Will in Benalla...
Me and Amelie taking a dip
Jo, Amelie, Will and James square up.
Lawn? What lawn?
Pittosporums not loving the heat either.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Hot
A week in the forties, and then the hottest day ever recorded in Melbourne. What else to do but go for a swim with friends, and watch the plants die...
Will in Benalla...
Me and Amelie taking a dip
Jo, Amelie, Will and James square up.
Lawn? What lawn?
Pittosporums not loving the heat either.
Will in Benalla...
Me and Amelie taking a dipJo, Amelie, Will and James square up.Lawn? What lawn?Pittosporums not loving the heat either.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
December events (and some from November and January)
A few things to catch up on since last time...
Steve turned 40 in November - happy birthday mate! It was our first night out with Amelie and she got pretty grumpy, and Jo ended up in the car feeding for half the night. It was at a winery out west, but it was hard to come across a glass of the stuff (or at least hard to catch a free waiter anyway, others apparently didn't have a problem). But he loved his present - a custom engraved Pullman tamper.
Bri and Cec's youngest son Tom had his second birthday on the 13th of December, giving us a glimpse into the future. Rule 1 from now is "No Wiggles. Ever."
Nick and Sarah had their fabulous wedding just before Christmas (20th), featuring a magician and a mariachi band. I was invited to do a reading, On Marriage from "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran. A couple of people said I read it well, so it can't have been too bad.
I did find out later (thanks to a copy of the book that Anne has) that one line goes: "let there be spaces in your togetherness". Which frankly makes a lot more sense than "let there be spades..." as it was printed in the order of service, and which I subsequently recited.
wait... a photo of me!!! (above, on the left)
Christmas was at our place - lunch for 16 in the family room, and a pile of presents that nearly buried the tree. Lot of generous gifts for me, lots of toys to play with! - video camera, Navman, and Amelie even bought me a home stereo. Not sure how a 2 month old baby afforded that... :o| It took a couple of trips to the electronics shops to get all the cables I needed, but it is all set up now. For starters, we just have a pair of speakers and a receiver, but the latter is a home theatre 5.1 unit, so we can add more speakers later as (or if?) the funds become available.
For our wedding anniversary (2 years on 30 December) we went shopping for an eternity ring. Please tell me there aren't any more to come... plus after Jo's fingers have swollen post-pregnancy, so the others needed resizing. Spent the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens where we were married, having a little picnic. Another (very small) wedding was happening across the lake, and while Jo was off in the loo, Amelie decided to cry the place down waiting for a feed... hehe.
New Years Eve/Jo's Birthday (32) was another home event, pretty relaxed and quiet with a few friends over for a BBQ and drinks. Jo even let herself have a glass of champagne at midnight! first drink in about a year for her!
We spent two nights at the King farm after New Year to catch up with (uncle) Tom and (auntie) Beck. They are going well. I had bought Tom a Presso (manual espresso maker) for Christmas, which we had some fun playing with and making a few shots. Meshy managed to fall into the dam, and ended up white on the top half and grey on the lower half. Otherwise it was a good getaway, though I'm pretty exhausted, and looking forward to getting back to the office for a rest.
Steve turned 40 in November - happy birthday mate! It was our first night out with Amelie and she got pretty grumpy, and Jo ended up in the car feeding for half the night. It was at a winery out west, but it was hard to come across a glass of the stuff (or at least hard to catch a free waiter anyway, others apparently didn't have a problem). But he loved his present - a custom engraved Pullman tamper.
Bri and Cec's youngest son Tom had his second birthday on the 13th of December, giving us a glimpse into the future. Rule 1 from now is "No Wiggles. Ever."
Nick and Sarah had their fabulous wedding just before Christmas (20th), featuring a magician and a mariachi band. I was invited to do a reading, On Marriage from "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran. A couple of people said I read it well, so it can't have been too bad.
I did find out later (thanks to a copy of the book that Anne has) that one line goes: "let there be spaces in your togetherness". Which frankly makes a lot more sense than "let there be spades..." as it was printed in the order of service, and which I subsequently recited.
wait... a photo of me!!! (above, on the left)
Christmas was at our place - lunch for 16 in the family room, and a pile of presents that nearly buried the tree. Lot of generous gifts for me, lots of toys to play with! - video camera, Navman, and Amelie even bought me a home stereo. Not sure how a 2 month old baby afforded that... :o| It took a couple of trips to the electronics shops to get all the cables I needed, but it is all set up now. For starters, we just have a pair of speakers and a receiver, but the latter is a home theatre 5.1 unit, so we can add more speakers later as (or if?) the funds become available.
For our wedding anniversary (2 years on 30 December) we went shopping for an eternity ring. Please tell me there aren't any more to come... plus after Jo's fingers have swollen post-pregnancy, so the others needed resizing. Spent the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens where we were married, having a little picnic. Another (very small) wedding was happening across the lake, and while Jo was off in the loo, Amelie decided to cry the place down waiting for a feed... hehe.
New Years Eve/Jo's Birthday (32) was another home event, pretty relaxed and quiet with a few friends over for a BBQ and drinks. Jo even let herself have a glass of champagne at midnight! first drink in about a year for her!
We spent two nights at the King farm after New Year to catch up with (uncle) Tom and (auntie) Beck. They are going well. I had bought Tom a Presso (manual espresso maker) for Christmas, which we had some fun playing with and making a few shots. Meshy managed to fall into the dam, and ended up white on the top half and grey on the lower half. Otherwise it was a good getaway, though I'm pretty exhausted, and looking forward to getting back to the office for a rest.
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
More baby pics
Yes, I'm turning into one of those people... (We had a little DIY photo shoot on the weekend. Don't think I'm ready to make a living out of this just yet, but they're not atrocious...)
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Farm
A family weekend at the King farm... just a few photos.
Amélie is becoming more responsive, smiling occasionally and giggle once in a while (mostly in her sleep). She is sleeping quite well through the night, but can be grizzly some days - wanting food every hour or so.
Usmeshka loved playing with Cody (knocking him over constantly), but Spud wasn't so happy to see her. She was also fascinated by (and a bit scared of) the cows.
Amélie is becoming more responsive, smiling occasionally and giggle once in a while (mostly in her sleep). She is sleeping quite well through the night, but can be grizzly some days - wanting food every hour or so.
Usmeshka loved playing with Cody (knocking him over constantly), but Spud wasn't so happy to see her. She was also fascinated by (and a bit scared of) the cows.
Sunday, 26 October 2008
Amelie
She's here!
Amelie Elizabeth King
Born 23 October 2008 at 16:42
3970 g, 49 cm
So far she is about 3 days old. Day 1 started with induction and the obstetrician breaking the waters, which was a good thing as there was some meconium in the amniotic fluid. About 8 hours of labour which was pretty tough on Jo - started OK but was pretty bad by the end as she hadn't used the epidural button enough. Nonetheless she did a wonderful job and we have a beautiful result. Only a little vacuum assistance was required to manipulate her head around, as Amelie was getting a bit tired by the end.
The first couple of night were sheer hell, though she was a little better last night after she started getting a little jaundiced (possibly a side-effect of the vacuuming), and we topped her up with some formula as she hasn't been sucking properly. All signs are indicating that breastfeeding should return to normal shortly.
Thanks to everyone for their kind messages, and thanks to all the visitors for coming to say hello. We should be home tomorrow if the jaundice has settled down.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Not long now!
39 weeks and counting down!
Not too much else happening, just some work around the house.
If you squint you can see the air-con units installed above the carport.
I also added a couple more sections of clear roofing to allow more light into the nursery.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Babies!
Yes, Jo is getting bigger of course. Will post a pic when I take a good one.
We visited Jacqui and James and met 4-day old William last night. Very cute.
And on the flipside: Meshy got spayed last week and has been wearing a bucket. Here she is doped up on morphine. Surprisingly she has adapted to the collar pretty well - normally she's pretty stupid, but she did figure out that she can get up the stairs to the decking without getting stuck - ny turning around and going backwards! very clever.
We visited Jacqui and James and met 4-day old William last night. Very cute.
And on the flipside: Meshy got spayed last week and has been wearing a bucket. Here she is doped up on morphine. Surprisingly she has adapted to the collar pretty well - normally she's pretty stupid, but she did figure out that she can get up the stairs to the decking without getting stuck - ny turning around and going backwards! very clever.
Monday, 25 August 2008
Sweet home Chicago
So I'm back from overseas - again! Just under 3 weeks in the US, leaving Jo at home alone (well, apart from the zoo of animals that our house is), while I visited some lab sites and conducted a couple of training courses for new Leica field service engineers (FSEs).
First things first - long haul flights suck. No way around this fact; business class makes it slightly more tolerable, but 14 hours in the air is still 14 hours. More interesting was the leg from LA to Orlando, which (despite being up the back end of the plane in an economy seat) gave me a chance to see a broad sweep of the US. If it weren't for the coast-to-coast haze of smog, I'd say it was really beautiful. The west side is all mountains, deserts, wonderful erosion gullies and tectonic shifts. The south east is all lush farm land, irrigation circles and a precision grid of roads.
Florida from the air is just amazing - not for the land itself which is truly, dreadfully flat, but for the huge mushroom-cloud storm cells that our pilot weaved between to navigate a safe passage.
The first leg of the trip was 5 days in Florida, checking out some of the labs we have instruments in and seeing how they are going. Mostly hung out with an FSE , Thad, and I watched while he did any necessary repairs. Friday night we went downtown for a meal and to hang out on Wall Street, which is a bar district that gets fenced off for the night, an '80s cover band up one end and beer vendors on the street. Church Street was an eye-opener. Every pretty girl in town is dressed in a skimpy outfit, plonked on the street, and hired to spruik the wall-to-wall line of bars and clubs from which you can apparently get the cheapest drinks in town.
Thad and I spent a Saturday at Islands of Adventure, which is the ride park next to Universal Studios in Orlando. The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster is definitely a highlight, though despite the accelerations and loops, I still have a craving for more of that freefall feeling of classic coasters. There's nothing like the rattling and flat corners of the Big Dipper to truly terrify you.
After that I flew up to Chicago to commence training some new FSEs. 7 days for the new guys, and 3 days for an advanced course (it's fun being the expert when I've only been with the company for a few months...)
In between training, a few of us spent a Saturday in Milwaukee, and Sunday in Chicago. Milwaukee was good - a great, cheap brewery tour and a quirky bike show. In the home of the Harley you don't really expect to see Vespas, KTMs, BMWs and Ducatis wheel to wheel, but here they were. Naturally there was a good representation of choppers and hogs as well.
Chicago turned out to be a day of waiting. 90 minutes for the train. 1 hour to get up Sears Tower, and the view was pretty dull (dead flat). 45 minutes for a pizza. Half an hour for a tour bus... so we missed a few sites I wanted to get to - the Museum of Art to see the impressionists, Daley Plaza, and so on - so while we did see Buckingham fountain (from the Married with Children opening credits) we missed all those places you recognise from Ferris Bueller and The Blues Brothers.
Which leads me nicely into last Sunday's gathering - home again, and Nick's fiancé Sarah was in town, so the usual uni gang gathered at our house for a video afternoon of... yes, The Blues Brothers. OK, so half of us have seen it at least 30 times, but it's still great fun. Even better with good company.
Things at home are good. Jo is getting bigger, as is Usmeshka (whom, thanks to one of my trainees who has a Russian background, I can finally pronounce properly). Meshy has been at school but isn't getting much home training, lazy us. Jo and I were at school too - prenatal class this weekend (with one more class next week). I'm sure nothing can really prepare us though.
til next time, toodles all!
First things first - long haul flights suck. No way around this fact; business class makes it slightly more tolerable, but 14 hours in the air is still 14 hours. More interesting was the leg from LA to Orlando, which (despite being up the back end of the plane in an economy seat) gave me a chance to see a broad sweep of the US. If it weren't for the coast-to-coast haze of smog, I'd say it was really beautiful. The west side is all mountains, deserts, wonderful erosion gullies and tectonic shifts. The south east is all lush farm land, irrigation circles and a precision grid of roads.
Florida from the air is just amazing - not for the land itself which is truly, dreadfully flat, but for the huge mushroom-cloud storm cells that our pilot weaved between to navigate a safe passage.
The first leg of the trip was 5 days in Florida, checking out some of the labs we have instruments in and seeing how they are going. Mostly hung out with an FSE , Thad, and I watched while he did any necessary repairs. Friday night we went downtown for a meal and to hang out on Wall Street, which is a bar district that gets fenced off for the night, an '80s cover band up one end and beer vendors on the street. Church Street was an eye-opener. Every pretty girl in town is dressed in a skimpy outfit, plonked on the street, and hired to spruik the wall-to-wall line of bars and clubs from which you can apparently get the cheapest drinks in town.
Thad and I spent a Saturday at Islands of Adventure, which is the ride park next to Universal Studios in Orlando. The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster is definitely a highlight, though despite the accelerations and loops, I still have a craving for more of that freefall feeling of classic coasters. There's nothing like the rattling and flat corners of the Big Dipper to truly terrify you.
After that I flew up to Chicago to commence training some new FSEs. 7 days for the new guys, and 3 days for an advanced course (it's fun being the expert when I've only been with the company for a few months...)
In between training, a few of us spent a Saturday in Milwaukee, and Sunday in Chicago. Milwaukee was good - a great, cheap brewery tour and a quirky bike show. In the home of the Harley you don't really expect to see Vespas, KTMs, BMWs and Ducatis wheel to wheel, but here they were. Naturally there was a good representation of choppers and hogs as well.
Chicago turned out to be a day of waiting. 90 minutes for the train. 1 hour to get up Sears Tower, and the view was pretty dull (dead flat). 45 minutes for a pizza. Half an hour for a tour bus... so we missed a few sites I wanted to get to - the Museum of Art to see the impressionists, Daley Plaza, and so on - so while we did see Buckingham fountain (from the Married with Children opening credits) we missed all those places you recognise from Ferris Bueller and The Blues Brothers.
Which leads me nicely into last Sunday's gathering - home again, and Nick's fiancé Sarah was in town, so the usual uni gang gathered at our house for a video afternoon of... yes, The Blues Brothers. OK, so half of us have seen it at least 30 times, but it's still great fun. Even better with good company.
Things at home are good. Jo is getting bigger, as is Usmeshka (whom, thanks to one of my trainees who has a Russian background, I can finally pronounce properly). Meshy has been at school but isn't getting much home training, lazy us. Jo and I were at school too - prenatal class this weekend (with one more class next week). I'm sure nothing can really prepare us though.
til next time, toodles all!
Saturday, 19 July 2008
getting bigger!
The nursery was done a few weeks ago but I never got around to posting photos. A lick of paint around the picture rail and window frames, and some furniture starting to appear.
The belly continues growing... This is at about 5.5 months:
As does the dog. She now has a full set of adult front teeth, next to go are the canine teeth. She is off to school starting next week for a bit of discipline.
I'm off to the US for nearly 3 weeks soon, for work, leaving Jo and dog and cats all alone to fend for themselves! I will be training some new service engineers for a couple of weeks, and visiting some sites to check how they are using our machines. In anticipation of travelling, we went and bought a new camera today - a Panasonic DMC-FZ50 - which isn't the latest or greatest thing on the market, but I think it should meet my needs adequately (the temptation to get an SLR was strong but I resisted...). I should get back the GST when I go travelling. Also bought a carry-on bag for taking on the plane that should be a bit more presentable in business class than a grotty old backpack.
More baby shopping also - clothing clothing and more clothing! Guess it will all get used at some point though. And there's still lots more stuff to buy. Still waiting for the pram we ordered to come in to stock in Australia...
The belly continues growing... This is at about 5.5 months:
As does the dog. She now has a full set of adult front teeth, next to go are the canine teeth. She is off to school starting next week for a bit of discipline.
I'm off to the US for nearly 3 weeks soon, for work, leaving Jo and dog and cats all alone to fend for themselves! I will be training some new service engineers for a couple of weeks, and visiting some sites to check how they are using our machines. In anticipation of travelling, we went and bought a new camera today - a Panasonic DMC-FZ50 - which isn't the latest or greatest thing on the market, but I think it should meet my needs adequately (the temptation to get an SLR was strong but I resisted...). I should get back the GST when I go travelling. Also bought a carry-on bag for taking on the plane that should be a bit more presentable in business class than a grotty old backpack.
More baby shopping also - clothing clothing and more clothing! Guess it will all get used at some point though. And there's still lots more stuff to buy. Still waiting for the pram we ordered to come in to stock in Australia...
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