Oh Yeah!
I've found the motivation to sit down at the puter and type stuff again! Well, when I'm not doing work or kung fu related admin or playing games, not that I've been gaming at all really. Time to crack out the calendar and see if I actually did anything worthwhile in the last few weeks *ahem* months...
The Rest of May
Righto list time because I can't really order thoughts at the moment to construct paragraphs:
- Played plenty of indoor soccer on Wednesdays - I'm really starting to enjoy the different kind of exercise. I'm kind of getting a bit more co-ordinated on my feet too so that's good. The running around has definitely helped the ankle heal, though I've needed to keep the strapping tape on to reassure myself.
- Dinners - we seemed to have a busy month - Katy umm was that Mexican?, then Garth and Rebecca's and then the Hunter's for a BBQ after painball.
Painball - oh will I remember that day. The night before which was a Friday I was just about (man) dead with the flu. I hadn't had much sleep and had a blinding headache. Cassandra had the girls around for a Stampin' Up LAN^H^H^H party so I had to get the kids to bed. I crashed not long after they fell asleep and managed to get to sleep somehow (oh yeah, it was lots of drugs). Next morning I got up at 4.something AM felling (man) dead, honestly about to call Grantek and say not to bother coming to pick me up. After a cup of tea I was able to manage and reassured myself that if I could sleep in the car on the way up to Sydney (luckily Brad was driving) all would be OK.
After downing an espresso that Angela made we hit the road and I did manage to rest a bit in the car. When we started playing the adrenaline kicked in and kept the flu at bay for the hours that followed. Painball was extremely fun (we went to Heartbreak Ridge) and I came away fairly unscathed (though I still have a black toe). I did the smart thing and stayed out of the free-for-all at the end which is where all the injuries occurred. It didn't hurt anywhere near as much as I remember from when I played 12 years ago at Stanwell Tops. That reminds me - I need to track down a copy of the group photo...
- For the last weekend in May Cassandra was at a Scrap-booking retreat and I had the weekend with the boy. We had a heap of fun - kung fu and visits to baba's etc. It's so much easier with one child to look after and it was nice to be able to spoil him with attention.
Right that's May done :)
June
List time, because it's all a blur:
- First up a Lion Dance at Wollongong Uni for Cultural Youth day for high school kids. I was key to the whole thing (because those cymbals don't play themselves ya know) and we even made WIN news. I ended up buying a video grabber so that I can digitise it but that's down on the priority list so nothing has happened yet.
- Food: went to Cassandra's mum's place one weekend for dinner (becoming rare at the moment) and also met Garth for lunch in Wollongong. There was also a lamerz lunch that Cassandra organised but couldn't make but we went ahead in her honour. I also had a day off in there which co-incided with Katy coming down so we had lunch at the Hideaway Cafe.
- Nerd glasses: thinking that my recent headaches at the time were related to my dodgy optometrist and cheap n' nasty specs, I got another eye test at OPSM. The eye lady said my glasses were stronger than my prescription and that my eyes had changed slightly. I ended up splurging on new lightweight frames and polycarbonate lenses with an anti-reflective coating and I've found them much better for close up work (though worse for distance). The headaches abated for a while and the eye related ones are becoming rarer. Now to take care of them unlike the old ones.
- First Aid Course: I needed to do my first aid recertification to maintain my NCAS accredited coach status and Evan had kindly organised a group course at his house. Unfortunately Bethany was sick in hospital around that time so Jo was not there. Unkey Grant amused Callum for the morning but Cassandra and I had Callum and Annabelle for the afternoon. The kids behaved but it was a bit of a struggle - lucky the instructor was a parent and understood. Anyways we all passed so I can tick that one off the list.
The rest of the month I barely remember but I think it was otherwise uneventful. Annie had got back to getting up in the middle of the night for food so there wasn't much quality sleep happening.
July
Wow there is writing all over the calendar:
- There seems to be a fair bit of Cassandra going out with the girls in the evening - I think I wasted the time surfing the net as I'd been pretty tired :s
- Quite a bit of "boys at kung fu" on Saturdays too which has been good. Callum claimed my old boxing gloves so I had to buy a new pair for myself. He's starting to enjoy more than just the running around, though that's still his favourite part. We dropped off flyers for the new Women's self defence class. I had 2000 printed up and Looch had another 200 which got a few people. There was 8 in the first class with another 6-8 turning up this week, so we are well on the way to getting things back on track.
- Lunches: having not kept up with my regular weekly lunch with Evan and not having seen Jo or Bethany for ages I though it would be a good idea to pick up some Chinese food and take it to their place one lunchtime. I'll have to do it again soon because I miss talking to them and can see how hard it is for them at the moment. Beth is still having seizures but has put on weight and is growing well.
- Dinners: having a slight miss communication with G&J about a dinner at our place (resulting in me polishing off waay to much gluten free chocolate fudge by myself) we finally got it together and had them over. We're starting to catch up on all the people we don't manage to see enough of.
- In there I found time to do an e107 upgrade of Scrap Pile which worked well. Now to do the same for Toy King one day.
- Kidlets: Cassandra went to Newcastle last weekend so I had both kidlets all to myself and got to play SAHD (stay at home dad :D). It went well and we managed to do a lot of things including Alanah's swimming party at which Callum swam for an hour, inhaled a sausage sandwich, a chocolate cup cake, swam for another hour then inhaled another chocolate cup cake (I've never seen him eat chocolate cake before). Annie was well behaved but I can see how she can be a handful as she craves constant attention (which Callum competes for) and she eats and eats and eats and doesn't do a whole lot of day sleeping. At least the nights were good and I was a good boy and made sure I didn't stay up too late.
- Neck: I had a eureka moment on my way to my chiro appointment that my right side neck pain was me looking at the bottom left of my monitor all day (cursor position of a maximised PuTTY window on a 22in monitor). All those times Brad had asked if I was often looking down and to the left which I would reply no, because I had placed my monitor in the ergonomically correct position I didn't realise about 60% of my day is spent looking at a prompt :s. Anyway since my revelation I am smarter and managing it better so fingers crossed that's more types of headache to cross off the list.
- Grantlan: went off well with Callum playing a fair bit of Trackmania while I looked after Annie. After Cassandra took the kidlets home I pwned it up a bit with the fellas. It made me realise it is time to buy a 16 port GigE switch just for these events to save all the stuffing around we normally do.
Well I think that's all for now, I really need to get this out before it becomes August :). Stay tuned as in the next few days I promise to bore you with (one of) my to do lists.
