A red-faced man wearing a mini-skirt was rescued by police on Sunday after he became wedged head-first in a clothing donation bin in an act of Christmas charity gone wrong.

A mural of pink pigs painted on the side of a barbecue restaurant is apparently too spicy for officials in this city's historic district.
 
The city has denied a permit to Janelle and Steve Carpenter, owners of the BBQ Shack, and the painting has remained veiled behind a white tarp since the restaurant opened last week.
 
But as the painting's neared completion, Carpenter said she was told that while painting a building is kosher, pigs and other objects are considered murals and require a permit.
[...]
She said the city's Design Review Board, which makes recommendations about exterior changes to buildings in the district, objected to the painting because it doesn't fit the district's landscape and because naked pigs might lead to paintings of naked people.

We went to Sorento today, and the kids had a play on the beach. Zoë, as usual, was all over the place and utterly fearless, and Miranda was interested but more reserved, especially once she worked out that the water was cold and that waves knock you down and the sand under your feet moves and you sink in...

We don't go to the beach, generally speaking. I don't like it much. I like to look at it, and the smell of it, but there's all this sand and it gets everywhere and the sand is frequently very hard to walk in and therefore tiring and well, I just don't enjoy it.

We went today, however, to meet up with someone I've known via the net for a while now. She lives in Sydney and was down with her family for a holiday. She's quite a lovely person, and Zoë just took to her immediately and dragged her all over the beach! I also found that this friend's husband is utterly charming, and I'm sure her kids are nice, but I didn't see them or talk to them much (they were busy mucking around elsewhere on the beach).

I did take a few pictures, dunno how well they'll come out, as I don't currently have a polarizing lens for the camera, but we'll see. I haven't even downloaded them from the camera yet.

I do ache all over (walking in deep, loose sand, ugh). I expect to feel better tomorrow, because exercise is always good for me, just not always on the day that I do it (FMS is weird sometimes, what can I say).

Anyway, there's my day in a nutshell. Hopefully, I'll have a couple of decent pictures to commemorate the day, as well...

Well, last week it was really hot, it cooled slightly for the weekend (but was still pretty warm) and now, it's actually hailing. Mind you, hailstorms are pretty common in Melbourne, we normally get at least one a year. Usually, they're not very severe, but they can be. This one appears to be of the milder variety, with small hailstones. It's actually already over (and the electricity didn't even flicker).

[Edited after ten minutes] And now, the sun is shining....

Me at my Gratitiously Cute best, I think. Not only is it a fairy, it's a terribly cute baby fairy. I've never understood how come I do "cute" so well, because I'm not really a particularly cute person (though I can be perky sometimes, it's kind of weird). I'm funny, I can be sexy (yes, I can), I'm intellectual, I'm artistic and geeky, but... cute? Well, I dunno. All I can say is that somewhere inside me lurks a closet cutie pie or something...

ANYway, the picture is now online at elizabyte digital art if you want to see it and witness my shamefully cutite pie side at work.

I took the train into the city yesterday and went to Andrew's office Xmas party, which was in Carlton Gardens (a rather large park in the heart of the city, not that Melbourne isn't full of parks, of course). I forgot to take the camera, which is a shame, because there were some good shots I could have gotten. Oh, well, I haven't put up the pictures I took last time I went into the city...

On the train, I was looking out of the window at the rooftops and various things in the suburbs I passed through and while the view from the commuter train isn't usually all that nice (you see a lot of the backs of things), sometimes it's not so bad. I was just watching and was suddenly overwhelmed with that, "Oh, I love this city," feeling. I really am in love with Melbourne, and I don't think about it every day, but now and then it just hits me, whoosh, just the way it does with Andrew (and I get that moon-eyed look and he says, "You've got it bad," which is also what I say to him when he gets that look on his face).

Anyway, I ended up walking far more than I wanted. I hurt my foot a couple days ago, something along the lines of pulling or misplacing a tendon or something, up along the arch of my foot. That seems to have resolved itself, despite all the walking (possibly because of it, though it was painful at the time), but my lower legs are very, very stiff today because I don't normally walk that much and besides, I was hobbling rather strangely, using muscles I don't normally use to walk. Thankfully, the rest of me feels okay other than a bit of a headache (I tell you, giving up aspartame/phenylalanine/nutrasweet/whatever was the best thing I've done for my health in a long time).

I did pick up a cool pair of sunglasses, a sort I've been looking for for years. They fit over your regular glasses! These are polarized and although it can be a little sweaty where the plastic touches your face, it's not a big issue. Mostly I like the eye protection and the fact that I don't have to squint. They were a bit pricey as these things go, but worth it, I think, and there's something so deeply satisfying about finally getting something you've wanted for a long time (I was thrilled when I finally found plastic coated cooking tongs, too, go figure).

We had a bit of a wander around Melbourne Central, which is being totally and completely revamped and redesigned. There's a Border's there now, yay, and it's got a Gloria Jean's coffee shop in it (yum, proper brewed American coffee; Melbournians don't seem to realize that you don't have to do it espresso style).

We also had Thai soup for dinner, very nice. We don't get Thai much because there aren't any Thai places out where we live in the 'burbs (Indian, Chinese, Italian, fish and chips, assorted sandwich shops, fast food of various kinds, but no Thai to the best of my knowledge).

It was very nice to have a day out without the kids. We haven't been able to do that much in the past couple of years while Andrew's parents were overseas, but now it's fairly easy to have the girls stay with them. When we haven't got the distraction of the kids with us, Andrew and I can still be quite, uhm, affectionate with each other. Not like, "Get a room!" type, but still, quite cuddly...

So anyway, that was my day yesterday and tonight I have to wrap gifts and tomorrow is Christmas. And on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas, for those not of the Commonwealth persuasion) we're going to go for a day trip somewhere, probably out in the countryside where there won't be hoardes of tourists and holiday makers. And I definitely will remember to take the camera!

I'm so glad that I happened upon this charming weblog, a series of letters from a mother to the unborn baby she's carrying.

Silence fell. By now
translucent
Gifts from heaven
burnt-edged pages. It was
Delight Shock
the most complicated questions
Bring sunshine into your life.

It's bloody hot today in Melbourne. Just thought I'd mention it. I have to bake cookies later, and I'm NOT looking forward to having the oven on. Well, at least the clothes out on the line are going to be dry in a hurry, eh?

Merry Southern Hemisphere Christmas, eh?

indiscriminate Appointments
Unfaithful bitches
Does money motivate you
remember your teen years?
You fell in love from the first sight?
dispelled
disillusioned
how did this happen

Yes, okay, so I've been on an Eagles kick lately (you should have seen me when I was a teenager, it was nearly obsessive back then!), but I came across these pictures of the Eages at Rod Laver Arena from last month and I thought they were pretty good pictures. This isn't the night we were there, but close enough. (It also lists all the songs they did in the set, in case you're curious about that, too.)

http://penisland.net/

Go on. Click it. You know you want to. (You may be in for a good surprise; I certainly got a good giggle! And don't worry, there's nothing rude there, honest).

The Policeman's Blog, written by an English police officer. Very interesting reading.

I don't think I've ever come out in public to say my personal feelings on the death penalty, mostly because my feelings on the subject don't really make any difference. I live in a country that doesn't have the death penalty, and the majority of the population here think that's a good thing (there are those who think it should be brought back, of course).

Well, I guess I'll say it now. I don't support the death penalty. It's not that I think vicious criminals should be "allowed" to live, it's that I don't think that anything like "justice" is achieved by killing someone. Nothing is gained, nobody is brought back, no one is saved, nothing is improved.

Add to that the fact that on average, one in ten times (in the United States, anyway) they get it wrong and put innocent people to death. Totally aside from the fact that vengeance is not justice and the fact that spending the remainder of your life behind bars in a high security prison is no picnic (probably worse than a quick and merciful death), inflicting a punishment that cannot ever be undone just seems to me to be a very bad idea. You can let someone out of prison if it turns out they were wrongfully convicted. You can't breathe life back into them (no more than life is breathed back into the victims of an excuted criminal).

Today, I ran across a blog entry that very eloquently discussed this subject. If you're interested in the topic (on either side), it's well worth reading, IMHO.

Once you get this picture in your head, it's hard to get it out.... *shudder*

Voting irregularities were few in Minnesota this year -- until it really counted.
 
Defeated Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry likely is going to get one less electoral vote nationally than he should have -- 251 instead of 252 -- because of an apparent mistake Monday by one of Minnesota's 10 DFL electors.
 
One of the 10 handwritten ballots cast for president carried the name of vice presidential candidate John Edwards (actually spelled "Ewards" on the ballot) rather than Kerry.
 
"I was shocked ... this will go in the history books," said Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, who presided over a ceremony that normally is uneventful.

Well. I went to the periodontist today. I have advanced periodontal disease (no surpise there). One of my front teeth has an abcess (that was a bit of a surprise; I knew it was unwell, but it's apparently quite far gone). Several of my teeth are loose.

I have to go tomorrow to my family doctor and get some orders for tests that the periodontist wants: triglycerides, cholesterol, and diabetes. No, I won't be surprised if it turns out I've got high cholesterol, nor will I be surprised by diabetes. I'll actually be surprised if I don't have high triglycerides, to be honest. I also need to get another full head/jaw x-ray done.

And then I need to go back about the third week of January with all the test results and x-rays to decide what can be done and how much it'll cost and how long it'll take.

I've already decided that if it's going to be too expensive (though we do have very good dental insurance, thankfully) or the treatment too lengthy (how much I'll just have to decide when I know more) or the prognosis too poor (i.e., we do all this work and spend all this money just to lose my teeth anyway), well, I'll just get them all removed.

Not too keen on that idea, but if it's going to be the best option, that's what I'll do, and there's no point crying over spilt teeth. Or something like that.

An Aussie in America compiled a nifty little Australian/American dialect comparison. Very interesting. I've done something vaguely like that in this blog, but it wasn't anywhere as extensive (or interesting) as this. So, hey, if you want to know what an "op shop" is or what you should call that last letter of the alphabet, give it a look.

Okay, THIS is too funny. Someone is selling their NEIGHBOR'S COUSIN'S GRANDFATHER'S DOG'S GHOST!

Still snickering here, for what it's worth. (Thanks to the thoughtful person who sent me the link *grin*)

Believe it or not, I have all my Xmas shopping done already. For me, this is nigh on miraculous.

I hate Xmas shopping, and so this year I did a bunch of it online. I ordered toys, chocolates, homemade candles, a book, it was pretty good.

When we went out this weekend, we managed to finish up the rest of it pretty painlessly, too. Very expedient, which is what I like. Go in, buy stuff, leave.

I even have some of the stuff already packaged up in gift bags and other such festive wrappings. Pretty amazing. I think I'm starting to get into this Christmas in Summer thing...

I just noticed that there are 1000 entries in this blog. Note that this doesn't cover all of the time I've been blogging, as I've changed blogging systems a couple of times and I also occasionally weed out this blog. But as of right now, there are 1000 entries.

Oh, make that 1001, I guess.

Well, I read on a research site a while back that phenylalanine (the artificial sweetner aspartame, known by the brand name "NutraSweet") can cause the symptoms of FMS to be worsened, particularly when taken in large doses. Since I did have a rather big Diet Coke habit, I thought maybe I'd stop taking it for a while and see.

Guess what? Avoiding the stuff seems to be helping. A LOT. I still have some level of pain and fatigue, but it's greatly reduced from what it was before.

I don't know if it's 100% because of the phenlyalanine, though. I've also been taking spirulina (which may be helping somewhat) and the weather has been pleasant and warm, which also tends to help.

I think when my current supply of spirulina is gone I'll experiment with NOT taking it and see how it goes... Or I'll keep taking it and reintroduce the phenlyalanine and see what happens, but at this point I'm very happy to just avoid the stuff, even if it means I have to get my caffeine fix elsewhere (a nice strong cup of tea with a non-phenlyalanine sweetner seems to do the trick, and I really needed to cut back on my caffeine consumption anyway). If I don't feel like having a full-sugar soft drink, I just have water, which I quite like to drink anyway.

Hell, for all I know the increased water intake is helping, as well. Whatever it is, I'm very pleased to be in less pain.

U.S. special operations forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq warned defense intelligence personnel not to talk about the alleged mistreatment they saw, according to a government memo to a top adviser of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

I've long believed that the U.S. Patent system is extremely screwed up. They give out patents that should never have been granted, they have patents that conflict with each other, the examiners don't have a clue what half the stuff they're examining even does (stuff like complex algorithms, for example, or some kinds of computer-based processes), they appear to have no idea whatsoever how to check for "prior art" (i.e., if it's already common practice and therefore undeserving of a patent), and I could go on.

And if you don't believe me, just read Patent Prescription, wherein it notes, quite correctly, that when a major jam/jelly manufacturer sues a small grocery store in a small town over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, "We have reached the point where serious lawyers are being paid serious fees by a big company to shut down the PB&J operation of a grocery store."

Just thought I'd pass on this link, in case anyone might be interested: spamfaq.net.

The situation in Iraq is unlikely to improve anytime soon, according to a classified cable and briefings from the Central Intelligence Agency, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Now here's an interesting weblog. This woman has the uncanny ability to read people and tell if they're lying, and her blog is fascinating.

A woman's effort to assuage her 6-year-old son's fears of his grandfather's ghost by selling it on eBay has drawn more than 34 bids with a top offer of $78.

Just got this spam caught in my spamtrap:

Get supper Sized bonni!

The other night, Andrew's father said grace before dinner and he used the little prayer that Grandad always used to say. I hadn't heard anyone use it since his death, and it actually brought a little tear to my eye...

It's funny how these little things remind you. Sometimes something like that will sneak up and remind me of my grandmother, too. Her favorite hymn, a piano playing a certain song or played in a certain style, sometimes something simple like a flower that reminds me of her in some way.

I think grief eases after a while, but it never completely goes away. It's like a longterm injury that just now and then flares up to remind you.

The world's first known piece of printed pornography, described as the "quintessence of debauchery," is expected to reach up to 35,000 pounds ($65,040) when it is auctioned next month.
 
"Sodom," penned in the mid-1670s, has been attributed to John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester and is described by auction house Sotheby's as a "closet drama rather than for the stage" with pornography "in almost every line."

Early modern print culture is my kinda blog. History! Literature, art, but all history! Wheeee!

Well, I'm going through that oh-so-tedious process of reinstalling all my software now. Ugh. Very annoying and very frustrating.

The good news is that it was a relatively simple task to format the c: partition and reinstalling the operating system. That part, at least, was relatively painless.

The not so great news is that I seem to have lost my bookmarks (I was sure I had them backed up, but apparently not) and the reinstallation process is time-consuming, frustrating, and annoying.

I still haven't figured out how to make Windows recognize my monitor, and it won't allow me to increase the refresh rate, argh. I had to set the screen res to something other than what I prefer because the flickering of a too-slow refresh rate was giving me a headache.

So anyway, the long and boring and tedious process of reinstalling stuff has begun. I'm pretty annoyed with it, to tell you the truth, but sometimes this stuff has to be done. If I could just find the drivers for my video card (rather than using the default ones), I'd be a lot happier about the situation, because maybe then I could fix this idiotic screen resolution and the damned annoying flickering....

I'm going to have to blow away my C drive and reinstall Windows from the ground up. Not sure what happened, but something's very seriously screwed up. I started to notice it when using Photoshop, and it just got progressively weirder in little ways. I've tried everything else Andrew and I can think of and every reasonable suggestion I could find on Google, and it seems it's just something corrupted that needs to be replaced and after hours and hours and hours of trying to figure out what the problem is, I'm pretty much giving up and going to do a reinstall. Bleah. I hate that, I really, really do. All those programs to reinstall, ugh. Not happy, but I'm afraid it's got to be done...

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