Toni's Corner of the World

School Holiday Activities

2008-10-12T07:09:09Z

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted anything on this site. It's also been school holidays and this have been the usual hectic around here, especially with Carly now working in Wagga. She worked 4 days last week and another 3 this week, and the driving backwards and forwards to Wagga is taking it's toll, physically and financially. Carly's loving it though, earning a wage for the first time and having money to spend, she's having a ball.

We've had the usual holiday activities at work too. The first week I went to the movies with another girl from work, taking a bus load of nearly 60 people. This week I took 31 kids to the Handstand Factory in Wagga and had to sit for 3 hours while they enjoyed the gymnastics. I read a book but could have gone to sleep on the bus coming home. Hard work. Then Friday we ran the skate comp that turned in to a disaster in the last 15 minutes. The rest of the day was great, with about 20 kids competing in skateboard, bmx and scooter in 3 categories. A couple of kids ruined it for the rest and it looks like there may not be another comp for a while. It just boiled down to bad behaviour, which was a shame, because the majority of the kids were good.

Alex cleaned up in the comp. He entered scooter advanced, and came 1st, skateboard beginner, and came 1st, and bmx intermediate, and came 2nd. He got an armload of great prizes including a new pair of skate shoes, a grouse skateboard deck, a new scooter wheel and a truckload of stickers. He was feeling pretty proud of himself on Friday night.

Yesterday I dropped Alex and his mate at the pool in Wagga after we took Carly to work. Then I headed up to Lauren's to visit the family and Emily was there with Jake. Daniel's brother was also there, he'd just flown down from Broome and is heading back to Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays for the summer. He goes all over the place working at resorts during the peak season. What a job. Daniel's dad dropped in for a while too. Later in the night when I went back to Wagga to pick Carly up, I called up to Emily's house and Kai's mum and dad were there. It turned out to be a full-on family day, catching up with everyone.

I've been a book worm for the last few weeks and I've read about 4 books in 3 weeks. I've got a new day-bed on the front verandah that all the kids threw in for and bought for my 50th birthday. I've been taking full advantage of the warm weather and the comfy lounge and so the reading. The only problem is fighting with the cat to see who gets to sit on it. There's cat hair all over the blanket I threw over it for just that reason.

The 50th Birthday Bash

2008-09-29T11:59:14Z

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

The Big 50th

2008-09-26T12:27:21Z

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.

Spring Is In The Air

2008-09-21T07:41:42Z

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.

The Saga of the Scooters

2008-09-16T09:57:57Z

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.

Lauren Turns 27

2008-09-07T07:50:20Z

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

No More Sport

2008-08-31T08:49:05Z

Carly and I drove to Cootamundra yesterday for the first round of the OzTag finals. The Junee girls' team played against Wagga Kangaroos and at full-time the score was 4-all. They played extra time and Kangaroos scored. The girls were unlucky and are out of the comp now. Carly got a head butt to her cheekbone and came off with a nasty swelling and red cheek. For a team that didn't know what OzTag was about at the beginning of the season, they've done really well.

The touch football sign-ups were held a couple of weeks ago for the summer comp but neither of the kids wanted to play. That's understandable for Carly because she's been working on Saturdays, and I think Alex is just over the whole sport thing at the moment. It hasn't stopped for years, quite often the winter comp overlapping the summer comp. I'm a bit disappointed he doesn't want to play because he's a good little touch player and the team will miss him, but I'm not sorry we won't be rushing off to sport every weekend. I'll be driving Carly to work and that's bad enough. We have a local comp on a Thursday night that Carly will probably play in, and that won't interfere with work.

Cricket sign ups won't be far away but I think Alex may be too old this year and we definitely won't be joining any of the Wagga teams. So much for all the new cricket gear Alex got last year, it will stay in his room collecting dust unless he gets motivated for a game. They play a bit of street cricket on our block in the summer, and it may get some use then.

Our Newest Family Member

2008-08-24T10:18:52Z

Our newest family member, Jake Ryan Picciolo, was born on Saturday morning, 23 August, at 5.30 am. Emily took him home from hospital today and both mother and baby are doing great.

Jake Ryan Picciolo, 7lb 5oz, born at 5.30am on 23/8/08.

Jake and Kai, at home, a special father and son bonding going on.

Alex and Jake: the uncle getting to know his nephew on his first day in the world.

Scarlett at the hospital on the day they took her baby brother home.

I wrote a much longer post on the lead up to the birth on Toni's Alternate World.

Keeping In Touch

2008-08-14T08:27:13Z

I just loved the picture and had to use it, it's beautiful and I think I would like to incorporate it into a theme some time. Time seems to be one thing I have little of lately (I think that is an oft-repeated statement from me!). I spend a good hour reading all the feeds I subscribe to, I'm up to 51 and they just keep coming. Google Reader has turned out to be an excellent tool for gathering everything into one spot and has extra features that I find quite handy, like sharing stories with friends, and adding stars to favourite articles. Then there's Twitter and Friend Feed, keeping up with the people I follow is nearly impossible, and I wonder why I even bother, but I do come across some interesting articles that would normally go under my radar. Then there's email. I have that pretty well under control now since I've switched to GMail to take care of all the spam. Occasionally I go through the spam to see if there's something there that shouldn't be, but it's rare. I'd recommend it to anyone with a spam problem.

I just upgraded to the newest Movable Type release that is now better than ever. MT 4.2 has incorporated the Community Pack and the Professional Pack into one package called Movable Type Pro. It used to cost to use those additional services, but they're now free for personal use. I haven't had a chance yet to really check it all out. Some of the social networking features I use on Toni Hambilton Online, it's a blog I set up that just gathers all the things I do on the web and lists them, like when I save a page or add tweets (use Twitter). It's easy to maintain because I don't do anything after it's set up. The best sort of site.

On a personal note, I've been busy. Carly worked 3 nights over in Wagga last week and it meant driving her over and picking her up. Thursday night I stayed over there and visited both Lauren and Emily. Friday I organised a lift over for her with a girl I work with who lives in Wagga, then drove over later to bring her home. Saturday night I drove over twice, and that was after driving to Tumut and back with Alex for football. All in all, alot of driving (and petrol). You do what you have to do, as the old saying goes. She's totally rapt to be getting wages. First thing this morning she logged into NetBank and lit up like a lantern when she saw how much money had gone in. I'm seeing a much more mature Carly lately. The Year 10 exams will be starting soon and she'll really have her hands full then.

Work has been very busy this week too. Councillor elections are being held next month and nominations closed on Wednesday, so there was lots of faxing being done. It's business paper week as well, and it's a big one. The photocopier will be tied up all morning tomorrow. I feel like I've had a productive week, and have caught up on a few jobs that were hanging around. But I'm tired. I haven't been to the gym for a few weeks now, there's always something else I have to do. Starting next week I'm getting back to the routine I had, and Monday and Wednesday nights will be gym nights. I do too much sitting at computers not to go!

Football Over for Another Year

2008-08-09T12:18:47Z

It was a miserable day in Tumut for the quarter final of the Junior Rugby League, foggy, raining and cold. Our boys played against Tumut and lost 30 - 22. The were behind from the start and made a good effort to get on top, but Tumut was the better team on the day. This is the first time for years that we've been out of the comp so early in the finals, and every other year have made it to the grand final. Alex told me he's not playing again next year but we'll see. He limped off with a swollen foot and knee and said on the way home that he was glad it was all over. The older they get, the bigger they get, and the more it hurts.

66th Riverina Schoolboys Football Carnival

2008-08-02T08:49:26Z

The first Saturday in August the whole town of Junee pulls together to host the Riverina Schoolboys Football Carnival, and this year the day started out cold and overcast with the forecast for rain. Alex's team has won their age group every year, and this year was no exception, winning their under 13s division for the 7th year in a row. My contribution for the day was an hour of scoring two games. I was rugged up with layers of clothing, hat, scarf and gloves and still I froze. Our games were widely spaced, with the first at 9.30, then again at 12.30 and the last game at 4pm. Lucky for us we live close, and were able to duck home between games and commitments to thaw out in front of the heater for a while before heading off again. Carly's Tag League team were rostered to help out in one of the canteens and Carly spent 2 hours turning sausages. Apart from the cold it was a great day, though this year we were over on the new soccer fields so I didn't catch up with many people.

Unfortunately I'm not much of a photographer, and at the end of the day when the team got together for a photo, my camera was in the car.

Tonight I have a house full of kids sleeping over, but for the moment it's just me and I love it. Alex and his 2 friends are having tea down town, and Carly and her friends have gone to a party. The deadline is midnight and she has strict instructions not to be late.

Flat Tyre Makes for Bad Back to Work Start

2008-07-28T11:46:26Z

It was back to work for me this morning after two weeks holiday and it was hard. I was up early and ready to roll, and we got 100 metres in the car and I discovered I had a flat tyre. Not the best start to the day! Carly and I both walked, with her 20 paces in front of me puffing along behind. It was cold but I was overheated by the time I got to work - late.

Lunchtime was good though. We had a girls' lunch, and met Lisa and Nikki, both with their babies. Lisa is back to work next week after 6 months maternity leave, and Nikki's baby is 2 weeks old today and beautiful. I had mountains of work to get through today, all piled up and waiting for me. It made the day go by in a blur and when I got home I got all ready to tackle the problem of the flat tyre when my neighbour asked if I wanted his son to change the wheel for me. Naturally, that would be a yes.

We had a great weekend with Scarlett's first birthday on Saturday at Noah's Ark in Wagga. They do themes for birthday parties, and we had the "Sea Room". She had a couple of little friends and her grandparents, along with uncles and aunties and cousins. The fathers had the best time of all, as you can see from the photo: Kai had a ball on the slide with Scarlett, and Zeke and Daniel spent a good deal of time up and down as well. Alex and Zeke kept going after Daniel had enough.

Carly played Oz Tag on Sunday so off to Wagga we went again. The day was another really cold one and luckily I was able to watch the games from inside the car. She scored a try but they lost 7 to 3. She worked on Friday night at the restaurant where she did her work experience, they loved her so much it looks like she could be working every weekend from now on. She's rapt of course, and tomorrow we'll set up a bank account for her so she can get paid.

Alex's team played the last game of the season on Saturday before the finals begin. They lost to Young who are unbeaten this year. Next weekend is the Riverina Schoolboys Rugby League Carnival and already there are over 160 teams signed up so it's going to be a big day. All the locals get involved because someone has to score each game, then someone else runs around and collects all the scores. I help out every year and usually score a couple of games. This year will be no different. The weather is the only unpredictable thing, so (fingers crossed) here's hoping we have good weather.

A Bad Day Online

2008-07-25T04:09:30Z

I spent much of yesterday upgrading all my sites with the latest release candidate 4 for Movable Type 4.2 but not without problems. Whether the problem had something to do with the upgrade or it was a hosting issue I'm not sure, but the addresses for my sites were changed somewhere along the way. I couldn't access www.juneemagic.com, only juneemagic.com would work, and mt4.juneeonline.com, which does not have the "www" in front, would only work as www.mt4.juneeonline.com, very strange indeed.

Twitter was down most of yesterday too. You may have noticed my "tweets" in the sidebar where I post little snippets of conversation. I follow other people's conversations and they can follow mine. It's stupid, I know, this social networking is one big time waster. I feel a bit like an eavesdropper, listening in on conversations. Some of it is technical, like Movable Type and Twitter Status, but most is everyday stuff: I'm in New York, or having lunch, or it's hot today. I guess it makes me feel "connected". Well I lost most of the people I was following after Twitter's outage and getting them back was a pain. It's pretty boring just to read your own posts. We're all in the same boat and whereas I was only following about 20 people, some have thousands in their lists. It's amazing that they have the time to read them all.

A Family Day

2008-07-23T01:47:23Z

I finally accomplished something while I've been home on holidays. The shelves have been sitting around for six months waiting to be put up. First, no-one could find the charger for the portable drill, then when Alex found it I still procrastinated. I really wish I could work on that. Not to worry, they're up now and they look good.

Carly and I went to Wagga after I picked her up from school yesterday and we bought clothes to wear to Nanna's funeral today. This morning I went to the hairdresser and had gold tips put in my hair and it was so lovely to have a head massage. It makes me want to go back every week. The hairdresser here in Junee is lovely and she remembered Nanna from her visits to Cooinda Court to cut all the residents' hair.

My Uncle is coming down from Queensland for Nan's funeral. It's the first time he's back to Wagga in over 10 years so I'm glad he'll get to see everyone again. He hasn't met any of my grandchildren yet, and my sister hasn't seen him since he left. I'm picking Christine and her son Matt up around 2.

Dad's back in hospital too. I received a shock email on Monday night telling me to ring the Tweed hospital and I thought "heart attack" initially. I didn't think I'd even be here to make the funeral, but he'll go home later today. He's having breathing problems and had a bit of a chest infection so they kept him in to pump him full of antibiotics. I didn't get to speak to him and all the hospital staff sounded very positive, so I can only assume that everything's alright.

Kids Enjoying the School Holidays

2008-07-21T05:57:17Z

Carly and Alex are back tomorrow after over 2 weeks of school holidays, but Wednesday they'll be having the day off to attend their great-grandmother's funeral service.

I've seen very little of Alex during the break. He's up early and off on his scooter or bike, and comes home when he's hungry, then gone again. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be a 13-year-old who's biggest worry is being allowed to have friends sleep over. Carly is home more often, and has had friends stay every other night, but she also helps to keep the house tidy and that's usually cleaning up after Alex.

Mum dropped around today and she's in much better spirits. We talked about the funeral arrangements, who would drive who, and what we needed to do afterwards for the wake. It will be held at Warren and Julie's house and we'll organise the food and drink beforehand.

Little Riley has been very sick too. He spent Friday and Saturday nights in hospital, with Lauren sleeping in the chair next to his cot. He has a bacterial infection in his chest. When I looked after him last weekend I told Lauren he was very rattly in the chest, but her doctor wasn't too concerned and kept telling her to give him pain relief. She took him to a different doctor on Friday afternoon who sent them both straight to the hospital. We called in yesterday to see them, and Riley is very pale but as usual he had big smiles for everyone. Even when he's sick he's still a calm, quiet child. After this course of antibiotics we'll probably see him thrive. I hope so, anyway.

Emily has only 4 1/2 weeks left and 2 more weeks of work. Then we'll have grandchild number 4. She's organised a birthday party for Scarlett next Saturday at Noah's Ark in Wagga with lots of other little 1-year-olds. Alex is rapt, he loves Noah's Ark, and is already talking about taking Zeke on the big slides. Football is in Junee next weekend so we should get there on time.