a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

I will be starting my next NaBloPoMoHo (Ho stands for Holiday!) as of tomorrow so stay tuned! (If I can get these darn photos in order!! Eeeek!)

You will be taken on a Journey from coast (west) to coast (south) to coast (east), hearing stories of a red mustang, seemingly endless roads, stunning desert sunsets, a blurry week on a lake, giant mosquito bites, (on Hubs, not me!!), ginormous BBQ ribs, fabulous accents, a big park in the middle of a big city, and so much more.

Hope you enjoy the ride as much as we did! Yee-haw!

Posted by Renae at 1:41 PM Comments

Following on from this post, Nate told me about the following clip. Had to had to HAD TO share with you all. It's so freakin' cooooooool!

Posted by Renae at 12:46 PM Comments

I was just sitting here at work and I noticed that my engagement ring was a bit dirty so I gave her a bit of a clean and now she's sparkling once again. I think Hubs did a brilliant job choosing my engagement rings.

The first one, with which he proposed, is a Puzzle Ring. For those of you who don't know the story, Hubs took me aside while we were on Day Camp, where we had met 7 years prior, and gave me the ring, and after proposing, said "Life with me is going to be full of challenges." He then took the puzzle ring apart and said "and here's your first one." It was a LOT of fun putting it back together again (after declining kind offers from the 12-year-olds in my group to "help") and I wore it proudly. I was engaged to the most amazing man on earth and he had given me a beautiful ring that was gorgeous and nerdy. Just like him. What more could a gal ask for?

A few days later, he presented me with this:



A platinum, tension set diamond ring. It is stunning. It really blew me away then, and I still catch myself admiring it. A lot.

Again, it's a bit nerdy, with the tension setting, and Hubs chose it because it was so different and because it is, I'm sure he would say, "teyodally awesome".

And it is. I love it. Thanks honey x x

Posted by Renae at 11:59 AM Comments

Durdlin passed on the "torch of crunchiness" (is that right???) and I have to blog about 7 things that make me awesome (crunchy? I don't know...) This torch was passed to me 2 months ago and I've been trying to come up with a list that's a nice blend of humour and grace - kind of like me! HA!

So here goes:

1. I can make people laugh. Generally. Even if I have to resort to fart jokes.

2. I sometimes accidently snort when I laugh (and sometimes I do it on purpose)

3. I'm fabulously employable. See?

4. I can dance to 80s and 90s music for 4 hours at the Turf Bar and know almost all the lyrics and all the dance moves to all the songs

5. I can eat ice cream with my front teeth and laugh at people watching me, saying "aaaaaaaw how can you dooooooooo thaaaat?"

6. I can wiggle my ears

7. I use stars when I'm hand-writing dot points

Nothing terribly ground-breaking but they are some of the things that make me me.

I'm supposed to pass it on to 7 more people, but how about I just let you all in on my comments and you can tell me 7 reasons you're "crunchy" that way.

Posted by Renae at 10:29 AM Comments

I've been doing a bit of skipping lately - of the exercise variety, rather than as a way of getting from A to B - and really enjoy skipping to music. I have found, however, that most songs are too fast or too slow to skip in time to, and when I want to do 250 skips at a time, it's hard to keep count if it's not in time to the music.

The BEST song with the most suitable skipping-tempo that I have found is "Don't Worry, Be Happy". It's perfect! Not too fast, not too slow, AND it's easy to count the number of skips I do in groups of 8.

So can anyone find a song with the same tempo as this?

CHALLENGE!

Posted by Renae at 2:03 PM Comments

You may have noticed that I've already changed the colours on my template a couple of times. I'm just not happy with it. I think I liked my original one so much (apart from the lack of NavBar and the inability to fix the "problem") that now I'm being picky about the new template. I just can't seem to get the colours right.

I'll keep fiddling. I may even change the actual layout...

Posted by Renae at 2:29 PM Comments

So we were at the table last night during formal dinner and Hubs and I were talking to our good friend Liza about things we've lost. I put Hubs' keys in a VERY safe place before we went to the USA and now I can't for the life of me remember where that safe place is. Grrrr. Liza told us that she let her 3 year old son play with her wedding rings which she has NEVER done before, and sure enough within an hour they were also put in a safe place. (This is going somewhere - stay with me!) She ended up finding 2 out of 3 of the rings, but her wedding ring is still hiding somewhere.

Wifey: "maybe our keys are with your ring, and they're busy making KEY RINGS!!!!" HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!! (I'm getting visions of Lucy from Peanuts roaring with laughter at my wit!!)

Posted by Renae at 10:10 AM Comments

Last year I talked about how Hubs was playing Stars Footy. Well, he's at it again! They have played 2 games so far. The first game was against Kendall College - these poor guys have to travel an hour to get here, they only have enough players to run on (no subs) and they get beaten (not as convincingly as you might expect) by a mob of Newman players who think it's funny to do the "Braveheart Run" at the start of a play.

It was a fun and exciting match and the lead was shared by both teams before Newman came away with a win. There were a lot more kicks and marks (where you catch the ball on the full after it has been kicked at least 10 metres. I think that's right) taken which made it a good spectacle. I won't mention how freezing cold it was on the sideline, as I'm sure the players felt the chill in only their singlets and (short) shorts. Like last year, they had more players on the bench than on the field, so Hubs only got about 15 minutes of game time. He had a great time though!

The next game was a bit less thrilling for Newman unfortunately. We were up against a very strong Ormond team and even a goal off a Braveheart run couldn't save it for us. There were fewer subs this game and Hubs had a really good run. I was so proud! A "brawl" at the end finished the game 1 minute and 34 seconds prematurely (I was timekeeper) but it may have been for the best!

I took some photos at the first game, but they pretty much looked the same as the ones I took last year! I'll try and get some more at another game. There should be a couple more to come.

Go the Stars!!

Posted by Renae at 3:15 PM Comments

So I FINALLY got around to choosing and modifying a new template! Ta daaaaaah! Hope you like it! I'm not 100% convinced it's the best it could be colour-wise, so any suggestions (within reason) will be considered.

Enjoy!

Posted by Renae at 11:22 AM Comments

On Saturday night, Hubs and I were invited over to dinner by our friends Rohan and Miya. Hubs and Rohan study together. Miya is half Japanese, and they treated us to a Japanese dish called Shabu Shabu. And as Hubs put it "It wasn't just a meal, it was an adventure!"

We got to cook our own fresh ingredients like carrot, cabbage, fish, tofu, spinach, spring onions and bean sprouts and noodles and "fish" them out when they were done! Then we placed them in our sauces which were ponzu sauce with spring onion, or sesame sauce (my fave!) and then onto the rice. I can still taste the yumminess of it all! And it was so healthy as well! Just boiled ingredients and tasty sauces. I wanted more and more but just couldn't fit any more in!

We then finished off the meal with a lovely self-saucing chocolate pudding and some of my choc-dipped strawberries. It was a lovely evening with new friends and we can't wait to go on Rohan's Dad's yacht some time in the near future! (Now you HAVE to take us! Ha ha ha.)

Here's a photo from the evening - check out the awesome set-up!



And hopefully a photo of Rohan and Miya to come (cos I forgot to take one of them on the night - I was distracted by the food!!!!)

Posted by Renae at 12:10 PM Comments

I've been meaning to blog for AGES about my sewing ventures, but there haven't been many exciting ventures to blog about. Mainly clothing alterations and mending really. Last weekend though, we replaced a few rubbish bits of furniture (we were using a single bed as a couch) with some much better bits of furniture (a couch!!) including a bigger desk so Hubs and I both have work spaces. My sewing machine is now much more accessible and I'm much more enthused to use it.

And here she is:


She was a wedding gift from very good family friends of mine and I just LOVE her!! Ahem... I keep referring to her as a "her" but I don't have a name for "her" as yet. These things take time!

Anyway, back to the story.
Hubs: "Wifey, can you please make me a pocket thing to put my pens and notecards in?"
Wifey: "Well I AM still going for Wifey of the year, so sure!"

I started thinking about a leather case with denim interior (cos I love the 80s) and in my head it looked awesome. Would have been tricky to pull off though. Then I came across an old satchel thing that I got for free at a conference and started imagining how I could re-model it! After some stuffing around, I got to work on it last night. But then I had no elastic so I told Hubs:

"I'll have to finish it over the weekend once I have elastic."
Hubs: "Aaaaaaaaaaw but I reeeeeeeeeeally would like it nooooooooooowwwwwww. Don't we have any elastic lying around that we could use?"
Wifey: "Hmmmm... well there DOES seem to be some elastic holding my tracky-dacks up! Maybe I could use that!"

So I'd like to say I very carefully picked out the piece of elastic from the waist-band (it was floating fairly freely - only sewn in 1 spot at the seem) but if you know me well, you know that when I get an idea in my head, it has to be done NOW NOW NOW so I butchered my waistband, but luckily I still had a draw-string so it was all good! And the elastic was PERFECT!!!

Once I finished making it, and Hubs was suitably pleased, I personalised it, just so he doesn't get it mixed up with other people's.






(I love that I can sew hearts at the push of a button and a stomp of a foot!)

And of course Hubs' comment at the end:
"You could make heaps and we could sell them on eBay!!!!!!!"
Wifey: "hmph."

Posted by Renae at 1:52 PM Comments

I never used to like her. I thought she was crass and, let's face it, a little skanky. Singing rude song with rude lyrics - she just wasn't a singer I was in to. In fact, when my cousin's told me they were going to see her live a few months ago in Brizzie, I kind of scoffed a bit and thought "better you than me."

But, surprise surprise, I've changed my mind. I do this a LOT, mainly with small decisions and generally insignificant things in my life.

I love Lily Allen.

Okay. I love her music. I find her lyrics witty and charming and clever and HILARIOUS. Even though she sings some rude songs, I now find them endearing instead of offensive. Hubs included her album "It's not me, it's you" on our playlist for driving across the states, and now I just can't get enough of it. I currently have one of her songs in my head, with my favourite line:

I don't want anything more
Than to see your face when you open the door
You'll make me beans on toast and a nice cup of tea
And we'll get Chinese and watch TV

Doesn't that just paint the sweetest picture? Who WOULD want more than that?

We've been listening to her other album Alright Still since we've been home, and Hubs prefers that album, but I think cos I cut my teeth on "It's not me, it's you", it has become my favourite. Hubs and I (particularly Hubs) like that she still has her common British accent when she sings - dropping her "t"'s (Everyone's at it becomes everyone's aa ii; better becomes beh-ah etc). Hilarious! I'm glad I was open-minded enough (eventually) to give her music a good listen. It wouldn't be everyone's taste, but it's certainly mine!

Loving it!

Posted by Renae at 4:05 PM Comments

Okay, so as you can see I've already failed at NaBloPoMo round 2. There are just so many photos I need to go through, and I want to do a good job of documenting our trip, so bear with me and I'll try getting it up and going in the next week or so!

In the mean time, Hubs and I bought 2nd hand bikes yesterday and we love them! More biking adventures to come!

Posted by Renae at 9:47 PM Comments