Project 365

Ok.. Im off to a flying start! I wonder how long I can keep this up?!


New years day morning. We gave the dogs the treats they got for Christmas. As usual, Onslows treat disappeared into the depths of his tummy before I got the camera.


My Birthday. Trav asked what did I want to do, stay in town for the night and go to a fancy restaurant? Nope. All I wanted was a nice picnic with the dogs! We went to Thirroul where the dogs got LOADS of attention from people in the parks. They just sat there for hours watching people go by.


My birthday dinner at mum and dads. Mum made these cushions, one of each of the dogs, and I just loved them!! You will notice my ultra daggy, Mens size XL Bonds T-shirt... some gumpy person spilt red wine all over her nice top, especially picked out for photos. As a result I had to wear one of dads shirts. Which he wasn't too impressed about, as this was brand new out of the box.


Sunday Travis had his monthly Panthers Tri-club race. I love making use of my zoom lens. He ate too much over Christmas and felt really off during the whole race. But he was only 10 seconds slower than his PB, so he was pretty pleased.


Today marked the first day back at work since Christmas eve. And it also marked the return of my Monday ritual: Trudging over to Freshworld in my lunch break to stock up on the weekly fruit and vegetables. Today it was 35 degrees Celsius in the City and I was drenched in sweat by the time I staggered back into the office. I hate weeks like this when I need to buy potatoes!!!!

one post!

LOL So I managed one post in the last 12 months! It's better than 0! :)

I have decided this year that I want to do that Project 365 and take a photo a day. It's already day 5 of 2009, but because I have been home over the Christmas Break, I actually have taken at least one pic a day for the year!

I will upload them all in order when I get home tonight.

In other news, I had a great break - almost 2 weeks off work with Travis, just bumming about the place. Shopping (<- a little tooooo much), watching the cricket, playing with the dogs, mountian biking, kayaking... it's such a struggle to be back at work today :(

Travis and I have entered into the kathmandu Adventure Race on Jan 17th and I can't wait! It will be a mixture of running, mountain bike riding and kayaking - hence the Kayaking practise at the regatta centre last week :)

Had a nice, quiet Christmas. Lunch at Travis' sisters place, then we went to my mum and dads place in the afternoon for way too many presents and a stack of yummy desserts.

New Years eve was also fairly quiet and we didn't go far afeild. We were home by 11:45 and I watched the fireworks on the TV.
In the week between Christmas and New Year people were letting off firecrackers a couple of streets away nearly every night and Belle freaked out more and more as the week went on. So we thought it would be better if we were home with her when the worst of them went off at midnight.

When she hears the first cracker, she tries to squeeze onto the lounge (usually on top of me), and she just sits frozen, eyes wide, looking at the ceiling and panting quickly. She's very trance-like and you can poke her, call her name, wave your hands in front of her head and theres just no reaction! She's the same with thunder, but the firecrackers are the worst. I think because they are so random with long gaps so she never knows if it's actually stopped or not.

Anyway today I'm back at work.. and I have the whole, entire week to get through *sigh* Today is already dragging and moving along soooo slowly. Lunch will take forever to get here, and that hour will just fly by in the space of seconds. Never mind... 4 more days and then the weeekend!!

Hiatus

So I'm back in blog-land, after what seems like forever!

So whats been happening? Lots of stuff, yet nothing at all really :)

After coming back from the trip there were numerous family do's for birthdays, plus the usual Christmas feasts, and it was then that I decided to really get stuck into moving the extra few kilos that had started to creep up on me. It was either that, or spend a lot of money on a new wardrobe to buy clothes that I wasn't busting out of.

That saw me take up running :)

In 6 months I have gone from struggling to do one lap of the 2.2km route I have mapped out, to completing the 25km Woodford to Glenbrook Fun run on the 19th June. It was a gruelling course. Travis came along with me, and together we gritted our teeth as we pounded out the agonizing last 6 kms to finish the race in a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes. Certainly not ground breaking pace, but a proud moment when we crossed the line.

We have registered for our next one too, the Hunter Valley Half Marathon :) Should be fun, at least we know what to expect this time :) Of course, with any new hobby I take up, it also means splashing out on all the new fandangled equipment.

Like my snazzy new Polar Heart Rate Monitor with the footpod so I can measure distance and speed and basically have things to play with and distract me on my runs...


And a pair of snazzy pair of Long Skins to help my muscles after a long run, just like the ones in the pic:


And after all that, I STILL need to buy a new wardrobe because I have lost those few kilos, and then some! Now my clothes that were popping at the seams in January are now floating on me...

In amongst all that, Onslow had his knee operated on again, at the same time as they did his hip operation. Here he is on his first day back home from the hospital:


He needed to be active straight away to help the hip heal, but at the same time, needed to be bedridden to help the knee heal.. the compromise was doggy hydrotherapy!


It took a while, but eventually he was walking into the pool of his own accord and getting the laps done with no fuss. Such a good boy :) He's recovered from that nicely now and at this stage it looks like he wont need the other hip done yet.

He must be one of the most expensive Berners ever, but he's worth every cent :)


And just to keep it even, here's a pretty one of Belle:


So thats all thats been happening around here.
I'll try and make it back in here next week for a post-race update!!

Griswolds European Vacation 2007 :)

Click on each collection of photos to make them bigger :) Its easier to read the writing ;)





Bangkok was.. interesting. We spent 2 nights here on our way to Germany to break up the flight. The architecture is amazing, I loved all the statues and gardens and temples. We had a traditional Thai massage as well which was different and at times pretty painful!!
It was impossible to walk down the street without someone trying to rip us off somehow... whether it be asking us for a taxi ride, or telling us the temple we were on our way to visit was shut and trying to show us something else, or getting private boat tours of the river, it seemed that there was always someone trying to scam us.

We didn't bother bartering because for us, it was so cheap anyway when we converted things to Aussie dollars.. we just didn't see the point of haggling over a couple of dollars. All in all it certainly was an experience!! I don't think I will be in a hurry to get back to Bangkok, but I wouldn't mind going back for some scuba diving off the coast :)




The first of 2 visits to Munich. The first day we wandered the streets and checked out the sites in the morning...



...and then we made our way to the fairground. And we were not expecting to see the amount of people we saw! It was such a busy day. We lined up outside a tent for around 30 minutes, but the doors were all shut and no-one was allowed in because it was too crowded. Unfortunately, all the tents were the same. We wandered through the beer gardens.. well, we barged our way through the constant walls of people and found a table of fun pommy guys on a bucks / stags weekend. They were great and let us sit down and have a beer with them and we had heaps of laughs! Also a few too many beers and not enough food.. we did go on the giant yellow slides later in the night and took lots of blurry photos! hahha



The second day we got up early and lined up outside a tent at 8:30am, even though they don't open until 9. We got in, got a seat, got some beers, ate a chicken and some sausages, danced on the tables, spilt some beer, and headed outside after lunch. Compared to yesterday, it was empty. So we were able to wander into whatever tent we chose! We had so much fun on both days.. its a shame it is so far away from us, or I'm sure we would be going back every year :) The great thing about the German beer is that no matter how much we drank, we never woke up with headaches!!



Berlin... there was SO much to see here and we managed to JUST fit in all we wanted to see in the 5 days we were there!



We walked along the Berlin wall, saw the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint charlie, experienced the Reunification Day Celebrations, went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp (a very disturbing place), wandered around at night taking pics of the lights, and of course went to the Berlin Zoo!



It was at this point that I was so glad I took the DSLR along with me. We actually had 2 cameras with us... Travis was usually in charge of the point and shoot :) I think I took most of my photos at the zoo... and almost needed to buy a new memory card because of it! LOL



we were very glad to get to Cologne because there were only two things we wanted to see in the 2 days we were there: The Gothic cathedral (Dom) and the Chocolate Museum!! We could go at a nice, slow, relaxing place for a change :) mmm.. I could have watched the chocolate production lines all day.. they looked so tasty!



It worked out that the Cologne marathon was also on that weekend so we hung around and watched the wheelchair racers, rollerbladers and runners all do their thing. It was great to see so many people on the sidelines cheering and supporting everyone. It was a huge event!

The highlight of this weekend was the fact that the hostel we stayed in offered free packets of pasta. So we had to buy a sauce and cheese for a couple of dollars and cook it ourselves. So we had a nice home cooked meal for a change. It left us more money to spend at the Becks happy hour where all bottles of Becks Beer were only 1.50 euros! LOL



Again, another 2 night stay, and really only one or two things we wanted to see: The Mannekin Pis, and the girl version! LOL Although we missed out on seeing the girl statue cos we couldn't find her, even though we had the address and directions... weird.



I found it so funny that one minute we were walking through a modern city, and with one turn of a corner, we were in the old town with the 15th Century building and cobble stone roads.

We had a really hard time finding the hostel here!! The signs were not as obvious, and roads just seemed to change names from one side of the street to the other. We had the address, we were looking at the map, we had directions but they were of no use. We pretty much just walked in one direction and them stumbled upon it. The room was in the loft so we kept bashing our heads on the sloping ceiling. It was a super funky room though, I loved it!! The guy that was always on reception had no personality, and no people skills and was just downright rude though. Like Bangkok, it's not somewhere I will be keen on going back to. We were getting a bit bored by the end of the 2nd day. We did enjoy the super strong beers over here though ;)


Like Berlin, there was so much to see in Paris and only five days to do it in! Fortunately we found the hotel very easily and we took off straight away to knock over the Basilica of the sacred Heart, the Eiffel tower, Arc De Triumph and the Champs Elysee's.



The first thing we noticed was how expensive everything was!! We generally tried to eat away from the tourist areas as things were more reasonable. Still expensive for what it was when we converted it to Aussie Dollars, but not too bad.

We met up with July, who was in Australia last year on work experience and worked with Travis. So it was great to have a real French person to help us out with ordering and talking to people!! hahaha Especially when we went to a pub to see the England v France semi final of the Rugby. We painted French flags on our faces so people didn't think we were going for England :) That was one crazy night!! I saw someone with a platter of salami and cheeses, so we ordered one for ourselves.. and when it came out, we found out it cost 20 euros!! LOL It was delicious though ;)

After the game, we went outside and there was a marching band of sorts playing in the streets and everyone was singing and dancing in the streets, even though France actually LOST the game! LOL

Our French classes came in handy and we were able to have very very limited conversations in French. Which was great, everyone we spoke to was really nice and we didn't have any problems with rudeness that you always seem to hear about.



This was what I was looking forward to the most!!! The people running the B&B we stayed at were sooo nice and went way above and beyond. They told us to go up to the Jungfrau the next day after we got there while the weather was great. It was spectacular!!!



It was also very very cold.... especially outside on the viewing platforms with the icy wind whipping through us!! But with this view, I barely noticed it. Neither of us packed gloves, and when we were outside towards the end of the day, my fingers were so cold that they got really really painful. I was barely able to even flick the on / off switch on my camera, and it took over 30 minutes for the pain to go away once I was out of the cold.



We also went para gliding, did some shopping, hired a bike to cycle around the lake and used the kitchen to cook our own meals. We would eat in, then go out for a few drinks and dessert :) Out of all the places we have been to, this is the only one that I can actually picture myself living in :) I loved it!!!



We almost didn't get to Lyon on time because of the train strikes in France.. we got as far as Geneva and the strike was to last until midnight, so we were advised to look for accommodation for the night. After a chance encounter with a lovely lady named Gwen, we hired a car and split the cost. She was originally from Lyon so she drove us there and dropped us off at our hotel.



We were here for 2 nights and all we had planned was to meet Travis' German pen pal that he started writing to when they were only 10 / 11 years old! She was so nice, she showed us around the city, cooked us dinner, took us out for drinks and did the booking for our overnight train to Munich for us :)

I think we were both a bit over taking photos at this point! LOL We just wanted to relax and chill out as we were heading towards the end of the trip anyway. I was just hanging out for a plate of vegetables because I was so sick of eating in restaurants..

Anyway on the Sunday afternoon, we caught a train back to Paris and had to hang around there for a few hours before catching an overnight train back to Munich for the last 2 nights of the trip. We had booked first class sleeper beds, but it seemed like thye were all taken, as we had 2nd class bed. However, we were sharing a room with only one other couple, instead of 2 other couples like the people in 2nd class. And it worked out well that they were nice and from New Zealand, so we could actually talk to them :) The trip went so quick.. one minute it was 12am and we were going to bed, the next, we wake up at 9am just about to pull into Munich station!



We dumped our luggage in the lockers at the train station and jumped on a train to go to Fussen to see King Ludwig's castles.



As the train was heading up the mountain, we could see tiny patches of snow. By the time we got to Fussen, the snow was really thick and it was actually snowing! The snow was the nice fluffy, powdery stuff so we were throwing it at each other left right and centre! Travis threw a couple that landed smack bang in the middle of my face... We only went into the white castle (the one that inspired the Walt Disney castle in the logo) and then came back down. It was great to be back somewhere where the food is cheap and the portions are HUGE!!!

Once back in Munich, the weather was freezing. I'd say it was around 5 degrees throughout the day, certainly not much more. It was also raining and miserable so we didn't do much at all apart from shopping and eating on our 2nd day. We bought ourselves a cuckoo clock, but it is getting shipped over to us, so we should have that in about 2 or 3 weeks :)

The 3rd day was spent in a museum. It was really interesting and very hands on, which meant that I didn't get bored :) It was also 6 stories high and we had to pull the pin on it when it was after 3pm and we were in dsperate need of lunch.

Our flight home was at 10:45pm, so it was a long day. We jumped on the plane, slept, landed in Bangkok at 1pm Bagnkok time and did some duty free shoping. We had 5 hours between flights, and finally landed home in Sydney at 6:30am.

The dogs really missed us and Onlsow has been following us around and making sure we are always in sight. I am so glad to have a cupboard full of clean clothes again, and likewise to having a plate full of vegetables for dinner!! LOL

Eclipse

There was a lunar eclipse last night, here are some pics early on when it was just getting cast in shadow:


And then later on when it was all...well... eclipsed :)


I grabbed my MP3 player, a chair, a broomstick (which was my make shift monopod for the camera seeing as I haven't gone and gotten a tripod yet LOL) and my camera.. and the dogs from time to time.

I went out originally in bare feet, long pants and a long sleeved top. I came back inside to get socks because things were biting my feet and my dressing gown. Travis kept popping out from time to time, first he came out with a tea, then a tasty hot chocolate. Then around 8:30 he came out with a scarf and a beanie. Next he came back with one of his big jackets. Then he came back with some shoes. What a great husband! I looked like a bag lady by the time I came inside but at least I was warm!

So where was i?

The weeks are flying by SOOO quickly!!! The weather is warming up and I feel like I have been so busy, but I don't really have a whole lot to update the blog with... I have been out and about taking heaps of photos whenever I can. I was originally going to go and take some pics of a horse thing on the weekend.. showjumping or dressage or something... but I kinda forgot about it and organised catching up with a friend LOL But it worked out well, because it was cancelled due to the horse flu which is going around.

Anyway Lauren tagged me about a billion years ago and im now finally going to do it LOL

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend: I'd have to say Travis
C - Cake or Pie: Pie
D - Drink of Choice: alcoholic - vodka; non alcoholic - Water
E - Essential Item: A hair elastic :)
F - Favorite Color: Blue
G - Gummi Bears or Worms: Starburst Rattlensakes :) Which I guess are worms
H - Hometown: Sydney, Aus. well, not IN Sydney itself, but close enough.
I – Indulgence(s): Bubble Baths. I don't have them very often anymore since the water restrictions came into place!
J - January or July: January... Its my birthday, It's warm and there are a few public holidays thrown in the mix :)
K - Kids: 2 Very hairy ones with 8 legs between them.. Belle and Onslow ROTFL
L - Life is incomplete without: Travis, the dogs and My Family
M - Marriage Date: October 23, 2004
N - Number of Siblings: 2 sisters
O - Oranges or Apples: Apples in terms of whole fruits, oranges if we are talking about juice :)
P - Phobias/Fears: Having the EHD's crash and I loose all my pics and scrap-stash!
Q - Favorite Quote: Too many and my brain isn't functioning this early on a MOnday morning.
R - Reason to smile: Heaps :) A great husband, a loving and funny family, 2 beautiful dogs, a job I love, friends, Spring is on the way, We are heading overseas soon, I went shopping on the weekend.. LOL
S - Season: It's a tie between Spring and Autumn. I love the colours in both seasons.
T- Tag Three: Whoever wants to
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I don't brush my hair. LOL Unless i'm blow drying to go out, then I use a brush. Otherwise I just use my fingers to smooth it out or put it up in a pony tail :) I like messy hair!
V - Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Carnivore :)
W - Worst Habit: A toss up between forgetting things and getting too distracted.. which I guess are kind of the same thing seeing as I start one thing, get distracted and never go back to finish off the original task.
X - X-rays or Ultrasounds: Well I did love the xrays i had at the dentist as a kid with the big machine that circled around my head!
Y - Your Favorite Foods: Pasta with lots of cheese and garlic; custard; chickpeasZ- Zodiac: Capricorn

Ok time for a cup of coffee.. im so tired this morning and we have an hour long presentation in 23 minutes. ugh Im basically falling asleep now as it is! LOL

busy bee

Well, lots has been happening! First off, I got my 2nd tattoo on the weekend :)



and can i just say the lower back is much worse than the upper back! LOL Worth it though :)

We went scuba diving last weekend as well, the first time since.. I cant even remember.. probably around January / February. Anyway that was great! Got to see some of the larger cuttlefish. There are always small ones, but not usually the big ones. We also saw seahorses! I LOVE seeing the seahorses. And one had a huge tummy full of eggs too :) Very cute.

AND my most exciting bit of news.... I have (kinda) got a d-SLR!!! I say kinda cos we haven't actually paid for it yet ;) One of Travis' work colleagues was selling his 11 month old Canon 350D, complete with 2 lenses, polariser, UV filter, nifty backpack, remote control, battery grip and spare battery and other bits and pieces. So he bought it in for me to play with and if I like it, we pay him :) I took the day off work today and went shooting ;) Travis told me now that I have my nifty camera I needed a Flickr account.. no idea why, but I did it anyway! hahahaha I am very proud to say that all of these were shot in RAW on the M for manual mode :) yay me!
Now I hope this flickr badge thing works...

www.flickr.com More of lisarosey's photos

And thats it! I might go relax... I did so much walking today, and even took myself on a mini bushwalk to get the pic of the log and the rocks.. and there were a stack of steps to climb to get back up as well :)

......{insert title here}.....

I have a headache that just wont go away! No matter what I take, it will go for about 10 minutes and then come back.

Anyway... When I was a kid I remember asking mum how come birds can stand on the electrical wires and not get fried. She told me it was because the birds have "special rubber feet" and they aren't affected by the electricity.

Fast forward 26 years to just yesterday... I was driving to work and there was a discussion on the radio about how you can hold on to one electrical wire and not have anything happen, but as soon as you touch a 2nd wire, your body acts as a conductor and all the electricity goes through and you get electrocuted.

I turn to Trav who was in the car with me and ask if its true, to which he said yep. hmm... then I told him the story of the birds with rubber feet and he could not believe that at age 26 I still believed that story!!! LOL I'm so disappointed that it's not true!

So, when we have kids they better watch out, I'll be spinning them the funniest stories when they ask me questions! ROTFL

WELL, not much has been happening around my little corner... Just plodding along. I'm a bit under the weather today but I had to come into work as the boss is at a training course, the Senior health inspector is off for the school holidays and that just leaves me to hold the fort and deal with all the complaints and sewer problems!!
ugh I dropped my camera in a big puddle of sewerage yesterday :( Fortunately it was the work camera.... but still.. YUCK! I smothered it in alcohol when I got back to work! hahaha

Quick dog update: Onlsow has lost a grand total of 10kg!!!! He WAS 57.5kg when we went in April to get his shots, and now just 3 months later he is sitting on 47.5 :) The goal is 45 so he's almost there :) I was looking at photos of him from April and OMG he looked MASSIVE!! LOL like a big fat blob-a-tron!

ANyway I can't be bothered typing anymore. Who wants to see some pretty layouts?





Check out the layout credits in my gallery

Well, thats all from me for the time being! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Done!

ahh isn't that pretty? The photo in the header was taken by me at Wanaka in NZ :) Such a beautiful place, I just love it.

Anyway just sitting here relaxing after a fairly busy weekend! We had to wait forever at the vet, but the good news is he doesn't think the lump is malignant but just to keep an eye on it. so thats good. And he didn't charge us either, which was nice. We must be valued customers with the amount of money we spend at that vet! LOL

So as soon as we came back, I ate lunch, got dressed and headed out to catch up with a couple of friends from high school who I hadn't seen in aaages! It was so good to finally catch up and amazing how even after all these years it still felt exactly the same, we really haven't changed much at all :) So we will have to do that sometime again very soon! - Sorry Kate, I forgot to bring the camera! I'll remember next time ;)

By the time I came back from there, I ate dinner that Travis had cooked while I was out, then sat on the lounge with some wine and Trav made scones :)

Today (sunday) we got up early, went to the shops to buy our fruit and veg for the week, I came home an cleaned up the mess from the late-night scone making, cooked our lunches for the week, hung the washing out, cooked a pasta sauce for our late lunch / early dinner, cleaned the kitchen again, sorted washing out, went out the back with the skipping rope and jumped for a good 45 minutes, cleaned the bathroom and shower, had a shower, cooked some home-made gnocchi, ate it, cleaned up the kitchen for the 3rd time today and packed away my clean washing and now im tired! LOL

What a boring story! hahhaha
And with that, im going :)

Thank God it's Friday!!!

The week has flown by but bring on the weekend!!! I'm so over work and am counting the days until we head off to Europe.

Tonight we are going out with some friends to Una's at Darlinghurst mmmmm yum!!! I LOVE this place :) The first few times we went there on a Saturday, but last time we went on a friday night and for $15 we got the "special" which was 2 HUGE schnitzels and a beer. The schnitzels seriously hang off the edges of the plates and are sooooo nice.

Anyway then tomorrow morning we are running to the vet again. This time for Belle. She has had a small lump on her elbow for about a year and over the last couple of months it's gotten noticeably bigger, so we booked her in for a checkup, but I guess they will want us to bring her back on another day to cut it out and see what it is. Is it just me, or is there always some kind of drama with our dogs?! LOL

Saturday afternoon I am catching up with some old school friends who I haven't seen in years!! It should be great!!!!

Sunday nothing much on the plans at this stage... maybe go for a drive somewhere. Or maybe just stay home and be boring LOL depends on the weather and how we feel.

We started watching the new James Bond movie last night.. I was exhausted so I fell asleep half way through :) as usual!! LOL So I have to finish that at some point over the weekend.

I'm still tired because the dogs went NUTS in the middle of the night... Belle was jumping at the window at the front and barking, Onlsow was running around doing the most viscious growls I have ever heard him do! I rolled over trying to ignore but Belle decided we had to get up so came bounding onto the bed barking and jumping on us. Nothing was there though. It was probably a cat. But I love having them inside at night for that reason. If anyone is hanging around they just carry on and on. And because they are such big dogs they have very loud, deep barks and sound so much tougher than what they actually are! hahaha

Observations...

Ok so the most random things enter my mind and I generally start talking without thinking.

Take the other night, for instance.
I was washing up and Travis was cooking pasta.
He opened the packet and pulled out a long spagetti (raw) and sticks one end in my mouth.

I very very carefully eat my way through it, which was pretty tricky without having any hands to hold the rest of the pasta in place while biting bits off the end.

Once i'm done at start to marvel at the way the mouth is set up. "wow isnt it amazing how my teeth, tongue and lips all work together to eat the spaghetti".

Travis looks at me like im crazy.

I continue... "well, my tongue pulls the pasta into my mouth, my teeth snap a part of it off, and my lips keep the rest in place until the tongue can pull it back in! Amazing!

Travis isn't impressed and declared he could do the same thing without lips.

So he stands next to me, holds his lips apart (looking like an ape at this point) and gets me to put another spaghetti in his mouth. As soon as he took a bite, the rest fell into my washing up water.

At which point I stick a big soapy finger in face and yell "AHHHH-HAAAAAA!!! SUCKED IN!!" and then go back to the washing up.

I seriously don't think we are very normal ROTFL

finally!

I have been meaning to fix up this blog forever!! I hated how narrow the main bit was. Anyway now all I need is a new blog header with some pretty blues to complete the look :) Watch it take me another 6 months to get that done :p

2 weeks...

...worth of updates! LOL

Tattoos - well they healed nicely and im hanging out for warmer weather so I can show mine off! LOL I went and booked my 2nd one in yesterday, which will be on the 28th July. I was so impressed with Kaylene that im more than happy to wait 3 weeks for her to do my 2nd one :) This will be a cute little cat on my lower back with some pretty swirls either side :) I like girly and I like different LOL

What else... we had a great night up at Katoomba a couple of weeks ago as well! We went up to Linda and Scotts place, where they lit the outside fire thingo and we ate, drank, laughed, toasted marshmallows and basically carried on like clowns till the early hours of the morning.




So it was sooo cold and there was frost at like 8pm or maybe even earlier! Leanne hopped on the trampoline and her feet stuck to it! LOL I had a go on the swings until Linda pushed me off, We drank a few cowboy shots, someone scoured the streets for a real estate sign and we went sliding down the frosty hill!! LOL Later in the night after most people had gone home, travis had a turn at trying to "surf" on it, slipped and fell and didnt get up. We laughed, I yelled "Are you alright?" There was no answer, and no movement...I asked again, there was a lsight moan and we all just ignored him and enjoyed the fire. Poor thing!!! He could have been really hurt or knocked unconscious and we (Me, Linda, Scott and one of Scotts mates) just sat there laughing at him!! ROTFL Fortunatley there was nothing wrong with him and he was just laying there laughing anyway. ahhh fun times!!!!

The oven got fixed on Friday! Not that we really use it much.. i do 90% of my cooking on the stove.. I pretty much only use the oven on weekends to make pumpkin scones or muffins to put in the freezer for snacks at work..
I did some home made gnocchi again yesterday :) yum I could eat it all day and its not that hard to make. I did a delicious Pumpkin soup as well on Saturday :)

We went to the Alliance Francaise (sp?) in the City on saturday with our french teacher and 2 other people from our class. LOL I got to order my food in French.. no idea what she said to me after that though! hahaha. Travis thought he was brilliant when he went and asked (in French) where the toilet was .. and then expected the answer in English, and when it came in French he had to think quick to try and understand :) Anyway I ended up buying up a French cook book! One page has the recipie in French, the facing page has it in English. So many tasty recipies.. Travis has earmarked about 10 ginormous meals for me to cook him. ha! yeah right....

So the dogs.. well Onlsow is recovering nicely from his operation. I cant believe its been like 9 weeks already! Anyway he is climbing on the lounge again.. actually he's a bandit for that lounge these days! He will park his ginat body there around 8:30pm / 9:00pm and he will still be in the exact same position when we wake up at 5:30am! I do find that he rarely jumps anymore though.. im not sure if its because his knee is still a bit sore, or if he remembers hurting it from jumping last time and he's scared.. either way its nice to come home to only one jumpy dog instead of 2 jumpy dogs! LOL

And on the weight loss issue, he has gone down from 57kg to 48kg!!!! He still looks like a fat barrell though.. Belle is now 40kg so maybe thats why he still looks fat.

Anyway scrappy stuff.. here are some recent layouts :) I have been creating some of my favourite layouts lately, mostly with stuff from Christy Lyle which hasn't been released, so I can't show it off!!!! Anyway here are some other layouts that I CAN show off ;) Follow the link to my gallery on the left if you wanna know where anything came from.




hmm well I think this is pretty long now and Ic ant think of anything else that needs saying, so I'm heading off!!!! :)