Had I mentioned I finally got a new computer for myself. Don't have to use the Mac anymore for doing this. Not that I will never use it but now I have a choice.
I got a new laptop. ACER something or other. Core i5 processor, 4M memory, 500 gig hardrive, not a lot of bells and whistles but all I really needed it for was feeding my XBOX. Works like a dream. Download files to my laptop, run them over Media Center to the Xbox and everything works with no problems so far. As I download about 20 different podcasts, I just download them via iTunes and have Media Center watch that library so I can watch the video podcasts on the TV. I can do the same thing with TV shows and movies, although these days a lot of that is already built into the Xbox, but doing it on the laptop gives me greater storage. I don't know how we ever lived without this capability. I can even show slide shows of our pictures on the TV, although somehow, no one ever comes over to look at the slide shows, even if I set them to music. Go figure.
The kids went swimming yesterday. It was about 19 degrees. I guess they felt obligated since they are on school holidays and can't waste that valuable time without going swimming. I am not sure how they survived. Maeghan will swim in anything, no matter what the weather but William only stayed in about 5 minutes. Much, much too cold. Karen took them down and watched them. I was against the idea but they insisted. We thought as soon as they hit the water, they would be right back out but Maeghan stayed in for about 30 minutes.
Karen has gone to stay the night with Angela. She sent a text message asking if we could come rescue her as soon as possible. Sometime around noon today is what I am thinking. Later if I am feeling evil. Not that there is anything wrong over at Angela's house, but the her kids are not there and apparently someone over there is talking Karen's ears off. Did not catch who it might be but I will wander over that way sometime today and relieve her from that situation.
My meeting has just broken up and I am thinking about going back to bed. Since I had to put my contacts on to see the computer screen, I am not sure if I will take them back off before I go back to sleep. Probably a good idea to do so but I am not sure I will. Lazy I guess.
We still have plans to go to the movie this weekend. I think it will be too cold and it might rain, but we will drive up there, it takes about an hour or so, and see what we can see. There is this really great playground near there that the kids just love. It has all kinds of things to play on. A flying fox, a spinning swing thing, lots of things to climb on and hide under. It is really a great park. We try to go there anytime we go to the drive in. Hopefully, it will still be ok this time as they had just completed it the last time we were there and that was a few months ago. I hope other kids have not screwed it up and broken the rides and things.
I was planning on going to the Italian festival this weekend. I guess we are not going to make it. There is a new park that opened near there that we have only seen when they were building it. It is supposed to be the biggest rope climb and play area in NSW. It looked pretty big when we were there last. It just opened last month so we have been saying we would go by as soon as we can. I thought the Italian festival would be a good opportunity but I have been outvoted, I think. That festival is in a newly refurbished area also. We were there sometime last year for the oyster festival, which we did not get to attend as they were just setting up for it, and it was a fairly nice little area back then. It is right along the water, part of Brisbane Bay although you cannot see the actual ocean from there, but it is a nice place. They have a permanent market there we sometimes go to. It is small and very crouded but they have different things than most of the other markets so it is good to go sometimes. Plus, it is a pleasant drive. Only about 45 minutes to get there but you get to go into the bush and along the ocean and then across the bay so you get a bit of everything.
Speaking of that area, or near that area, they just sank a big battleship near Avoca Beach the other day. Not really a battleship, but it was some navy ship they had been planning to sink there for some time. Been battling in court with the environmentalists for almost two years but they finally did it on Wednesday. We wanted to go see them do it but there was supposed to be a big crowd there to watch and all the rodes were closed so you would have to walk in to the area where it was happening. Plus, I am not sure where we would get a good view of it and since it was about 2 kilometers out to sea, I am not sure what we would have seen anyway. We saw it on the news and it was not that spectacular.
They are apparently making an artificial reef or something and they are going to charge divers to go swim around in it after a few months of settling. Not sure how you charge people for doing that but they said there would be tickets sold to dive on the it. I thought if I was swimming under water, how are they going to stop me from just swimming up to it and looking around. Guess they have someway of knowing or keeping people away.
They had to delay sinking the ship because a pool of dolphins came into the area and were swimming around the ship before they could sink it. All the protesters said it was a sign from nature that they did not want it sunk there. The protesters also had all kinds of sky writers putting messages in the sky about how bad it was to be doing this. They even said on the news some little kids were crying about it. I think it was a load of crap. Most of the kids would have been fascinated by the fireworks they let off before it began sinking and would have known nothing about the environment issues. Just goes to show how much power the Greens have here in Australia. Everything is bad and nothing is good seems to be their message all the time. As you can probably tell, I am not a big fan, but that is another issue for another time.
I am not tired and wanting to go back to bed, so I am signing off now. Much too early to be doing this and I thought it would be short, but we can see how that turned out. Not a lot about the kids, which is what this is supposed to be about. Then again, it is about things that go on down here and what might affect the kids, so I guess this counts. Of course, the parts where I wander into my own opinions are probably not needed. I should start another blog just with things that I want to say, but who would read it. Guess we might never know.
Until next time
Talk to you later
