My Boring Blog

Dead, but still here. Blogger is shutting down updating blogs by FTP to my own host, and since I've not posted to this in some time, I've decided to shut it down. The pages will remain, but site will no longer be updated.

Thanks for visiting!

Someone posted this to rec.equestrian (a newsgroup). I love this! This is hopefully me in my old age.

When I am Old...
I shall wear diamonds
And a wide brimmed straw hat
With silver and leather on it
and I shall spend my social security
On white wine and carrots
And sit in the alley of my barn
And listen to my horses breathe.

I will sneak out
in the middle of a summer's night
And ride the chestnut mare
Across the moonstruck meadow.
If my old bones will allow.

When people come to call I will smile and nod
As I walk them past the gardens to the barn
And show, instead, the beauty growing there
In stalls fresh-lined with straw.

I will shovel and sweat and
Wear hay in my hair as if it were a jewel.
And I will be an embarrassment to all
Who look down on me.
They've not yet found the peace in being free
To love a horse as a friend,
A friend who waits at midnight hour
With nuzzle and nicker and patient eyes
For the kind of woman I will be
When I am Old.

Written by Patty Barnhart

(in other news it's bucketing down rain right now)

By accident, I came upon a Usenet post I wrote about riding Muddy for the last time. It was a good post, something I want to keep, so I'm going to copy it here:

06 May 2008

Well, yesterday was my Last Ride Ever on Muddy. My non-horsey hubby joined me, only the second time he's ever come out to the stables here with me.

Yes, Muddy was completely sound.

Since this was our last ride, decided not too much training. He was a bit stroppy getting ready - probably not ridden by the other girl much lately - so changed plans slightly and rode in the arena for a while.

The video shows our ride wouldn't win any ribbons :)

After warming up, I asked him to lope, and at one point went one-handed and stopped asking him to slow down, just to see what would happen. Incrementally he got faster... and faster... and faster... and suddenly it was clear I was riding an OTTB that still loved to run! The turn of speed scared me so I took him back down to a halt (he halts about as good as a racing TB, that is not for a quarter mile or so :)

I reminded him that he had to remain calm after running, and once he was behaving, we went out for a meander around the park. Wandered around a bit, then I took him out to the big (not quite racetrack-sized, but really, really big) oval. He indicated that he'd really like to run again, so we got into a good ground-eating canter, and went all the way around the oval, and half again before he finally tired. We walked a bit, then when he was cool enough I took him out to the center of the big green oval, and let him graze.

I sat on the horse I've been riding since early January, and gazed around as the sun set on the red rocks of the nearby ridge (always a beautiful sight), listened to the sounds of galahs (Red Breasted Cockatoos) and the surprising small batch of Ibises that were hanging out on the oval. Contemplated the two years just passed.

I am happy to be going home, but I am very much going to miss riding Muddy and Missy and the rest, and the relaxed, friendly and supportive atmosphere that is the horsey folks in this outback town. I'm going to miss probably the best Western riding club I could ever be involved in. Ok, I gotta stop now before I get all teary eyed...

Anyway, after about 5 minutes of this, Muddy and I went back to his stall, where of course he got a good grooming, some loving, a hug, and way too many Healthy Hearts or whatever those Horsey Crack cookies are called. Similar ministrations to Major the very tiny pony.

Muddy is a plain bay OTTB, 11 years old. He is eager to please, and really gets upset if he doesn't understand what you are asking. He's more interested in long canters than in slow lazy walks. He can smell a horse cookie from a mile away and WILL mug you if there's one in your pocket!

Major is a tiny black "cart" pony who doesn't get nearly enough attention, poor thing. I think he can live on air. When Muddy was getting "where is the rescue society" thin, Major stayed chubby despite the thin rations. He's very cautious around people, but has a great little trot and will follow you like a puppy. He can also tell if there are horse cookies nearby, but is much more polite about asking for one.

It took me a little while to say goodbye to both of them. My hubby, bless his non-horsey heart, gave me all the time I needed.

Then off to RDA - the horses returned, but not in time for me to have a last ride on Missy. My husband hadn't met the RDA horses, so I introduced him to Missy, a chestnut probably-quarter horse mare with an attitude but a great horse if you can earn her respect (and a hellion if you don't!); A moment of silence for Rookie the little petite appy pony who passed away this summer; Steele, who's black to the uninitiated but his brown muzzle gives his true color away, who tossed me and finally convinced me to see a chiropractor - he was my fave until I rode Missy for the first time; and Frodo (what a great name for a pony!) who also requires that you earn his respect before he'll behave - and sometimes not even then.

I love them all, and already miss them terribly. I'd toss Muddy in my suitcase if he'd fit. I hope his owner does decide to sell him soon, he needs and deserves better than he's getting presently!

Now I'm getting all teary-eyed again... :`-(

jmc

Well, thanks to Hubby for remembering this. I'd been wracking my brain for a few days trying to remember the name of this song, it was one I enjoyed dancing to at Disco Night in Australia. Apparently Hubby was too because he came home today and asked me, "is the the Margarita song?" Close enough to remember.

Macarena video, Second Life

Posting this so I can hopefully remember that I put it in my blog sometime, the next time I forget :)

Yup, that's what we did today. Took the little S&W (and Hubby's Ruger something .22) out to the outdoor range and ran some rounds thru 'em.

Anyway, Although the little gun has some kick, it's not too bad and I managed to hit the target consistently at about 25 yards (the short ones were taken up with a CCP class). Hit the center a couple of times, which isn't too bad for a lady who hasn't handled a gun in 15 years, has never shot something of this caliber, and was shooting at a target a good distance away with a 2" barrel.

We ran a couple of rounds of +p through - much bigger bang and I've gotta work on my accuracy with them.

Just finished getting a quick cleaning lesson, so now she's all shiny again and put up for the night.

I've decided I like the gun a lot. I was a little worried it would be too much for me, but far from it. The +p was at the edge of my comfort range, but that'll fix with practice.

Now, the guy with the pistol using shot shells (410?), now HE was loud. The range officer made some comment that it'd be a good gun to use if you can't see worth a darn, 'cause you're pretty sure to hit something anyway :)

There was a guy in the store buying the same pistol I have, and another couple came to shoot after a bit, she also had the same 637 I do. Very popular handgun, apparently.

We couldn't bring most of our targets home, since the range was backing up the targets with manure, rather than straight straw. Guess they ran out of straw. After all the rains, and some large caliber firearms (and a rapidly warming day), the back of the targets were rather icky and aromatic.

The forecast tstorms never came - at least not here - but it is a bit sticky tonight.

Tomorrow will be cooler, my only plan is to see if I can fill my propane cylinder, I've some roo burgers for dinner tomorrow night.

Ok, so this time last week, it was snowing like crazy - by Monday afternoon, there was about 6" on the ground.

Weather today? Got up to about 72f, and is actually kinda muggy. Tomorrow's supposed to be cooler, high of 61f, but that's still almost 10f above normal.

March is weird. But we're enjoying it while it lasts. I enjoyed the snow - drove to work because driving in horrid weather is fun (Yea I'm weird). Now I'm enjoying the warm - yesterday I went walking and bike riding (and washed the truck and planted grass), though today just went walking- twice - and cleared a path through the woods down to the trail. Hopefully the path will remain passable after the leaves come in.

And I'll enjoy tomorrow, since it's my off day. Gotta take Meep to the vet, but after that I plan on going over to the nursery and see what spring flowers are available for planting. Roses should be in, I think.

(Blogger's still not letting me upload photos properly) So, I have the day to myself - spouse is off to a class that he's taking, because he's interested in teaching it...

I cleaned house, and finally decided to go out (bulb blew in the entry, off to WalMart we go!).

It's an unseasonably warm day - 71f last I looked. It's cloudy as I walk out onto the deck, but the deck is drying and there's little wind. I look off to the west and see dark clouds swirling & coming fast. Suddenly, the rain picks up thousands of leaves and swirls them high in the air. I can feel a drop or two of rain as the leaves move over the townhouses and out of my line of sight. By the time I step inside, it's pouring rain! Coming down in buckets! Ten minutes later, all is quiet again.

There's a tornado warning that was just put up, so the swirling leaves and sudden, massive rain gave me pause - not an hour ago I was watching storm chasers, and they said that tornadoes that are coming to the ground are always surrounded by a blanket of heavy rain.

NOW, perhaps, I can go out - the line of storms continues heading to the northeast.

(Sorry about the big image; Blogger isn't letting me do the normal linked picture uploads) I'm seriously annoyed, as I am every 4 years, by the run-up to the presidential elections. I don't *think* I'm a conspiracy theorist, but the media's insistence that there are only two candidates for the presidential elections is irritating. There are six main candidates, and probably a hundred or so others.

http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president.php?dist=bio.php
http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president_search.php?type=alpha

This one also has the other presidential candidates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2008

For instance, there's some good evidence that Ron Paul was never really a viable candidate only because the tv media locked him out; he was consistently winning or doing really well in internet polls.

It annoys me that it appears I'm the only one that realizes that I don't HAVE to vote for either of them; even though Virginia won't recognize my write-in vote unless my candidate requests to be write-in and has the backing of 10 electors, I'm still writing in my vote. Why?

Because I don't like either candidate, and think it's WRONG to vote for someone as a vote AGAINST someone else. So I've done my research; decided what is important to me; and will vote for the candidate that resonates with me the most. No, I won't tell you who it is.

I'm pretty sure there are like three people who read this blog - I'd ask those three to spend some time on the weekend to actually *research* the candidates on the internet - review their voting records, what they say they've done, and what they've ACTUALLY done - both have not exactly told the full truth, spinning their records to match what they think the voters want to hear.

Man, I hate politics.

Oh, the picture is my new Aquatic Hatchie in Second Life - I call her my Vertically Challenged Highlander :) I think she's really cute :)

// posted by TravelCat @ 8:23 PM 0 comments links to this post

Took this one today at the pond in our neighborhood. Colors are pretty much at peak here. Temps have been rather unseasonably cold, but after the hot, hot Australian Outback, I am very much enjoying the cool weather.

I'll call later :)

Well, it's not supposed to be a sunny day, but is at the moment. The picture is the sun above my computer room door. Cool, innit? This room is a testament to the power of color: I always feel better when I come in here.

Most of the room is the yellow of the sun and below the butterfly - it's a wavy pattern a bit more than 3/4 up on the wall - the tops of the waves have butterflies. Below, since I had to repaint it, it's "Full Sun" yellow. Above it's sky blue, with puffy clouds - even the ceiling, and the closet is just blue-and-clouds. With the sun over the door. Aggressively cheerful room it is :)

We got our stuff a week or so after my last post. We had it mostly unpacked before the weekend, though there's still more stuff we could do. For instance, I haven't put up the pictures on the Sun Room walls yet. But we're comfortable, and settled in, and I really like the place.

We celebrated our 20th anniversary the other day (I'm older than you thought, huh?). We didn't really feel like travelling, so we just went down Skyline Drive to Waynesboro, and back up the next day. Was very enjoyable though - leaves aren't really changing yet, so it was very quiet. First day was sunny and nice, second day was cloudy and cool and rained - but after so long in the desert, rain isn't exactly unwelcome either :) So good anniversary, even if we didn't celebrate it in some spectacular manner. Twenty! Omg, that's a long time to be married, these days - and that very fact is sad, very sad.

We're not doing much today - I've been puttering, cleaning and reorganizing the closet and room a bit, but not much else. John's likewise in his room, computing.

If I get ambitious later, might go see how well the bike survived the trip, and ride it over to Bloom. See if I need to bring it in for a tuneup or not.

Was taking a morning walk, and saw something that from a distance looked like a Perentie (this one would have been about 3' long). I was sort of surprised at how sad I was, to realize that this was not possible, and I'd no longer have the opportunity to see many lizards in my daily life.

Yea, I've not blogged in a while. There's really no point to try to catch up, here's the short version:

1. We left in June
2. We traveled across the US
3. We arrived in Virginia in early July
4. We just went back to work.
5. I have my truck, but we're still waiting for our household effects; we're told next week, hopefully.
6. We are camping out in our house: Got an LCD TV and a home theater system (and a coffee table) but we watch TV from camping chairs, and sleep on an aerobed.

Anyway, today's big excitement was lunch at Arby's, the first time I've had a Beef 'n Cheddar since we returned. I missed them. Also, the computer show is on at the convention center, that's tomorrow's big day. Can't wait!

Sleeping on the Aerobed wasn't bad, but wasn't a real bed either, so I'm still short enough on sleep my IQ had dropped :)

Went out to dinner at the Gillen Club last night - I had the Barramundi which is in a tomato hollandaise sauce (very good) and John had the steak sandwich he liked. Monday is kid's movie night, it was Mr Magoriums Magical Emporium, but as we couldn't hear the sound we didn't stay for the whole movie. Walked across the school's field over to the Westside FoodLand, where we saw they had steam cleaner fluid, but no cleaner. When asked, they told us it was broken and out for repairs. Phooey.

Packed boxes, went to bed at a fairly decent hour, for once.

Got up just before sunrise, after 7am. Usual morning stuff, Housing showed up right on the stroke of 8:30am - news started on the radio same time they pulled into the drive. We're used to this, they come in, make sure we haven't trashed the place or stolen any furniture, then tell us what we need to fix (nothing, just need to mow). After that, first lot of boxes out to the APO - seven boxes. Then off to get a steam cleaner. Went to Eastside Foodland first, but they don't have one any more, so went to Woolies because we saw they had some the other day. They did, but no fluid for the one we wanted to use, so we rented it then went back to the Westside Foodland for fluids.

Came home, had lunch, then of course, did the floors. They're still a bit wet. All the windows are open, and the doors, and the fans are running full tilt. Still have to let Meep out of her box though.

Nothing else going today. Probably go for a walk in a bit, it's really nice out, about 26c (80f? dunno).

(by the way, it still hasn't rained. Not a drop. And that was the rainy season...)

Anyway. The packers come tomorrow. I just packed up the computer, and now my little laptop (A Fujitsu P1510D, for those who may care) is where the big monitor, keyboard, USB and all the peripherals were. Desk looks rather empty now.

House is all packed up. There's always a feeling of "will I ever see this stuff again?" when we do this. Overseas moves are always a bit scary. Not only our own travel, and the cat's, but the HHE and the truck.

Spent a good part of today and yesterday cleaning the truck. Yesterday was vacuuming two years worth of riding out of the inside, and wiping down two years' worth of dust (man, is it dusty here!). Today was the outside - washing, cleaning the bed, waxing. Sad thing is, it's only been a couple of hours, and the thing is already dusty.

At least we know what we're doing - this is overseas move #10, and PCS move #12. So, yea, BTDT. But it's still hard. By tomorrow night, all this stuff will be a memory, and we'll be using borrowed silverware and sleeping on a blowup bed.

Also, this will be moved into the other room. For now, it's still in here because we cannot connect it anywhere else due to the mess. John suggested moving it into the kitchen, but that's too dangerous with liquids and cooking stuff...

I may go sit outside a few minutes, it's very nice - only about 15c, which is around 55f I think. Oh, and there's the train (just blew it's horn).

Yup, it's nearly Saint Patty's Day and it hasn't rained since the end of January. And that was a tiny, tiny bit. Oh, actually it rained while we were camping - early Feb - but we missed that.

In short, the camping/road trip was great.

It may rain tomorrow, here's hoping :)

Sorry, just don't feel like blogging but thought I'd put something down just to prove I'm still around, somewhere.

Oh, I've been taking pics on SecondLife: http://flickr.com/photos/travelcat/sets/72157600053382400/

Woke up early to get ready for our camping trip. Went to grab a spare blanket from the very top cupboard, and the apparition to the right crawled out. It's a huntsman spider, harmless and useful, but a bit startling to see at 5:00am. I'd estimate this one to be about 4" across - a medium-sized specimen.

I don't squash these - one it would make a huge mess and two they're beneficial, and hunt less desirable creepies. If you're really interested this page has tons of information: http://www.amonline.net.au/factSheets/huntsman_spiders.htm.

And, it's raining. Lightly, but it's raining. But quite warm - it's the coldest part of the day and about 83f/28c.

I'm not fond of Aussie summers. It's been over 40c for days now, and no relief till the end of this week. For those used to Farenheit, it's been over 104f, and got up to 42c/108f today. As I said, TFH.

Too hot to even want to go outside and get into the truck! So we hung out, hubby watched TV and I wandered around Second Life. I've got this problem with buying avatars (body shapes), the "hatchie" to the left is my newest. Very cute, huh? You can change the colors on these, I'm pretty sure I won't run into another green-and-pink dragon any time soon :)

Not much going on. I'll start horse riding again on Monday, hope it doesn't stay this hot for long!

One of the interesting things about being in Australia is we're one of the first in the world to celebrate New Years Eve - In just under two hours. On the US East Coast, it's only 7:35am; in England, it's just past noon. Here, it's 10:05pm.

This pic was taken at sunset today. Our last sunset of 2007.

So, the little avatar I bought at Grendels' wasn't a wyrmling - THIS is (provided the pic is actually visible. If not, click on it.)

I've quite gotten into this SecondLife thing. Tonight, I went to a skating party in Limbo. The sim kept crashing 'cause there were so many big, complex dragons hanging out, doing firebreath and other things.

At any rate, I decided I needed something bigger than my little purple guy, so I got a Storm Dragon wyrmling. It's very cool, I hope you agree!

Well, yea, I got some geeky things for Christmas: A "walky bit" which is a little turtle that sings and will walk to the rhythm you tap on his shell and an extensible picker-upper with a blue led light, so you can actually *see* that screw you're trying to pick up. Also got five pounds of M&Ms (thanks Mom!). I got other cool stuff too, of course.

Hubby got a little green Ipod Shuffle from me, and is happy :)

Anyway, I'm feeling geeky 'cause I got my ThinkGeek order: A tiny, round little portable speaker with awesome sound, a miniature USB Plasma ball, and a portable solar charger. And, finally, a replacement Keytronic Lifetime Designer keyboard, something I've been trying to find since I killed my last one, which was 10 years old, in England.

Also, I discovered Second Life. Been having fun there. Last night, someone at the shelter gave me $200 Linden, and I used it to buy a wymrling avatar (a little violet dragon body). Very cool. I'm the purple dragon in the foreground.

So, it's cicada season here. I don't think Australia has 17-year cicadas, so we're not totally inundated, but what these lack in quantity they make up for in size.

The major influx started a few days ago. In three days, we've collected nearly 200 shells, because there were so many on the house they were creeping us out. Hubby got this slightly twisted idea to line them all up, so now we have an empty army. There's some more pics at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelcat/

196 soldiers in This Bug's Army.

Slightly older pics show cicadas hatching, and what our local ones look like - we have Orange Drummers, a very large, very loud cicada. They seem to average just over 2" long.

(graphic cicada carnage warning!)

What's interesting is that they're a delicacy to the local parrots. I figure it has to be parrots, because I'm finding lots of cicada corpses with heads and abdomens neatly bitten off, only the leggy bit and wings remain. Only the parrots have the claw dexterity to pull that off!

Cicadas are arthropods, as are shrimp (shrimp with wings!), and they're supposed to be pretty tasty. I can't get past that American cultural taboo though. Ugh.

In other news, it's hot. Really Hot. Really Friggin Too Bloody Hot!!! How does 108 degrees Fahrenheit sound? Yea, "but it's a dry heat" but I'll tell you, anything over about 95 is HOTHOTHOT no matter how dry. This is stick-a-hairdryer-in-your-face-on-high kind of hot. Turn the oven on high and stick your head inside hot. I don't doubt for a second that I could really, truly cook an egg on our sidewalk (driveway). I'd even try it just to take pics and prove it, but it'd attract ants and the cicada bodies are doing quite enough of that already!

Well, back from our wonderful vacation in Cairns. Weather was wonderful, around 29c/84f each day, partly cloudy, comfortable humidity (70%?). We went to Low Isle on the Great Barrier Reef on Monday, walked miles and shopped on Tuesday, went to the Daintree Rainforest on Wednesday - this included a river boat ride to look for crocs (3 small ones), and a nice BBQ lunch in a rainforest setting. Thursday, we swam in the Lagoon and shopped some more. Friday, we rode the Kuranda Scenic Railway, shopped in Kuranda, then rode the train back. As icing on the cake, we enjoyed a twilight cruise up and down the Trinity Inlet as our last touristy thing to do. All in all, a good trip, but too quick, as these things always are.

John took over 1200 pictures. I wasn't quite as prolific, my total was just under 700, I think. Got that down to just over 300, but still need to go through the videos.

Oddly, we were slightly disappointed with the rainforest. It wasn't drippy, moist and mosquito-laden as expected. We're at the end of the dry, so it really wasn't much different than, say, a forest in North Carolina. Except for the palm trees and birds-nest ferns, of course. Why I was disappointed that the rainforest was a pleasant place to be, I don't know.

Anyway. Have my work cut out for me, organizing the photos and videos into a DVD movie. For now though, here's a short video of a green turtle that wandered past as I was snorkeling.

Threw my full Western gear on Missi today, and put her through her paces in the rodeo arena. I had SO much fun. Nice smooth slow jogs, and that feeling I've always remembered but haven't duplicated on many horses, of just gently asking and getting a nice canter depart from a walk. Like, Picking up the front end, and having the haunches move underneath into a smooth depart.

Oh, and some gallops, sliding stops, and spins. Woohoo!

She's rusty (we had a bit of a discussion about right leads), but there's an awesome horse under that moody, opinionated exterior. I think she enjoyed our afternoon as much as I did!

Missi is probably the best Western horse I've ever had the opportunity to ride. Bid sad that, but I don't care. I had FUN! She's a much better horse than I am rider: frankly, I was amazed she was actually doing as I asked. Maybe I haven't forgotten as much as I thought!

In her day job, she's a Riding for the Disabled horse, and doesn't see much action over a canter around the small RDA ring.

Maybe I'll skip work tomorrow and go riding instead :)

Getting warmer, up to 32c/90f today. Went to the markets while it was cooler, then came back and hung out. First rose of the season, and the galahs came to visit, thus the pictures.

Later, went to the park and did something I haven't done in some time: went riding. Was able to ride - finally - in my Western saddle. It works well, though it's still ugly (Wintec that's been in the sun, so it's not evenly black any more). We wandered around a bit, then went and worked in the arena, and then wandered around some more. I ride much better in a Western saddle, I think. I even felt competent today!

I've put together a bit of a video using many of the photos I took last night. It only goes from when the moon became visible - eclipse had already started - to totality.

No, it's not nearly as cool as some of the eclipse videos on YouTube but hope you like it anyway :)

We've been lucky. We saw the last one (with a much worse camera), back in 2000. Tonight, we watched this one. I'm still processing the hundred or so pictures I've taken, looking for the best, but for now here's the start, and totality. After that we went back inside. Eclipse is still happening now, probably about halfway to normal by now.

We have some interesting neighbors. There's 5 and sometimes 7 people that live in that three-bedroom house, and there's another house in back with another two people ( they have the same size lot as ours - told ya our yard is big!)

They have this beautiful longhaired tabby cat that I'd like to kidnap. She's smallish, but very friendly and fearless. I don't know her breeding, she's way too small for a Maine Coon, but sort of looks like one. Dunno if Norwegian Forests are smaller.

Anyway, happened to see this cat walking across the neighbor's roof, and ran for the camera. By the time I got it, she was at the far end, which I can barely see between the fence and our carport's roof. Nevertheless, the power of 300mm captured this shot, which isn't great either but I like it anyway.

But not my usual Sat night. Went to dinner with a friend who's husband is away, we stayed for "Disco night" with some trepidation - but had a great time! We joined a group of ladies from work, and danced the night away! Got home at midnight. Meep was ticked, got the whole, "Do you know what time it is???" lecture from her. Well, would have if she could talk anyway.

Just got this interesting quote from one of my newsgroups: "The American Indians found out what happens when you don't control immigration."

Pic isn't very good, but it's a Spotted Bowerbird from my birdfeeder. They're the odd birds that make a 'bower' from twigs and stuff, to attract a mate.

While we're on the subject:

Ryan vs Dorkman

Ryan vs Dorkman 2

Both are YouTube videos.

Yes. I bought a lightsaber. It's Yoda's. Why did I do this? I have no idea, but it's pretty cool.
Yea, the lightsaber's cooler than my stupid video :)

Also got a nice aluminum lap desk. Thinkgeek rocks!

Well, here it is: Sunday night, bedtime. Ick. Weekend was pretty well shot to heck anyway 'cause I had to do something work- related (note to self: need to update timecard!). But that's OK, I was doing a favor for someone and it wasn't particularly arduous. Just in the middle of the day, so we couldn't do anything really on Saturday. Not that we had any plans... augh.

Anyway. Today we had no plans either. It was really nice out though - 19c/66f - so I puttered around the property, doing some gardening, turning some soil, planting some grass seeds... we went over to Mitre 10 and I bought a Chinese Money Plant and some lobelia (next note to self: frost tolerant?). A few parrots came by and I took some more pictures (they're improving) but I figure my audience of three is probably tired of parrot pictures by now, which is why I posted this lovely camel picture from last weekend.

Such an exciting life I live. Can hardly stand it.

Finally, a day of rest! Been a busy couple of weeks: Sponsoring a new arrival the last weekend in June, then last weekend the Show and the Markets, and yesterday, the Camel Cup.

So today, we slept in a bit, then I made some great coffee: Ground fresh frozen Barnies' German Chocolate Cake beans (decaf), then straight into my AeroPress (reviews on Amazon.com) coffee maker. Ah, yummy. I'm on my second cup.

Today's a partly cloudy day, cool as it is this time of year - expected high is 16c/61f. Hubby's watching "We Were Soldiers" and I'm contemplating lunch. It's very still and quiet outside. The parrots have left for now, but a different pair will be back. I've noted about seven individual Port Lincoln Parrots at my feeders. None at the moment, just a ringneck dove (which is a little odd, since they're ground feeders. One seems to be smarter than the rest, though).

Anyway, no plans. Some cleaning maybe, and probably a walk as it looks really nice out (but then, it always does this time of year), but not much.

(gads, this IS really boring, isn't it. Ah, well, I write it as much for *myself* to remember these days, as for the three of you who read this :)

Ok, so it's nearly two weeks since my last post and I've still got that cold/flu, only it's apparently transmutated to bronchitis. Fun. Not!

Wanted to comment that my new puter is doing great. Even with all the passive cooling (motherboard and video card are both passive cooled - no fans), everything's staying nicely cool - CPU's at 39c. I don't know which temp correlates to what, but the highest temp in the case, as reported by SpeedFan, is around 48c. Something is being reported as 11c, which is only about 52f. Must be a mistake, as that's cooler than the room's ambient temperature....

Well tomorrow I'm off to flip burgers (well, actually sausages and steaks) while others watch camels run fast around in circles while untrained riders try desperately to stay on. Ah, the fun of the Camel Cup :)

Edit, 15 Jul 07: Here's the photos from this year's Camel Cup