Pets

(06:34) Someone set the alarm far too early. Jumped out of bed in a panic & twisted ankle. #

(06:44) Jumped in the shower. I missed, landed on the soap. Other ankle now throbbing. #

(07:09) Walked out front door to grab morning newspaper. #

(07:10) Eyelid meet bee. Eye now swelling. #

(07:11) Bastard paperboy has got the paper in the damn bird bath again. #

(07:15) The same someone who fiddled with the alarm clock has now set the toaster to the 'burn like a crisp' setting. #

(07:16) Forgot to buy coffee, will have to settle for water. #

(07:20) Toothbrush is now black from the charcoaled toast. #

(07:25) Where the hell are my keys? #

(07:29) Tackled dog rugby style after chasing him around the coffee table. Have managed to recover them, albeit full of dog saliva. #

(07:30) Apparently keyless entry into your car doesn't work after being chewed into a black ball of plastic. #

(07:31) Hit head when entering car. Maybe this is why keyless entry was invented? #

(07:43) If you are going to have a road-rage episode, choose wisely. Now sporting a growing fat lip to match my bug bee-eye. Note to self: Don't abuse a boxer. #

(08:17) All car-parks now taken due to the time lost with the boxer. Have to park 4 blocks further away from the office. A great workout for sore and swollen ankles. #

(08:33) Remember the umbrella even if the weather report says there is little chance of rain. #

(08:53) Finally in at work. #

(08:56) The company provided International Roast is a poor substitute for coffee. #

(09:05) Coffeeeeee annnndddd keeeyboardddddds donnnnn't mix. #

I've placed a bunch of photos up in our gallery for you to all take a peek at!

You will find a bunch of photos of our Pets there, and in particular of Duke...  our newest addition! 

It's been a while since my last blog entry.

There has been a few reasons.

1. Haven't been on my computer much.
2. Had the flu for three weeks.
3. Purchased a 42" Plasma TV and setup a HTPC to keep all our movies/music/photos on!
4. Had a few weeks of on-call support for work.

Rest assurred -- I'm still alive! 

I'll be posting more this week, including:

• An update on Duke (our new dog!) -- with more photos (coming -- I promise!)
  
• Details of our HTPC
• Details of the new computer I've just bought -- with hardware virtualization -- allowing me to run Windows and Linux at the same time with no performance loss! 
• A post on the new version of SuSE Linux 10.1 -- that will be the main driving OS of the new workstation (and powering Xen).
• A posting on the new 2.0 Beta of Firefox....   that now includes a spell checker and anti-phising tools!
  

If there is anything else you would like me to write about ... let me know! 

We've got our new puppy! 

He arrived about 2-3 weeks ago so we've been having fun with him most of the time and haven't had much time to post up here (add to that .. .being on call two weeks straight!)

He's a real cutey!  Take a look: 



I've uploaded a few pictures of him to our photo gallery.   You can view them here.

Duke was given to us by my sister.   Her dog Susie (Labrador) mated with a Golden Retriever/German Shepard.  It probably explains the very unusual markings he has.

Currently he's about 13 weeks old... and still very puppy!

He starts puppy school tomorrow night... so that should be exciting!

Chistmas Day we headed down to Little River to celebrate it with Pauline's side of the family.

Unfortunately not everyone could attend (Christine, Michael and the kids, as well as Barry, Diane and the kids all couldn't make it).
Besides some people MIA, it was a great and fun day by all that attended.

It was a relaxed and enjoyable time for all. The usual 'Cini Feast' was layed out. After lunch the exchange of gifts occurred and several undertook a game of Bocce.

Feel free to click on the photos to see an larger version of each.

Pauline and I rose late in the morning on Friday...
Rather tired and emotionally drained.

We decided it was not the best idea to mope around the house so we headed out after brunch for the day.

We'd been greeted by a lovely cloudless morning that soon had clouds rolling in for the afternoon, though it was still warm and if not a little humid.

We packed some fruit, made up some drinks and filled the car up with a tank of fuel and pumped up the tires.
We had to get out of the house, out of the city and enjoy some time reflecting on the good times we had with Jessie.
So the idea was to head up to Woodend, and look at Hanging Rock.

We bundled up the highway, taking our time, looking at the scenery and stopped at Woodend for a look around. Found a nice country fruit and veg shop and purchased some strawberries for the afternoon.

We stopped and had a bite and a coffee at a nice diner and just relaxed. Once refreshed, we headed up to Hanging Rock.

We drove up there... realised it was like Fort Knox (with a fence and electric gate to match pentridge!) and entry was going to be $8.00 for the car. It was already around 3:30pm, and we didn't see it as good value so we turned around.
(It's a national park that our tax dollars fund and I still need to fork out to walk around the bush. It's a natural reserve... the animals are all native, so why the funds?), It's pretty poor when you need to PAY to see a few trees and a rock.

Not to put us off.. we'd already been enjoying the day, so we thought we would head over to Daylesford, the home of the alternative lifestyle, the kook, mineral water and spas.

We cut through Woodend to Daylesford and stopped off at the Trentham Falls on the way.


It was a great place for a toilet break and just to enjoy about bit of natures beauty in a very natural waterfall surrounded in Aussie bushland.

Daylesford is a nice little town, though it's charm has been lost in the last 10-15 years as many from the city have moved in.

One of the killers of the place has been the erection of modern cottages and condos in a rural Victoria city.. that is surrounded by gorgeous country cottages. I've never seen worse eye sores!

We stopped in at a collectibles store on the main road, who have loads of 40, 50, 60's and even some 70's memorabilia.

We saw tonnes of Elvis, Beatles, The Monkeys, Beety Boop, Ford/Holden, Kiss collectibles... as well as a a very large Coca-Cola collection.. featuring all types of Coke stuff, from original yoyos, bottles, money boxes, Santas and the like. I even saw a Coke bottle that looked more like a glass 600ml milk bottle!

We spent some time down at the Daylesford Lake and even took a walk around part of it. By then it started raining and was approaching dusk quickly, so we called it a day and headed back home.

A relaxing day after such a stressful week. It was great to spend some time alone with Pauline outside the hussle and bustle of normal life. Something we need to do more of...

We had to put Jessie down yesterday. We'll miss our as she had become one of the family.

She gave us so much joy to every day. She didn't last a long time but she had a good time. She was one of the happiest dogs I have ever known. She always loved to meet people, dogs and even the occasional cat!

Her idea of aggresive was to attempt to lick someone to death.

We're still coming to terms... as it is so .

R.I.P. little Jess. You were here on this planet far too short, but you made every day count... and brought everyone that knew you so much joy. Jessie 16/1/2001 - 27/10/2005 (4 years, 9 months, 11 days)

Jessie at 3 months (in Pauline's arms)


Jessie at 4 months


Jessie at 15 months


Recently (7/10/2005)

The Vet has just called.

He's recommended we put her down.

Unfortuantely it's the most humane thing at this stage. They have run out of options.

We're heading in to see her for the last time.
I'll post more later....

I thought I would stick a photo of Jessie up here.

Seeing I'm not seeing her as much as usual... I'm finding photos help.


This shot shows Jessie chewing on one of her favourite toys. She loves soft toys... and can sit there for hours just suckling it!

Yup... that face and eyes of 'Who me?'

Hopefully we see her back here shortly the place feels pretty empty without her.