up for happy hour which was nice.

Saturday: more stuff around the van, and did some hazard reduction, more jigsaw, and happy hour again with everyone in the evening.

Sunday: continued hazard reduction, came home around lunch time.  Had a pretty quiet afternoon.  Dinner at EffanC's, watched The Prestige.

Monday: nothing much.  Scanned a hundred photos from 1998, sorted finances, went for a walk with the sweetie, cooked an epic potato bake, and some veggies, watched a couple of episodes of Rake.  Got annoyed at channel 7 which was off the air until about 9:20pm.  But did enjoy the RAIN!

Didn't get to do this last Friday on account of being down at the coast

Friday, August 13th 2004...   (it was Friday the 13th last Friday too)

FQ Topic: Ego

FQ1: What is an activity that you can do better than anybody else you know?
Documentation

FQ2: What is a subject where you are smarter than anybody else you know?
hrmm don't know about that one.  In my last job I often found myself in a position where there were no other "experts" in my team so I was on my own trying to solve problems.  This job is quite a bit different because there's so many people in IT that there's almost always people around that know more than me, which is great because I'm pretty dumb.  But I suppose there's a few geeky, "kids" things, like Lego or Harry Potter that I probably know more about than any of my adult friends.

FQ3: What is a trait you possess that makes you superior to lesser humans?
Attention to detail, meticulousness, ok anal retentiveness.  Good for some things, like doco or paint-by-numbers, but is probably annoying to a lot of people (especially the ones that don't meet my high standards ;) )

FQ FICTION: Which of your many stellar accomplishments should be recorded in the history books? (Can't think of one? Make it up!).
Gosh.  Um.  Too hard... 

Compare with last time ...

So spent the beginning and the end of the weekend swimming with EffanC.

Friday night was a club swim night at a private indoor pool.  Which should be nice in winter.  Except.  The room has terrible acoustics, which meant it got very loud with not many people.  And then people started pegging balls at each other which made it all kinds of tedious.  But then some people left and it quieted down which made it nicer.  Went back to EffanC's and we had some wine and cheese and watched Peter Jackson's Braindead, which apparently used the most fake blood in a movie ever.  But the horror was all so cheesy and fake that it didn't bother me.  Then a couple of episodes of The Katering Show which was hilarious.

Saturday was very quiet, just housework and painting and tv.

Sunday we did some food shopping and then more of the same.  In the evening we met up with EffanC for dinner.  We were going to go to Kinh Do, but it was booked out, so ended up at Chong Co.  

Then back to our place for a chilly swim.

Friday, July 30th 2004...

FQ Topic: Criminal

FQ1: If you could steal something and be assured of getting away with it, what would you take?
Probably a few million dollars so I could invest it and live off it so I wouldn't have to work anymore.

FQ2: If you could vandalize something without fear of being caught, what object would you deface?
This:

Ugliest building in Sydney, if not for its design but the location which makes it stick out like a sore thumb.

FQ3: If you could trespass someplace where you were not allowed and nobody would find out, where would it be?
The next Soyuz rocket to the ISS.  I've always wanted to go into space..

FQ REDEMPTION: Time to redeem yourself for the above stated criminal activities! If you were allowed to write a new law, what law would you create?
Outlawing stoopid people?

Looks like I never did this one last time..