Shiney new house

So, the cladding is all done. Although the house really doesn't look any different in this photo, I can tell you it does look different close up. There are a few out standing jobs

• clean up the weather boards
• sweep every where (there are tiny bits of scrap all over the place)
• put new bits of wood around the bottom of the house, to stop the dogs getting under there
• put the window edges back up
• wipe all the workers finger prints and general bits of 'grub' of the house

but on the whole it's done and it looks good.

OMG! What an oversite!

I just looked through my site for a link back to the website I found out about this idea off and realised I DON'T HAVE ONE!

So here is one

This has been a great project and I recommend you go to this site, find out all about it, and start your own list!

P.S. This site has been vastly updated since my last visit, I have added my list to it, but I still think my site is way better

Mid-term review - one road trip for another

Old Task:Go on a road trip holiday with the ‘girls’
New Task:Have a road trip to SA, geocaching along the way
The group of 'girls' I had in mind for this trip isn't really going to work out anymore, so I am ditching this one.
To keep with the travel them I will replace it with a task that relates to my newly acquired hobby of geocaching!

Mid-term review - out with the decos, in with the jacket

Old Task:Make Debbie Mum Christmas decorations
New Task:Make jacket to go with skirt from course
Although I went to quite a bit of trouble to get the patterns for these decorations and I still really like them, I would rather invest my sewing time and energy into other projects at the moment. I think I will end up making them... eventually... but defiantly not in time for this challenge.

The new task is for me to make a jacket to go with the skirt I have made for me pattern drafting course.

Mid-term review - stealing

Old Task:Finish tracing Kats Calendar pics
New Task:Make Mum and Kate a pattern of their choice
This task really was just plagiarism and stealing at it's best worst anyway, so it's probable a good thing I am getting rid of it.
So to make up for it a first hand go at doing something with my own hands! Also, this puts the skills from my pattern drafting course into practice.

Mid-term review - snow

Old Task:Go skiing every winter of this challenge time (if there is snow)
New Task:??
Given that I have made very little effort to go to the snow at all whilst doing this challenge (with the exception of with the dogs) I can safely say this task will not be achieved. Also, given how crap my hip has been, I know I would get very little out of a skiing trip at the moment, even just a day trip. So......
A new task.... Make snow cones? Eat yellow snow? I'm going to have to think about this one.....

Mid-term review - snobbed

Old Task:Invite Rowan round for tea
New Task:??
In a bit of a similar way to task 60 I have had a go at this one. Said guest wasn't too keen and is very busy (snobbed!). Also, now that I have made that analogy, it seem silly to have two such similar tasks on the list anyway! I guess it was a that end of the list when I was struggling a bit of ideas! (as I am again now, so I will get back to you with a new task)

personal development

I have learned a lot about person development and myself in the last how ever long. I spent a few months, after last years awful fire season, going to one of the work councilors. In a way this was quite helpful, if not perhaps as helpful as I would have liked. I ended up digging up a whole lot of 'family' stuff I really would have preferred not to discuss and came to a few helpful realisations with regards it. I also came to a few other helpful conclusions with regards the sort of solution to my 'problems' I have been looking for and once again, have decided not to be so tough with myself. I also discovered and acknowledge what I find helpful and unhelpful about counseling, which I think will be of benefit if I go down this path again (which knowing me I will). I have banished two words for describing myself, as they are damaging

• Black and white --> now decisive
• Anal --> now particular

So hopefully the people out there reading this who actually know will agree that progress has been made. As with many things in life, this task will never actually be complete, as life is a continual improvement process and no one is (or ever will be) perfect!

Sort of defeat

In a way I am admitting defeat on this one, but in another way it has been completed. As I said at the start, I have actually invited Neil's Mum around for dinner a couple of times, and she hasn't arrived, for various reasons.
In fact since then she has come round quite a few times, just none of them have been for dinner.
So yes, she comes round, but apparently not to eat.... even though Neil is a great cook... who can explain it.... I will continue to issue periodic invites and who knows, one day it might happen!

Mid-term review - Re-wording 23

Old Wording:Get the hang of VB
New Wording:Get more experience with programming VB and Perl

At the time I wrote this list, I didn't even know Perl existed, let alone know I would need to find out about it. I am never going to be able to or need to become a programmer, but in the last few years I have exposed my self too and become at least moderately proficient in code reading, it not writing. This has proved to be more helpful than I would have thought.
I would not say I have the 'hang' of either languages, but I do have a lot of reference material and know a number of places on the web to find more, hence I am calling this task done!

Mid-term review - task replacement 65

Old Task:Pave the front Porch
New Task:Insulate and re-clad the house

Our house is weatherboard. Given that both Neil and I grew up in double brick houses, we find it rather warm in summer. It also really needs painting, which is a task neither of us were really looking forward to. There fore, I went to the home show a few months ago with a mission, find out about windows, insulation and cladding. The cladding man I happened to meet up with sold steal weather boards. These are somewhat more expensive than the plastic variety (unsurprisingly), but they do last forever (well almost!). I had to be quite insistent with the man, but I decided we would rip all the weather boards off, put insulation in the walls, then have the new boards put on top. This way, the windows don't end up looking all sunken in and crap. Anyway, the job is nearly done now, and it's ended up being WAY bigger than paving the porch, so I think it's ok to replace this task with the weather boards.

Mid-term review 2

The end date for this project is now seeming rather oppressively close! Here we are, already, at the 2nd review of my list. (OK slightly late, what who would know unles I told them...)
Moving along, The tasks that were still in question from the last review were:
30. Make Debbie Mum Christmas decorations
38. Watch list of movies created
42. Watch all of Angel again (0/5)
64. Get a christmas tree
72. Go skiing every winter of this challenge time (if there is snow)

As tasks 42 and 64 is now done, I think we can safely say I won't be removing from the list.
Given that I haven't been skiing once during the challenge so far, I think I must replace 72.
38. is progressing, so I think it can stay.

Of my "Hard to measure" task, I have resolved half (3and15) and have now come up with solutions for the others (will post soon)

Next on to this review.....

Tasks that my not be able to be finished in the available time:
2. Visit an active volcano
8. Finish Celtic Winter
11. Acquire and Read next Diana Gabeldon book
32. Go to either Tasmania or New Zealand

Not sure what to do about these ones... I might have to look at the 101 in 1001 web site and see if it has any suggestions.

Tasks I'm just not interested in any more:
30. Make Debbie Mum Christmas decorations
55. Go on a road trip holiday with the ‘girls’
65. Pave the front Porch
72. Go skiing every winter of this challenge time (if there is snow)
82. Finish tracing Kats Calendar pics
96. Invite Rowan round for tea

I will replace the above tasks

Tasks that need a bit of thinking about:
43. Do 6 thinking hat course
44. Do lead lighting course
46. Book us into and complete a ballroom/social dancing course
60. Invite Neil's mum to tea
67. Make the effort to visit Mum and Dad 3 times a year
69. Go to 3 comedy festival events in one festival
70. Go to 3 other events at different festivals
89. Make tangible (ie: noticeable to other people) progress towards controlling my temper

tree

I was soooo close to taking this one off the list, then this evening I decided to make a paper tree. I looked at the sewing machine and all the scrap calico lying around and decided I should make a material one, then I could paint it. So, I did that ad then spent ages looking around the house for my green paint. Couldn't find it any where, but I did find some green canvas that I started making a jacket with about 15 years ago. I decided that it would be fine to use that, as even if I did ever finish the jacket (unlikely) it would never fit anyway. Anyway, here is the finished product!

Belly dacing - the only sport I am built for

I know it was a while back (aka July) and I sort of indicated that I would go on a course and everything, but I am just having a bit of a look at the state of my list, and I am very keen to mark a few off, so.... This one is done, I might put a belly dancing course on the next list.

Puppies

Well, as I'm sure you have seen on my other blog, the puppies have arrived! They are very cute, growing fast and are a lot of sleepless nights.

lighting

While Neil was away a went to a light shop and bought two light fittings for the finished study and nearly finished bed room. I didn't unpack them til he got home in case he hated them. I knew this one would be safe, as it really matches with the bookshelf lights.
I was less sure about the other room, but it turns out he doesn't hate it, so it can stay.
Of course all light fittings in this blog post were fitted by an electrician*

*not qualified in any way

Angel bites the dust

Looking back now, these watching TV tasks really are a bit lame. But anyway, Neil is away at the moment, so I am getting some fairly serious TV watching done. I think this is attributable to my 'not liking being by myself' issue. This is because having the TV on means my brain doesn't focus on the fact that it's only me and the dogs in the house. I really do find that at about day 4 or 5, I really start needing to talk to people. The weekends are the really difficult days for me. Also, I am really reminded of being in Mildura, which was a particularly lonely time for me. Hmmm, bit of a side tracked post!

Books - 2 gone

49. A lady at work decided that there should be a swap library on our floor, so I decided to donate some books that I didn't really like of mine. I thought I had heaps. Turns out there were only two. Oh well, better than nothing!

Pleasant night out

The other night I had to drop some Intimo off. Rather than have one or other of us travel the 28 km we live apart, though really crap traffic, we decided to meet in the middle and have dinner. We went to the Magic City restaurant in Camberwell. This is a "Pan-Asian style" restaurant, which while I felt this was a little odd, the food was quite good. Nice sized dishes, tasty, but a bit expensive for my liking (remember: tight-arse speaking). Anyway, the company was excellent and of course, the Intimo is not dropped off and that's the main thing!

VCMC dinner

The food here was very nice, but a rich for me. I was sitting next to a bloke who worked for SKM, thankfully and perhaps surprisingly, I hardly bagged SKM at all, that was lucky! I had many beverages, a freaky crab entrée and a beef cheek (really fatty) main (bit disappointing). Desert was yum, mini cakes (chocolate, blood orange tart and creme caramel).

edit: Just noticed I didn't mention that the restaurant was called Matteo's.

Announcement

Introducing my new task 88: Have a dry month. I drink a bit too much, and I'm sure it's not helping my overall weight loss. So rather than have some poxy weight loss goal, which I would just make my self feel bad about if I never got too (sorry all those of you our there who have a weight loss goal, it's nothing personal) I think this is a better haw to approach the problem, and it's probable better for my liver too.

Footy

I am now a true Melbournian. I have been to a football match,the came was Hawthorn v's Sydney - (Hawks v's Swans). I went with my Aunt, who cos regularly. I'm not sure I could very have that sort of commitment. I must say it was better than I thought. It was quite good to hear all the cheering, although I can't relate to the booing, that just doesn't seem right. Here is a picture of the players:

And here is my pie:

Cos as you know (or if you didn't, you do now) you must have a pie, with sauce at the footy.

Filing - Done, enough

Well we finally decided to purchase some off the shelf software for the catalogue of DVD's and I think this has been money well spent. This software allows you to enter the barcode of the DVD, off the packet and is searches it's DB to see if it is already there. If it is, it downloads all the information bout the movie (actors, crew, dates, packaging, regions etc) and WOW the DVD is added. If the barcode isn't there, which to be honest happens a bit, and you know, we live in Australia, and there just arn;t that many people here, you can type in the title. It then searches every instance of that title in it's DB and you can pick the entry closest to your (ie cover packaging) and change any details that differ, in most cases, simple the region! Very smart!

So as I said, done-ish, there are a few really odd ball DVD's that Neil has that I would have to enter from scratch, so I have decided to delegate these to Neil, after all, they are his, and call this task done! Now all we have to do is stop buying more! RIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

Better late than never

This was quite a few days ago now, but I haven't gotten around to posting until now. Neil and I went to the Don Vincenzo restaurant on Brunswick Street on the way home from work. We were running really late home, it was raining and we had no food at home anyway, so I suggested stopping. The food was really very tasty. I had the special lamb pasta and Neil had the special gnocchi. Both were excellent, the place was reasonable priced and a very pleasant dinning experience.

Booked in

I have booked in with my Aunt to go to the 'footie'! Will let you know how it goes :)

sliped through the radar

Ages ago, when I got my most recent Radley back I also go a little cloth of Radley Creme treatment stuff. I was frugal enough to make this one cloth put heaps of cream on both my large Radley bags. This actually seemed to turn out OK> So therefore, this task is done

Mostly Alive

This is the mostly alive herb garden. Sorry, I know it's not great, but it was the best I could do!

CoCoInc

This was a quick stop on the way home from Spotlight, but the menu looked so nice and I was so hungry it turned into lunch. This turned out to be a great idea as not only was the Tapas menu quite extensive, it was also very good value, cheep even! All round: recommended, they have yummy chocolates and their hot chocolate was great.

all warm, except my arms

This vest is finished, along with a whole load of booties. My arms are a bit cold, but the rest of me is toasty! :) Pic to follow

~~ time passes - Louise forgets about this post ~~

foods I don't like: Soft cheese

Never been a fan of Camembert and all it's soft cheese friends, it looks to squishy and yuk, so I have never tried it. The other day I was in a shop and there were many sandwiches to choose from, but most of them had chicken in them, so the selection I would eat was actually really small. The only vaguely nice sounding one had ham, mustard, other stuff and Camembert. I had to risk it, as I was starving. It turned out to be quite nice (I have now had the same sandwich a couple more times, it's still good)
Anyway, to cut a long story only a tiny bit shorter, I wouldn't eat a chunk of it, but I won't avoid it if it's in some thing else (like risotto, which I have already tried, it was good.)

15

I am not normally a big spender on food. It's just something you have to do, but should involve chocolate, when ever possible. Anyway I noticed that, depending on how you count these things, the 31st of April would be our 15th Anniversary. So I booked us in for a romantic dinner a 15 Melbourne. It's lucky I spent a few weeks psyching myself, as it was quite expensive, but it was also very classy food. No my only wish is that restaurants that charge half as much, would start serving similar amounts of food, as each dish was a good size that you could eat with out feeling like you ready to roll home after the entrée.

one room down

I forgot to mention, as I have been posting this stuff on my 'usual' blog. So please go a head and read there about the whole project

4 inches and others

47. 4 inches of shit from my bookshelf, including instructions for games I haven't played in years, a 2003 prospectus from Melbourne Uni for post-grad study and heaps of ArcGIS stuff for versions no one uses and more.!! Yay
48. Some food I found in my room, that we don't eveen want to talk about was sooooo far past it's used by date....

Motorcycle group ride

OK, so it's true that when I thought of this task, I had only envisaged a ride with me Neil Scott and one or two others I could scrape up, but when the BMW Club "Circum Vic Major Mitchell Trail" trip came up, I decided it was two good an opportunity, as I had always wanted to do the Major Mitchell Trail too! (shame I never made that a task on my list really!!)
So we have been and come back, it was a huge week, and mostly it was fantastic! I really enjoyed it and will seriously think of doing another one. Here are my posts about it.

Justin came from here

Went Kate wanted a cat we went out to the Australian Animal Protection Society in Keysbrough. When we got there, there were so many cute cats, I decided I needed to get one too (Yes I am that hopeless). Both the cats were already microchiped and we were meant to make a donation, on top of their purchase price, for the microchip. Neither of us could afford this. At the time I said to my self, "I will make a donation when I have a proper job and spare money" I now know that even when you have a proper job, there is no such thing as spare money..... It's taken me while but I have made my donation.

Temper

Wow, I didn't think I'd ever make headway on this one, but I was having a conversation at work the other day and someone said they had noticed I had been putting in a lot of effort on this! Yay :) Now we just need more people to notice. It's a hard one, cos everyone notices when I'm pissed, you'd have to be blind deaf and really stupid not to, but who notices when you're not! I mean that's the point, to not be pissed, so know one knows that you are trying not to be. Oh well, keep up the good work me!

foods I don't like: Capsicum

keep trying it, still don't really like it. Its OK mixed in with lots of other food and when it's small. Yep, I'm still fussy.....

gone

Ages ago (try more than 15 years) I bought some roller blades of a friend. I have used them probably 10 times during the intervening years. I have put them on Darebin Freecycle and they will be being pick up on Friday.

46. Roller blades

Finally

This change was meant to go through months ago, and finally it's fixed. Yay Happy Me :)

What this means, for those not in the know, is that I now have a new boss! In practice, I have had one for ages, but I am soooo happy that it is now real as far as the 'system' is concerned!

Recipe acquired

A colleague at work gave me a huge bag of lemons the other day, and I mentioned to him my lemon meringue pie task. He have me a couple of really great recipe, a hard one and a cheats one, I think I will try both, but not until the weather is cooler (we just had 4 43ºC plus days)

And the winner is....

Thanks to the people who voted on my poll, it was very exciting wasn't it?!?!? The final out come is that you guys all felt that the mid term review task was a great idea (I knew you would ;)) and I have added it to the list at number 33. Happily is it now half complete, what with me having already done one! :)

So, a new task is still required for number 88, but I still think things are going along swimmingly.

Other final results from the mid-term review are I have decided to keep tasks 30 38 and 42, that I was a bit dubious about, I am still undecided about 64 and 72, I think they will go! I will continue to think about them and will probable kick them out at the next mid-term review!

Thanks again for watching ;)

List complete

I have decided to declare the list at the bottom of the page of moves COMPLETE! I don't guarantee that there might not be a few more additions as time goes by and I think of them, but it's done. The way it works now is they go bold when I get them. So when the whole this is bold, task 38 should be done too.

Motorcycle ride

So here is the route, roughly, for the motorcycle ride Neil and I are booked into do in March

View Larger Map
Clearly the task needs to be re-worded from 'day' ride to something else!

The Gertrude Hotel

Today was a VERY hot day. We hung around at work til 7pm on the vague hope that the temperature would drop before we had to walk all the way to the car. It didn't.

So we found a nice looking venue, that sold beer, and had dinner. Neil's was much nicer than mine, but the staff were lovely, the venue was nice, they even had cider on tap and we shall go there again. I just won't order the prawns again.

task 27, new Introduction

I have a lovely vest that I started last winter. I really need to finish it, and since a number of other task have now been finished, purely because they were on this list and I need more tasks marked off, I thought I'd add this project!

Introduction to new task

Clara is my Scottie dog. She is quite lovely. We are having a go at trying to get her 'up the duff' and have some puppies. Last time, we did some AI, and there were no puppies. Next time she comes into season, we'll have another go. If that doesn't work, it's off to the shop (for shop, I actually mean to a breader, cos buying dogs from shops is bad)

Mid-term review - progress so far

OK, now that I have had a serious chance to think about it, here are the remaining out standing issues from the Mid Term Review (hmmmm do you think I can get away with making two mid-term reviews into a task? I think yes. Vote now! You have til the end of the month (see below))

These task may or may not go. I will have to have a bit of time to think about it.
30. Make Debbie Mum Christmas decorations
38. Watch list of movies created
42. Watch all of Angel again (0/5)
64. Get a christmas tree
72. Go skiing every winter of this challenge time (if there is snow)
I promise to get back to you on these soon!

These tasks are now empty and need to be replace, feel free to make suggestions:
27.,33.,88.
(wow, weird about 33 and 88 both being double numbers!!!)

Mid-term review - task change 19

Old Wording:Spend a whole day in front of the Telly
New Wording:Host a 24 hr movie marathon

Spending a whole day in front of the telly was I used to do a lot, and found really enjoyable. Now it just seems like a complete waste of time. I'd much rather read, do cross stitch or (more commonly) play on the computer. So I have decided that if I host a 24hr movie marathon, publish the program before hand, and invite lost of people to some or all of the time, this means it's more of a social event. We'll see!

Mid-term review - task change 1 and 88

Old Wording:1. Make the list of 101 things
                     88. Write into for each task (some doubles allowed!)
New Wording:1. Make the list of 101 things, including introductions

Lets face it, 88 was always a bit lame. The only reason I made that task was, as you can see, it was towards the end of the list and I was having trouble thinking of tasks. The only 'issue' I can see with this whole Mid-term review is that I am going to have the same problem again as I re jig tasks and again come up with empty spaces in my list!

Mid-term review - task change 32 and 33

Old Wording:32. Go to Tasmania again
                     33. Go to New Zealand
New Wording:32. Go to either Tasmania or New Zealand

Given that time is ticking away, and tasks 22 (the new version) and 13 I am planing on completing this year I think it would be hard to fit two holidays into the last year of the challenge, there fore I am combining these two into one.

Mid-term review - task change 26 and 27

Old Wording:26. Plant lemon tree
                     27. Plant olive tree
New Wording:Plant a lemon or olive tree

Since the list was created, we have decided that there may be major works in the back year and also there was the afore mentioned 'issue' with the garage. So this means we now don't know what happening in the back yard, this then means that I don't really want to plant two trees in the back yard, only to find they have to go or be moved in a couple of years when we finally decide what and where we are doing things to the house in general (oh the joys of home ownership!) Anyway, I reckon I can squeeze one tree in the front yard, which won't change, so I'll do that instead.

Not sure yet what I'll re-place no. 27 with.

Mid-term review - task change 22

Old Wording:Move Justin back in
New Wording:Have puppies or buy another dog

When I made the list, Justin had only just moved to Kate's house. It ended up takeing him best part of 6 month to settle in. He is now 8 or 9. Kate and co don't actually want him to leave. I feel very guilty about this, but I think he might be better off with them.

In the mean time, we have been trying to have puppies with Clara. Last time was a miss, which was very disappointing. We are going to have one more go, next time Clara is in season, sometime in the next few weeks. If that doesn't work, Clara is then getting a bit old to be a first time Mum, so I will then just have to buy another dog!

Mid-term review - task change 21

Old Wording:Move all Neil’s things (not counting garage)
New Wording:Move all Neil’s things (especially garage)

This one has changed, because at the time of creating the list, I have not thought that the garage was going to fall down. As it has, and we have now replaced it. I am beginning to think it will be more likely that the garage will be moved before the rest of the 'stuff'!

Mid-term review

To all of those out there that work for government,
As you know, reviewing things is very important in government. To that end, as I am now a third of my way through this challenge, I thought I should review my progress.
So, 666 days to go and in theory, according to the tracker at the top of my page, I have only completed 26 tasks, which is only ~25% of the challenge, BUT (there is always a but with me) I have been silly enough to create a number of tasks that consist of many parts! When you take into consideration all the parts of tasks I have completed, I am actually 56% through the list (this even surprised me! I can supply the maths if you don't believe me). In the spirit of reviewing and resetting goals and base lines and shit, another thing that is also very important to government, I am going to 'regig' some tasks.

There are a few tasks I feel I simple can not achieve, and some others I feel could be replaced with more worth wile things. I am going to have to do this from home though, as my spiffy spread sheet that tracks my 101 in 1001 is at home and I forgot to email it here to work, were I do all my.... 'work'.

Here is a preview:
These are a bit like cheating, and probable should be all combined in some form or other
1. Make the list of 101 things (101/101)
88. Write into for each task (some doubles allowed!) (101/101)
53. Make post for each completed task

These are really hard to measure!
3. Get new job/make current job more satisfying
23. Get the hang of VB
89. Make tangible (ie: noticeable to other people) progress towards controlling my temper
15. Keep herb garden alive, at lest til the plants are out of season

I might combine or make these pairs into OR's
26. Plant lemon tree
27. Plant olive tree
32. Go to Tasmania again
33. Go to New Zealand
79. Participate in Towel Day
80. Participate in Pirate Day

I'm not sure if these ones are important to me any more!
19. Spend a whole day in front of the Telly
37. Make a list of all time movies I must watch/buy (list is at bottom of page)
38. Watch list of movies created
42. Watch all of Angel again (0/5)
44. Do lead lighting course
64. Get a christmas tree
68. Eat no chocolate for a month (just breath, it's only one month!!!!)
69. Go to 3 comedy festival events in one festival
70. Go to 3 other events at different festivals
71. Go to the Talbert Market

Other than that I'm fairly happy with the list still and even how I am progressing on it! Thanks for following me, if you are....

Me :)

Painting

So, read this post, cos my hands a sore and I can't be bothered typing

Started!

This is a Big Deal. I have started my Celtic Winter! As posted about in task 7, I have changed the pattern something I never do, because as previously discussed, I am not creative, I follow patterns. Any way this is very exciting, I am progressing wonderfully. At this stage I will not put up pictures, because I am photographing my progress and I am going to see if I can make it into a movie! ooooooo modern technology!