For the Benefit of Mr Kite

Just three more sleeps until the big day (c; I can proudly say that I have completed my Christmas shopping. The last present was bought at lunchtime today. I am much relieved.

In other news, I have a driving lesson in about 30 minutes which should be interesting. I don't really feel like a driving lesson but this is my last chance to drive the Mini Cooper S for the year.

Also, our handball team won a quarter on Monday night. It was very exciting. Of course it would be more fun if we won the whole game but we're starting move away from our reputation of pushovers.

I watched The Office last night on the ABC for the first time since I've actually started working in an office. I can't believe how true it is. I always just thought The Office was purely comedic but now I realise that it's a commentary on life. Only problem is we don't have a Tim in our office.

Speaking of work. Today is going slowly. I think it's because I'm cold. My body has slowled down in preparation for hibernation. Right now I'm contemplating opening the emergency packet of fruit tingles to see if that makes an improvement to the day.

Amanda

It's so exciting! Only five more sleeps until the big day. Everything is almost ready. We have bought almost all of the Christmas presents and those that we have bought have been wrapped. I have baked five different kinds of biscuit and I am currently divving them up. I have also bought some DIY bon-bons which I'm going to make up sometime this week. Finally, it's Tom's Christmas party on Thursday.

Speaking of Tom, his company is planning on updating their web site. They want it to be like this or this. Arrgghghghghgh! Poor boy, I think I'm frustrating him with my arguments against sites like these. I'm trying to be calm but their site is really not that good now and they only plan on making it worse. tsk tsk.

On a completely unrelated matter, Monday is $4.95 Roasted Chicken and Drink day at Subway. I'll be sad when this promotion ends.

Amanda

I feel a bit slack for not posting here for a while. Then again, I do have an excuse - I hurt my finger at Handball on Monday night. Unfortunately, its not broken just jarred. I do have a pretty cool bruise coming up though. It covers the underside of the bottom half of my finger and extends a bit below and to the sides onto my hand. I should take a picture of it before it disapates.

Tomas and I went to see another photographer last night. We were quite impressed with his work and very pleased with his pricing. One of the first things we told him was that we weren't after a album package and he seemed happy with that. This guy shoots on digital and was happy to just shoot our wedding, give us a set of proofs, and the images on CD. He even offered to charge himself out at standard commercial rates to us. Big ticks from us for that. Once we were finished he even offered to drive us to West End to get some dinner. All around a successful meeting.

Although we were really pleased with this guy, we'll still keep looking just in case. Though I don't think we'll find another photographer who will be willing to charge themselves out at commercial rates.

In related wedding news, I put my engagement ring into the jewellers to be cleaned and replated. Should be looking like new when I pick it up today.

Christmas is slowly creeping up on Tom and I. Our pile of presents is slowly growing though there is a notable lack of presents for some people. We haven't even made the puddings yet let alone the little biscuits and lollies.

Enough for now, must start working.

Amanda

To top off a fantastically productive day at work, Tomas has sent me a link to a Christmas Name Generator. This has kept myself (Tumbleflump Berry-Cracker), Julie (Cutie Brandy butter-Fairy) and Jodie (Cutie Kissy-Fairy) all very amused for about 10 minutes. Thank you Wriggly Monster Tummy (c;

I have thought of another thing that I would like for Christmas - the Astroboy Boxed Set.

Tomas has also been expanding his Christmas list. This time with artists whose paintings or giclees that he would like. Try for Alex Gross, Marco AlmeraGary Baseman, Glenn Barr or Winston Smith all of which are available at The House of Whack Gallery.

Whilst we're at it - I'm sure Tom would appreciate it if he received either John Safran's Music Jamboree or John Safran vs God.

Amanda - again.

I have just eaten a whole packet of Fruit Tingles. I am now experiencing a sugar high which is impairing my judgement of good and bad. Rather than do the good stuff - like my work for which I get paid - I am tempted to to the bad stuff - like staple ribbon to my chair.

I am attempting to resist the sugar high but I can see as the afternoon wears on things may get worse. My work mates are cowering in fear over in there corners of our pod. They know me all too well.

Amanda

Seeing as how Tomas is still taking no interest whatsoever in the Blog, I will post his list for him.

• Paper Mario
• The Chaser Annual
• The Chaser Subscription (you could probably also buy him the CNNNN DVD while you're at it)
• Classic Monopoly
• Good Bottleopener
• Good Corkscrew
• Cool Boardshorts (size 30/31)
• Workbench w/ clamps
• Jigsaw (powertool)
• Sunglasses
• Lions Jersey
• Maglite
• Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson
• Riedel O Wine Tumblers (be careful this site is very rude to you if you don't have your browser set up correctly or resolution right)
• Any of the Schlott's Miscellany series

Hopefully Tom crawl out from underneath his rock and embrace this new form of publishing to update his list with more things he would like.

Amanda on behalf of Tom

Is what Tom asked when I questioned if he was going to post to our new blog or not. I promptly called him a ludite.

I was going to post Tom's Christmas list for him today but I won't. Some could theorise that this is because I refuse to type up a post for him or that I'm punishing for being so tecnologically ill informed but the reality of the situation is that I left the list at home. I should have just left here on my desk last night and then you could all be enlightened as Toma's festive desires.

I tried to email a post to Blogger today but I don't think it worked. I'm sure that I used the right address and stuff but it's been five hours and nothing has happened. Perhaps the Blogger Email Posts Engine is asleep? Or maybe Blogger just hates me. I'm going for the latter. I've been trying for the past two days to get Blogger to FTP to our server at home. It's just not happening. It is possible that iprimus don't let external IP's FTP into their server and create/modify files but I think that Blogger just hates me.

I learned something new today, if you hold down Ctrl and scroll your mouse scroll wheel, all sorts of interesting things happen. Anyone who knows what I'm like with technology is probably amazed that I didn't already know this thanks to my particular style of learning how to operate things - press all the buttons in all the combinations and see what they do - but I haven't yet thought to combine input devices.

Speaking of input devices, what do you think would happen if you had Donkey Kongas plugged in whilst playing other Nintendo games? Or can you play Donkey Konga without the actual Kongas? An experiment to try when Santa stops by with my presents.

Today's Cryptic Clues:
It's one's job to progress rapidly (6) ---E-R
It is not shiny hair that's found on the bed (8) -----D-S

Amanda

As you are no doubt aware (being all-seeing, all knowing), I have been a good girl this year. It is now your turn to honour the age-old tradition of rewarding those who have been good during the year with presents at Christmas time. In order to assist you with this arduous task, I have compiled a list of things that will be gratefully received by me.

• new backpack
• watch (i like swatch ones)
• Donkey Konga
• new knives (i can't decide between Furi or Global - surprise me!)
• funky bracelets and necklaces (perhaps Mrs Claus could help you here, or the folks at Reverse Garbage)
• Japanese tea cups
• tea (for the tea cups of course!)
• bamboo (preferably living stuff for my verandah)
• perfume (Clinque)
• sunglasses and case
• tableware (nothing too big as we don't have anywhere to store it - a jug would be nice)
• Jamie's Dinners (new Jamie Oliver cookbook)
• baking dishes with lids
• sewing machine
• mahjong set
• SLR Camera

Thanking you in advance,
Amanda