Like spending two evenings in a row with your parents and managing not to kill either of them.

Or finding the season finale of ER on a video tape that you didn't realise you had, so not missing it after all.

Or that The Mole has started up again!

Little things like this are the sorts of things that easily amuse me.

Which is good, because my flat looks like a bomb has hit it because I've been out for most of the weekend.

Trekked out to Strictly Aquariums today to get another light for the big fish tank. They didn't have the "purple" lights to fit my tank, but they had some "marine blue" ones. It'll be interesting to see how the plants grow under this light. The display tanks they have at the aquarium have fluorescent objects in the tanks because they fluoresce really nicely. I'll have to see if I can find anything around here to put in the tank.

After that I went out and had a look at the house my friends are interested in buying. It's a pretty cool house, with a stack of living space. It also turned out to be a bit of a family gathering, as many of their family also came out to inspect it.

Now I'm off to do family stuff. So much for getting any programming done this weekend :)

Just as much as Friday nights rock, Sunday nights suck. There's that awful feeling I get when the sun goes down that the weekend is nearly over and I haven't gotten as much done as I should have.

I used to get that feeling a lot more badly when I was still at school/uni because usually it meant I hadn't done enough homework/study/assignments, and it was going to bite me hard the next day.

It's not so bad anymore, but there's still the power of association. Not to mention being alone which is never helpful either.

Countdown begins tomorrow.

1. Lemonade or Ice Cold Beer? Shrug, either
2. Swimming pool or beach? Pool - you don't get sand in your cossies that way
3. Long weekends here & there, or a 2-week vacation? 2 week holiday
4. Destination: Acapulco or Hawaii? Never been to Acapulco .. Hawaii was average. Waikiki was covered in broken coral and Sunset Beach has a concrete base
5. Destination: Mountains or Beach? Probably mountains
6. Hotel/motel/B&B or camping? Motel - I like clean and a soft bed, but also as cheap as possible
7. Carefully planned vacation, or play it by ear? I like trying to cram as much as I can into a holiday to get my value out of it
8. Sneakers or sandals? Sneakers
9. Air-conditioning or fans? Air con is good, although I don't have it in the flat, just in the car
10. Concerts in the park or baseball games? Who outside the US goes to baseball games in summer anyway?

2:24am. Whoops. I'm going to be tired at work tomorrow! er, today ;)
Was it worth it? <sheepish grin> yeah :)

That is one damned long book to read in a weekend, especially considering what a slow reader I am. It took a while to really get going (although some good scenes near the beginning) and there were a few scenes that really just added length but not a lot of meaning to the story. But the imagery was fantastic and the story impressive. You wouldn't want to read this without having read the others first, most of the things that happen (from the major themes to trivial things such as the Marauder's map) would be meaningless otherwise. I remember in the second one she went to the trouble of reexplaining things like Quidditch, but this one had no such filler. The ending doesn't leave you hanging nearly so much as the Goblet of Fire did, which is good, as I only had a six month wait until this one, it'll be a good couple of years before book 6 comes out :)

I'm aching all over though - neck from hanging over the book, and arms from propping myself up, as I took alternate positions. The things we do, hey?

Well anyways, I'm off to bed, night :)

..til the next Harry Potter book goes on sale. I haven't decided if I'll buy it yet or not. I'm dying to read the story, but I was wanting to wait til the 7th book comes out so I can get the whole set together.

Plus it'll be a Saturday which would mean confronting shopping centres which is never a good thing on a weekend at the best of times. I wonder how popular it will be on its first day. I suspect that this one will sell even quicker than previous ones because of the two movies that have been released since the last book was released, and I'm sure more people have taken up an interest in the books since (I know I did).

Went rollerblading today. Went for forty minutes straight. It felt so slooow though - we used to hoon around the park in like 15 min flat, but it took 40 min to do two laps :( At least I didn't get passed by any other rollerbladers, not that there were too many around, but I did pass a couple of others, so that was good :) Have decided I need to get fit, and this is the only exercise I've ever been able to bring myself to do. Plus I was inspired after ice skating the other night to get back into practice :)

I wish I had *normal* parents. Instead I have these strange people that apparently I'm related to.

I was meant to meet them for dinner tonight at a local club to celebrate my mother's birthday tomorrow. We were meant to meet at 6. So I turn up at three minutes past six, and wait. And wait. And wait. Half past six comes round and I get this phone call from a mystery mobile. It's my mother. They've been at the club waiting since quarter past five. So she comes down and I sign into the club. But as it turns out, they've not only been there for well over an hour, but they've also started their meal. This was too much for me. Who in their right mind starts a meal at a restaurant without all the guests, when they know they're coming? And then, rather than coming with me to order my meal, she just says "go get your meal, we're on table 42". OK well this was the last straw. I may have been talked into staying until then, but as it was, I felt like I'd been abandoned, and I certainly didn't want to share a meal with these people, I was too upset.

See, now any *normal* person would have called to let me know they'd arrived early at the club (I wasn't far away, I could have been there shortly afterwards). Any *normal* person would have come to meet me at the agreed time in the only place we've ever met before. Any *normal* person would have waited for their guests to arrive before going and ordering their meal.

I am so pissed off >:( Two hours of my life wasted. What a suck way to end the weekend. And a pity because generally the rest of it was great. Even saw me little brother's new house down the 'Gong.

24 (series 2) only has four hours to go and it keeps getting better. It was all rather silly up until the bomb went off, but since then it's gotten really good.

Apparently there is an Amazing Race series 4.. I wonder if we'll get that also.

The funniest thing of my weekend was this website: http://www.zug.com. It had me ROTFL. The office and computer pranks were the funniest, but some of the others were fantastic also.

Also got to catch up with my uncle who lives in Melbourne which was good. Haven't seen him in ages.

Well we certainly haven't had an autumn, and winter is only vaguely starting to look like it might happen.

I've worn my jumper about half a dozen times this year - it seriously hasn't been that cold. And so far this winter I've worn my jumper about once. It's been so warm in Sydney during the day that I simply haven't needed it. How weird is that for the first week of winter? I'm still wearing summer pyjamas to bed and still have summer sheets on (although I'm going to put the flanalette sheets on this weekend).

Last year was a similar story - I wore my jumper for the first time literally a week before winter. Another year without an autumn. All very silly really!

There's been some pretty big storms further south though, violent windstorms making rather a mess of things :(

I finally got around to seeing the Matrix Reloaded today. Not too bad. Had heard a couple of "it was a bit disappointing" reviews, so didn't expect too much from it. Had to see it alone, as I had a single Greater Union voucher which needed to be used before 5pm today, and I didn't have any other movies left that I wanted to see. Another day, another stoopid shopping centre parking setup.

Spent most of the day at my nana's house. She's moved into a hostel and the contents of her house are up for grabs to all the kids and grandkids. Got a bunch of tupperware and some food. Among the goodies are some icing sugar (unopened) with a use by date of November 97, and some golden syrup (also unopened) with a use by date of April 94. :)

It's pretty scary just how much stuff is there (and how much history). I have to remind myself to not get old, or at least clear out clutter every so often so whoever has to clean out my house when I die doesn't end up just throwing everything out.