So Godez and I are booked at the Chevron Towers on the Gold Coast for some of his trip up here. During that time, we are going to party like rockstars. Rockstars who play poker.

People are also reminded that the Montezuma’s party is still “go” and I’ll need RSVPs. I know, I know, realistically I will have to call people myself, but you never know … people may actually follow Rob and Nadia’s lead and RSVP.

I’ll have to go to the rude post office and collect some registered mail today. That should be fun, seeing as I complained how rude they were, and they know it was me who complained. Maybe they’ll be supernice to me, or more likely they’ll be extra rude to accentuate the fact that they cannot be beaten!

Ohio. I was disappointed beyond all reason this morning, when loud banging on my door indicated that it was time for work. Very very unimpressed.

And why you may ask? Because I had a good weekend, which didn’t bear interrupting
Friday was out to dinner with Mongo, Chris and Celia, G&R, Woo and M&D. It was a pretty nice night, although it could’ve been cheaper for my present budget. Funny, Woo and I agreed to share a curry and a few naan, but when the time to order came, we changed our mind and decided to share 2 x curries. That was a mistake, one would’ve sufficed, and then I could’ve ordered desert. Although I’ve noticed with Gulab Jamon (delicious when served with ice cream) that some places serve the dumplings themself either warm, or cold. I prefer the warm dumplings, and Punjabi Palace is a cold-dumpling-serving place. Lucky I didn’t order desert actually, since Mum gave me hers because her teeth couldn’t handle the coldness. Yes!

Saturday Woo helped me work on my plane. ALMOST had enough equipment to fly it, but typically needed to stop and order more parts. D’oh! When I got home, Gayton was here, so we watched TV in a bored frame of mind. Blacky and I had Thai for dinner.

Sunday I spent the day doing nothing much, kinda killing time by watching tv episodes before Glenn and Lara would arrive. When 5pm rolled around, I called them to cancel their visit, since I had a dinner engagement at 6pm at Sunnybank. Was at a “family buffet” which was good, but had waaaay too many kids for my liking. Today I have a lunch meeting with Vivienne where we discuss options for August. I’ve become scared of spending the amount of money we need to, and I want her input.

I saw a sign on a taxi rear today advertising Jupiter’s new show “Zingara”. I have heard that it is a disorganized, ramshackle affair with no coherent storyline or development, but what amazes me is the tagline: “Be seduced by the Gypsy Queen.”

Surely I’m not the only person who knows that the Romani people consider “Gypsy” to be derogatory, to the extent that African-American people object to the term “nigger”? Can you imagine if the tagline was: “Be seduced by the Nigger Queen.” People would flock to be seduced, I’m sure. I’m probably just begging my blog to be attacked by spam comments with that selection of keywords, but hey: If my friends can’t even work out how to post a comment, then how will a bot? That’s my opinion on the matter. Oh, hopefully I’ll also get the Musings blocked by overzealous corporate firewalls. In which case, I’m sorry - my intention was to get the slacker reading the Musings on work time fired, not overtax poorly-implemented mail-guard solutions.

Another wierd ad I saw today was being driven around the city, as a construction on top of a ute, specifically designed to be an ad people see and talk about. I’m going to talk about it, but not in the way the QPSU hopes I will:
I don’t think there’s much wrong with Queensland Health. Sure, I say that as a young-ish white person living in a metropolitan zoning, but being old or living in the country are both the virtual “kiss of death” they’ve always been. The sign, incidentally, said “Qld Health. FIX IT NOW!”

I had breakfast with Rob Wilson this morning at the Works cafe, and tonight I’m having dinner with family and Powell’s to celebrate Carmen’s return to civilzation, from the depths of darkest Tasmania. Woo has promised to help me mount new technology into my plane this weekend too - new servos, gears, and the like - so it should be a good weekend if potential is anything to go by.

Presumably, Brenden is having a great day today - it’s his last day, and he’s off to unemployment tomorrow. We celebrated today with pizza and coke.

I went to the movies last night with Danielle and saw Ocean’s Thirteen. It wasn’t bad, not as good as Eleven, but better than Twelve. We also had Ginga for dinner, and as usual, it was fabulous.

Not much else to say, Blacky was off work sick today, so he made a nuisance of himself as best he could. Wireless from my NAS is too slow to playback on the media center, which is annoying, and I want to go overseas. I’m getting itchy feet.

Dudes, check it out: new transmitter for my plane. Woot!

Having a very “up and down” kinda day today. Was a bit meh earlier, then I got my remote and was pleased, and then I realized that it still needs to be installed into the plane before I can fly it, and now I’m back to meh again.

Rob and Nadia came over on Saturday and really whipped me into shape, vis-a-vis the whole lounge room project. I also caught up with Glara on Saturday night for nachos. ‘Twas good. I read Charlotte the Goldilocks book she had, and she didn’t even do the constant re-appearing trick all night. Uncle Dean rules.

Sunday was b-o-r-i-n-g. I didn’t really do anything, My internet resets itself back to full usage mode tonight, so I can find something to keep me amused NEXT weekend.

Of course I didn’t forget that SoO is on tonight!

Having hastily organized a raincheck for tonight’s dinner with Rob (now tomorrow), footy at my place is still on. I will not be making a mess of myself as in the first game, but I will be enjoying a few cervesas. You’re well advised to do the same.

Last night I stayed up pretty late - season 6 of the Sopranos came to a dramatic conclusion. I have to wonder though, whether it’ll make it to season 7. They did a lot of tying up loose ends in a rather lame way. Someone on a forum suggested that it screamed “telemovie conclusion to come” but I’m not sure. I’d rather see Deadwood finalized, in the same sorta way they finished Firefly with the Serenity movie.

So I’ve just drunk what could be considered a soup-bowl full of tea, and I’m ready to throw down on another day. Don’t forget the sausage-fest tonight.

When I was Project Manager for my old workplace’s move to their new location, I learnt a secret Telstra number. This number basically told you what physical line you were calling from - if there’s a dial tone when you pick up the phone, it’s “connected” but not necessarily “enabled”. This is important for them because they can have connected numbers that people can still get through to Telstra on, to get their phone connected when they first move in, for example.

Anyway, as time went by I forgot the number. I recently was in a situation when I wish I knew the magic number, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember it. For some reason, yesterday afternoon it just came to me, and I wrote it down. If you’re bored, pick up a phone and dial 12722123. It’ll tell you which physcial number you’re calling from. I think that’s handy, albeit rarely.

For the weekend, I had curry at Glara’s place on Friday, which was fantastic. Saturday I went flying, and Saturday afternoon, while upgrading my plane, broke it. Now I’m in a difficult position - I don’t know exactly whether to buy the cheap-ish part I broke, or to use the opportunity to upgrade the plane, buying a better version of the part I broke (the Rx), which in turn requires a better Tx and better servos. You can see my dilemma.

Sunday I don’t really remember.

Monday I went out to the park with M&D, family friends G&R, Woo, Abby and Simba. Woo had a few goes flying his new plane, which I launched for him, and we had a picnic in the park. Abby was a moron and barked ferociously at any other dog that dared to want to use the park also. It’s going to be a while before M&D can train that out of her, she literally loses her mind when another dog’s in site/smell/hearing distance.

Well, I normally consider my google skills beyond reproach, but it’s suprisingly difficult to find a guide on how to mount a replacement engine mount for my F27B Stryker.
The mount is actually pictured here: http://www.parkzone.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ1234
and the motor is pictured here: http://www.parkzone.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ1216

The best descriptions I can find are these two forum posts:

First you cut both rings through at the top so the motor will slide in. Finally, after bolting up the motor, take some plastic strapping or carbon fiber tape and form a 1/2 circle on top of the motor mount rings across where you cut them. Glue these braces in place (it is easier to do with the motor in place) and it will be rock solid. Some people just run two releatively large zip ties around the motor and through the foam, but those look ugly IMO.

- Cut thru the top of the front ring of the motor mount (I left the front ring alone at this point and put the stock cover back on after I was finished with the mount…you can remove the ring if you want to I guess)
- Mount the motor with screws thru the stock mount holes and/or drill a hole sideways thru the center of the mount under the motor and secure with a narrow strip of foam and a nylon tie. Make sure you turn the nylon tie so that the ratchet part is almost under the motor (for good looks)
-As a last measure, I drilled a one quarter inch hole straight thru the fuselage lengthwise under the motor mount and
glued in a 6 inch carbon fiber tube.

Both of which seem less than perfect. Why buy a piece of moulded plastic that you need to cut through to use? That seems silly.

Had breaky with Rob Wilson this morning, who sadly said goodbye to his eldest dog, Snout, last night. Condolences on that, she had a good innings of 18 years - which is practically ancient in terms of Bull Mastiffs. (is that the correct plural?)

I opened a new bank account this week, and had to go into the bank to provide 100 points of ID, which I did before breakfasting with Rob. Two birds, one stone …. how sweet is that? Glara-ing this evening, mustn’t let them bail.

Here’s some funny stories. First one, upon reading yesterday’s blog post:

Leyton: wha? lara doesnt like montezumas?
Leyton: she doesnt like board games, computers, sport or montezumas
Leyton: why do we hang around with her again?

He makes a good point.

Second amusing story: we have a secret-squirrel system for posting checks to our bank. In our PO Box, we keep 3 stamped, bank-addressed envelopes with blank deposit slips in them. This way, if we get a check in the mail, we quickly fill in the details on the deposit slip and put it straight back into the post to our bank. Unfortunately we got a call from the bank today asking why we mailed 3 blank deposit slips in 3 seperate envelopes to them? I guess Australia Post found our secret stash and thought they had been put in our box in error. Looks like we need a new plan for that.

I have recently recorded messages for a telephone IVM, or “Interactive Voice System” (you know the ones - “press 1 for sales, press 2 for service .. etc), for the “software” business. (Don’t want to mention names so the search engines don’t find out who I work for). Got DC Douglas, from www.myvoiceoverguy.com to record it. Go to his site and click various buttons to hear samples of his “smooth as duck sh!t” style voice.