Stated a new deck in our bak yard to replace the one ripped out with the old in-ground jacuzzi. We bought a new portable 6 man tub a few weeks ago (thx credit card!) but it's sitting on a frame which in turn is on dirt. Made a deck for the area next to the jacuzzi. It's a little rickety but works fine. Starting on the frame for the rest tomorrow. A trip to Home Depot is on the cards in the morning for some 4 x 4's and joists to fix em together, then Bobs yer uncle!

Registered on facebook the other day. It's amazing how easy it makes finding old friends. Found all the usual suspects!

 

Hi Catherine!

Went to "Fishstock 2007" in Ontario Canada last week. It was a party for a whole bunch of Sunlit Games friends some of whom I have known for 4 years. Great to finally meet Rosie, Feesh, Dick, John, , Jonny, Flite, Greg, Ryan, Rob, Bernt, Suk!, Loach, The Holidays and their aimbot, Jackie, Steve-o, Chubbz et al. Pure friensdhip from these wondeful people!

My brother Steve rented a Lotus Elise a few days ago, just for fun. He came up for lunch and we went out for a spin on the winding roads of Rancho Santa Fe. This is a pure racing car with very little suspension movement. Every bump is a kick in your arse, but it handles just superbly. I couldn't believe how quickly this thing could be pushed. Of course being a Lotus, the interior is about as basic as can be. All very tinny and plasticy. Definately not worth the price tag but fun nonetheless.

Things are moving along at the mall. Will be switching my business over to a large kiosk on 1st June all being well. Gonna keep the original location and sell heavily discounted silver and steel jewelry (rings, eaerrings, necklaces etc). it's gonna be a lot of work at the end of the month, but the single thing I am seriously worried about is hiring new employees. Young people these days have such a terrible work ethic UGH!.

Congrats to my friend Mike Lok on completing the Flora London Marathon. Bloody good job mate!

Check out Mike's blog with (promised) video of the event at http://mikelok.spaces.live.com/

Mikes marathon stats:

 

 

I am totally knackered after yesterdays yard work. My legs and glute's (arse) are as sore as hell.

Took Alex to a playgroup with some of the kids she will be in Kindergarten with in August. Met some parents of the other kids. Was a nice morning. I think her transition from Pre K to Kindergarten will be easy because on day 1 she will know most of the kids pretty well. Wish it had been like that when I was a kid. First day at a new school was always terrifying! The American systems for this stuff are perfect.

Major project the last 3 weeks:

 

When we bought the house 18 months ago, the front lawn was an awful mess. It seemed that whatever ther weather/time of year, there was brown/yellow/green/more brown patches everywhere. Apparently there were 4 different kinds of grass growing in the lot, a 500 sq ft area. anyhow it looked awful and a month ago we finally had a letter from the homeowners association. To be honest if I were a neighbor I'd be pretty pissed looking at it every day. We've been so busy with other projects up to now that it took something like this to force us into action.

Our gardener quoted us 1300 big ones to do it. I'm like "**** that, lets do it ourselves". We did a whole lot of research, rented a heavy roto-tiller, fixed the sprinklers, fertilized, and have gradually been grading the area over the last 3 weeks. Finally we ordered the sod (why do they call it that?) "Marathon II".....it was delivered early this morning and I started to lay it down after taking Alex to school. An hour or so later....

Good Job Mr. and Mrs. Wood!

All told about $400.00 spent on the sod and equipment rental.

Next is the Wooden floor in the hallway, followed by AC, then a complete overhaul to the Spa out back.

 

Took Alex to the San Diego Wild Animal Park today. Was a nice day out, overcast but pleasantly warm....Here is the evidence:

Not had time to add to the blog in the last week or 2. Wayy too busy with life (work, DOD, work etc etc ).

Pineapple has sprung roots (how exciting!)

No word from the Mall (wankers).

I am jealous of Mike's gardening skills..need to do something about it.

Looking forward to Fishstock, Ontario in July . I finally will get the opportunity to call Feesh a jerk in person. I think it'll be a classic weekend.

All the teams were testing in Bahrain this week. It's hard to tell who is the real pace-setter. BMW, McLaren and Ferrari have all been fastest at some point or another. For sure Honda, Renault and especially Red Bull look weak.

Yesterday MCLaren was comfortably fastest, Alonso a tenth up on Hamilton.

It's been a stressful week at work. A few weeks ago the mall management came up with their annual bullshit. This year it's a company-wide "corporate directive" (i.e some wanker trying to justify their job). I'm not sure what it's tryig to achieve as the jargon on the memo sent out doesn't really mean anything. What it boils down to for me is trashing a whole lot of displays which hold a LOT of jewelry, and trying to do the impossible which is relocate them without compromising the rest of the display. My answer to them was to relocate the entire business onto a larger kiosk. They were quite receptive to the idea, but I will find out next week if it is to go ahead (it'll cost $$$ of course). Hopefully it'll work out, otherwise I'll be getting a 30-day eviction notice, this after being a great tenant for the last 6 years; always paying rent on time and running a professional business. No loyalty in this business.

I failed to mention my attempt to cultivate a pineapple plant a few days ago. While we were in Hawaii we paid a visit to the Dole pineapple plantation. There we had a demonstration of how to use your pineapple to make a plant which nakes one fruit per year. HOORAY!

So my pineapple stork is at home sitting in water trying to grow roots so that I can pot it properly.

Fun and games, I am at work all day today. It is a nice day for it...mid 70's plenty of people around. I'm seeing a lot of tourists, and not a whole lot of them have any manners. Whats wrong with saying "please" when asking to see something eh? Wankers all of them...

I'm really excited about the new F1 season, more so than any time in the last 15 years! At last Michael has retired and a serious mix up of drivers/teams has taken place. Kimi in a Ferrari, Alonso in at Mclaren with rookie Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen formerly test driver at Renault alongside Fizzy. Pre-season testing has given nothing away other than the fact that Mclaren and Ferrari are level pegging and the rest are there or thereabouts. I'd love to see Mclaren dominate, hopefully with Hamilton getting regular wins. It would be fantastis for the sport, thats for sure.

Race one prediction? Gimme 3 weeks to think about it.

This is Monty, our congo african grey. We've had him for a little over a year now (he was hatched in Sept 2005). His vocabulary is expanding week by week. He'll say "I'm Monty!", "Bad bad bird!", "I'm a bird!", "yeah I know", "hello mate!", "wanker wanker wanker", "Meoooow"....thats all I can think of right now...

 

We may have to take him to the vet. He seems to have caught the cough we all had in the last month..strange how he sounds like a human coughing...............

Bollocks, why does it show the weather in Seattle? All it ever does is rain there!

Gotta work at 3.30 so gettig a whole bunch of errands out of the way. We'll go down to the park at the beach in a bit (maybe I'll take a few pictures), then grab a bite for lunch....trying to get Alex out of the hamburger mould as last week I had food poisoning due, I think to a bad Wendy's burger..I was sick for 3 days. We'll do Subway or something.

I'm sure I'll have lots to do at work, after having 3 days off.

V-day was a good one! Anastasia bought me all my favorite chocolate: Flake, Twirl, Maltesers...and a big bag of twiglets mmmmmmmm

I left her gifts in her car (she leaves for work way before I wake up) flowers and a pink i-pod shuffle.

Took Alex to school (they had a V-day party too) then off to the barn. Rode both Carpe and Tyler, neither of which were particularly good. Tyler has come off a long lay-up so thats not surprising really. Back to school at 12.30 to pick up the little muggle.

Had a brief nap in the afternoon...nice to have a couple of days off!

Cal-O finals were tonight so I watched the EGN stream while listening to the Sunlit Games guys in Ventrillo. They won the first half but were rolled in the 2nd. Good season tho peeps!

Dinner was Indian take out. Our favorite Chicken tikka marsala, Vegetable biryani, samosa's and good naan. Yummmy!

Well here it is, my first blog entry. I am at work, 1 1/2 hours until I go home, horrible cold, hungry, tired. Looking forward to having a nice meal and chilling out in my own home.