Puppies

Well, we know now. There ARE puppies. I was quite convinced there would be none, but there could be as many as 5 or 6. Personally I will be happy with any. So, Cup Day is D-day. Only 5 weeks for me to get really worried and control freaky. (I know I said to a friend recently I would never do this, but I'm too excited. Here are the ultrasound photos)

Naughty friend

I have a naught friend, (who has just had a baby) who did the most wonderful and unexpected thing the other day. I had had a fairly crapola had, had just had a bit of a run in with my mother, was really tired and crapped off when I realised that Neil had bought some mail in earlier in the day, some of which was for me. I opened the parcel and discovered a beautiful linen Scottie tea towel. Thankful the person in question had mentioned something was on the way for me in the email to I was able to ring immediately and thank them profusely, not only for the tea towel, but for absolutely improving my whole day!
A few days later, a second parcel arrived with a totally adorable Scottie hair clip, which I have decided is a better as brooch. Here it is:(with my Scottie t-shirt as a cameo in the background)

Disappointment

Neil recently came into some money. He has decided it would be appropriate to use some of this money to acquire a steam traction engine. So over the last few months, much research has been done, many scoping studies have been undertaken, traction engines have been inspected and conversations with dodge old steam men have taken place. Yesterday a traction engine went up for auction in Tasmania. This ended up being sold for $180,000. This is well over his/budget. He is now quite sad. Here is a picture we made many years ago, hopefully it will cheer him up.

Dogs Shows

So, it was a week of dog shows last week. There was the already mentioned Royal Melbourne Show (don't think of the ugly people). Then that weekend, there was was the Scottish Terrier Club of Victoria Champ and Open Shows. The secretary decided it would be a good idea to nominate someone who wasn't showing to get photos of the show, and particularly the winning dogs with their ribbons. Neil was duly nominated. Because of the potential puppies, I wasn't showing either, so we had two cameras and clicked away for the day. We ended up taking 900 photos between the two of us. It took me ages to go through them all. We picked about 50 per show to put on the web site (or at least the Scottie Flickr thing I have set up.)

work stuff

We have moved desks. This is something that just 'happens' every now and again when you work for government. There is usually no real reason for it, and the ones they come up with as reasons, are normally some crap arsed bullshit about grouping people more logically. Usually the real reason is someone important decides they need a window or what ever. Any way, this one has worked out quite well for me. I have managed to get rid of a whole lot of files, cleaned out my (mostly off) food collection and ended up with a window seat. I must be going up in the world! So now I have a lovely view of the Dandenongs out my window. I can be a bit glarey in the mornings, but who cares, I'm hardly every at work in the mornings away way ;)
Anyway, on to the rest of the rant about moving chairs and the govenment. It's so crap, I mean how much money do they waste every time they do this? I mean, we have moved from one end of the floor to the other, so in theory, as we all (~15 people) have a new fax machine near us, we are supposed to all get new business cards (we won't cos no one really cares about fax machines anyway, but that's not the point!) What a complete waste of money! Then there is the box/crate hire cost, the moving men, the unporductive time of staff while we pack, unpack and let the movers do their thing. Not to mention it took me a WEEK to get a printer issue sorted with IT!
A friend of mine in the same organisation (if I can call my workplace an organisation, even though it has NEVER demonstrated any organisation to me! (HUMPH so much for conspiracy theorists!)) might be about to face a similar but even stupider situation. Cos some very important big wig (aka dickhead 1) doesn't like some other boss (aka dickhead 2) in the building, he has decided the best way to deal with it is to move the whole of dickhead 2's group (~10-12 people) to Box Hill! To add insult to injury, it's not like Boxx Hill has heaps of space either, and to fit all the staff in, they would be placed all over the building on multiple floors. Obviously I am also a complete dickhead, as I am unable to see that this is going to make this group work much more effectively!
and breath

Adventures in puppy land

Some of you may know that for about a year now, we have been trying to get some puppies in to Clara. The first time, about a year ago, we were very confident they were there and very disappointed to discover, at our ultrasound, that there were none. The 2nd time, around 6 months ago, coincided with the fire season. As I was away for most of the time Clara was in season, I was not at all surprised, I completely missed the window or opportunity to put puppies in. This last time, after a week of driving backwards and forwards to Clayton (from my house, ie: add 3hrs in the car to each day), we have done everything we can to ensure there are puppies. I only have to wait until Wednesday to find out if they are there. I'm not holding my breath this time, but if the number of people crossing their fingers and hoping have anything to do with it (half the scottie club, boy dog owner, me and Neil, mum and dad, people at work etc) it a sure thing! Will update you on this on Wednesday.

Geocaching Event

As mentioned below, I seem to have developed a new hobby. Geocaching! Yes, I am a nerd. But this is ok, cos apparently I know quite a few of them, and some are even prepared to join in on this hobby. Now it's NOT nerdy, it's social! Anyway, recently there was an "event" on in the City called the City Circle Scramble. There were heaps of (nerdy) people. We were all given clues and maps and set loose to try and get as many of them done as possible. I teamed up with Scott a friend who doesn't like to be identified publicly (aka Firey_Scott) and Claire (aka BoMChick). Given that none of us been to an event like this before, I was very please to discover that we came 5th out of the 15 or so teams that competed! I was also a bit releaved we didn't come first as part of the prize is to organise next years event!

Ugly People

I have been to the Show recently, to see the Scottie dogs on show, to visit with mum and dad (who's steam club had a display there this year)and to apparently expose my eyes and sear my brain with visions of some of the ugliest people it has been my dis-pleasure to ever see. Where do these people live for the rest of the year? I never see such sites during my normal day to day life. Yuk! Oh well, as the Show is finishing today, so hopefully I won't be assaulted by any similar sights until next year.

Slacker, again

I have been a very slack blog owner of late, for which I can only apologies. I have been busy doing the famous "other things". Following are some catch up mini posts, specifically requested by one of my fans readers, partly to know what I have been up to, but mostly to get the video post of the page, so it doesn't take to long to load with dial up!

boy

context

I like photos of things taken out of context, and it's hard to work out what they are.