A right to be upset...

OK... I just had a phone call from my Dad saying that

"about that graduation thing of yours, I think I'll give it a miss if that's OK"

Um... NO! It's NOT OK! That 'graduation thing' is the graduation ceremony for my Bachelor of Communication with Distinction. I worked so hard to achieve it, and really wanted him there to see me graduate. It's not like he has a good excuse, just that he'd be bored.

I told him no, it was not alright, and ended up hanging up on him saying 'Well, if you're not proud enough of me to be there, then don't bother... '

I have a right to be upset, haven't I?

More computer saga....

Well, at about lunch time, my computer went totally SPACK!!! Opened 63 windows for MSN, and tonnes of other things. Sure sign of a virus.

So, I hit the off button as quick as I could, and called my IT guy in a panic.

Of course, he wasn't there... and I spent an agonising 20 minutes before he called back. Not game to turn the computer back on just in case....

Had to unplug everything (do you KNOW how many plugs there are at the back of a computer?) and lug it, along with my external hard drives, up to him at the Uni.

2 hours later....

... I find I DID NOT have a virus - and everything worked wonderfully for him...... don't know if that made me happy or cranky! He did fix up my MS Office for me... which is a relief! I also had next to no room left on my C drive because of my massive Outlook files - which he moved to a different drive so it wouldn't be a problem. He was of the opinion that the lack of space on my C drive may have caused some of the problems.

SO... I lug (and I mean LUG) the computer home, after being very late picking up the kids... plug it all in... and it's working! But... where's my hard drive.... not there!!!! So jumped some more hoops and heard the tic, tic, tic again from my ext. hard drives.... OH NO!!! They definitely DID NOT do that when they went to the Dr's!!!!!

But, I worked it out! The power cord for the hard drive must be faulty, because a different ext hard drive was going tic, tic, tic....

To think that could have caused so many problems....

Things you don't want to hear from an IT guy....

"That's the sound of your hard drive dying"

Nope, not something I needed to hear from the IT guy! With everything going wrong, I reached out to my old IT guy from my last job... when I told him I couldn't read my external hard drive, and when I turned it on it went tic... tic.... tic... THAT's when he said the above.

NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!

I'm going out to visit him to see if he can fix it for me... and my Excel problem.... hmm... I've got quite a list... perhaps I need to buy him a gift....

:)

What's with this computer!

AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm just so cranky with the whole IT side of things at the moment - seems I should change my name to Murphy... cause anything that could go wrong has, at the most inconvenient moment.

Some additions to the computer strife...

* When I came home my LEFT mouse button would work. Click, click, clickety click... nothing, nada nope! So I switched to using my wacom tablet and pen - which worked OK for a while - then started doing weird stuff! So went off and bought a new mouse!

* Now, I've gone to open a document in Microsoft Excel... and it wants to INSTALL it! What the??? It was there when I left - all working, all singing! Must've heard I actually NEEDED it, and wanted to USE it!!! GRRRRR

* My contact list for MSN went AWOL.... some people just dropped off - or were even moved!

* ALL of my Outlook rules are gone! I've had to rebuild them.... I had a LOT!! i.e. if I get an email from LSBS - move it into my LSBS folder....

* After spending 1/2 a day adding a MOD to our Matisse Discussion forum to stop spammers, I've managed to stop the ones that are living on the naughty side of life - but there's still more coming through. So have to delete them daily! GRR!

On the plus side.... I've lost 17.4kg's! I've also gone down THREE bra sizes - WOWSERS! And netball starts tonight - can't wait to take this frustration out on the court! Watch out all you GS/GA players... ;)

A quick update...

Just thought I'd better pop in and let you all know that the computer is safe - I didn't throw it at anyone....

But, I did have further problems. Just after I posted my last blog, we lost email... and of course it was up to me to fix it... but... I couldn't until I could change over to the new hosts, because the old one just wasn't talking to us... see the problem?

So, I was getting phone calls late at night, early in the morning from staff wanting their email fixed... and all I could do is WAIT until the panic line (I mean help line) opened at 8am. So as soon as it was 8am I called them, and got the impression everything would be done in the next 1/2 hour or so. So, to make sure I could get the site switched over to the new hosts, I skipped going to the gym... by 11am it still wasn't done... but eventually it all happened.

By the next day emails were coming in again - PHEW!!!!

Time enough for me to then fly down to Sydney for a meeting... so I haven't got a lot of other stuff done... The flight home was delayed - so it took me a little over 2 hours to get there, and over 4 hours to get home!! I was knackered!!!

Netball starts officially tomorrow night... YAY!!!! Can't wait to get out there and actually PLAY, instead of talking about it, organising it, and working it all out!!!

Emily is exceptionally excited to be playing! She's counting the sleeps. Been waiting for years to be big enough - and she's so THRILLED. Can't wait to see her on the court... so CUTE!

OK... that'll do for now... need my sleep!

Night!

Can I throw something????

OK... I've just about had it!!! I want to pick up things and throw them at walls.... big things... brick walls....

I'm just SO frustrated.

I'm a creative type person. I'm good with working out how to use programs and finding all the little things you can do with them. I am NOT an IT person!!!! I really MISS my IT guy.....

I've spent the past few days trying to do things that are not within my areas of strength! Firstly, we need to move hosts for our website. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING I've done has been wrong. Not really my fault... but just not working the way it does for apparently 95% of the population! So, I've had to sit here while my computer downloads 300+ MB's of information, uploads it... and then find out it's wrong! Last night I spent over 2 hours uploading something.... got to 90% done when I had an inkling it might not be right. Consoled myself that 'they' being the new hosts could surely work it out and kept it going.... at 96% uploaded.... the computer blinked from the storm outside and *blink* the connection was broken!!!!

So, I had to redo it - which, by the way, I was advised had been the wrong files anyway. So I re-did it. For 2 out of our 3 websites. One worked, and it was all unpacked and ready to go live! YAY... but... can't find the codes I need to log into the place I have to go to change it over....

GRRRR

Then this morning, I find out that the other one I'd redone was corrupted.... and could I please do it again....

.... and then my email was sending imaginary posts... keeps saying it's sending 1 of 3 messages... but there's NOTHING in there. So I googled, and found a solution.

Just turned email back on... and all my emails are GONE!!!!

So now I'm re-importing those... and wish I had and IT guy again so I could go and make a coffee while they stressed out and got it all set up for me. HATE this stuff!

OK... might find a coffee and visualise throwing things at a brick wall....

PHEW!!!!

Well... gosh! I'm beat!!!!

We had a team selections tonight... well, more of a have a bit of a game, and try and work out where to fit everyone.

Thought we were doing pretty well too! Got it ALL organised!!! Well, as far as I could, anyway. The secretary of RNA said she be out to unlock for us so we could pump up balls, get tables and chairs etc.

But, she didn't turn up. So, for 6 teams we had ONE ball! ONE! and 11 flat balls!

Sheesh!

We then spent time organising teams, looking at players... and we got the A/A Res/B grade sides sorted out pretty well... but we had a bit of trouble with the rest. We had 7 players, for the final team, but they weren't a good combo for a team - very different levels, and too many of the one position, and none of others. So we literally had to pull apart 3 teams and reallocate everyone again. Not easy trying to balance everything... but we got it done.

Hopefully no-one will throw a curve ball at us and make us do it all again!

Let's see... lol...

Exhausted, sunburnt, but satisfied

Well, another massive weekend for me. This weekend was the annual sign on for netball. As the new President of our club - this was the first big test - to see if we would keep the existing teams, and perhaps grow our club from last year.

We didn't have much time to get it all done - just one week - but I think we did pretty darn well for the short time we had to do it in!

We got out to the netball courts at about 9am... in time to see another club setting up like they owned the place! But we got ours all set up, and we looked pretty good. The wind was blowing a gale though, and eventually our huge 3m umbrella went over, so we had to take it down.

We ended up with MORE teams than last year - so I'm pleased about THAT! And we also got a Jnr H grade formed so Emily can play too!!! YAY!!

My Mum also, after much guilty handwringing, joined up after being with Bluebirds for 10 years - I tell you I felt so awful watching her!!! But the reality is that Bluebirds no longer have the friendly team she played with for years - and last year she played with strangers that didn't really include her in the team. She's often trained with us, and umpired for us, and feels 'at home' with our club members - but she was just so GUILTY... like she was betraying someone! Geez I felt like such a heel (no, I'm not the type of person that can 'poach' players).

All in all, a good result. But with all the worry about having everything we needed, I forgot all about sunscreen - and once the shade went down, I got a dose of Rocky Sun - and my arms are burnt from wearing a singlet shirt... OUCH!! What an IDIOT I am - I hate sunburn!!!

I came home after sign on and spent about an hour in a nice deep tub, and then went out to have a birthday dinner for my brother... came home early as the kids had school today... and fell asleep in front of the TV!!! I was knackered!!!!

Now to sort out these teams!!!

Some more pics... amazingly enough!!!

So, firstly, here are the back to school pics... *sob* my little boy is now in High School!!!!


Blackie was my assistant in this photo shoot - his job was to get Allan to smile! He did it wonderfully!!!


And here's a couple more of that beautiful baby... Harrison David, or as Allan said... Harley Davidson...
With Aunty Jill

With Grandma (my Aunty Gail)



And here's a couple of our cute, lovable, gorgeous cat!
I know this one is blurry... but I just love how he came right up to the camera to check out what I was doing!

What a long weekend!!!

Wowsers - so much happened over the past few days that my head is spinning!!!

Well, I've shown you some of the pics I took at the beach on Sunday - I loved how these turned out! So much so, that I scrapped quite a few that afternoon! Here's what I did... oh, and Em did one too... hopefully you can tell which one is hers... though she's getting quite good!


Then we had the AGM on Saturday, and once it was all over my head was spinning with all the *stuff* we had to get done!!!

But, I really didn't have too much time to dwell on it!

I went out for lunch with Mum and the kids... and then we went shopping all over Rocky getting pretty purple and green stars to decorate the sign on table with... and then ....

My cousin Leesa gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Friday night - and we just had to go up and have a cuddle and kiss. Leesa is one of 8 children my Aunty had... and when we arrived on Floor 6, the proud Daddy was in the foyer with baby Harrison David Kline, because Leesa was having a shower. Now, at this stage, we (Mum and I) thought we had lucked out, as we seemed to be the only ones there... but then, it seemed, everytime the lift doors opened, out poured MORE relatives. But anyway... here's little Harry:




Then I went over to Ali's for a BBQ to welcome Julie to the hood. It was a lovely night... more so because I drank a bottle of wine... lol... but it was nice just to sit around chatting - and great to see Michael get on so well with the guys... and the kidlets all played pretty nicely together too. Very enjoyable. Made me realise how much I love that my kids are a little older now... cause I didn't have to run after them AT ALL! LOL!

On Sunday I woke up early - too excited - and had to start 'doing' something with the Runaways stuff... so I got in and updated the website quite a bit - and was then able to go back to bed for a nap without it gnawing on my mind while I tried to sleep.

Barb and Leesa came over (the new committee) and we went through all the 'stuff' from the club and sorted it all out, and tried to work out what we were doing and sort out the to do list for the sign on. I spent the night trying to get on top of some of that.

And then this morning the kids started school again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.... and my big boy started High School... *sob*....

Perhaps I'll post the photos tomorrow.... they're still in the camera for now...

OK... now to get onto the working week!!! LOL!!!

Madame President!

Yes, it's true! Michael is now the First Lady!

We (my netball club) held their AGM on Saturday, with a massive turnout of 7 people!!! I nominated for President and had a couple of other members running with me for the other executive positions.

I was wary because last year I also ran for President, and there was a bit of ugliness about it all. But this year it was simple. We got the jobs.... and the 1/2 dozen boxes full of uniforms, balls, trophies etc!!!

So, you can now call me Madame President... lol...

Seriously though - this is a scary, but exciting opportunity! I've been madly updating and creating our website - which will be, I think, the only one in Rocky.

Pop in and have a look: www.runaways.brightsun.com.au

I've set up a discussion forum which is starting to take shape... all we need now are some MEMBERS!!! That will happen on the 4th... sign on day!

OK... I'm off to fill up the forum so it doesn't look bare before everyone arrives... lol...

At the Beach

Just a quick one to share some photos with you all.. We went to the beach today - fun! Click on any of the pics to see a larger version....

Well, it's been a while, and I've done a lot. Flown to and from Sydney for a meeting - had many flight delays **GROAN** and a thumping headache most of the weekend.

The kids are on their last week of school holidays - thank goodness! Starting to drive me nuts! I took them out to the gardens today for a picnic lunch - thinking I could score some nice pics of them both. Allan was not in a photgraphic mood though - which kinda put a damper on things - but Emily thought she was a supermodel and was striking poses quicker than I could take photos.

Here are some of my favs!



Nope - Allan barely cracked a smile the whole time I was taking photos - BOYS!!!


Isn't this just SWEET? Emily loved having her photo taken up the tree.... well everywhere actually - little poser!


Couldn't resist trying out the macro setting on this cute little daisy.









This weekend will be a big one for me. I've nominated for President of my Netball Club - and the AGM is on Saturday. The sign on for the Association is the following weekend... so that means if I'm elected I will have ONE WEEK to get everything organised!!!!!! OMG!!! Am I MAD????

Oh, and I've also been doing quite a bit of scrapbooking of late - quite a LOT actually! Had a background making frenzy - which has been great! So enjoyed doing that! Going to do some more and use up LOTS of scraps. Nothing fancy - but I'm still very happy with how everything is turning out - especially how quickly they have been to put together.

The secret is I'm trying to clean out some stash so I can justify buying some MORE! LOL!!! Got a bit to go, but having a good crack at it!

More later......

Photos to share!

Well, I finally got my camera later this afternoon, and managed to snap off a few photos (read: A LOT!!!) Here's some of my favourites...


OK... there's quite a lot there... but that aint even a third of them!!!

I did end up getting a f1.8 lens - which takes great portrait with a really short depth of field (nice blurry backgrounds). Had a play with that to get the pics of Allan behind Emily - and did a reverse one (Em blurry and Allan in focus) but Allan always had this peeved look on his face!

The guy at Harvey Normans also gave me this great hard cover book by Canon called 'EF Lens Work III' with all these great images, and which lens, and settings they were taken at... which is great. I think I may just become a lens junky!!!

I've got a LOT more to try, but will have plenty of time to do that... be prepared to be bombarded!!!!

Exciting!!!

OH, and I played netball tonight and had a great game (meaning FOR ME). Got quite a few intercepts, and felt like I had boosters on my shoes - I felt FIT! Umpired the next game too, and that went well as well (hate indoor umpiring - it's very hard to get a good position to see anything!).

Can't wait to get back to outdoor though - I love that game!!!

Bring it on!!!

Here soon...

Oh! How exciting!!!! The paperwork has arrived and we go and sign it at 2pm, and get the cheque for my NEW CAMERA!!! I will have it in my hands THIS AFTERNOON!!!!

Guess who will be taking LOTS of photos tonight!!! ME, ME, ME!!!

I'm going to Sydney on Thursday night, so I will spend the flight reading my manual, and working out how it all works...

So, for about the same price, we ended up with an extra:

• 256MB flash card
• Better bag
• 100 FREE 4x6 prints
• Lens Cleaning Kit
• 5 years warranty

So, it's all worked out quite well! There's still some extras I'd like to add to this, but I can do that later on, things like the remote (which will be great for product photography - I won't have to climb up and down on chairs etc), Flash, and portrait lens (but I think I'll try that out when I pick up the camera)

Exciting... now to wait until 2pm!!!

Weekend Catchup

A quick post to show you all what I've been up to on the weekend.  Got a couple of layouts done, and I'm quite happy with the results.  The first one, 'adored' also used some stamps I designed and Judy from Scrappin' Bug Stamps made up for me... really like how they turned out!

Next is 'Sneak Peak into My Life' which has lots of 'eye' pics and lifting hidden bits... the kids enjoyed looking that this one.

ALSO, on Sunday I went to Harvey Normans to check out a NEW CAMERA!!!!  Golly gee I'm a naughty girl.  I've been aching to get a Canon 400D for SO long - and now I can... so I wanted to check it all out... and there, beside the Canon 400D is the Canon 30D... and I'm having heart palpitations!!!

Stayed at HN for about 3/4 of an hour just playing with the camera, and deciding if I really needed/wanted the larger camera.  No doubts about it, I really WANTED it!!!  But to justify the extra expense I was battling with myself... 'you shouldn't... but... oh, it's so nice... and look at how quick the camera is.... and the lens is better... but you shouldn't'... you know how it goes.  But Michael decided that I should just get what I want... and I kept saying to him 'are you sure?' 'I can get the other one... but... oh, aren't the images NICE'...

Got the phone call today that our finance is approved (also buying furniture as well)... and Michael's been playing off two local camera stores with each other to get the best price!!!  So far, I have a kit that includes:

* Canon 30D with BIG lens (worth $1100)

* UV and Polarising filters

* Hood attachment

* 2Gig flash card

* Bag

* Extended 2 year warranty

I also want to get a macro lens, a remote control, and a big flash... but will have to wait and see how the battle goes with the prices... lol...

Soon there will be MANY, many photos!

Sad....

In the past week I've had a couple of phone calls about friends I've not seen for a long time. The first was Kai Rahnel. Kai came up quite a few years ago and did a 4 day painting workshop that I organised - we stayed in touch for a while, but over the past couple of years, I hadn't really spoken to here... figuring we've both kinda drifted away from folk art to some degree. So it was a real shock when I was asked if I'd heard anything about her death! I didn't think that not hearing would be possible - her book, 'Don't be a Goose' was one of folk art's best sellers, and I thought if something had happened, it would have been through the grapevine very quickly. But, with such an unusual spelling, it's hard to believe that the death notice I found on the net could be anyone else... which just leaves me floored!!! She wasn't that much older than me.... and there was no explanation in the notice....

Then yesterday I had a phone call from one of my painting students.... asking if I'd seen the death notice in the paper of one of my former students...

This student wasn't with us for long, and we knew she'd had cancer, was in remission and had well outlived the time allocated to her by the doctors. We saw her off on an around Australia holiday with her husband, and never heard anything again... until now.

And finally, a good netball friend of mine who is definitely not old, had a heart attack last year that totally floored me. Not a severe one, but she's way too young for all that. The Dr's at the time decided that it must have occurred due to a flu weakening her heart as all the tests came back all clear. But apparently the past couple of weeks she's had a pain in her chest - and her Dr was booked out for a week! So she just let it slide... fortunately, her sister was up visiting and wasn't willing to let it slide and called the doctor who told her to get up to the hospital ASAP. It was her heart again - not a flu - so there is definitely something wrong there, but the good news is that they will be sending her away to find out exactly what it is. Don't want to lose someone else right now....

So, it's been a bit of a sad time. Please, if you're reading this - take care of yourself... if not for you, for me!!!

Oops... a bit MIA

Sorry I haven't posted in a while... no good reason really! Just forgot!!!! Maybe because I have been having so much fun lately...

Last weekend two of my favourite cybercrops were on (why do they always have to clash?) . One at Embellished and one at Scrapbooking Top50. I collected ALL the challenges and promised myself a weekend of fun!!!

Which I had... lol... Here's some of my final layouts - just click on them to see larger images...



You will notice that a couple of these are quite introspective... and that's how I've been feeling lately - but in an excited way. My weight loss is finally becoming much more noticable to me, and for the first time in months, I'm not feeling uncontrollably tired! Starting to feel like 'me' again - which is great!!!!

I'm off to Sydney next week for a planning meeting - which I'm pretty excited about too! I love this sort of thing - and it will be great to catch up on all the new things we'll have going on... new colours... new ranges... fun, fun, fun.... I wonder what our Chemist has been cooking up... lol..

It was also my nephew's first birthday and we went to the Rock Pool Water park. Michael got some pretty decent photos with his mobile phone.... here's a couple of my favourites (have a look at the one of Allan bomb diving - isn't the timing amazing!)



Oh... did you check out my muscles!!!!!

Well, I'm sure there's much, much more to tell you all about.... but that will do for now... hope you're having a great start to the new year!