Edited by author 30-09-2004 19:05

Last Message Here

Well, Rob and his technology has done it again, so for any news more recent than this posting, come on over to the all new, bright and shiny Leece's Rambling.

Rode over to look after the cocky again this morning. It was a lovely morning for a ride. Let me go and check how many kilometres that is...that's 19.24 kms for the all round trip, there and back. Took me about 80 minutes. Average speed of 13.9 kph, compared to Monday's average of 15 kph, but I was really pushing it then.

I feel worse today though, than I did on Monday. All in all, not too bad though. I just don't want to move around much, now.

Worked on the pencil drawing that I started yesterday, it's nearly done. It sure was fun to do, I should probably relax like that a bit more often.

Rode back home, had lunch and read Field of Dishonour.

For some unknown reason though, I was actually finally able to access Clara's cat_amused blog, and I've been reading about her Pinnacle adventures, which was very interesting.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend, I'd like to do some gardening. And go somewhere for a nice picnic/geocache/birdsurvey/boulder.

Now I'm off to get the rubbish off my drawing desk and finish off this sweet little drawing.

Not just Mooncake Festival today, but is it not Richard's birthday? Happy Birthday to him. :-) Not older, just better.

So are you going to do something Mooncake Festivally? Or something Richard's birthday-y? Or are you going to combine the two. Oh, Jocelyn mentioned she couldn't see your blog either, presumably because of the underscore illegal character thingy...

Anyway, I caught the bus and met Nicky, Deej and Mark at Trinity Residential College to scope it out for Genghis Con. Wow! It's very cool, it's a gamer's paradise, amongst other things. I'm looking forward to February...

Then I caught the bus to do some parrot-sitting. No. That just sounds wrong...anyway, Rosie kept me company whilst I worked on a mug design, in colour pencil, not my usual sort of work but it turned out okay. It's nearly finished. Very pretty, I'd expect it to go up this week or so.

We were contemplating going rock climbing this evening but I feel a bit too fragged, so Rob came and picked me up from his sister's and brought me home after I gave him the run down on Trinity's facilities.

So here I am. 100th entry - Yaaaaaaay!

It's Mooncake Festival today!

Edited by author 27-09-2004 17:57
Monday morning

I just rode over to my sister in law's place to look after her galah. Took me about 45 minutes to get there, taking it easy in the sun, but then I realised that Mum wasn't home to tape the show I wanted, so I tore home full pelt all the way whoof puff puff pant pant.

Only to find that the show's a repeat and I have taped it already, anyway.

I'm so fit. (collapse, thud.)

I think I'll go have a shower, make myself some lunch and settle down to try and finish this drawing. Not that there's much rush for that, CafePress are broken at the moment and we can't upload stuff.

Hahum.

Some hours later:

Well, I've finished my drawing. I'm fooling around with it a bit, but I think it will go fine. You should see it soon.

Tomorrow I'm joining the reconnaissance team from Genghis Con to check out what Trinity Residential College is like. Got to work out how to get there. The 99 bus is going to figure heavily into this, I would think.

Have a good evening folks.

Sunday.

Rob and I went over to my sister in law's place and amused her galah.

We then went to Chicken Treat, grabbed some wraps and decided to have a car picnic at the local lake. There were blue billed ducks, wagtails, magpies, dusky moorhens, galahs, silver gulls, corellas, pelicans, black swans and various honeyeaters. It was very pleasant. Blue sky, warm sun, cool wind.

Good news from Steveg, he's been kicked out of hospital.

Rob and I did a bit of shopping today, at Good Guys, Dick Smith and Action. Rob then battled the Hydra, I mean Tidied Up The Cable Monster and Did Stuff to the system. I re-read On Basilisk Station, Honor of the Queen and then Short Victorious War. While I'm not the world's biggest fan of space opera, I always enjoy the Honor books, because of the characters & their interactions with each other. I'm more fond of the books that are based around Grayson for this reason, I can appreciate the cool, ultra scientifically explained space battles but I read 'em for the people.

Not much to report really, except I've given myself a crick in the neck n' shoulder from sitting and reading in one position too long.

Edited by author 25-09-2004 09:29
Visited Dad this morning, it is a really nice day! Pretty warm, it feels like the hot season is going to have some sharp teeth this year. Hayfever's got me though.

Had a nice dinner at Anne's last night, and visited Steveg beforehand and showed him his namesake. The hospital reckons he'll come out on Saturday.

Lucky us got three Posscards from the British Isles today, dated the 17th, 18th and 19th of September (respectively), they haven't taken all that long to come here to Australia! Not long at all. The covers are "London by Night" "The Tower of London and Tower Bridge" (Outrage, anyone?) and "The Study in Scarlet" from Beeton's Christmas Annual. Very nice they are too, thanks Posskin!

Boardgames I suspect tonight. I wonder what we'll play?

I suppose I'd better go and plan this new drawing.

*** Some hours later ***

Well, the new drawing is going very well, NOW. I've had to scratch out bits of it several times. It is a rare example of something that works better when I try to do the same thing on the computer with the graphics tablet than when I do it with pencil and paper. Worked very well for me, probably my very first serious design that has been totally worked on digitally. Oh well, we'll see how successful it is when I put it up for sale...although it is designed with a very select, and specific bunch of people in mind, so sales may not actually be an indicator. We shall see. I'm gonna get one 'cause its cooooool!

Tonight, Gary came over and Rob and he and I played History of the World. In this game, if you are in the lead, your competitors cheerfully hand you the rottenest cultures they can manage to try and hamstring you. Silly me kept in the lead for most of the game, and Gary and Rob kept handing me lousy cultures for my purposes. However because some scoring advantages came with this it definitley was not all a bad thing. These are two competent, cutthroat players with strong mathmatical skills, which is darned handy in History of the World (whereas I tend to play a more wholistic, instinctive and intuitive game. I hope.) So I am very proud to have ended up with the scores below

Leece: 209
Rob: 206
Gary: 194

Thank you for the game guys! You fought a good fight.

Richard & Clara popped in and watched the last epoch and
then went off to the movies.

My mother has just watched a documentary on ABBA. She is now converted and the first ABBA albumns this house will have ever seen are now being seriously considered.

ABBA must've been good, I guess. I didn't go for them much when they were big and I was at the susceptible "music is everything" stage when they were, but I still can sing along confidently to just about any ABBA song. Earworms, that's what they produced. Annoyingly catchy. :-) They were just so, so...*nice*.

Mind you, Chess and Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot, I really enjoy. So it just goes to show. Very talented people. Good on 'em.

Leece all tuckered out now.

It's been a scrungy old day for leece today, she's been fooling around in the webshop and adding a few more items to the Steveg's Dragon section, and rearranging stuff, oh yeah and doing the Product of the Week thing, it being Thursday in WST and all. So if you like long sleeved shirts, go for it!

Rob and I are going over to visit the amazing Steveg himself tonight, we will then be going on to have dinner with my sister in law and her parrot, Rosie. I'll be looking after Rosie for a week, 'cause Anne is going to a conference over East.

So yes, that's about it really for today during the daylight hours.

Did anyone else think it was bloody freezing last night? In this geographical region, I mean...I can just see someone from Mawson or somewhere in the AAT posting "Why, yes...a bit nippy."

Ha. I'm finished. I will ask Rob to put it up on my home page as well, so look out for it.

Hello World!

We didn't go out last night as we both had sore heads. Both of us feel much better today though.

In fact, I feel Really Good. You know why? I think I might have finished a certain dragon named after a certain someone in hospital at the moment. I'm not certain yet, I'm going back and picking at it, fixing imaginary faults (a sure sign that I should probably leave it be before I wreck it) but it is very, very close. I wouldn't be suprised if it was triumphantly displayed on my homepage and at the webshop very very soon now. Possibly tonight.

Other and much more good news is that we have a posting from Steveg over on his journal. Hurrah! Good to see him there.

Playing at the moment - Dr Jane's Remains
Watching - Grim & Evil
Feeling - Annoyingly bouncy bounce! bounce! bounce! (Annoyed yet?)
 
Off I go to pick at Steveg's Dragon some more. It's signed now, that's a pretty good (but not infallible) indicator of done-ness. Yes, I know, I know, don't pick at it, it will make it worse...

Don't worry ma'am. I'm a professional.

It has tended to "drag on". Diddy-boom.

Mmmmm-mmm. Waking up with a headache, just what I really need to start off my day. Got me up early, I suppose, and that's the only good in it. Character building I suppose.

Still working on Steveg's dragon. Stilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll working. It could even be finished today, if things go exceptionally well, and if this stupid headache eases up. I thought I'd lost it, but it's come back. Couldn't be all this close, detailed work I'm doing, oh noooo. Must take breaks more frequently.

Phooey.

Last night we went and got our tax done, that was good to get out of the way, and we watched some Grim & Evil too, one of which was a Harry Potter parody. Very funny.

Now Rob and I have to decide whether to have dinner at a Vietnamese restaraunt in Northbridge tonight with some of Rob's cow-orkers. There's a certain attraction in going out and eating hot, spicy food, and there's a certain attraction in staying home in the warm and nursing this headache. Hot spicy food is winning with me, at the moment.

I liked the BuMet's description last night of what it thought today was going to be like. "Rather cold" it said. And, by Eris, it is. Rather. Brrr. I'm turning the heater on.

Edited by author 20-09-2004 15:07
Saturday was great fun!

Sunday we slept in to about midday, we watched some Grim and Evil, and then Mum and I went to give Dad his birthday present. We came home, had a snack and I entered up the previous entries.

We then went off to see Steveg and take him some cheer. We had a game of Chrononaughts, which went on a reasonable time and which I finally won, despite having patched some things that I shouldn't have. Oops. Own goal there. Or in this case, not. :-)

So today, I'm going to ring a couple of map shops, and see if they can't help with our navigation of the Peel Mandurah inlet. No, I'm not slipping back into Piratese, I'm getting ready for our houseboat trip in Novembarrrrrrr.

And then I'm going to work on that crummy dragon. Sufferusssin.

***hours later***

Stupid dragon...stttttrrrrrrrrrreeeeeetchaleece.......

Avast yeself, Red Rob!
Now that you be reminding me, arrrr yes, I remember now!

Avast there Leece!
Ye not be rememberin' the mass of plunder I garnered from the galleries of the French? I guess ye were a bit battered by that raid...
Though I failed to amass a trove the size of Black Richard's on the pervious raid, I made a good haul, and it were my holds that were bulging the most on the voyage home! Some 820,000 of the froggies coins fell my way, despite the liens the bankers placed on my ship!

Time: 13:34 Date: 19/09/2004 Location: S31.53 E 115.47 Heading: - Speed: Becalmed


Arrrrrr!!! If I didn't just receive word from me old ship mate, the Dread Pirate Poss, given' us a report from her sailing of the Northen Seas! Here's wishin' her fair winds and fine sailin' in her pillagin' of those cold seas.

There be much pillagin' yesterday, which is why there be'int no log entry for that date, so I'm goin' to have ter try to remember what happened on that dreadful bloody day.

First up, the ship were attacked by scurvy boarders, arrrrr, I know these scurvy privateers of old, The Winter's Ton: three from a noted warrior family who soon beat me shipmate Robert The Red, blowin' his ship up several times as he tried to bury his treasure at Pirate's Cove.

Then Black Mark, they call him, and Bronny the Bold, fiercesome fighters they be and arrrrrr me Citadel was looking wunnerful, arr, but mark ye well, they soon had it crashing down in a great old heap of rocks. They'll sing sad tales of Leece The Blade's last stand, they will, when we are all in the bellies of the great whale fish.

Then arrived that notorious pair, Black Richard the Norseman and the Terror of Temasek, soon followed by Pirate Pete. The Winter's Ton left the waters, but those that were left assaulted The Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay and many fine paintings were plundered, arrr, and fighting broke out amongst the plunderers, and me memory, weak with my wounds as I am, I can't be exactly recallin' what the outcome of the battle was...

Then Pirate Pete, Bronny the Bold, me humble self and Robert the Red all sailed together on a trip to the shores of Araby, aye, and we all had strange and wonderful adventures, many were the Tales that were told on those Arabian Nights, my companions were swallowed by dendan fish, and lived to tell the tale! And I, myself became Sultan! A wonderful trip that I must sail again soon!

The Terror of Temasik, Black Mark and, Black Richard the Norsman, and I think Joss the Fire at this point, it were hard to see for all the gunsmoke, and me wounds are affectin me rememberer, you understand, I think they were mounting full broadsides on Alexandros, but I can't be remembrin' properly. I do know they all assaulted the public transport system in the New World, great trains full of plunder they were raiding, they had a Ticket To Ride and great were the sounds of plunderin' and merrymakin' we heard from the other ship.

Meanwhile, meself, Robert the Red and Pete the Pirate embarked on the plunderin' of a castle we'd heard of, a Castle of Magic, one we've all visited before, but this is many years on, and Things Have Changed. We did not quite witness The Fall of Castle Bondi, but it were a whisker off happening, and I personally would've liked to seen it happen! But Pirate Pete got most of the plunder from that trip! Arrr, but I'm content with my lot, I tell ye. Robert the Red we double crossed and he yells curses at us still, but we're not afraid, not us!

We three also had a strange journey through time, but I'll not expect ye to believe that we were Chrononaughts, I hardly believe it meself!

Then Robert the Red and Leece the Blade were left to match wits and steel against steel, in a dreadful bloody fight: and the prize, the entirety of Greece itself, or Attica, as it be called! Arrrr I had me capital in Thebes, and he had Corinth, but he outfoxed me, arrrr I'm a sea captain, not a landsman, and I were pounded into the gravel Arrrrrr well, it's not an easy life we're meant to lead, the waves go up, and they go down too.

Arrr, I can't be rememberin' too much of what happened next, me wounds, ye understand...but it were well past 2 bells in the Middle Watch when we all finished our primitve existence, having all been shipwrecked on the shores of Carcassone, with no tools and strange woolly elephants every where. I aquitted myself well there, but it were all pretty much due to luck and me companions turn'n on each other. The stress of the voyage I think.

Arrr, the last of the boarders repelled and the decks swabbed, we went off, deservin' a kip.

Our thoughts to all those in peril on the sea, land and air, may ye have an easy journey and good winds. We miss'n our good mate Steveg Stevegsson, we hopes his bones knit soon, (from an argument with an automobile) we could've done with his strong right arm in the fracas. He be on Deck Six, Wardroom 62, cabin 3 so, if any of his crew mates want to give him some cheer, that be the semaphore I just be gettin' from his bo'sun.

Heave Ho me hearties!

Not so bleary now. Slightly wavery but hoping that will pass.

Hope the gaming goes/went well. Bloody different time zones.

Edited by author 18-09-2004 09:22
Went shopping this morning to get Stuff for tonight and tomorrow. It is going to be a very game rich environment coming up, and boy, am I ready for it.

The pea and ham soup which Mum and I have argued our way through making is gently simmering as I speak. Smells pretty good, I'm hungry now.
 
Now for some lunch and then hopefully some more work on Steveg's Dragon, wretched thing that it is.

Then gaming, where Mark and Jocelyn will join us, and maybe Richard and Clara and Gary. I'm vaguely thinking of a deputation to visit Steveg, but I don't know, that might be a bit too many people...

*later*

Steveg's Dragon now has a bit of neck and pretty much its lower jaw completed. Oo, and it's got teef. Rotten thing it is, I sometimes think Steveg will be completely recovered by the time it'll be ready to put up on some produce. Poss asked me yesterday would it be coloured. *Sob*.

Rob is on his way home and I'm very interested in dinner and games, not sure just which I'm more interested in at the moment... dinner....no, games! Ummm...

Had an SMS from Poss. She hath arriveth in Britain. I told her to enjoy her jetlag.

Joceyln and Mark came over and we played a couple of friendly games of Mahjong. If there can be such a thing. Then Richard and Clara joined us and we played Expos' and boy what a game that was! Despite going massively into debt, Richard, by adroitly cornering the market in a discerning way :-) still ended up with well over a million Euro. Wow. Highest scoring game of Expos' I've seen, I've never seen anyone get to a million before! Well done.
I came second (I think), but it was a long way away. Expos is an art game, from the Louvre and Musee d'Orsay where it helps if you can recognise artists, but it isn't necessary. With 126 different paintings, it can be quite difficult...
It was a good night. I got a very bleary SMS from Poss about walking into things. Then we came home.

Report on Thursday. Or "It must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays"

Well, I didn't get time to blog yesterday. So here we are. Drove over to Poss's Dad's place in Gosnells yesterday, saw some Red Tailed Black Cockatoos there, which were absolutely gorgeous. I've not seen these guys so close to the city before, it was great.

Picked up Poss, drove to the International Airport, where we waited and waited until I had to go. Oh, and I nearly lost my phone, but the good staff at the airport kept it safe, and were able to give it back when I realised it was lost.

Then I drove home, spent about 20 minutes updating the website, so that Tote Bags are now the product of the week, answered some emails, and then got on the bus, got off at Sir Charles Gardiner and went to the cafe to wait for Rob and do some work on Steveg's Dragon.

While I was waiting a friend of mine, the only one of which I have kept in contact from from high school came by, and we sat and talked and talked until Rob came by. Then we talked some more. Christopher left, we had a quick dinner and went up to see Steveg, who was looking very well and animated. He's out of HDU and in his own room. Don't know how long that will last, though.

Had a good chat, and then off we went to UWA and the UniSFA quiz night. Where we came third along with our other team members, the Amazing Nick, The Astounding Evan, the Mark of All Knowlege of Things that Grow, The Jocelyn of The Wise. It was a fun night!

And a very tiring day.

Edited by author 15-09-2004 21:13
Steveg was in pretty good shape last night, he has been
able to eat and was clear minded, it was a good visit.

Wednesday morning, and I'm just back from my 15 km ride. Phew. Hazy morning, quite cool, pleasant ride and tiring. The low light of the ride was that about 500 metres from home a bird whacked me in the back of the helmet. I looked back, and I could swear that it wasn't a magpie.

It looked much more like a butcherbird. Has anyone out there heard or seen anything like that happening with them?

I've only had trouble with maggies if my lips have been too dry to whistle that three tone territorial call they have, you know, not the warbling, but the O-VER Heeeeeeeeeeeere!
NO-Ova Heeeeeeeeeeere call they make to each other across long distances.

But I'd swear this was a butcher bird. I'm glad I had my helmet on, because there's a star-shaped beak impact crater in the back of it now. I wonder if I should get a new one?

So leece's plans for the day are to ring H&R Block to Do The Tax and then do some more work on Steveg's Dragon. And then go early down to Scarborough, and do some more drawing there, and await the coming of Rob, Poss and Maureen.

Off I go to put the kettle on.

Accumulated wisdom of leece No.1: Don't cut the bread with the electric knife while the agitator is still in the loaf. Thank you.

*later*

Too many scales on this here dragon, that's all I can say. What possessed me to do them so small and with such a fine pen - 0.05 mm?! Oh well, leece is known for her perserverence. Isn't she? <small voice> isn't she?

*still later*

Back from Peter's by the Sea, where we met Poss, and Rob & Ros said their bye-byes. I'll be seeing the Poss off tomorrow. I have a mudmap. Well, sort of more an elegant inscribed cuniform hard baked clay map, actually, it's too good for just a mudmap.

Just showed Rob some more Grim & Evil. I gotta respect a cartoon that has Lovecraft and Frank Herbert references, I really do.

Edited by author 14-09-2004 16:58
Tuesday morning. Added a few more bags, went to Dewson's. Rob got an SMS from Steveg, the drain is coming out today, and he was able to stand again today. Great news! He also had some solid food for the first time in nearly two weeks, which he described in loving detail and wouldn't save any for me. :-)
Tonight we will go and give him our combined birthday present to him, Rob is on his way home, we'll have some more chicken mole for dindins and then we'll go get the Maureen.

After adding still more bags to the website, I did some more work on Steveg's Dragon, so called because it started life in the cafe where I was waiting at the cafe at the hospital for Maureen to come back from visiting Steveg. It is turning out reasonably well, I'm pleased with it.

Edited by author 13-09-2004 22:08
Monday Morning!

Mum's off to Araluen today, so I'm left in a bit of peace.

Not much happening this morning for me, had a phone call from maureen, re going to see Steveg tonight. That will be good.

I'm just sitting here at one of the computers, adding a bunch of tote bags to the shop...done zebras, done elephants, done the velociraptor / protoceratops battle,
done Ancient Waters (that's the one with all the mososaur, pliosaurs and plesiosaurs in it.) Just working through.

Kind of a warmish day outside, with high, streaky cloud. It's quite cool indoors though.

Rob and I took Maureen to see Steveg today, he looks a lot better than we were expecting. It was good to see him. Hope his recovery is a speedy one!

Well, Sunday was cooking chicken mole in the morning, lunch and sitting around reading Something Rotten in the afternoon while Rob watched Discovery Channel. Then we stirred ourselves, rode around the Herdsman lake/swamp again on our bikes and this time we had a decent camera,
Rob took some really neat shots of the great cormorant rookery. Rode to my Dad's place and Rob tuned his tv for him. Rode home, had chicken mole for dinner and kind of flaked out.

Saturday

Sympathy to the victims of, friends and families of those affected by the terrible events now and past. Peace to you.

Got up this morning, had donuts for breakfast! Yum! Rob and I then whisked (OK, vaguely shuffled) Maureen away to a good, fine cafe we know and we cheerfully stuffed down lunch. We then droppen Maureen off at the hospital, went and fixed my grandmother's computer problems, went back to the hospital, had a cup of hot stuff with Maureen and took her back home.

Steveg is out of ICU, you'll be pleased to hear, they were just moving him when Maureen got to him.

Rob's just done things to my home page. I like the changes.

No Mystie tonight, Poss's mum back in hospital. Our thought are with them.

I'm tuckered out and feeling a bit gaming deprived.

Edited by author 11-09-2004 00:24
Friday and...

I've stayed home and finally finished Fire Drake and Sea Serpent, uploading it and putting it on products, which can be viewed in the dragon section at the webshop. Looks fine.

I've spent a large portion of this day persuading my uncle not to go ahead with what quite frankly sounds like a dodgy roof coating 'deal'.

Looks like we'll be light on on gamers tonight.

Later...

Well, as it happened, we were not light on after all, R & C were good enough to come over and keep us company. We didn't play anything, we just sat, drinking hot drinks, eating chocolate and talking. It was very therapeutic.

Past midnight now. Heading towards beddy byes.

Thursday continued...

Went out and did the driving around and did an acceptable drawing in the cafe at Charles Gardiner Hospital. It's a pretty good cafe, Charlie's Garden Cafe' it's called. I haven't had anyone come and complain at me for sitting on one cup of tea for an hour and drawing, anyway. Forgot my sketchbook so had to buy one from the newsagent, and I think $4.50 for a lousy A5 sketchbook of uncertain acidity is darned exorbitant if you ask me. Captive audience. Feh.

Came home, had some lovely chicken in curry with rice for dinner, then went over to Karrinyup and picked up Something Rotten, the latest Jasper Fforde, and some donuts, and the Divine Madness DVD. So we've had a lovely evening watching Grim & Evil, Madness Videos, Ground Force in The Falkland Islands and drinking coffee and eating donuts. Very pleasant.

Edited by author 09-09-2004 10:13
Today is Thursday!

Well, yesterday, did some colour work in the morning and sorted the clean washing, which had begun to Lurk. Then I picked up Maureen and drove to the hospital, where I did some layout and inking of yet more mug designs while drinking too much coffee in the cafe.

Because Steveg is in ICU non-relatives aren't allowed to visit, in case you think I was being a big meanie. :-)

After the hospital we went down to Scarborough and met Poss and Rob, and had some nice hot food and a bit of an unwind.

Last night after we came home we were nearly killed laughing, looking through The Gallery of Regrettable Food and related sites, that Poss mentioned in her blog a couple of entries ago. Tears streaming down my face I was laughing that hard.

I have to go and change the products of the week and then do yet more colour work before taking Maureen for some tests and the hospital this arvo. So I'd better go off and change 'em, heh?

Very dull and overcast this morning. I'm tired out, I'm going to have a quiet morning and then take M out to see S. Then we'll both go down to Scarborough for the Wednesday night thing. *clink* To absent friends.

Tuesday. Phew. Did some colour work this morning, on the new mug design. Drove one of the car accident victims to see the other (more seriously injured) accident victim. They are both doing as well as can be expected. And that's about it for today. Phew. I'm quite done in.

The afternoon continues on...my real drawing is going well. It's a mug design with dragons curling around it. It should be finished this week, hopefully in time to put it up as the special of the week.

Monday morning. A couple of good friends were sent to hospital on Friday, one of them is now out, but the other is going to be in for some time. Terrible. Get better you two.

So Saturday we had a quiet night with Poss, as the birthday celebrations for the hospitalised friend would have been in rather poor taste without him. We walked to the local watering hole, and I had a pint of Little Creatures and a Surf & Turf. mmmmmmm. Yummy!

Sunday, it was Father's Day here in sunny (ha! it's bucketing out there!) Australia so we had a lunch with Rob's family at Lights restaraunt in Tuart Hill, which do an unusual gourmet taster of 6 light courses. It started with Inari sushi, then calamari salad, then veal parmigian, then crumbed snapper, then lemon chicken and apple pie in caramel sauce for dessert. The food was delicious!
We gave Rob's father, in conjunction with his mum, a breadmaker and some breadmixes. We left him cheerfully watching the progress of a pumpernickel. We came home, and then went to the hospital and dropped off a card and a rather oujii board looking construction and laser pointer, that we made for our car accident victim friend, who can't speak at the moment. Then we came home and kind of flaked out.

Edited by author 04-09-2004 01:38
Thanks, Clara, re pretty pictures! Poor sore Clara. :-( What's u-frisbee? A game, obviously...

I've emailed you about the link. No it's not broken, it just won't work for us. Pity. :-)

Anyway I'm off to go for my morning ride. I can't find my helmet cover flappy thing so I'm going to go somewhere shady. North, today, I think.

And when I get back, I'm going to do some *really* drawing. With paper and ink, even. (Sorry Snagglepuss at the Laff-A-Lympics has been a bad influence lately.)
                                  * * *
Back again! What a lovely ride it was, I had a good meander through deserted streets. Very sunny, I should've put sunburn cream on. Light winds. Wandered through the suburbs, heading vaguely NW. Wandered onto West Coast Highway and wandered N. There's some sort of surf event happening at South Trigg Beach, lots of people and 96FM. Stopped at the dog beach, I think it's Waterman's and watched a man throwing a stick for his dog, who'd swim out and bodysurf back. Very peaceful and idyllic.

* * *

Tonight's gaming involved Rob and I & Mark, we played El Grande, which Mark thrashed us into the ground in, and before that Expos' which I won, apparently through no fault of my own. :-)

Link below works. Check, check and double checked. It's still not broken.

I'm slightly broken, played u-frisbee yesterday. Am now convinced sport is.. mmm not sure what actually. Popped the ouchies on my feet, popssibly munted my ankle. But I suppose we won so limping around for the next week? is all worth it :D

pretty pictures on cafepress :D

Edited by author 02-09-2004 16:36
I got up early this morning. Well, early for me. :-) I've done the usual Thursday product change at the shop and now I'm all set to complete The Mission. Hopefully. My arm hurt a bit when I woke up this morning, so I'll rub some Voltaren gel into it, which I hope will decrease the chance of Bad Things.
----
It's midday now, and I'm going to take a bit of a break. The Mission is going *really well* and there's a good chance it will be finished today! On the down side, I am starting to feel a bit of a twinge in my arm. We will see what a break can do for me. I really want to finish it today, but I'm not going to push it so that I get really hurt. Darn. It's my nethack arm as well. Phooey.
----
I've finished The Mission.

Edited by author 01-09-2004 21:28
Well, I'm going off for my first bike ride since I got sick, I'll only go on an easy one for half an hour or so, and see how I go. My arm doesn't hurt this morning, but then I haven't engaged in any arm hurting exercises.

I might leave off the Mission today just in case. Rob has kindly prepared some designs for me ready to put up on the webshop, so I think I'll work on them after I get back from my ride. So soon a Wedgetailed Eagle, a Faery Dragon and Unicorn will join us!

See you back here, I'm off!
____________________________________________

And now I'm back. Went for a bit longer than I intended, but I feel pretty good. Lovely day out there, actually got a bit warm. I'm going to put my sun visor flappy thing back on my helmet before my next ride, because that sun was bright!

There's always a headwind.

_____________________________________

Went down to Scarborough to obtain Fish and Chips for the hordes at home, sat and had hot chocolate with the good Steveg and Maureen while they had their dinner. Very pleasant down there, it was almost warm. Lovely evening.

Came home and finished up the work I've been doing today, so now we've got the additions above, woohoo!
Mum has cooked self-saucing chocolate pudding so I am now a very, very full little leece indeed.

Tomorrow, back to The Mission. Maybe even (gasp!) finish it! FX: Dramatic chord.

If I wanted to suffer I'd keep right on doing what I was doing, instead of having the common sense to stop. :-)

Poor Leece-leece. I've heard of suffering for your art, but do you have to take it literally?

P.

Aieeee. Owowowwowowowowow. The Mission, although it has advanced really, really well, has now kicked me in the arm. I think it's something to do with the Wacom Tabletopia tablet and the intensity with which I've been working. I'm experience moderate to severe pain in the area just, um, how would you put it? My lower arm, dorsal side, just below the elbow. I can feel the tendons moving there when I wriggle my fingers. So I'm taking an enforced break. Really annoying when finally, there's an end in sight! Ironic really, a few entries ago I was referring to it as a death march, having to force myself to keep going, and now I'm complaining at this small delay. Ah, human condition. :-) I can't even go off and do some 'really' drawing, I expect it'll annoy the same bit o' arm. So, phooey. :-/

On the plus side, I am now cautiously ready to state that it appears that my cold is now completely gone. Hooray! Huzzah! Yippee!

Went to see The Ladykillers last night. Hmm. I did laugh uproariously a couple of times, and I really enjoyed Tom Hanks's performance. But it is quite clear the original must have been heaps better.

Hi Clara! Nice to see you! Very sorry to hear about your wallet being stolen...what a pain in the rear!

Are you sure that your link below works right? It doesn't do much when I click on it.

Hellboy doesn't like the horns either! In one of the novels it says he files them because he doesn't like the way they make him feel.

Edited by author 30-08-2004 21:48
had my wallet stolen on Friday, had the month's rent in it, so am not too happy to say the least. poo.

hellboy was good. i really don't like the big silly horns. the stumps are way sexier :D

psych lab report on conformity .. well i had it down as memory conformity .. was due in today. had an extension but figured getting it in early would make me feel better.

am still bitter about the wallet episode. having horrible thoughts. i wouln't mind being a gypsy, think of all the wonderful curses I would gift-wrap and hand out.. just like at christmas.

i still blog once in a while, leave me a splot if i haven't been heard from http://cat_amused.blogspot.com

The Mission is becoming something of a death march, I have to really make myself continue with it, but fear not, it will end soon. It isn't looking too bad, I'll be happy enough to put it up in the shop. I'll be even happier when the jolly thing is finished.

Just back from seeing Hellboy again, which was cool, and having dinner at a local restaraunt. Sizzling king prawn with mango was delicious!

Edited by author 29-08-2004 13:57
Well, moved Dad out on Friday, then sat and read The Dam Busters, having just watched a documentary where they challenge a modern crew to replicate the Dam Buster's achievments in the same amount of time. Very well done. We then played Brittannia, which, I had forgotten how to play and I now stand self convicted of the Gaming Sin of Dithering. It was just unfortunate I drew the Romans, good because they're purple, but bad because they have to move first. But after a couple of flustered, panicked moves on my part we settled down to a good game.

King Arthur came out, did a mild amount of snotting Saxons and then was killed by Saxon king Steveg...
Anyway, I enjoyed it thoroughly. We didn't get to finish, but it's a fun game along the way.

On Saturday, we did a bit of shopping and then went to visit my grandmother (who has just visited Whistler's Chocolates, and unloaded most of the booty on to us, yum!) and then on to Poss's where we were treated to a delicious taste treat, that chicken curry and special rice Poss has described earlier in her blog.

We watched the Vincent Price episode of the Muppet Show, and also watched the Fearnot show of Storyteller, both of which we enjoyed immensly. We then watched Fire Maidens from Space which is an interesting episode of MST3K, as it has Crow generating a Dark Spectre, Timmy! This is a Significant Episode.

After that, and our hot fruit pies, we tried to watch something which I won't even give the benefit of describing, after half an hour we were angry enough to turn it off, we'll just say that it was obvious that Heinlein was involved. We then tried the other movie on that DVD and were pleasantly suprised by "Voyage to the End of the Universe"

It's an Eastern European effort I think, and some of the concepts and visuals remind me strongly of Stanislaw Lem's work. It's like Solaris in some ways only a lot more accessible, if that can be believed. Very nice model work, a convincing 0-G sequence, cute design and interesting subplot and visuals. Good as an introduction to this style of SF. Sort of the Pi of 60's SF. I think it was made in 1964.

This morning slept in very heavily. Moved the engine from the back of the Suzuki and righted some blown over stuff in the garden. Our oakleaf lettuce and goldrush lettuce have come up everywhere and are harvestable. Yum!

Rob's gone off to a committee meeting for Genghiscon. When he's done with that, we're going to the cinema with Poss, so Rob can finally get to see Hellboy. Yay!

I've just czeched on the IMDB and they say that the film was Czech, and originally titled Ikarie XB1. It was apparently filmed in colour, and there is a full colour version with subtitles floating around out there, which I'd be quite keen to see. Apparently it is based on one of Lem's books, according to a Czech poster to the entry, but which one, I don't know.

SPOILER WHOPPING BIG HUGE SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER for Journey to the end of the Universe AKA Ikarie XB1

Interestingly most of the people giving reviews of the movie in the entry appear to have assumed that the (apparently tacked on US ending a la Brazil) means that these people ORIGINALLY left from Earth. I didn't get that impression. I think these people left from somewhere else, and had nothing to do with the planet we call earth, so I think it was actually quite a cute twist.

One of my very favourites. :-)

Oooh, sepia manticores!

Oh, yes, as Steveg points out, I apparently got the director wrong for Pom Poko. Thanks, Stev, and, Sorry Mr Takahata!

The Mission has been going quite well today, but my eyes are a bit sore, so I'm going to take a break from it now and dromble around a bit. My nose is nearly clear. Nearly.

Ahhh ... you haven't read widely about Tanuki have you Poss. When they form large objects the males inflate their scrotums to form the object ( like the "lucky ship" near the end of Pom Poko ).

There's an article in the latest Wildlife Research journal entitled Koalas on Kangaroo Island: from introduction to pest status in less than a century. The estimate in 2001 was approx. 21,000.

And on a lighter note, Pom Poko on my browser looks like Porn Poko. Not a bad title for an adult version. 8-)

You forgot that nobody else wants the Kangaroo Island Koalas because they are badly inbred and riddled with Chlamydia (sp?).
BTW ... Pom Poko isn't a Miyazaki. It is from the other Studio Ghibli director, Takahata. Obligatory piece of trivia: The opening cityscape from Pom Poko is the same as the closing cityscape from Whisper of the Heart.

You'll all be pleased to know that I'm feeling much better today, if only so that I'll soon stop whinging about it all. Mild stuff up-edness of the nose I can live with.

I wouldn't even have to put up with that, if Rob hadn't run off with the vapourizing lozenges without leaving me one. Sniff. (literally)

Dad is going to be moving back to his unit on Friday. So much for that debacle.

I don't think I'll be up for going out to Scarborough tonight. It would be silly to get a secondary just when I'm starting to feel alright again. Apologies in advance to those concerned, I'd like to go. I'm not sure Rob should either, I imagine it's going to be rather cold and windy, I don't think it would be good for his still coughing chest.

I just wrote an email of support and encouragement to Senator Ian Campbell, on his stance on those lousy Cane Toads. It doesn't matter what his political affiliation might be, it's good to see someone taking a responsible stance on such an important environment concern (Cane Toads in Kakadu and Ord River) so strongly.

I don't remember, was he the guy that wanted to cull the koalas on that island (that they aren't native to anyway?) but was shouted down? Shame about that. It is a great pity that they aren't self-regulating.

Koalas will eat out their available supplies of food, killing the trees they live on.

What to do? Tourists and softhearted people can't bear the idea of a cull, because koalas are so cute. So it seems that the authorities relocate the animals. But what will happen when those animals start to overpopulate those areas? Putting of the inevitable, I would say.

It's amazing. When I was a child, I was horrified, watching documentaries on what the fur trade did to koala populations. And now, the south east is overrun with the little wretches, causing terrible environmental harm, and it seems nothing can be done, and I'm all for (discriminate) shooting of them before they

a) starve miserably to death
b) kill the very trees that support them
c) waste time and money by having scientists go around vasectomising the males and hormone treating the females in misguided attempts to have a sustainable population.

And they can shoot all the feral cats they see too, while they're at it. And the foxes. And...HEY! Who put that soapbox here?

Oh it was me. Sorry.

Glitter Girl glitters in....spots all the thin, pale, black clad, black haired, black lipsticked forms slumped around the room, hands to foreheads, reading Anne Rice and Byron, and runs screaming from the room.

Oooh! Oooh! I'm either Beautiful Nightmare or Deadly Whispers!! Ooooh! If I try another variant of my name I get Liquid Dreams!!!
[bounces around cheerfully]
[remembers this is meant to be gothy, and goes and puts on some Joy Division, and sits in a corner, pretending to mope.]
[After one song, gets bored, changes the music for some annoying J-Pop, and resumes excitedly bouncing around.]

Edited by author 24-08-2004 18:40
Ooooh. More big wind scheduled for tonight. Leece fwightened...

I now have my goth name, (Poss, fountain of obscure quizzes that she is, pointed www.deadname.com out) which is either Velvet Kisses (which sounds a bit too wholesome to be gothy) or Necrotic Freak, which is much more like it. I guess Velvet Kisses is a name that those 'perky' goths have.

Edited by author 24-08-2004 16:48
Yesterday was pretty scungy. I think we watched telly a lot. Yes, that's right. We watched Ponpokko for the first time as a pick me up after a real downer and season end of Farscape. End of season 2, for those in the know. No, I'd rather not be spoiled, thankyouverymuch.

In retrospect the Miyazaki was fairly downbeat overall, the tanuki were cute and funny though, and the scenery was pretty, so we kept watching and weren't dissappointed or anything, but it was bittersweet rather than uproariously funny. I guess it *did* take our minds off Farscape! It was interesting seeing the tanuki's goblin parade retrospectively in light of the bath-house and its inhabitants in Spirited Away.

Gods, that was a windstorm last night! I'm actually quite scared of big wind, I'd actually rather thunder and lightning! I'm pretty scared of thunder, but probably more due to the sensitivity of my hearing, than for any other reason.

As to my health...well at the moment I feel as though I've spent all night swallowing fine grade wet n' dry sandpaper and also feel as if I've got an unripe, unpeeled and slightly leaking kiwifruit jammed up each nostril.

This is a considerable improvement over the lethargy and muscle cramps and coughing of yesterday, however. Rob says he's at 70% but he's still gone off to work, about which I have grave, grave doubts.

Ah well, I'm off to gargle aspirin. Goodness me, could it be (not industrial disease) that I can get back to The Mission?

2 hours later. Nope. Not yet. Ah well. Say, how about those guys that stole Mr Munch's painting, The Scream. Yikes! It doesn't look good for the painting, it doesn't sound like the thieves were all that careful about removing the paintings from the frames. Hope they turn up okay.

In the PM

Had some lunch, and worked on the Mission. Hurrah! I'm not coughing, I've just been left with a dripping tap for a nose. 'nuffle. Got to get better SOON!

Edited by author 22-08-2004 19:02
It wasn't psychosomatic. Damn. Yesterday felt really strange. It didn't hit me as hard as Rob's bout hit him, lucky. No fever, my temperature, if anything seemed lower than normal. Today I'm left with the headache, the muck in the lungs, something of a sore throat and lassitude.

I've slept about 12 hours.

It's evening now and I'm still coughing and feeling sorry for myself. Everything I eat tastes like it's coated in cotton wool.
Really haven't done much useful. Died lots in nethack, and watched some anime and also the extras from Volcano High. Classic stuff. We tried to watch the extras in Wonderful Days but they haven't been subtitled, so not much interest there for us...our attention spans aren't what they should be.

Wish we could come Poss...but Rob sounds like he's got lawnmover stuck in his chest. One that's actually running. Must be a Victor.

Experimental curry sounds yummy. Rob. Get better! There, I've ordered him. His response? "That's from Poss, I take it."

I'm starting to feel a little under the weather myself, I hope it is psychosomatic.

Or to Poss's for an experimental curry. Looks like I'll just have to test it out on myself.

Order Rob to get well soon.

Poor Rob couldn't come to gaming tonight, he's officially got the 'flu. Coughing his lungs out. We had a nice game of Citadels tonight with Richard,Clara,Gary,Steveg and Leecikins present.

I don't think we're going to make it to the Settlers tournament on Sunday, somehow.

Edited by author 19-08-2004 22:10
Poor old Robob continues unwell. This means I'll be deserting him tonight to see Hellboy with Poss.

My knees are fine this morning, however the fronts of my thighs are killing me.

Sorry for people waiting for the product of the week change on the webshop, I can't get at it, cafepress is experiencing technical difficulties.

Back from Hellboy, having picked up a Poss along the way, we had dinner (mmmm roast) did some shopping and then watched the movie with like minded people.

I haven't read the comics for a while, but it had the right feel for me, and some of the images definitely ring a bell. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Looking forward to seeing it again, with Rob!

Edited by author 18-08-2004 19:38
Well, moved Dad in.

Went to get his oil radiator, carried it down the stairs from his unit.

Now my knees are wobbly jelly. But I wouldn't have been able to do it at all unless I'd been doing that extra arm work at the gym!

Rob seems to be coming down with something, he's got a dry cough. Hope he gets better soon, poor sweet.

I *think* my knees are improving. I can almost walk normally now, it's been about 7 hours since I did the lifting.

Took Dad to see the hostel today. I guess his reaction is as favourable as we can expect.

After about 1 million phone calls, he moves in tomorrow.

Went to see Steal tonight with Rob and a lot of the regulars from the climbing gym. It isn't quite XXX and it isn't quite an Hollywood version of Gettin' Square, but it would be quite a good Mission Impossible episode!

The climbing gym was given some promo's because indoor rock climbing gets a cameo in the film.

Edited by author 15-08-2004 18:55
Well Rob decided he was done with doing secret techie business around about 1600, and even though it was quite late we decided it was worth going for a ride.

I'm glad we did. We decided to investigate a new bike path on Herdsman Lake. Did you know that you can now totally circumnavigate Herdsman by bicycle path and track?

I think even Steveg's recumbant woud be okay for most of it. There's been a LOT of work done, canals, banks, it's all very interesting.

What's really interesting is that the old dredge is now hosting a bunch of Great Comorants and their young, a whole bunch of nests and cheeping, grumbling growling birds. You can get a very good view without disturbing the birds.

So that was a lovely end to the ride, the setting sun turning the lake pink and the baby comorants being fed by their parents.

A suggestion: try to hold your breath downwind of the beautiful sight. :-)

On the way there, there is access to the back entry of the Settler's Cottage at Herdsman, there's information, a shelter and the cottage itself to look at, from the outside, that was interesting too.

After finishing off the preparation of Our Ancient Inca Heritage meal, which was tacos with turkey mince (delicious, if I do say so myself) Rob and I went and visited Dad.

Who continues to be a grump, understandable, but somewhat wearing. I'll be taking him to see the real hostel on Tuesday.

Then we went to Poss's which was therapy and then some. We watched Peter Ustinov with the Muppets, and then The Triplets of Bellville. Excellent movie. Certainly stuff happening in the background, and well worth a second look.

Had our delicious turkey tacos... yum! Turkey mince is pretty cheap, and tastes good too. I approve.

Then we watched the Mystie-ing of The Indestructible Man. Actually, I quite liked it...

This is the episode where Joel, Tom and Crow pledge never to do another cop and donut joke. They never do.

Today Rob is building the web server. I've been watching our White Cloud Mountain Minnows and spotted two babies! Little headlights they are too. One of our two season tadpoles is now a frogpole, he's got all his legs, and his tail is about half as long as it used to be.

I've been playing Nethack as well. Bloody Vampires. Bloody Werejackals. And most especially and most of all, Bloody stupid bloody floating eyes. They must be the most universally loathed creature in Nethack.

I'm hoping to go for a nice bike ride later, when Rob's stopped enigmatically doing secret techie stuff.

I ended the evil 3 player Attack! expansion game with a large empire in Africa. Unfortunately the turn before it was a large empire in Europe, Asia and Africa. Oh well, that's what happens when you stupidly turn your back on someone who's oil deposits you've blown up. Eh, it was late, I knew it was going to happen.

It was excellent fun, and I was thoroughly entertained. Evil Steveg came first, totally evil Rob second and, well, at least Africa was mineminemine.

Went shopping this morning, cooked tonight's Our Ancient Inca Heritage meal.

Going to see Dad before lobbing on Poss for tonight's Mystie-ing.

Edited by author 13-08-2004 18:12
As it happens, Mark is playing Axis and Allies with his brother and his mates tonight, so he thanks us for the offer, but has a prior game, so it comes back down to what we feel like doing.

I don't recall Mark being overly dithery when it comes to game play. He won't have played it before, which is why I'm a bit iffy on playing it with a new play if we don't have the cheat sheets...

No idea about Gary's movements. He will probably bring AoM. As for Mark ... can we trust him to be prompt with his turns? Otherwise we are back where we started not quite finishing at 1 AM.
Good luck with the mission.

Oh, and all you nethackers. Be careful out there today.

I don't know. I'm really enjoying Usagi, and we've not RPG'd for a long time.

OTOH, Age of Mythology is real kewl, I'm enjoying that a great deal too. But I think that we have a good chance of actually finishing a game if we all have copies of the cheat sheets to study during our off turns. I don't know if Gary has been able to copy them yet.

Mark has asked us to tell him if we're boardgaming, I think he is up from Narrogin tonight.

Do you know of the big G's movements? The long and the short of it is I don't know. If A of M has got cheat sheets and Mark can come I have a slight tendency to do that, if not, I'm up for Usagi.

I'm back from my ride, which, due to me finding credit cards and drivers licenses strewn all over the road, involved me going down to the police station. All different names and people, not just from the one person. So I'm feeling doubly virtuous having done a good deed and excercised at the same time!

Leece working on Mission now.

Edited by author 13-08-2004 14:48
So, is gaming to be Age of Mythology or Usagi Yojimbo RPG?

---

What I want to know is where is Babylon 5 season 3? I also notice that Image Comics is finally getting around to publishing the end of JMS's superhero comic series. Yay!

Woohoo! Finally! Leece go for ride now! Then when I come back I shall continue on with my Mission.

And gaming tonight, yippee!

Edited by author 12-08-2004 22:25
Been a busy morning. Drove over to see Dad, who said to me "What was it that I did in a former life that I deserved this?"
I said "It was nothing you did in a FORMER life." For some reason this cracked both him and mum up for some minutes.

Then we visited Poss, to give her her famous Gus mug.
She introduced me to The Curator of Exotic Mammals, who was a very nice fellow.

Then we went to Big W, because Babylon 5 boxed sets were going out for less than $50 each, so I'm a gleeful leece with Season 1 & 2 now.

Home again, and lunch. Now I've got to salvage some work out of the day, before we go to climbing.

Which I eventually managed to do, Monsters now has a button/magnet section and so does Dragon.

Caught the train/bus to town, and told Rob I wanted to do some arm work. Which I thought wasn't going to be that hard. Well, all I can say is that I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow. Anne turned up just as we were leaving, we offered to belay her, but she was just as happy to do some late night shopping in lieu of climbing.

Came home to find, to our delight, in our absence, Mum had cooked nearly everything in the house. Mmmm mushroom and turkey bacon pasta. And Mum's famous Health Bikkies. For um.....Health.

Just saw an amazing docco on the History Channel, Blood from A Stone, about a guy obsessed with finding some diamonds two American soldiers buried in a foxhole in France during The Advance of the Seventh Army. Recommended, I must try and catch the 1st half of it, only saw the last half, it was excellent.

Hopefully an uninterrupted day tomorrow...I think that I may give myself a Mission.

Don't talk to me about badges. Especially unicorn ones. Feh. At least they're up now here.
No worries Poss, might see you tomorrow, with your mug in tow. Dad seems OK, I'll go see him tomorrow. Scarborough was windy and wet. But not really that cold. But it could have something to do with the litre of hot chocolate I poured down my gob!

The doctor said my brain was normal. AB Normal I was wondering, but apparently not. :-)

Badges! Badges! I think I'll be giving Scarb a miss tonight - you know me and wet roads! I'll just have to wait until Sat for my Gus mug.

8-)

Thanks Poss!

We didn't go climbing as it happened, we were all a bit fragged. We cooked some ravioli and had dinner, and then watched Exhibit A on Tech TV. I like forensics shows, but they aren't Rob and Ros's preference. Pity this one was a bit depressing.

Got a phone call from the social worker, Dad is being moved, to South Perth, "awaiting placement" at a hostel. He is claiming he doesn't know anything about it, but the social worker says "Oh yes he does." I'll go see him later today.

But for now, it's back to the badge and magnets.

Good news about the little grey cells. And the Suzuki. But more so the former.

Here comes Leece! I've come from having a CT scan on the old gray matter. One with an injection, and one without. It didn't take long, I'm glad to say. Preliminary looks indicate that there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about in the old scone...more on that later, when we got
the formal results.

Had lunch with Dad at the hospital, came home. Lovely day! Rain later!

Get stuck into doing some more badges for the rest of the day I reckon...could be going climbing later. Rob's bringing home the famous twin engined Suzuki. One in the front, and one in the back!

Edited by author 09-08-2004 10:59
Slept in, but not too much. Had breakfast, crumpets! Yum! Did some washing, rang Dad, swept some mulch off the road. 'Bout it so far.

After I re-read The Magicians of Caprona (Dianna Wynne Jones, hurrah!) and Rob did the cable soldering he had to do, he and I joined Mum, Uncle Bob, and Poss down at Innaloo, where we watched Shrek 2. A worthy successor! Dinner at Il Vech's was delicious, but their entree size has shrunk, not quite a full size meal serve. Can't really complain, seeing as it was 2 for 1 pasta Sunday night..

Came home, and had some lovely warm milk before going to bed, with some Lyric cordial in it. Mmmmmm. These Aussie made cordials are great, and will deliver to your door, they're based in Qld. http://www.alchemycordial.com.au
They have both coffee syrups and 'normal' cordial. If rose petal and lime cordial could be considered 'normal'.

Did a bit o' shopping this morning round abouts, basically a cake and prezzy run for the arvo tea for my mother in law's birthday, which was fun and it was great to see everyone!

Went live with one of the badge pages today, here's the url if you're interested: http://www.cafeshops.com/aliciasmith/355612
It's scenes from the Picture Formerly Known as The Christmas Pic.

More will be along presently. Then it was time to go to Poss's and watch a Muppet Show with Raquel Welch and a Storyteller with Hans my Hedgehog. And a Mystery Science Theatre with Torrrrchaaaa! Teenagers from Outer Space. Good picture quality, bad luck about that. No escape!

Had a yummy dinner (thanks Poss!) and dessert and coffee, and we also watched the music clip from Triplets of Belville, in French, coooolometre!

Edited by author 07-08-2004 01:00
Re the pretty image: Rob says he'll get there.

Re Friday night denizens, heh. This Friday particularly no exception. Heheheheh.

Re food in Triplets of Bellville, yes, somewhat. It was a little bit of an effort to watch. But I think they were deliberately trying to freak us out...

Today has been a day of battling Mozilla and Konqueror, neither of which are enjoying what's happening in the Great Badge and Magnet Upload. Konqueror does a real dummy spit, but Mozilla does its dummy spit less frequently but when it does, it does it in a real slow motion surrealistic way. You wouldn't know it for looking at the shop, but I've got hundreds (well just under 200) of items needing to be done, and because there's so many the browsers are freaking out a bit.

Never a dull moment.

I did enjoy the game of Citadels tonight. John S. came over to play with us as well, and we saw Charles briefly, good to see him too!

I won Citadels, woohoo. Never really got anywhere near my victory conditions in Chrononaughts. Pirate's Cove was fun! Got pounded into the mat. At least I wasn't alone. Rob smoooshed us.

Ahhh ... none of you linked to the pretty image.

Of course Poss should be welcome. You are after all Strange Attractors 8-). I mean look at the people who turn up on Friday nights. Obvious innit?

Was it just me or did you and Rob find the food in Triplets of Bellville ... disturbing?

Oh, yessiree! She's welcome, allright!
.
.
.
Errr...who?
Oh, Poss, oh yeah. She's cool.
:-)
(Rob now promises to stop channelling Eric C for the night.)

Ooh, hello Poss! Yes you're certainly welcome in our group, isn't she Rob?

And I'm............


Category V - The Lone Wolf
Though you'd be welcome in most groups, you prefer a more solitary path.

Edited by author 05-08-2004 18:47
A trickle of buttons and magnets has made it to the front page of my webshop! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! More coming soon, hurrah!

The day continued. My sister came over and we all went to the hospital and then tried to fill in Dad's forms. Then we had lunch at the not unreasonable cafe at Charlies...then we went to his apartment to pick up stuff, came home, Mum nobly did more form filling in while I did webwork, and then Mum and I did the photocopying at Officeworks, caught the bus back to the hospital to drop off the forms, see dad and caught the bus back.

Anyone who's tried to park at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital at 15:00
will understand why we caught the bus.

I then rang Rob, with reservations about climbing tonight. He suggested not, as I sounded tired. Actually his words were "You sound absolutely fragged." When I related this to Mum, she said,
brightly "Yes, that's right!"

Um. So we are slated for a quiet night in during which we will watch something and/or freeform. Sounds *good* to me.

Gosh, I just did that quiz about what sort of social entity you are. I swear I answered as honestly as I could! This has lifted my day! I'm so proud, it's just the sort of person I always wanted to be!

Category VI - The Strange Attractor
Though you're not quite sure why, people are drawn to you like moths to a flame. You really are too cool for words.
What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Went to see Dad with Mum. 'nuff said. Mum and I are getting battle fatigue I think.

Other than that, I have a new song (with help from the evil Rob) about my more rewarding activities today.

Badges Badges Badges Badges Badges etc...
Magnet Magnet
Badges etc etc
Oh no! T-shirt T-shirt!

It's all Rob's fault.
 
Scarborough tonight wasn't that cold and was pretty good all round. Came home and read Rob and Ros (Our Rob or Ros?) the first two chapters of The Eyre Affair. Gee Mr Fforde is a great writer. They read really well aloud.

Took my father in law to the doctor this morning and did some shopping for my mother in law. Then I went home and worked on badgesbadgesbadges...

Yes, I know they haven't appeared on the webshop yet. They're not ready. Settle down.

Then I caught the bus into Northbridge and went climbing with Rob, and one of my cousins, Kristy. It was fun. My hands hurt.

Edited by author 02-08-2004 21:39
An early start to the day, with breakfast with my sister, her husband, my mother, grandmother, uncle and cousin. Very pleasant it was too. Mmmm chippolatas.

Then it was to the hospital and taking Dad around various hostels, something of a trial to all concerned.

After all that, it was time for us (Mum & I) to meet Rob for our pre movie dinner at Retro Betty's. Steveg and Maureen joined us, Poss, unfortunately had Had A Day. Poor Poss.
 
We went to see The Triplets of Bellville, something I've been waiting for all week. I wasn't dissappointed. In some ways it reminded me of The Iron Giant and Help! I'm a Fish! and in others, like a Gary Larson cartoon. But it is its own bizarre and encapsulating self. This is something that we will have to buy. Funny, vicious and ironic, with a quite bizarre plot and lovely animation. Really clever. And the music was wonderful! Got to see it again.

Today has been a nice lazy day after the traumas of yesterday. We have made a pretty much repeat performance of yesterday's soup. Just the weather for it. With chicken style stock cubes this time and no celery, but extra basil. Nod nod nod. Greens.

Slept in, had toasted apricot scrolls for breakfast, toasted rolls for lunch.

My sister has come over from Kalgoorlie so we'll hopefully be having breakfast with her tomorrow, and then I've got to ring a couple of hostels to see if they can show us what they've got, as Dad has been given leave from the hospital to check them out.

After that trauma is over, (the hostels, not breakfast) we're going to go and see The Triplets of Bellville in the evening. And after all of this, we'll deserve to. We'll especially deserve to go to Retro Betties for dinner before hand as well.

Edited by author 01-08-2004 17:45
We made a pot of soup to feed the hordes that came for gaming, which I thought turned out very nice. As I said, it was a boring soup with interesting ingredients. Well aged red string salami, stellini, fried onion & garlic with the sausage, rainwater, beans, carrot, potato, celery, red lentils, bayleaves, fresh basil, pepper, oregano, and a tin of crushed SPC tomato. I think that was all. Except for the red wine and beef style stock.

We set it going in the slow cooker to cook yesterday and reheated the same way for gaming. It went down very well for me.

We played a 9 player game of Attack! the Expansion. It took a hell of a long time, and there was a general consensus of 'Well, that was fun. Let's not do this again.' With which I agree. Timed turns would be a good idea too, stopping the clock for battles of course! You can see the full results on http://www.quicktopic.com/27/H/66YJ62n4XRExs on Rob's Burblings, not far from here. Message 18. I won't post them myself, because it would seem like gloating. The other gamers, good, fine people that they are said I'm allowed to feel a little bit smug, so I'm cherishing this warm feeling I've got.

It's been quite a good day for me as I won the new game that Jason brought for us to try out, Citadel. This is actually quite a nice little play, and I'm not just saying that because I won. It's very easy to learn. You take turns being different occupations, like King (it's good to be the king!) Bishop, Architect, Thief, Assassin etc. These have different powers, and the first person to build 8 things ends the game (but may not necessarily win). It is a very cute card game. It's a lot of fun, and I think the noble Steveg, Gary and Richard will enjoy it, they can try it on Friday, because Jason has left it with us to try out, which was good of him. Thanks, Jason, if you're reading this!

Then we had a game of Worst Case Scenario Survival Board Game, with the travel set shuffled in. Good fun, Rob took that one away.

We also played Australian Menagerie http://www.wildconnect.com.au/ which is really worth having a try of. Learn about our fauna and try to save it from environmental threats with management strategies for your wilderness areas. Very good card game, and buying it aids conservation. Woohoo! It's a very attractive game too, and check it out (this is what everyone comments on) You have four of a kind of each animal, and each one has a different comment about the animal written on it. Well worth getting the extra habitat expansions as well. Results over on Rob's page. Mark and I don't want to talk about it.

We had a really good day. Thank you to everyone who came! Fun, fun, fun!

Today has been a bit of a trial. Couldn't get to sleep last night, so woke up bleary. Had to drive Rob back from putting his car in for a service...so did have to get out of bed in the morning. Blurk.

So we did that, went to visit the Computer Recycle IT centre, to thank them for the quiz prizes and chat, and then we got the news that Rob's dad had been in a car accident on his way home from a quiz night last night (different one) and was in hospital. (He's out now)

Went to Rob's place, talked to his mum and picked up gaming stuff for the big ATTACK! game tomorrow. Went home and did catch up on our Real Robots construction. My 9V power isn't working so Rob did a work around for me until we can figure out how to fix it properly.

Then went and had dinner mmmmm red wine marinated lamb fillets and mashed potato, with capsicum and eggplant and jus, and some very nice Turkish and tapas to start off with.
Went down very well, what with us forgetting to have lunch and all.

Finished off going to Friday night gaming, chatting with rellies, and doing lots of preparation, with the noble Steveg's able assistance for the big game of ATTACK! tomorrow, and just chatting really.

Looking forward to seeing The Triplets of Bellville at the Luna, on Monday night! It looks like good value.

Very tired now. Need proper sleep tonight. Hope I get it, I need to be alert, not alarmed for the big game tomorrow.

Edited by author 29-07-2004 23:15
Yay! Didn't wake up with a headache! Yesterday, did a lot of fooling around with badges and magnets. I'm almost satisfied. Almost.

Last night was really enjoyable down at Scarborough, the company was great, weather wasn't freezing. Cold enough but not freezing.

Now, you're all going to the Genghis Con Quiz Night tonight, aren't you? *Aren't you?*

Because we've all worked very hard and it's going to be a great night and lots of fun. Yeah!

As it happened: It was great fun indeed! People won stuff, and there were funny answers! Everyone seemed to be trying hard, and we thank you all for your hard thinking and creative answers. But one thing is for sure, it is a lot less stressful being on a table than it is being a judge! Whew. Rob and I are still hyped! What are we Rob?

Rob: HYPED!
Leece: Yeah!

Big thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped. And everyone who gave stuff. Good fine people.

The head persisted most of the day and made me feel kind of washed out.

Did stuff on the website mostly yesterday, then cycled into Northbridge to have a fairly productive rock climb with Rob. We eventually ate our take away chinese/thai food at around 2100. Today I hope to finish the table quizzes, the visual ones, that is....bwaahahahahaaha!

Feeling a bit sinussy and heady this morning but better than yesterday, oh yes.

Yesterday was going to a major shopping centre, going to visit dad at hospital, going to another major shopping centre, doing work on the website with Banded Hare Wallabies, and last night collaborating with Rob working out the table quizzes for the GenghisCon quiz night on Thursday.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, woke up with a very sore head. Poor Leece. She's going to go and put some thumbnails up in the Australian Animals section. Then she might work on the badges. Badges? Badges? We don't need no steeeenkin' Badges!

Hello Poss!

We spent most of yesterday getting ready for the green pickup, so our garden vegetation bore the brunt of our frustrations.

Dinner was leftover chicken mole from Saturday night at Poss's (hi Poss!) That recipe is definitely a keeper! Yum.
Who'd've thougt that chilli, chocolate and chicken would go together so well? Well, people in South America, clearly,
but who else?

I hope to ride to the Blood bank tonight, but things may interfere. Did the GST for the business yestereve. (My way of doing the GST is to sit in the other room with the curtain drawn and doing something else, trying not to listen whilst Ros and Rob do it for me. I tend to get anxious about it. I must drive them crazy.) Apparently all is well.

So there you go, so far.

Very cold this morning.

Ooooh look! Another blog to link to! Hello Leece, hello Rob, hello trees, hello sky, hello Molesworth major.

Someone a couple of feet away, snoring! :-)

I just rode to City Beach, it was a very nice ride, 17.73 kilometres worh and lovely weather, no wind, lots of birds. There was lots of cloud over Fremantle, and 4 big ships in Gauge Roads. It was a *good* ride.

Being kept company while on on-call vigil:
And many many thanks for that! It's amazing how much easier it is to do this sort of thing, knowing that there is someone else just a couple of feet away...

Thanks!

Edited by author 22-07-2004 10:42
Hospital again, yesterday, then back home and sorted out "Lots O' Dragons" and the stencil gryphon from when I was a raging seriagrapher. Striped possum and Tricia the elephant are looking fine, fine, fine. The numbats are coming along nicely.

Last night down at Scarborough was very windy. My fishburger was pretty good.

Rob is on call. Boy was he on call last night. He didn't get to bed until 5.30 this morning...he's still sleeping.

I kept him company until 1.00am, putting more stuff in the Rainbow Lots O' Dragons range, then went to bed.

Cafe Press are starting to do buttons and fridge magnets,
I shall go and check them out, and then enter up some more gryphons, I think. I'm slated to drive Dad around looking at hostels sometime.

Been a day, pretty much. Went to the hospital to visit Dad, had lunch at the cafe there, came home and did some cleanup on the scanned artwork Mum is so capably doing for me.

I'm all fired up to get it uploaded, but CafePress are doing some maintenance, and I can't get into my shop, and that's also why Lots O Dragons looks a bit light on, no thumbnail or anything. You'd be lucky if you could find it there, at the bottom of all the other dragons. It'll look really cool once I can get at the jolly thing.

<Whining and pawing at the login screen> "What's that girl? Cafe Press are doing server maintenance?"

Went climbing last night, did a bit o bouldering. Ooh! There's a photo of me apparently on the Rockface website, I'm off to check it out! Woohoo!

Well it's been a weekend, too short and too full. And it was a quiet one really...had a very nice time at Poss's, GhengisCon subcommittee meeting and a nice lunch on Sunday. Anyway, spent most of today playing with my new Lots O' Dragons mug design. Very cute. Not studio quality artwork, certainly but cute and friendly. Mostly drawn whilst waiting for car maintenance to be done, truth be told. (The various colours have been added using Gimp.) Comfy seats, good lighting and peace. And it's turned out really well! Ros has taken on scanning duties and has been scanning like a trouper. Of course, she picks the ones she likes the best, which definitely are not always the ones I'd pick. Scanners' perogative.

So this is what it's like to have a blog.
Been pretty busy with the website today...you can see that new stuff has been added recently by the news bar on the home page.