Saturday, March 31, 2007

u-g-l-y

after coming across this pic on a blog,

i did a bit of yahoo seach. i knew i'd seen him before-- he's sam "the world's ugliest dog" 3 years in a row (2002-2005). he kind of makes me want to vomit when i look at him (and i usually find cuteness in all sorts of "ugly" animals)


this is a cute shot of sam though:

unfortunately sam passed away in november 2005 (i think he was 14 human years), passing on the crown of ugly dog 2006 to archie (who looks like a cute version of sam)
i also did a yahoo search for ugly dog images. sam is in there, along with a lot of other edited dog photos and some pretty ugly mutts.
sam also has his own website with some pretty funny photos of him and his story of how he came to be suzie's pup (she's the woman in the pics with sam).
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Thursday, March 29, 2007

busyness

this week has been really busy. not sure why. work has been crazy (until today), i skipped a meeting last nite (it was raining and i figured it wasn't too important for me to be there anyway and i wasn't getting paid for it and i was exhausted from work..... i had a lot of good excuses). my co-worker has been sick all week (she came in monday but probably shouldn't have). we've had a casual from an agency tues and wed(we never do that at work cuz we usually can rotate people around or part time people do extra hours). she was great but having someone in that doesn't know the centre or the children makes things harder on me. fortunately today i worked with one of the other part time staff and she's great (we set a new record of 21 out of 27 kids sleeping at rest time. i think 13 was our old record).
tomorrow is our last day before school holidays!!! i'm ready for a bit of a break (i do have to work 4 days over the holidays but the holiday program is very relaxed and we only have between 12-24 kids).


random wombat photo-- she gets really excited about carboard and paper. she chews bits off of it then spits them out (and continues til there's just a big mess of wet paper all over her bed).

Sunday, March 25, 2007

suction

we went to get a new vacuum this afternoon. i'd looked at godfrey's website and picked out a $179 vacuum and possible $50 attachment piece. we walked in and i told the guy which vacuum we wanted and he went to get it down so we could do a test run. just before he grabbed it he asked how big our house was. i told him and he said that the motor was not powerful enough and it wouldn't last us more than a month or so with the amount of space we have. he pointed behind us to another vacuum and said this is the low end of the range of what we needed ($299). we just looked at each other thinking he's just trying to get us to buy the more expensive vacuum. he started pointing out all the feature like "its so tough you can stand right on top of it" (which he did and i was thinking "when would you ever stand on top of your vacuum???") and "the sides are made of [i can't remember] and therefore will not scratch" (who cares if your vacuum has some scratches on it-- it lives in the closet except when no one is around but the person using it). then he asked if we wanted to see how much suction it had and did this:


we were sold. its not that light a little beast and if it can hold itself up in the air its gotta have some decent suction to it (we also tested it out sucking up ground in pet hair on the carpet-- i think they shaved persian cat to get the fur-- and rice on a hardwood floor--you don't even need to do anything to the attachment moving between carpet and hard floor). we decided since we were going to get the expensive vacuum that we wouldn't get the $50 attachment piece. as the sales guy was ringing up our sale he asked if we'd take the attachment if he dropped it down to $40 (he'd showed us a demo of how it works and its pretty cool). we decided to go for it. its such a cool attachment. it basically sucks almost all the dirt into this clear plastic barrel that attaches onto the hose so the vacuum bag is the last point of dirt. this means the bag lasts much longer (and i'd assume all the filters and stuff in the vacuum too). when its full all you do is twist off the barrel and dump it in the bin. nice and easy. he also helped us take it to our car (which we parked the furthest possible from the shop since we didn't know exactly where the shop was and just went into one of the back parking lots off the main street).
i vacuumed the lounge room (which i had just done last nite with the old vacuum) and got SOOOOOO much dust and dog hair. this vacuum definitely works better. i also did the hallway (which didn't get done yesterday) and ended up with even a bigger ball of hair and dust swirling around in the barrel.
now we have a nice clean house and i don't think i'll ever forget how to spell vacuum again (i think i just used that word more now than i have my whole life).
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we just gained an hour!

i completely forgot about the time change. i looked at zac's alarm clock (which is always at least 40 min ahead of real time) and it said something like 11:43 (just after 11am real time). it was nice to have a big sleep in but that's the second day in a row i did that (must have really needed it) and i felt like i just wasted most of the day since we have plans from 3pm onwards. i took the dog for a nice long walk and then came and sat down at the computer. i thought it was a bit odd that the computer said it was just after 11am and just figured maybe zac's clock is more ahead than i thought (zac tends to keep setting it forward a few minutes every day but he had just reset it yesterday after the power went out for a bit). i just read a blog post from people in canberra and he was mentioning how the time change always confuses him and the computer is the only one that remembers. i looked over at the vcr-- it was saying its after 12pm. our computer remembered the time change. we just gained an hour. that's exciting (especially since we get more megs/month on our computer between midnite and noon so its good to know i'm usuing up offpeak megs cuz we're already slightly ahead of where we should be for our monthly allowance of peak time megs (we just get slowed to dialup speed for the rest of the month when we use up all the peak megs). so now i'm gonna get off the computer and quit wasting this extra hour i've been given.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

new and exciting


i never thought i'd be so excited about rain and coldness (mostly the rain but after sweltering yesterday, the coolness is a nice change). look at that drop in the temp (click on the graph to enlarge). also look at the rain graph near the bottom-- its off the chart!!! there's actually puddles still sitting along curbs (or kerbs as they like to spell it in oz). that last 24hrs have seen more rain than all of last month!
we went for a walk to find a new cafe today (the parents of one of the kids were having the grand opening of their cafe today). unfortunately we couldn't find it-- i don't know the name of it and i just knew the general intersection it is kind of near (not sure which of the 2 streets its on either). we got caught in the tail end of a storm on the way home but it was kind of nice. i went up to sydney road to get some fabric to make new couch covers (they look soooo much better than the ugly flowered things that were on there but they're cream coloured so i'm not sure how long they'll stay nice). i went into the shopping centre for a bit and when i came out everything was REALLY wet again and it was sprinkling. it was kinda nice to ride home in the light rain (haven't done that in ages). i'm excited to have a "vancouver rain" day hopefully this winter (or even in autumn). that usually only happens once a year or so. i love when we have a rain all day kind of day cuz it reminds me of home (even though i absolutely HATED it then). its especially good if its a day i don't have to go out anywhere and i can just stay inside, light some scented candles and curl up with a book and dvds (not at the same time- i've tried. it doesn't work too well) and light my candles.
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tats and dogs

this is how zac spent his birthday money:

(he's also planning on spending it on some type of stringed instrument, probably a banjo. i told him you can't spend the money twice. he doesn't believe me)

i just took this shot a minute (or 5) ago.

we were trying to get a photo of wombat doing her new thing of putting her paws up on the window ledge to see down the side of the house (she's convinced something, like a cat, is there-- i think ray is the only cat that could/would jump the 6 foot high metal fence).
she got freaked out at all the coaxing zac was doing to get her to look out the window. she ended up just jumping up on him (so they're not actually dancing-- she's playfully attacking).
(10:50pm)funny side note: i just noticed a spelling error and went to fix. it was when i went into "edit posts" that i realized how funny the title of my post is (and its not a spelling error. i did mention cats but when i wrote the title i was thinking of zac's tatoo).
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just the beginning...

i've been putting off updating my template since i switched over to the new blogger last month. i knew when i switched i would spend hours trying to get it the way i want it (similar to what it was but different). so i'm partly done (it may change completely though). i like the new click and drag way of arranging things but there's some things that i need the html. when i went onto the edit html page it didn't have some of the stuff layed out like it was before so i can't find it to change it (i.e. my own font that's not one of the 6 listed on blogger-- i don't know how/where to type the html code to get that font back in again. i also had categories for my links lists. i can't figure out where to put those category headings in the html code cuz my links aren't listed there they way they were before). oh well, i'll get it sorted. i think i'm off to bed cuz my eyes are burning.

Friday, March 23, 2007

TGIF!!!!

it was a LONG afternoon at work. the kids were really tired (we had a lot sleep at rest time too which is unusual). it was really hot (the evapourative air conditioner at work doesn't work very well on humid days). our third person wasn't coming in again this afternoon (just like last week) so i was just me and 1 co-worker for the afternoon. there was sooo much cleaning up to do to (the director and another staff helped a bit before they left but there was still tons of stuff to do). it finally got to the end of the day and there was 1 child left. the phone rang (we always dread those calls a few minutes before 6 cuz its usually the parent saying they're gonna be late). the last child's mum was calling to say she was still 15 min away (arrrrghhh!). to make it worse this child talks very fast not stop. i tried to get a conversation going while we were waiting but he doesn't really answer questions, he just picks one word from the question and rambles on about anything he knows that relates to that word (i.e. i asked him what the name of the street his house was on and he went on about what his house looked like and the park near his house. i tried asking him a couple more times in different ways but still nothing that related to the question, not even an "i don't know"). we ended up taking shifts sitting with him because at that point in the day it was too much to just listen to him ramble in his fast talk. but its friday!! and the cool change has come (and even some rain!)!! i don't have to deal with work again for 3 days (and then i'll be refreshed and think his rambling is funny again and have the energy to try to help him have a proper conversation).

Thursday, March 22, 2007

too smart


i think wombat is a little too smart. this morning i decided i'd walk up to the chemist and she could come with me. i closed the back door and as soon as she heard the lock click she darted to the front door (not once did i even give a hint that we were going somewhere!). as we were passing "yappy little stupid" (as we've affectionately named the neighbour's little dog that barks under the fence when we pass and drives wombi nuts) he did his usual barking thing but wombat did pretty good going past just looking over at his nose under the fence as we passed (as apposed to trying to pull me up the driveway so she can get to him). when we passed the house i just continued walking forgetting to stop and give her a treat so she associates other dogs with food. the next few steps past the house wombat kept banging her big head into my knee. i finally stopped and she immediately stopped and looked up at me for a treat. she had been banging into me cuz she was trying to look at me and walk at the same time cuz she was expecting a treat.
i think she's got the dog behind the fence thing figured out. she did a similar thing the other day in the park across the road. there's another little yappy stupid in one of the flats that back onto the park. the yappy's people have created a tiny little fence from their sliding door so little yappy can go outside a couple meters. there's also a bigger wire fence several meters from their door, separating the flats from the park. wombat knows about little yappy there and goes nuts at it so we try to keep he away from there. the other day she kept trying to pull forward toward the area where little yappy lives (he was inside). he eventually heard wombat and came out. he wasn't barking though but wombat was trying to get closer (i wouldn't let her). finally he started yapping and wombat immediately ran back to me and sat. she provoked little yappy to bark so she would get a treat!
after we got home this morning i gave her a bath. she was very good-- i took her collar off and didn't have her tied to anything but she was good and stayed still (probably hating every minute of it) and let me shampoo and condition her. after i finished i realized her towel was inside so i went in to get it. when i came out she went nuts trying to pull on the towel and play with it. i finally managed to dry her. then she charged down the side of the house and then back. jumped into the garden and spun in circles repeatedly!! she was COVERED in dirt. i thought maybe i should just leave her out back the rest of the morning for that but i decided to be nice and re-rinse her (i'm sure she didn't consider that nice but she would have hated the alternative too). i brought her in and made her sit on her bed with her dental bone and soft toy. i got busy at the computer and 10 min later i heard a sigh behind me. i look and see her curled up on my spot on the couch, wet and still slightly dirty! she's lucky there's covers over the couch cushions and that it was a hot day so my spot is dry now.
her other smart things (this is a LONG post but she's shown a lot of intelligence- even if she is very cunning in some of it) happened when i came home. i decided to open the side gate and bring the bins out front before going in. she was very excited to see me come around back. while i put the bins out front she just waited half way down the side and called out to me a couple times but wouldn't come down and thru the gate-- i didn't even tell her to stay!
then it came time to go inside. she had her bone in her mouth and she's not allowed those in the house cuz they're gross. i told her to drop it. she did but as soon as the door was opened she picked it up again so i closed the door (this happens all the time). we tried again. i said "drop it". she did. door opened, she picked it up, door closed. we tried a 3rd time. she came in the door with her smiling, panting face and went to her bed. i followed and saw she was chewing something on her bed and it didn't sound like her dental bone (a nylon bone). she had put the bone in the side of her mouth opposite to me and panted normally while she walked past me!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

grizzly man


we just finished watching the movie grizzly man. all i can say is the guy was pretty much a complete nutter. i love animals (probably more than the average person) but what he was doing with the bears was just completely stupid (his relationships the foxes in the film seemed a bit reasonable but still, i think the way he perceived his animal relationships was a bit off of reality). he did obviously have some mental health issues and if those were dealt with properly he probably wouldn't have spent 4 months a year (for 13 years) living amongst the bears feeling it was solely his duty to protect them from people. he did get some really cool footage though. it was a really good movie, but i couldn't stop laughing at things the poor guy said.
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Sunday, March 18, 2007

damaged


zac damaged the dog a bit yesterday. i guess technically it was mostly wombat's fault but zac's elbow got in her way. when she comes in from her morning walk if one of us is still in bed she likes to jump up and lick our faces in her big boofhead sort of way and rub her nose under the pillow to get rid of the feeling of the muzzle on it. yesterday when i brought her in she took her normal flying leap from the door of the bedroom onto the bed. unfortunately for her zac was just rolling over to avoid face licks and ear biting. her lip went into his elbow and now she's got a bit of a fat pink lip (the left side of the bottom lip in the pic). that must have hurt when she did it. she didn't yelp or anything (she never does when she hurts herself). i didn't even find out about it until later when zac got up and said "i don't know if her lip was like that before or if this is from this morning cuz she rammed into my elbow." her lip was definitely not like that (i have pics from 2 nites ago that prove it). poor dog. that'll teach her to be more careful getting onto the bed.
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Saturday, March 17, 2007

a long nite


wombat won't be going vegan (at least not while we live at this house). she will be "freegan" though. the landlords keep bringing over gigantic bones for her (very sweet of them). wombat loves them so we freeze them and give them to her sometimes when we leave her at home alone. zac gave her a massive one on his birthday while he went out for the day. he thought she must have buried it but now we think she ate the whole thing. all evening she was panting. we thought it was a bit weird cuz it wasn't that hot (it was in the upper 20s and humid though) and we thought maybe she was just excited that people were at her house. i went to bed early. she layed in the room panting and wouldn't stop. she kept getting up and moving around every few minutes even though it was way past her usual bedtime. we tried wetting her down, putting the evapourative cooler on her..... nothing worked. we realized her stomach looked pretty bloated and she went outside for a few poops. poor thing over indulged on her bone. i made her some peppermint tea and we let her sleep on the bed. she finally settled and we all got to sleep around 3am i think. i was exhausted at work yesterday! plus friday afternoon the other room doesn't have children in it and all the other staff went home (including the director) so it was just me and my co-worker (our 3rd person couldn't make it in either). we only had 20 kids but it felt like a lot more. i was glad for the day to end. we'll be careful about how much bone wombi gets at one time now (not sure how we're gonna cut up gigantic bones though).

some moments to make you laugh

while the kids eat lunch at work i'm inside laying out mats for rest time (something i'm quite happy to do cuz i hate watching 4 year olds eat/spit food out of their mouths trying to talk while eating/dribble yogurt down their fronts with their lack of co-ordination). one of my co-workers came in and said that one of the little girls out there just informed the boy sitting next to her that the brand of yogurt he was eating had ground up cow hooves in it. i just started laughing. i knew she'd been fed that from her parents. the boy's yogurt had gelatin in it (made from skin, cartilage or bones of animals). i knew she must be one of the 3 or 4 vegetarian kids we have this year. she probably didn't need to be that blunt about it (and its probably not hooves) but she is quite blunt/rude a lot of the time. i think that might be something we need to help her work on this year.
a girl came up to me with a "treasure map" she'd made. she started telling me that the map would take her to the pub (her dad is irish-- i think they spend a lot of time hanging out at the pub). then she started telling me that she wouldn't be able to go to the pub on her own. i was thinking she would say cuz you need to be older to go to the pub on your own but no- her reason was that there was a road in front of the pub and she couldn't cross the road without holding her mum's hand.
some kids were playing a matching/bingo type game where there are a bunch of cards face down on the table and they have to flip one over and see if the picture on the card matches one of the pictures on their bingo board. whenever it was one of the boy's turns he would lay his head down close to the table (like he was trying to see under the cards that were laying flat on the table). finally my co-worker asked him what he was doing. he had figured out that the cards had different coloured frames around the picture on them and by looking closely you could see the reflection of the frame colour on the white table and then he would narrow down his choice to 4 different cards that had the same frame colour (smart kid-- although a bit of a cheat!).

Friday, March 16, 2007

mmmmm...cheesecake


for zac's birthday (which was yesterday-- i didn't do a birthday tribute to him cuz he says he doesn't read my blog) i made a special birthday dinner (on wednesday since we were going out with family for dinner yesterday). we had spring rolls, stir fry (i forgot to cook up the vegan fish though-- but zac made homemade fish and chips with it tonite), sparkling wine (didn't know if zac would drink alcohol even for his birthday) and the highlight of the meal: vegan cheesecake!! i got a white chocolate and raspberry vegan cheesecake from soulveg (the same people that did our engagement party).
it was amazing (i didn't get a photo of it before we cut it). i'm finishing off the last piece now (with the doggy staring at me waiting for a crumb-- too good to share though). they do an amazing job of cheesecakes at soulveg. they have about 20 flavours (so hard to choose) and they deliver! definitely will be doing their cheesecakes again (can't even tell they're vegan for people who aren't sure of anything not made with animals)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

yes i take too many picture of my dog

i have TONS of wombat photos (and we've only had her 3 months-- exactly 3 months today!) but she's so cute i can't help take photos (especially when she's all worn out). after being a bit sick (or maybe just wanting a lazy day) yesterday she's been bouncing around all day today. i took her for a BIG run at the oval this morning and she was charging full speed the whole time (i've taught her the command "this way" so i either weave back and forth with her going on the wide part of each turn or i run in a small circle and get her to run in a bigger circle around me cuz she's too fast for me).
she was quite happy that i decided not to go to fnb tonite and i was gonna spend the evening with her. i took her for another big run at the other oval where all the dogs hang out (with their people). she did very well with all the other dogs around and we managed to run without her trying to run towards them instead of listening to me (and getting yanked with the lead in the process).
she was still bouncing everywhere when we got home so i took her out back and threw her rope toy (colored thing on the side of the pics) down the side of the house a dozen or so times. she bulldozed down the side of the house and returned it over and over.
i got tired of trying to get her to drop it (sometimes it takes a few tries) so i told her to bring it in and just chew on it. 2 minutes later she crashed and was snoring. that's when these photos were taken (now she's snoring again as i type this)
this photo (below) was me and wombi crashing on the couch the other nite. we both look exhausted. don't know why i'm so tired (i think that was the day i attempted to clean the front room (aka the music/storage/guest/junk room). it now looks like there was an explosion in there (maybe i can convince zac to tackle it on his birthday since he got the day off-- would it be wrong to ask him?)

this video is wombat's dream noises. you can't actually see anything (not enough light) and the tv is on but those "whoop, whoop whoop"s are wombi's. she does this a lot (but we've had trouble catching it on video). i'm pretty sure she's dreaming. we think its about other dogs (or cats). she flinches and stuff too while she's doing this. we just talk softly to her and tell her its ok when she does it. sometimes she'll wake up then and realize its not real. i think she has a lot of doggy-nightmares.

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Monday, March 12, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEA!!

technically it's still over an hour until its officially your birthday but i have time to do this now. hope you have a great day. you can be a princess and i won't think you're snooty.

even if you look like i witch sometimes (like below-- not on an everyday basis), i won't deny you your princessness. and wombat won't remove your title from you either-- she's just your little princess dog-niece.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

(i'll spare you embarrassment by not posting horrible photos i have of you on my blog)
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Sunday, March 11, 2007

cold and hot and cold and....


friday nite was the coldest nite we've had since just after christmas. fortunately i slept in a bit on saturday and it was a nice warm day heading to kinda hot by the time i got out from under my covers. last nite was pretty mild but then it got cold today and only got kind of warm for a couple hours then dropped back again. we did get a small amount of rain this evening which is good (although i don't think it was even enough to get into the soil but it sounded nice on the roof). autumn is definitely here now 8( i like summer. i don't like the cold mornings and nites. i like it mild/warm morning and evening and warm/hot during the day. when winter gets here we'll have some days where 12C (the overnite low the other nite) will be our high! i'm not looking forward to those days (hopefully they'll all come in the end of june/beginning of july while we're in queensland). i mentioned the 12C overnite to a friend in canada yesterday and her response was "that's sooo warm! and that was just overnite? now its 29C there?" yep.
i don't think i'll be moving back in canada unless i'm forced to.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

i think i just about killed us!


my original kinda-plan for dinner was soup (even though i knew it would be a nice mild evening after a hot day). while i was getting some crackers for a snack this afternoon i noticed the vegetarian laksa paste i bought from the cruelty free shop a few weeks ago. i thought i'd do that instead of just vegetable soup with pasta. the instructions on the packet just said "boil water. add coconut milk and vegetarian laksa spices." no mention anywhere of how much water and coconut milk (also no mention of the vegies or noodles that go in laksa). i figured about a litre of water and a can of coconut milk (what i usually use when i make it from scratch). i dumped in the paste from the packet. a very red oil layer formed over the top of the laksa (about 3 or 4 mm thick). i dished up the laksa and took it to the back yard so we could eat it outside (a bit cooler there). our mouths were on fire (and i can stand a fair bit of spice). i added some coconut cream and more water. it didn't really help. as zac put it "eating my dinner shouldn't have take more effort than anything else i've done today." (i agreed so i wasn't really insulted). the picture above is the "after picture"-- when we came inside (i couldn't even finish my bowl, i was sweating and i'd lost my appitite) and i added what was left from the can of coconut cream into the remaining LARGE pot of laksa. then i took the laddle and skimmed off about 1 1/2 cups of the red oil (i'm assuming chilli oil) off the top. i tested what was left (a much more barable spicy laksa). i've lost my appitite for tonite though.
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the best veggie burger ever!

we went to go to coco loco this afternoon for coffee but when we got there they were closed! we don't know why cuz the hours on saturday say 11am til midnite or something like that and there was no notice saying they'd be closed anywhere on the window either. we figure it might be cuz of the big meridith-like music festival happening on the property in meridith. they probably have a stall at that (that's where we tasted their coffee first) and were short-staffed or something so had to close the shop. we figured since we'd walked all the way up there we might as well do something so we went to the environment shop next to it and picked up some shift (not on their website-- it basically helps break down pet waste into usable garden soil. we're gonna test it out with wombat since she's a pooing machine). then i said that i either needed a veggie burger or coffee before we went home so zac decided veggie burger and we went to jim's take away next to the environment shop (coco loco is on one side, jim's is on the other). we've eaten there before and always loved the veggie burgers. they used to do vegan dim sims but their supplier quit making them (we've always blamed it on the fact that the squat behind the fish and chip shop had to close down and all the vegan punks living there quit eating at jim's cuz it was no longer around the corner, therefore jim was ordering less dim sims and the supplier decided it was no longer worth it). they still make their veggie burgers though. jim and his wife make home made patties that they have in balls in the fridge. when you order them the flatten them out a bit on the grill and cool them up. they toast the buns on the grill and then add tomatoes, shredded carrot, lettus, beetroot (cuz its australia and i think there must be some kind of weird law here to put beetroot on veggie burgers-- its good though) and salt and pepper (lots of it). they're only $4 (used to be $3.50) and they are huge and AMAZING! they even put them on plates for us cuz we were eating on the tables out front. i've never had food from a take away shop served on a plate. we gotta go up there more often cuz they're the best veggie burgers ever!
we never go up there much even though northcote (especially high street) is a really cool area cuz its the other side of the creek. we stick to our side and they stick to their side (we have friends and northcote who came to the street party with us last weekend and they were saying how they never come over this side of the creek but there's a lot of cool places along sydney road to go to). our suburbs are right next to each other (divided by the creek-- which both of us live near-- so its not even that far!).

Friday, March 09, 2007

taking things home from work

every once in a while i find a small toy, some lego, rubbish or craft supplies in my pocket that i've accidentally taken home from work. the other day i discovered something else i'd brought home-- lice!! we've had sooo many kids with lice this year!
LICE FACTS:
- you CAN'T get them from sharing hats, etc. basically the only way the are transferred is thru head to head contact (they don't fly or jump, just crawl)
- lice DON'T just like dirty hair. they prefer clean hair (i think it makes it easier for them to crawl on if its not greasy) but don't really discriminate. clean, dirty, long, short- as long as its a nice warm human scalp to live on
-they DO NOT breed or live on clothing, bedding, furniture, carpets etc. ONLY on human heads

i figure the only possible way that i got them from a child that was scratching the back of his neck for 2 days. both me and another staff tried to check for lice but the child wouldn't sit still and he had hair colour that made lice and nits VERY hard to spot. we figured it might be a heat related rash or something anyway so we gave up. it probably was lice. he was the only child i was even close to having head to head contact with. i would lay on a pillow next to his mattress at rest time and try to settle him. there's a slim possibility that 1 louse wandered from his head across the pillow and onto me. that's the ONLY time i've even had my head close to a child's.
fortunately as an adult i think its much easier to get rid of the lice than on a child who is going to continue to play in close contact with peers repeatedly. i bought a lice comb the other nite (after 2 days of scratching my neck and behind my ears, having zac check me 3 times and saying he didn't think i had lice and one of my co-workers saying it would be pretty much impossible to get lice from one of the children and i probably just had something else making me itchy). i spent 30 minutes combing thru my hair with conditioner and found a few lice. i repeated it again the next morning and next nite and again tonite. i haven't found any more since yesterday morning so i think i'm ok. they no longer say its necessary to wash bedding and clothing so that's a lot less work to do. i didn't get any of the chemical treatments either. there's some natural ones (with tea tree, lavender and other oils that lice don't like) that you can use with the combs but i just used regular conditioner and that seemed to do the job fine (i did start adding tea tree oil to the conditioner to help discourage them from wanting to live on me and i'll probably make a tea tree rinse to use when i wash my hair to help prevent it again).
i don't lay down on a pillow anymore at rest time either (and i put another LARGE highlighted note in the parent communication book reminding parents to check their kids regulary for lice).

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

wombi fotos

the first pic is wombat yesterday morning. she's staring at the top of the fence. she stayed like that for a few minutes (i watched her for a bit, went and got the camera--without her following me-- took several photos and then watched her a bit more). i have no idea what she's staring at though. no bird, cat, bug..... nothing but a metal fence and a wood post sticking up on the other side of it. she just stares at it every once in a while. her other obsession is the side of the house. there's vents along the bottom of the house and she's started going up to them and sniffing them obsessively. there's probably a rat or something living under the house.
this is what my poor princess looks like now:

i wore her out. after work i took her for a BIG walk (we've been doing lots of little walks lately) cuz i had to run up the pharmacy. we got 2 houses from home and ran into this random scotty dog that walks himself all the time. she tried to go a bit nuts but i calmed her down and we sat and talked about it with some treats. walked a bit further (the other dog walking parallel to us on the other side of the road) and then sat and talked about it a bit more when she started to focus on the dog. we did it a few times and got past him. it worked out good that scotty dog had no interest in her. the parallel walking thing is what the trainer recommended to help her get used to dogs. the rest of the walk was fairly dog free and then i left her outside a shop on her own for the first time (only cuz the pharmacy has a big front entry area with a dog water dish and i could watch her the whole time i was in there). i think she was a bit freaked out and confused at being left out there but she did good (the whole 90 sec she was alone). now she's exhausted.
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sydney road street party

i didn't get many pictures at the street party and the ones i took are all of the same thing (the giant scotsman and his giant dog):



that poor little staffy! he just couldn't figure it out.
i wish i'd got a picture of the giant "dog" face. it was oddly realistic and also just "man painted to look like dog with rubber dog nose added". it was kinda creepy and very funny (it was also hilarious when the dog started trying to go for people's food in their hands in a very realistic dog sort of way and then a woman started calling him to "come" and he focused and went over to her).
the street party was really good though. saw a couple good bands and found a great new pub (the brunswick green) with a really cool beer garden (don't know how we didn't know it was there).
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

i'm not alone

i got into work today and before i even said anything about how cold i was last nite, one of my co-workers said "i was so cold! i wanted to turn the heat on last nite." good to know i'm not the only one. it probably won't be more than a couple weeks before we have an evening that gets so cold that i have to turn the heat on (or we might end up having 40C days. it's melbourne. anything can happen)

Monday, March 05, 2007

freezing!

i realize its nowhere near freezing but i've been fighting the idea of turning on the head all evening (i've also contemplated a nice hot bath-- that seems a little less stupid then using the heat 5 days into autumn). it gets so cold at nite now (and when winter comes it'll be another 10C colder at nite!!). i had to wear a jumper in the middle of the afternoon today cuz i was cold-- even sitting in the sun. now i'm wearing nice thick hiking socks (first time i've worn socks in the house in months). funny cuz in interior bc, 3C is a nice warm day. i don't think i could ever live anywhere where that is the high for the day-- that's WAY to low even for an overnite low! i'm already dreading the colder days and nites ahead of us as we head into winter.
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new look

its hard to tell from the photos what a difference it's made but here's the "before" (march 2006)
and "after"there's sooooo much more space in the middle of the room (so if i actually start doing yoga again, there's lots more room). the tv area looks so much neater now too without having to use a cardboard boxed placed on their sides to hold dvds, videos and the vcr. there's also room for all zac's little simpsons figurines (they were all balanced on top of and around the tv and drove me nuts cuz if you bumped one by accident they all went like dominoes. now they have their own little shelf to sit on).
the desk that was being used as a tv stand has now gone into the spare room as a keyboard stand (plus it one of the amps, all the music books and random instruments and bits like picks, capos and tuners). its the perfect height (its also adustable height but i haven't had to change it) for playing my keyboard and sitting on a padded milk crate).
now onto the kitchen (the new shelves are filled, just need to clean up the rest of the room to make it more usable)

Friday, March 02, 2007

saving a life


today was my r.d.o. i spent it well. i got up earlier than i would ever get up for work and ate a nice healthy breakfast, drank lots of fluids, hopped on a tram and went to the blood donor service in the city. i've been meaning to donate blood for a few years but just never got around to it. i finally remembered to book an appointment a few weeks ago (there's a 3-4 week wait for the city donor centre). i wanted to do it on a day i didn't have to work just cuz i wasn't sure how i'd be feeling afterwards (i am prone to fainting but usually in smoky, enclosed rooms) and didn't want to have to rush to work. i got there and went thru the whole interview process to confirm my eligibility and then had my hemoglobin tested (iron levels). it has to be between 12 and 19(?) to donate. the first test came up as 11.9 (followed by the question "are you vegetarian or something?") then he retested me and it was 12.5 so i was ok to donate. it all went good (and i almost finished my book) and afterwards i hung around the recovery area making sure i felt all good eating and drinking (they have quite a good menu of free drinks and snacks there). i walked around the city and then met zac at trippy taco for lunch. i wandered up brunswick street for an iced coffee at jaspers (any place with "caffeine dealers" on their awning is my kind of place) and eventually caught a tram for the last 2km home. i felt fine all day until the ride home. i think it was the caffeine (although they offered coffee and black tea in the recovery area at the red cross). for the next several hours i felt lightheaded any time i'd try to walk around (just slightly though, not enough that i was gonna pass out). it all went well though and i think i'll be a regular donor (you can donate every 12 weeks but i'll only be able to do it on my r.d.o. once a term or if i get a day off during school holidays). its a easy way to help save lives and it was all pretty relaxing (it made me slow down a bit the rest of the day and not push myself too hard-- its my excuse for not cleaning the house like i said i was going to do today).

Thursday, March 01, 2007

caffiene is the enemy



after burning 2 pots of (decafinated) coffee at home this morning i decided to wait until work to have my coffee (usually someone is preparing morning coffees and teas as i arrive on wednesday morning). i got there and the coffee was already gone. i decided to make a fresh plunger full cuz somebody would want more i was sure. the coffee was soooooo good!! it tasted like a mocha but i was just coffee, sugar and soy milk. i decided on my tea break later on that i would have a second cup (the pot was still sitting there with a cup or 2 left and i don't mind cold coffee). didn't think much of it until a couple (few) hours ago when i decided to go to bed. i couldn't sleep. i tried reading. i read 4 chapters of my book (i NEVER read that much in one sitting). i sill couldn't sleep. then i remembered the coffee. i usually drink decaf at home so i think the 2 cups i'd had this afternoon had affected me a little too much. i decided to get up cuz laying in bed would just drive me nuts. i've been playing around on the computer and i just realized its 5am!! what am i still doing up. fortunately i don't have to be at work until noon but i don't think i'll get a lot done in the morning (although sometimes the caffiene has a lingering effect on me and i'll just sleep a few short hours then be good to go again- until late afternoon, then i'll be needing more). i also have friday off (my once a term r.d.o.) so hopefully i'll get stuff done then. for now i'm gonna try to go to sleep before the sun comes up.