September 2008 Archives

We had a fantastic night on Saturday, starting at 4 and going through until midnight, when it was only Alex and I left to wander off to the motel room that Lauren booked for me. By then I'd had quite enough to drink and could take the silly grin off my face that I seemed to be wearing all night. It was just so lovely to be surrounded by family and friends and it was a perfect night. The weather was lovely, the company and conversation great.

A delicious birthday cake. Most went back for seconds

I was invited on the trip of a lifetime in 3 years to Europe with my cousin and his wife that I think I'll seriously start saving for. Mick and Yvonne both had the best tales of overseas antics I've heard in a long while. It really made me wish I could go, and when Mick suggested that I come with them, because they plan on going back, it sounded too good to refuse.

Carly and Me

All the family was there except for Anthony and Jennifer, though I had a phone call from Anthony just as everyone was arriving for the party. I'm sorry he couldn't have been there to join in the celebrations, but talking to him was lovely. Jen rang me early in the day to wish me the best and also to say she'd love to be there. Christine was a late entrance and as usual, it was great to see her. Sometimes it's so hard to get around family when your immediate family is so large and growing all the time so it was special to catch up with everyone. Mum's brother and sister came with their partners too. It was a like a family reunion. Just a fabulous night.

Emily and Jake, Carly, Me, Mum, Lauren and Alex

Remember...
Cease to inquire what the future has in store...

Take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.

Horace, 65 - 8 BC

Tomorrow is the big "50th" birthday party and so tonight I've been trying to work out the best way to do the music. I've got 9000+ songs on my computer so I'm buggered if I'm paying for a karaoke machine when I can turn my computer into one.

I have a laptop and an 1TB external hard drive and surround sound with 6 speakers, so I thought I could hook up the external drive with my music added to the laptop and then add the 5.1 surround speakers and everything would work. Think Again. That wasn't an option because the laptop wouldn't recognise the surround sound. It only used 2 of the speakers. Lucky I decided to have a couple of beers tonight too or else I might have been particularly pissed off!

Ok another option. I'll just take the whole computer with monitor and speakers. That way I don't need the external drive and all the music is on a partition on the hard drive. The speakers are great and they can be turned up heaps, I only ever use them on about a quarter of the output capability. The kids always complain when I turn them up. Ha! That's a turnaround! I'm always complaining about Carly and her music so occasionally it's payback.

After plugging everything back into the computer, I had problems with Vista, and only 2 of the speakers were working, a problem I had when I initially started using Vista. And after fiddling for half an hour I'm buggered if I know what the problem is.

I logged off and logged into XP, which I haven't used for ages, and what do you know? All the speakers work perfectly. There's something to be said for XP over Vista. It's certainly the superior operating system as far as compatibility with hardware is concerned.

I tried my hand at some cooking this afternoon, making profiteroles. It's ages since I've cooked any sweet thing, and as usual they turned out nothing like the picture. I'm not sure if it's the oven or me, but when I turned them down after 15 minutes, the gas went out on the oven. A couple of them actually did rise, but the rest looked like pancakes. No matter, I've filled them with the custard filling, they just haven't got tops. Still yummy and I'm sure they won't last long once the kids get home.

It's been glorious weather this weekend, perfect Spring weather, with birds singing and gardens bursting with colour. All the trees around are covered with cherry blossoms and parties have been in full swing. You know Spring is here when the parties start. No doubt people are sick of being stuck indoors and hanging around fires and heaters. I know that's how I feel. Carly has been getting around in shorts and singlet tops the last couple of days, and though it's warm, it's not that warm for me.

My 50th birthday is next weekend and we're having a little get-together at the back of the Palm & Pawn Hotel in North Wagga. I just hope the day is as lovely as this one. There's lots there to amuse the kids, they've got a tennis court, volley ball court and a pool. Carly is trying to talk me in to hiring a karaoke machine but I'm not sure it's really necessary. I'll have Friday off to get a few things organised, and perhaps Thursday too, I haven't decided yet. I'm looking forward to it, not like 10 years ago when I was turning 40 - I didn't want to know about it, and certainly wasn't going to celebrate.

It seems I'm always talking about the hectic weeks I have, because here I go again. It's been another one, but it started last week, with a visit from the police at home. It seems there's a big racket going on in Junee with stolen scooter parts, not the motorised kind, the skinny little ones that you see at the skate parks. Alex is in to scooters, and spends alot of his time customising his: swapping and changing wheels, sanding and spray painting, and doing up old parts. Last Saturday I gave him $20 to buy himself a new back wheel, and he ended up swapping one at the skate park in Wagga and giving the kid $10. He was pretty rapt with the deal. Then on Sunday we had the police knocking on the door because some kid had his scooter knocked off and it happened to have a green wheel, just like the one Alex had on his scooter. The cop took the wheel with him to have it checked out and came back half an hour later saying it wasn't the same wheel, that we wouldn't see him again. Phew! I was worried there for a minute.

Then yesterday afternoon there's a cop at the counter at work wanting to talk to me about Alex. This time some kids took a chair out of the school grounds and used it as some sort of ramp at the skate park and it got broken. Alex didn't go into the school, but he was with the kids. The school is pretty pissed that it got taken, and Alex said he saw it broken the next morning on his way to school. The cop said "Kids will be kids" and it probably wouldn't go any further. Phew! Relief again, and by this time I'm thinking, God, what next?

Then this afternoon Alex comes in to work to tell me that somebody stole his scooter from school. Great! So I drove home to see what the story was, and this kid at the skate park had it but has wrecked the back wheel. The wheel was practically square. By now I'm fuming, so I ring the cops. This time they can actually do something for us. A lady cop came around after work and took a statement from Alex, but she wasn't very hopeful that anything positive would come from it. The kid would probably get a warning and Alex is up for a new scooter wheel.

It's just another example of kids with no respect for other people's property, and getting away with things. There's probably a bunch of them at the skate park now laughing about what happened, and one of them a hero in the eyes of the rest because the police went to see him. We're going from bad to worse and wondering where it'll end.

We had a great day out in Wagga with Emily, Lauren and Carly and myself, shopping this morning for Lauren's birthday. First up it was Gloria Jean's coffee while we waited for Emily to arrive. With two children now, and Jake only 2 weeks old, Emily's finding it a lot more difficult to organise herself. It's not often that we get together and browse through the shops anymore so it was extra nice to be able to do that. Lauren was pleased with the haul she took home too.

After shopping, we picked up Alex from the skate park and met the boys at Golden Season's family restaurant for lunch. The place was packed and they were lined up to the door and we were lucky to get a table for 8. I knew there would be a few there, since it's Father's Day today, but it's a huge place, and normally there's no problem getting a table. We all ate till we couldn't eat any more and went back to Lauren's house for coffee.

Lauren, the birthday girl

Riley, thoroughly enjoying his lunch

Emily with Jake