Today’s the birthday of Bek, and my cousin Eloise. Hope you guys both have a great day.

I wasn’t in yesterday, so no blog entry. It was a very full-on day, with my uncle’s funeral at 11:30am, and an extended family day at M&D’s. We had Foo for dinner which was always a nice way to end a day. Cigars and Port on the balcony was just icing on the proverbial cake.

I’m suffering a bit today though. Very tired, let me tell you. Work’s just let me know that I might be spending the next 3 weeks at Redland Bay, which I’m not particularly excited about. I’d much rather sit at my desk, in my office, doing my real job, but … as always … money is tight, and if there’s a way to make a quick few grand with me going to Redland Bay, they’re going to do it. Bastards. :rant:

So, today I was looking through some paperwork on my desk and found an invitation to Dave Nolan’s birthday party, which I apparently missed last Sunday. Goddammit. I am the worst friend ever.

As Bek just said:
hey dean - sorry to bug you but can you blog birthday and interest for
it to be on Friday or Saturday night?

I guess people can email me or her directly, or leave a comment here. Thanks peeps. :hugs:

Argh, I just lost today’s entry and have had to retype it. Excuse me if that makes me a little grumpy.

The one thing that’s for certain is that I need a new digital Set Top Box. This time, however, I’m researching which one to get, so that we don’t have a repeat of the XMS debacle. It turns out that I need to get a “dual-tuner” STB, which basically gives you the ability to watch one channel digitally, while recording another, also digitally. Isn’t technology wonderful? The same thing we’ve been able to do for eons with analogue recordings require special equipment to do digitally. Bravo.

I’ve pretty much got two choices - the first, a Toshiba, which has one HD-quality output and one SD-quality output, which is more quality than you’ll get on a video tape anyway. The second options, a Topfield, has two SD-quality outputs, but also a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), which is basically a hard drive that records things digitally. This guarantees that you’ll get SD-quality playback on recordings.

They’re at similar price points.

I’m probably leaning more towards the Topfield, because it has FAR better reviews than the Toshiba (which I found suprising) and that I don’t have - nor am I likely to be able to afford anytime soon - a HD-TV compatible television. Home Theatre is becoming a priority for me, and slowly, I’m upgrading my stuff. Baby steps. Little baby steps.

Oh, and to confuse matters more, Topfield have a new model that has 120Gb hard drive instead of 80Gb. So, you can pick up the 80Gb at an online store for about $100 cheaper. Thing is - I’m not sure I want to buy something so expensive online. I never thought I’d say that.

In other news, early tomorrow morning, I’m getting my carpets cleaned. The straw that broke the camel’s back was spilling a milkshake on them last night. I was most disappointed that I’d lost my milkshake.

I said it on the weekend, and I’ll say it again: I think that the only people who can be blamed for the Brisbane Lions not winning the penant for the fourth time is the St Kilda football club, who should’ve beaten the Power convincingly last week, but instead, lost. For shame. :squint:

So, yeah, people came around, and it got pretty quiet. Disappointing result. Leyton stayed afterwards, and we player Settlers of Catan until the NRL started. Watched that with pizza, and then played another game of Settlers, then Bek came back and we played again. It was fun, but I suck at it.

Sunday was a quiet day, slept in, and generally didn’t do much.

This morning, I had breakfast with Edward at the new pub over the road - we’d heard they were having some teething problems, and it turned out they’re not finished with them either. Sydney-esque prices in the suburbs of Brisbane require a modicum of service and a moderate commitment to the quality of their product. Willow’s Steak (as I believe it’s called) unfortunately had neither.

So, yeah I know this is late, but here I am, and here’s the grandfinal plans for tomorrow:

Basically, people rock up to MY PLACE to watch it on the big screen. BYO drinks. Eat before you come. Some snacks provided. Those going to Stavros’ house warming can go in a group if you want.

Also - markets. I don’t know if I’m going, but I might, so if you think you might go, call me and convince me to go too.

Callun’s birthday today … many happy returns mate - hope you have a good day.

I’ll be heading round to M&D’s tonight for the birthday dinner, so that’ll be nice. I’ve been working my ass off of late to get finished with work’s new website, which went “live” last night. I’m still stressed beyond belief - it’s not finished yet - but it’s a relief to have it live. :thumbsup:

So, that’s all I’ve got that’s news. Oh, followers of my personal life will be interested to hear that work hired Leyton’s friend Tim this week. I guess that’ll teach his old work for letting him go on holidays.

If there was a test that you had to pass before you could move on to adulthood, I would’ve failed it ages ago. There are basic things that everyone else takes for granted that I often just forget to do. I frequently forget to brush my teeth before going to bed, and only remember in the morning because my mouth tastes like something died in it. I routinely buy junk food when there are healthier alternatives available. I swing wildly between good things that last and cheap things that don’t. /sigh

I was reminded of the last point specifically last night, when John came over to watch The Sopranos on my new DVD player. He’s got a pretty hectic work schedule coming up, so it was good to fit it in, even if it had to be on a school night. And, let’s not forget that it won :
Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti - Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva - Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
Terence Winter, Writer - “Long Term Parking” - Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series
The Sopranos - Outstanding Drama Series
so it’s got a lot going for it.

I made this recipe Vivienne gave me, and modified it for my own purposes. It turned out pretty well, I think. You get a Chilli sambal - I used “Glory” brand sambal, or you can make your own if you’re super-hardcore - and fry a spoonful or more with some garlic in a hot pan. Add onions, capsicum, green beans and chicken. Stir-fry, and then turn the heat down and cover. Towards the end of cooking, add a stick of “bludgeon” (sp?) which is compressed prawn paste, or something. Vivienne bought it for me, I’m too stupid to shop in Asian supermarkets. Serve with rice. Mmm.

I went up to Bribie on Saturday afternoon to go and stay at Grandpa’s place overnight. The drive up was fairly busy, so, it wasn’t particularly enjoyable, but it wasn’t backed up or stopped, which is good.

We went to the Bribie Island Bowls Club (”BIBC” of “the club” from here in) for dinner, and I tried to get money out of their ATM, which promptly didn’t dispense the goods. So I immediately told the people in line behind me to not use it and got management. Anyway, in the meantime, grandpa and I got our meals and sat down. I was obviously concerned that the thing had recorded a transaction and not given me the dang money. So, I ended up sitting at my table on their cordless phone, talking with a guy from my bank, and he assured me no money had been recorded as withdrawn. Something happened and the ATM stopped talking to the banks.

I joined the club that night for a meager $2.50 - the same price as a large schooner of Hahn Premium Light, which I enjoyed during my meal. We went home, had coffee, chocolate ice cream and watched the footy games. As Dean mentioned, the Rugby League was boring. I don’t recall the AFL too much.

Jake and I began brewing beer on Sunday. They’ll be ready to bottle in a couple of weeks, and in a few months we’ll have stunning “Australian Lager”, at least, that’s the plan.

Went to coffee at Toombul Centro with Naomi this morning. We went to Gloria Jean’s, and I had a caramelatte. Quite good - the caramel sauce meant I didn’t have to sugar it. We also shared some cheesecake, which got a bit sickly after a while. Tim called during this time to confirm my employment this week. It’s gonna be sweet. We went to kleins, cos I’ve been intending to get a new ear-adornment for a while. I got this horseshoe arrangement, which has 2 balls on the end - one of which screws on and off. It’s cool

Was then onto Jake’s place after 3 games of pool at Naomi’s place. She beat me 2-1. I think I started talking too much trash after I convincingly beat her in the first game while she was talking trash to me.

Jake and I bought 100metres of speaker cable for a bargain. I stayed for dinner and then hooked off to collect mum from the airport. She was glad to be home.

Well, things are progressing nicely.

Friday night I’m sure something of note happened. I don’t recall. Oh yeah - I watched the “other” AFL game on television. It was fine.

Saturday, though, that was where the real business was. I’d spent quite a lot of time working on Saturday … for some reason. I’m really keen to get work’s new website up and running, and I’ve been pouring myself into it. It should be ready today or tomorrow, and I’m getting pretty antsy.

Saturday night was footy at Glenn’s place. Bek was kind enough to pick us up, and do the driving. Glenn made hot dogs, pies and sausage rolls - typical “footy” food. In short, the Lions game was a bit too tense to “enjoy” and the Broncos were never in it. :frown:

Sunday I slept in, until Blacky locked himself out and rang me up to open the door. :poke: Whatever, I needed to get up anyway. Oh, Bek woke me up earlier asking how to get to Toowoomba. :slap: I’m full of smilie action today
So … for Bek’s birthday we’re thinking of going to Montezuma’s Kedron, an old favourite. I don’t know if I’m organizing it or not, so stay tuned for more details.

I just read this quote from a book about the Hurrican Hunters:

Journalist Edward R. Murrow described Hurricane Edna’s eye in 1954, this way: “In the eye of a hurricane, you learn things other than of a scientific nature. You feel the puniness of man and his works. If a true definition of humility is ever written, it might well be written in the eye of a hurricane.”

Kinda cool I thought
Tonight was a night of Cebsing, and I can honestly say I am totally exhausted. We ran and ran and ran in the games we played. Our team whooped in touch football, and ultimate frisbee, but got beaten just a little in “belt the baiter”. I propose a ban on having 3 games including running and more running followed by some more running in the one night.

I’ve been re-arranging our workshop room a little bit lately, possibly in preparation for when we have a REAL workshop setup, with wall mounted tools, or for when I (and possibly a friend) make another homebrew. Homebrew is sounding mighty fine these days. Could work splendidly.

I’ve had to raise the height of a little bench that we had by screwing lengths of 1×2 to the bottom of the legs. A small amount more work is required, but it is now at a level that work can be commenced at.

It looks like I’ll be home alone for another full week, which means that Mum and Dad will be away for my birthday Oh well, full blown parties are so much better when there aren’t any family around No, just kidding. Only a half-blown party.