
Friday, July 03, 2009
Kiddie Quotes: Homework

Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Not the best start to the workday
Today started off as a more or less normal Tuesday. I got up at 5.30, got ready and got on the bus.
I had noticed that I was a bit stiff and sore but I only started paying the pain any attention once I was on the bus.
The pain was a bit intense and it was in my chest, slightly to the left. I started to wonder if, instead of simply "sleeping funny", I'd perhaps had a heart issue.
The pain was still there when I got to work, so I decided to go see a doctor when the surgery opened. My description of the problem had scarcely left my mouth when I was whisked away to another room and an ambulance was phoned for.
They gave me something to "open the blood vessels around the heart" and the pain started to disappear immediately. They told me that I'd probably have a headache - and they were not wrong. I have a massive one now.
In any case they whisked me off to St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney (where I am now).
I've given blood a few times (and been told that I'm "not exactly generous with my veins". I've also had an X-Ray and some cardiographs done. So far everything is normal.
If my last blood test comes back ok, they're going to do a "stress test" involving a treadmill - it stresses me just to think of treadmills and "exercise". If the stress test is normal, then apparently I'm free to go.
That'll be good 'cos at the moment, I'm pretty hungry and have a lot of work to catch up on.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Some Tristan-isms
Tristan has been settling down a bit lately and has been coming out with some pretty funny kiddie quotes...
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Kaelan's First Holy Communion



Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Early May 2009 Update
It's weird but you go months without any news and then suddenly there's a deluge. Aside from the two deaths in the family that I've covered in two posts of their own there has been;
The Great Fish Massacre of 2009
Kaelan got a fish tank about seven months before we moved. We took so long to getting around to it that we decided to wait until we moved back into our new house.
We installed it earlier this month and got seven fish, two guppies and five neon tetras. The first guppy didn't even make six hours but the second did better with about 15. Then the Tetras started going. At least two fish were sucked into the filter and "strained" to death despite the fact that we turned it to a lower setting. Now the tank is empty again and Joanne has been talking about more victims. Personally, I'd rather drain the tank and put mice in it but she won't have a bar of it.
Blinds
I'm sure that there was a collective sigh of relief around the neighbourhood when our blinds finally arrived. Until then, there must have been some sights. We got two types of blinds.
The first type is a thick venetian which apparently doesn't have the same problems as the old venetians, though I'll decide whether to believe it or not in a few years time. 
The other type is a simple roller blind, we got them for the entertainment area and kitchen where the blinds will be up and down all day long.
Kaelan's Confirmation
Last Monday was Kaelan's Confirmation. It was at night, after work so that meant that I had to rush home and stay in my work clothes. Tristan was pretty upset when I got home. Apparently he, Kaelan and his teddy bear had been jumping on the trampoline when the bear got an unexpected height surge and ended up in the tree above - quite high up too.
I took a long stick and climbed onto the trampoline and started jumping for the bear. It must have been a funny sight but it was really difficult trying not to rip my work clothes, not to lose my balance and fall off and hoping that the already torn mat would support my weight. After quite a number of goes, I eventually got the bear.
By this time, it was getting late and we had to go. We quickly got Kaelan dressed into neat clothes but couldn't find his shoes. After a lot of prompting, we eventually discovered that he'd used both unsucessfully as throwing objects in the quest to retrieve the bear. Both were now over the fence. We hurriedly found his tattered (and almost toeless after only 3 months) school shoes. Hopefully the priest wouldn't look down.
Then there were the vows. The priest is supposed to ask the kids to re-accept the vows their parents took on their behalf during baptism. These include such questions as "do you reject Satan and all his works?". The kids are supposed to respond with "I do". Kaelan was silent for the first vow, not knowing what to say (despite several weeks of preparation). Then, suddenly he remembered and loudly proclaimed his "I Do!" in the silence that followed everyone elses. Luckily all his others were on time but their loudness was such that even the priest cracked a smile.
The rest of the night seemed to go well. Joanne's sister Catherine was Kaelan's sponsor and his saint name was "Michael" which matched his school. Funnily enough my saint name of "Leo" matched mine too.
Stairs
I learned the hard way last week about using our stairs while wearing socks. I've always been a person who needs to rush everywhere and I frequently run in situations where normal people wouldn't. Apparently, stairs are one of those places. I did some amazing Jackie Chan style acrobatics and managed to avoid killing myself on the tiles but it was a close one. I was very surprised to find that I could still walk the following morning.
Pool (Coming Soon)
We signed up for a pool, though somehow we went from a $38K 12 metre one down to a normal sized 8/9? metre and saved a lot of money. Of course, now Joanne is talking about putting a glass fence in. She's obviously forgotten how stony the ground is at the moment - and what lawnmowers do with stones.

Speaking of lawnmowers, our ground has been so bumpy and our grass has been so long (and so full of hidden building materials) that I've had to whipper-snip the whole lawn.
It proved a bit too much for old Mr. Whippy and it refused to run for more than a minute at a time. I was about to try and fix it when I realised that fuel had started pouring out the back of it. I decided to use the lawnmower after all.
The wheels broke off. Yep, that's right, I decided to use the lawnmower and got a little way around when the front wheels just fell off. I turned it off and turned it over to see if I could fix it and that was when I discovered that one blade had shorn off entirely and the other was about one quarter of it's original length.
I talked to Joanne about the problem and we agreed that the mower was probably dead but we didn't have the money for a new one and we had to have the grass cut in time for the pool. Eventually, I invented a kind of "wheelie mowing" style that only a half crippled mower can do. It wasn't pretty but it was effective.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Helen May - A Difficult Farewell

Friday, May 08, 2009
Sadly Missed: John Reynolds 2 May 1919 - 1 May 2009
This month has been so busy that it's going to take a few posts. Unfortunately, two of them will probably be obituaries.






