confused

a couple years ago it got really confusing when daylight savings was supposed to end thanks to the commonwealth games. this year might have been similar if i hadn't just read my bicycle victoria newsletter. my calendar sitting on the computer desk has the end of daylight savings in victoria marked as march 30. in my bv newsletter they mentioned having your bike lights ready for the end of daylight savings april 6. somebody was wrong. i checked the government website and they state daylight savings is april 6 so i'm going with that (yeah for 1 more week of not being dark early). that's the 2nd date that's been marked wrong on one of my calendars this year. my free dog's life calendar that i put up at work has easter marked as april 6. i asked a few people at work and consulted a few calendars back in january to figure out that east wasn't april 6 but march 23. i think calendar companies really need to start looking into the dates before they print them up. i wonder how many people are gonna end up changing their clocks on the wrong day because they bought the same calendar as me.......

still bundled up

it's still really cold but i think i might be starting to adjust a little bit. the worst part about the whole thing is that less than 2 weeks ago it was 40C. i don't think the human body can adapt to such a drop in temperature in a short period of time (i'm starting to realize that what i thought were allergies the last week or so may actually be kind of a head cold brought on by the temperature change). the one thing that makes me feel better about freezing right now is that its not just me going into autumn but a good part of the northern hemisphere got dumped on with snow and freezing cold temperatures over easter-- and they're supposed to be getting into spring! usually when i'm sitting here complaining how cold i am, everyone back home is having sunny spring days and laughing at me for thinking 10C is below freezing (it feels like it to me). everyone is complaining its cold though. unfortunately the massive amounts of rain we got in the past couple days (note the black line on the rainfall graph above) didn't land near the catchment areas, mostly just in the city. at least my weeds will be growing well in the garden (and my poor succulents will probably drown, not ever having seen this much water in their lives).
so glad i haven't had to work yesterday or today so i could avoid being out in the rain (and dealing with kids stuck indoors a good part of the day and not properly dressed to go out in the cold when we go out).

cold

i was gonna wait until the end of the month to drag out the heater but i think i need it now. i've been freezing since about 10 min after i walked in the door (i was nice and hot when i came in from riding home with all my rain gear on). i tried pulling down the blinds and shutting the lounge room doors hoping body heat (from sitting watching tv) would heat the room. then i lit candles. they aren't creating enough heat. i even tried tidying the bookshelf thinking that if i moved around i'd be warm (not that cleaning a bookshelf requires much movement). after looking at the weather page and seeing that its only 11C (with the wind chill) i don't feel so wrong about being so cold (and yes, i do realize that back home 11C can mean shorts and t-shirts but here its FREEZING cold-- and that is why we are never moving back to canada). now i'm off to find the heater from somewhere in the junk spare room

a little bit late

about a week and a half ago we celebrated zac's and lea's birthday (2 days short of 3 years apart). zac's dad did a great vegan and carnivore bbq (and he did very well on the vegan stuff). he also got cakes to cater for everyone (well i organized one of the cakes but he paid). first was the non vegan cake:

then the best cake of all: vegan passion fruit cheesecake from soulveg. i got one of these (a raspberry one) for zac's birthday last year and they also catered our engagement party. they're kind of expensive (when you add on the delivery fee) but sooooooo good. they also threw in a couple samples of their new native flavours of cheesecakes.

the professional

we got the professional photos from our wedding back yesterday (and for anyone interested he does a great job for very reasonable rates for anyone wanted good quality natural wedding photos). below are a few of my favourites (i think there's around 400 photos....most of them great!)

signing our lives away:

everyone at the ceremony (although i think my 2 co-workers that came up left before this photo-- they drove all the way from melbourne just for the ceremony!)
our immediate families:

the shot my mom wanted to make sure was taken:
the wedding party:




(that's water on the bottom of my dress, after walking along the beach and standing under a pier)
now we have to decide which photo gets enlarged for the enlargement included in our photo package.

are you aware?

do the test.

the end is near

i don't mind the hot days when there's a drop in temp at nite but last nite was just miserable. it was supposed to get down to 23/24C but it didn't even get to 27C until after zac got up this morning. i think i slept about 20 min total last nite. the rest of the nite i spent lying there turning the cooler on and off (i don't like leaving it running all nite, usually i just leave it on til i'm almost asleep and then flick it off and sleep). last nite every time i tried to turn it off i would be too warm before i fell asleep. it also ran out of water sometime in the middle of the nite which makes it act like a fan instead of a cooler so it wasn't quite as effective. then the wind picked up (still a HOT northerly) and the poor dog refused to sleep anywhere but right in the middle of the bed between our heads (she's absolutely terrified of wind). i wish my lunch break didn't fall over rest time at work-- i would be having a great rest at work today. fortunately the temperature isn't gonna get much higher than it is now (which is pleasantly warm) and then the cool change is gonna come later!!! i'm excited for that-- normal autumn weather.

robots

a friend's mom made a really good comment to my friend about her daughter: your child is a human being.
seems pretty obvious but i think a lot of people forget that. my friend was worried when her baby girl didn't to everything exactly as her books on babies layed things out (not napping, sleeping etc as the book says). several parents of kids at our work (and even us staff sometimes) forget that the children are humans and they have their own wills, agendas and personalities and we can't just expect them to do as we say, when we say. we have a few parents that are VERY particular about how long their children sleep for at rest time (and a couple that constantly change that amount of time). they don't want their child to sleep to long (but some want us to make sure they do sleep and not just rest) so that they can put their child to bed at the exact time that works best for them at nite. its kind of frustrating because at 4-5 years old a lot of them are making that transition from needing a nap to not needing one and they either sleep and then stay up later than the parents want them to at nite or they don't sleep and are horrible to deal with in the afternoon and probably crash on the couch before dinner.
parents need to realize there is a transition time and its a process but it will end. until then it may mean a later bedtime at nite or dealing with a grumpy, overtired child but the child is a person and can't just be expected to follow the agenda of someone else because they aren't programed to do that.

more weather

its 20C out and i'm wearing sweats and a jumper. i'm gonna freeze in winter if 20C is cold to me. give me an hour or 2 and i'm sure i'll be in a singlet (tank top). it was soooooo nice when the cool change hit last nite (the big drop on the graph towards the end of yesterday). i took the dog across the road to the park as soon as i felt the cool breeze thru a window and it was soooooo good. i just stood there while she ran circles around me sniffing every twig and leaf on the ground. of course as soon as i got into our driveway the wind wasn't hitting me anymore and it was still HOT. the wind was coming from the southwest and we only have 1 window (in the kitchen) on the west side of the house (and our neighbours house is about 2m away from that window so it blocks the wind anyway) and the back door and 2 small windows are all we have on the south so it took a while for the coolness to actually come thru the house but its good now. at least today isn't supposed to be ridiculously hot (32C) so it should be bearable (which is good cuz we're having a bbq for zac's birthday in our oven backyard)

more heat

sooooo hot. it barely got down to 25C overnite. the hot, dry wind has been blowing all day (and if you note the column of stats on the left of the above picture the wind "chill" temp is almost 44C!). at some point today the wind is supposed to switch and come from the south (and hopefully drop the temp below 20C overnite). my ride home (all 1.4km of it) was exhausting. usually my speedometer stays up around 22-25km/hr but the fastest i got today was 16km (very briefly). most of the ride was about 12km/h. and it was hard. hot northerly blowing on my face, the very slight uphill slope of the ride, i was dying by the time i reached home. i'm not moving from my personal cooler until the wind changes. tomorrow has a slightly cooler high (32C) but right now they aren't forecasting any days below 30 (and most mid-upper 30s) until mid week next week!!!

heat

i forgot how hot 38C is. its been a while since its been that warm but today is the second day this week like that (and 40C is forecasted for tomorrow). its supposed to be autumn. i feel bad cuz i can't sit at home and wet the dog down every 1/2 hr or so and she has to sit in the extra hot yard (although i do bike home at lunch each day--even in the heat--so she gets a cool down then). i'm just gonna spend the entire evening sitting in front of the personal cooler (it's only supposed to get down to 25C-- its still 37 and its already 6:45pm.

mouser

the dog has been spending a lot of time in the backyard at nite. she'll fly out the back door and head for the compost. a minute later you'll hear her claws scraping the pavement as she runs from the compost to the opening to the garden. then down the side of the house. last nite she finally caught something. i went to check on her and she was sitting on her bed outside with her back to me chewing. i knew what i was gonna find wasn't gonna be pretty. i made her move and give me a look. a poor little mouse layed dead on her bed. i don't even think she thought it tasted that good (and she eats everything!) because when she noticed i had a banana in my hand she started following me around and left the dead mouse. i was pretty disgusted by the whole thing but i couldn't really tell her she was bad cuz she's a dog and that's what dogs (or mostly cats) do. i was glad she was smart enough to keep it outside though. i think there would have been some yelling if she brought it in the house. after i got rid of the body i gave her some peanut butter, lots of water and a bit of banana to try to get rid of dead mouse breath in her mouth (and then i txted zac to make sure he didn't let her kiss him when he got home). hopefully now that she knows rodents don't taste good she'll leave them alone. maybe.

golden plains

this was zac's christmas/early birthday pressent: spending the long weekend at golden plains festival (the new-- this was only the 2nd annual-- meredeth festival). i had a lot more fun at this than meridith (although that wasn't hard since i spent most of meredith in the tent with a 24 hr flu bug). i like the set-up of 2 full days of music and nothing on day 3 instead of 2 half days and 1 full day at meredith (plus since it was a long weekend i didn't have to get out of work at all). the weather was a bit too warm but we managed (although last year was even hotter and friends that went told us it was a bit too much). got to see some good bands too. nobody really stood out but it was really fun (other than the sound difficulties which we couldn't figure out if they got some guy who had no previous sound experience to do the sound or if it was some kind of equipment issue). we saw ween, sharon jones and the dap kings, the vines, iron and wine, beirut (who kept going despite major sound issues), the dirtbombs, the panics, jens lekman, british india, jay retard, future of the left, jane badler and sir, kamikaze trio, the frowning clouds, the sea and cake. i think we only missed a couple of bands and we didn't stay for the deejays at nite.
if the lineup is good next year i think we'll be back again.

mmmmmmm.....foood.

i forgot to mention in the wedding post about all the amazing food. we had the reception at ganesh mandala in barwon heads. unfortunately this really cool vegetarian cafe is closing down at some point this month and they will just be doing take away on weekends and events. their food is AMAZING. we had an entirely vegan menu and even the very avid meat eaters were very impressed with all the food. everything was soooooo good--- and it just kept coming and coming. there was a lot of food left on the tables (it was all done family style with bowls of food brought for each table) so we ended up getting a bunch of take away containers and telling people to load up on left overs if the want it so it doesn't all end up in the bin (laws in australia mean you have to pack your own left overs, they can just give you the container). a bit weird for a wedding but we really didn't want a lot of food waste and the cafe thinks along the same lines (when we went back the next morning to settle the bill the specials menu was filled with items from the wedding too so there must have been a lot left in the kitchen as well). the food was amazing though!!
our cake (pictured above) was also AMAZING. not only did it look really cool but it tasted great-- even better than the actually dessert that came with dinner. it was made by a friend of a friend who does cakes as well as sells tupperware. it was her first vegan cake and she did well (we helped her find a vegan chocolate cake recipe and test it out and then just told her to make it look pretty with blue, silver and ocean-y stuff). if anyone needs a special cake around melbourne let me know and i'll get you her details. she can now do vegan 8)

best party ever!

we've been married for just over a week now. definitely have to say it was the best day ever. even with all the dramas, it turned out perfect. we had a small issue when i checked my email the day before the wedding and my friend who was supposed to be arriving that afternoon from canada was stuck in new zealand after getting horribly airsick. fortunately i was able to get hair appointments with a great hairdresser (who wasn't even supposed to be working) for both me and lea. we also had wind issues and the ceremony had to be relocated to the other side of the bridge an hour before the wedding. the weather cleared up and the sun came out just before the ceremony (it was raining less than half an hour before the wedding while we were waiting for our ride to take us there).
wombat was also VERY well behaved in her roll as ring bearer (she even went muzzle free which we didn't plan on doing)
here's a couple photos from my mom and brothers cameras.

me and mom before the ceremony:
the ceremony

newly married (wombat wasn't much into the photos-- the photographer was very excited to get her looking at the camera after getting several dozen shots of her backside):
the band (zac got wagons to play-- our favourite melbourne band). they were amazing!!