Australian Idol is finally over!!!

Finally, Australian Idol ended on Sunday night, and to celebrate the long time coming event, I rented American Dreamz and watched that instead. It took me about 24 h before I finally heard who won. Look it up if you don't know, or if you care. If you don't know what this movie is about though, it's kind of a behind the scenes bit on a reality TV show singing contest, not coincidentally similar to the crap I was refusing to watch. The host, played by Hugh Grant is an arrogant guy who hates his life (and himself). The people vying for the title really want to win, for various reasons, and will do a fair bit to win. It was funny, and much more entertaining than having to sit through a "real-life" reality TV talent quest finale where people have wasted their hard earned cash to produce a "winner" who will only end up producing a somewhere between mediocore (sp?) to crap cd, the first single already confirming its crap-ness.

Cheers guys, I just wanted to throw that in today...

Kichens

Alright everyone, here are the pics of the kitchen that we recently re-did. After looking at them here, it's a little disapointing though. Me and Bec spent all Thursday (2 weeks ago) painting the ceiling, 2 coats of new paint on the walls (that you can't really see much in these pictures), and one coat of acryllic paint on the skirting boards and doors. The kitchen is much lighter now, more... "welcoming" and just nicer. The only thing we didn't do was to actually install the kitchen itself. We did all the floor tiling (with help from father-in-law), painting, and wall tiling ourselves.

I have to say that I actually enjoyed the wall tiling though. I took my sweet time and made sure that all the lines were level and that the line in the top third of the wall tiles was straight all the way around the kitchen. This meant that I had to move a power outlet on the wall a little bit down, you can't see it here because it's a bit behind the microwave on the far right. But I got over my fear of electricity! I had to re-wire it and everything, which really isn't hard, you just match up the colours and you're good to go! We're both pretty happy about the kitchen now...

We'll be slowly doing the rest of the house over the next little while as well... Starting with the living room, then the bedrooms, or at least Alex's room... which is my current computer/music room... which means I will be moving outside into the garage that will be built in January! Yay for me!!!

On to other important issues. I just read that the Yellow Wiggle (Greg, and another regular reader of this blog) has quit the Wiggles due to health problems. Greg, I am very sad and sorry to see you go as you have provided heaps of pleasure to my son Alex, and myself as well. But more importantly, I wish you a future filled with happiness, and I hope that your decision (forced decision) gives you better health. There will always be a bowl of cold spaghetti and fruit salad for desert for you here at our place (pictured above coincidentally!).

What else... Alright, you forced it out of me...

My plans for next year. I will be staying where I am, working in the same department, but learning a new trick, mainly retroviral gene transfer. I can't go into details of the project because I don't want some bugger to steal it, but this trick enables you to make cell "a" express a protein that I want it to make, ie, that it doesn't normally make. Anyway though, it's a one year position as that's all I told my supervisor that I will be there for. After that, I need to move on. So I am looking for work for next year. Yes, I am looking in Halifax, so all the renovations that we do now, are in preparation for selling this house at the end of the year. At the very least, we will move to a bigger house if NS falls through.

I think that that's all I have to say as I should get back to work

Congrat'sare in order!

Well,I know that it has been a little while since I have last posted, but that's alright... You'll all get over it!

Alot has happened over the past little while, of most significance, was the birth of Delaney Lynn Tree., who was born on Wednesday November 15th, to one of my bestest friends, Amanda Tree(Sitland) and her husband Jason. So congradulations Amanda, much love and happiness are being sent to you!!!

Ummm, everything else will kind of pale in comparison though, but I will continue to bore you because I can.

Me and Bec went to see Pearl Jam last weekend... Kicked ass.... That's all I can really say to describe it. Honestly, I have not really thought too much about the last few albums they have put out, but after hearing them played live, I realize that that's how their new stuff was meant to be heard. It rocked. The concert began with Eddie (singer) coming onto the stage with his guitar, by himself, and he began playing Betterman. After the intro, when he should have begun singing the first verse, he didn't. Instead, his singing was replaced by that of the entire crowd. It was pretty cool to say the least. So we were all singing Betterman together with Eddie on guitar. They played alot of their betterknown songs, like Alive, Even Flow etc... And they also played their cover of Keep on Rockin' in the Free World... That was pretty awesome!! Eddie brought this kid up on stage with him from the audience for Keep on Rockin' and they each played a tamborine, and man the kid was into it!!! Eddie then lifted him up onto his shoulders and carried him around on stage for a bit too!! That kid's got a great story that no-one will ever believe!!! Personally, I might have been a little concerned considering Eddie was regularly drinking and smoking on stage, but it didn't look like enough to cause him to loose his balance or anything. They ended the show with one of my favorite covers of theirs, Yellow Ledbetter. It's a slower song, and it's not on any of their albums, but my love for the song is documented in an ealier post, and it is only found on the cd single for Daughter, but alot of people knew it. I guess I would have to say that if you like Pearl Jam, do yourself a favour, and go see them if the opportunity arisses....

Even the baby in Bec's tummy partied all night (to Bec's discomfort).

What else has happened, I finished the kitchen, painted and all!! It looks great, and since I am a champion, it should. (Why not toot my own horn, I'm allowed, don't judge my self-love!). I will post a pic later when I take one, and since I have had broadband for a while now, (10-15 minutes actually) it won't take long to load up either!!!!!!! Yay for me!.

We also celebrated Alex's 4th birthday on Saturday (25th Nov). It was great! A bunch of Alex's day care friends came, as did family etc. We rented a jumping castle. Having some issues with the photos, so I can't actually post any pics, but I will try later....

I should run back to work, but I'll try posting sooner than later...

Easing back in....

So..... Hello again there everyone!! Thanks (mostly!) everyone for their undertanding during the last little while. I stopped because I basically had nothing to say. I had had enough of my thesis writing, and it was becoming to absorbing for me. Thank those of you who sent me e-mails etc, of which I tried my fastest to respond to as I value them far and above any blog pseudo contact. So thanks guys you're champions.

This "return" to posting does not mean that you will be getting heaps of posts though, I am still busy. My thesis is about 98% done, I just have some almost final drafts of chapters doing some rounds with non-related people checking for contextual errors etc that no one in my dept would be able to pick due to our intimate knowledge of the subject matter. So, what have I been doing? Besides working on another paper, mainly Home renovations.

I tiled my kitchen walls, and they look really nice. As soon as we paint the kitchen, I'll take a picture and post it for you all to marvel at. I even learned how to re-wire power outlets!! I had to move one down about 3 inches so it would be in line with the rest of the tiles. I was pretty anal about perfect lines, I used a level throughout as well.... I had to cut more than two-thirds of the tiles I layed, which was a pain in the ass, but it looks great. Something to be proud of! WE just got a new air conditioner put in as ours died a while ago... We noticied really when our dear little rabbit, Milo, passed away in her cage because of the heat. A sad day. Very sad actually.

But Alex knows a little about death now, and Heaven, and that it's nothing to be afraid of. I think that we are trying to give him a religious upbringing probably helps in that respect. Yes, I am a religious man, if you didn't already know, and I am a Baha'i, of which you should look up by following the link at right if you don't know anything about it... Moment of silence for Milo......

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Thank you.


Also, yesterday, did some yard work since we will be having Alex' birthday a little early this year on account of Bec being due 5 days before his actual birthday. It will be the last Saturday in November, and we are having it here in our back yard... Thus the rush to actually finish the kitchen. But, when I was moving some of the old fence bits, mainly so the guys could instal the new air conditioner, I noticed some dirty little white ants. Ya. Many bad things went through my head too. Mostly cuss words though. I looked under the house and there doesn't appear to be anything eating my house out from under me, so we're "happy" so far. But we've got a professional termite guy coming in in a few days.

FOr those that don't know, in Australia, well Sydney at least, the houses are built pretty poorly. No basements or anything as they're not needed due to no freezing. but our house is proped up above the ground a bit giving us a bit of a crawl space underneath the house with a dirt floor, and heaps of daddy long legged spiders. (speak in a girly voice for this next sentence) I hate spiders.
So I went under and looked for termite damage and saw nothing. I'll keep you posted becase you care.

Well, I'm off again.