So yesterday was pretty much a hydrant day. Certainly the afternoon anyway. People at work annoyed me to the point where I just couldn't work any longer. So went down for drinks and got appropriately sozzled.
Today was a lot better, although feeling rather overloaded. But one of the people that was annoying me yesterday acknowledged some of what he was doing and even said some nice things about me, so felt a lot better after that.
And then after much suffering and anguish, managed to get the wings of the cube done. So now can solve it like a regular 3x3 cube.
Update: finished!!
argghhh!!
Microsoft do something really cool... and then pull the plug on it..!?!? wtf!?!?
Some time ago I blogged about Microsoft Research's "
Group Shot" and how insanely cool it was. OK I might not have said it at the time, but it really was. It seriously works like magic to get the best out of group photos of people.
Anyways, a while back James mentioned that it was no longer available for download. Well I didn't think anything of it, having acquired my copy of it some time ago.
Except I went to use it tonight and it said it had expired!! Argghh!!
Well this will never do. So I set the clock back on my computer, and miracle of miracles, it worked! W00t!!
A couple of stories that fill me with dread...
- The ammendments to UK laws would could see the tools used by "white hat" ethical hackers outlawed..
- The Texas law which could put legitimate computer security companies out of work..
The people writing these laws obviously don't
get that crackers don't abide by laws like this, and all it's going to do is make it harder for IT professionals to maintain the security of their networks.
Both things were discussed at the SANS panel tonight.
Why is it I seem to do this on a Sunday night... really must do this more often heh (I suppose it doesn't help that all of these pics have been taken since Friday)
Neil brought along some sparkling shiraz to a work farewell on Friday.. it was delicious!!
Saw this chastity belt (!) at markets on Saturday
Clare Valley Riesling - one of the bottles we got as a wedding present from work, was very pleasant
Bendy clouds seen while out and about today
On Saturday we finally got a bunch of photos printed out to put in the thankyou cards we're going to send people. We also got one of them enlarged and a frame for it. Looks pretty nifty. Not really looking forward to writing a whole stack of cards out in long-hand though....
Credit for this photo goes to Andrew W
I need some opinions...
I'm trying to decide whether or not I should sell my wedding dress.
Reasons for keeping include:
- I'm sentimental that way
- Stu likes the idea of me keeping it
Reasons for selling include:
- it'd never get worn again
- it's been used for two weddings, and could easily go for a hattrick
- it takes up valuable storage space in a huge box
- it's likely to just decay in storage anyway
I really can't decide. What do other people think?
One nice thing about Berlin is that it was created by glacial sheets of ice so the whole place is dead flat. Which makes it the ideal place to cycle around. So that's what many Berliners do. I love that here people cycle around in their ordinary clothes with their bags like *normal* people. The only people that cycled in Sydney were die-hards in skin-tight lycra. Cycling is a massive pain in Sydney (and even Canberra) because of all the hills, so only crazy people do it.
I'd post a photo, but the Eee PC photo tools are completely lame and don't have the time to fiddle with anything else at the moment.
Sunday we had an "open house" and had a bunch of people over. Was somewhat chaotic, but settled down again in the evening and Chay and David and I had a few drinks while Stu sat in delirious tiredness.
Yesterday was a running around type of day.
Today is frantic packing and cleaning...
We never did find that bird... hope it doesn't smell too much for the housesitter!!
Heading up to Sydney soon and fly out on our honeymoon tomorrow morning.
I probably won't be blogging too much while we're away.. will depend on net access. Will try and
twitter a lot more regulary, assuming my global roaming works!
So the day of the wedding dawned still and foggy. Always a great sign. I had a lazy morning. Although I did wake up early and not get back to sleep. So eventually got up and had bacon, eggs and croissants for breakfast. Very yummy.
Got myself ready, then went for a drive in Scotty's new car because we had nothing better to do :)
Josie came around 10am and then the process of curling my hair began.
An hour and a half or so later....
Then my head became a pincushion for all the pins to hold up my hair. hrmm.. heh. Josie also did up all my makeup.
So Kerry cooked us up some lunch while we waited for my parents to turn up (with the bouquet and flowers). They eventually did but very late. They ate their lunch then rushed off to get Stu's bag to take to the reception venue/hotel. While I sat there at about 1:30 thinking it's really time to be getting dressed now, but George and Kerry were all "no you'll have to sit around for too long in it" .. hrmm. At 1:45 I said no really, let's get dressed, so we did. And a good thing too, as it still ended up being rushed at the end :/ Because they all had to get ready too, then people were coming and going and my parents still hadn't returned and it was starting to get stressful. Eventually the parents got back, but then they had to get ready too. So the whole last half hour was very rushed, and didn't get all the photos I would have liked. Oh well.
So we packed off J&G, and mum and then Dad and I hopped in the car with "other Stu" for the ride to the church. Stu had had some trouble attaching the ribbons to the car, and one actually came off at one end during the trip.. oops! So we stopped just round the corner from the church to reattach it heh. Arrived at the church pretty much dead on time. To be met by the paparazzi. Honestly it was hilarious, so many photographers there and lots of very nice cameras!
Managed to get my dress out of the car, had some more photos, then it was up to the church....
It was all very exciting. Think we walked down the aisle a little too quickly though. And so many cameras!!
We should have had leaders for the singing, as people didn't "get" the boy/girl bits.. so it was a little silly, and the organist played them a little too slowly too which didn't help.
I remembered my vows. But after a little hesitation on the second line when Stu was doing his, the minister prompted Stu all the way through his. Oh well. So we were married!!
Then it was things like lighting the Unity candle, signing of the register etc. And walked back down the aisle to Saint-Saëns' Symphony #3 (what else?? :) ).
Even more photographic chaos outside. We didn't know where to look! Lots of various family type shots were had and eventually we decided to head off to Lake Ginninderra for the "official" photos. We went to this lake rather than Lake Burley-Griffin because the tower would be in better light from that direction (and there was a nice park with lots of autum trees - all very pretty). So there were at least ten people all lined up taking photos, which was such a crackup. And they were all comparing the size of each others' .. lenses... hehe (my brother won! :) )
When we'd all had enough and run out of light, we all piled back into cars and headed off to the reception.
I had "A Touch of Elegance" do up fairly lights all around the hall, and they looked fantastic!! That and with the candelabras they provided, as well as 96 tealight candles I got off ebay, the room looked amazing.
Entrees then dinner was served in quick succession. People said the food was good, and what I ate of it was good, although I couldn't really fit much in given how tight my dress was, so I really just had a taste. But then they brought out the desserts almost immediately afterwards, which was very upsetting for me because they weren't paying any attention to my schedule for the night :(:( sigh. So that really stressed me out for the rest of the night, because then it felt like the whole night they were trying to rush us out the door (in the end most people had left well before the official 10:30 finish). *And* they ran out of some desserts, so people didn't get to choose at the end :(:(
So after dessert Damien did a speech, then Stu did one too, then we cut the cake and did the bridal "waltz" which was nothing like a waltz, but people thought it was amusing. At least it will be remembered!!
After the dance, took off back to our room and got out of my dress and slipped into something more comfortable. *Much* more comfortable!! Was able to walk around more, and even joined in some of the dancing. My playlist was relatively well received, although they did complain that some of the tracks were too slow to dance to! oops. But I really wasn't even expecting people to dance much at all.. so there you go. So deleted a few tracks towards the end and added some different ones in.
Stu and I stayed til the bitter end so we could collect everything up and take it back to our room. Because I was so stressed I didn't feel like being sociable, which meant a tonne of people just didn't get talked to by me, which was upsetting in itself. I felt really bad afterwards that I'd been so neglectful, and so the whole thing left me feeling very bitter about the night. Not helped by a massive pillow that I couldn't sleep well on. So in the morning we didn't even stay for breakfast we just took all our stuff and left very early. Thank goodness for maccas drive through! lol.
Anyways. Noone else really noticed the problems with the scheduling, and everybody that I did talk to said it was a great wedding and good food, so I was glad about that. Maybe one day I'll look back on it all and laugh.. hrm... hehee. (We went back today to pickup some things we left behind and settle accounts, and they were very apologetic about everything and took off some of the cost of the additional pre-dinner drinks, so that was all very much appreciated and left me feeling a lot better).
So we're now very happily married. Not that it feels a whole lot different. I suppose it'd be different if we hadn't been living together first.
We watched "The Wedding Singer" (or I listened to it rather as I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see it) at Kerry's on the morning of the wedding while having my hair done. There was a part were Drew Barrymore's character said she didn't think the butthead dude was the right man for her. Which made me realise I never once had those thoughts about Stu. And I asked Stu if he'd ever had any thoughts like that either and he said no. So I reckon that's pretty darned cool!
