BobnNix

House Numerology

2008-09-10T21:17:00.005+10:00

Why have we not finished any of our projects around the house? House Numerology!

3+ 8=11

1+1=2!

House Number 2
Here is a house that creates peace, harmony and balance in anyone's lives. It is a house suited for relationships, and people who are laid back and friendly. This is a great home for new lovers or people who have lived together for a long time. It will aid in the balancing of any relationship.

However sometimes we are so laid back that one may call it laziness. So don't forget to get off the sofa and DO. Do what needs to be done to fix the creaky floorboards and cracks in the pavement with this house.

Positive Colour Suggestions: Cream, Green and White.

Here's a link:
http://www.members.think-aboutit.com/Spiritual/TheNumerologyofHouseNumbers.htm

Hmmmm...................

Funny website

2008-09-03T11:52:00.002+10:00

Stumbled across this amusing website today.

www.improveverywhere.com

Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 70 missions involving thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.

I thought some of their stunts were pretty funny and it's interesting to see the reaction of the public.

Frozen grand Central Station (link to full story)

Rob! (link to full story)

Food Court Musical (link to full story)

Pixar's WallE Review

2008-08-31T20:03:00.005+10:00

It is the worst Pixar movie ever made!I am so glad I won those tickets and didn't buy them!
The kids said they didn't enjoy it but they didn't understand either, it was too political, and if they did understand it they would be probably coming out crying and screaming.
The kids got the characters and the love story but they didn't understand the plot properly.

"There are a number of important messages contained in WALL-E, but fundamentally it's a touching sci-fi love story. Yes, you can take from it the lesson of protecting our environment and multinational corporations running the world . And it's definitely a cautionary tale about our reliance on technology to do everyday tasks for us. "

When we got home Renae was playing on Gimp (Photoshop) and made a picture of WallE and Eve!

House extension plans

2008-08-06T19:17:00.003+10:00

I've been having a bit more of a play with our (long term) future plans for the house. We're thinking of also extending the lounge room slightly forward. This would give us a larger lounge room, and also add some shape to the roof. Hopefully it wouldn't cost 'too' much as I quite like how it changes the overall appearance of the house.

A quick mock up (with new bedroom windows and garage as well) is below:
I've used the new Google image so you can compare.

Google StreetView

2008-08-05T13:27:00.004+10:00

As you may or may not have heard, Google has just released StreetView in Australia!

It's very cool and very clever.

Here's our house. I think it was taken in Dec last year.

View Larger Map

Paulie the chatter box

2008-07-26T15:39:00.004+10:00

Paulie is getting quite good with his chatter. I've managed to grab some of it on video this afternoon. The heater's on and there's a fair bit of background noise so see how you go picking the phrases out - some a really clear, others aren't.

On the clip below he says: "pretty boy paulie", "hello paulie", "good boy paulie", "give us a kiss, XX", "white with one" (how Nic has her coffee! - hard to pick on this clip), and he also does the phone ring.

There's a fair bit of him practicing in there too as I have no idea what he was trying say, but it's obviously 'talking' as oposed to chirping. We've also noticed that some stuff he's learned from me (Rob) he says in a much lower tone which is kinda cool, but it's harder to understand.

He says a fair bit more than this (including "what ya doing" and a great wolf whistle and we're trying to teach him "bom chica wah wah") so I'll try again soon.

We only got him in January this year (and he was quite young) so he's not going too bad.

Renae, Renae, Renae!

2008-07-21T19:14:00.002+10:00

Where do I start?

I'll start with Rob's birthday. We all woke up early to sing "Happy Birthday" and open presents, when Renae was complaining about how itchy her feet were. We took her socks off to see both feet were swollen and to find her whole body covered in welts! So Rob's birthday morning was rushed as we took Renae to the doctors.

My Dr. was on holiday so saw another, and she said we had done the right thing by giving Renae Phenergan but could not tell us anymore other than that she is allergic to something!

Made an appointment with a Natropath for the next week, meanwhile I had to write a diary with everything she had eaten and drank. "Magda" the natropath had one look at the diary and said Renae was definitely allergic to colours Red & Blue with the possibilities of other colours and preservitives. (Which we did think was the problem as she was allergic to baby food cans & jars!)

We told Renae's kinder teacher the first day back and she freaked. She rang me during kinder to come in and check on Renae and I had to fill in forms! She scared me asking if Renae needs an eppipen. Didn't think of that!

So this morning I made an appointment with my faithful doctor (who I took Renae to when she was a baby and allergic to baby food) to get answers. Filled him with the info and showed pics of the welts. Within minutes he was printing a pathology request. So we are off to the hospital first thing in the morning to get her bloods done, and hopefully find out in the next week or so with the results.

Until then I have to not use any pre-packaged food! Do you know how hard that is? I did a big proper food shop this morning with Renae and it took us hours! I checked every packaged food I regularly buy and was shocked. No more "plastic" cheese, dips, biscuits, tin fruit and NO cereal! I have to make porridge from scratch (no microwave porridge anymore)

Renae had 2 parties on the weekend and she did really well as I had to make a cake from scratch(no packet mix)because she cannot eat icecream cake and sprinkles, and I had to make her own lolly bag with lollies made from no artificial flavours and colours (which aren't cheap). The worst part was giving her water only to drink while the other kids had fizzy. I just hope we find an answer soon and hopefully we all benefit from this new diet.

Hayden's Tigers Footy Clinic

2008-07-09T19:51:00.008+10:00

Hayden had a ball today, footy training with the Richmond Tigers.
(Thanks Simon, Bek, Mum & Dad)

Bek came along too which was cool, and with Nic, seemed to have a ball too chasing Richo around!

Some picks below:

Hayden with Richo - Nic, Renae & Bek snuck in the back!

Tiger Stripes telling the Ambo's he trod on his tail and it hurts! lmao

Tiger Stripes giving Nic grief! - He really was a laugh!

Tiger Stripes mixing it up! (it was pretty funny!)

Renae got Hayden's footy jumper signed by Richo

Hayden taking a specky

Album Cover comp

2008-07-07T17:33:00.005+10:00

Thought I'd have a play with the album cover thing Marty and Kate have done on their blogs.

A bit uninspired but here goes anyway - I think I was very lucky actually.

Name: Distgusta- no entry?
Title: Quote from Filipp Golikov
Pic from "sophie goose" (I added the shadows, just for some depth)

I also thought I'd adapt it. New rules...
- Latest photo from your blog
- Band Name: Adaptation of the latest blog entry title
- Album Title: Last 4 words from your last post

Or if it's too dud, just use any photo, title and last 4 words from anywhere on your blog.

Here's mine:

Ying Yang Milo

2008-06-25T19:55:00.004+10:00

We've been pretty slack putting stuff on here lately, but we've been using facebook instead as that's where people seem to be checking more frequently.

Kate's abused me for not putting stuff up, so here's a snippet from this afternoon's excitement!

Nic was making a Milo and she noticed, the Milo and Sugar made a cool Ying Yang symbol in the bottom of the cup.

TV Rebuild

2008-05-10T19:47:00.003+10:00

WARNING - Technical content!

For those who don't know (I think most people who read this do), we have a PC with 2 DVB-T TV cards and 700GB hard disk plugged into our LCD TV.

It enables us to tape 2 shows at once (more if they are on the same multiplex, but thats getting technical), watch a 3rd pre-recorded show on the TV and even watch a 4th or 5th show on a networked PC. All at the same time!

It automatically skips ads when playing back recorded shows and lets us pause, skip, rewind etc Live TV. We can also listen to web radio and TV stations, surf the net from the couch etc etc etc. The list goes on. It's excessive I know, but the gizmo factor is off the scale!

Well I rebuilt the the system yesterday after experiencing a few hiccups with the old system. Nothing major, but enough to be annoying.

Previously I was using a Fedora Core based pre-packaged build called 'MythDora'. It's lasted us pretty well, but I thought I'd give the competition a go.

So this time I loaded up 'Mythbuntu' to bring the main OS in line with our other home PCs which run 'Ubuntu'. Mythbuntu is a pre-packaged installable LiveCD of Ubuntu as the OS and MythTV to do the cool stuff.

Overall the switch has gone OK with only a few minor bugs to iron out - I probably should have just tried to fix the old bugs instead of introducing new ones but what the hey!

One cool thing I added this time was a 'plugin' to connect the system to our security camera system. This means with one press of the remote, we can instantly view all our cameras on the TV! It does this over the netwok, so I haven't had to run extra cables to the lounge room or anything. (pics below are not of my system, no I didn't buy a new car!)

We'll see how it all goes.

AusKick 030408

2008-05-03T11:03:00.003+10:00

MX-5 Drive Day

2008-04-13T21:44:00.003+10:00

Had a great day today 'pushing' Dad's car around the windy roads of Gisborne/Mt Macedon for a drive day with the MX-5 Club.

Keeping in convoy was interesting as no-one seemed to hold back at all, so I basically told Dad to let me know if he objected to anything I was doing, and went with it! On a couple of corners I figured "well the car in front went around it this fast, so I know the car can do it - I better have a go too"!

Having not driven a manual in at least 12 months (and probably once a year for several years prior), and not really knowing the feel of the car well, it was kind of jumping in the deep-end as a refresher, but I had a ball, held my spot in the convoy easy enough, and enjoyed a large parma at the end for lunch.

Thanks Dad.

NOTE: yes that last photo was staged!

Nice Pics!

2008-04-10T21:36:00.003+10:00

I was looking through the old photos today and found some great pics.

Nice earrings Kate!

I can't believe Simon had these specs on in public!

Gotta Luv Google! ;)

2008-04-01T11:59:00.001+11:00

About gDay™ technology

The core technology that powers gDay™ is MATE™ (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation).

Using MATE’s™ machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques developed in Google’s Sydney offices, we can construct elements of the future.

Google spiders crawl publicly available web information and our index of historic, cached web content. Using a mashup of numerous factors such as recurrence plots, fuzzy measure analysis, online betting odds and the weather forecast from the iGoogle weather gadget, we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now.

We can use this technique to predict almost anything on the web – tomorrow’s share price movements, sports results or news events. Plus, using language regression analysis, Google can even predict the actual wording of blogs and newspaper columns, 24 hours before they’re written!

To rank these future pages in order of relevance, gDay™ uses a statistical extrapolation of a page’s future PageRank, called SageRank.

http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/index.html

Earth Hour 2008

2008-03-29T22:26:00.005+11:00

Tonight at 8pm we participated in Earth Hour.
Here's a pic of us doing our bit

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T08:08:00.002+11:00

Happy Easter!

After a chocolate bunny surprise last night (left on the kids car seats by Simon & Bek), the kids woke up to a pile of eggs on the end of their beds this morning. Of course the traditional chocolate breakfast followed, but it was interrupted by the discovery of something shiny on the trampoline!

I hope everyone has a good (and safe) Easter!

Lets go fly a kite! (or two)

2008-03-21T17:40:00.003+11:00

As today was quite windy, we went to the local park to fly the kids kites. I actually remembered to take the video camera for once, so here's a small clip instead of loads of text and photos.

Easter Hat parade

2008-03-21T16:10:00.004+11:00

On Tuesday, Renae had an Easter Hat parade at kinder. They wore the hats they had made and sang some songs.

Guess Who

2008-03-10T12:01:00.002+11:00

Anyone recognize this bloke?

That's right, it's Mr Clayson!

Philip Lewis (remember him) emailed me today and said he saw Mr Clayson on "50 most annoying celebrities" on TV. Apparently he is a well respected biographer now and is fronting “Clayson and the Argonaughts” again! According to his website (www.alanclayson.com) you can see him this Saturday at The Metro in Oxford Street, London if you happen to be in town.

I remember him as very crazy, throwing chairs in class and breaking pianos in school concerts! I was rapt when we moved primary schools as I was supposed to have him as my teacher the following year but he moved to our new school as well. I never ended up having him as a teacher, but Kate did. I might have been better at maths if I had!

Anyway, have a look at his website, it's a bit of a giggle.

Never throw anything out!

2008-03-09T15:17:00.003+11:00

Just found this on Ebay. Dad brought one of these back from the US and it was ace! For some reason, I remember playing it in the roof?!? not sure why.

It's got 5 hours to go as I write this, and it's up to $156.60. Not bad!

It just goes to show that you should never throw anything out, no matter how outdated it might be!

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110228583843

Screen Printing Setup

2008-03-03T18:27:00.005+11:00

We are setup reasonably well now for making our t-shirts. We are still using the caravan as we are very short of space, which is working okay for the shirts, but isn't leaving Nic much room to paint.

Our new heat press turned up today, so I thought I'd throw up a few pics of our setup.

The heat press (surface area is 38cm x 38cm)

Timer on the top and temp control on the bottom.

The timer automatically resets when you open the press ready for the next shirt.

My home made jig to slip the shirts on.
I haven't made an arm for the screens yet, but as we are doing small numbers of each design and only single colour, it's not really worth it.

The exposure lamp for putting the image on the screens.
My collection of home-made screens in the background.

Blank stock close at hand
(more in boxes as they get too heavy for the rail this is hanging on!)

Clothes rack for drying and also sorting ready to post.

A finished shirt

With the investment on materials, equipment and stock, we haven't really made much profit yet. It's been fun learning a new skill and it's very satisfying when they come up so well, and people give positive feedback saying how much they love them.

All Holden Day - Geelong

2008-03-01T15:16:00.004+11:00

We drove down to Geelong this morning for the All Holden Day.

Hayden and Renae in front of a Pontiac GTO (Holden Monaro)
They both wanted to wear the Holden T-Shirts I'd made which was cool!

We saw some very nice cars, a heap of EH's for once, and took a bunch of photos to make some more t-shirt designs.

The t-shirts are going well, with 40 sold in the past 20 days from only seven different car designs. We've invested in a heat press and are looking at changing to 'plastisol transfers' for some of the more popular designs soon. Plastisol transfers are more complex to screen print so we'd outsource that (at an increased cost per shirt), but then all we'd have to do is heat press them on to the shirts, saving time.

Hayden's 1st day of school!!!

2008-02-25T18:55:00.003+11:00

Hayden started his new school today!

He went really well and seems to like it so far.

We've moved him to the local state school for various reasons...

- He never talked about school, so we had to interrogate him just to find out what he did during the day. We took this as either he wasn't happy and/or he was bored stupid.
- We have no idea what the school spent our fees on. With funding from the Government, the Catholic Church and over $400 a term per student the facilities should have been "great" not "normal".
- They've made some stupid rules like no 'messy foods' in the classroom for lunch (Hayden ate diced peaches while hiding under the desk!), and they've moved lunch to 11am and recess 1pm. The end result being kids aren't eating because they're either not hungry or aren't allowed to eat the food they've got unless they eat it outside (meaning they miss out on playing time).

The local school completely blew us away. Although it's the oldest school in Hoppers Crossing, like some 'new' schools (Bek's for example) , they are spending like crazy, and jumping on board with new teaching technology.

Hayden's new school has:

- Interactive whiteboards in every classroom (whiteboard size touch screen and roof mounted projector with custom teaching software)
- 10 wireless laptops per 2 x 20 student classes
- a fully equipped computer room with new, leased PCs and a real IT teacher
- a huge art room with 'an artist' for an art teacher (her paintings are hanging on all the walls around the school
- a login to 'mathletics' (look it up www.mathletics.com.au it's really good!)
- small class sizes - Hayden is in a composite class of 21 but was in a class of 31

The old school really doesn't compare.

Screen Printing Trial No2

2008-01-23T22:12:00.000+11:00

Well I tested my budget screens today.

Overall they're not bad. The thread count appears lower than the purchased screen so I'll have to look for a finer fabric. Other than that they worked great.

I also tried some text to see how that would turn out. Again, the edge was good, no seepage etc, so I'm quite pleased.

Now I just need some more photos of cars. There are car shows for the next 3 weekends (although I don't think we'll go to this weekend's), so I should have plenty to work with soon enough.

Screen Printing Trial

2008-01-22T15:27:00.000+11:00

As you may know, I've been playing around with some car related t-shirt designs. I've sold 3 so far without any real effort (one went on Ebay for $36.50 + postage) so thought I might have a bit more of a go. After much hunting around for the cheapest but best quality way to get some T-Shirts printed, I ended up buying a screen printing kit for $100.

It came with a screen, a squeegee, the photo emulsion (quite hard to find), some screen filler, ink etc and instructions. I also bought a 500w flood light from Bunnings for $20 to expose the screen.

I'm really pleased with the result. I had to guess the exposure time (looks like I got it spot on) and basically had no idea what I was doing the whole way through.

My 1st print was just onto some fabric as a test as I'm waiting for some blank t-shirts to be delivered. I don't have a rig or anything else yet, but it worked so well, I'm not sure I'd need the rig unless the number of t-shirts went up considerably.

You can wash the screens and reuse them, but then you have to muck around exposing the image again if you want to print more of that image. New screens are about $30 at the local art shop. I'd seen on the net that you can make screens that work OK using embroidery rings and nylon fabric, so I thought I'd give that a go as a cheap way to start off with extra designs. We managed to get large rings for $3.50 each and 1/2m of nylon at a similar mesh to the real screen I have for $2.50. So if they work OK (haven't tested them yet) I'll be able to make a new screen for each design for about $4 plus emulsion cost.

If all goes according to plan (which it is so far), I'll be able to sell the t-shirts for about $25-30 at a cost of about $5 each. Actual printing time is about 1 min per shirt if you include messing around lining it up as I don't have a rig, so the hourly rate stays reasonable.

If nothing else, I'm having fun!

The Australian Open is ridiculous!

2008-01-20T08:11:00.000+11:00

Is it just me, or is The Australian Open ridiculous?

Why on earth would the organisers start a game, between two of the Australian publics most popular players, at midnight knowing it would more than likely end up finishing not far from dawn?

With these late starting times, you'd have more chance of watching a blockbuster game, at a reasonable hour, if it was Wimbledon! This is being played 20mins away!

I would have loved to have watched last night's game, but when it hadn't even started at 11:45 last night, I went to bed. Those that did stay up, would probably have gone to bed when Hewitt choked in the fourth, at what must have been around 3am, and would have missed a great Aussie comeback. The ratings channel 7 would have attained if this was played in prime time would have been huge.

If they can't fit the games in to normal waking hours (FOR THIS COUNTRY) then add a day or two to the tournament.

Timezone spanning game schedules must really mess with the players too. Fancy arriving in Australia, getting over jet lag and practicing day after day, only to find you are playing a match in the timezone of where you came from! If you win, your next game could possibly be local time again a day or so later.

How did 10,000 of the spectators get home last night? What public transport is running at 4am?

The whole thing is ridiculous!

Rant over.

Holiday Fun

2008-01-14T17:54:00.000+11:00

To keep the kids occupied, the kids and I went shopping.

Among other things that we bought, the kids both got a new pair of shades.

We also found some coloured hair spray and face paints, we had a ball.

Paulie

2008-01-05T15:14:00.000+11:00

While buying a chest freezer at a garage sale, we decided to also buy one of his small bird cages. No we didn't have a bird... but we do now!

Nic and the kids have wanted one for ages, so here he is... Paulie.

The many stripes on his forehead mean he's still young, and he'll gradually lose them as he gets older.

Now we have the long and slow task of teaching him to talk! and training him to hop onto our hands so we can let him fly around and actually catch him again.

The Chumby

2008-01-01T19:58:00.000+11:00

Saw this in The Age today.

Here's the blurb from The Age:

THE CHUMBY The creators of this bizarre little device have generated a huge buzz over the past few months - and it's not even due to be launched until early in the year. The Chumby is a wireless internet device about the size of a rugby ball. It has no keyboard or mouse but instead uses software called widgets to display pretty much anything you want it to - all the time. For instance, it will act as an alarm clock, play your music, show you constantly updated news or track an eBay auction.

And the really interesting thing is that it is designed to be hacked - everything from the software code to the specifications for the case are freely available. No one, including the manufacturers, knows what owners will make Chumbys do once they are released. http://www.chumby.com

Kinda cool gadget that might have a chance at making it. If you're a net nut, you'd probably get one. I like the fact that the manufacturers have made EVERYTHING open source so it's uses should expand to the unimaginable.

Happy New Year 2008!!!

2008-01-01T11:32:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year 2008!!!

As I have been sick for the last few days, we had a quite night at home. The kids stayed up of course and were playing "Singstar" & "V8 Supercars" outside on the projector which was kinda cool.

NOTE: YouTube has to get with the times - it doesn't allow 16:9 widescreen so these clips look squashed. I'll have to try and add black bars to the clips next time I suppose.

Facebook

2007-12-31T16:01:00.000+11:00

Well I've finally succumbed to Marty's ramblings and have signed up to Facebook. I've been struck down with the flu for the past 3 days and I'm bored!

I've jumped right in to see what it's like, but I must say, overall I'm not particularly impressed. No real reason, I just don't see what the point is. Unless you really want to widen your circle (of pretend friends) I think it's fairly pointless. I searched for a few people, but there seem to be more signed up on other sites than Facebook. You'd already have details of most people you would really want to communicate with, so other than the odd search for people, I don't know why you would make it your 'home' and check it regularly.

Maybe I'm missing something - we'll see.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T00:25:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas

from Rob, Nic, Hayden & Renae

A clip of Rob & Hayden messing around on the tramp!

New Camcorder - long post today!

2007-12-22T21:16:00.000+11:00

As per our usual tradition, we've bought ourselves a new gadget BEFORE Xmas! Last year it was the LCD TV, a couple before that it was our current digital camera. This time it's a new camcorder.

The main reason for the upgrade was that our old one was playing up. In fact, it wasn't working at all on battery. A new battery would be around $150 (if we can find one as it's 4 years old) for the size we had.

So we went shopping. After evaluating our useage patterns over the last 4 years, our initial criteria was:

- small enough to actually take somewhere without it being a pain or too much extra effort

- a reasonable lens if possible

- a spare battery

- 16:9 wide screen

As our primary goal was to capture memories, kids being cute etc, we were prepared to drop the quality a little if needed. We're not making movies after all. Our last camera had great image quality, so this would be the hardest trade-off.

We'd seen a cheap Sony miniDV but were having trouble finding anyone who actually had it in stock, or had a spare battery in stock.

While looking around at alternatives, we re-evaluated our needs a little further. We decided that if we DID actually take our old camera somewhere, it was a pain (or at least slow) to capture the footage to DVD. On average, an hour's footage equated to at least 1.5 hours on the PC, taking into account capture (in realtime) plus format conversion plus burn. (we did have some software that supposedly did it all on the fly but it never worked well and dropped frames).

So we decided if we could get a DVD or HDD camcorder for a couple of hundred more than we initially going to pay for a miniDV, it would be money well spent. The HDD cameras were way too expensive. Some of the DVD cameras were in our range.

We spent about an hour in 1 store waiting for the sales guy to find 2 cameras' boxes and bits that we were prepared to buy to no avail. In the end we cracked it, walked into another store where they had a DVD camcorder with a reasonable lense, a good digital zoom, a few other nice features and 2 batteries at the right price - and bought it.

This went against my usual buying technique of research, haggle, buy. Oh well. I did haggle, I just didn't know the finer details of what I was haggling for!

What did we buy? A Samsung VPDC171Wi.

Overall, we're pretty happy.

The cons/trade offs:

- The quality isn't as good as our old Sony, but considering it's original is in compressed DVD format already (obviously lower quality than uncompressed avi), I suppose I can't compare the two quite so harshly.
- The DVDs are only 30mins in normal mode compared to say 45mins on our old tapes, but that's not that different and we worked out that VERY little (if any) of our previous footage was taken in greater than 20min chuncks anyway.

The pros:

- It takes 20secs to initialise the DVD when a blank if inserted, and 45secs to finalise it so it can be played in a normal DVD player. So 30mins of footage takes 45secs before it's on DVD and playing in the lounge room. Add maybe 5mins to copy the DVD to a normal 4.9GB DVD (so I can reuse the RW). That's amazing compared to the old method!
- It's light and small too, with Nic able to throw it in her handbag and not notice it. I even fit in my jumper pocket, so it wouldn't be a big deal to take it out for the day.

Now we just need to make sure we use it!!!

I Sold a T-Shirt!

2007-12-16T17:10:00.000+11:00

I Sold a T-Shirt! Yay!!!

Lindsay Blamey (a regular on RedBubble) bought it. He has some amazing photos so check them out.

He bought the one below as he drives an identical car.

This was actually one of Hayden's photos taken on the Veo 1.3 megapixel keyring camera. I've told him he can keep the money I get from the sale, so he's rapt!

Car Pics are up for sale!

2007-12-11T22:38:00.000+11:00

T-Shirts and Cards featuring my classic car pic's are up on RedBubble for everyone to buy! Go on - buy something!

Cards

T-Shirts

I've no idea if anyone will buy anything, that's not really the point, but if they do...BONUS! I'm actually quite pleased with how some of the pic's have turned out, and the community setup of RedBubble means I get some nice comments from some very creative people, which is nice.

Sunbury Car Show

2007-12-09T21:22:00.000+11:00

We all went to a car show in Sunbury today and I took some nice photos. I'm thinking of putting them on some T-shirts and flogging them off. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Hayden also took a bunch on the little Veo camera. They turned out great with a nice retro feel. I'll put some of his up here too later.

Kevin 07

2007-11-19T20:34:00.000+11:00

In the age today, there was an article about Howard's advertising budget this year. In response to it,

"Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has given a '100 per cent' guarantee that Labor would only use taxpayer funds for advertising campaigns deemed acceptable by the Auditor-General."

Kevin Rudd's pledge appears to be going too far - we received this in our letterbox today!

Tight Arse!

Day 31 - Last Day!!!

2007-11-11T19:01:00.000+11:00

Last day of my leave today!

- Sanded around the walk in robe door
- Nic painted it
- Hung the sliding door
- Built the pellmet for it

Then Nic started feeling rough so had a lie down... in the bedroom... so I didn't do any more!

Did we finish EVERYTHING? .... No. BUT we did expand our goals to include the bedroom, so I suppose it was to be expected.

Things left to do:
- Paint the en-suite window frame
- Tile the laundry splashback
- Paint the doors
- Paint & put up the pellmet for the robe
- Glue and grout 2 skirting tiles in the en-suite
- Second coat of paint to half the bedroom

Not a huge list really considering we did the bedroom too. A couple of weekends or evenings and it'll be done.

I spent the afternoon with the kids. Hayden was busting to build something and had his heart set on a kennel for Jack. I told him to grab some paper and do a plan, break the parts up and add measurements. This is what he came back with:

I was so impressed I thought I'd better help him build it. So I hunted through our left over timber and helped him make his kennel. He did most of the screws & nails, I let him cut a bunch of the wood with the saw, he used the cordless drill and jigsaw (with me holding it steady) and put the roof pieces together (Renae helped with this too, and passing screws). Basically he did it all with some guidance from me on what to use and how to put it together, and obviously some of the more major cutting.

He's rapt, and Jack seems to like it!

Here's the finished product:

Day 30

2007-11-10T20:40:00.001+11:00

Did nothing on the reno today - went to Marty's instead.

Day 29

2007-11-09T18:23:00.000+11:00

Today:
- I went to Bunnings AGAIN for timber (and still forgot more paint and the tiles for laundry!)
- Nic painted the second coat on most of the walls, painted most of the skirting boards and some of the window frame
- Ripped out the door jam on the walk in robe & plastered up the bedroom side.
- Built & hung the pellmet over the en-suite door
- Added a strip to the en-suite door to fill the gap
- Put most of the bedroom back to normal

Day 28 - Happy Birthday Marty!

2007-11-08T17:09:00.000+11:00

Happy Birthday Marty! Hope you had a good day at the races. We'll see you on the weekend.

Renae had her Kinder orientation day today. She woke us up at 6:45am yelling "it's kinder day!". She loved it, as expected, and can't wait for next year.

Back to the Reno - We painted the en-suite doorway today and decided we may as well keep going and paint the whole bedroom! So everything was shoved in the center of the room and we set to it. The 1st coat is done, and the second will be done tomorrow.

I also hung the sliding door. It'll need some customization as the gap required for the skirting boards and the angle from the main doorway mean you can see straight in and see who ever's on the loo! We wouldn't have the problem if the door was on the other side of the wall, but then we wouldn't have anywhere for the toilet roll holder, and also, the walk in robe door cannot go inside, so it would look odd having them different.

Day 27 - New toys

2007-11-07T21:14:00.000+11:00

Did next to nothing today! I've been fighting a bug for a few days now so had a nap after sanding the bedroom side of the en-suite door.

We also went shopping for paint new rollers so we can paint what I've sanded. While there, we bought a couple of extra toys, so I spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids:

- A kids tool set for Hayden and a wheelbarrow for Renae, so they can help us fix/build things and help out in the garden (they have to share!).

Good use of some off-cuts!

- A cool gadget called a "Power Saw Guide". For $10 we can now easily cut mitre joints at stupid angles. It will also work with a router (will have to pinch Dad's), so will make life much easier making our pellmets.

Day 26 - So close!

2007-11-06T19:54:00.000+11:00

We are so close to finishing it's not funny.

Steve was here again this morning and has hooked everything up. So we now have a working toilet and vanity to go with the shower.

The things outstanding are:
- sand and paint the bedroom side of the en-suite doorway
- hang the en-suite door
- build pellmets for both sliding doors
- paint the en-suite window frame
- paint both sliding doors and the laundry external door
- change the walk in robe door to a matching sliding door (I've decided this isn't really in scope)
- fix the laundry trough to the wall and tile the splashback

So still a few things to do but everything is in a working state.

So...... Photos - OK here we go (I'll also add the progress photos to the other day's posts).

The Laundry:

The En-Suite

We're rapt with the results. A second toilet after 3 years of only having one will be brilliant, and Nic is loving the laundry.

The bedroom will be next which will basically just be the robe door and a lick of paint. NOT untill we've finished these completely though!

Day 25 - We have a shower!!!

2007-11-05T14:15:00.000+11:00

I know it's only 2pm, a bit early for my usual posts...

but we've both just had a shower each!!! And it's ACE!

It's not like we haven't been showering, but our other one is terrible. We've even gone to Mum and Dad's a few times just to get a better shower.

In the new one, the pressure is strong, the spa/massage jets work well and the radio sounds good (I was lucky enough to get a bit of James Brown).

Steve and Dale were here this morning hooking it up and adding all the new pipes outside. We still don't have the vanity or toilet hooked up yet, that will hopefully be tomorrow.

Getting close to finishing now. I'm not sure if I can be bothered doing anything else today. Most things left over need to be done after the vanity and toilet are in. The bedroom side of the door still needs sanding and painting, but I think that falls under the bedroom makeover category! We'll see.

Nic and the kids singing in the shower!

Day 24

2007-11-04T18:56:00.000+11:00

Sunday seems to be our rest day.

All I did today was:
- fit an extra extraction fan to the shower
- seal the shower with 'all clear'
- watched the V8s

Day 23

2007-11-03T18:02:00.000+11:00

Slow day again today. I woke up sore and tired and also played with the kids a bit this afternoon.

- Nic's painted the window frame and door frame in the laundry
- I put more filler on the joins on the bedroom side of the en-suite doorway, and also the kitchen to study doorway that's been waiting about 2 years!
- I grouted the skirting tiles in the en-suite and laundry
- Moved the light above the mirror in the en-suite

Day 22

2007-11-02T20:15:00.000+11:00

- Nic stuck all the skirting tiles on (well almost all of them, a couple around the shower have to wait until it's plumbed up and installed properly)
- I built the laundry cupboard
- Dad helped me hang the tumble drier
- Fixed the laundry window frame back on
- Put the vanity in place and realized the mirror is NOT the same width as the vanity so I have to move the lights above it - Bugger! The mirror is centered with the vanity OK but it has a non symmetrical frame with shelves on 1 side. I'd centered the lights with the whole thing not just the mirror section.

Day 21 - The Shower

2007-11-01T19:13:00.000+11:00

I've decided the chinese are either very dumb or very smart. They either don't need instructions (ie smart) or don't know how to write them (ie dumb).

Today we put together the 'fully imported' luxury shower unit. The instructions said things like "fix galss" and that was about as detailed as it got (no that was not MY typo!). Some pages had no writing at all and the only illustration was of the parts in place, not where or how to fix them together.

It took most of the day to work out what went where and to actually fix it together. Things went a little quicker after a trip to Bunnings for a new drill bit as the one I was using was VERY blunt.

We knew what we were in for though and setting it up was our only goal for today. Other than plumbing it up (Steve to do) and fixing it to the wall (after Steve's been), it's done. And it looks good. The radio in it is also surprisingly good!

We do seem to have misplaced the hand shower clasp (the bit that holds the flexible hand shower in place when you're not using it) and the 'towel rail' (a small chrome bar to hang face washers on). We bought a replacement clasp at Bunnings and some hooks for now but I'm sure we'll find the original parts a few weeks after we're done!

Day 20

2007-10-31T18:19:00.000+11:00

Better progress today

- Nic painted the cornice (2 coats)
- Sanded the inside of the door way
- Fixed all the power points / light switches to the wall
- Installed the light above the vanity
- Hung the mirror above the vanity
- Started to put together the shower unit

Day 19

2007-10-30T16:25:00.000+11:00

Not many drastic changes today.

Spent a while messing with the grey water pipe, connecting it to the laundry plumbing and checking flow etc. (Our grass is in desperate need of some water!). This took a fairly high priority as we'd hooked it up to the hose the other day (impatient as we are) and thought we'd blown up the washing machine motor!

This actually took a while and I ended up swapping the ag-pipe with one from the backyard gutter with a bigger diameter as the sink was back filling a bit. Much better and the washine machine seems OK - no burning smell today!

Other than that, all I really did was the cornice in the en-suite. I measured and cut it all nicely using Dad's mitre box, went to stick it up and found how 'un-square' our room is! Combine that with a stuff up (I think I stuck the 1st one up 'not quite' square with the ceiling and wall) and I ended up having to mess with the angles a bit. A bit of filler and it should all come out OK. Although I've sanded, I've still got to paint. (pics below are of the best corner!)

Nic was feeling stiff and tired today so rested up a bit. Might finally be time for a chiro visit!

Day 18

2007-10-29T19:18:00.000+11:00

- Nic cut all the skirting tiles
- I sanded back my extra coats on the plaster joins (much better than they were)
- We (mainly Nic) painted the second coat on the en-suite ceiling and walls
- Steve came over and hooked up the laundry trough (I still have to fix it to the wall) and the taps for the shower. Woo Hoo we can do laundry again!

Day 17

2007-10-28T17:30:00.000+11:00

Slow day again today - hope it's not a trend!

- Grouted the en-suite floor
- Hung the door in the laundry
- Added another coat of plaster to the joins in the en-suite (should be a bit better now)
- Tidied up a bit

Day 16

2007-10-27T19:23:00.000+10:00

It was a bit hot again today and slowed us down just like last week.

We sanded the plaster joins in the en-suite and did a 1st coat of paint on the walls & ceiling.
I'm not completely happy with some of the joins, so I'm planning on fixing them up tomorrow before we do a second coat.

Couldn't be bothered putting up any photos today as nothing done today is in a finished state.

Day 15

2007-10-26T19:07:00.000+10:00

A fairly easy day today with a couple of long breaks while paint dried.

- Sanded the plaster joins
- 2 coats of paint on the laundry ceiling and walls.
- Grouted the floor.

Day 14

2007-10-25T16:07:00.000+10:00

Slow day again today, as the tile adhesive in the laundry dries and Renae caused trouble.

- Plastered the join in the en-suite ceiling
- Tiled the en-suite floor.

Even though no-one will see it, I thought I'd have a go at cutting the tiles 'stupidly neat' around the shower and vanity drain holes! I think I did alright.

The rest of the room was a bit more of a pain than the laundry as the walls weren't quite as square (despite us packing the plasterboard a fair bit). Overall it should come out OK though.

Day 13

2007-10-24T19:18:00.000+10:00

Progress today:

- bought a loo and some more supplies
- plastered the edge's of the en-suite door way (both sides)
- fixed down the en-suite floor underlay
- tiled the laundry (tile adhesive, not grout yet)

Day 12 - Getting there

2007-10-23T20:22:00.000+10:00

Progress today:

- Finished the little bit of plaster above / around the door in the bedroom & added almost all the metal edging (I didn't buy enough - forgot all about the top!)
- Did the 1st pass of plaster joins in the en-suite
- Cut the firbre cement flooring for both rooms and fixed it in the laundry
- Sanded the plaster joins in the laundry and did a final layer
- Started sussing out the tiles (pattern and where to start)

Day 11

2007-10-22T17:41:00.000+10:00

Today I added a couple of extra floor joists and then the boards.

Then with a little help from Daniel & Nic, I finished plaster boarding the en-suite.

I'm pretty happy with today's progress.

Day 10

2007-10-21T18:27:00.000+10:00

As Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest, we decided we might for once.

Day 9

2007-10-20T17:31:00.001+10:00

Apart from removing a hot water pipe that Steve left behind, today we just insulated most of the walls & plastered the laundry.

It took a while to hang the plaster as the original walls were a bit off and we needed to sort out the packing as best as possible. Overall it should turn out OK especially as half of it will be covered by things like the cupboard etc. We've done the first pass of joint filler on all the joins in the laundry and while that dries tomorrow, we'll do the en-suite.

Day 8

2007-10-19T19:48:00.000+10:00

This morning, Phil at work solved an issue we had with out vanity drain pipe for us. He's given us a small stainless steel fitting which will polish up nicely as it will be visible.

I also removed the floor joist which was in the way of the new shower drain and replaced it with a new one in a different spot.

Ed was back to change the wiring and we've hung plaster on one wall and are ready do most of the others tomorrow.

Day 7

2007-10-18T20:52:00.000+10:00

Most of today was spent watching "Ed the Electrician" re-wire the en-suite. There's still a little to do tomorrow as I've changed my mind on a couple of things which will need to be wired differently.

Steve came past at about 3pm and has plumbed up all the taps and the vanity drain.

Dad helped me out this evening putting up a new ceiling. There was a big ugly hole from the old fan, plenty of holes from the old light to patch and I made a bad cut for the new Tastic, so we decided to just put up a new one!

After the last bit of wiring, we should be ready to plaster tomorrow. We'll see how we go though, as I still have to remove the old, and fit the new, floor joist. Things are at least starting to look different and we are at least putting in new stuff now rather than just demolishing old stuff.

Day 6 - Nic's Birthday!

2007-10-17T19:32:00.001+10:00

Happy Birthday Nic!

Nic started the day at 6:45 unwrapping her pressies. She got a big canvas to paint, Singstar 90's and some hand print photo frames from the kids (oh, and obviously a half completed en-suite!)

Nic's day started with breakfast in bed while singing to 'achy breaky heart' with the kids on Singstar (I moved the playstation into the bedroom especially). We gave Hayden the day off school so Nic could play with both of them. They played around at home while I kept going with the reno. We then all went out for lunch and a play in the park where everyone had a ball chasing each other and giving electric shocks after going down the slide. Once home, I did a bit more on the bathroom then out for dinner at "Hot Rock Diner" for a HUGE feed.

The Reno - Nic had the day off today, so it was just me.
- I framed up the laundry wall and bathroom door way.
- Cut the hole in the floor in preparation for a new joist
- Temporarily hung the bathroom sliding door to help keep some dust out of the bedroom.

Day 5 - Reno

2007-10-16T19:50:00.000+10:00

Not much happened visually today so no photos. Steve came over to check out the plumbing inside and will come back in a day or two to move the connections etc. We went shopping AGAIN and we did a bit more to the floor and walls.

- removed the remaining floor tiles/underlay in the en-suite
- removed the arch framing/plaster on the en-suite door
- removed a heap of left over nails from the floor & walls
- chatted to Steve and we'll have to remove some of the floor and remove/relocate a joist
- bought a towel rail, toilet roll holder, plug for the shower and some nails
- put together the vanity so Steve can sus out the connections/size properly
- wrapped Nic's pressies for tomorrow!

Not sure how much we'll do tomorrow as it's Nic's birthday, but if she wants to keep going, we will.

Day 4 - We're stuffed already!

2007-10-15T17:16:00.000+10:00

After only 2.5 real days of hard work, we are both buggered! So this afternoon we decided to rest up a bit and do some shopping instead.

Achievements in our half day:
- Bunnings trip for plasterboard, tile underlay, a laundry trough, melamine for the laundry cupboard & a new plaster cutting knife (Grrrr, new tools - pic below)
- removed the cornice in the en-suite
- removed the remaining 3 layers of laundry floor (ended up using a spade!)
- removed half the en-suite floor tiles (VERY hard work)

Misc shopping:
- Tastic - heat lamps / light
- exhaust fan
- brushed stainless power point and light/fan/heat switch
- light fitting to go above the vanity mirror
- new broom

New plaster cutting knife - a bargain at $9!

Day 3 - Reno

2007-10-14T17:28:00.000+10:00

Achievements today:
- continued removing plaster etc from the en-suite walls, including en-suite side of the arch
- removed plaster from the laundry walls
- removed and capped laundry taps and sink
- removed 1st of 4 layers of laundry floor
- removed wall heater
- Bunnings trip for plaster board and 2x4

We are now ready for Steve (the plumber) to come in and move all the outlets etc.

Pics:

The laundry

The laundry floor - there's 3 more layers to go!

Through the laundry wall

Day 2 - Smash it up!

2007-10-13T16:36:00.000+10:00

Well day 1 really, because WE didn't do much yesterday, but we'll call it day 2 and go from there.

Things were fairly slow going today but we're pleased enough with our progress.

- I wasted heaps of time at Bunnings first thing (had to go back as they'd charged me for 100 plumbing caps instead of 10!).

- I removed the door between the en-suite and laundry first. No real problems there.

- The shower screen was a pain as it already had a crack which grew and grew as we tried to remove it. I had to drill out rivets and gently break the silicon seals while trying not to make the break any worse and send glass shards all over us.

- We ended up breaking the shower base into pieces to get it out - no problems there.

- I capped up all the tap fittings no drama. AND it doesn't leak!

- The basin... hmmm. It wasn't that bad really, but it was quite stubborn. I ended up smashing that too! More out of frustration than anything else - worked a treat!

- The mirror - hmmmmmm. For some reason, the previous owners had tiled over the edges. This made it impossible to remove without first removing the tiles. The tiles however were done quite well and prising them off or smashing them both caused the mirror to flex and crack! So I just smashed the mirror with the crowbar! (If you are a believer, we now have 14 years bad luck between us. I'm not too fussed as I didn't see my reflection in it when it broke! ).

- The rest of the tiles were easy as they were laid on cement sheeting which we removed in fairly large pieces, tiles still attached.

- The plaster has been slow going too. For some reason it didn't like coming off in big sheets, and behind the basin it's been glued to loads of timber which is nasty. The kids came and helped smash holes in the wall which they loved.

Where the shower used to be.

Where the basin used to be.

All up we've spent about 5 hours on it. Not too bad, but I thought we would've been a bit further along. Plenty of time though, and we'll be right back in there tomorrow.

Day 1 - The en-suite renovation has started!

2007-10-12T08:56:00.000+10:00

Who liked 'The Castle' movie?........Dale dug a hole!

Dale, the plumber's apprentice, has dug the hole to tap into the sewer for the toilet. It's a pretty big hole! He ended up digging for nearly 6 hours (I reckon I'd have been digging for a week!) so I'm glad he's done it not me. I did end up shoveling half the dirt out the way though, to keep it off the hot water service and fence and to give Dale some room.

As usual, things don't always run smoothly.
- As expected, the storm water pipe which runs above the sewer pipe had a huge kink and looks to be broken further up so will need replacing. Not a huge deal, but it means the hole's got to be bigger to find a good bit of pipe.
- Our sewer pipes are terracotta so to join into the main line with PVC we'll have to replace the DT (frog mouth thing that catches the shower and sink pipes). As there was also an IO in the way (buried), we'll have to join on the other side of that which will probably mean we have to also replace the DT for the laundry. Again, not a big deal, but more time and more money.

The pic below shows roughly what's going on:

The skip arrives this afternoon as well so tomorrow we'll start demolishing!

Here's a couple of pics of how the en-suite and laundry look now:

Amazing new technology

2007-09-16T09:31:00.000+10:00

Check this out - the possibilities are amazing.

Two new technologies used together to expand photo sharing beyond what you'd ever imagine. The best bit is at the end when they stitch together every photo of Notre Dame from Flickr into a 3D zoom-able image!

Click Here

Ring a ding ding ding ding!

2007-09-15T13:18:00.000+10:00

We bought a chainsaw the other day on Ebay!

So it's time for the fruit trees to go and free up some space for the deck etc.
(the deck is a little while off yet but a sandpit might happen soon).

Before: (like our weed bed?!)

Start her up!

After:

Planned possie for the rotunda.
The chip barked area would be split level decking with the sandpit in front of the cubbie.

Lots of piles of branches ready for hard rubbish collection.

About time!

2007-08-29T21:21:00.000+10:00

As kate mentioned in her comment on my previous post, it's been ages since I put anything on here.

In my defense, I have been posting EVERY DAY on AussieSongOfTheDay

So....

Today, while writing up something for work, I realised I've signed off on over $2,000,000 worth of IT purchases in the last few years!

Glad it wasn't my money I was spending!

Be Green, Go Black!

2007-08-03T09:12:00.000+10:00

With all the media hype about saving energy to save the world, 'Heap Media' have created http://www.blackle.com - a black webpage with a Google search.

The concept is that displaying a black page uses about 15watts less power than displaying a white page. On a high profile page like Google, they estimate that if everyone used blackle instead, it would be possible to save about 750 - 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. That's a fair few black balloons!

They are even trying to add the variant into common language as google has managed to - ie just google it is now just blackle it or try blackling 'energy saving'

So do your bit, and save the world!

More info below:
http://www.blackle.com/about
http://ecoiron.blogspot.com/2007/01/black-google-would-save-3000-megawatts.html

Rob.

Roasts are not so e e easy!

2007-07-21T19:48:00.000+10:00

We have not forgotten the roasts that we have promised!

We are waiting for Fisher & Paykel to get back to us about fixing the oven.
I rang Clive Peeters about 2 weeks ago to get someone out to fix the bottom oven and poor "Kristie" from Clive Peeters has rang me up everyday to check if someone has rang and chases it up with Fisher & Paykel. So if I don't get a phone call on Monday, I am going to hit the roof!

The bottom oven works only as a grill and not a oven. I cannot repay everyone with a great tasting roast by using the bigger oven only, so please be patient and hopefully very soon I will have 2 ovens ready and roaring to go.

Nic
(My 1st post!)

Birthday Pressies

2007-07-15T11:12:00.001+10:00

As you all know it was my birthday the other day, so I thought I'd better put something on here about it.

I spent the first couple of hours putting my new Home Gym together (Thanks Nic, Kids, Mum & Dad). It was actually pretty easy with clear, ENGLISH, step by step instructions.

The rest of the day was nice and lazy, playing play station with Hayden, and messing around with some new plugins for Gimp (photo editor software).

Mum, Dad, Simon & Bek came over for dinner and cake, the Nic and I shot off to the airport to pick up Luke & Jim from their 3 weeks in the UK.

As per tradition, I received some cool/funny Ebay style gifts too. Some of them are pictured below:

Customisable Branding Iron from Kate & Matt - This is COOL!

A Fart! Also from Kate & Matt - not so cool but VERY funny! (no I haven't opened it yet!)

Some Skips and Minstrels from Luke - Yay!

A cool (fully stocked) M&M dispenser from Simon & Bek
- you pull their arms down and it throws M&M's at you by the handfull

A new twist on Pictionary from Laura & Daniel - should be a bit of a laugh!

Thanks everyone for a good day!

Polly want a cracker?

2007-07-08T19:15:00.000+10:00

Today, we decided (quite late) to go for a Sunday drive. We thought the kids might like Bird World in Ballarat, so we took a chance on the weather and headed off.

Bird World is a small but quite well stocked bird aviary on someone's property at the end of a suburban street in Ballarat. It is privately owned and operated by a couple in what must be their 80's, but it's been done really well with a raised boardwalk taking you through the rainforest /bush surrounds to a long line of caged aviaries and then into a huge netted area so you can have a good look at some of the birds without the wire mesh/cage.

I'm not sure how many birds are in the open aviary but we saw quite a few. The photo's weren't great at full zoom in low light, so I've only put the best one's up (and yes they are all of Kingy - there were a bunch of these King Parrots in there, but apparently Kingy is quite friendly).

Kingy - the King Parrot

At one stage, 'Kingy' the King Parrot landed on my shoulder which was a laugh, but after it flew away Renae cracked it because she wanted to pat it.

Me copying the parrot!

It came back and I managed to get it onto my arm while holding Renae. We'd been warned that he didn't like fingers, but Renae didn't believe us.

Renae, just as she pulls her finger away! See the end of her glove pulled off her finger!

After the shock of it bitting her glove, she did have a laugh, but didn't try it again!

We continued along the path, past a large pond and a waterfall, and finished up in the cafe for coffee and cookies.

A good day overall and the weather held out for most of it.

Here's a clip of a cockatoo saying "Hello Cocky". It squawked like crazy when you walked away!

Who needs HP Sauce!?!

2007-07-04T08:25:00.000+10:00

Seeing as everyone's stockpiling the UK's greatest foodstuffs, I thought I'd post on our haul.

Several weeks ago, Deb at work (who used to own Jazzies at the plaza - for those that remember) asked if I wanted anything brought back from her holiday in England. So I asked her to bring me back 'a bunch' of Double Deckers.

Well she did - a whole box of them!!!!

There are 48 in a box (we've eaten 3 so far) which is a few more than I expected! Of course I was over the moon - until she hit me with the price tag - 30 quid!!!! That's $70 !!!!!

It's not too bad really at $1.40 a bar, but we'd NEVER normally spend $70 on chocolate in one hit! She apparently got them from 'a contact' at wholesale price, so I should probably be glad I didn't get hit for full retail price!

I'm sure the offers of help will come flooding in, but we'll have no trouble working through them thank you. We might save a couple up for birthday/Xmas pressies if you're all nice.

Front Yard Blitz

2007-06-30T17:49:00.000+10:00

After my (half joking) comment about people coming to help move some crushed rock, we were over the moon when Dad, Nick & Simon turned up ready to work!

I presume it was Marty (maybe Matt) who posted a comment as Dad about coming on Sunday night - as he was here last night, we had a good laugh about it.

Well we all jumped right in and many hands do indeed make light work (well, not light, but lighter).

As you can see from the pics below, we got heaps done, and the rain held off for most of the day too which was lucky.

6m3 of crushed rock and 3.5m3 of topsoil was shoveled and leveled, about 100 pavers were lifted and several coffees, brownies and cans of coke were consumed.

There's still heaps to do, but a HUGE thank you to everyone that helped, and there'll be some roast dinners coming up soon as an extra thank you.

PS. No I don't have any pics of everyone at work, but Dad might.

Bobcat BooBoo

2007-06-27T11:28:00.000+10:00

As usual, nothing is ever straight forward.

As the people over the road had some excavators in, we thought we may as well slip them a couple of hundred dollars to level the front grass and both driveways while they had the trucks out and were doing tip runs.

All good so far.

Then the bobcat hit our main water line! It wasn't their fault, as the pipe was only about 5cm below the ground! Lucky for us, it didn't actually break, but there was a massive kink and it was generally stuffed.

Steve the plumber came out about an hour later (6pm) and cut out the kink just in case, and is coming back today to put in a new pipe and garden tap while he's at it (the yank on the pipe ripped the tap post from it's rotten footings).

So I spent last night and this morning digging a trench for the new pipe (Yakatti Yak, oh my back).

Of course, with the rain, everything is a mud pit! Add the numerous trucks for the road upgrade to the excavators trucks plus everyone's cars parked up the street because the road is being done and the whole street is crazy!

Anyway, here are some pic's of the pipe, the beginnings of my trench, and the front yard.

The kinked bit of pipe Steve cut out.

The temporary join in the pipe and a hole.

The beginnings of my trench (mostly dug last night in the dark) in the second driveway.
The pipe is where it was - not even 5cms below the ground/path height.

The leveled front yard. No more weeds!

Front yard and main driveway.
The sand base from the old driveway is now like quicksand!

So who wants to come over and lay some crushed rock this weekend?!?

Hayden's Party

2007-06-24T16:59:00.000+10:00

Hayden's Party

Hayden had his mini golf party today. It was a huge success and everyone seemed to have a great time.

It started with loads of food, then some games.

Table putting
- everyone had to blow the ball into the hole with their straw putters!
This was a huge success, but there was a lot of spit on the table afterwards!

Some balloon games

Mini Golf - The kids went out in 3's with an adult to score.
Scoring was hard for some kids as they tended to scoop/push
the ball most of the way, but everyone had fun.

Hayden and Darcy on the course.

Hayden, Daniel and Nick

Golf over, it was back to the hall for cake and more games.

Hayden realising he'd touched the bottom while cutting the cake, and now has to kiss a girl!!

Nic had made balloon swords which were obviously a huge hit!

It was a great day, but we're glad we didn't have the party at home! It was WAY too noisy!

A big thankyou to Simon and Bek, for coming along & also taking a bunch of photos for us.

NOTE: Hayden doesn't have spooky friends, I just thought I'd better blur out the other kid's faces as I don't have their permission to put them on the net.

Happy Birthday Hayden!

2007-06-17T11:42:00.000+10:00

Happy 7th Birthday Hayden!

Some pics:

Richmond Tigers beanie and scarf
(very nice and warm!)

John Cena Figurine
(Hayden and his mates love him)

Microscope & telescope set
(he's wanted a telescope for ages)

John Cena again

Hayden looking at a leaf under the microscope

The Robot Claw!
Remember those!!!

More ...

Making some paper planes
(Simon & Bek's cool pressie - now we have LOADS flying around)

Opening Gran & Gramp's pressies
(some cool Transformers)

Renae made everyone party hats!

Blowing out the candles

Renae posing for the camera

Yum!

We have a new driveway - AGAIN

2007-06-08T18:13:00.000+10:00

Well yesterday, the road upgrade guys ripped up our driveway and poured a new one!

They said it was 130mm lower but I haven't measured it yet. It's much better anyway so I don't think I'll even bother.

I should have made them rip up the second driveway as it is too steep too. It didn't really bother me as we are unlikely to put the caravan up it, but now our front yard will have to slope to follow the footpath which will mess us up a bit if we put up a fence. Oh well.

I'll put up a photo tomorrow.

RADIOACTIVE NIC

2007-05-31T12:34:00.000+10:00

Nic went in for her Radioactive Iodine treatment today!

Basically, she just had to pop a pill - a bit too easy really, and it would have been good if she could have done it a couple of years ago!

The pill was obviously Radioactive, and came in a special double walled bright yellow container, so it did make it a bit more freaky!

We made a special T-Shirt to wear to the Hospital - the Doctors loved it and said they should have some to give to people after the treatment. Nic did get some strange looks from the lady in front of her in the queue though (before the treatment) - she kept taking a step away from Nic!

She's now in Lockdown/Quarantine (at home) and is not allowed near the kids (a couple of meters) or me (arms length) for at least 3 days and nights. She has to wear gloves to touch anything we might touch and has to double flush the loo. She's also not allowed to prepare any meals - slops and takeaway will obviously have to do, or face my cooking!

Hopefully it will kill off enough of the thyroid to bring the hormone levels into check. If it doesn't kill enough, she can go again, but if it kills too much or all of it she'll be on hormone replacement pills.

Anything should be an improvement.

Happy 4th Birthday Renae!

2007-05-20T09:53:00.000+10:00

Happy 4th Birthday Renae!

Some photos of this morning. I'll add more during the day.

This is a "Hide and Seek" CareBear. Someone hides it or you hide with it the other person has the "Finder" which lets you know when you are getting closer - very clever! As Renae LOVES playing hide and seek, I'm sure this will get played with a fair bit!

This is a Princess CD player/Clock Radio. The kids have been dancing around all morning.

Some More CDs

Dancing in the outfit from Kate, Matt & the kids

MORE PICS...

Simon was looking a little strange during the day - maybe his back was out! So Hayden decided he'd make him feel better by making a strange face as well !

Hayden and Nick playing in the garden.

Happy 60th Dad

2007-05-20T09:50:00.000+10:00

Happy 60th Dad!

I hope you had a good day and also enjoyed having everyone together in the following days!

Thanks for the pic Kate!

Road upgrade

2007-05-09T13:21:00.000+10:00

Well the road upgrade is slowly progressing, with just enough dramas to make life interesting!

You may or may not know, but we had requested a second driveway be put in. We have to pay council for the concrete crossover, but it was cheaper than the quotes we got to do it later. Anyway... our storm water pipe runs right where we wanted the driveway to be so obviously it had to be moved (the outlet into the gutter anyway).

I had pointed the issue out to the various contractors again and again, at various stages of the upgrade, and they did put a new gutter outlet in a sensible place when the new gutter was made. They just didn't connect it!

I finally met with the council engineer a few days ago, just before they poured the concrete driveway over the top! I managed to persuade him to arrange for the pipe be laid in a sensible location where I could at least get to any bends (potential blockage spots) rather than them being under 100mm of concrete.

It was kinda funny though, the excavator couldn't reach far enough to dig the new channel because of the new gutter! If they had driven over it, it would have been crushed so they had to dig the last bit by hand. If they had listened to me earlier, the gutter wouldn't have been there and they could have had all the access they liked!

The next saga was the main driveway. They've poured it, it looks nice, we can use it, but it's too steep! I've done the measurements and calculations and I don't think we'd get the caravan out!!!

After much debate with the concreter (who obviously didn't like the idea of digging it up), I rang the council again. Someone came out to have a look, and we all stood in the street arguing. I went in armed with lots of measurements (car and caravan axle to towball, heights etc etc) and the council regulations for crossovers (sent to us because of the new driveway). As it happens, it wasn't just me complaining that it is too steep for 'our' caravan, but it is actually officially 'too steep'. I estimated it to be a 1 in 7 slope and the regulations stipulated it should fall between 1 in50 and 1 in 10.

The council engineer said he'd come back and take some measurements, so later that afternoon, 2 council engineers spent about 20mins with about $50,000 worth of surveying gear, measuring up the driveway and adjoining footpath. The final result? ....... a 1 in 7 slope!!!!!

So they are going to rip it up!

So far, nothings been done and I bet the contractors will leave it to the last minute and hope we forget about it. So we'll keep an eye on them, and see what happens.

To be continued...

Bye Bye Windoze!

2007-05-01T20:09:00.000+10:00

Tonight, I replaced MS Windows with Linux on both Hayden's & Nic's PCs!

WooHoo!

I have opted for 'SAM Linux' which is based on the very simple 'PClinuxOS' which Nic used for quite some time . It looks slightly different and uses 'XFce 4.4' desktop, enhanced with 'Adesklets' and 'Wbar', a Mac like starter bar (Marty would probably like it).

I've been playing with Linux for a while now, and am doing a work funded Linux Administrator Course part time.

Linux in general is pretty nice - in most popular versions, everything 'Just Works' and there are no real security threats or viruses etc etc like Windows.

It boasts pretty much everything the Mac adverts on TV say in favor of the Mac, except:
- it's FREE !!!
- you can run it on almost any PC (even fairly old slow ones) so the actual PC is really cheap
- you can upgrade your hardware with any standard PC parts
- you can download SAFE and tested FREE software to do almost anything

So... we'll see how we go, but so far we've said goodbye to Windoze at home!

Oh, the TV and my laptop currently still run Windoze. I'm working on it!

House Plans

2007-04-24T22:01:00.000+10:00

I've been playing around with house extension and garden plans tonight.

We'd pretty much decided on the extension plan a while ago, but hadn't really thought too hard about the final garden plans. So tonight I drew them both up together on the one plan. I must admit, I'm quite happy with the result. Apart from needing some serious cash, I'm sure we'd add at least the same amount, probably more, to the value of the house.

Apart from the extension, we really only need to add the paving, deck, the front wall, front grass, surface the driveways and render the house. The rest is things like chopping down trees and clearing junk!

Sounds easy I know, but I'm sure it will take at least a couple of years and a minimum $50,000. But hey, that's what plans are for right? If anyone wins Tattslotto and wants to pay for it all (no strings attached) we'd be more than happy to accommodate the generosity!

Anyway... here are the concept pics and the plan:

House Before (ie now)

House After

Concept floor Plan

(Existing back of the house is in dotted red)

Simon's Rally Drive

2007-04-21T15:16:00.000+10:00

Simon did his rally drive today!

I'll let him talk about it on his blog, but I thought I'd post a couple of my (enhanced) photos on here.

Simon revving himself up! Scary!!!

All of my photos are on the photos.redb.com.au site and everyone else should be able to add theirs if they want.

Day out at Docklands

2007-04-13T20:17:00.000+10:00

Today we went for a day out at Docklands. Lots of fun was had by all. I'll let the photos tell the story. As we took heaps, there are more on the RedB photos site.

(Arty Farty Photos on RedB Site)

School Holiday Painting

2007-04-11T11:16:00.000+10:00

Today, the kids did some painting. Some pics below.

Hayden's "Crying Man"

Renae at work

Hayden gets stuck in

Hayden at work

Renae painting "Parrots at the Beach"

Some abstracts:

Hayden's

Renae's

Hayden's

They had heaps of fun and are still at it 2 hours later!

New Tools

2007-04-09T18:21:00.000+10:00

Today we thought we might finally put the curtains up properly on the new curtain rods we had bought. As I'm lazy, I told Nic we really needed a cordless drill and that it would make life much easier.

So off I went to Mitre10 to buy one. I nearly bought an 'el cheapo' for $45 when I saw a pack of 5 cordless power tools in a handy carry case for $99. They were still 'el cheapo' but the value pack made them EXTRA 'el cheapo' at $20 each! As one of them is a torch (which doesn't really count as a power tool) we'll call it $25 each.

Of course, when I got home, Nic said 'I knew I should have come with you!" but after checking them out, has claimed them as 'her tools'.

I'm actually pretty impressed with them. The charger is a 1 hour fast charger and it came with 2 18v batteries. The drill worked great and did actually make life much easier!
The mini circular saw is cool, with an adjustable straight edge and all the usual angle adjustments.
It also came with a small jigsaw and a corner sander doovalackie which will come in handy.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T08:30:00.000+10:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Well this morning was a prime example of how deprived of chocolates and lollies our kids are! It's not like we don't let the kids have treats, we give them lollies etc several times a week, but we don't generally have a supply of junk in the house, or let them go nuts eating loads at a time.

The kids woke up and were obviously excited after discovering their eggs, but a 'normal' kind of excited. Well because it's easter, it has to be chocolate for breakfast! So the unwrapping starts and the munching begins! Well I'd have to say that it took less than 5 mins before the 'normal excited' turned into 'major sugar rush' excited! They are bouncing off the walls!!!

Maybe we'll have to start increasing their daily dose slightly and build up their tolerance's!

We're off to Laura's for the day, so it's only going to get worse with a big egg hunt!

Have a great day!

UPDATE:
Pics of the Easter Egg hunt at Laura's.

Roadworks

2007-04-02T10:34:00.000+10:00

Well our road upgrade has taken a few months to reach us, but this morning they finally dug up our driveway and nature strip! They started at the other end of the street in late Jan when we went on holiday so they're taking a while.

Now, we'll have several weeks (possibly months) of noise, dust and probably stone-chips, but we'll end up with a nice new road, new gutters and a second driveway. They are also putting a footpath on our side of the road (which sucks a bit) but at least it means I'll have less grass to mow (not that it's really grass at the moment) .

The kids were all excited watching the digger lift the concrete gutter and letting it drop so it smashed into smaller pieces and Hayden even said it felt like Christmas, it was so exciting! Then they both walked around the lounge room pretending to be diggers which was pretty cute.

It's actually a pretty big pain in bum, as every day they'll remove a makeshift crossover (so you can get your car into the driveway) and then redo it at the end of the day. So if we don't move the cars onto the main road at 7am, we'll end up stranded on the wrong side of a 2 feet drop!

Fun and games.

Hayden has started AusKick

2007-03-31T13:34:00.000+10:00

Hayden had his first experience of AusKick this morning. He had loads of fun, and even though he's feeling a bit rough with a cold, found the energy to chase the ball and ran his little legs off!

It's supposed to be every Saturday morning, but he's already got 2 weeks off! There were heaps of people and the kids were split off into year levels to make smaller groups of around 20-30.

That's him on the floor, after scooping up the ball, about to get jumped on!

More photos at http://photos.redb.com.au

Weerama Festival

2007-03-31T13:20:00.000+10:00

Last weekend, Werribee held it's Weerama festival. The only event we went to was a 'show and shine' hosted by the 'Werribee Vintage Car Club' - I Think! (It could have been the 'Western District Car Club').

We all enjoyed looking at some pretty flashy cars, and then (as we had got there late) watched them all drive off. This was actually really good as we got to hear them running and a few floor it out onto the main road. Hayden was yelling 'GO HOLDEN' to each old Holden that drove past!

Maybe one day before I'm 50, I'll finish the EH so we can spend the whole day at events like this, and have people look at our car instead!

There was only 1 EH that we could find, but it was an immaculate Ute, blessed with a complete restoration (every nut and bolt by the looks of it) .

We also had a good laugh at a little dog, 'ready to roll' on the front of his owners Harley!

More photos at http://photos.redb.com.au

Bought a new car (Again!)

2007-03-31T12:38:00.000+10:00

Well we've bought a new car - again!

The Jeep was bugging us with amazingly expensive parts, was about to hit 200,000 kms and was a bit gutless for our liking. So we ditched it and went for another Statesman (we loved our old one), but this time it had to be a V8 of course.

It's a 2001 WH Statesman 5.7l V8 and has done 84,000 kms. It is smooth as silk cruising around, has a really nice rumble above 2,500 rpm, but roars like crazy when you boot it!

Just for fun the other day, I plugged in the old 'G-Tech Pro' (http://www.gtechpro.com/prod.html) to do a 0-100km/h sprint.

I was quite happy with the result - I had Marcus (from work) in the car and a full boot, so that added at least 100kg to the already heavy 1735 kg the car weighs. After a few runs, it averaged 6.1 secs. So I'd like to think that without the extra weight, I'd possibly get under the 6 sec barrier! Quite impressive for such a large car, but then I suppose thats because it's got such a large engine!

Some specs, for those who are interested:

ENGINE	5.7-litre alloy V8
MAX. POWER	225 kW @ 5200 rpm
MAX.TORQUE	460 Nm @ 4400 rpm
TRANSMISSION	Four-speed auto
KERB WEIGHT	1735 kg
LENGTH	5235 mm
WIDTH	1847 mm
HEIGHT	1447 mm
WHEELBASE	2939 mm
TOWING CAPACITY (BRAKED)	2100 kg
DRIVING WHEELS	Rear
WHEELS/TYRES	225/55 R16
TURNING CIRCLE	11.3 m

Anyway, we are enjoying driving it around and letting Holden's Largest Lion ROAR every now and then!

More photos at http://photos.redb.com.au

Avalon Airshow - Cheapskate style!

2007-03-31T12:26:00.000+10:00

Took the kids and Casey (from over the road) to the YouYangs to have a run around and hopefully see some cool planes flying around.

Couldn't really see anything that was happening at Avalon, and nothing actually flew over us or even close! The kids had fun anyway, running around, playing footy and climbing rocks etc.

More photos at http://photos.redb.com.au

Time to try again

2007-03-31T12:20:00.000+10:00

Not sure how long this will last! Or if I could be bothered putting much on here, but if we do something, I might throw it up for people peruse when they are bored.

I'll put a couple of things up now to get it started and at least 'look' like I'm making an effort!

Rob.