Our first night out....

It doesn't sound like much but we had our first night out without Zachary last night. My work's Christmas party wasn't really a child friendly occasion so we left Zach with Grandma and Granddad and headed out. We left about 6:30 and home about 11. I managed to only check my phone a handful of times and we only sent 1 text to say we were on our way home. I think I was the most stressed about leaving him out of the two of us.

All went really well though, we arrived home and couldn't hear him crying from the street (which was a good sign) and he was happy to see his mum and dad home.

When good blends go bad...

Some TV Speakers...

I know, didn't I just get 7.1 going? How could I need any more speakers?!?

Since we got the TV we've been toying with idea of some speakers to increase the sound quality (I say we, because although I want them Ness suggested it first). It's not the the TV speakers are un-listen-able but when you swap from the TV to either the Tivoli or worse still the Jamos it's very noticeable difference.

I've been looking at a couple of options, either running something from the Zone 2 output of the Sony or some separate powered speakers. I decided to look at some powered speakers and run them from the output of the TV simply because the looping everything out and back in through the amp was just going to be too many points of failure when the Harmony was involved, with surround modes, sub setup changes and listening position settings.

I started looking at some high end computer speakers, specifically (as much as I hate to admit it) the Bose Computer MusicMonitors. While I normally prescribe to Bose philosophy (Buy Other Sound Equipment) these seemed to fit the bill with pretty small form factor but decent enough sound. Their real problem was the exorbitant cost. I continued searching and I stubled across what I thought was the ideal set, Wharfedale Pro Diamond 8.1. I loved the old Wharfdale setup that I used to have and missed the sound of music tracks they produced in comparison to the Jamos (although the Wharfedales just can't compete in the movie front). These are the same speaker setup with an Active Bi-amp design with 60W LF and 40W HF power.

Yesterday however I was swayed with yet another set of amplified speakers, this time from an iPod Dock. The Cygnett Unison i-X5 iPod speakers.

No prizes for why these drew my attention... :)
They are an Australian designed speaker and (even in a black finish) look stunning. They are also (most importantly) no slouch in the audio department. With a number of reviews holding them in high regard. 

In the end it will come down to price, the Wharfedales will probably sound better (although not red) but are 200+ more than the Cygnetts.

Only time will tell (and by then I'll probably have found something else)

the sun is getting high at 530am

Last Post, in a day of blogging

I did a bit of work today to get the 7.1 speaker system going. Vanessa, Zach, Tia Mandy and Grandma went to the moonlight cinema to watch Rocky Horror so I set about making sure my 7.1 system was up and running. There were a few minor hicups here and there but nothing a Zip Tie or two couldn't fix.

From Lounge makeover

From Lounge makeover

From Lounge makeover

I've only used it for a little of Gears and about 5 mins of Speed Racer but so far the new setup sounds promising. Stay turned for more updates.

It's a miracle. We can cook again!

We had new kitchen appliances installed the other day. Which I admit is probably only exciting for us. The spock with this though was that we bought an induction cook top and none of our old pots and pans worked. Luckily thoug there are shops for this sort of thing and I picked up some nice shiny new ones. We've only got enough to get up by hoping that they'll be on sale after xmas.

Where is the pram when you need it?

A relatively successful shopping day today. The crowds in the city weren't too bad and despite forgetting my research notes I finished almost all of the shopping I had planned to do. I even managed to fit in a little bit of shopping for me.

Xmas Shopping

For some reason i've found shopping for presents really hard this year. One of the hardest things has been trying to work out what to buy and not buying Zach anything new.
Today i'm going to try and Finalize the shopping but i suspect that the City will be a bit of a nightmare

Epic Fail

So.... after a motherboard replacement for my video issues and then a new monitor because the backlight was broken (not plugged in) there seems to be a few things my laptop would like to chase up...

Really how long does it take to write a post.

I started this post on Sunday and it's now Wednesday and i still haven't finished. Yesterday (Now should read Saturday) was a hot day! We had plenty of plans of going out yesterday but after a few hours out everyone was too hot and cranky to keep going so we cancelled the rest of our day and headed home to the sanctuary of the Air Conditioning. It certainly has been earning it's keep over the weekend.
I must admit I wasn't really prepared for how sleep deprived I would end up over the last 7 weeks and the heat certainly makes you feel every lost minute of sleep.
Work has been pretty busy as well with two projects trying to finish sign off before xmas. I've actually tried to had a day off in the last two weeks but each time have ended up with a meeting before 8am and the rest of the day filled. I was going to move the day off to the week before Xmas but it's filled up already *sigh*.
I thought I should put up some xmas present suggestions as well because I've been getting a few hints that I'm hard to buy for. 

So here goes: (in no particular order (and for the second time because my phone just powered off in the middle of typing and lost the list))

Indoor/outdoor Thermometer
Camera lightbox
Wii games
360 games
DS games
Cool/Retro/Gaming T-Shirts
Any of these Blurays
Any of these DVDs
iTunes Vouchers
Small Computer speakers (like Bose Companion II)
Tivoli Sub
Bluetooth mini keyboard
Guitar hero in any form
Real Arcade stools (or Kartell ones)
Astro Chair
Apple TV
New riding gloves/jersey/shorts
Cuff links (gaming or geek related is always good)
Any gluten free goodies
Crocs

Glow Brick

Gorillapod

Pyramat Gaming Chair Helps You Keep Up Appearances in the Office [Office Chair]

Duracell PowerSource: Impressive Portable Power For All Your Gadgets

Frigits Mini Rube Goldberg Toys

Wall-mountable Fireplace Heats Up Your Living Room

pulpo drop coat rack 
dish doctor 
propello fan 
amleto 
slide light 
savings tower 
offi laptop + mag table 
candela 
Mario Kart Track 
Remember stools 

TIX Led Clock
Plush Robot Tissue Box
Welcome In Binary Floor/Door Mat

USB Mini Desktop Aquarium
atomium floor lamp white 
woofy cable concealer white 

Not to Overshadow Ben, but it's Post 1000!!!

Surely there should be some streamers or something... maybe a balloon?

Actually this is post 1002, post 1000 was the one while I was out walking Zach. Unfortunately I don't have anything as insightful as Ben to write for my posting milestone. It will be great to catch up with Ben while he's here! 

I do have some good news though, yesterday I spent 20 mins running on a treadmill followed by someone taking an ultra sound of my heart. The end result of that is an all clear from my Pericarditis episode earlier in the year! Probably one of the best Christmas Presents I could get.

And where was my real camera

A beautiful sunrise on the river

Someone was a bit cranky this morning so we came for a walk to enjoy the sunrise. We've been pretty happy so far (touch wood)

Monday and back to the grind

We had a great weekend this weekend. After a long time coming I finally got around to watching Ironman. While it's a better than average comic hero conversion movie, the transfer to bluray is STUNNING and just looked fabulous in Studio 54 GoldClass. It was almost as cold as the real gold class as well with the new industrial strenght aircon.

The weekend was filled with a fair bit of work for me with the occasional outing (as Ness has put so beautifully) for some Chrismas Shopping. It was pretty hot out in the markets but we managed to keep Zach out of the sun despite his protests about wearing the hat.

The weekend went really quickly and I feel somewhat down on sleep, but hopefully this week will be a bit quieter and I might get some longer sleeps as Zach is staying asleep a bit longer (probably with the combination of the aircon and moving Zach to his own room)

And after a few weeks of searching I finally found my DS again, which is perfect timing as Andrew and I are going to brave the worlds longest sushi queue in the City today, We'll need something to entertain us!

It's official Coooooold in here.

The aircon is in da house!

From Aircon

The installation isn't finished there is still a lot of plastering work to be done but the big important job is done, the cold stuff is in! It's nice and cool in every room of the house now even when it's not blasting the air out. There is still all the finishing to be done, like boxing in the unit and the ducting into the lounge all of which will be done next year, but even now the cooling is better than ever.

I'm amazed at how quickly they got all the gear into our place and how they did it. When I checked it out at lunch that vent you can see in the photo above was being held in place by a guy in that ceiling space.

We did get some plaster work done but mainly patching up from where the lighting was done yesterday which looks great.

From Aircon

They've done a fantastic job and if anyone is looking for airconditioning I'd recommend these guys in a heart beat. Both days they've been here despite all the plaster cutting the house has been almost completely dust free.

The aircon is getting close.

I dropped home today to discuss some of the finishes for the plastering and it's progressing really well. The exposed ducting is different to what i expected but not really sure I knew what it would look like. The good news is we're still on track for an Icy studio 54 by tonight.

Documentation

Apparently our Scope documents are too detailed for our customers.... I've spent a few hours working out a new template today...



I think it's pretty succinct

7.1 is on it's way

After blogging that there wasn't much on the way as far as tech was concerned. Well after some innocent ebay browsing I stumbled across some matching speakers for my Jamo THX system. They are the flush mount rears for the system, which means I'll finally have a >5.1 system after have 6.1+ amps for years.

Yesterday we had some new lights put in, (which is a continuation of the previous light change over) we added some halogens on the roof in the bedroom (which look fantastic) and a big fluro in the study (which finally gives us some usable light)

Today is also the Aircon day! Hopefully by the weekend we'll be kicking back in some chilly A/C!

Floods in Venice

Just a year after we were there, Venice has been hit by some amazing floods. Tom sent me these photos yesterday.

Previous Next

The Adriatic Sea has poured into the streets of Venice reaching a level not seen for more than 20 years, leaving much of the Italian city submerged, forcing residents and tourists to wade through knee-high water.

I remember something I forgot to post...

From more photos of zachary

Aren't baby's supposed to lie on their back? Clearly Zach missed the memo. At least he's started rolling to both sides now so he won't get a flat head.

Wish I could think of a title.

I should be able to think of a title but here we are posting and without a title. It's been a busy few days. I had a whirlwind trip to Sydney for Dev's wedding. Unfortunately we were told that Zach shouldn't be flying so we changed the travel plans and I flew down alone. I made it to one of the Ceremony's but had to fly home early and missed the others. It also ment I had to miss out on catching up with people while I was there.

From What's in a Name?

The ceremony was great and the bride and groom looked fabulous. It was a great ceremony (even though I didn't really understand any of it). Apologies to everyone I had to cut short on in Sydney.

It's really starting to get humid up here at home and I'm very looking forward to the Air Con install this week. It's been a hot few days but it hasn't got much over 27 in the house but the humidity has been up over 70% most days (even now at 7am it's 70%) Zach doesn't seem to much of a fan of the humidity either.

We went out for our usual morning walk this morning, but amazingly we weren't the only one with a STOKKE stroller out on the river walk. There is another white one that passed me this morning, while we complimented each other on a great pram choice.

The little Zach is really starting to grow, I'm not sure how much longer he's going to be fitting his 0000 clothes, he does look cute in a hat though.

more photos of zachary

The next few days are going to be busy as we have to clean out the study for the A/C install. I'm not looking forward to moving that desk bed that is for sure.

There has been little movement on the technology front for a while, although I am keeping my eye on a pair of speakers that match my Jamo THX ones, which would give me 7.1. The A/C budget does tend to slow the progress of the tech fund a little. I did pick up a copy of Iron Man on blu ray, which I think will be on the top of the watch list for the first post A/C movie night. With no A/C and our windows the only source of cooling it's a little hard to close half of them off to lower the screen and then turn on the heat pump (also known as the projector). We did fire up the gear for Vantage point last week on Foxtel HD. Not a bad movie (certainly not a great one) but didn't try to be too much, and it was short.

That's about it for this post, I'm sure there is more I should put in here....

The great airconditioning refit begins!

After the saga of our Aircon breaking just after we brought Zach home, work on the new airconditioning system has started.

Aircon

We've gone for a ducted system throughout the house which means the other bedrooms (including ours) will actually get some decent cooling. The plan from here is to have the internal unit installation finished by next Wednesday and then have some plastering done Thursday. The final duct work into the lounge won't be done until after xmas but at least all the bedrooms will be cool!

A little wet for a stroll!

It didn't look like it was going to be that wet when I left!?

Someone needs to buy a Roomba for Fenella

(I'm looking at you Mandy)

Back at work... Day 2.

Today is my second day back at work and it's certainly not as easy as I'd hoped. One of the big reasons is that the relative angel baby of the first 3 weeks has been replaced by the new Zach who loves to be awake from 1am until 5am. I'm due at a 7am breakfast and I'm very glad vice that we caught a map at 7pm last night. The worst part of the awake time is that he hates it if you sit down while he's being held so I can't even use the time to do constructive things. Still i wouldn't swap him for anything, i'd just like a little more shut eye.
Currently though i'd just be happy for my bus to turn up. I've been waiting over 20 mins for a service that is supposed to run every 10 mins.

A beautiful morning for a stroll

In what is becoming an early morning tradition Zachary and I went for a walk along the river. On the good side it means he's swapped his 2-4 awake time for 5-7 and as a result a lot more night time sleep for us, but not as many blog posts.

It was a beautiful morning on the river (even if it was a little hot). There are some interesting outfits on the runners in the morning... all I'm going to say is NO ONE should be wearing those short running shorts but if you're over 60 DEFINITELY NOT!

Ness and Zachary (and Suse) went to a baby shower for my Sister yesterday, leaving Tom and I to fend for ourselves. After a brief stint watching top gear we slotted straight into some 360 time with Gears of War 2. We managed to blaze through the horde for about 4 hours before we could game no more. A pretty good game to pick though if you've got some time for co-op gaming. To carry on the gaming theme we ended the night with some pizza from Hell, which is fast becoming my favourite place to get Gluten Free Pizza. You can order online, they will tell you the exact minute that you can order and they have some fantastic taste sensations. To top it off when I'm feeling really lazy they will even deliver to my house!

I'm back to work full time on Monday which I think is going to be a bit tough, having been with Zach every day since he was born. Hopefully I've got some time working from home after the start of these projects so I will be able to spend some more time with him (even if I have to be working)

The nightmare of our AC failure is starting to be rectified with the final measurements and design being completed on Friday, everything is looking on track to be in by Christmas but I'm still considering putting in some ceiling fans to get us through until then.

Lastly we've made some minor additions to Zachary's room with some cool removable wall decals. I've still got one set to put up but this is the look so far...

Wall Decals

Where did the week go???

This week I seemed to just loose days. It came to Friday and I was thinking were there really 5 days this week? Even now, it's Sunday morning and I can't believe it was Monday since I last blogged?!?

Anyway, we had a few more big milestones for Zach (even if they are social ones) our first trip to a Shopping centre and this morning I took him for a walk along the river. He really likes the trip in the pram and meeting all the new people going for walks. Turns out the early morning (6am) walk along the river is not an uncommon "Dad" practice around here, I gave the cursory nod to quite a few other pram wielding dads.


It wasn't his first trip out though, we took him out earlier in the week in the rain, he loved all the water on the roof of his pram and off to sleep he went... mission accomplised.



A little unexpectedly on Friday I scored a "hot lap" of New Farm in a Ford GT. I think it is easily the most insane car I've ever been in... ever.

Ford GT

Lastly (and probably least) I saw this during a late night surf... it's just amazing

Show your gaming love.... through cross-stitch!

	Free Gamer's Cross-Stitch Pattern from Unplugged

Personally I prefer the"Nintendo option"

How you know tech is integral in your home...

Warning: this post may contain references to Zachary
This morning as we were trying to comfort and cuddle Zach back to sleep we were surfing for something to watch. (A. for entertainment but also B. because Zach is much easier to settle with noise going on)
After the great match in the EPL the other night we stumbled across another match and I heard Ness say something I though she would never say... "Eiw, it's in SD (SD => Standard Definition)" this is on top of her earlier confession that FoxHD should be from consolidated revenue not solely a tech purchase. This should make future HD tech upgrades easier to get by the board... I just hope the board doesn't read this :)

And because I put the disclaimer in I may as well make it worth while!

From Zachary Day 2

From Zachary Day 2

From Zachary Day 2

Was this really 8 years ago?

We were only talking about this in the office the other day... surely it wasn't 8 years ago...

8 years later

I was a little disappointed/surprised in the political ad at the end...

More early morning browsing....

Not quite as early as usual but heres a few jems of the morning...

Roman this one's for you..."Pew, Pew!"

This is just a litle odd.

What We Learn From Living Out Of A Suitcase from Apartment Therapy Main..

Stylish Parisian Studio Tech Tour

Pyroblazer for Wii

Miyamoto Scrutinizes Mario, Zelda, Hails Portal

Again... weird
Obama, Palin coming to Mercenaries 2 DLC Pew Pew!!!

High-def audio wiring guide removes the mystery

Warning: The following post may contain Zachary

While I'm still in the excited new parent phase (as opposed to the terrified new parent stage) I though I should start warning those people only looking for tech stuff.

Tonight (aka this morning), I'm suffering from a mild case of "Zachawakitis" which isn't all bad, as well as the formentioned "exited new parent" plus side, I've also started whittling away at my overpopulated Google Reader list. But, before we get into that a few small Zach updates. We attempted a trip to the shops today, we were running a little low on food and though that Coles was probably a fairly inocuous destination for our first house -> car -> pram -> destination. The whole trip went really well, despite the checkout attendants surprise that we took an 8 day old to the shops. Zachary to his credit went through the whole thing barely stirring once. Obviously the payback is now where I'm still awake at 2am. I was a little surpised at how many people shot a second glance at the Stokke though.

In house news, our Air Con has broken down just in time for summer. It looks like it's going to be an expensive venture though. The words "well we're going to need a crane to start with..." and "body corp approval" don't inspire thoughs of cheap.

Oh and this morning I flicked on FoxSports HD to catch the end of an thrilling goal fest in the EPL. By the end I was cheering for 'Spurs to steal the point!

Now onto google reader....

This ad made me laugh....

It may be lack of sleep though.

Fable II is out and looks like a must play title. I've still got oblivion to get through so not just yet for me.

And OMG say it's not so!!!! Tennant calls time on Dr Who

BanjoKazooie is making it's way to the 360 and Portal Still Alive Available Now for Download instead of waiting for the Orange box to drop in price!

The new Monitor Setup

The 24" Unboxing

I've now got my new development setup for work up and running, it's basically an upgrade from a 19" to a 24" Dell 1920x1080 monitor. The monitor itself looks fantastic (even when it's off) with nice rounded corners and flat button finish. I was doing a bit of work on it today and it's a pretty good workstation, the 24" is far enough away that I don't have to look like I'm watching a tennis match to use it and I can have 2 full VM sessions at reasonable resolution on the same screen. Ness discovered though that it's just that much bigger than the iMac and so I lost it for her afternoon net surfing.

(Oh and that's not Zach's permanent home, he was just easier to watch there today while Vanessa was asleep)

Yes Ben, He does cry...

It's not quite 4am but there seems to be a trend in these early morning posts....

Zach has been a great baby today, but between his last 2 feeds has been upset. We think he had an upset tummy - perhaps being confirmed as his nappy gets changed now. He did manage to throw up on my side of the bed tonight while being comforted by Ness ... I think it was a conspiracy.

In other news, the new Dell monitor arrived today. It looks very schmick, and if you wanted a single monitor/tv option it would definitely be on the list. It's Full HD and comes with a HDMI port (and at the time of purchase an HDMI Cable). Of course, I will hold back from making that recommendation until I'm sure it doesn't go the way of the laptop ... At the moment all it's managed to do is make a very very pretty digital photo frame. I'll put up some unboxing photos tomorrow.

In other news, Zach is part of a news.com.au "baby boom". Are we the next baby boomers?

(sorry for all the baby post but the 3 hour feed cycles limit the amount of non baby stuff.... and he's a bit adorable, I should probably order one of these though )

Zach makes it home,

(Looks like Zach really likes the 4am feed judging by the time of my last post)

Zach had another day of firsts yesterday (but I guess being a 5 day old that's not such a surprising thing). He had his first trip home in the car and his first ride in the pram (and in fact the only reason for this post is so I can put up these cute photos)



He does look a little ridiculous considering his size and the size of those arm straps.

What a difference a day makes

It may be 330am in the morning and Zach is awake but this time round he's been an angel and we've had so much sleep! I almost remember what it feels like when you had a full nights sleep. Really was that only 5 nights ago? Surely it was more like 50.
In things outside baby my laptop is officially broken. After a few more of the pretty rainbow lined screened I'm now getting bsd with hardware parity errors. Fingers crossed that it's a panel problem, and I can use it with my external displays at home. That would also be nice because my new monitor is due to turn up and being able to work on the 24" would make up for the fact the laptop is having a spat.
We had a fantastic turnout of visitors today! Thanks so much to everyone who's come to visit it's been fabulous to see everyone and big thank you for all the emergency food drops. We're due to head home tomorrow (which is actually today now I think about it) and fingers crossed we'll be able to introduce our gorgeous litte boy to our home. One thing I will miss about the hospital stay is the bottomless linen cupboard and the magical linen fairies who clean the dirty ones each day! Apparently they don't get vm come home with me.

ZOMG the dad gift has been passed on.

(Whilst watching the Indy 300, Lap 20, Will Power Leading)
Cameron: Gee, Will Power is doing pretty well.
*BAM! Will power hits the wall...*
Cameron: OMG I just did a Ken jinx!

And for something not Zach related

This is probably not the best look for a recently replaced laptop monitor. Although I think it's video card and heat related as the laptop shuts down after it displays that screen and won't boot. But after 30 mins it's fine.
In Zach related news he's just as cute as ever although a complete devil between 11am and 4am. At least I now know how i'm going to get the sub neighbours back.

OMG am I going to be one of THOSE parents

Ok I'm really going to try not to, but (and you knew there was a 'but' coming) I managed to get the photos off my camera (rather than just the ones on my phone)

So here are a few more photos,

Zachary Day 2

Both Mum and Zach are still doing well!

Welcome to our cute new arrival

Cameron and Vanessa would like to introduce our son Zachary Elliot, born on 22/10/2008 10:45am, 7lbs 11 (3.4kg) & 51cm long. 

Zachary arrived a little unexpectedly by an emergency c-section because he insisted on having his hands over the top of his (37.5cm) head making it impossible to arrive any other (even after 4 hours of labour). So far Zachary has been a delightful baby even with mum and dad learning how to look after him. I'm proud to say we can now successfully change nappies. Despite his reluctance to arrive he has started feeding like a champion and has even managed to give himself a hickey on the hand.

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful well wishes (my phone is now flat from all the 200+ text messages) and gifts of flowers we feel very spoilt!

Zachary Day 1

Thanks again from two very proud parents!

TEN news fail

Looks like we could get that big storm.

Nothing like coffee by the moon light

It's official, nothing is going to make this baby come out. Our second fire alarm in as many weeks and still no movement from the little Paris.

We took our freshly brewed coffee to pass the time (and yes they are my bare feet, I wasn't the one who forgot shoes though!!!)

What's wrong with surronding surround speakers?

Anyone coming over for the next Roar match?

A blog for a sunday

Yesterday we had a very lazy day at home. After a sleep in and a late breakfast of pancakes I settled into some gaming time while Ness got very creative with a christmas theme. I put some time back into Devil May Cry 4, probably just enough time to establish it's not really a game for me. It just seems to frustrate me more than anything. Ironically not the difficulty (most of the missions so far are pretty easy) but more the really slow stylized run the guy uses all the time. Honestly, you'd thing surrounded by thousands of demons he'd get a spring in his step. That pretty much every combo is driven from one button. I was really hoping for more of a God of War like experience but sadly not. I downloaded a new game from XBLA yesterday, Castle Crashers. It's a fantastic little side scrolling action game. Think old school Golden Axe with a bit of RPG thrown in. (i'm starting to think that RPG is the new black) this is truly a button masher but it's not expecting to be much else.

Mmm breakfast

Jaw Cramps are Very Painful

I'm on the ferry home tonight and for no apparent reason my jaw has cramped up and refused to uncramp for about 5 mins.. I is quite inexplicably painful....

Anyway, it's been a pretty quiet week. We're still waiting for the little addition to arrive so everything is pretty low key. It's strange knowing that in a matter of days there is going to be a small screaming pooping thing in my house that I'm going to have to look after, exciting, amazing and terrifying all at the same time.

I'm sure I've got more to blog about but the wind on the ferry ride home is too cold and I can't think...

Fring is Evil!

I'm going to blame Mikey for this because I only discovered Fring after seeing it on his status. Fring is a chat app that integrates to google talk and twitter and runs on a host of mobile devices. It also allows you to make skype and google talk voice calls from your mobile. It's the most evil thing I have ever found for my phone. I have enough trouble getting away from chat windows when I'm on my PC let alone when I can carry it in my pocket. On the plus side I'm not sure how heavy the data load is but I would imagine it's cheaper than texting if you're planning on sending a few messages. Also overseas calls using skype would be cheaper than mobile rates but data would be pretty heavy.
Fring.. Download it at your own peril!

"Is my bogan showing?"

This weekend is Bathurst my favourite event of the racing calendar (of any type). It was always the big race I watched when I was a kid. Part of me still looks forward to it every year. 

I got a little bit in the mood yesterday with a lift into work in a Maserati GranTurismo, THE most beautiful car I've ever been in.

I think I'll probably be watching a few laps of the race here and there over the weekend.

Other stuff for this week:-

• CoD4 has shot to the top of my most played list (especially with a big session last night) and those stupidly addictive RPG elements... "Just one more level, I only need another 3 XP"
  
• No Work to do this weekend OMG
• Movie night tonight, still not sure what we're going to watch though
• I resisted buying Iron Man on blu ray all week
• Recovered from being sick on Monday Tuesday (must have been sick didn't fit in any CoD4)
• Great to see some rain around (even if it means no riding this weekend)
• Have sore calf muscles after walking down 32 floors after the power failure in our building

I'm sure there is more but I'm out.... (probably the slow ease into the weekend we're having this morning)

A post because I haven't

I meant to post a few times over the last few days, but as my title suggests I haven't. There isn't any real reason. We had a pretty good weekend, we started a little earlier that we liked when the fire alarm when off after someone burnt their toast. It did mean we actually got out and about and pick up our new lounge chair.

From The New Chair

Even though it's orange it still works into the room really well, that and it's really comfy. It's so comfortable I've labled it the new DVD chair (or maybe it should be the Blu-ray chair). 

I also had a bit of a glut of TV on the weekend. I finished off the Forth Season of Dr Who (which was great, but I'm not sure that Catherine Tate was the best companion) and the Third of Battlestar Galactica. The fourth season is on TenHD at the moment but after watching one episode I think I'm going to wait until it comes out on DVD, the constant stream of ads and the poor timing of the show makes it pretty hard to watch (even on the PVR).

Gaming was also slotted in there somewhere with some dedicated time to CoD4 multiplayer and Smash Bros. (not quite as dedicated as some though.... :P)

Yesterday I was pretty sick so asside from work I didn't get up to much. 

That's pretty much the wrap up for the week so far (apart from our neighbours discovering their subwoofer, which is so loud at the moment that it rattles the paintings on the walls... I haven't called the 15" jamo into battle yet but I don't think it will be long now)

Some other DSi Stuff... because let's face it, I'll be on this for a bit

There are some comparisons start to appear on the old vs new DS.

I do like the fact that the whole unit isn't much bigger even with the screen increase. I must admit that the biggest draw card for me though is the built in browser combined with the SD card over anything else. I've wanted a small factor laptop like the Asus EEE PC but really have no reason to get one. I've considered the browser for the Panda DS a few times but it's a little expensive at $70.

I think I might be ording one of Play Asia when the release date rolls around.

On other gaming news, the DS has been falling behind in the most popular console at moment simply because I'm not doing any travel and I've been walking to work or cycling so there is no bus love for the DS either. I've been clocking a few hours up on the 360 though mostly with CoD4. I've been playing a little online and can see how it became the most online title on the 360. I've moved the 360 to a dedicated setup now with a set of gaming headphones so I can play without disturbing the rest of the house. It's not quite the size of the projector or the samsung but it's quite playable on the 19" monitor and reminds me a lot of gaming many moons ago on my PC.

Chair Problem..... SOLVED.

Ness solved our chair dilema today, She stumbled across this chair at Absolutely Fabulous today.The photo doesn't really do it justice (it's a quite a bit brighter than that in real life). It's been recently restored and in great condition. My favourite bit... it swivels! On top of that we also picked up the other half of Ness's b'day present.

A pair of Kartell Louis Ghost Chairs! They go really well in the new bedroom and they are amazingly comfortable.

I'm still keen to get an Astro chair but I think that will have to wait for lounge room 3.0 (or is that 6.0?)