From Karla

• Where were you when Armstrong first walked on the Moon?

  Half of my DNA was wherever my mother was, but that I don't know.

• Where were you when you heard Princess Di had died?

  I was at home at the parent's place. I was by myself. My brother called the house. I also remember talking about it when I went to church at St Matthias that night.

• Where were you on New Year�s Eve of 1999/2000?

  NY2K at Homebush. We only just managed to get in the gate before midnight though. We were on the dancefloor and someone came around giving sparklers to people to use. Midnight came and I thought "well we still have power. cool. can party all night" hehe. The only people at CIA that could have done anything about the servers doing anything silly were all at parties all night. Vic and Janelle and I got home at 6am or something, saw that everything was working ok, and didn't think much more of it. hehe.

• Where were you on Sept.11, 2001?

  I was at CIA. Gamera was being stoopid and fussing over one of its disks. While I was working on it, Marc was online and called me over to tell me. We found pics on the BBC website, and when I saw both towers on fire I know it was deliberate. But the pictures were so small I didn't think too much of it. Came home and turned the telly on and stayed up til 3am watching it all.

• Where were you when you first heard about the big 2004 Tsunami?

  Can't really remember. The initial reports listed only a few hundred people dead, which didn't really stick in my head. I remember being at J&G's though talking to Ralph about it and watching the news there when the count was more like 15000.

• Where were you when you first heard that Madonna would go on tour last year?

  er.. did she announce that did she? shrug :)

Well I can categorically say when our wedding *won't* be. July 21.

Other than that I have no idea. Truly.

Ok, well I suppose I have *some* idea. No, scratch that, I don't really, I've just had a few thoughts, but no real ideas.

Date
Later this year. Dunno when. Depends on my job situation.

Honeymoon
Was hoping to get to Europe this year, perhaps as a "pre" honeymoon, and then just go away locally for a weekend or week after the wedding.

Location
Dunno. My church doesn't meet in a church building, which makes that difficult. I kinda like the idea of Yass at Annie's church, or that cute little church between Canberra and Murrumbateman. I kinda liked the idea of a late August wedding when all the cherry blossoms are out for some nice photos, but don't know Canberra well enough to know whereabouts to go.

Bridesmaids and Groomsmen
We'll probably pass on that. We want as low fuss as possible, and trying to organise other people for that sort of thing is so tweenies.

Dress
This is one thing I don't want to pass on. I really want a nice dress. Have started looking online for things I might like.

Hair and makeup
Something with cascading curls I think. Makeup I dunno. I'm crap at makeup. Might have to find some professional to do it for me.

Flowers
That's starting to get a bit hard. Maybe just something for me to hold.

Reception
Dunno. We kinda like the idea of something informal. Maybe a catered afternoon tea or something. Dunno where.

Guests
I'm thinking small. Like 50 *tops*. Was 42 at D&Y's and that seemed like an ok number. Stu wants small too.

I suppose someone should give this to my mother to shut her up for a while... or maybe she'd just ask more questions ..

So after helping move, we wandered back to Stu's where we rested for a bit, then went and hunt and gathered some food for dinner (kangaroo and some fried veggies, very yum). Then we went for a walk to the top of a hill, with the intention of looking at the comet again. While we waited I took photos of crap.

But it just so happened that we were also in time for the Australia Day fireworks. Which we watched and I attempted to take photos, playing with exposure settings, being too distant to get anything worthwhile. But then the scheduled F-111 "dump and burn" happened. I snapped the shutter without having time to change my last setting - a 10 second exposure - oops! But it did make for a fairly spectacular photo..

After the fireworks, there was a mass exodus of people off Mt Ainslie. Which in itself was amusing..

And then I went back to taking pics of comets and Southern Crosses and the like..

On Saturday morning (gosh it feels like forever ago), we met up with Damien for brunch at Carlo's in Watson. There were so many yummy things on the menu I didn't know what to pic heh. Then we headed over to Cancon. Well the boys had fun. I played solitaire.. ;)

Stu cooked a yummy stir fry for dinner, then Scotty came over and we watched "Mallrats". Talk about a waste of space movie.. lol

Today we wandered over to Annie & Stu's for lunch, then back here for a scrumptious lamb roast for dinner.

And now my weekend is over :(

*sigh*

So I saw McNaught. Was a bit grumpy cause there were just as many clouds as yesterday, and the same frigging pattern of cloud build-up on the satellite loop. So didn't think I'd see anything. And very nearly didn't. Except for that some other people were there looking as well, and had been there before and knew where to look, and had much better eyesight than me, and pointed it out - woot! So I saw the thing. Mind you it was rather tiny. Or maybe it was just all the clouds in the way. Only saw it for a few seconds between cloudbreaks. But I did get to borrow the dude's binoculars and saw it through those for a few seconds too. It looked nothing like the photos. Well it did through the binoculars, but it was next to invisible with the naked eye. Or maybe I just need new glasses.

From Bren:

1. Will you be looking for a new job?
More than likely - in Canberra
2. Will you be looking for a new relationship?
Nope :)
3. New house?
Perhaps. We'll see how we go with job stuff first
4. What will you do different in 07?
Try to remain calm, especially on the roads
5.New Years Resolution?
Haven't made any
6. What will you not be doing in 07?
Being so slack about stuff
7. Any trips planned?
There was thoughts of a Europe trip, but job uncertainty makes that a bit hard. Maybe a small one somewhere
8. Wedding plans?
Yup!
9. Major thing on your calendar?
Nothing has been defined with a date for putting on any calendar..
10. What can�t you wait for?
Living with Stu
11. What would you like to see happen different?
Not sure..
12. What about yourself will you be changing?
Trying to be calmer and more organised
13. What happend in �06 that you didn�t think would ever happen?
I'd ever actually want to leave my job
14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about?
I will try
15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 06?
Nope
16. Will you start or quit drinking?
Nah
17. Will you better your relationship with your family?
Maybe
18. Will you do charity work?
Probably not
19. Will you go to bars?
Not often
20. Will you be nice to people you dont know?
I try
21. Do you expect 07 to be a good year for you?
Hope so :)
22. How much did you change from this time last year til now?
Not a lot?
23. Do you plan on having a child?
No
24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now?
Probably
25. Major lifestyle changes?
Only ones associated with moving
26. Will you be moving?
Probably, to Canberra
27. What will you make sure doesn�t happen in 07 that happened in 06?
Dunno..
28. What are your New Years Eve plans?
Games with J&G
29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight?
Yup yup :):):)

So. Where to begin. Gosh.

Well, Friday night the boy arrived and we had a lovely dinner of kangaroo steaks and potato bake. The kangaroo was absolutely delicious, restaurant quality :)

Saturday we went to Luc and Cynthia's for a BBQ lunch. Was lovely to catch up with them, as hadn't seen them in ages. Also managed to get a parking spot in the shopping centre in about one minute, instead of the fifteen I allowed :) After lunch we did some Christmas shopping for the kids, and did a blitz walk-through of Ikea - I was looking for a lamp that I saw there last time, but they didn't have them this time, so that was a bit annoying. We had leftovers (kangaroo, sausage and potato) for dinner, and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Sunday we trekked over to see Nana at her favourite restaurant. Meal was ok. And Nana shouted us so that was nice .. but only my parents came so didn't get to see any of the uncles.. oh well. Came home via Bunnings and bought a lamp - a bit more expensive and not quite the same as the Ikea one I'd liked, but it works well and now Stu has a decent reading light at my place :) Sunday night I started getting stressed at everything I still needed to do. I baked another batch of cookies, which Stu was suitably impressed with, and packaged them up for the various clans. Also wrapped the remaining presents while watching Carols by Candlelight.

After the carols finished, we went for a drive, and on the tranquil shores of Botany Bay, under city lights, and Christmas fairy lights from an apartment block above, Stu asked me to marry him and be his partner through life. I made him wait the few seconds til Christmas day to answer yes :) (ok so it wasn't quite the family tradition of proposing on New Year's Eve, but we were impatient :) ). We took some photos and I cried, then we came home and went to bed.

We decided not to go to church in the morning, for the simple reason that we wanted to avoid people making a fuss. That and we'd had a late night and we still hadn't packed, watered plants, fed fish, that sort of nonsense. So we did all that and went directly to the parents' for lunch. Mum of course wasn't fooled. She'd been *looking* for a ring. Flipping heck. Well I suppose at least we didn't have to announce it. But they did make the expected fuss. Gave Luc a call to let him and the entire Coates clan know, so that was an easy tell. Then D&Y turned up and they were suitably excited as well :) Much present opening followed. My biggest surprise was Airwolf season 1!! Which I didn't even know was on dvd yet! Then we had lunch (roast pork yumm), but unfortunately we couldn't hang around (which was disappointing because everyone was in a good mood and it was all very pleasant), as we then had to drive down to Yass. Where Annie had done a *delicious* roast turkey roll. More present opening for more kids, and I finally got Stu to open and play with his present heh. Finished the night with a game of scrabble with Rebecca and Alex, which I flipping won, which like so totally never happens - I hate scrabble! Beating Stu was quite bizarre too.

Which leaves us with today. Decided we needed a quiet day, so slept quite late, snuggled, and eventually got out to go get some food just before lunch time. But because we'd had a late breakfast, we went to Starbucks and played a game of chinese chess on their chess/checker table. It took quite a while, cause I'd never played, and all the symbols confused me for a while. But after a few good suggestions of moves from Stu, I ended up removing all his attacking pieces, so he conceded defeat. Totally unexpected outcome, given that we'd checked each other quite a few times during the game, and I was fully expecting to lose, it being my first game and all. Totally bizarre :) Did our food shopping and came home for a very late lunch of a delicious wrap Stu made. Followed by him painting tin soldiers and me working on my Titanic model. Then a late dinner of kangaroo steaks (same sort we had the other night, and just as delicious) and watched Total Recall.

There we go, all caught up. Phewf. :)
Good night! :)

Day started off ok. Then I got to work and it went downhill. People going through my stuff, taking bits and then losing them really *really* pisses me off.

Otherwise it was generally a slow day. Moved a server across the road. Well the user did really. I supervised :)

Driving along behind this dude this arvo .. dude, you are so not suave.

Sarah is leaving cia :( It was bad enough when Campbell left, now it's going to be even harder to go..

My angel keeps laying eggs.. I wonder if she's hoping they'll hatch without a boy. She gets really agro at me whenever I come near the tank. Very funny.

Council cleanup came and went today. A lot of the stuff I put out got taken beforehand though, so that was cool. I saw a dude walking off with the CRT anti-glare screens last night, so glad they went.

And the Christmas funny of the day:

And finally, there's a cool doco on SBS right now about spam. Taping it so Stu and I can watch it later.

Stolen from Neil

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? mmm egg nog. Only ever had it twice, but I remember it being quite yummy, and somewhat potent :)
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I often just sit presents under the tree for a while because they look more interesting before they're wrapped. Then at some point the inbound ones get put away and the outbound ones get wrapped.
3. Coloured lights or white on tree/house? Coloured. I'm a firm believer in the addage "you can never have too many fairy lights"
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put your decorations up? The fairy lights in my study I often put up early November and they stay up til about February. The tree goes up at the beginning of December, usually the first weekend
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Roast pork with gravy, apple sauce and *crackling*
7. Favourite holiday memory as a child? Favourite? Dunno.. Probably putting up the tree and lights each year
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Don't rememeber
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lots of bright shiny coloured things :)
11. Snow, love it or dread it? I love snow. But then I've never had to live with it. And white Christmases here? I think they had one in Hobart one year .. :)
12. Do you know how to ice skate? Yup, it's fun. Never gone skating on a real lake though
13. Do you remember your favourite gift? Sheesh, hard questions ;) Our bikes one year were pretty cool. And getting my own double tape deck/radio when I was about 16 was cool too.
14. What�s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Being with family I suppose. Christmas is for family, New Years is for friends. I got pretty depressed for several years when I had no friends to celebrate New Years with
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I like baked fruit pies - things like apricot or blueberry danishes and the like
16. What is your favourite holiday tradition? Dunno about favourite, but one I've enjoyed over many years, is watching the Carols by Candlelight on Christmas eve. The most memorable of those was the year I'd been swimming for a week straight with plaited hair and no brushing it in between. We watched the carols for *hours* while my parents painstakingly removed all the knots out of my hair
17. What tops your tree? A 15-fairy light electric star - way cool :)
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Well I'm pretty crap at both. I'm crap at thinking up what to get people, and I'm impossible to buy for too.
19. Favourite Christmas Song? Probably Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Or Angels we have Heard on High (the tune - I don't even know the words!). Or Handel's Hallelujah chorus.
20. Favourite flavour of Candy Canes? Mint. Anything else seems wrong somehow.

So I left it a little late (like 2pm today), but I put up a big notice on three Sydney freecycle groups with a whole *stack* of stuff, and said come by the garage tomorrow and take what you want. Well the South Sydney one posted my thing, although only two responses for it so far. The Central one said "you can't do open garages, you have to allocate specific things to specific people" (like wtf??) so I posted again straight away changing the wording, but they ignored that one; and the East one hasn't posted anything at all. What a bunch of tossers. Council cleanup is on Monday so I wanted to put stuff out that was leftover, but I can't bear to throw out stuff that people might want. So now I'm stuck and pissed off at the whole thing.

Everything I have (and some more not there) is here. Anyone want anything?

For some strange reason I am in rather a good mood. Possibly fuelled by the vodka, but also talking to Stu, catching up with some people, and having fun doing some Christmas shopping for the parents tonight. A fun day of sorting crap tomorrow awaits :)