Summer is not a personal experience

Today I would like to share with you my favourite quote from Garrison Keillor, American humorist and fabulous radio entertainer:

"Winter is not a personal experience; everyone else is as cold as you are; so don't complain about it too much... It could be worse." (from Wobegon Boy).

Summer is obviously the closest weather inconvience you can have in Brisbane, given the rest of the year it's pretty pleasant. You know it's summer in Brisbane when:

1. There is storm warnings on the TV every evening for places you have never heard of
2. The thunder is so loud it makes the windows rattle
3. It rains EVERY DAY (yeah!)
4. You say 'Bugger that oscillating, point that fan directly at me'
5. It's TOO HOT at 9am and you have only been out of bed for 15 minutes
6. Icecream becomes a valid main meal choice
7. You want to marry the man who invented air conditioning

So, in the spirit of Mr Keillor, I will paraphase:

"Summer is not a personal experience; everyone else is as hot and sweaty and cranky as you are; so don't complain about it too much... It could be worse."

Yeah, I COULD live in Cairns (Hi in-laws!) I would like to promise this will be my last post about the heat, but it's still only November - and we have 3 fun months still to go!

Handyman's new hat

Today we went on a picnic with DJ Bebe and HandyMan. Birthday and Xmas presents were exchanged, swims were taken and much jello was consumed. Lessons learnt:

1. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH jello.
2. If you make Freddo frog head jello, then leave it for 2 weeks, the chocolate starts to dissolve (ick) and go the same colour as the surrounding jello. Nasty.

New phrase for our lexicon: "Easy on the heads, please"

You can click here to see more picnic shots.

Name that frog

I got a VERY nice present in the mail from DJ Bebe yesterday, an amigurumi (japanese for crocheted toy) froggie. As you can see, he's a security frog:

but off hours, likes to hang with his buddies from Japan and Thailand.
I was leaning towards Farcito as a name (as Google tells me this is Italian for stuffed), however, I am not sure that this a very cool name for a surfing frog (as DJ Bebe advised he is also a surfer).

Any suggestions?

I don't think you're ready for this jelly

All my life I have dreamed of making my very own rainbow jello mould (ok, not all my life, but probably 6 months when I found a picture of a jello mould with Google Images while looking for a picture of penguins). And now, thanks to Handy Man's (who shares my love of moulded jello) birthday, I have made him a birthday jello mould which we will eat with custard on a picnic in a week or two's time (it was meant to be this weekend, but circumstances beyond our control have postponed it, and Husband-person assures me jello won't go bad, so no comments about being over-organised, thanks very much).

Introducing: Serial-killer rainbow birthday jelly!

So named for the leetle teeny freddo heads that are in it (yes, it's a bit fuzzy but you get the idea):

You looking forward to that picnic NOW, Dj bebe?

Things that DO NOT go together

If you put onions and nectarines in the same bag, the smell is unbelievably worse than you could anticipate. Who would have thought?

Hot, like a sauna on fire

I know I asked to move back to Brisbane but honestly I had not really thought about having to go to work once I was back here. It was unbelievably hot this morning and HUMID, oh my god. I had a minor crisis in what to wear to work today and after the third change of clothes I was sweating so much I had to put on the a/c in the bedroom so I could get dressed in relative comfort and not sweat right through what I put on. This would all be fine if I was hanging around the house in singlets and shorts, but skirts, leather shoes and panty hose (yes I know pantyhose are optional, but I can't seem to NOT wear them after all those years in Melbourne, I feel like I am going to work naked, and I haven't shaved my legs in three weeks) are not at all fun in this heat. I need some kind of job that involves no shoes, afternoon naps and lots of iceblocks! Do you think swimming pools need IT professionals?

Kisses and Hugs to Husband-person who bought me a present yesterday BECAUSE HE COULD. And rather than something that dies like flowers, he got me this which I have been longing for and will last a heck of a lot longer! Despite the slightly non-exciting Natalie Imbruglia version, this cd confirms Pineapple Head is one of my favourite songs of all time.

Ham

Husband-person purchased the first big bit of ham (section, chunk, portion???, what do you call random large pieces of ham) of the Xmas period today. And I found out, thanks to my teensy-weensy gluten free bread, that I could cut a piece of ham the EXACT shape of my sandwich. Kiss my ass, jigsaw chicken!

Death by a thousand spreadsheets

Starting to go slightly loopy at work. My main task for the last nine weeks (!!) has been analysing a big Word document, extracting new programming requirements, and then typing these up in a spreadsheet. I then cross check this with another list, check the estimates, and move onto the next Word document. Nine weeks, people! The best part about all this is the documents I did the original analysis from have ALL CHANGED. So I get to read these fabulous 200 pages suckers again and again and again, then type up brand new versions of my spreadsheet list etc etc etc. Kill me now.

Summer is open for business

Summer is offficially here - I took the first swim of the season this evening after work. Water was a little chilly, and perhaps a few to many floaties in the water (just think about the chlorine, Sponky) but overall, very nice to do some exercise that stretches out my body and makes it feel good, rather than the evil gym that just makes my body feel all cranky and twisted and horrible!

Also cheers to HandyMan and DJ Bebe for helping us out with all that pavlova on the weekend. We couldn't have done it without you!