Damn breakfast menu. Can I get a side of compassion?
More chickens here
I need some feedback about my new banner. Because of the way blogger works I had to make it up of two images, the background, which should line up with the edges of the rest of the blog, and the text and picture, so I need to know if they are loading alright and lining up properly on other systems. I designed the background from scratch and the picture is also mine so no copying.
Last night Chris and I babysat master Riley, my 8 month old nephew. I hadn't seen him in a few months 
so it was great to spend some time with him. He was really good most of the night, ate his dinner like a champ and had a good play, taking after dad already with the footy and hogging his remote. He got cranky later in the night, 
fell asleep having his bedtime bottle then woke up half an hour later crying just before his mum got home.
On a completely unrelated note, finally got my banner to behave itself, doesn't show properly in IE, but works in firefox.
Yep, night shift again.
It's just after 3am, and I've gotten almost everything done. The little thats left I'm deliberately leaving until later so that I have something to keep myself awake. I've just been tinkering with the side bar, changing the little tidbits around for those who pay attention to such things. More changes are planned, but they require my own computer. Given the hour it is entirely possible that I will look at what I've done after some sleep and wonder what I was thinking. Chris maintains that 3am is the best time for creative thought because the mind works differently at this hour. Certainly in my Uni days 3am was invariably the time I would wake up with an idea for an assignment that was likely to revolutionise the disability industry. Of course in the morning I would look at whatever I had scribbled down during the night and be unable to comprehend it. The curse of 3am thought is that its brillience can only truely be recognised when 3am again rolls around.
It'e been a bit of an up and down week. My car is hanging on purely and simply because it only overheats when it's held up in traffic too long. As Chris and I are both shift workers, we have thus far managed to avoid peak hour. The car is scheduled to get repaired on Friday, which doesn't suit me at all but it's the only time we could get it in.
On Saturday night we joined Cassie, Dave and Cassie's family for her and her brother's joint birthday celebrations. As they live a fair way out I wasn't game to test the traffic theory with my car, so Nat was good enough to pick us up. First, dinner with the family at a really nice italian resturant that had just opened up. Great staff, wonderful food, and a bill which reflected that standard. After dinner we headed over to her mums place and settled in to play poker til around 3am. Cassie's family were highly amusing as always, a pretty good night on all counts.
The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful. a spot of shopping on Sunday, work Monday and Tuesday. On the plus side I found out yesterday that they have introduced a new pay grade for disability workers with tertiary qualifications. Up til now I have been earning the same as people who only had TAFE certificates, so it will be good to finally get a little recognition for my degree (B App Sc). Not sure how much more I'll be earning but every little bit counts. My supervisor was annoyed that my current level of pay is only a couple of dollars less then hers, but as I'm overqualified to do her job, let alone mine, I see things a little differently. I'm faxing off my academic transcript in the morning, hopefully should hear back fairly soon.
Today was a bit of a blah day. I spent a good portion of it attempting to get some sleep in preparation for tonight and failing dismally. Chris and I also went for a walk to the butchers to pick up some lamb shanks for dinner. Said dinner did not go to plan. Never having cooked shanks before, I was following a recipe. First step of said recipe was to cook onion and carrots in the casserole dish on the stove top. This started off fine... until the bottom fell out of the casserole dish. The lamb shanks are now in the freezer awaiting a new casserole dish to replace the one which had been used only once since it was aquired two weeks ago, and now resides the outside bin. We had Chinese for dinner.
The Internet is flooded with videos of musically inclined pets, but this pretty girl is one of the few worth sharing
If you liked this, check out Nora's other work
Can't see the video? Try here
Yesterday, let it be said, was not a good day.
Curled up in bed having called in sick I got a phone call from my manager to let me know one of the clients I used to work with had passed away during the night. He would have been about 26 or 27.
Couldn't go back to sleep after that so I decided to get up and do something with the day. Chris and I went for a drive to get some computer parts and were on our way back to do some grocery shopping when the car suddenly overheated and started making scary noises. 45mins later RACV roadside assistance gave us the all clear to head home, keeping an eye on the temperature gauge. He wasn't able to say what the problem was so until I can get to a mechanic I'm effectively carless. I just hope that the problem is an easy fix.
With a pair of cats who favour the computer monitor as a cam
ping ground, one must eventually pay mind to minimizing the amount of cat hair that is surely accruing inside said monitor. We had given consideration to a) buying or b) hitting up the cats grandmother for a suitably 
breathable cover, but the other day the thought occurred that that an old canvas shopping bag, the other favourite feline nesting site, would probably do the trick. Out came the scissors and off came one side and the handles - a perfect fit! Next came the dilemma of how to secure it. Chris got out the fishing wire and with a bit of experimentation, and lots of investigation and interruption by said felines, managed to tie the cover down in such a way that the girls would be hard put to dislodge it.
On a completely different but still cat related note, miss Sumi, shown here doing her bit to support Daffodil Day, is very much in the poop with her nanna. I
borrowed the earlier Harry Potter books off mum to refresh my memory, and on the first night Sumi decided to chew on one of them. Sumi used to commit atrocities like this on a regular basis, and I had hoped she had grown out of that particular habit. Mum, being about as fastidious about her books as it is possible to be, was less than impressed.
With your host Suki
Feel that stretch!
Walk those paws around to the side
Don't forget to breath!!
Twist and stretch those front paws!
A good cat knows how to lend a paw when her people decide to rearrange the furniture. Humans need to take regular breaks, or else they may be too tired to pay us the attention we deserve. Because we love them it can be hard to accept it, but it must be acknowledged that humans are not the brightest creatures, and will often forget to take breaks if they are not subtly prompted to do so. This can be done by placing oneself behind or underneath the furniture as it is being moved into position, forcing a break and guaranteed attention as you are moved from what they perceive as being a hazardous position. 
An even better effect can be achieved by getting onto or into the furniture in question. This results in a longer break, as your humans will naturally feel the need to photograph and generally make a fuss over your cuteness, which despite regular exposure they continue to be amazed by. This method works really well in the case of an emptied bookcase, as demonstrated here, as it is not a position you usually have access to, and therefore has an added novelty factor.
Naturally if you do your job well, your housemates may become jealous of the attention that you will inevitably receive. They may attempt imitate you. Although you may be put out by this, 
and are entitled to let the offender know, try to take it as a compliment. Your people will be impressed by your ability to share the limelightThis made me laugh, you've got to love a good parody, especially of something that was a joke to begin with. I got the link from Say No To Crack. Killer goats?! Oh hell no!
I found this little treasure in the freezer about half an hour ago. Thankfully it waited patiently until it was in the sink before exploding.
Sometimes I really have to wonder how some guys survive on their own. Oh wait, I've seen how bachelors survive. It isn't pretty.
Right now the average bachelor, having successfully blown up the can, would probably be attempting to pry it open to get to the frozen pepsi goodness, and cutting themselves up in the process. I think I'll let it go.
Its 3.33am and I'm bored. I'm being well paid for my boredom, since I've picked up the Saturday and Sunday night shifts this weekend, but right now that thought isn't helping much. I'd rather be curled up in bed.
Today's activities were perhaps not the best preparation for an all-night shift, I managed to sleep in until 11am, then after lunch did a half hour aerobic workout and stretches. I had just finished and started to relax when Chris called from work to say that he had realised at the servo that he didn't have the key to open the fuel cap on my car, and it was precariously low on petrol. So I walked the 2+ km uphill to the station and caught the train to his work, arriving 15mins before he finished. By this stage my legs were protesting the amount of exercise they had been forced to endure, and I would have been quite happy to crash for the evening. We managed to get to the servo in time and arrived home at 5.30 and attempted to have an afternoon nap. At 7.30 we gave up, got ready and went out for a really nice pub meal, which we finished in time for me to drop Chris off home and head off for work. All things considered I am holding up quite well, but 3-4am is always challenging.
It wouldn't be so bad if I had something worth posting about, but as I've been working everyday since my last post there really isn't any news, and as I have 2 more night shifts to go this week, there isn't likely to be any. Things should pick up later in the week.
Until next time
Nadie
