Putting pen to paper

Although you'd never know it, I actually write blog posts in my head daily. However, it seems that they rarely get beyond my mind and actually posted onto my blog. Sometimes that gets me down. I think that I'd love to post more frequently but it seems I don't often have everything in one place - the camera might be elsewhere, the picture might not have been taken, the camera cable misplaced, the big boy wanting to watch Thomas on the laptop, the dinner not made....things just get in the way sometimes. So I got to thinking today that if I just didn't worry so much about posting images, more posts might actually make it to the blog.
But a picture says 1000 words and posts without pics aren't always that interesting or inspiring. I love looking at other people's beautiful blogs. But I figure that I'd rather have a post up, a thought out of my head and actually documented than not. So you know what? This is my blog and I can do whatever I please with it.
So I'm going to.

Pretty rainbow

I meant to post this pic ages ago. Discovered it again when I was downloading the memory card. On this day, there were three rainbows above our house - this was the clearest one.
I love rainbows.

Little baby elephant

Today I took the boys to the zoo to see the baby elephant. I was thinking that it would be quiet - mid-week and all. WRONG. To quote my dad: every man and his dog was there trying to get a glimpse. We lined up for half an hour and surprisingly #1 was on his best behaviour (probably due to a full lunchbox being trust in his lap) and #2 slept (bless him).
Anyhoo, the queue moved. We made friends with the random people behind us in the queue. I trusted them to hold our spot and look after all my worldly possessions while I took #1 out of the queue for a few minutes to stem his boredom.
The baby was worth the wait. She was super playful and the big elephants (mum and, I'm guessing, one of the aunty elephants) were very active too. They kept making big noises and the baby climbed a dirt pile much to the glee of #1. She also splashed around in the water. #1 was a little disappointed that she didn't fill her trunk with water and spray us though.
Can't win 'em all huh?

My buttons are being pushed

By a whining two year old who won't go to sleep.

My computer buttons however, are not being pushed due to the laptop screen being broken. (Again, some of the credit goes to the two year old).

Hence the blogging break.

Update on crappo project

The good news is that the stupid window shade did eventually get finished. I threw a bit of a tanty (blaming it on the pregnancy hormones - not the bad measuring) so engineer husband stepped in and saved the day.
The second piece of good news is that the shade blocks out all that 5am sun. So no more waking up to sun in the eyes.
Later this week I'll show you a really good craft project.

MIA

Camera is still missing....for once I have lots of crafty things that need photographing.
Will hunt for camera tonight.

All gone to buggery

Lack of blogging over the last little while can be attributed to:
1. missing camera
2. the craft project that took me to hell and back (pics will be shown once said camera decides to turn up)
3. parents visiting
4. laptop charger broken
5. child going through a ridiculously long patch of nights where he was awake for hours on end

The good news is that once I find that damn camera, I'll be able to post some pics of a crafty project that is coming together nicely!

Till then, ciao bella.

Note this

What else is there to do on Melbourne's hottest day? Clean up and organise the house. This is a never ending battle. I love to be organised and love to have a place for things and things in their place. However, this trait does not always rear its head. But today I am trapped inside. It's 45 degrees (and climbing) outside.
I unpacked several boxes that had been gathering dust and what did I find. Notebook after notebook. I found about 8 in total, most of them were unused.
I need to write more notes!

My 101st post!

Even though I'm a slack blogger, I seem to have notched up 101 posts! To celebrate, here is 25 random things that I'm sure you are dying to know about me.

1. I love these kind of taggy things where you write stuff about yourself and read stuff about others
2. As hideous as it sounds, I really want a pair of yellow shorts
3. I love that Herb knows how to flash a fake smile
4. I have texture issues with wobbly food
5. It shits me that magazines like HOUSES never profile Art Deco homes
6. At parties I like to drink sparkling apple cider in a glass so other people think it's beer and lay off me for not 'having a beer'
7. I cannot stand Times New Roman and if I recieve a document in said font, I promptly change it before I begin to read
8. I miss my Nokia 3310
9. I think I love Duplo more than my son does
10. When I see a train or hear the boom gate bells, I think I get more excited than Herb does
11. I LOVE the name Herb
12. I wish my sis and Ade's would uproot and move to sunny Melbs. Hint Chinks.
13. I call my sister Chinks. And it is not racist ok?
14. My youngest Facebook friend is 20 months. Hi Lucas you tech wizard you!!
15. My New Year's resolution is to learn to knit
16. I love the city and all it's tiny lane ways
17. If I had the cash, I'd buy me a brownstone on the Upper West Side in NYC and live there for 6 months of the year
18. If I had the cash, I'd give heaps to my mum so she could go to Ireland
19. I don't get physics. At all.
20. I like to say thankyou to the driver when I get off the tram
21. I like the word Yikes
22. The Mr and I challenged each other to use the phrase 'And the rest!' as many times as we could in one day. It is surprising how you can work this phrase into conversation. Often.
23. I think that nice people get cancer. And that sux.
24. I miss shows like Charles in Charge. I love that you can get TV shows on DVD now.
25. I think ordinary people are sooo much more interesting than celebs.

So, to all you readers out there (there must be millions of you!) consider yourself tagged.

New beginnings

Clearly February 1 2009 is a fabulous time to finally put into place those pesky resolutions that were floating around one's head in late December/early Jan.
Committing the resolutions to the blog is like going on the public record - practically forcing me to keep them. So here goes:

• learn to knit - and actually knit something
• learn to Granny Square and make a little blanket
• figure out how to take good photos on my camera so my blog pics look all profesh
• think about doing some community education
• get a bit more motivation in the kitchen
• make our garden a lovely place to be
• make gravlax
• swim, swim, swim with the Mr and the little bloke
• ride to work. Often.

Nothing earth shattering there - but it's the little things that make a difference isn't it?

Kick up the pants

My friend Lou has kindly bestowed a blog award on me. It is very kind and I'm thinking of it less as a 'blog award' and more of a 'keep on trying' award. I can't think of the right words - you know when you are at school and you run in the athletics carnival and come dead last with a very embarrasing time (in my case, being lapped on the 1.6km run - still have very vivid memories of that day) and they give you an award which basically means 'you really sucked but at least you tried'. Well maybe that is like this blog award. A bit of motivation from Lou. I was telling her how I wanted to pretty up my blog, make a New Year's resolution to do more craft and post more regularly, master widgets, take better photos etc. So I think she's given me the required kick up the pants now!

So people - expect more from me ok?!

A bit uninspired

You may have noticed the lack of posts...
No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth - just uninspired.
Hopefully inspiration hits soon.

What to do?

I'm in a bind. The little man is asleep (after a small 'raw fettucine poke in the eye' incident) and now I'm trying to decide what to do. I am VERY torn between:
1) sleeping
2) crafting
and I know that I must wash my hair which means that if I choose option 1, then I need to do hair washing after sleeping - otherwise wet pillow issues will arise.
If I choose option 2, then washing my hair can be done whenever. But I know that if I choose crafting then later today I'll be thinking Gee, I'm tired, why didn't I have a sleep this morning? And if I choose option 1 then, quite frankly, no craft will get done.
Dilemmas.

One word meme

I was crusin' the suburbs and found this on Curly Pops' blog, and Pip's and some other crafty gals. I will share a secret with you...I love these question/answery things. But keeping to one word answers will be a struggle. Here goes.

1. Where is your cell phone? Bench??
2. Your significant other? Tour de France
3. Your hair? Brownish
4. Your daughter? Hopefully!
5. Your son? Snoozing
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your favorite drink? Tea
9. Your goal? Happiness
10. The room you’re in? Lounge
11. Your church? Nope
12. Your fear? Birds
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you’re not? Sad
16. Muffins? Cupcakes
17. One of your wish list items? NYC
18. Where you grew up? Albury
19. The last thing you did? Chocolate
20. What are you wearing? Jumpie
21. Your TV? On
22. Your pets? Nope
23. Your computer? Essential
24. Your life? Rosy
25. Your mood? Contented
26. Missing someone? Sis
27. Your car? Driveway
28. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite store? Books
30. Your summer? Camping
31. Like(love) someone? Yesssss
32. Your favorite color? Yellow
33. Last time you laughed? Tonight
34. Last time you cried? Tonight
35. Who will repost this? ??

The votes are counted, it's official: the Mr is one good looking man.

The Mr returned from o/s about 2 weeks ago - so naturally today was the day that we both decided that his bag full of washing really did need to be emptied and laundered. Cleaning out all the bags and associated bits and bobs uncovered this little gem:
Obviously in their haste to crack onto the Mr, the 'lovely F/A's' had a mind blank when it came to spelling passenger.

Ants...a reflection

So the ants are back. They are stubborn little buggers and they are SMART. Speaking of smart things, I love smarties - love them more than M&M's (except the white M&M's) and often indulge in a little smartie goodness once the little tacker is in bed. The other night I thought I'd reached the end of the packet and stupidly left it on the coffee table - next morning ANT PARTY. They had demolished the shell of the 2 remaining smarties. Clever and good taste hey?
I went on a killing spree last night with my friend Mortein. I sprayed the sink and got about 100 casualties. And it made me a little sad. I kept thing of Z, the cute little worker ant in Antz and how he was a pretty good guy and that humans did terrible things like stepped on ants, dropped water on them etc. I'm not sure I can remember Mortein featuring in the movie but damn that stuff is powerful. It literally kills them in their tracks.

And then I started thinking like an ant....I thought devious thoughts. I decided not to wipe up the dead ants because I think that if I were an ant marching along and saw 100 dead friends, I would think 'STOP. THIS IS ENEMY TERRITORY.' and I'd go back to my safe little nest, tell my alive friends and we'd all make a decision to uproot our camp and move to Switzerland.
So I'm in a bind - kill them and rid the house of them OR try to beat them with mind games OR let them do their thing and wait till they naturally get sick of our place and move on?
Who knew ants were so complex? Or do I have too much time on my hands?

Image from lookingcloser.org

Cat

A one line drawing of Cat. The Mr did it. Isn't it sweet?

Grand designs. Grand show.

I love Grand Designs. Kevin is SUCH a good host, he is so gracious and kind. I love that he has such an open mind and is encouraging yet challenging with his ideas.
And boy did I love that episode with the crazy house in the middle of nowhere that had 2 pools and the most bizarre mis-match of styles. I didn't love the house, I didn't love the couple but I did love how unimpressed Kevin was. It's the first time I've seen that side of you Kev!

Damn you Times New Roman

One thing I really don't like is Times New Roman. I think that Excel has the right idea - it defaults to Arial. But what is going on with Word??

This is...what scrambles my brain when I try to understand it

This weeks theme is from Flightless Boyds and I must say, there isn't just one thing that scrambles my brain when I try to understand it. I've limted this post to two brain scrambly things...
1. Physics
The Perimeter Institute for Physics. Isn't the building cool? (Image from www.egodesign.ca)


Physics is something that I think is kinda cool but I just do not understand it. It makes my brain ache. I tried my hand at physics in Year 11 and in the first class was told that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The example given was: 'See this glass on the table? It is putting force onto the table and the table is putting equal and opposite force onto the glass.' I DO NOT GET THIS! The table is a lot bigger than the glass so shouldn't it be throwing up lots more force? So shouldn't the glass shoot off the table? And why does the table need to throw force upward anyway? Can't it just let the glass sit on there without throwing up any force? I grappled with this theory for a while and then made the decision that physics was not for me. I went and changed my subjects. Ditch physics and enrol in drama.
I can see that the area of physics is interesting. I really love maths. I think maths is super clever and interesting and I know that physics and maths are practically best friends, so I don't know why I have trouble with physics. The Mr has tried time and again to explain different aspects to me. I can follow it for a while but then the brain goes scrambly and it is no use trying.

2. The Tour de France

Cadell Evans celebrating in 2007. (Image from www.theage.com.au)

I love the Tour. It is on at the moment and it is great to watch. All that lovely french countryside, that commentator who makes every meter of the Tour exciting. The bit with Gabriel Gate at the start of SBS's coverage making something delicious from each region of France. It is all great. So what makes my brain scrambly? The rules. I don't get the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the teams, the strategy, the pelaton.

Like physics, I know that this is all interesting. I know that if I understood it, I'd find the strategy really, really interesting. But right now, it is a mystery to me.

I think if you are fit enough to be able to bike ride a billion k's around France, why would you not want to win? Or at least try your hardest? The Mr has explained a bit of the Tour to me and I'm sure he said that they race in teams but some riders have the job of being the sacrifical lamb. Basically they are willing to sacrifice themselves and their spot in the race for the best rider in their team. On one hand I think that is very admirable - one of the few sporting events that seems to have such and element. But then I think of the dark horse. Who chooses the 'best person' in the team? What if another member of the team was having a great race and would have gone really well but instead they put themselves on the line for their 'best chance'? People put years of effort into training for this race, only to be a mere wing man.

But I suppose that the real achievement of the Tour is actually finishing the race.

Ok. While I've been typing away here, I've made up my mind that tonight I am going to sit down with the Mr and ask him to explain the tactics of the Tour. I will try my hardest to use my grey matter and understand all the confusion.

Then maybe tomorrow we'll tackle physics.