up up and away ...

... oh hang on - the airline that had that slogan doesn't exist any more ... but the one I flew up here to Queensland on does.

I had to get up before sunrise to catch my early morning flight from Canberra (where I live) ...



yes ... this is me I am talking about and I did mention sunRISE - lol
- usually I see (and take lots of photos of ;-) sunSET ... so this is a bit different for me ... my sense of direction got all confused seeing the red glow of the sun behind the top of the hills and told me I was looking West when I was looking East - LOL

It was worth only having (er dare I say it ... yes why not ... Mum never reads my blog anyway - about 2 hours sleep) to get to fly over the clouds and see views like this:


and this:


and this:


and


and


and this:


and these:



















hmmm - the colour of those clouds, and the sea ... is there such a colour as "steely indigo"?

Anyway ... why am I posting to my blog right now ... well ... Mum and Dad live at one of those places that has a community centre with a pool and a bowling green and and a bar/etc and also a library with a computer that is connected to the www (which is where I am right now) ... and tonight is darts night ... but I am not really into darts ... lol ... so I decided to test drive photobucket and upload the 35 pictures I took on the flight up here, and post this blog post - lol

After the darts finish, we go back to Mum and Dads place for an hour or so, then we have to leave to go down to Brisbane airport so Dad can drop Mum and I off to catch our "stupid 0'clock" (as in it leaves just before 3am!) flight to Dubai ... and my blog will probably go very very quiet for a few weeks - lol
(well, apart from this week's ABC Wednesday post that should post itself just after Midnight on Wednesday, because I set it up to do that when I was in here earlier this afternoon while Mum and Dad were at some social club comittee meeting ;-)

ok ... pile of photos are there ... photobucket seems to be a good way to add them actually ... but Darts is almost finished and they will want to lock up ...

Time to go back to Mum and Dad's unit (well it is called a unit but it is bigger than their last house was!), and get ready to fly off on our big adventure ...

... as some kid in the seat behind me said when the plane took off - wheeeee!

Inching along ...

It was Inevitable that I was going to post my ABC Wednesday post late again ... LOL

now what should I post about? ... international? invisible? ... ink? Insect?

I could stay Invisible ... but I am still Inching along with Wednesday ABC ...

btw, I am trying to get organised a couple of weeks early and starting a whole pile of posts and saving them as drafts, so that when I am off on my International travels - I can set them to ... hopefully ... post themselves. I might not be anywhere near a computer with www access though - so the links might not be added to the thingy until I get home) ... or I might not even find time to finish writing the posts before I go ... LOL

I is also for Individual ... and anyone who has been reading my blog will probably realise that I am one of those ... lol

I is also for Ink
hmmm - maybe I should have taken a photo of all the Ink splots some Idiotic student splattered all over the door of one of the science labs at the school I work at ... the pattern they made was quite Interesting - lol
... I probably did draw some stuff with Ink once, but will I remember to find it and take a photo? ... probably not - lol
I also "doodle" with pens while I am talking on the phone/listening to talks/lectures/etc - if it turns out I don't need to take a lot of notes, then I use the pen and paper to draw stuff instead. What do I draw? ... all sorts of weird stuff that probably comes from my Imagination ... lol

I also is for Insect ... there are lots of Insect photos on my blog already ... including photos of Inchworms - which are not worms, but they are Insects ... lol



This Inchworm is in my Index finger.
er - my finger looks a bit Icky - LOL
(probably mostly dirt from the garden/etc, and dry skin)


I also found a photo of an Insect Invasion:



If you click on that photo (which takes you to the full size version) you will probably be able to see that there are rather a lot of Insects (little brown beetles actually) all flying In to the yard on a sunny spring day (sometime in November - which sort of explains the Santa hat DD is wearing!) ... they were settling on those white flowered bushes (tea trees - an Australian native plant)



... and what were they doing? ... what a lot of things do in spring - I think they were meeting there for another I word ... looks like they were meeting there to make more beetles:



I actually found these 2 on DD's back, but they seemed quite happy to continue doing what they were doing on my finger!

I is also for Inchies.

"What are Inchies?" you ask? ... well ... they are one inch square bits of art ... in this case textile art (I think people do them in paper/etc too) ... they are a bit like artists trading cards - one makes a pile and swaps them with other people (often in sets of 9, or whatever). I am on an Art quilt related yahoogroup and we have had a few inchie swaps on there.
There are pictures of some inchies here and here and (a different swap) here ... these were all before the swaps I went in (they were links given to us to go and look at to find out what inchies were - lol) ... a Google search for "inchies" also turned up a lot of stuff about them too ... there is even a Flickr group ...

Anyway ... here are some photos of some of my inchies I made for the swaps we had on the Aus_NZartquilters yahoogroup (hmmm ... how many photos will depend on how many I find while I am digging around in my many folders of photos ... but if you look at all my posts that have the label "inchies" on them you might find some more that I have posted about - I know I have posted about my "plastic" ones)
We each made 7 sets of 9 - swapped 6 sets and kept one for ourselves, and we had a few different swaps, that each had a different theme.

These are my set of "Metallic" inchies:



I mounted mine on bits of black card, and the extra one at the bottom is one that I made into a dingly dangly (to hang on the Christmas tree maybe? lol) and popped it in the envelope with my inchies - a little present for the poor person who had to do all the swapping and send them all back.


Here are some more - The theme for this lot was "blue"



There are 2 sets in theis photo because these were the set I kept, and another spare set that I made for Mum ... not sure if I still have these in my sewing room or if I gave them to her ... (I might have to have a look for them and if I find them I can take them up with me and give them to her before we fly off on our trip)

Talking about flying - I is also for ...
... in flight food!



this was when the kids and I flew to Adelaide back in December 2007
(to visit a pile of relatives i have there, and also to see Mum and Dad, who were also over there visiting the same pile of relatives, while their new house was being built)

that airline food tasted ok actually (especially that little bottle of Gin - lol) ... somehow I don't think I will get a meal (or any free drinks) on the Virgin flight up to Qld, but hopefully we will be fed on the Emirates Flight to Dubai ... if not - then I guess I will be eating the chocolate bar I will be taking in my cabin baggage, and/or one or 2 of the muesli bars Mum said she will be bringing with her - LOL

Anyway ... this may or may not be the last post here for a few weeks ... depends if I get organised and finish writing ABC Wednesday posts for the next few weeks, and if they actually do automatically get posted to my blog like they should do if I set things up right ... lol
(but even if my posts "happen" ok, they probably won't get added to "mr linky" and I probably won't be online to see and reply to any comments until I get back at the end of April).

I is also for Idiot ... some people probably think I am one - especially when I stay up until "stupid O'clock" posting silly stuff like this on my blog - LOL
(it is actually after 1:30am now - the time I put on this post is about what it was when I came in here to start checking my e-mail and log in to type the rest of this blog post, which I actually started writing a week or 2 ago when I was thinking of things I could post for a few different letters of the alphabet - lol)

Hi

Here I am, late for ABC Wednesday yet again - How unusual (not - LOL)

now what can I think of to post for the letter "Huh" ...

ah Ha! - there is an idea - I can link to my Huh blog! - where I am also posting a photo of a rather interesting "How to" article I found in a pile of old encyclopaedias a friend threw out (I decided to "rescue" them from the "throw it in the bin" pile and take them to the op shop, just in case someone actualy wants them (I Hate the idea of throwing books in the rubbish!)

I Have just put that particular post Here

Talking about "How to" - there are rather a lot of really weird (and interesting) "how to" type websites out there!
(like the couple I mentioned in that post on my other blog ... lol)

H ... is also for hotel ... I will be staying in quite a few of those in the next couple of months - LOL

Also, for a few years my family used to run a Hotel ... I still Have an old T shirt, that was one of a pile that that they found in the back of a store room - it Has a picture (line drawing) of the Hotel on it and says "Doug and Freida's Muswellbrook Hotel" on it ... I wonder if I can find it ... probably not ... (besides - it is in the bedroom where DH is asleep and I want to post this tonight ... not that it is "tonight" any more ... it is now just past Midnight!)

[at which time I decided to go to bed and post this later! ... so it is now Friday night instead of Thursday night ... sigh ... DH is not asleep, yet, but I still am not going to bother finding and taking a phot of that t shirt - lol]

H is also for Hermit crab ... one of the teachers at the school I worked at decided that she would buy some as pets for the science area ... but she was only there for a term (temporary replacement for someone on leave) ... so I kind of "inherited" them for the Christmas Holidays ... poor things - they don't breed in captivity, and don't always live that long either (the lot from work sure didn't ... sigh) - not what I would consider a good thing to try and keep as a pet - why not just leave them at the beach where they belong? ...
... like this one we found at the beach when we were in Adelaide just over a year ago:



cute isn't it?

I am sure there are Heaps more H things I could post about ... but I want to actually POST this and go to bed - LOL

Although I was going to post something about making baskets/etc out of Hay ... I could have posted it in G, for grass, too (except that I did it after I posted my G post - lol) ... but I guess it will have to be another post, if I get time I might do it before I go away ... otherwise you will have to wait until I remember about it ... if I ever do - LOL

G ... etc

Oops ... late again ... here I am posting my ABC Wednesday post on a Saturday - LOL
(actually ... it is the wee small hours of Sunday now ... I logged in, to quickly finish this and post it, in the wee small hours of Saturday then realised I needed to add all the photos, and I was tired - so I decided I would just do it later instead ... but I was out for most of today and I kind of didn't get around to getting in here and doing it during the evening ... so I am here doing it now ... even though it is late and I am tired again ... AND I have to get up and go places in the morning ... lol

I actually had couple of ideas that I typed into a draft post a while back ... I have done that for a few letters if I have thought of ideas for them already ...

so I guess I had better post something about

G ... grasslands, grasshopper, greeblies?

I live near the Dunlop grasslands, which are actually a couple of grassy paddocks left in between the houses that have now been built all around them ... the Government manage the weed problem by allowing a farmer to Graze his sheep in there every now and then ... and the mob of sheep are protected by a pair of Gaurd Alpacca ... and they do a Great job too (it was rather funny the day our Golden retriever snuck off ahead of us and jumped through the Gap in the Gate and Got about 1/3 of the way to the dam, which he likes to sneak in to for a swim, before he noticed the alpacca that was standing between him and the dam ... the dog stopped and looked, the alpacca stamped his feet ... and the dog never Got his swim that day - lol)

grasshoppers

I have a few photos of those ... somewhere ...
here is one on my finger!



I may have posted that on here already ... or maybe I put it in the "animals on fingers" flickr group or something ... I wonder why I used that one instead of this one?



cute, isn't it?



oh oh - where is it?
ah - over here on the Grass ...



hmmm ... some of our lawn was actually still Green back then ... it isn't now ...

Talking about grass ... lol

Grass ... i grew some grass at work ... photo in same folder as above!
well I guess that makes it easy to find again now - lol



A teacher wanted me to Germinate some wheat seeds, for their science class to look at ... they asked for a lot but only used a few - lol
so I Grabbed the leftovers and threw them in a (Green - lol) ice cream container with some potting mix and let them Grow ...

G is also for Greening Australia ... who organise community tree planting days, which I sometimes Go to ... this one was in a place with a Great view:



goldfish ... 2007Dec3 ... swimming in circles ... post video (should be in there) too?

actually - I decided that video clip belongs on my Huh? blog - so I just put it there in a post called "Something fishy"

... but I will put a photo of the Goldfish in here:



weird, isn't it? LOL

link to greebly looking greenish merangues on Huh?
yes why not - that post (which I think I only put up there last week) is here
I probably could post some other Gross and/or Grotty Greebly pictures on here ... but it is Getting (has Got?!) rather late (after 3am - oops), and there are already lots of Greeblies in some of my other posts ... including eyeballs and stuff - lol

G is also for Getting excited ... and worried about what I still need/want to get organised - it is only 2 weeks until Mum and I head off on our Great adventure to Dubai, Turkey and Egypt ... and I have Got a lot of stuff I need to Get done first ... both at work and at home ...

Gee ... it is getting really late ... I had better Go to bed ... Goodnight ...

Fur And Prickles

Fur and prickles:

The fur says "touch me" but the prickles say "don't" ...



... kind of an interesting contrast isn't it?

It is Funny how things seem to work out like that sometimes.

Friends and Family can be like that (both soft and prickly) too ...
(and I know I can)

btw - that photo is a close up of part of an Echidna ... the same echidna (but different photo) that DH and I saw the other day, and I posted about in my ABC Wednesday E post later that evening ... turns out it was just Fine For my F post too!

... mind you ... I could have just made do with dog and cat Fur if I had to ... lol





(there are also more furry animal photos on Spot, The Blog)

or Fancy some Fireworks? (if so you will have to search the www or something - I want to get this post Finished, so I can't be bothered spending Forever hunting around in Folders trying to Find some decent photos of them ... most of the ones I take turn out a but dodgy)

... or a Friend on my Fingers:



well ... it wasn't on my finger, but it was sort of walking that way ... except I don't think it was walking ... and it seemed to want to walk UP my arm when it did walk!
I found it while I was pulling some weeds out of the garden yesterday, so I moved it to a different bit of garden, where I wasn't going to accidently Flatten it or something unFortunate like that ...

or Fish in a bucket ... and the dog Finding them and Fishing For them with his Feet.



F is also for Finally - the Finish of this post?

(or the Fact that I have Finally posted it?! ... although it isn't quite as late as the E post was ...)

btw - Luckily For those who don't like yucky stuff - I Forgot to take a photo of Fungus, or some Flies ... (or something Festy or Festering or Foetid)

Eek

Why eek? ... because it is ... Eek! - my blog is going to look boring if EVERY post starts with a letter of the alpahbet!
It would be ok if I actually got around to posting some other stuff in between the ABC Wednesday stuff ... but I don't seem to get around to that lately ... but at least I am posting something ... that was half the idea behind me signing up for/joining in with yet another "silly blog thing" - it was meant to mean that I would post something to my blog Every week ... Except I am already Ending up being a bit late ... but I guess it is not too bad as long as I post each letter Eventually?

Actually it is quite handy that I am not getting around to my E post until today yesterday - because now I can include the Echidna I saw today yesterday:



DH and I went for a "Sunday drive" out to Yass and Bowning (about an hour down the road) and this fellow had just crossed the road we were driving along ... good to see that it made it across safely - often they don't (some drivers don't bother to notice them/avoid them, so quite a lot of wildlife ends up as a kind of 2 dimensional splodge on the bitumen ... Ex wildlife ... with Extruded Entrails ... Etc ... "mmm - roadkill" ... and to think that some people actually Eat it?!)

I probably could have included an Echidna here anyway ... I do have another photo of one ... but I am not sure I would have thought of it if I had not seen another one today yesterday - lol



The funny thing is - this Echidna photo was taken a couple of years ago - but only a few Kilometres from where we saw the other one today yesterday! (it is possible it was the same one - but not very likely - there are probably a lot of Echidnas living in the area, and for it to have been the same one it would have had to cross a few roads including the rather busy Hume Highway)


E is also for Elephant - I don't have a real one handy, so this pretend one will have to do:



It was marketed as "hand carved" , but it is made of some kind of plastic type stuff ... possibly hand made though ... looks cute anyway ... which is why I bought it as a present for someone ... but it is another few weeks until I see them to give it to them (they probably won't see it here though - they don't usually get around to remembering to read/look at my blog unless I e-mail them copies of the posts - LOL)

E is also for Egg ... I was thinking of posting some pictures of eggs in birds nests in the back yard, but A: I can't be bothered going hunting around in my photos for them, B: I could probably do a whole post all about bird's nests with (and without) eggs in our back yard, and C: I already have enough photos in this post.

E is also for Egypt ... I am going there in a few weeks time :-)
(the same holiday I mentioned in my D post, because I am also going to Dubai first)
I am getting Excited ... I can't wait to see all (or at least some of) the interesting places I have been reading about here!
(hmmmm ... her blog still says she lives in Cairo ... but she is back here in Canberra now! ... and yes - I have the pleasure of knowing her in person - we met because we are both quilters, and both in the same online quilting group ... she was actually living in Jerusalem when I joined that online group ... she didn't have a blog then but she used to send some interesting e-mails to the group ... but they were also mostly rather scary ... not a safe place to liveBe sometimes ... then again ... after the recent stuff in the news I am also a bit Edgy about Egypt ... I guess we will just have to be Extra careful (and follow the Excellent advice they offer here) ... I am sure we will still Enjoy ourselves - lol

E is also for Exoskeleton ... in other words - a skeleton on the outside - like spiders and insects and shrimp and stuff have ...
for Example - "Emily" the spider:



- the spider that my Daughter, Erin, decided to name "Emily" ... lol

This photo was taken about a Month later, so it may or may not be Emily ... but the moth also has an Exoskeleton ... and it was probably also very tasty ... lol



I guess it is basic Ecology - predators Eat prey ... that is how they Eke out their Existence ... or something like that ...
I had better stop before i start getting too Existential or something ...

E is also for Extricating the "Extra student" we had in the science lab (at the high school I work at) the other day ... it Exited the lab in a cardboard box (it was hiding in the fume cupboard, and is Extremely quiet - has been living in the science area for a while I think, and quite used to being near people, so it was Easy to catch) ... we let it go in the patch of gum (Eucalyptus ;-) trees just outside the science area ... and it "Escaped" up the nearest tree. (which was Exactly where we intended it to go).



It didn't look to impressed with being "thrown" out in the bright sunlight ... it was not very Energetic ... possums tend to be nocturnal ... up all night and sleep all day.
(but it couldn't stay living in the lab ... the students get too Excited when they realise they are sharing the room with cute furry wildlife, and it is not nice doing science Experiments with possum Excretement all over the lab benches!).
We shut the windows where we think it had got in (dodgy louvre things that are hard to close properly) so hopefully it won't be able to Enter as Easily ...

btw - I was going to post this blog post yesterday, but I went and did some other things and then didn't get around to putting the photos onto the computer and adding them ... although for some odd reason it "posted" itself, while I was out of the room but still logged in, (lucky I came in here to log out of blogger, and noticed it!) and so I had to change the date to UN post it and save it as a draft again ... so if you came here yesterday evening and saw this post on here half finished (and/or saw it and then it wasn't there again later) - that is why - LOL

E is also for Evening ... which it isn't again ... Midnight just came and went while I was still finishing typing this ... oops? ... lol

E is also for the End of this long and rambling blog post ...
... which brings me back to the start - Eek - I hope it is not the End of the Earth ... or Even the End of the Earth as we know it ... Everything changes ... but it is usually Eventually not "overnight" like wars/disasters/global warming/etc seem to be happening ...

Evidently, I don't know when to stop ...

no - I won't keep raving on for Ever
(although I have been known to stay messing around at the computer until my Eyes are almost hanging down all over the keyboard ... lol)

D

D is for Disorganised ...

and I am Definitely Disorganised - why else am I only just posting my D post (for ABC Wednesday) now, when I am already a few days late for E?! LOL

D is also for Disaster and Devastation ... and I am sure there are a few D posts that mention that, after the bushfires in Victoria (I saw one D/disaster post, about the bushfires, on a blog I found listed as one of the "blogs of note" when I logged in to blogger ... I thought that blog name sounded familiar - lol)
I live in Canberra, where we had some bad bushfires in 2003 ... so a lot of people here have been offering help and suggestions of what sort of help will be needed and when, because they know from having been there themselves ... this time the fires were not near here though ... but the sky has been very hazy, and the sunsets have been very orange and smokey looking, for the last few days (yes - there are still fires burning down there in Victoria ... and floods in Queensland and Bourke (in Northern NSW) ... so D is also for Deluge (but hopefully not for anyone Drowning in it) ... we sure have had some weird weather lately - record high temperatures in one part of Australia and record rainfall in another ... a years worth of rain all in one day - right in the middle of a Drought ...

Anyway ... enough of all that ... except to mention that D is also for Donate/Donations ... there are Bushfire appeals and flood appeals to donate money and/or stuff to ... both for the people affected, and for the animals/wildlife/etc ... but I don't think I need to try and list them all here because those who want to Donate have probably already Done that, or Doing that ... or at least have the info from all the media coverage/etc ...

so ... time to Delve into the other D things I was going to post about (but kind of ran out of spare Days in the week to get around to actually Doing it)

D is for:

Dunlop ... is the suburb I live in ... I think it is probably named after Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop but I could be wrong ... if you want to have a look at my suburb - do a search for Dunlop, ACT, Australia ... or somesuch ... there is probably lots of stuff about it on the www ... and on Google Earth as well (I was just looking at our house on there a little while ago - lol) ... or you might find it by using location tags on one of those photo websites that has those.

D is also for Dog ... and Diesel - the name of our dog - lol

way back in the "Dim Dark past" (well ... about 16 years ago anyway) we used to have a Dog called Digger ... but I Don't have any Digital photos of him ... and I Don't think I could even find the right album of "real" photos that might have one of him in it, even if I Decided I wanted to Dig around in them and Do that at this hour of night ... I also grew up (for the first 8 years of my life) with a dog called Dobie ... even shared a bone with him once, according to my Mum - lol - I think she said I was about 2, and she looked out the kitchen window and there were the dog and I, out in the back yard, taking turns at having a chew on some Disgusting old bone ... and the dog was happily letting me take it from him and have my turn - LOL

I actually spent part of today helping out at a friend's Dog grooming salon - and spent most of the day there Drying dogs ... so Diesel was very interested in all the Doggy smells on my clothing/etc when I got home.

hmmm Diesel must have "heard" me type his name ... he just came in here and looked at me and wandered out again when nothing exciting was happening ... lol

Here is a (Dopey looking?) photo of Diesel:


That was in the back yard a few weeks ago ... and he is sitting on the Dirt ... but at least he is not Digging in it (although he Does Do that in one spot on the lawn sometimes ... I think he digs himself a cool spot to lie in, because where he digs is under a couple of bushes that hang over the lawn)

and ... the friend who owns the Dog grooming salon I was helping out at today just happens to have a puppy called Dawkins ... he also has another dog too and one or both of them often go to work with him and spend the day lying around in the salon ... I was helping out there one other day recently ... I think it may have been the same day as the bushfires in Victoria ... no (just checked date of photo) it was a week or so earler - but it was stinking hot that day too ... and I took a few photos of Dawkins Doing what Dawkins Does ... lying around looking Dopey - lol



he also doesn't seem to care where he lies and what he lies in ... yes he is somewhere in amongst this pile of hair that tends to collect under the table they use to brush and/or clip the dogs.



I guess some people would say that looks Disgusting? ... but Dawkins Didn't think so - he was quite comfortable thank you very much ... lol

btw ... as with the cat photos - there are more Dog photos on this other blog of mine (the one where I sometimes post a whole pile of dog and cat photos, but usually don't get around to posting anything to very often at all)

D is also for Dubai ... which is one of the United Arab Emirates ... there are lots of other countries and cites in the world that start with D ... but Dubai is one that, unless something Disasterous happens, I will actually be visiting in just over 4 weeks time! (I am taking some long service leave and going on a holiday, to Dubai and a couple of other places, with my Mum ... because Mum and I both have the travel bug ... but Dad and my DH (Dear Husband) don't ... so they can stay home and "mind the fort" while we go and see the world ... or a little bit of it anyway ... )

D is also for "Dingly Danglies" ... something else I like and DH Doesn't ... especially if they have bells or smells ... he even thinks ear rings are a waste of time/money ... and absolutely hates tinkly jingly stuff hanging from key rings or from anything he has to touch/use ...

and I know I have already mentioned that D is for Disorganised ... but ... in my usually Disorganised way of Doing things ... here is another (Disjointed - lol) bit on the subject (one that I actually got organised enough to paste in here back before it was time to post my D post, when I was here typing my C post and also started jotting some "D" ideas Down and then saved it as a Draft)
While I was typing my C post (the Day after I should have been posting this D post!) I was also reading a couple of blogs that I like to visit ... and I left a coment on a recent post on this blog

Her post was all about how she had been tidying up/organising her sewing room ... and this is part of the (rather long) comment I left on the post ... or I thought I left it there - it doesn't seem to be there so it probably didn't actually work (or maybe it was "moderated" off there because it was too long - lol - either way, it is probably better in here rather than taking up space in someone else's blog comments) anyway ... this is the bit that I did type in there and then copied and pasted here before I hit the button to (not?) add the comment:

btw - wanna come and sort my sewing room when you are done there? LOL

(I have been "in the middle of" sorting it out for a year or 3 ... or 5 ... now ... sigh ... am also currently moving a pile of boxes of fabric and boxes of other sewing/crafty bits/junk/stuff/whatever from under the pergola into the garage ... the original idea was to put them under the pergola for a few weeks until I sorted out the sewing room, then I could sort out/tidy up there as well, while I was at it ... but that kind of didn't happen anywhere near as fast as it was originally meant to and is still not going to happen that fast now (something to do with me always having some other stuff I want/need to sew and doing that instead, and the fact that I am going overseas for a month in about 5 weeks time ...) so now the boxes of fabric/craft stuff are going in a pile in the garage (where I might actually be able to sort some out during this winter) and the boxes of really weird crud are going to get sorted out (at least into 2 piles - "get rid of now" and "sort out later" - lol) and then the pergola might actually sort of look like a pergola and not a junk shed with the walls missing ... sigh - I really DO need a house with a granny flat or somesuch - so I can have a decent "studio" or something, rather than a sewing room that is actually an end of an open space that has windows on 2 sides, one wall, and open to the living area on the other side ...)

btw ... part of the reason I didn't get around to posting this post any sooner was because for the few evenings in the last week or 2 that I wasn't busy doing other things and might have spent catching up here, I just chekced/answered e-mail and then left my blogging until "later" because I was busy sorting out the pergola ... which is now a lot tidier and actually looks like a pergola again ...

... talking about the pergola ... I also usually hang the washing out under there (has a roof over it so it means I don't have to worry if it rains before I bring the washing in off the line - quite handy when everyone goes out to work or school or something and I often do the washing and hang it out in the evening and then take it off the line when I get home from work/etc the next afternoon/evening) ... and I have a load of washing to hang out now ... and it is now after Midnight and I have to get up fairly early in the morning.

oh ... just remembered one more thing b4 I go ... D is also for Doesn't work ... which on some peoples computers that will apply to that upside down thingy I had in my C post ... I thought it would work on most computers, but after looking at my blog on the one I was using at work the other day - maybe not - because it didn't work on that one ... it just came out as a jumbled mess - LOL

lol - ɹǝʇndɯoɔ ɹnoʎ uo ʞɹoʍ sǝop ʇı puɐ ˙˙˙ dn ʎɐʍ ɹǝɥʇo ǝɥʇ ʇı ʇnd puɐ ɹoʇıuoɯ ɹnoʎ dn pǝʞɔıd ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ɹo pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ uo ƃuıpuɐʇs ǝɹɐ noʎ ɹo uʍop ǝpısdn ƃuıpɐǝɹ ʇɐ ʞo/pooƃ ǝɹɐ noʎ ˙˙˙ sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ noʎ ɟı

... if you can't read the above paragraph ... then I guess it doesn't work on your computer - sorry ... lol

(-: ʇuoɟ sıɥʇ uı sʞɹoʍ ʇı ɟı ǝǝs puɐ 'uıɐƃɐ ʞɹoʍ ʇɐ ƃolq ʎɯ ʇɐ ʞool oʇ ɹǝqɯǝɯǝɹ sı op oʇ ǝʌɐɥ ı llɐ ʍou)
¿ʇuoɟ ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ɐ uı ʞo ʞɹoʍ ʇɥƃıɯ ʇı ʇnq

C

C is for ... a whole Collection of things (er ... so what's new? lol)
... Yes - it is ABC Wednesday time again, and we are up to the letter C

er ... actually - we were up to the letter C last week ... which is when I started typing this post ... but I didn't add the photos yet because this C0mputer Crashed and I decided to wait a Couple of days until it was up and running, with the image editing software that I like to use back on it ... but then I kind of got busy and didn't get around to logging in and adding the photos until now ... which is actually a day AFTER I should be posting my D post! oops? (yes ... I am Definitely going to include Disorganised in my D post)

I have thought of lots of C things but I Can't decide which ones to post about ... so I am probably going to Cover most of them to a Certain extent ... because I Can ... and I am Contrary ...

My original/first idea was to do a post all about Crochet ... but I have a few things I have finished over the last who knows how long and have not posted about yet, so I Could probably do 2 or 3 other blog posts about them ... but Could isn't the same as "I will do that this week" ... so it will just have to be "eventually" ...

I probably Could find a Crochet photo or 2 to stick in here anyway, but not sure if I Can find them ... because I am actually doing this on the other computer (which has a back up copy of my photos on it, but not the software that I use to play with them) and Currently I Can't do it on the main Computer (the one I usually use for photos/e-mail/posting to my blog/etc) because it got Cranky and Crashed (DH is in the middle of fixing it ... photos and documents were all backed up, but not my Crazy Collection of e-mail folders ... but he has got it working enough to back those up before he fiddles around to see what Crashed it ... probably just that it is a bit old and has been well used by 4 people who have put all sorts of C**p on it ...

C is for Computer ... well I think I have just kind of mostly Covered that one ... although I Could add that we have a few Computers in the house (a couple of very old almost dead laptops, and a couple of old computers that got replaced by better ones but they still work fine for what they now get used for ... in the Case of this one - for me to stick Copies of my photos on and fiddle with stuff here if someone is using the main one, and another one is Connected to the TV so we can watch a few odd things DH downloads ... motorbike racing stuff that doesn't Come over here to be broadcast in Australia and stuff like that) ... and yes - they are all Connected to the internet/each other (wireless networks are Cool). I Could also mention that I use Computers at work for a few things but I don't actually have one on my desk ... grrr ... means I have to Commandeer somebody elses when I want to look up stuff about Chemicals and stuff ...

that reminds me - C is also for Chemicals ... I get to use a few of those at work ... especially when I have to get out stuff for the students to do Chemistry lessons. I could list all the ones that start with C too, but I won't ... but I Could list a Couple ... like Caustic soda and Calcium Carbonate ...

C is also for Cat ... we have one of those (used to have 2 until a Couple of years ago) - and there are already a few Cat photos on this blog, and more on http://spot-theblog.blogspot.com/ (hmmm I just Copied that URL there - lol) ... I am sure the Cat is a bit Crazy ... and so is the dog - who also fits here because he is a Canine (Canis familiaris actually - lol) ... but he will get mentioned again next week when we are up to D because he is a Dog and his name is Diesel - lol.

... talking about the Cat and dog - C is also for Chunder ... which is what the Cat sometimes does after she eats a few too many "Crunchies" (a nick name for dry cat/dog food) ... she just happend to do that on the floor beside me while I was typing the first bit of this post (thank goodness it was in here on the tiled floor, not the carpet where the computer I normally use for blog posting is) ... so I grabbed the Camera (which, Conveniently, was on the desk beside me) and got a photo of the dog doing what he normally does if the Cat Chunders on the floor ... mmmmm recycled/second hand Cat food - LOL



er ... maybe it is also Convenient that you Can't really see what he is eating in the photo ... LOL

If you have a good look at that other blog, you will also find a couple of photos of the dog eating Crunchies, and moving his bowl across the floor and leaving it there ... and the other Crazy thing he does with his Crunchies is to decide he is a bit hungry when DH and I go to bed, or when we are in some other room of the house, so he will grab a mouthful of them and then come down to the bedroom/wherever we are so he is nearer to DH and I ... but he will get half way there and finish them and turn around and go back for more ... or drop a few on the way and go back to eat them ... and the other thing he will do is grab a mouthful of Crunchies and then notice that whoever is in the kitchen has some "people food" so he will drop the crunchies on the floor, eat whatever it is we give him, then eat the dropped crunchies off the floor ... he also prefers Cat food to dog food ... (probably because it IS the cat's food - lol)

Now ... what else was I going to post about? ... I am sure there are more things I Currently Can't think of ... but will Come to me later ...

I live in Canberra ... but I don't need to put a whole pile of stuff about that here because there is lots of stuff about Canberra on the internet - especially seeing it is the Capital City of Australia ...

... because I am a quilter and I live in Canberra, I am a member of Canberra Quilters, of Course.

I could mention Catching up - but I never seem to Catch up with all the sewing/crochet/etc I want to finish, or with all the stuff I want to post to my blog, or a lot of other things too ...

I Could also mention Crazy Quilting - because I have also done some of that ... even posted about it on this blog ... a Couple of years ago probably ...

One thing I do have to mention is that I have a huge Collection of all sorts of fabric/yarn/lace/beads/etc sewing and crochet stuff ... I Collect all sorts of junk ... and it drives DH a bit Crazy, and he gets Cranky ...

Oh and one more photo I found before I gave up trying to look for them on here - Christmas Cake ... slightly squashed, after somebody I know SAT on it at a Canberra Quilters meeting!



er ... would it be a Catastrophe or a Calamity if this post was a day or 2 late? ... it is bed time and the other computer is still in the process of being fixed and I have not put the photos in here yet - I just put [photo of ___ goes here] or whatever in a couple of places ready to add the photos later when I find them/upload them to the computer ... and I am not sure I will get to do that tomorrow after work because I have a Canberra Quilters meeting tomorrow night ...

... and I have not mentioned Creatures or Coffee or Cars yet either ...

(although I have used tags for those 3 things, so you should be able to use those to find my preveious posts that mention those things, just look for them in the list of "labels" in the side bar ... well - that is the ones I remembered to tag/label anyway - lol)

btw, I will spare you all and not put any pictures up of cankers, cold sores or casualty (not that I have any photos of those anyway) ... ditto with a few other things like Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and Colonoscopy and Cancer and other horrid stuff (guess who has just been watching the TV show "House"? LOL)

Ok ... that was where I got up to before this got "forgotten" for a week or so ... lol

Sometime during that week I took this photo of the Cat on the "Clam shell"



... the Clam shell (one half of a thing they sell as a kids sandpit/paddle pool/toy storage/whatever you want to use it for), and the ice cream containers in a row beside it (and a Collection of buckets not in the photo, because they were in a pile on the Concrete under the pergola) are what we use to Collect rain water off the edge of the pergola roof when it rains - then I water the garden with it a few days later - doing my bit to Conserve water ...

I also took a photo of the Chewed ball that the dog left on the lawn this week ...



C is also for Cactus ... we have a humungous ginormous one out in the back yard, that I seem to take a lot of photos of ... actually I think it is an Aloe of some sort ... but it is a succulent and has prickles so it fits into the sort of thing I grew up calling a cactus even if it technically isn't one ...
Now all I have to do is FIND one of the photos I took of the thing ...
Ah - here is a Cardboard Chewing Canine beside the Cactus:



er ... he looks pointy! - like he is trying to imitate the Cactus or something - LOL ... but I think it was just a fluke that he was in the middle of barking and happened to have his tail pointing straight behind him in the middle of a wag ...

While looking for a Cactus photo I also found something else I had forgotten about ...
C is also for Chip - as in fish and Chips (in Australia, Chips are what some of you probably call french fries) ... or Chicken and Chips ... which I think this Crinkle Cut one was from:



yes it really did have those brown spots that look like eyes - so I took it to work and hung it on the bookshelf (with a Cleverly Concealed pin) so that it looked like a mutant Caterpillar Climbing up there ...


btw ... I found this Crazy thing on someone's blog ... don't know how they did it, but it seems to copy and paste ok ...


So much fun ...

(: ʎɐp ǝɥʇ uı sɹnoɥ ʍǝɟ os ...


... probably some odd special characters or somesuch because it wasn't done with html code ... I was hoping it was - because then I could write whatever I wanted upside down - lol
Actually ... I just looked at the comments ... and found out how - you can do it at this website - http://www.revfad.com/flip.html

¡looɔ



¿n ɹǝʇʇǝl ǝɥʇ oʇ ʇǝƃ ǝʍ uǝɥʍ ʇɐɥʇ op plnoɥs ı ǝqʎɐɯ -
uʍop ǝpısdn ʇsod puɐ pɹıǝʍ ʎllɐʇoʇ ǝq uɐɔ ı ʍou



And yes, as I suspected - it is done by replacing letters with other ones that look like upside down versions of the right way up ones, and with the various special characters in Unicode ... like y is replaced with the upside down y (lambda) that is used in maths/science formulas and some of the others are weird symbols for various sounds used when they show the phonetic sounds in dictionaries/etc ...

and ... even weirder - I just found a site that "translates" whole websites into "upside down"!

- try typing my, or your, blog URL into here - http://flip.sytes.org/ and see what you get! LOL

hmmm ... evil thoughts here - LOL - I had an idea how to freak someone out totally ... like someone you share a computer with, or the person at the next desk if you work in a "cubicle farm" - wait until they leave the computer for a moment and go there and type in the google URL (or something else you know they go to a lot) and see what their reaction is when they come back and try to read the text on the screen ...

btw, I left the google page, backwards, on the screen about and hour before DH got home form work, and went to do some other stuff (I wanted to move some boxes of fabric and stuff into the garage before DH came home and parked his motorbike next to where the boxes were going) ... when he got home he came in here and said that the browser was messing up ... something in that site that it didn't like ... he said that those sorts of websites often have a virus in them, or it could just be that the web browser didn't like being left open on that sort of website (it probably uses some sort of dodgy java script to do the "translating" or something I guess, and I know that dodgy java script is good at crashing web browsers/computers) ... so if you go there it might be a point to first make sure your antivirus software is up to date and/or go there, "translate" whatever page into backwards, look at it and laugh ... then leave/close the browser rather than leave it up on the screen while you go tidy the sewing room/sort out the garage/make coffee/walk the dog/make a quilt/have tea/whatever ...

The next letter, which I should have posted something about last night, will hopefully be up here shortly ... (I intend to do that tomorrow evening/night ... but then I intended to do this C post last week ... so I guess it will happen when it happens ... ditto with the promised "crochet" blog post I think I mentioned earlier ... lol ... )