scorcher

its supposed to be 42 degrees today (with an overnite low of 26C-- its gonna be another super-hot new years eve and this time we're at a place with no air con).
we've got a plan and so far we're doing ok (its only 10 am though). yesterday was a weird cool day between 2 hot days. it only got to 25C and was mild overnite. before we went to bed we shut all the doors and windows except the bedroom one. when it started getting warm-ish this morning i shut that. all the blinds are down and the windows are shut now. apparently its 33C outside already. the house is just nice right now. unfortunately our house doesn't have proper insulation so that nice is gonna last only so long but we have a plan for that bit too-- we've booked a flexicar this afternoon and we're gonna go up to lea and jay's to enjoy their pool (and their company. and their air conditioning). then we're gonna come home for a bit to be with the dog (i wish we had proper air conditioning for her sake. we can't actually put her in the back yard when it gets this hot cuz the yard gets even hotter with the pavement and corruganted iron fences). we'll give her a bath (and we'll be soaking her down thru the day since she's too stupid to go in her pool) and once it gets slightly cooler (or more likely, once the sun isn't beating down on the yard anymore) we'll be able to put her out and go to our friends to celebrate the new year.
















i just noticed the wind on the weather info page (the circle in the bottom left corner). usually its a bit scribbly but that wind is just coming straight from the north (explaining the ridiculous heat)

movies

i think we've seen more movies in the past week than we have all year (actually, we've seen 2 movies. i think we went to 2 movies in the first 6 months of this year. and then we didn't go again until now).

first up we saw eagle vs. shark on christmas eve (a great time to see movies-- very few people were there and plus cuz monday is cheap nite at the nova it was less than half of what it cost us last nite at the westgarth). it pretty much was the new zealand version of napoleon dynamite when he's in his 30s so it was pretty funny (the guy is from flight of the conchords).

last nite we went to the dajeeling limited which was also good. although zac promised me bill murray wasn't in this one (i don't really like him for some reason) but 5 min into it he appears (although for probably the smallest roll of his career. ever).

we also watched black sheep on dvd this week (another new zealand movie). it was kind of along the lines of shaun of the dead but with radioactive sheep instead of zombies. i didn't think i'd like it but it was pretty funny and i sat thru it all (i have a habbit of getting up 20-30 min into a dvd and going to do something else, then maybe sitting back down for the last 5 or 10).

its not even noon!!!

this is what the weather is like right now:

its not even noon and its 35C (39.4 with the wind "chill"). the only air conditioning we have is a portable personal air conditioner. i'm glad we have that though. as long as you sit in front of its blowing air (and keep the water inside topped up) its comfortable. move anywhere else inside or outside and its WAY too hot! i hate running the air conditioner all day but i think as long as i'm home i'm gonna be on the couch with it blowing on me. later on this arvo maybe we can bike somewhere with air conditioning (when the sun isn't so high and burn-y) or take an air conditioned tram to the beach (i think all the trams on our tram route are air conditioned-- i don't think i could handle one that's not when the temp is in the upper 30s).

wombat gets spoiled

even though wombat couldn't come to any of the family lunches this year she still got spoiled with gifts. she even got to open all her own pressents:

(the tire on that toy is now in a zillion pieces but the rope is still good)

this gift was special handmade dog biscuits (she's only had part of one of the 2 so far and she LOVED it)

a video of her opening her new kong toy (the only wombat-proof toy):

in denial

first a christmas video (its entertaining):

its been pretty "cold" and wet the last few days (which was a nice change-- especially since when it first started getting rainy it was still pretty warm so it was VERY humid.

i've been in denial that its "cold" though. i still wore my flip flops all day yesterday and saturday(but when i got home i put my fuzzy socks on). today i decided to not put a regular thickness hoodie on to ride down to brunswick street (and i still am refusing to put shoes and socks on to go out-- i haven't worn shoes and socks in weeks!). i kinda regretted it. especially while we sat outside and drank coffee (and i got an iced coffee cuz i was warm walking up the sunny side of the road to the cafe but sitting in the shade with the southerly wind whipping up the street wasn't nice for drinking iced coffee). now i've been sitting at home for an hour or so and i realized i've been shivering most of that time. i'm finally gonna give in and put fuzzy socks and a warmer hoodie on (and i think i'll wear socks and shoes when we go to the movies tonite too).

day at the beach

we had to go check out some stuff for the wedding so we made another beach trip for wombat. the weather was a bit crap but it was probably good cuz less people were out with their dogs (although we still ended up at the nude beach by torquay in order to get away from other dogs--but at least it wasn't good weather for nude swimming/sun bathing cuz i wouldn't be able to take photos of wombat at the beach if people were laying around naked).

look at that dirty mouth (the sand is even on her tongue-- but all she cares about is the ball):

jumping for the ball:

the second shot in this collage is zac pointing to the ground and telling her to come here. she was doing surprisingly well at it-- even better than at home where she just barges past you when you tell her to come here when playing fetch)

focused on the ball:

happy and sandy:

exhausted:

crazy rain

i found this video on the age website taken in melbourne yesterday during a HUGE downpour we had in the afternoon (i was snuggly inside watching the grinch with 26 kids). i wonder how many minutes (or seconds) after the guy did that, he really regretted it (but at least his friends--and now everyone checking out the age website-- get a good laugh).

i'm ready (sort of)

christmas can come now-- i finished work this afternoon. no more work for 4 weeks!!!!! (above pic from here) yesterday was our last day with kids and today was our clean-up day. the director took us out to lunch at the pub down the road and we had an AMAZING lunch!!! the vegetarians (3 of us) got mushroom risotto, the meat eaters had lamb, we all got truffles (the fungus kind, not chocolate) which were really good (only 1 person had tried them before). there were amazing salads and vegetables for everyone and then for dessert we had strawberries with coriander and mint with yogurt sorbet (SOOOOOOO good--- the the weird tilted bowls it was served in were really cool too!). wouldn't really expect such a good gourmet meal from the little local pub (i'd eaten there once before and it was also a really good meal but i'd been a bit sick feeling overnite and we figured it was possibly the wild mushrooms that 3 or 4 of us had in our meals).

i think i'm supposed to be going up to zac's work christmas party now but i'm not cuz of this (and the fact i'm exhausted):

all that blue stuff (and the yellow bits) is rain. usually there's just a few patches of blue (if any at all) when i go to that page but there's storms and thunderstorms forecast for most of the evening and thru tomorrow. i think i'll just sit at home with the dog and light my christmas lites and candles since its so dark for 6pm.

impressive cat

check out this story. i love the look on the cat's face in the photo- he just looks so unimpressed with the situation. 1 life down, 8 to go.

a better christmas gift

http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au/

(but you'll have to do the e-card if you want the card to be to the person for christmas day).

(almost) never

just to add to what i wrote last nite--- it was extremely annoying that my body decided to give in to the bug on the weekend cuz i (almost) NEVER get sick like that. my entire life (from about 3 or 4 years old until 25) i had only been sick like that 5 times. last weekend was the 3rd time in the 4 years that i've lived in australia!!!!!

recovering

we went to meredith music festival this past weekend. it was ok. would have been much better if i hadn't spent all of saturday in the tent with some 24 hr flu virus. friday i saw a couple of the bands but i was exhausted from a too busy week and having to get up for work at 6:30am before going to meredith. saturday i spent in the tent being very sick. i never made it too the stage. sunday i actually got to enjoy the festival, watch the bands and hang out with people. we've got some photos (that zac took-- mostly saturday while i was sick). once i get them on the computer i might upload a couple.
i think i'm still recovering from the flu. i went to work today (only cuz it's the last week this week!!) and felt horrible most of the time. i finally thought to take some ibuprofen 2/3 of the way thru the afternoon-- that helped me feel a lot better but still not great. i tried to go to bed an hour ago but i'm not sleepy. just tired and blah. i think i might try again now.

random meme about the home

cuz i'm burning millions (or just 41) copies of a dvd slide show i've made for the kids as part of their end of year gift from us and i need something to do on the computer while i'm doing this i'm gonna do this meme:

What kind of soap is in your bathtub?
right now i think its mango. or maybe strawberry. i buy it 5 bars at a time and never pick 2 the same cuz there's so many good scents.

Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
nope.

What would you change about your living room?
add air conditioning. and get rid of the brown carpet. and all the clutter. and make the window on the west side open-able.

Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty?
we don't have a dishwasher. there's only a couple dirty dishes in the kitchen though.

What is in your refrigerator?
a few different kinds of dip (hommus, red capsicum and a vegan veggie dip thing), lots of chocolate and a few wilting veggies.

White or wheat bread?
wheat (especially ones with lots of seeds in them)

What is on top of your refrigerator?
a lot of dust, a casserole dish, stubby holders, a big bowl. maybe a cereal box too(?)

What is the pattern on your shower curtain (or is it plain)?
i just bought a new one-- white with a pattern of what looks like water drops all over it (i had to get rid of the blue one with penguins all over cuz half the design had come off)

How many plants are in your home?
1. its not doing too well but its alive. its a bamboo plant so it shouldn't take too much nurturing to keep it going.

Is your bed made right now?
nope.

Comet or Soft Scrub?
neither. an environmentally friendly, vegan disinfectant and baking soda if i need something to scrub with.

Is your closet organized?
a bit. clothes that can hang are hanging (mostly). shoes on the bottom. junk on top of them. things i don't ever wear but think i might thrown in the top part that i can't see into/reach unless i stand on a milk crate.

Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home?
both. used to be plastic but starting to do more glass.

Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now?
i don't even think you can buy powdered iced tea in australia and only once have i actually gone to the effort to make iced tea from scratch (even though i love it)

If you have a garage, is it cluttered?
no garage. if i had one it would be cluttered though.

Curtains or blinds?
do i have them? which do i prefer? i have those pull down blinds but in the bedroom we have added a thin white see-thru-ish curtain so the neighbours can't see in during the day when the blinds are open (the almost directly face each other about 2m apart) and then we added a big sheet so we can have the window open all nite and the wind doesn't make the wooden part of the blinds bang on the window sill cuz we leave the blinds up now and just use the sheet as a blind.

How many pillows do you sleep with?
2

Do you sleep with any lights on at night?
it has to be fairly dark but i do have the green glow from my stereo on for an hour while relaxing music plays.

How often do you vacuum?
once a week. more if the dog is shedding lots

Standard toothbrush or electric?
both. electric when i actually have a battery in it. standard most of the time.

What color is your toothbrush?
either green or purple. i can't remember (i just grab it)

Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch?
yep. with big scary looking dogs on it 8) zac bought it last week.

What is in your oven right now?
nothing.

Is there anything under your bed?
1 small little box (there was about 10 times that amount of stuff and a HUGE amount of dust but that all got cleaned out when we steam cleaned the carpets last week. now it all lives in zacs part of the closet-- he hasn't realized this yet)

Chore you hate doing the most?
washing the dishes. and cleaning the bathtub but zac does that for me.

What retro items are in your home?
i'm not sure.......maybe a few fabric scraps i've scavenged from work but nothing that i can't think of right now.

Do you have a separate room that you use as an office?
nope. the spare room is the music/junk room. the computer lives in the lounge room.

How many mirrors are in your home?
2 2/3. 2 in the bathroom and 2/3 of a mirror in the bedroom

What color are your walls?
cream. very boring cream.

Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home?
wombat. not sure how much she'd protect us. i think she'd use her deep bark til the person was inside and then just jump up on them looking for pats and treats.

What does your home smell like right now?
vanilla-y from my oil burner.

Favorite candle scent?
oceanus. vanilla. cinnamon. citrus. depends on the time of year.

What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now?
none 8(

What color is your favorite Bible?
the only one i have now is maroon.

Ever been on your roof?
nope.

Do you have a stereo?
2-- my nice expensive one that doubles as my alarm clock and the cute little one in the kitchen (a gift from a friend who stayed with us for ages). we also have several non-working stereos in the front room waiting to find somewhere to go.

How many TVs do you have?
1. and 1 4" black and white portable one that we never use. and one other random one that we wanna get rid of. so 3 i guess. we only use 1

How many house phones?
1

Do you have a housekeeper?
me. and zac. we dont' do a good job.

What style do you decorate in?
i don't

Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints?
Solid. we have plaid though and it isn't too bad.

Is there a smoke detector in your house?
1 but it's broken. we have to replace it.

In case of fire, what are the items in your house which you'd grab if you could make only one trip?
wombat. and the photo albums. or the back-up cds of all my photos

toooooooooooo HOT!

unfortunately the little weather graph had some technical difficulties or something so i had to draw in part of the line myself(from yesterday evening until mid-morning today). it was in the mid 30s yesterday. it stayed above 29C all nite until about 7am this morning. it got really dark and gray for a couple hours after that, hit a low of 17C at about 10am then went back up to a temp in the comfortable mid 20s.
heat overnite like that is just wrong. i was kinda glad i was working in the morning instead of the afternoon today. i was already awake long before the alarm went off at 7am. a lot of the kids were horribly grumpy (probably most of them lacking sleep from the heat) but we made it thru the morning. i got to come home at 1 and i attempted to nap with a nice cool breeze coming thru the window but my brain wouldn't stop thinking about stuff i wanted to get done today. it was nice just to lie down in the dark for a while though.

a little bit of rain

when i got in to work this morning i commented to my co-worker that i was kinda disappointed that we didn't get any of the forecasted thunder storms in our area (i LOVE thunder storms and we never seem to get them here anymore). she said it would have been good if we had even got some good rain. less than an hour later the rain started coming down (it was good that i'd come in early today cuz i would have gotten wet if i'd started at my normal time). thunder started going a bit later. it rained a bit more right until lunch time then stopped about 5 min before we went out to eat (the tables were dry under the vehranda but we were a bit worried about having the kids eat outside if a thunderstorm happening). part way thru rest time the sky got dark (which was good cuz then the room is extra dark and more kids fall asleep) and the thunder started booming. just as we were finishing up rest time the rain started POURING down. a couple minutes later the director and a couple other staff are running around outside collecting the sand bags from the sand pit and moving hay bails around and sweeping a gigantic puddle away from the door to our room. we just opened the double doors and sat some benches infront of the doors so the kids who were awake could sit and watch the rain (and the staff frantically trying to keep it outside). fortunately it let up and started sinking into the very dry soil before it got into the room. zac's work wasn't so lucky. rain was running down the walls and out of light fixtures. they had to shut off the power and after about an hour they sent everyone home (i wouldn't be so lucky at my work-- we'd just be stuck trying to entertain 25 kids in the undercover area outside or something)
the pics are from zac's mobile from his ride home. he went along the creek the whole way-- it was pretty flooded (he rode thru the flooded over parts in the photos-- even after telling a 12 year old kid standing in the flood how dangerous it was)

this is the bit of the creek near our house:

the water was almost up to the path under the bridge (usually you can see stones sticking out of the water all under the bridge and its at least 2 feet down to the water from the lowest part of the path):

i like the rainfall on the weather chart (the black graph at the bottom)

not just a black hump to show a bit of rain but a very black filled in mark over a few hours.

here's a link to some photos (why do people attempt to drive thru obviously large puddles?)

winter-summer

the one thing i love about living in australia is that winter isn't really winter (even though i do get cold and i complain, its much better than canadian winters-- even vancouver's "mild" winters)
the pictures below are from webcams on the weather network website.
even though its slightly grey here (with a bit of much needed rain!!) i'm glad i'm not in canada now (although i'd probably be getting a snow day if i lived in vancouver)
here's victoria and sidney, just north of victoria (useless trivia: sidney is the sister city of cairns australia-- it says so on the sign as you drive thru the town to get to the ferry terminal to go to vancouver. zac and i always wonder why cairns. why not syndey australia?) anyway, it looks miserable!

i think this pic is from west vancouver (some of the webcams i really wanted to see weren't working):

surrey (near where i used to live) at the pacific hiway border crossing (not much of a line up today):
burnaby at the sfu campus:

as pretty as vancouver looks (and all the amaing photos friends have put up on their blogs/facebook etc) i'm glad i'm not there to see it.

i'd much rather have this end of the weather:

being grown up

a box of candle making supplies i ordered arrived this morning. every time i get a package and can't find the scissors (or they just aren't within arms reach of where i put the box down) i grab a pen to stab open the tape on the box. i was never allowed to do this growing up (if i ever got caught i'd be in trouble). my mom always told me that i'd wreck the pen by doing it (pens were often precious in our house, they often dissappeared into that weird black hole where they met up with lost socks and random other household items). i think 90% of packages that i've received since i moved out of home over 11 years ago have been opened with pens-- and i've never broken one yet!

the outside world

now that we leave the front door open so much wombat spends a lot of time in the hallway watching the world outside

freudian slip(?) and mispronounced words

the poor news woman on sbs made a pretty horrible slip tonite (she caught herself right before she finished the word and corrected herself but it was kinda funny-- and a bit horrible at the same time). she was talking about an australian soldier who died and that the corpse was being transported somewhere except it came out as carcass instead of corpse.

a kid at work has organic sultanas (raisins) in his lunch some days. he's very proud of them and a few weeks ago he went up to one of the teachers and said "guess what. i have mechanic sultanas in my lunch!" (instead of organic). she found it pretty funny and instead of correcting him she told him to go tell someone else. now every time we see the little box of sultanas somebody always goes up to him and asks "what kind of sultanas do you have?" nobody ever corrects him though (its our little bit of amusement during part of the day when its usually pretty chaotic. this kid also mispronounces some other words (or just uses a completely wrong word). like one day when his clams were up (glands). he's a funny kid. we probably should start correcting him though otherwise he could end up one of those people that go thru life saying things like libarry and chimley (not so funny when your doing it at 50 or older) and talking about all the 'mechanic' produce at he gets from the shops.

a little taste of home

we went to the discount wine place up the road to stock up on some wine (the bottles are only cheap if you get a half dozen-- but you can mix the half dozen). they had a new (well since the last time we went there probably 8 or 10 months ago) beer fridge at the front of the shop. as we were paying for the wine zac pointed out the labatts. on the bottom shelf they had single beers for sale. there was a labatts!! i had to get it cuz it tastes like home (although last time we were there i didn't have 1 labatts or kokanee because i fell in love with all the little microbrews around vancouver and victoria). when i went to pay for it the guy told me that i should try a different beer (some german on or something that i'd never heard of) because the labatts was expensive. zac just kept trying to explain to him that i was canadian, that's why i wanted it (and i'm sure its 50 cents cheaper than the other place in st kilda that sells them-- and a million other import beers from all over the world). i'm excited i can get one for a treat so close to home! basically zac used the analogy of that's like buying a vb for $4 in canada (this coming from the guy who payed $5 for a can of tecate last weekend because it was a mexican themed bar so he wanted a mexican beer-- i'm sure we paid less than a dollar for those in san diego).
anyway, it was my little taste of canada for the weekend. 8)

out with the old, in with the new

i was pretty happy last nite when we realized australia was gonna have a new prime minister. he's not my first choice (if i could actually vote-- another year or so before i can become a citizen) but i'm sure its gonna be a huge step up from howard. there was a lot of celebrating around our neighbourhood last nite (and i'm sure around most of the country).

more weather

i'm home sick again (this time my head is filled with whatever it fills with when you're congested). i've taken stuff for it but psuedophedrine causes me to sleep (and they put it all non-drowsy stuff cuz its supposed to keep you alert and awake). i slept for 3 hrs and now i just feel all groggy but its too hot and windy to sleep (and i can't shut the windows or i'll suffocate).
look at that wind "chill" (the bottom line):

its almost 39C!!! we're completely out of fruit so i can't make myself some nice smoothies today 8(
i'm ready for a break from all this heat (tomorrow is forcasted for a low of 15C-- yea!!-- and a high of 19C. it'll probably be horrible for my cold (a lot of people get sick in spring and autumn here because of the quick weather changes and your body doesn't know what to do).

i'm gonna go check on the soy ice cream i saw in the freezer-- hopefully there's more than 2 spoonfuls left cuz i think that's what i'll be dining on most of today-- great nutrients for a cold 8). maybe zac will get home early and bring some fruit. or maybe i'll feel less groggy later and be able to walk the 90 sec to 7-11 to find some nice cold treats. or maybe the cool change will just come early and i'll be able to cook some soup or something......

its gonna be hot

we're still a couple weeks away from the official start of summer but already its getting a bit too hot. its worse during the nite when it doesn't cool down (especially when there's no breeze to even blow thru the open windows). tonite its only supposed to get down to 23C (i degree cooler than it is now). the main reason i decided not to call into work sick today (i called in sick friday cuz i couldn't talk or swallow my throat hurt so bad. today my extremely sore throat turned into a cold) was because work has air conditioning (and as of last thursday not just in the 2 rooms the kids are in but also in all the offices so even my tea break is nice now). i'm hoping the forecasts are right and tomorrow at some point a cool change is supposed to come in and then we'll be back to normal mildly cool nites and warm to hot days. now i'm gonna go wet the dog down (again) and search for my amazing cool pack my mom got me (it looks a bit like a small scarf and its filled with those beads that absorb water-- soak it in water for a few min then wrap it around your neck. keeps you a bit cool for ages).

the moon

this picture was taken thru zac's telescope with our slr camera. i got bored last nite and decided to pull out his telescope that hasn't been used in several years. i managed to find the moon pretty quickly (only cuz i'd been playing around with denise's new telescope in paynesville and all my o.e. knowledge of telescopes came back to me). i could have got a clearer shot if i'd put the camera on a tri-pod but i couldn't be bothered to do any more set up last nite. maybe when the moon is full next weekend i'll set it all up again and use a tri-pod for the camera.