Two Month Checkup

Little man went for his 2 month checkup today. He's doing well in the weight department (he's put on a kilo since his last check), and he had his first real smile this afternoon too! :) So cute.

Pisser!

Had a classic conversation with a taxi driver this morning over this story.

We were pissing ourselves - do you think horses have really big straws to snort it? Aparently it's rife. I want to know where these horses are getting their gear from!

War of the Worlds

A really (suprisingly!) good film. I was sceptical after all of the recent media about Tom and Katie getting together, and married and all that kind of crap recently. He's got this movie playing at the moment, and she's got 'Batman Begins' out now (which I'll be reviewing soon).

Spielberg really took a lot from the coverage of the 9/11 WTC attack coverage, with a hell of a lot of it eerily similar, from the lead character being covered in dust of dead people, to people running madly through streets when the aliens arrive.

Edge of the seat stuff, and would work really well in a dark cinema, with loud sound. Not terribly much in terms of CGI, which is always refreshing, and Tom Cruise isn't too stretched as the deadbeat father, who has both of his kids when all hell breaks loose.

Definately worth a watch.

8.5/10

Movies!

Rach has taken Jude down to get a few movies from her uncle. Hopefully we will get a chance to watch them tonight! :) Along with the Ashes, Before the Game and the Tour de France. Busy!

I dont think we have watched a dvd on the new telly either, so that will be good to see what it's like! :)

Blog-a-rama

Have updated all of my blogs this evening, after finishing my 2nd assignment this semester.

Busy week gone, along with the flu, which knocked me out on the weekend (well, it started Friday), and continues to today. Aparently I'm ok to go back to work tomorrow, which should be a hoot! :)

Anyway, my PM has managed to get it too, so we have both been knocked out! I will see how we are going tomorrow morning, and if he's not in, I'll be able to get the team humming along! yeah baby!

Smiles

Jack had big smiles today. Among other facial expressions (concern, anger, frustration)

He also had huge 'head up' time, which involves him looking out the window while Rach and I are patting him on the back.

He had about 5 hours of awake time, and ate 2.5 bottles (a lot!), cried a bit, but stayed awake.. by the time we got him to sleep, he has completely conked it now! Very cute. We tried a few things to try and get him to rest, I walked the house with him, sat in the dark, which made him a bit tired, but we also put him back into his bonds 'turkey' suit. I think he might have been a bit uncomfortable in the Reuben and Paula kimono style wrap suit. :)

Egg Head

Maybe that's where the expression came from. He was playing this afternoon on the blow up mattress that we have in the lounge at the moment. He has been loving sitting on it while either Rach or I bounce him up and down.

Unfortunately he was sitting right on the edge, Rach bounced him, and he cracked his little head on the tv cabinet. Crying ensued, and he had a lump on his head. Luckily cuddles made it a little bit better, as did frozen peas, chocolate, strawberry yoghurt (yum!) and nurofen. He's resting now, but he did have a nice warm bath, and he seemed pretty comfy.

Anniversary

2nd Wedding Anniversary today. Well, technically yesterday, but I've been up feeding Jack, watching the Tour de France, and finishing my 2nd Reasoning assingment.

We had a quiet day, we had planned to go to Vue De Monde, which is the restaurant of my favourite chef, Shannon Bennett. We tried to get in there last week, and when we rang, they told us there was at least a week's wait, so we held off until today's booking - unfortunately I am sick, so we didnt head in...

I haven't left the house for 4 days, so I didn't have a chance to get a card either - Sorry baby! I hope that I tell you how much I love you, but next year will be a lot better - After my review, and my career planning meeting (which is set for Friday now, instead of today), that should pump my pay up soon - hopefully up to around 80k or so. If they dont come to the party, I'll start having a look around.

This bloody assignment is giving me the shits. I've just been putting it off, and putting it off, we got a week's extension, and i'm still 2 days behind. I think it's time to go to bed now, and I'll have a good crack at the rest of the assignment tomorrow morning. I know i'm letting myself down, but I really just want to pass this subject, and get stuck into the studying of the mathematics books, which came last week.

Racism

Are we born with racism progammed into us, or is it learned? I will go into more depth later.

So, he does know how to say sorry.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/immigration/howard-says-sorry-to-rau/2005/07/15/1120934368681.html

hahahaha..

Review, and Dinner

I had my Performance Review last night. It went really well.

I really like the bit where he asked 'So what was your last review like?', and my response was: "Exactly the same as this one, One more project, certification, senior consultant" - 2 years ago. I hate to say it, but I really have heard it all before.

Look, it's not all bad - We had a good chat, I've got to sit down with the Architect, and go through what I need to do, skills wise to get to SC. Hopefully not too much. And hopefully a reasonable pay rise. Having 2 mouths to feed is a lot less taxing that 2 mouths and 2 kids!

Rach came into the city last night, after my review, and we had dinner. We went here.

I have to say, some of the best meat I've ever had. I'm not a huge meat fan, but this stuff was brilliant. The softest, tastiest calamari ever. EVER. It was all fantastic. Do the banquet, if you go away hungry, there must be something wrong with you.

Does she really think anyone cares?

about this?

I mean, seriously - why doesn't she just accept responsibilty for her actions. She chose the babysitter, he fucked up. Why drag the coroner in so that they can blame someone else? I'm sure she feels guilty about it, and so she should.

I just get irritated when I get the paper every morning on the way to work, and there's nearly always a story with her calling for another inquest. That's what happens when redneck hicks find out about legal-aid.

harsh much?

Zoo

We went to the Zoo yesterday, and it was fantastic! :)

Jude had a ball, seeing all the animals, and he especially loved the butterfly house. Little Jack spent most of the time sleeping (not suprisingly).

It was beautifully sunny, so we took it nice and easy, and wandered around the whole grounds - we saw the new elephant enclosure, which looks really nice. We also got a Zoo Passport, which means we can go to Healesville and Werribee zoo for free sometime in the next 12 months.

I spent some time on Sunday doing my assignment, but was relieved to find that the deadline had been extended for a week. Hallelujah!

Home alone... almost!

Rach and Jude have gone to a classical spectacular in the city today - although it's raining, which sucks a bit!

Jack and I are here, nice and warm at home. Now I just have to do my assignment, which shouldn't be too much of a drama, I don't think.

Anyway, I've been quite busy at work, and trying to get this guy organised is a bit of a nightmare.

Righty-o

A couple of things today.

I went into the office for a meeting - and ran into my boss, who wanted a chat. Funky as. We had a chat about the colleague who had some issues, and got suspended. He ended up admitting that he did contact the client and tell them what was alleged. Oh well, he should have known better.

Good thing running into the boss, I've teed up a performance review for Tuesday next week, and we will talk salary after that. Not too long after that either, I've not had a review/salary review for 2 years. The boss also heard the rumor about me quitting. I wasn't happy.

Ben and I had lunch yesterday, and dissected the whole situation. Betsy was on Deal or No Deal on Monday night, but I didn't get home in time to see! She won $1000, and it's still waiting for the cheque!

London won the Olympic games for 2012. Good on them! :) I was shocked, I must admit - I thought that Paris was a shoo-in (shoe-in?).

Round 14 Review

Crunchers v Hooders
Crunchers won this tough slog by 5 points, putting them in the 5 last finals spot. Hooders is still in contention, but need his players to fire up in the last 4 weeks of the season to ensure they are in contention for the premiership again.

Losers v Farts
Farts got up by 10 points, which was flattering to Losers. Farts are only half a game out of the final spot. Losers are yet to really perform at all this year, and have struggled. Farts have been up and down, but need to come home strong to be sure of finals.

Tendulkars v Black and Blue
Black and Blue win comfortably by 20 points, in the fizzer of the round - Much stronger performance expected from Tendulkars, and he has responded by savaging his players in the media. Only time will tell if this is a wise strategy. I dont want to say it, but he's only one and a half games ahead of 5th place, so he might have to motivate his team to make finals again this year.

Duckings v Keatsters
Huge match by Ducklings, with Keatsters scoring the second highest score, it still wasnt enough, losing by a massive 48 points. Keatsters was hurt by Harvey's hamstring injury, and the decision to leave M Voss (34 posessions, 138 points) out realy hurt. Ducklings really have come out and put themselves in premiership contention.

Curly v Alex
Curly smashed Alex by 27 points, with Curly in 8th place, but find themselves only 1 game out of the top 5.

The competition is squeezing up, with only the top 3 assured of finals, and top 8 teams are still a shot at the finals. Only 4 weeks to go!

Digital Camera 0, Jude 1

When a 16 month old meets a digital camera, and there are tiles nearby, it's bound to end in tears. And it did.

The camera has been dismantled, and is sitting on the dining table, dismantled.

Time for a new one.

Bummer

So, the car has sheared off the driveshaft - here's the damage:

• $600 to open up the transmission, and see if there's metal inside, if there's not, includes a reco.
• $1500 if there is metal inside - essentially a replacement transmission will be slotted in.

And then Rach called me yesterday, and told me that Jude had got a hold of the digital camera, and smashed it on the tiles in the kitchen. I got home last night, pulled out the little screwdrivers, and had a look inside. It's a beautiful piece of engineering, but I still couldn't get the bloody lens straight. Oh well. Time to get a new camera - another cost we don't need.

I'm tempted to just cancel my birthday, get the car fixed, and a new camera - although that means we probably wont be able to go to the planned Wedding Anniversary dinner Rach booked for us at Vue De Monde. That's shithouse. I wish I had won tattslotto! (who doesn't!).

Workwise, I got an email yesterday that my colleague had 'resigned', and that he 'wanted to keep it quiet until he left' - yeah right. I don't believe it for a second.

And then I got an email requesting me to meet with my 'favorite' PM and BA - joy of joys. I've flagged this as a waste of time, and the client that I'm at now is not happy. And so they shouldn't be. I had concerns last night that they might be trying to set me up as the patsy, so I get the short shrift. I've put together my response, so I'll go to the meeting.

I'll post this afternoon, and see how we go.

Dancing Man

He loves to dance - to anything; Crazy Frog, Specialist Dealer Network, Any ad with music. :)

He's started stepping it up too, he only swayed loosely, but he's going hardcore now! :)

btc

I got flogged, 194 to 147. The only saving grace is that i did get the second highest score out of all teams. Which is not too much help, as I lost huge.

Black and Blue this weekend, so that should be alright, as long as Voss is in good form, and Burns is still doubtful, after being reported. Now i'm only a game clear on top of the table. No doubt I'll finish in the top two for the finals, but hopefully 1st, not second. :)

earmuffs

ok - i'd love to swear, a lot - hence the earmuffs.

but I wont. I'm hardly suprised, but the $1000 cheap car is turning out to be expensive - Rach called a few transmission places this morning, and it look like it's going to be a $1500 repair job. i.e a new transmission. Shit.

Suckery...

Unfortunately the car has broken already. I know, what do you expect for $1000. Not much. Anyway, Rach took it to her parents place, and then tried to leave - and the bloody thing wouldnt go into gear. Shit.

Anyway, it's going to go to the transmission place tomorrow hopefully.

We went to carribean gardens today - which was pretty cool. I am pretty sure that i've been there as a child, but dont really remember much about it. They have a little train that travels around, lots of stalls of computer gear, and clothes - I bought a great Subaru racing team jacket - for just $45.

Baby crying - gotta go and iron shirts too.

Tummy Time

Little Jack spent about half an hour on his tummy last night - just looking around and seeing what was happening.

He's going a bit crazy tonight though, which isn't good. Oh well. These are the joys of parenting.

Busy!

Ok - Last night we went out for dinner with Ruebs and Paula - At the Shanghai Dumpling House - Excellent food. We had to wait for a bit, but damn it was worth it. The only dissapointing thing was the sticky rice. We then went to the Lounge for a couple of hours, and had a few drinkies. Reubs also wants to get rid of his decks, and get some drums - So we said we'd buy his decks - That would be cool as baby! YEAH!

Friday I didnt go in to work, I was up all thursday night with the little baby. He was going a bit nuts between 1am and 3am, so I woke up at 7:30 after 4 hours sleep, and was basically wrecked.

Thursday night was interesting, at the montly meeting, nothing too interesting happened - the shares and stuff arent going to happen until september. No big suprise there.I had a couple of people come up and ask me if i'd resigned - the rumour going around is that i've quit. Interesting.

Also, one of my colleagues has been suspended from work with full pay. I'd been in email contact with him quite a bit recently, but aparently the client complained that he'd not been giving 100% commitment after getting a 'bad review'. Now, that raises a few interesting questions, such as: Where did the client hear that he'd had a bad review? I cant believe that he would tell the client about his salary/review situation. I've had issues with the quality of his work in the past, and I spent a couple of months on his project trying to raise it up, quality wise. That's no biggie, he started working with us straight out of uni, so hasnt had a great deal of work experience. Another thing that really counts against him is the business he runs on the side - although it seems to take priority over work things. Not good.

Anyway, he just sent me an sms this morning, so i'm going to try and suss out what happened - he did try to call me just after it all happened, but I didnt answer the phone -my bad.