-
Left-handed guitar
We finally were notified that the guitar ordered last Saturday had come in today. The Scientist took Game Fanatic to pick it up this afternoon. About an hour later I got a call from Game Fanatic, an extremely rare occurrence. He wasn’t terribly coherent and kept saying something about a left-handed guitar. The Scientist got on the phone and said the one that had come in turned out to be a left-handed guitar. They had been given the option of ordering again or of taking the floor model with a whopping $20 off. We decided it was time to request a refund and said goodbye.
About an hour and a half later, they walked in, Game Fanatic carrying a guitar case. It turns out when the Scientist requested a refund, the sales assistant spoke to the manager, who took the guy upstairs and showed him a stack of guitars. The sales assistant apologised and so Game Fanatic did get his guitar after all.
I’m glad it all worked out but we won’t be going back to this shop again.
-
It's just like a real bank!
We got a home loan through a building society thirteen years ago. We had no other accounts with them. In 2002, we changed our regular banking to a credit union. Fast forward to a couple years ago and the credit union and building society merged which made our financial needs very convenient. Last year the Bank of Queensland and our building society decided to merge. The merger went through a couple weeks ago although their systems are still separate. The first bad news was that they were rebranding our building society as Bank of Queensland. We live in Western Australia. Not really all that appealing to me.
-
Happiness is…
Both boys have had a major fix to their obsessions over the past couple of days. Yesterday, the long awaited Lego Club magazine arrived and obviously, Lego Lover was thrilled. Earlier in the day while the Games Fanatic and I were at his Dungeons and Dragons group, I espied a copy of this same magazine and was wondering where LL’s copy was. In fact, it arrived in the mail the same day. The next few hours were spent poring over the new Lego catalogue and describing the next sets on his list to buy.
Today was a momentous day for our Games Fanatic because the very long-awaited Super Smash Brothers Brawl came out. Guess who was at the store quite early this morning to get a copy? I was tucked into a warm bed at the time while the Scientist made the early morning trip with him. Lego Lover was also enthusiastic about the game. so much that I had a battle when I enforced a long break from play today. Normally, we don’t allow video game play very much during the week but made an exception today. Tomorrow, the rules return to normal.
-
Fifteen years
The Scientist and IÂ had our fifteenth anniversary today. In some ways it seems so much longer…probably because we’ve unofficially been together for several years longer. Other times it doesn’t seem so very long ago. But the time when we got married was before I came to Australia and that seems a long time ago. I find that my life seems divided between my life before and since moving to this country. Anything from before now seems like a lifetime ago…In reality it’s only been fourteen years next month.
We ended up not very much today but will go out for a bit tomorrow when the scientist’s mum will come and stay with the boys for a couple hours. We had planned to go see the movie U2-3D but it seems we have missed out. I’ve heard speculation it won’t be out on dvd so I hope we haven’t completely missed our chance. We are trying to figure out a different movie but most that interest us are ones that the games fanatic also wants to see so we may just go out to eat instead.
-
Absent-minded
My bicycle came out of the shop on Tuesday, fitted with lights, a new lock and a bike computer along with replacements of some of the more standard parts. It looked almost shiny and new. I didn’t end up riding it that day. The Scientist and I managed to get it into the car by removing the front tire (which is easily removed). I was emotionally frazzled and not really up to dealing with rush hour traffic while riding. I don’t tend to ride on main roads much but I would have needed to be quite alert just to cross the heavy traffic.
I was finally able to take it out for a spin today after rainy skies cleared up a bit. I still had the threat of rain but it was likely to be only brief showers and I was willing to risk that. I had a letter I needed to post so gathered that along with my mini-backpack and I was off. I found it really tough to ride today and felt like my legs would hardly move. I had on my heart rate monitor (for exercise) and I was reaching 150 bpm pretty easily. I decided that lack of activity the past couple days had put me a bit out of shape. Anyway, I managed to ride about 2 kilometers before I realised I wasn’t wearing my bike helmet. I have never done that since I’ve lived here. I never noticed my hair getting wet or how the strong winds were blowing my hair around more than usual. Once I noticed my mistake, I felt kind of naked. I phoned the scientist and asked him to bring my helmet for me, which he did reasonably quickly. It was lucky I was mostly riding on bike/foot paths because helmets are compulsory on road bikes.
-
Too long between posts…
It’s kind of crazy that I got this website set up for this blog and haven’t been posting. For some reason, I’ve just been busy in a way that it’s been hard to stop and write a bit. It’s nearing the end of Mother’s Day here and I will be off to bed soon. It’s been a pretty good day and the kids were both very good today. The kids fed me buckwheat pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast in bed early today. Lunch was with the scientist’s family at his mum’s house. We had pizza, salad and too much chocolate stuff…We were back home by mid-afternoon so we just hung out with each other most of that time. The Scientist went to bed hours ago and Lego Lover has just gone to sleep. The poor guy seems to have a cold right now and is pretty stuffed up. I have to give him credit because normally he is frustrated and angry when sick, but today he has been pretty quiet. I wonder if the medication he’s been on for over six weeks is finally having some effect. It’s still too early to tell. The Game Fanatic has now also just gone off to bed.
I spoke to my mom for almost an hour and a half tonight. Unfortunately my first attempt didn’t work because she couldn’t hear me. The second attempt was better but she still had trouble. After a while, it just got to be too difficult to carry on a conversation so we left it there. She seems in good spirits right now, which pleases me because she’s been going through some rough times for quite a while. I think maybe she has turned a corner and is feeling better about the world.
No, it was not a bad day at all…
-
My hearing isn't as bad as I thought it was
My friend called last Wednesday and we talked for quite a while but I spent the whole time struggling to hear her. This has occured in the past and I thought it was either the way my friend was holding the phone or my hearing was getting really bad. I had to go out that evening and at one point telephoned to check in with Lego lover, who has been rather clingy lately. The Scientist answered the phone but couldn’t hear me while I could hear him just fine. I hung up and tried again with the same result. Our phone was essentially useless and we decided that the cost of repair would more than likely be greater than purchasing a new phone. So the Scientist and I went out to the three major electrical retailers that are now conveniently situated within five minutes of our house (by car) and checked out all the phones. We opted for a digital phone that actually has a bit of shape so that it fits our ear comfortably. It’s rather new-fangled but we are quite pleased with it. We got a package with an extra handset so now we can call each other in the house which, surprisingly, is a feature that is useful right now although I won’t elaborate on the reasons in this post.
-
Stirring up dust
We had a family lunch at my mother-in-law’s house yesterday. BIL #2, who lives at the house with his wife, brought home a new desktop computer on Friday but hasn’t set it up because he doesn’t have a desk or table for it. So the Scientist offered an old metal one at our house to use and he is going to come to pick it up today. The difficulty of this offer was that the desk was pretty much buried under all sorts of stuff that had been stored in the same area. The Scientist has spent the last couple hours unearthing forgotten items, much of it junk. But he did get it cleared out and the desk has been removed. Now he’s in the process of putting it all back. Actually, much of it has been transferred to our recycle bin, and some has been thrown out. So the volume is considerably smaller. It should look a lot tidier once he is complete. I had to leave due to the massive amount of dust floating around.
-
A very surprising visitor
Last night, either the Scientist or Game Fanatic opened the door to let the cat come in. I’m not quite sure what eventuated, but our cat was scared off by a puppy that had gotten loose. At some point, the puppy raced into our house and chomped a couple bites of cat food, then raced through the house. Lego Lover practically jumped into my lap in fear while the Scientist and Game Fanatic chased the puppy. They eventually caught it and went to try to locate its owner. Game Fanatic carried the puppy for quite some time while they went to a few nearby houses to find the owner. None of the neighbors knew anything about it. Eventually they moved down the street where some kids were playing outside. The puppy got excited near the kids and ran off towards them. Game Fanatic was feeling quite attached to the little puppy already so was very sad when it ran off. We do plan to add a puppy to our family some time soon, but it will have to be a bit less excitable than this one.
-
Earth Hour
We participated in Earth Hour tonight and we had a really great time. We set up candles in our living room. The games fanatic played on his Nintendo DS and the Lego Lover played with his Lego. The Scientist and I played a quick game of dominoes. Then we decided to play Triominoes. We never remember exactly how to play so we had a trial game first, which Game Fanatic joined and subsequently won. Then the Scientist and I played a second game which I came from way behind to win. By the time we finished the second game, the hour was up.