Froosh. Stuff.

It’s hard to accept the reality of the year ending. It seems to have passed so quickly; every year it seems a little quicker than the last. Remember when you were a kid? It seemed eternity between Christmas/New Year (“Holidays” now) celebrations. Ahh nostalgia, I remember you well

So, what’s news around the Froosh-iverse? I guess an update is in order…

!st, to news everybody (well, a few and you know who you are!) is waiting for: Yes, we have settled on the land part of the house-and-land package! As of 3:30pm on 21st December 2006 we became the title holders of a block in Doreen, Melbourne (In the Whittlesea area). Of course, we have a mortgage so don’t really own it – but who does these days? Construction of the house is expected to start in about 3 weeks and finished in 16 weeks after that. I say ‘expected’ in the expectation that things will not go according to plan … just look at the delay between when we signed to start the deal and the land settlement – about 50% longer than expected.

And now, a summary of other various happenings this year (not sorted for significance or temporal accuracy):

• We bought a new car and kept the old. ‘Zuki is joined by Stormy.
• We sold our dog off 2nd-hand. Kelson the chocolate lab is now living the farm life.
• Kim’s favoured grand-uncle passed away. Rest peacefully Keith.
• We got a new kitten. Compatibly named Cinnamon to match our other cat Cardamon.
• My brother and his wife had a daughter! Welcome Alexandra, to the Froosh-iverse.
• I bought an Xbox 360 and praise be to Microsoft for making the Tripod song “Make You Happy” come true – … the best present I ever bought for you … Both Seb and Kim get (almost) as much out of it as I do.
• My uncle and his wife had a daughter! Welcome Monique, to the Froosh-ivers.
• Sebastian finished his 1st year at a public school on an absolute high. $12,000/year public schools are not necessarily worth any of it, and public schools can so far surpass your expectations that it’s unfathomable. I’ll keep harping on about it I’m sure, but that’s the power of bad consumer experiences.
• More new ‘pets’ arriving in the form of a spiny leaf insect (Spikey) and some gold fish.
• Our remaining bunny passed away, seemingly of old age. He died in our arms and signals the end our bunny-ownership for a while.
• Currently residing in the disused bunny cage are 3 chookies of vague sexuality (pullets or cockerels – unknown at present). They’re on ‘semi-permanent loan’ from our neigbour until her country-based friends have facilities to house them – I’ll be spending New Year’s Day re-constructing our damaged chook pen to accomodate them until they leave.
• Kim has started working on a more regular basis with a casual job in retail sales.
• Seb began:
• • Roller-skating lessons
  • Piano lessons
  • Swimming lessons
  • Joey Scouts
  • Jazz and Tap … although they didn’t last the year out. Still doing ballet though.
• Some friends were getting to know quite a bit better packed all their stuff into our garage and moved to England for a year.
• Kim and I joined the management committee of a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting gaming and operating games conventions. I’m way behind in my duties in the web-site maintenance portfolio!

There’s probably more I’ve forgotten about and may update this later or add photos. Or, you know, whatever.

Oh well, I guess I can only enjoy two out of three.

I guess there’s nothing else to do except admit to being 33 years old. Last birthday was a fun one – I got to say I was 5 (2^5 = 32). This one, not so interesting. Just 33. Although, I’m thinking a 33.333* party in December could be fun.

I did enjoy the day though; work was not too busy, the extended family dinner was pleasant, and in general everyone was suitably considerate and salutary. And I got to eat too much pizza and cake.

The weekend was much more interesting though: At the ripe age of 33 and 1 day, I witnessed “snow” for the first time. Now I’m using the term snow in a rather loose sense – it was old, having fallen several days before then slightly melted and re-frozen into ice by the non-wintry weather. There was none of this gently falling from the sky stuff, or soft puffy drifts of it, just slightly less dense ice. Again, it was fun though. the experience immeasurably improved by co-operation with my six year old son.

Sunday brought a 5 hour trip to the Melbourne Museum and their Bugs Alive! exhibition, again enhanced by the presence of a 6-yo. I found it fascinating how they are using technology to market the science and history contained within the Museum. Kids seem to find it much more accessible and interesting, and learn far more than they realise.

Of course, I’m back to work today. Meh.

Oh! To top the birthday off, I had my name mentioned for the first time on the Whole Lot Of Nonsense Podcast. Coincidentally, I listened to WLON show 32 and 33 on my transition from age 32 to 33!

Final geek-iness: Post written and published with Windows Live Writer (beta). Not too bad, but I might as well use the web-interface to WordPress – it’s just as good.

“Backwards compatible just means that people who are backwards can use them!”

Thank you BOFH!

We had a 6.5 birthday party for Seb last Saturday evening, and it was without a doubt the best kids birthday party we’ve ever been to or hosted. Utterly awesome.

So whats with the 6.5 bit? Well, when Seb actually turned 6 we had just moved him between schools, it was during school holidays, and all his non-school friends were unavailable. We did have a birthday party – there was 1 other kid attending. Not exactly the most fun for Seb. Even though we try to play, it’s just not the same as playing with peers.

Seb has been enjoying rollerskating for the past few months, slowly getting better with practice and lessons. We’ve been to other birthday parties held at the skating rink and had quite a good time, but haven’t been totally happy with mixing the birthday party in with all the other general skaters in the regular public sessions. The solution: hire the whole rink for the party and invite as many of Seb’s friends as possible to get the best cost per person.

We had somewhere in the order of 50 people on the rink and another 5-10 sitting on the sides. The invitees (Seb’s complete combined 1/2 class at school plus his ballet class friends) brought along siblings, cousins, parents, etc and all were welcome to skate and enjoy. And enjoy they did! Everyone felt safe and secure knowing that their kids (one as young as 18 months) were safe on the rink and that everyone would be careful and respectful of their friends and family.

There was only one injury for the night … and he wasn’t even skating! The poor guy’s foot was run over by his wife…

We provided dinner, cake, and lollies for everyone (including rink staff) and for the first time in our party hosting history, we didn’t ourageously over-cater. Dinner was pizza provided by Margheritas Pizza in Lower Plenty – superb, tasty, and not at all greasy.

Everyone had an unbelievably good time (well, except for Richie and his foot), including those kids and adults who couldn’t skate – there was no pressure to skate, but also no judgement upon those who couldn’t. And just as well, because I don’t skate so good!

Free plugs to the Roller City Eltham folks who provided top-notch service to us, and to Margheritas Pizza for some of the best pizza I’ve ever had (and believe me, I eat a lot of pizza! )