I've been playing Candy Crush for probably the last year and a half or so.  But I've pretty much given it up.  I got thoroughly sick of hard level after hard level that would take days each to get past.  Some of the hard levels were interesting or took a little bit of skill, but most were just tedious, or you died too quickly (death by bombs urgghh), or were just plain impossible without sheer amounts of luck.  I got up to 690 in reality, a thoroughly awful level that pushed me over the edge of quitting, and 272 in Dreamworld, which I imagine would only be possible to with an awful lot of luck and/or boosters.

I wonder if King keeps stats on what levels people quit at.  Because they do change the difficulty of levels sometimes.  Maybe if they were to do that I'd come back to it.

Today I spent about six hours doing doco and change paperwork.  Didn't actually *do* anything :/

Headed out to the club first thing yesterday.  That is, we didn't leave til after 10am and with a shopping trip didn't arrive til nearly midday.  Had a bit of lunch and then the sweetie went to work on his essay, and I went up to the kitchen to help prepare dinner.  

Yup.  

Several of us spent the entire afternoon prepping veggies while others cooked.  We cut up ten kilos of potatoes, half a sack of onions, a kilo of garlic (garlic oil *hurts*, who knew?), thirty cucumbers, half a box of bullhorn peppers, lots of zucchinis, several large bunches of spring onions, several large bunches of bok choi, a couple of huge pots full of cabbage, a bowl of ginger, a huge bowl worth of mini egg plants.  And that was just the veggies.  There was also probably 10L worth of fried rice, fifty drumsticks, fifty chicken wings and a *mountain* of pork.

All to feed forty people.

Yup.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of leftovers.  And I mean *a lot*.  We could have easily fed another hundred people with the leftovers.  In fact most of it (including at least three quarters of the garlic (which *hurts*)) wasn't even cooked up.  The whole thing offended me actually.  There was so much left over there wasn't the fridge space to store it.  Although I did make a valiant effort at it before bed.

But the food that we did manage to eat was really good, and after dinner R&L put on some music and a whole bunch of us danced for ages which was heaps of fun.  Mostly sixties and seventies music, with a couple of Adele and Kylie songs heh.

This morning I woke up early stressing about all the food and whether it would all go to waste.

Went with EffanC to Bungendore for a light breakfast, then came back with lots of freezer bags and bagged up all the veggies for people to take home.  I made a cabbage bake for dinner tonight which was evil but good, and used up some old cream and bacon that was in the house.

Other than that it was just painting and watching Veronica Mars and dad's documentaries.

I think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

And my fingers still smell like garlic.

Friday, July 16th 2004...

FQ Topic: Stupidity

FQ1: Admit it, sometimes you are not the sharpest tool in the shed. What's something stupid you've done recently? (The FridayQ doesn't count!)
It usually involves drinking a little too much and feeling a bit under the weather the next day

FQ2: Children do idiotic things all the time because they just can't seem to help it. What's something stupid you did as a kid?
Jumped up too fast from being on the floor playing with my brother - because mum was coming in from outside and I was meant to be getting ready for school.  I pulled a muscle in my leg and it made it hard to walk for a few days.

FQ3: Sometimes, being a bit of an idiot is required (or fun!). What's something stupid you will be doing in the future?
It usually involves drinking a little too much and feeling a bit under the weather the next day

FQ OBSERVER: People are morons. Without naming names, what's something stupid you've seen somebody else do?
How about the guy the other day we saw swerve across two lanes of traffic to take an exit..

Compare with last time ...

FQ Topic: Suggestive

FQ1: Suggest something to read, something to watch...
Star Trek VI by J.M. Dillard, probably my favouritest book ever.  And Veronica Mars.  Totally awesome show.

FQ2: Suggest someone to admire, someone to stare at...
The sweetie!  One of the most wonderful people I know.

FQ3: Suggest someplace to go, someplace to avoid...
Go? Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, where do I even start? heh
Avoid? I can think of a few places I've had bad travel experiences at, but nothing enough to say don't go there.  That I can think of.  I'm sure I'll think of something later.  If I do I'll add it here.

FQ PROJECT: Suggest an itinerary for somebody visiting your city by listing the five must-see attractions of the area.
Well it depends a lot on what you're interested in.  For me I like towers and high places, so I'd suggest Mt Ainslie (free) and/or Black Mountain Tower.  Probably a tour around Lake Burley Griffin to see all the public buildings and the carillon.  Questacon is a favourite of mine because I'm a science geek.  The parliament houses if you're into that sort of thing.  And there's plenty of galleries if you're into that sort of thing.

Compare with last time ...

FQ Topic: Vent

FQ1: What's the one thing above all others that drives you insane... that one dreaded event that causes you to completely lose your composure and want to kick, scream, and beat something with a big stick?
Just one??  Probably people pushing in.  It makes me hate all people and want to destroy them with fire.

FQ2: Is that all? Surely there is something else that will cause you to freak out! Here's your chance to vent and list a few other things that make you go nuts...
People making a mess, people not doing doco, people being cruel to animals, people not indicating, gravity, crap vendor support, stoopid people, anally-retentive people, people that make fun of my hobbies and interests.

FQ3: When you've been driven crazy by something or someone... and are barely containing your frustration... is there anything you can do that will make you calm down, dispell the rage, and be happy again?
Rant on my blog, have a few drinks and rant to colleagues, rant to Stu.  Ranting is a thing with me I think.  Sorry.  Or I might go and do a jigsaw.

FQ DARE: Admit it, you're not perfect... what is something you do that drives other people crazy?
Probably my ranting/complaining.

Compare with last time ...

Got to sleep quickly last night.  But then woke up at 3:50am and didn't get back to sleep for at least an hour and a half.

*sigh*

I spent the morning continuing to fight a problem that as it turns out might not have even been a problem and I may have wasted my (and a couple of other people's) time.

*sigh*

Tonight we watched some Veronica Mars and then I watched Crocodile Dundee.  The pub looks a bit different now than it did in the movie.

Yeah there was no way the vacuuming was getting done tonight.

Friday night we finished watching season 1 of Veronica Mars through.  I think that was my third time watching it through.  Still just as good.

I didn't sleep very well on Friday night.  Too many restless legs :(  Was awake for hours, so was tired and grumpy on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning I spent the entire morning cleaning the house.  Yay.  Although I *still* haven't done the vacuuming.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate vacuuming?

Marc and Jo arrived around midday and we chatted for a while.  

Then did a trip to Costco.  Because I'd never been and was interested to see the place.  It started off ok, looking around the home entertainment stuff and another non-food stuff.  But then we got to the food and thought we should see what inspired us for dinner.  Ended up picking up some lamb shanks.  But then we needed to find stuff to go with it, but it's really horrible to shop for fresh food there.  Smallest bag of potatoes was 5kg :(  Plus we didn't know where anything was and it was somewhat crowded, so it all became quite stressful.  Got through the checkouts, and then they take your receipt and count every item in your trolley to make sure it adds up.  And I'm like *what the??*  Seemed quite insane to me.  And the girl couldn't grasp that there was something buried under something else, which meant our tally was one item *under* and so she spent ages counting and getting confused.  Bizarre bizarre bizarre.  Then we thought we'd get some super cheap petrol (under a dollar a litre) but then we saw the queue, which was at least six cars waiting per bowser and thought screw that and just got out of there.

At home we started prepping dinner (it was like 4pm by this point).  But I was tired and stressed and grumpy and things just kept falling *down*.  Why does everything have to fall down??  Plus mess, and multiple people working just made it even more stressful.

But once we got dinner in the oven and cleaned up the kitchen I could start to relax a little.  So we chatted and looked at holiday slideshows before dinner.  Which turned out reasonably well.  The lamb shanks were *huge* and I didn't finish mine, and they could have done with being done a bit slower and longer.

After dinner we (read me - everyone else wussed out) went for a swim.

But then we started prepping breakfast (Marc's breakfast mince) and I accidentally knocked a wine glass onto the floor.  It *shattered*.  Into tiny pieces all over the kitchen floor :(:(:(:(  I was pretty upset because it was one of the nice ones Stu got when he left his job in Queensland nearly nine years ago.  But I really lost it when I tried to nibble a bit of onion of the spatula a bit later and dropped it trying to put it into my mouth.  I was just so sick of everything falling down I just lost it and went to bed.

Today was a fairly slow start.  Had the breakfast mince (too much food for me) and then Marc and Jo went home around midday.

Then the sweetie and I jumped in the car and went for a nice long drive out to Uriarra Crossing and Mt Stromlo (Scope is closed - boo).  We had a good long chat about life and stuff so that was really nice.

Got home and started on season 2 of Veronica Mars.  I remember watching this in Sydney, but found my dvds were still wrapped, so was wondering how I could have seen it.  Then figured I must have watched *live*, on *tv* .. surely not!  Actually watching tv as it airs?  Unheard of! heh

I was having a really crappy morning this morning.  I was almost in tears at one point from the stress of everything I'm meant to be doing, but can't because of constant interruptions, people coming to me with problem after problem after problem, and people wanting servers built.  It was all feeling too much.

But then Marc and Jo had to put their dog to sleep this morning.

And you realise that there's plenty of people having it much tougher than you.  :(:(

Finished off the wedding photo book tonight and ordered our copy.  Really want to make some holiday photo books soon.

Hoping I get more sleep tonight (couldn't get to sleep til like 1 or 2am - brain wouldn't shut up).

So mum will be pleased to hear I've *finally* gone back to editing our wedding photo book for reprinting.

I first did our wedding photo book in 2010 for the parents' for Christmas that year.  I was thoroughly stoked with how they turned out, but I wanted to change a few things for our own copy - some of the images were a little dark and needed lightening, there were a few little layout issues in places and I needed to fix some of the text.  You can't edit a finished photo book with Blurb, you have to essentially reimport it and start again.  But the first time I did this all the imported images that were vertical were showing up horizontally in the image list.  They were ok in the main part of the book, but I was paranoid that I'd go to get it printed and all the vertical images would come out sideways.  So there it sat for a few years.

Anyway tonight I fired up BookSmart to have another go at it.  For some reason I was able to open the old book and all the thumbnails look ok.  So I started doing the lightening of some of the photos.  So far I've come across one image that opened vertically in ACDSee, but horizontally in Irfanview.  So I really don't know what will happen to that image.  It *looks* ok, but if the exif data is screwed up who knows what will happen.  Just have to hold my breath I suppose.

Horror day at work today, too many things breaking for no good reason, and of course lots of people complaining about it :(:(  Was really wishing I'd stayed at home :(

So 2014. We survived.

Probably the most significant event of the year was that my Dad died in February. Mum handled it fairly well, as she'd gotten used to the idea over the course of nearly a year. And in the end it was a relief of sorts, knowing that he was out of his misery and in a much better place. I continued doing trips to Sydney to help clear out the garage of all dad's stuff. We took many car loads to metal recycling and made a couple of hundred dollars out of it. We also freecycled quite a lot of stuff. In October mum got accepted into a retirement village and the next two months became a whirlwind of trips to Sydney, a trip to Hong Kong and Taipei, a trivia night that I had to prepare and run, a work ball I had to prepare for as well as life in general to be lived. I only just survived til December 16, then was able to collapse in a heap. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to the family home of forty two years.

So I actually had three big holidays this year. The first mum and I decided to go on when it was pretty obvious dad wasn't going to last much longer. That was for two weeks in Turkey. That was a pretty awesome trip and we saw heaps of amazing stuff. Then I did another trip with my mum in September. That was an Outback Spirit tour from Cairns to Brisbane via Mt Isa and Longreach. It was a good trip, but hideously expensive - as expensive as the Turkey trip, but didn't include international airfares, fancy hotels every night or restaurant quality meals for every meal. At the end of that trip we spent nearly a week with Chay and David which was a lovely chance to chillax after being go go go for two weeks. And the last big trip was to Hong Kong and Taipei for two weeks. I was in the middle of chaos at the time, so Stu did all the planning for it. That was a pretty good trip too, although we did struggle at times to find the best balance of going and seeing things and doing nothing and relaxing. Other than that, we went with DC to his coast house in January, to Bermagui in March, and also stayed at the coast briefly to go to Scott and Kerry's combined 40th.

Had an ok year at work. Spent a good amount of time "cleaning" - decommissioning old services and doing massive cleanups of firewall rules. Also got chucked in the deep end on a couple of projects that required extra assistance, so they were a bit stressful at times.

Healthwise I was pretty good this year. I got a cold during the Turkey trip (a pretty nasty flu thing had been going around the whole tour group so I got off pretty lightly). And it seems I got a cold probably at the movies the other night as yesterday I started sniffling. Other than that I've been pretty healthy.

We've spent heaps of time with our "whiskey" friends this year which has been awesome. But we've not seen nearly enough of Nat and Andrew as I'd have liked. We had a few games nights at Mishi's in January, August and December, with lunch at Damien's in December. My Sydney visits meant lunches (Peking duck!!!) with @StuartCRyan which was awesome, but sadly that won't be happening anymore. We saw Josh and Ally a couple of times, and Gaelian and Stef as well. A Sydney trip for George's 40th. A fair bit of drinking with the neighbours and playing with the animals. Various people came to stay over the year including the little brother, Chris and Zac, and Marc and Jo a couple of times. We're continuing to enjoy our visits to "the club" and went to many of the social events on during the year.

Pretty quiet year for the fish. All the zebra danios in the angel tank have finally died. I got five rummy nosed tetras for the two foot, and they're lovely little fish and drew out the black neon tetras which otherwise just spent their life hiding up the back of the tank. A couple of the duboisis died, which threw off the dominance balance, so one of them became dominant and picked off the rest of them one by one, so he's the only one left in that tank now with a sucking cat fish. Most of the kribs and multis downstairs are gone now too. Really would like to get rid of a lot of our fishtanks and crap ..

I didn't buy any Lego this year, but throughout January I got to play with all of Jake's Lego - around eighty sets of it! Building and dismantling and checking for missing pieces, and documenting. Sooo much fun! Also dismantled the Star Destroyer which had been out for four years!

Continued doing a lot of jigsaws at home during the summer, and some at work, although not anymore there which is a shame. I finally finished the 24000 piece "Life" jigsaw, but still haven't gotten around to taking it to work to document it all laid out. Not much else in the way of hobbies, other than part of a paint-by-numbers which I got for last break but still haven't finished.

January had a run of very hot days which required lots of icing the fish tanks to keep them cool. But the rest of the year was surprisingly mild. Winter had some very cold nights, but the pool only partly froze over a couple of times. We've had some very hot days too, but again generally it's been fairly mild. In fact this whole Christmas break has been *lovely*. Because of all the travel and chaos, the pool was a mess until just before Christmas, but because it hasn't been super hot since then, we haven't gone in yet.

Tried a surprising number of new recipes during the year - almost one a month by the look of it.
* two different lasagnas - both awesome
* black forest slice - needs some modification
* Boeuf Bourguignon inspired by Julie and Julia
* Coq au vin
* various vegetables
* breakfast raclette - trying to perfect a recipe
* white chocolate caramel slice
* duck breast
* harissa roast chicken
* zucchini and cheese fritters

We ate out a bit. I didn't think all that often, but still a fair amount. Our favourites are still Dumpling Inn and Pulp Kitchen. Bella Vista as well, although only once this year (maybe twice?). Went to Grazing a couple of times and it was awesome both times. Went to Ace Sushi a couple of times when doing shopping at the markets, but it's pretty average. Revisted Asian Cafe, Wig and Pen, Iori. New this year included:
* Grazing - awesome
* Ellacure - not fussed
* Edgar's - ok
* Bellucci's - pretty good
* Mocan and Green Grout - interesting
* A Baker - good
* Kinh Do - good
* Beijing House - meh

At work, other than the mall, tried out Altitude Cafe (meh), got thoroughly pissed off at Samiuz, went to Sanurs for an after party dinner, 2 Yummy a couple of times for after drinks dinners, and Outback Jacks a couple of times for team lunches/dinners (quite impressed with their feasts). Probably lots of other places too undocumented.

In Sydney our regular for Peking Duck was Super Bowl, and Tako Tuesdays were at Sushi and Grill on York Street for takoyaki - not fresh, but better than other places I'd tried, and it was just downstairs from work.

Also found a couple of speakeasys. The Baxter Inn in Sydney which is awesome. Went there by myself first up, then later with Luc and again later with Neil. Went to Molly with the sweetie as well.

Movies:
* The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
* The Lego Movie (x2)
* Lucy
* The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Books:
* Deadly Décisions, by Kathy Reichs
* The Earthsea Quartet, by Ursula LaGuin
* The Delinquents, by Criena Rohan
* Fatal Voyage, by Kathy Reichs
* Animal Farm, by George Orwell
* *batteries not included, by Wayland Drew
* Palomino, by Danielle Steel
* Star Wars Episode I, by Terry Brooks
* Dewey, by Vicki Myron
* A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle
* Thunder Dog, by Michael Hingson
* Star Wars Episode II, by R.A. Salvatore

Other Stuff:
* Multicultural Festival aka meat on a stick day!
* Hall Markets for first time
* Mapping Our World exhibition at the National Library
* Balloon Fiesta in March
* Inherited Dad's camera
* Inspected the Sentinel apartments in Belconnen
* Inspected my flat in Sydney. Got depressed over deadbeat tenants who don't take care of other people's property
* Won another work trivia night. Ran the next one
* Airport open day - flying visit as could only spend an hour there
* Went to the War Memorial but was disappointed the WWI exhibition was closed for renovations
* Whiskey Live - 44 whiskeys oh my!
* Stu's Japanese classes cultural nights twice
* Poultry show at epic
* Had to buy a new lens because I'd smashed my other one in Turkey. Bought the same one
* Drama with cooling problems with my car. Found a new mechanic who I think might have fixed it
* Had to buy a new dishwasher as the last one burnt out
* Fired up Stu's old Android and started playing Ingress. Got a sim for it seven weeks later but the damage to my iPhone battery was done.
* Took a random day off and cleaned half the garage
* Zone 3 with work
* Bought Stu a new car on a very good finance deal - cheaper than our mortgage!
* BBQs at @CLBradley's. On one of them I borrowed Frozen and have been slightly obsessed with it ever since
* Chucked out years of receipts
* Birthday dinner of Chinese takeaway in Sydney
* Whiskey tasting night on my birthday, Bella vista for dinner
* Skiing in August
* Chickens and duckies next door (and lizards and frogs and cats and dogs)
* Total lunar eclipse
* Pulled off a semi-convincing Queen Elsa at our work Halloween Ball
* Mum tried to electrocute herself but thankfully failed
* Carols service at Como Church

So that's 2014 done! I know some of my readers have had a tough year (especially my brother). Hope things improve in 2015.

Happy new year!