Trinity Update

Trinity is rolling over!! She had trouble with one arm getting stuck underneath her body, but she has worked that out and can now roll onto her tummy! Rolling back is the next problem, she tends to cry when she is sick of being on her tummy. Sometimes she just lays on her side and pulls peek-a-blocks over to put in her mouth. She is also very good at blowing raspberries, and yesterday did alot of 'talking'. She is doing that now as I am typing. She is getting better at sitting up, still needs support but can move herself. She is sitting on my knee leaning on my arm and my body and looking around. It is very cute when she looks up to look at my face!! She also leans forward away from me, then back, but it worries me and I keep moving to grab her. She is almost 6 months old now...no teeth yet! but everything goes to her mouth. We are keeping pacifiers in the fridge She also loves feeling the texture of different things by making a grabbing motion with her fingers, this includes skin so I have to keep cutting her nails, I have a few little scratches ;)
I guess the last thing is about this heat...Trinity really hates it, she gets grumpy and won't sleep (she hates sleeping anyway, but the hot weather has made this worse) But she loves swimming, she loves the water, and she doesn't complain that it is cold going in (I try to ease her into the water, if she goes in too fast she does complain) Once she is cooled off she often just goes off to sleep much quicker, so at home I give her a coolish bath to help settle her, but it doesn't seem to be the same. Anyway, this is a long post, I will find photos for next time.

Happy Australia Day

I hope you're all enjoying the day off!

Do You Have A Male or Female Brain?

Fiona sent me this site, we were talking about Aspergers and autism...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,937913,00.html

I have a female brain, surprise, surprise...I scored an "average" score of 47 in the empathising test, and a "lower than average" 19 in the systemising test. :P Actually, that surprised me...any way, the article describes the differences between Jared and Carolynn :)

Listal

I've been using this free site, listal, to list my dvds, books, music and games. You can track what you have lent to people, or borrowed from other listal members, or what you want to buy and so forth.

http://www.listal.com

If you join up, add me as a friend. And if you really want to, you can share your list with other people online, eg. http://damienmason.listal.com/ (it's incomplete, I still need to add more books and music)

It's very cool. And free. Did i mention free?

she is one of us...

just in case there was ever any doubt (which there wasn't), here is photographic proof (well, webcam screen shot proof) that Trinity is just like the rest of us.. (poor little tike).. and she's very happy to be part of the fam.

*grin*

Furniture and stuff

yes, you read correctly - i finally have some furniture in my house!! and LOTS of boxes too. yay! now all i have to do is find the time and energy to unpack some of them.. *sigh*

the removal dudes turned up on wednesday morning.. but they were running late because they couldn't find the place, which meant that i was late for some team training that we were running that day.. not happy about that - but at least i've got a couch now.. and a bed (that i've not put up yet..) and bookcases and shelves and a real fridge (rather than a little bar fridge). yay!

i cleaned the fridge out on wednesday afternoon - it was pretty gross.. i think it had been off and in the garage for a while, but i'm not sure. anyway, i've cleaned away the mould, got rid of the traces of food still in the shelving and stuff (i think they just took their food out of it and didn't clean it.. grrrr).. and it's all happy now.

so, my time over the next will be filled with unpacking and cleaning.. of course, because everything was in the garage, it's all filthy - so LOTS of cleaning is needed (and my allergy to dust means headaches for me - but only until i get it all out, sorted and clean!). so - if anyone is bored and would like to open some boxes and dust some shelves, let me know - i still have a spare room that can be slept in (the other one has the boxes in it).. (actually it's stuart's room, but he won't mind unless he's in Canberra..) just let me know when you're going to be here - i'm all over the place (still) for the next few weeks. *grin*

and now i've got to get to work - second day of driver training.. woohoo..
*hugz*

weird weather we're having!

I just thought I would add something new to read...yesterday Anne took Jared to the pool because her boys had swimming lessons, and then I took "the girls" to meet them at 12.20pm. I was going to get a few $ worth of chips, figuring the boys'd be hungry, but the Long Gully fish'n'chip shop was closed!! Anyway, we stayed a couple of hours. I took Trinity into the pool for about 30-40 mins, last night her arms were a bit red, I feel so guilty :( have to get baby sunscreen...I kept her t-shirt, hat and sunnies on her. Then she fell asleep so I sat in the shade with her. Jared, who we'd sunscreened before he left, and Anne sunscreened before we got there, still ended up with a very red face. It's faded today though...we went to nana's, as we do Tuesday's, and she said how they used to use cold tea and vinegar to take the heat out, so I did that last night!! Now today it's raining, Jared is disappointed because Anne was going to take him again today but has probably figured it's too cold outside. (Our house is still warm, I have Trinity in just a nappy!) Her arms have faded too. Oh well, it'll get hot again, and thanks to mum & dad's Christmas present (season's tickets to the pool) I'm sure we will have plenty of swimming ahead. :)

2006 fitness

This morning, I went to a Gym in the city. I haven't been to one before, but Josh came along and was able to tell me how to use the machines so I didn't embarrass myself too badly. This time last year I started my walking, at 20 minutes a day three or four times a week. That's increased over time, however, so now I need to do an hour of walking every day to have the same effect. So I'm hoping if I switch from that to an hour at the gym three times a week, it will be more effective (and take less time). I've got at least another 10 kilos to lose (and about 20 cms) to be within a healthy range, so hopefully this will get me there.

The new year brings great potential, I am a fan of starting big projects like this at the beginning of the year.. you stay motivated long enough to get into routine. So we'll see how I go with it.

Man but i'm going to be sore tomorrow.

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Those pictures from Mum

Reading the Blogger help pages and found that uploading images by email doesn't work as it turns out. So instead, here are the pics:

Will I be 100?

Great to hear from Glenn this morning.
Carolynn's party did go well despite the weather. Who'd have guessed a cold windy Saturday? Jared had his sleepover with Nana and Poppy afterwards, so we made biscuits, played pool, had a spa and watched Godzilla. Sunday morning we went to the market. we were to meet Lisa there but it was too cold to take Trin out so we took Jared home after our shopping.
I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming Today I'll wrap presents then go shopping for whatever else I need.
I did have a lucky experience last week. I went shopping and the prices were all wrong. I'd picked up on a couple but missed heaps. When I checked the docket at home and found how many were wrong(all the specials) I emailed IGA to point out the problem. The acting manager came around, apologised ,refunded $25 (i thought I'd been overcharged $4.50) and gave me a $50 voucher, so I'll be shopping on them this week.
I really did only decide to write this when I saw we were up to 99.
Hope you're having fun in Melbourne Dayna and we're looking forward to seeing you and Damien and Cheryl on Wednesday.Take care all who travel. Love to all

Hello from Glenn

So I don't think I've quite established the work-life balance yet.

These last couple of weeks have been extremely hectic for me, and I've rarely had time to read the Bandwagon let alone contribute to it. It's really good to read what people are doing however -- parties, renovation, Harry Potter and the quantum Dayna Inversion experiment -- and it was also good to video conference with people. (Actually, we've only really seen Dee's brother Chris. You guys will have to get web cameras! It would be nice to see people for Christmas. Lisa, maybe Mum and Dad and Nanna could come over to your place?)

Anyway, work is going well and I'm enjoying it, but as I say there has been very little time for anything else for the last couple of weeks. If it wasn't gongfu, it was Christmas parties! Storytime.

I went to the Microsoft Christmas party last Tuesday. Microsoft. Me. You wouldn't think it would work, that I'd be rambling and ranting about how good Linux is and how bad Microsoft is, but it turned out okay. Well, I say okay, but I really mean I got drunk on Bill Gates tab with a Scotsman, an Indian and an Irish lass and then barely made it into work the next day. Who has a Christmas party on a Tuesday??

(It's all the makings of a joke I think -- an Aussie, a Scot, an Indian and an Irish(wo)man walk into a bar. Anyone know a punchline?)

Luckily for me the Irish lass is our manager -- the Indian started late, the Scotsman really late (i.e. afternoon), and although I was physically there by 9am I wasn't mentally there for much of the day. I will never drink again.

It started because the Scotsman was talking about possibly moving to Australia for a while. I was drinking a lager, which are obviously pretty easy on the way down so I tend to drink it quickly. Something about Aussie heat and the perils of warm beer and all that. So I drank that first drink, and someone commented upon my rate of consumption and foolishly I said, "That's how we drink them in Australia. You better get used to it if you're going to move there."

Ooh I'm a cheeky sod.

The Scotsman could not be outdone of course, and immediately started getting Scotch, neat, for the two of us. Mea culpa! It is strong! I just wanted a few beers, then to slip out quietly, but the whiskey hit me all of a sudden and I was drunker than a French politician in no time. The situation was made worse by the Aussie bartender who, upon hearing who and what the drinks were for, starting pouring from the 12-yro bottle underneath the bar. Evil, I say.

So, although we didn't pay for a drink all night, we all certainly paid for it the next day.

Other than that last dance with intoxication I've been trying to look after myself. Kungfu is going well, and I should make the grading early next year. I've order the outfit (I don't know what you call it, since "gi" is a Japanese word) and I've learned half of the Four Winds form. My stamina for horse-stance probably still needs practise! I may join the gym before the end of the year so I can swim in the pool and use the weights.

We are slowly getting on our feet I think. It's just taking a long time! I can't believe we've been here for nearly 6 months now.

Of course I'm missing you all! :-) Lets get the video conference stuff going!

PS: I can kind of see why Crazy Lady mistook Damien for Harry Potter ...

Me, Harry Potter and some crazy woman at Foodland

I just thought I'd share an amusing story with you all. Cheryl and I were grocery shopping in Foodland just near our house, when I heard a woman say "Hi Harry Potter". I looked up and saw this lady staring back at me smiling.

I figured it was some weird joke I didn't understand. However, when she next crossed our path she said (quietly, without making eye contact) "Now I'm sure it's you. I'm really glad I was able to meet you. My name is [insert crazy lady's name]. Be good" and she was off. And I just thought "huh??".

Finally, she walked past us again and said "Thanks Harry". Again, quietly without eye contact. Maybe she was trying to help me stay incognito.

I don't know what's weirder. That she thought I looked anything like Daniel Radcliffe (who's what, 8 years younger than me? Nine?), or that she thought Daniel Radcliffe, at Kangaroo Island shooting a film, would be grocery shopping in Foodland Frewville. Maybe she thought Cheryl was Cho Chang :)

Still, while I have the amusing story to tell about the crazy woman, she gets to go home and talk about how she saw Harry Potter at the supermarket!

Just in case you think I do kinda look like him, here's a photo for comparison.

photos...

hopefully this gives you an idea of the kids costumes, and the weather...Monique always wears shorts, you can see her in the blue jacket in the photo above. and Carolynn is wearing a jacket over the nice dress she has on.