Me, holding (half) a bottle of tequila, dressed as a schoolgirl, making love to an inflatable penguin on somebody’s driveway.

What did you do with your friday night?

- Leyton

Alright, let’s bring on Part 2 of the Baby Diaries.

This morning, we (Lara, me and Lara’s Mum) went for an ultrasound at the Mater. This involved the sonographer smearing goo over Lara’s belly and then moving the gizmo around, which resulted in black and white fuzzy pictures on the monitor (just like it is on TV).

They spent a lot of time looking at the head - measuring the skull and the brain, and checking for all sorts of abnormalities. Then they moved on to the heart, which we could clearly see pumping away. Now, the pictures you get from this ultrasound gizmo (as seen below) only real show bones and organs - I’m assuming this is because they use sound waves. This means I could only really see bones, cause they showed up as white, and the heart cause it was pumping. Imagine a skeleton, give it a working heart, and cover it in jelly so it has a roughly humanoid form, and that’s what it looked like to me - still very impressive though.

Now, I’m not particularly good with medical procedures. I don’t like watching them on TV and I can even feel faint when people got into detail talking about medical procedures. So there I was, watching the monitor as this totally non-invasive process is giong on, and I started to feel faint. Then I went into a cold sweat and my skin started going all tingly from the cold. I knew how ridiculous it was, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I seriously thought I was going to faint or lose control of my bodily functions or something. Fortunately I didn’t, and about halfway through I recovered and was actually able to appreciate watching our baby on the screen.

We got to see fingers and toes (all in the right quantities) and a few bones here and there - the spine is pretty impressive…mostly cause it’s easy to recognise. Even the sonographer was talking about how cute the baby was (I’m sure they don’t say that about EVERY child). Then they tried to find out what gender the baby is. Cause the baby wasn’t in the right position for us to peer between it’s legs, they manipulated Lara’s stomach to try to make the baby move (I’m not sure if this bit hurt, but apparently the sonographer was a bit forceful at times - what can you expect from a bloodnut Afrikaaner?). She (the sonographer) couldn’t be sure but thought it was a girl. A bit later, the doctor came in, moved the baby around without any hassles, took the photos you can see below, and pretty much convinced us we’re having a girl.

The current estimated time of arrival is 24 January.

This is the baby

This is her head

Col gave Stella a lift home, and on the way there, they arranged to go to the drive-in on the next Thursday night to see Police Academy 5 and 6, which were two of Col

Last night, Rob W and I did some brilliant work. He and Nadia came over for dinner, and then while Nadia watched tv, Rob and I finished the big issues for the intranet we’ve been working on. Want to see a sample of my brilliance? Well, there’s this little program I wrote. That’s not an easy thing to do, let me tell you. Sorry to those who clicked it.

I made this Thai red curry last night, and it was pretty good. Sadly, though, my rice cooker has given up the ghost and died. It served as a fundamental part of my kitchen for a good while, and I will be sad to have to replace it.

In other news, today is Dan’s from Canberra’s birthday. She’s not at work today to actually read my good wishes, as she’s off to Vanuata tomorrow to laze about. Ah, the life of a public servant …. how I miss it.

My long weekend next weekend is shaping up brilliantly. I’ve got the car going in for mechanical work on Monday, so it shoudl be in tip-top shape for whatever I decide to do as next weekend draws closer. I was thinking of ringing one of those telemarketing Australian Holidays-style places and saying, “What have you got near Brisbane that I can use this weekend?” and watch them fall over themselves to provide suggestions.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. Hope you all have a great weekend.

This was the first time Collin and Stella had been out alone. They bowled competitively although Stella suspected that Collin was making a couple of bad shots on purpose so she could catch up a little when his lead started to grow.

“Cwar I reckon I could eat the crotch out of a low flyin’ duck Stell, you wann go and grab that rissole sanger now?” asked Collin.

“Sure thing Col, I’m pretty hungry meself” Stella replied.

Collin and Stella headed to the Mudgee RSL in Collin’s Kingswood. Once again Stella rested her hand on Collin’s leg as he drove, he occasionally took her hand in his. ‘Can’t be sendin’ him any clearer messages’ thought Stella to herself, a little worried that Collin hadn’t yet tried to so much as kiss her. The other guys Stella had gone out with all would have tried something by now. ‘Just shows he’s a decent bloke don’t it?’ Stella reassured herself.

‘Strewth’ thought Collin, ‘gunna have to get these flamin’ nerves under control, reckon if I can do that I might kiss her goodnight when I drop her home’.

They arrived at the RSL, walking through the doors, stepping onto the turquoise carpet hand in hand. Collin led the way straight to the bistro where he ordered two rissole sangers, a Fanta and a Diet Coke for Stella, “You remembered” she said smiling at him.

“Course, I noticed you at Bingo, always a Diet Coke, not all I noticed about ya though” Collin said shyly.

“Aaaw Col, you’re just so sweet to me n that” said Stella, feeling herself blush.

Collin insisted paying for the dinner even though Stella offered to pay her share, “Just means we have to go out again so you can buy me a Fanta next time eh” Collin grinned at her.

“You’re on Col” smiled Stella, “tell ya what, next time we’ll go to the drive-in, my shout”

“Sounds grouse Stell” Said Collin.

I don’t like Thursdays. It just feels like the day drags that little bit too much for my liking, despite it’s proximity to Friday and the glorious weekend that lies shortly after.

Speaking of weekend, Carmen’s birthday was yesterday, so I hope everyone sent her an email. Don’t forget Dan’s birthday tomorrow either! Dan is off to Vanuata for her birthday, which is pretty amazing. Camen is having a party on Saturday if I recall correctly, so that means I should start planning my weekend in case I double-book. I also intend to see a couple of movies this weekend - Identity and American Pie 3 at the very least. And I need to finish my help file.

My long weekend is shaping up to be a beaut. I figure that I’ll do a Friday to Monday, which should allow me to finally get my carpets cleaned on Friday before going away. I’ll send out email invitations for you all to join me at any stage - I can’t shake the mental picture of just how relaxing that time we spent at Caloundra for Leyton’s birthday was. I want to recapture that if at all possible.

And the Monday before will be when my car goes in to get stuff fixed. I can’t shake the mental soundtrack of the suspension “dee-daw” which is the part of the holiday that I seriously don’t want to recapture.

My new case is spiffy, but I think that the whining noise might be coming back, which means that the hard drive is responsible. That’s ok, I’d planned on replacing it with one it’s SATA ultra-fast brethren in the next couple of months anyway.

Rob and Nadia are over for dinner tonight, and I’m trialling my brand-new recipe for Thai Red Curry. Wish me luck.

Hi everyone. Last night I received a present that I’m super-excited about … a new super-quiet Antec PC case, and a new ASUS 52x burner. This was a gift from a certain bathroom/kitchenwares retailling giant that I’d spent some time helping Rob develop an intranet for. Woo hoo, paid off in spades! So I got it and moved my components into it. I neglected to bother with anything I don’t use, so firewire, front audio and the like are all lovely features, but features that just don’t cut it enough to make it into my new box. The inside is amazingly bare, and I love it.

Family night was a bit sucky last night. Dad was working, so it was only a partial family night anyway, and Mum worked yesterday instead of today, so there was no reason for me to hang around, especially after feeling a bit tired after working last night.

I went home, took a pill and went to bed. I was out like a light.

This morning, we had no hot water. I checked in with Michelle about this, and was told that Energex were on their way out today. In defiance, I ate Cheezels for breakfast.

Finally, Stella spoke.

The dilemma went round and round in Col’s mind, he was desperate to make things right again between him and Stella and he was still so mad at Gavin. ‘Flamin’ heck’ he thought to himself, ‘Who am I kiddin’? No matter what Gav’s done, he’s me mate’.

He was just about to tell Darryl where he could stick it when Col heard a voice from across the alley.

“Col!” It was Stella. She practically ran towards him. “I thought I might find ya ‘ere” she said smiling at him. “Stell, can we go out to the Kingy and talk?” asked Collin. Stella had never seen him look so serious.

“Sure Col, I’m real keen to talk to you n that eh” said Stella.

They walked outside to Collin’s Kingswood without saying a word. Collin going over and over in his head what he was going to say to Stella. Stella thinking about how she’s going to react to whatever Collin has to say.

Sitting in the car, Collin started the talking. He launched into the story, not leaving anything out. He wanted Stella to know exactly what happened.

Stella sat listening to Collin, not saying a word until he was finished.

Guess what? In recognition of my stellar performance in my job over the past few weeks, I’ve scored a long weekend. I’ve been working on this help file that has been causing me no end of trouble, and I decided that it’s going to be finished by the end of August OR ELSE. So I told this to Edward, and he added an incentive: I finish it by the end of August, and the next weekend is 4-days long. Wooooooooooooo! That’s the first weekend of September, for those keeping score.

So, next weekend I’ll be looking to party somewhere or something. Actually, I might be just blissfully content getting away for a few days. Anybody else interested? I don’t know where yet, but traditionally, this kind of locale involves a beach and alchohol, a timeless combination.

I don’t know if I mentioned this yesterday or not (I think that seeing as I just read yesterday’s entry to double-check, it’s pretty safe to assume “not”) but I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday morning at 7am. At Stafford. I woke up at 7:05am. I think I made a superhuman effort to get there by 7:30am. Pretty exciting start to the morning, rush of blood to the head, I can tell you.

Today was not nearly as exciting, woke up at 8:30 and went back to bed. I was at work last night, so that’s ok, but even so, a 9:45am start seems so decadent. I’ll have lunch with Leyton today, and I have cleaners visiting my apartment during the day today which is also pretty cool. Family night tonight, here’s a picture of my dog that I’ve been promising for a while now:

His name is Simba, and he’s gorgeous.