Had another lazy morning, slept in for a bit and had another lovely breakfast at Ascot Provisions.

Then trekked south to a different fish shop, and got some rarish corys and some other bits and pieces. Came home and settled them in. They're so *little* compared to mine :) Then had a bit of a siesta, and then it was getting dark. Watched a rather impressive lightning show from the lounge room, had a thoroughly delicious Al Funghi from Pizza Capers, and watched the lights change green *five* times - a very rare event, and certainly a record for one night! Stu declared it a sign of the apocalypse.

Blogged most of this from the airport - which was shut down for an hour due to an electrical storm :( On the plane now, but no guarantee we'll take off - might depend if they can get a dispensation for landing in Sydney after the curfew.

All in all though it was a fantastic weekend, very glad I decided at the last minute to come!

So we had the third birthday party for my brother today. This time a surprise party with mostly train type people (and the family). Even though Dave apparently saw the early formulations of the Dave30 mailing list, he claimed it was still a surprise. Which was pretty cool :)

7kg of meat between 12 people later and I was feeling rather full on a lunch of steak, sausage, pork rissole, chicken breast (marinated) and two slices of pineapple. After all that I didn't quite feel up to eating any salad :) Forced myself to eat a handful of peas and corn tonight just so that I don't wake up at 5am starving.

Also this morning I downloaded 500 photos off three memory cards taken in the past two weeks. Over 400 at the wedding yesterday alone! I really am a sad case.

Friday and Saturday night's drinking meant I've had two rather crappy nights sleep. That and a very social weekend being out for most of it. I was feeling a bit grumpy and down most of the afternoon, thinking perhaps from lack of good sleep. Feeling a bit better after some quiet time at the computer, but about to go to bed and have an early night.

This was in my TopStuff blog, but I'm nuking it, so moving it here.

Just a few of my favourite things :)
This was compiled from stacks of online quizzes, and then sorted into some sort of category order.

Watched The NeverEnding Story with George tonight. Haven't seen it something like 18 years. Realised how much of it I'd forgotten - probably because it's somewhat of a forgettable film in a lot of ways. Which is a bit strange because I seem to recall fond memories of it heh.

Haven't heard the theme song in probably that long too, although there is part of the sound track that I have as a trance track somewhere, although finding it would be a bit difficult :) Might make it a project for the long weekend :)

Had a really good day at work today. Got lots done, and solved a few problems that had been nagging us for a while. Even solved a crazy javascript problem by changing "value" to "text" .. go figure! Jim did a demo to the powers that be in the faculty office and didn't get any complaints, so it's getting there.

Then hung around for a bit and finished off my flight from DC to LA in 2000 on Google Earth, finding every one of my photos, even one I'd given up on during the last effort - a freeway interchange somewhere in Pennsylvania I think. The only photo I haven't placed is somewhere over Colorado or Nebraska, and as you can see, the whole point of the photo is to show what a whole lotta nuttin is in the middle of the country.

Got home late and didn't do much. Still haven't cleaned up the kitchen from cooking on the weekend. Maybe I'll do it tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

So Jim and John went skiing last weekend. They didn't tell me this before they went. They just all went. Forgetting any sort of practical issues with the situation, they still *went without me*.

So this morning Jim says to me "do you want to see some pictures?", to which I said "will I get jealous?" and complained that they keep going off without me. To which he said "oh as your employer I have to distance myself". Yah. Right. I wonder if it'd be any different if I weren't a girl.

So now I'm debating whether I want to keep lunching with them. It's not like I'll *ever* be counted as a "friend". I could start taking my own lunch in and save some money. And chat to Stu if he's at his desk. I dunno. What do people think?

Gosh this weekend has felt quite long. And not even 48 hours have passed.

Friday night was a CIA outing to Courtney's in Parramatta. Food was delicious and the service was excellent (we basically had the place to ourselves). Had quail and snapper and rich chocolate and wine and really ate far far far too much. It was a good night out, but trains really really suck at 11 at night, and it took two full hours to get home. Yay.

Saturday in between getting $100 cash back over three years from Energy Australia and having a powered smoke detector installed, I spent several hours chatting with Stu, which was fantabulous.

Went to the parents for a lamb roast on Saturday night. They of course started asking me about Stu, which was inevitable. My mum did say that even though they didn't get to know him very well last weekend, they trusted my judgement, which I thought was kinda nice. They also asked again *how* I used the internet to meet him, which I basically just didn't answer.. heh. I'd still rather they didn't read this. I guess one day they will find it and that'll be the end of that. Mum said she read one of my webpages .. I'm guessing it's my cia one, which I gave the address for at dinner last week, which doesn't have a link here. I didn't ask her *which* page she read, I didn't want to give her the idea there's more than one, so there's actually the slim chance she's already found this.

Plans for visiting Dave & Yvonne today fell through completely, so I thought I'd have a chance to talk to Stu some more, but he was planning to have Aurelius over, oh well. So thought I'd work on Project Declutter. Well was putting washing away and sun was streaming into my bedroom and it was all I could do to not just collapse into bed and have a siesta. Maybe I still will for a little bit...

I have too much stuff. Just clutter. Stuff that means nothing to nobody except me. I have boxes and boxes full of old uni and school notes. Books, although a small collection, but many from my childhood that I'm never likely to read again. Collections of train tickets, tickets to shows, show programs, toys I've had since I was a kid, and stacks of stuff that I simply never use, but can't bear to throw away. I've had a couple of goes since I've moved here to clean out stuff, and have achieved some success. But I still think I have a long way to go. And the other issue now is that I'm almost certainly going to be moving within the next couple of years, and it'd be nice to be free of all the clutter before I go. Stu did this a while back, and it's inspired me somewhat to do the same. Although I'm not sure I'm ready to let go yet.

I had a thought a while back that I could start scrapbooking a lot of bits and pieces, and write why a particular item was important to me. And use the funky collection of coloured pens I have for some noble purpose. I still haven't decided if I'll do this.

The other thing I'll probably do is take photos of some of the things I have that serve no purpose at all other than memories. I figure if I have a photo of the object, then that'll do me for the memory, and I can get rid of the actual object.

Of course I also can't bear to throw anything out that could be of some use to people, so will probably try and sell what I can on ebay, and donate the rest to charity or whoever else wants it.

So this will be my major project for the next couple of years I think. Just need to be able to break it down into weekend-sized chunks....

Work. Meh.
Not helped by being quite depressed about sending my boy home last night.

Tonight while Stu was playing removalist for Aurelius, I kept myself busy catching up on blogs, doing the weekend's washing up, and giggling over entries on this funny page Yvonne sent me. The label in French on the laptop bag is pretty funny. This self-referential story is kinda cool, and I giggled all the way through this experiment with USPS.

And the damned llama song has been in my head all weekend. Damned flipping!! arghh!!

Here's a llama, there's a llama,
And another little llama.
Fuzzy llama, funny llama,
Llama llama DUCK!

Llama llama, cheesecake llama,
Tablet brick, potato llama,
Llama llama, mushroom llama,
Llama llama DUCK!

I was once a treehouse, I lived in a cake,
But I never saw the way the orange slayed the rake.
I was only three years dead, but it told a tale,
And now listen, little child, to the safety rail.

Did you ever see a llama,
Kiss a llama on the llama?
Llama's llama tastes of llama,
Llama llama DUCK!

Half a llama, twice a llama,
Not a llama, farmer, llama,
Llama in a car, alarm a
Llama, Llama DUCK!

Is that how it's told now, Is it all so old?
Is it made of lemon juice? Doorknob ankle cold.
Now my song is getting thin, I've run out of luck.
Time for me to retire now, and become a DUCK!

Another lovely day today. Took Stu to church with me, and as predicted, the first thing people asked was "where do you live" and "what do you do". Honestly, can't people think of more original questions than that?? Oh sure they're just being friendly and all that (even if a little in your face as in the case of Mike), but it gets old really quickly.

Came home and had some lunch and a generally relaxing afternoon, before wandering out to a luggage store to look for backpacks, and then I took Stu to work to show him my office and our servers. Wandered back home again and just hung out some more while I did a small lamb roast (which turned out quite well for a first time effort).

And then it was time to take Stu to the airport. Feeling quite flat now. My house feels quite empty without him :( Dreading the thought of going back to work tomorrow. Don't have the energy or inclination to clean up after dinner, the cockroaches can have a feast if they want :/

<puts the llama song on while getting ready for bed> (had that damned song in my head all weekend.. thanks arian .. not .. ;P )