On Top of the World

I kept hanging out and hanging out for BlogSpeak to get their comments sorted with HaloScan, but since HS still don’t have instructions on how to transfer the comments across, I figured that since I’ll probably have to register with HaloScan before I transfer comments anyway, I may as well do that now, and hopefully everything else will sort itself out when the instructions are up.

We had some friends over for a bbq last night - the first time we’ve had people round for dinner since we moved in. It went well - we got to show off our new bbq, and drank plenty of red wine And we had leftovers for lunch today. Yumbly. The bummer was, we bought some soft drink yesterday, and I put it in the freezer so it would be cold when they arrived, but we didn’t drink any, and I only remembered it was still in there when I got some bread out this morning And I had a huuuuuge craving for Fanta at lunch time. So Matthew microwaved it, and all was well

The Tour Down Under starts on Tuesday - cool man!

Hopefully I’ll have comments back up soon. I thought of going to HaloScan, just so there’d be something there, but I didn’t like the idea of losing all my comments. But then I found out that BlogSpeak is being acquired by HaloScan anyway, and all comments will be left intact, so I’ll wait until then. Hopefully that won’t be too long.

I was having more trouble with my blogsnob ad, so I’ve taken it off for the time being. My page was taking ages to load, but whenever I commented out that script, everything was fine. I don’t know why that happened. Maybe I only notice because I’ve got a crappy dialup connection, and all you cool people with cable or ADSL connections didn’t notice anything. But it was annoying me, so off with its head!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have no idea about the latest fashion trends. I don’t follow (or generally understand) them, I don’t know what’s ‘in’ or ‘cool’ (or ‘hot’ as the word seems to be now), and I certainly don’t rush out to buy whatever people are saying is the season’s latest must-have. One fashion trend I certainly don’t understand is guys who wear their pants (trousers, shorts etc) so low that you can see their underwear sticking out the top. I’m a member of the old school who thinks that underwear should be exactly that. But to each their own; I don’t have a problem with people wearing whatever makes them happy.

However, surely trends can be taken to extremes? When I was waiting at the bus stop today, there was a guy using the ATM nearby. He must have thought that the low-slung-pants trend was the greatest thing ever, because his pants were slung halfway down his butt. And he wasn’t wearing boxers, he was just wearing ordinary jocks (thank god it wasn’t a G-string). So when he walked off after getting his cash, I was presented with the view of the whole front-of-the-leg portion of his jocks showing above his pants, so that I could see the skin on the top of his thigh. Surely that’s a bit too much? Why even wear the pants at all? Were his legs cold? *sighs and shakes head* Maybe I’m becoming an old prudy fuddy duddy grandma before my time.

I’ve had an awesome day today!

Matthew woke me up with a happy birthday hug, and seemed very enthusiastic to give me my presents. First up was a bottle of fuel injector fluid (very practical), then some cool seat covers for my car, and finally… a 17” LCD flat panel monitor Needless to say, about 2 minutes after we opened the box, we had headed upstairs and plugged the baby in. It’s brilliant, especially after my crappy 13.5” monitor that I’ve been peering into since I first bought my computer almost 7 years ago. Hooray!

Then we decided to put the seat covers in my car, only to find that they weren’t quite right, because the driver’s seat has a lumbar support lever on the side, which wasn’t accounted for in the design of the covers, and also the seat is a more contoured shape than the covers allowed for Big bummer, since they would have looked really cool. So we decided that we’d go back to the shop later, and get something else.

Then we had to get ready for lunch, which was at Chianti Classico. We went there for my birthday last year, and it was really good. This year was excellent too - Tuscan style tomato and bread soup, followed by chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto with slow roasted tomatoes :d Yummy. We were both too stuffed after our main courses to attempt dessert, even though they all sounded scrummy. So we settled for a hot chocolate/coffee.

After lunch we headed to the shop to exchange the car seat covers. I wasn’t sure what I wanted instead - Matthew said he’d looked at some hub caps, and also the gear stick knobs. I was looking at the knobs (I’ve been wanting one for ages, but have never got around to getting one), and saw one which had blue flashing LEDs in it - there’s a button in the middle that you press, and there are 3 light combinations. I thought it looked pretty cool, but maybe it was a bit over the top and not reeeally necessary… but then I saw on the side of the box: ‘enhances car interior at night’, and I imagined driving around at night and people looking over and seeing my gear stick knob flashing, and I thought ‘coooool’ (in Bart Simpson fashion) Matthew saying how gadgety it was sealed it I almost got some hub caps, but they weren’t quite the design I was after.

So then we headed to my parents’ house, where I got more cool presents, and had birthday cake and tried to eat afternoon tea even though we were still stuffed from lunch. And we watched tennis and cricket and had a good time.

Then it was home time, and so we loaded up the car with my cool birthday loot, and drove off. After I’d unpacked everything and done the dishes, we went out to my car put the gear shift knob on. I can’t wait to go driving at night! I’ll have to go out to the car tonight, even if I don’t drive anywhere, and just look at it for a while to decide which flashing configuration I like best

So in a few minutes I’m going for a walk with Matthew, and from tomorrow it’ll be back to life as normal for another year… but this was the coolest birthday ever!

I had a busy second half of the week. Pat Rafter’s match had been rescheduled for Thursday, but we went to the tennis on Wednesday night anyway. It was damn cold. We stayed for a set and a bit of the singles, then when it started raining really heavily, went home. We were just too freezing to wait out the rain and watch the rest of the game. But what we did see was good.

The weather on Thursday night was much better, and we were prepared this time! We took a thermos of mocha, and each took jackets, and we were further up the stand, so were a bit more sheltered from the wind than the night before, when we were in the front row. The singles was good, but obviously everyone was there to see the doubles, with Rafter being greeted with huge cheers and whistles when he came out. It was a good match, and disappointing that Rafter and Eagle lost.

And last night I caught up with some old school friends for dinner. We went to The Store on Melbourne St, which I hadn’t been to before. I had a brilliant Store Salad. It was fantastic! Normally I don’t like buying salads when I go out, because usually it’s 95% lettuce for around 12 bucks. But I wasn’t particularly hungry, so I thought a salad would be good. And it was! Plenty of stuff besides the lettuce. So I was very satisfied with it!

Matthew’s out doing birthday-related stuff for me He bought my present yesterday, so I don’t know what he’s doing today. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

I’m feeling sooo tired. It wasn’t a particularly long day at work, but we didn’t get home until after 9:00. After work we went to see Matthew’s father, and then his sister, and on the way back, dropped past my parents’ place. My dad is working at the AAPT Championships, and got us tickets to see Pat Rafter play tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to it! Hopefully it won’t rain, or be too cold. I’ll have to remember to take some warm stuff with me to work tomorrow.

I am totally addicted to Yahdice at the moment. It’s a version of Yahtzee that I downloaded for my Palm. I’d never played Yahtzee before, but the Palm version got good reviews, and so I thought I’d give it a go. After a few really shocking games where I was learning the rules, I now love it. I can’t stop playing! I’m now looking for more games

Like many people, today was my first day back at work. It was a bit hard to get into the swing of things. We had some extensions done on the office, and so pretty much everyone was in a different spot than they were at Christmas. So it was a bit like the first day back at school, where you look at the desks to see where your name is. Remember doing that? Ugh. So once I’d found my spot, it was time go get stuck into it. I can’t believe it’s the start of another year. I may as well not have been on holidays!

I got lots of chocolate for Christmas. Among the selection was a box of Roses, which I love. I was doing really well, just having a couple per day, and then putting the box back in the fridge. But today I made the monumental mistake of taking the box upstairs with me to the computer. At which time I proceeded to eat the rest of the box. I feel so sick now And the only reason I did it was so I could get to the orange creams at the end. I just cannot be within close proximity of chocolate (whether it be a block, or a box), and eat a respectable amount, like one row, or three pieces. You’d think that a trip to hospital after eating too much chocolate would have taught me a lesson, but alas no

And, no, I couldn’t just have the orange creams first, and then put the box back - that is just wrong. Orange creams are my absolute favourite chocolate (especially in dark chocolate… *homer drool*), so they just have to be left until last, hence being obliged to eat the rest first Yes, this sounds crazy, but it all comes from my weird chocolate-eating habits (and there are many) developed as a child, which I know I will never grow out of.

I know that if I ever have kids, I will never be able to set them a good chocolate-eating example by just putting a piece in my mouth and eating it like any normal human being does. If the chocolate has filling, eg Snack, or Peppermint, the only way to eat each piece is to nibble around the bottom, bite the bottom bit off, save that for later, and eat the filling. Repeat this process with the remainder (generally 2 rows for Peppermint, or 1 of each flavour, making 6 pieces for Snack) until you are left with the bottom bits of each piece, and the little shell that held the filling. Then eat the shells (because this is generally where the chocolate is thinnest, so that goes first), and then the bottom pieces, starting from thinnest bottom piece, to thickest (I always find the thickest ones to be the most enjoyable). I think this habit stemmed from trying to make things last as long as possible (ie longer than my sister ) when I was a child. I am not proud of this habit. But I’m not going to change it, either!

Back to work tomorrow… sigh. Today was enjoyable though. Matthew finally has tenants for his house, and we had to do a bit of preparation before they move in. After that, we stopped off at The Parade and had a meal at Danny’s Thai Bistro, where I discovered that one of the waitresses is a girl from my year at school. Then we went to Cold Rock and I had a super-yummy vanilla ice cream with Milky Way and raspberries. Yuuuuuummmmm. I’ve been dying to go there for ages, and I’m sure I’ll go back sometime soon!

Back at home, I watched more of the cricket, and then went outside, since it was so much cooler than inside. We heard some koalas, and they sounded quite close, so we had a look over the fence, and saw one in the tree! Matthew took a photo of it, but since it’ll probably be ages until we get the film developed, we’ll probably get the photo back and say “why on earth did we take a picture of the trees?”

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have a brilliant year, and achieve everything that you want to.

I had a very enjoyable NYE this time around, which was a great relief after last year. Matthew and I decided to head into the city to see what was happening. We were originally planning on going to SkyCity Adelaide, but decided against it because it was a bit too expensive. So we went down Rundle St, hoping to find somewhere to eat. One packed restaurant after another didn’t leave me with too much hope, but we eventually found one where the manager said there’d be a table available soon, and we could have a drink at the bar if we wanted to wait. Thinking that we may as well wait, rather than hope that something else came up, we had a leisurely drink.

Dinner was really nice. We found ourselves seated at the table next to Zoe from SAFM. That’s about the extent of my star-spotting! We enjoyed a bottle of red, and the food took quite a while to arrive, which I didn’t mind at all because it was nice sitting outside, just watching people walk past. We were going to have dessert, but since the main course took so long, we didn’t think we’d have time to have it before midnight, so we left for Victoria Square. The fireworks were quite good - a lot better than the pissy show that was put on at Glenelg in 1999/2000. After getting a rocket ice cream from one of the many ice cream vans along the street, we caught the bus home, and went straight to sleep But all in all it was a really good night!