Alex

alexthedevil @ 2011-05-27T19:15:00

2011-05-27T09:15:52Z

According to LJ I haven't posted here in forever. Oops. I keep resolving to post more often and every time that goes out the door.

Things are going good. Life has pretty much consisted of work - what's new - but we're starting to get closer to moving into the house (it LOOKS finished!!!) and the wedding is looking scarily close. So... y'know, that's getting there.

Had a few stresses at home, mainly about money. We're not struggling - Glenn is under the impression we are fine however our $4000 credit card bill says otherwise, but at least we haven't maxed out anything (yet) and we still have some savings for absolute emergencies. It hasn't helped we've had about $2000 of his medical expenses, plus about $1500 of car expenses that we weren't anticipating - on top of various house payments, and wedding stuff, it's starting to add up big time. So hopefully we are through the worst of those (just waiting on one bill which hasn't come yet... need to call about it), and we can work on a) paying off the credit card; b) building up our savings to a decent fund; and c) start putting money towards the loans.

Kidney stones are expensive, y'all.

I've spent the last couple of days off trying to sort through the mounds of paperwork we have at home and have a ton of stuff I threw somewhere and have to actually action it.. sigh. But at least most of that is sorted out, think the next days off will be dedicated to cleaning up and trying to toss some crap on eBay, the money would really help atm and also I just want to get rid of half of it!!

Also been thinking about what name to take when I'm married, the following are the options:
Alexandra Lynch (current name)
Alexandra Hulett (Glenn's surname)
Alexandra Lynch-Hulett
Alexandra Hulett-Lynch (which sounds a lot like Hewlett Packard, as my friend has pointed out).

I was thinking of going Lynch-Hulett, but it's a bit of a pain in the ass and long, so I'm actually thinking more that I will change to Hulett. It's weird though, since I've been Lynch my whole life... even just getting used to it will be weird. Mind you, I've been getting bills as 'Mrs' already for the new house, haha. Let me tell you though, I am not looking forward to having to change our address in June, and then my name in November. Thankfully all the unchanged stuff will go to my parents', so they'll pick up any that I haven't changed the address on.

Waaay too many things for me to keep track of. I miss the days when everything was simple and done for me!!

It's also been a year since I got back from Africa. Which is reminding me that I have been incredibly lazy about going through my photos, I haven't even uploaded most of them to FB and haven't even sorted through them. I had a massive freak out a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd lost the memory cards with the photos which I hadn't backed up. Okay - I am 99% positive that I have lost them, but thankfully I had transferred one to my computer, and the other to mum's. The third is still in the camera. Thank god for nagging mums who want a copy of the photo, that's all I can say.... I'm gonna wait until we have some spare money saved up and when one of the stores has a digital prints sale so I can go print them off. 1500 photos (before sorting through) is a shitload of photos.

Been trying to get back into the survey emails, I keep going through and doing a couple of days then getting bored again. Which sucks because I am missing out on a bunch of opportunities. Considering just clearing the lot out and starting afresh. I've had a couple of my twitter friends ask for the links, so I need to sort THAT out too and give it to them, stupid neverending lists.

Aaanyway, I think I have sufficiently rambled on enough. Will post a wedding update later, when I get around to it.

alexthedevil @ 2011-04-06T23:32:00

2011-04-06T13:32:54Z

To do list...

Wedding
• Confirm flowers
• Sizing for bridesmaid dresses
• Invitation mockup
• Finalise guest list
• Finalise bridal party accommodation
• Email people about other accommodation
• Write up supplier list with deposit/payment/status

House
• Contact council for owner information of 116 & 118
• Get fencing quotes
• Start pricing furniture we want
• Look into blinds options
• Start pricing lighting for main areas

Other
• Sort out all wedding paperwork
• Sort out all house paperwork
• File other paperwork
~~• Start tax preparation for 2010/11~~
• Empty out survey email account
• Create list of survey accounts on del.icio.us
• Find Africa photos and sort through them
• Empty/sort through wardrobe
• Empty/sort through clothes drawers
• Empty/sort through desk drawers
• Catalogue all DVDs
• Catalogue all games
• Sort through all books
• Update Kobo with new books

I'm fairly sure there's a hundred things I am missing from this, but I thrive on lists and crossing things off (I constantly put on things that will take me 2 minutes to do just so I can CROSS IT OUT), and I am very disorganised lately.

alexthedevil @ 2011-03-08T02:47:00

2011-03-07T15:47:08Z

My knees have been killing me like crazy lately :-(

First it was the right knee... a couple of weeks ago while I was standing at work it randomly gave way and collapsed from under me. That was sore for a few days and I was bandaging it, it was nearly better, but then the other one started hurting (I'm guessing from the extra weight).

Went to the doctor to get it looked at, turns out he suspects BOTH knees have a 'subluxating patella'... I think the most basic way of explaining that is that my knees want to spontaneously dislocate themselves. So I have to do stretches to strengthen my quads, which I have been doing but doesn't seem to be helping, grr! I also had to have x-rays to make sure there was nothing else going on... get the results from those on Wednesday, I'm hoping that there's nothing underlying because I really can't afford that right now!!

And now I have had problems with my left knee.. actually, both of them decided to give way at different times tonight (!!!) which was not fun and it is killing me, I have been home for 3 hours now and it is aching like a mofo, even after icing it for ages and elevating it. Driving is particularly fun as the motions are not helping, nor is the fact there are a bunch of stairs at home and at work to deal with.

I suspect if they do not improve I will have to go to a physio- more money, yay - and apparently the worst case scenario is surgery to pin the patella in place, scary stuff :-/ Have just looked at my health insurance and I don't even think they could do that til mid-Feb next year, as while there is a 2 month waiting period for hospital cover (I only upgraded a month ago), there is a 1 year waiting period for 'pre-existing conditions', which is described as existing in the 6 months prior to getting hospital cover. Although it's only been a problem the last fortnight, it's probably been "pre-existing" before that, BOO.

So, fingers crossed that my knees decide to play nice, I guess? I already have other work drama to deal with (will rant about that later) so would appreciate my body co-operating!!! *sulk*

Wedding progress - 252 days to go

2011-03-04T14:16:46Z

Partially for my records, partially so I can share with you guys! (The days to go is from The Knot, I am too lazy to work it out on my own).

Ceremony/Reception:
Status: Booked
Money: $1000 deposit paid - balance two weeks beforehand
We are having both the ceremony and reception at a winery in the Yarra Valley. Food & wines are both amazing. All confirmed, we just need to sort out the menu closer to the date when they have come up with the seasonal menu.
We have opted for a choice of 3 dishes for each course - it is only $5 per person extra and working in hospitality, it is a PITA doing the 50/50 set menu, I'd much rather guests actually choose what they want to eat.

Celebrant:
Status: Confirmed
Glenn's mother has a friend who is a celebrant who would have been invited anyway, so she is going to officiate the ceremony for us. Bonus is that there is no charge.

Wedding Dress:
Status: Ordered
Money: 50% deposit paid, balance once dress arrives
I have linked this dress before, and I still adore it just as much. Will need to get alterations, because I am a short-ass.
Still have to sort out shoes. Not sure what style I want just yet, I need to get a swatch of fabric from the store.

Bridesmaid Dresses:
Status: Need to get sizes & order
We've selected the dress, and my best friend has found a store in the US which is significantly cheaper, even when you factor in shipping. Just need to get all the bridesmaids to try them on (2 still to try it on, the other two just to get sized) so we can order them all together.

Hair & Make-up:
Status: Booked
Have booked out (pretty much) the entire salon. Think there's 5-6 different girls doing them, between hair, make-up, and mum and her sisters getting theirs too.
Am still deciding on hair styles, need to look through more magazines - have potentially found a hair style for me but still working out what I want for the bridesmaids. Need to book a trial closer to the date.

Groom/Groomsmen Suits:
Status: Not started
Still working out what I want the boys dressed in, haven't even begun looking at stores. Will start looking into this in the next couple of months - don't want to leave it too long, but it's not as urgent.

Flowers:
Status: Barely started
Not sure what I want. Looking through magazines, I think I want some dusty pink roses in my bouquet, and white - but not sure what white flowers. Totally undecided for the bridesmaids, their dress is hunter green, so I am entertaining the idea of white for them as well.
On my to-do list to call 3-4 florists and get quotes from them, I have two I want to look at just need to source a couple of others. Going to talk it through with mum & the bridesmaids for more ideas.

Music:
Status: Booked, deposit paid
Booked a DJ for the reception. Haven't yet got their sample CD (also on my to-do list) but they are confirmed. Still tossing up ideas of songs - but it's not like that's a matter of urgency.

Photographer:
Status: Booked, deposit paid
One of the first things booked, we are going with a photographer who has shot weddings at our location before. we do at some point need to meet with him to discuss the photos we want, but I have seen his work both at a bridal expo and his online portfolio and very happy with what he has done.

Invitations:
Status: Looking at samples
99% sure that I will be ordering from CardsAndPockets as I am very impressed with their service. I am looking at their perfetto pocketfolds. I've just ordered a sample from them and am going to run the colours by a couple of people - it's quite purple, but it still is very good quality, and need to design the invitation so I know what I need to order. It's a US site but is sooo much cheaper than anything I've found locally, even factoring in shipping costs. Also need to sort out the guest list so I know how many invitations I need to order.

Wedding Rings:
Status: Not started
We are still working out what type of ring we want, and I need to look at the budget to see how much we can afford. I've seen a few different companies in bridal magazines which look nice, including one where you can make your own wedding rings. That looks really fun, and not too expensive (considering) so will look into it further.

Cars:
Status: Booked
This is another thing which was booked almost straight away. I can't actually remember which cars we have, but we have two Cadillacs booked for the bridal party. Apparently they can book out nearly 2 years in advance so we were very lucky to find these and decide straight away :D Glenn still hasn't seen them so at some point we will go out there, but it's not really 'important'.

Accommodation:
Status: Booked for bridal party
I tried to make a group block, but they were absolutely useless and told me about five different stories, so we have just booked for us / bridal party / parents / relatives we know want a room, and are directing every one else to book directly. The bridal party and groomsmen are staying the night before as well, and getting ready during the day. We're also staying there the night of the wedding as it's about 15 minutes from the venue - just need to arrange transport to/from depending on the number of people who will end up staying.

Honeymoon:
Status: Booked & paid in full
We are spending a week in Fiji, flying out the Monday after the wedding. We've gone through a travel agent, because I wanted to make sure all the transfers etc. were arranged for us, and so hopefully they could use their agent pull and get us flagged as honeymooners. We are staying 4 nights at Outrigger on the Lagoon on the Coral Coast, then travelling out to the Islands and spending 3 nights at Malolo Island Resort before flying home. We looked at staying longer but it was almost $2000 extra for only three more nights and wasn't worth it IMO - it's already costing us enough as it is. Would've liked it cheaper, but hey it's our honeymoon, and we are damn well going to stay in 4.5 or 5 star places!!

Gifts (Attendants & Parents):
Status: Not started
Haven't really given much thought as to what I'm going to do here - possibly jewellery for the girls and cufflinks for the boys? Again this is something I can put off until later on and look into when I've got more of an idea. Totally undecided for the parents though.

Bomboniere:
Status: Getting ideas
Originally we weren't going to do any, but I changed my mind. We're looking into doing a plant-type gift which will also double as a place card for the tables - something like this but we will do it ourselves. Going to look at some nurseries to get prices - hopefully there will be a bulk discount - and these tags. Going to grab some fabric from one of the craft stores - it doesn't need to be anything fancy, just to dress it up a bit. This can't be done until a bit closer, because I have NFI where I would put 100+ plants to begin with, and I don't want them to grow too much.

Anyway, that's where I'm at atm. So it is slowly getting there, major things have progress and I have plans for (most) of the other stuff. It helps having it in a to-do list, I am very much a list person and love crossing things off, haha.

I also need a wedding icon. Should look into this...

alexthedevil @ 2011-03-04T23:14:00

2011-03-04T12:14:03Z

Update time, because once again I fail at updating on a regular basis!

1. House

Very very excited!! We have a (half) frame in the house!!! I am currently too lazy to upload photos so you can see them on FB here. I went out there today at about 5pm and the carpenters were still there.. so I wandered around and had a bit of a look at the other houses, a few minutes later they started packing up so I camped out in the car waiting for them to leave so I could run around and take photos hahaha. There is another two houses by our builder down the street so I was looking at those... wanted to see the inside of one of them (there's no temporary fencing up as it's not required by the council) but figured that was slightly creepy not to mention illegal to walk through someone else's half-built house, I wouldn't like it if it was mine.

After MONTHS of waiting for settlement, finance, and council permits it's sooooo good to finally see some action on the place! The slab was done late last week, and the timber delivered yesterday - half the frame has been done in just a day! I think next is wrapping the house and/or roof tiles, then bricks, I'm really interested to see how our colour selections work out since we selected those in early September last year!

2. Wedding

Going to make a separate post about this (also for my records) with progress but the majority is coming along.. the guest list keeps growing though :/ Going to have to stop that now, especially as money is a little tighter atm. All the major stuff is done, just got my invitation sample a few days ago - definitely going with the company, just got to sort out numbers/exactly what we need before ordering, and I'm going to try see if I can get a discount on the shipping because it should seriously not cost $100 to post some card overseas.

3. Family

Dad lost his job yesterday. Apparently the bosses were being stupid and having unrealistic explanations above what was told to him when he got the job. So, that's a bummer, especially as he went through this a year ago. This time around at least he has the training certificate he did between jobs - he's not sure what he's going to do but him and mum are a bit stressed out (understandably). I have my fingers crossed that he finds something, in a way it's a bit easier though as last time he was spending a lot of time looking after my grandfather which was distracting him so at least he has a bit of a clearer head.

Uncle douchebag is still that, I don't actually think dad has spoken to him since The Letter. I certainly have no desire to do so. I think we're just leaving things and seeing what happens. Quite frankly I don't care what happens, he's been an ass about his ex-wife for years (I didn't see my cousins except for family events for about 3 years because of their divorce) so what the fuck ever.

4. Other

Nothing much else to report.. I have been running around doing "adult" things and forgetting important stuff as usual. Been sorting crap out on my http://del.icio.us because there are a million bookmarks in my computer, so that's done. Also went through and deleted a crapload of LJ friends & communities, haven't done a cleanout for about 3-4 years. Looks so much nicer now!

Am going to do a FB friend clean up, I have people added from uni who I wasn't even friends with back then, I don't even know why I have them added. It's bad when Glenn got a random friend request, there were mutual friends (as a few of the people at my work and his went to my uni) and he asked me who it was, and I didn't even know!! "They're friends with you?!" "...so?" I am waiting til I get to 500 friends, currently at 499 friends haha. Getting sick of having so many people on there, I'd rather just have people I actually know or are interested in seeing what they're up to.

I'm trying to get back into reading more, now that my Kobo is finally fixed (and oh god what a saga that was, had to blast the poor customer service people AND bitch on Twitter). Going through a couple of e-book communities for new books, as well as re-reading the HP books (yeah, I was trying to read them all before HP7 Part 1 came out - I clearly failed as I am 75% through HP6) and another series I adore and have read about 6 times already. Also have 2 books I got in South Africa which I need to read - Nelson Mandela's autobiography, and a book written by one of the rangers from Krueger National Park, but I just haven't gotten around to those yet.

Annnnd speaking of that I have just realised that nearly a year on, and I still need to go through my photos to put on FB and also to print them out - or at least to have ready when the stores have sales on prints. Alex fail - I seriously need to write myself a MASSIVE to-do list and allocate myself one task a day. I do fine when I have a couple of things to do each day in my diary, but not when I have heaps to do. Any suggestions for how to make myself do jobs?! :(

alexthedevil @ 2011-02-03T20:13:00

2011-02-03T09:13:20Z

~~I need a new twitter name.~~

Possibly also a new LJ name.

I'm getting a bit sick of the 'alexthedevil', I made it way back in high school and it's not so 'cool' etc. anymore.

~~Any suggestions? I was trying to use some variation of alexlynch for twitter, but it's taken.~~ Not so much my full name for LJ..

I can't come up with anything that doesn't either use numbers or underscores :(

ETA: Yeah, I'm a moron, I searched for everything BUT @AlexLynch, so now I just need a LJ name.

alexthedevil @ 2011-01-27T22:23:00

2011-01-27T11:23:42Z

I swear, I am the most useless bride to ever exist.

We went to a florist today, because I wanted to start getting quotes for my flowers - I really want to get as much stuff sorted out ASAP because I'd like to not become bridezilla, thanks, particularly as *fingers crossed* my house will be ready about September and I don't need more stress.

In short = I am useless. I have no bloody idea what I want - was thinking purple, but now leaning towards deeper red colours for the flowers. What kind of flowers, you ask? Oh, I have no clue. I don't know. I'm not sure what colour I want for mine ("What do you mean, what colour do I want?"), or what style of flowers, or what's even in season.

Cue the magazines coming out. I will be buying more of these in the future, let me tell you Internets. My coffee table is currently a mess of bills I was paying today - and a bunch of pages ripped out of a magazine.

We do have progress on the invitation front - on Tuesday we popped into a few stores and while I still don't know what colour scheme I want (yes, I am useless), I do at least know what STYLE I want.

I want something like
mostly because I also have a bunch of info (directions, accommodation, RSVP) and I think it'll fit better.

I have found what seems to be a great website with good reviews - cardsandpockets.com - which is based in the US. I've just ordered a colour swatch thing, because they have a million different colours, and a printer test kit which I am also going to use as a mock-up for the invites.

Was also going to order some leaf tags to get an idea for the guest gifts, but changed my mind when I saw how much shipping was. It was a $30 order (without them) and free shipping because they were both samples. With them? $35 order.. and $32 shipping. Screw THAT.

I hate living in Australia sometimes!! :( It's good to shop online because shit is a lot cheaper but then I have to factor in shipping costs. Did quick calculation and I can do 80 invites for ~$200 all up - but shipping is $100 ON TOP. I don't even know if it's worth shipping to one of you guys and paying you to ship it onwards to Australia. Damn living at the bottom of the globe. All the options are 2 or 4 day shipping.. and if I order in March, I really don't need them OMGRITENAO, so I think I will email them and see if they have any cheaper options that take longer.

Anyway, stay tuned for more episodes of "Alex doesn't know what the bloody hell she wants for her wedding, why can't someone just decide for her", because this is a loooong saga.

alexthedevil @ 2011-01-26T21:36:00

2011-01-26T10:36:23Z

Long time, no post. I fail at this whole "paid account which will encourage me to post more often" thing.

So, updates...

1. Wedding

Went shopping yesterday with Ellie (best friend/Maid of Honour) and Liz (my bridesmaid in another state) for bridesmaid dresses. Sadly, there are not a lot of cocktail length dresses out there, what the? We probably looked at about 35-40 stores, and found absolutely nothing - we've come back to the original dress Ellie first found when I was trying on my wedding dress.

We're going with this dress (under the cut), except altered so it's about knee-length, and in hunter green:

But the dress looks good on both of the girls, and makes them both look amazing - since they're the two most 'opposite' body types, my other two should be fine. They need to try the dress on still, but we have time. Bonus is that the store will give us 10% off because we're buying 4 dresses =]

2. House

Still hasn't started building. First we had our developer approval rejected, because someone on our street had the same facade. So we have had to pay an extra $500 to change the front bedroom windows to 3 vertical instead of 1 larger one. Personally I do think it looks better (I'll scan in a copy of the plans later) but it's annoying because now we have to reapply. They're applying for our building permit now, so I am really hoping that we get to site start soon. I'm waiting for a port-a-loo to be put on our land (as this is typically indication that they're building), how sad!!!

3. Family

Some of you may have seen this on FB, but my grandfather passed away on the 9th of January. He was peaceful and sleeping, and we all got to say our goodbyes, so I am doing okay. I still have some sad moments especially when I realise he won't be at my wedding - I knew this was very unlikely but now it's reality - but I'm doing as well as I can, I guess.

In other family news, my uncle is an asshole of giant proportions and has been uninvited from my wedding. He's been picking fights with mum for a while now and making her look like the bad guy, she was the bigger person at the hospital & funeral and thought things were sort-of okay, and then she got a very abusive, aggressive, and accusatory letter in the mail from him this week. She's been understandably upset about it (it did NOT need to be sent), my dad is fuming - and he's not the kind of guy to fume - and I am just pissed on their behalves. It is up to Glenn and I whether we want him at the wedding, but I don't want someone who's going to send my mother letters about shit she didn't do and doesn't deserve, so he's off the list.

4. Work

Not much been going on except that it is finally getting busier again. We had an asshole of a guest staying - who is sadly, still here - who apparently reported us to the police for fraud. Except, y'know, we have a signed registration card saying we're allowed to authorise his card (he was refusing to pay in advance, but also fill out a form so we could charge him weekly) - so we are totally covered. Incidentally we haven't heard from the cops, wonder why!

My manager told me I need to talk to Nicole (Glenn's brother's gf, who I got the job for) and make sure that the boundaries are clear, because he doesn't want me to be put in an awkward position. It's tricky, because I am her friend - but at work, I'm her boss and apparently she wasn't realising this too much. She was doing a few things and explaining it away as "Oh, Alex or Sue (manager) or the other supervisors did it..." which doesn't fly. Also because if she fucks up, I get questioned about it, as it's my shift. And I'm paid to make those decisions that I might get in trouble for, but if my staff fuck up and make decisions they shouldn't, I get in trouble for them doing it. So fingers crossed this talk isn't insanely awkward (I'm going to go with at least "a little awkward").

5. Other

Not much else has been going on, I've been addicted to Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 on the Wii lately, as I bought it about 3 weeks ago. I've actually almost finished it, I'm at 94% or something, but I'm stuck trying to find a lost person (have 49 out of 50, grr!) so I am going to go back and roam the 'castle'. Not sure what I will do after this - probably go back to Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Internets, I have so many damn Wii games that I have either not played, have started and not really got anywhere, or a couple that are nearly finished but I've put to the side. I should really go through and make a list of them all because a) this is ridiculous; b) I don't even know what games I have anymore; and c) I keep buying more games which I should Stop Doing.

Just got home from seeing Black Swan tonight - brilliant movie, but incredibly trippy. I mean, I'd heard reports that it was full of the crazy, but I didn't realise Just How Much. Loved it though, I can definitely see why it was nominated for so many awards. I'd still like to go see The King's Speech, because I have heard a lot of good things about it, but I may wait until it comes out on DVD.

In the next few days I have a shitload of things to do: Get flower quotes, call the moron at the hotel we want to stay at for the wedding, finish invitation research so I can buy some samples and play around, call up and get health insurance quotes, call up and get our rates notice fixed (our council thinks Glenn and I are already married?), call up and get Glenn's car insurance quote, pay his car registration, pay our solicitor, and a bunch of other things I think I have forgotten. I hate being a grown up :(

Wedding update!

2011-01-06T05:14:26Z

Well, I was going to post a general update, because once again I fail at updating this damn thing, but I have wedding news!

I went shopping with my mum and best friend yesterday (who is my maid of honour), we went to two stores. The first one we found a dress that was pretty and I did like a lot, but we had also made an appointment at a second store (which had a larger range of designers) so we went there as well.

The lady helping me with the dresses was such a stereotypical old Italian grandmother, haha, but she was lovely! I tried on a few dresses (and oh my god some of those are heavy and a pain in the ass to put on, we're talking 5+ minutes minimum) and then we found... THE ONE.

It is absolutely freaking gorgeous, I adore it to pieces, AND it came in under budget (barely - I'd set a limit of $2000 and this was $1960) which is always handy. They only needed 20% deposit too - the other store wanted 50% - so I will need to pay up to 50% before they order it, thank you credit cards <3

Kind of funny trying the dresses on - because I'm so tiny a lot of the dresses were too big for me (I was a size 6-8 and the dresses were 10-12), so I had a bunch of pins in while she tried to show me what it would look like, and even some industrial clamps (like the kind you use to jump start your car?!) on me. I tried on a size 10, and they've ordered me a size 6.. which is the smallest they make. I am going to have to get a whole bunch taken up, damn my shortness :/

I am keeping the dress a surprise from everyone except for a couple of family friends and my bridesmaids but here is a pic for you guys of the front and the back - please forgive the watermark on the second, it was a PITA to google good quality pics and I was having issues print-screening the website.

Front of dress:

Back of dress:

(Better quality can be seen on the website - http://www.victoriajaneuk.com/en/victoriajane.html - then click on Collection -> Collection 10 -> #16)

It's going to take 6 months to order (once I pay the 50% deposit) then I have to allow 2 months for fittings, I am already impatient about trying it on in my actual size!!!!

alexthedevil @ 2010-12-05T16:11:00

2010-12-05T05:11:07Z

Land has FINALLY been registered. Settlement is on Dec 13th. Just got to wait for then and then I will officially own my land. Won't be building til next year because they still need to do the soil test and get estate and council approval, and they take a break over Christmas/early January. Bloody builder isn't returning my emails, so I am going to call her on Monday.
Insurance claim is sort of sorted... i have the repairer, went there and they've taken photos, last I heard they were contacting my insurance to get their quote approved then were contacting me but this was last Monday so I need to call them again tomorrow as well and get them to hurry the eff up.
Trying to sort out wedding dresses. Thinking I might go somewhere on Wednesday to look but I forgot to call and make an appointment. They close at 5pm today so I might try that actually... the other place is closed on Wednesdays (boo) so I will have to try and find another time... hospitaltiy hours are not good trying to coordinate with my mothers hours.
Booked the DJ for the wedding, so that's one less thing to worry about. Yes it is a year away but I would like to have stuff finalised also so I know how much I have to pay everyone.
Left work early today for my grandfather's birthday lunch. About 30 mintues later the fire alarm went off and the hotel evacuated. Haha, suckers. I hate dealing with evacuatiions for false alarms, it's so much paperwork.
So, it's hard waste in my area at the moment, where everyone chucks their crap on the side of the road and the council collects it. someone put a mattress on the road overnight and I didnt see it until AFTER I drove over it. Those things get way stuck under cars. Thankfully there was some lady going the other way at 6am so she was able to help me ("drive forward *pull* okay now drive back *pull* " rinse and repeat).
Work Christmas party is on this Thursday. Invitation says 'As this is a work function, please drink responsibily", lolz.

alexthedevil @ 2010-11-27T18:09:00

2010-11-27T07:09:30Z

So, I've had a fun day and now am very annoyed.

I was driving into the city to pick up my cousin from New Zealand who is staying with us tonight. Was in the CBD, driving in the right hand lane about to go through an intersection, when suddenly another car pulled out in front of me with NO warning whatsoever, I blasted the horn and slammed on the brakes, but because it was only about a car length and the roads were wet from storms, the car clipped my front left bumper.

I'm okay (which is the first thing the insurance asked me, LOL), just mainly pissed off about having to deal with it!!

The other girl was totally at fault, uhm, hello, I had right of way given that I was driving down a road, and I was going about 35-40km/h, speed limit was 50km/h. At one point she said to me, "Didn't you see my indicator?" where I gave her a look and said "You still need a GAP before changing lanes!!!" Moron.

Apparently she doesn't want it to go through her boyfriend's insurance, and the car wasn't hers - not my problem, honestly. I've given my insurance company her phone number and dad said that they will ask if she will pay $x herself or claim through her insurance so she still has the option. They're going to have to replace the bumper though, so he thinks it'll be $1500+, closer to $2000.

Spent 15 minutes on hold waiting to get through, then another 15 minutes while they processed the actual claim. And then of course I have to wait for the repair place to be able to take my car, and then deal with having no car for a week or so :-(

The good thing? I'd already scratched the front bumper (kinda badly) about 2 years ago, and hadn't got it repaired yet because, uh - pricey. The car is fine, just cosmetic stuff. Conveniently, she hit it right across the same scratches (you can differentiate between the two, and I have photos), so I get that fixed for free. I was considering paying out of pocket for them to fix another scratch on the front right (I wasn't so great at judging distances when I first got the car - all poles though), but dad reckons they'll replace the whole bumper, not just fix the scratches as it's quite bad, so I get that replaced for free.

In conclusion: People in Melbourne, lrn2drive in the CBD, kthx.

alexthedevil @ 2010-11-25T13:55:00

2010-11-25T02:55:23Z

Whoo! I got my ass on the treadmill again, I did longer this time so I did a longer distance and burnt more calories. Bonus that I didn't feel as tired as yesterday, either!!

Hell has now frozen over, as I am seriously considering joining a gym. I'll probably join the one mum goes to for swimming, because it's pretty close and I like the classes they've got going. Glenn's at a different one, but, meh. I don't know how much actual gym-y stuff I'll do there, at least at first, but there's about 4-5 classes each week which I'm interested in (Zumba, BodyJam and BodyStep) which don't seem like they will kill me straight away - which is always a plus. And they're at different times, so I can still go when I am doing my crappy rotational roster.

Went to the day spa yesterday, very relaxed. Shame I can't afford to go each week, but it was nice to pamper myself for no reason.

Only 4 days through my annual leave, still have another 5 to go. At this point I might be wanting to go back to work!?

alexthedevil @ 2010-11-24T15:54:00

2010-11-24T04:54:23Z

I am very proud of myself!

I am one of the laziest people EVAR with exercise. I just... don't. Mainly because I don't have the motivation, and I find it hard to kick myself into exercising after working for 8 hours, when I am doing 7 or 8 days in a row of shift work.

BUT! Today I got up, and jumped on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Small steps. I actually managed to kick myself into gear and exercise =]

Partially also because my mother keeps nagging me about exercising so my bones don't get brittle, and Glenn has been making me feel bad because he is on a health kick and is indirectly calling me lazy about not doing anything myself. Yes, I am lazy, but please stop throwing it in my face and bringing it up constantly!!!

I am going to see if I can keep doing it, I got a bit bored (which is also what kills me, haha), so I'm thinking next time I might put a DVD on the player as that will probably encourage me to keep going for longer. I feel great though :)

alexthedevil @ 2010-11-24T04:30:00

2010-11-23T17:29:58Z

So apparently, it's been 3+ months since I've posted. Fail. Therefore, update ahoy!

[01] I has a shiny new layout. Mostly because I was getting sick of the old one. Go look! alexthedevil

[02] Work is its usual. The other supervisors are still bugging me, last week I spent 2 hours trying to fix something... which should have been fixed about a week beforehand. Then a few days later, I had to fix it AGAIN, because it was wrong on my days off. For real, there are 3 other people capable of fixing this stuff, it's very frustrating when it comes down to me Every. Damn. Time.

[03] Speaking of work, Glenn's brother's girlfriend has just started working there too, because her contract wasn't renewed due to funding at her old job. Not that being a teaching aide has anything to do with working in a hotel, but whatevs. Hoping it all goes well for her, not sure if they'll put her on my shift because I'd be her supervisor and may have to tell her off for something, conflict of interest blah blah etc.

[04] I'm currently on a week off work on leave. My friend was coming down from another state, but then she had an incident with a gutter and hurt her foot and long story short wasn't travelling. Buuut I decided screw it, and took the week off anyway. Not planning on doing much, had to go to the dentist today (boo), but I'm going to the day spa tomorrow and getting my hair done on Friday (yay).

[05] Still waiting on the damn house. Interest rates went up 0.35% :( But we have unconditional approval for the entire loan ($310k, urgh) which is awesome, because now I can stop stressing about lending criteria changing and having issues getting our finance. We just got a letter in the mail today saying that they've lodged paperwork to register titles which will take ~2 weeks, then settlement is 14 days after this. Which means they won't start building the house until January next year because of the break they take over Christmas/New Year, grump. Fingers crossed they won't take too long.

[06] Wedding progress is.. not happening too much. Mainly because I don't have a clear idea what I want, but I'll get it sorted soon. I bought a massive magazine (we're talking 800 pages here) and have flipped through for ideas. My manager at work who I'm good friends with also recently got engaged, and her wedding will be the month before mine, so we are talking about stuff together.

[07] Apparently when I am off work, I like to go online shopping. I just redeemded my credit card reward points to get a GPS, because I've wanted one for a few years now but couldn't really justify the cost, even more so now that I have an iPhone with the maps application. I had to pay $14 in total which is a pretty good deal. I also bought a bunch of books online, and found a few more that I want, although I fail because I am still in the beginning of HP6 and I have already seen HP7 twice. Fingers crossed that I can finish it before Part 2 comes out, anyone?

[08] I am still addicted to my TV shows. Still plugging my way through Desperate Housewives, although it keeps getting put on hold for every other TV show I am watching. I just downloaded Privileged, although that was only 18 episodes so I've already finished it all. And I've started getting into Glee, so that's another one. As soon as I think my schedule will be slightly less due to cancelled shows, I find new shows to replace them. I have something like 8-10 a week I download, although I have been ignoring Private Practice as it's not grabbing my attention, One Tree Hill because I'm more interested in the other shows, and House because while I like it, it's not an episode I have to watch each week and I'll probably do what I did last season and watch the whole thing in a few days.

Anyway, I have rambled enough, and have also had this entry page open for about 2 hours, because I get completely distracted by EVERYTHING on the internet, and also it is 4.30am. Glenn has to get up in 45 minutes, sucker. (He's asleep. I got kicked out of the room, apparently computer screens keep him awake, psh). So yeah. How've y'all been doing?

alexthedevil @ 2010-08-20T02:47:00

2010-08-19T16:47:54Z

Got an email from the bank today.

UNCONDITIONAL APPROVAL FOR THE LAND LOAN! :D :D :D

Happy Alex is Happy. Means there's one less thing I have to stress about, it had to be approved by Sept 3rd so I have plenty of time. Still no idea when the land is actually released (Sept/Oct sometime) but it is nice to have it completely sorted. We just have to sign the loan documents now :)

alexthedevil @ 2010-08-12T20:20:00

2010-08-12T10:20:59Z

So, I had a fabulous start to the morning today! I woke up late (I've been soooo exhausted lately, time for a B12 injection methinks), and rushed to get to the station on time. Get there with what would've been about 5 minutes to spare - and the train is not at the platform. Announcement comes over that the 5.57am express train has been cancelled and the next train is the 6.10am stopping all stations train. Whatever, call work and text my manager that I'll be 5-10 minutes late. [This is why I get the earlier train!]

As I'm walking up the street from the station, i'm half a block away from work and I hear a fire alarm. I was a bit like "oh hey, that sounds like it's coming from work", get closer and hear the evacuation tone and realise that it IS coming from work. Freaking FANTASTIC.

So I run into the reception, throw down my coat and bag behind the desk and grab the fire keys to shut off the lifts, as my manager runs past me going "It's Hydra, again". If anyone remembers me bitching a couple of months ago, this is the same restaurant that set the hotel into evacuation mode twice in a week for a FAULT when the restaurant was closed, unoccupied, and nobody had been inside for a couple of days. The one where the fault was supposedly fixed (TWICE).

Blah blah, we do our usual directing, people are whinging a little bit because it's 7am and freezing outside, even though I know it's a false alarm we're still obligated to evacuate the building until the fire brigade get here. Fire brigade get here, give us the 'uh, wtf... okay, let the guests back to the room' and we think all is good (although my hotel manager is PIIIISSSED that it's happened again because seriously, get your shit together and ifx your alarm).

7:30am, all is good, takes about 10 minutes for the guests to get back into the rooms and all sorted, some guests don't have their keys so we give them new ones, take handover from the night guy and continue on with our morning.

Until it gets to about an hour later, I'm checking a guest out when an alarm goes off again. Now, an alarm ringing in the morning is not uncommon because the smoke detectors in the room are real sensitive and shower steam sets them off. Usally it stops by the time we get to the panel to even see which room it is. Nope, it rings, and the evacuation tone sounds AGAIN. [Usually, the panel will alert, and if it's not acknowledged or isolated, it goes into evac about 2-3 minutes later. This did it straight away.]

Sue runs to the panel. It's Hydra. Same goddamn fault. FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

So now we have the fire brigade coming out AGAIN - at $5k per callout for a false alarm. Our facilities manager gets on the PA and basically tells the guests 'chill, false alarm, please ignore the massive loud evauation 'whoop whoop' tones kthx' and then gets on the phone to scream at the guys who supposedly fixed this fault twice.

So - yes. First hour and a half of my shift today was FUN. Then I got some lady calling, "concerned about the events this morning", and wanted me to guarantee that it would not happen again or else she'd cancel the rest of her booking. I basically told her:
a) We are getting it fixed adn there is currently a contractor onsite, but I could not and WOULD NOT guarantee that a fire alarm would not sound while she was staying, because that is a whole load of liability I would get myself into.
b) It was not actually the hotel, it was a private business on the same premises, that we had no control over.
c) We will not waive a cancellation fee FOR SOMETHING WE CANNOT CONTROL AND ARE TRYING TO FIX.

Oh, and some guy apparently sprained his ankle when he was leaving the hotel and wanted medical attention, but refused to put on an icepack. Wtf.

alexthedevil @ 2010-08-09T23:06:00

2010-08-09T13:06:19Z

Hump day! Well, half-hump day. Finished day 4 of 8, am absolutely hanging out for my 4 day weekend this weekend.

My iPod and Kobo died on me this morning on the train, about 10 minutes into the trip. Glenn just laughed at me :-( It's not my fault I forgot to charge it! But HAHA to him, apparently Blackberry chargers will charge Kobos, so I stole one from lost property and charged it.

I'm trying to start reading heaps again. I want to read all of the Harry Potter books before the movie comes out in November - I've just finished book 1, so 6 to go. But I also want to read all of John Marsden's Tomorrow series before the 1st movie comes out September 2nd - although at least with this one I just have to read the first!

I also want to read all of Tamora Pierce's books again because it's been that long since I've read them, plus the "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy as I've been hearing lots of stuff. And Twilight series, just for the lolz, and a few books my best friend has recommended me, and the True Blood books.

I want to read the books that Pretty Little Liars is based from because I am ADDICTED to that show (it is oh so trashy but actually not terrible!) however from what i've read, it'll completely spoil me for the series and I don't want that. I'm loving the mystery "A" from it, so do NOT want to find out what happens.

Plus, the Kobo came with 100 classics for free, so I'm currently reading What Katy Did atm. Way too many books!

..That said, does anyone have any book suggestions? Bonus points if I can acquire them from the pirate bay *cough*

On that note - I've downloaded a bunch of ebooks (HP, John Marsden etc) from there - it's not REALLY illegal if I own the books and just want another format for convenience .... right ....?

alexthedevil @ 2010-08-06T01:56:00

2010-08-05T15:56:59Z

The past few weeks of my life, excepting work, have revolved around this damn house.

Go to bank. Find out roughly how much we can be approved for. Get basic preapproval.
Go to display home. Look at houses. Look at estate. Find different house & land package we are interested in.
Go to land sales office. Find where block is. Go for driveby, discover street doesn't fully exist yet.
Go to builders office. Talk to builder. Decide to go ahead and purchase after calling Glenn at work. Put down holding deposit.
Go to land sales office. Put down preliminary holding deposit. Ask about changing position of driveway.
Get email from builder with quote. Forward to banker.
Get call from land sales office. Driveway can't be changed. Arrange meeting for balance of deposit.
Get multiple calls from builder's finance company (PISS OFF). Return one then screen rest of calls.
Day we are to pay deposit and sign contract find they have run out. Postphone meeting.
Meet with bank. Get conditional preapproval (aka, pass all the checks). Get letter to give builder.
Meet with builder. Sign preliminary quotation.
Meet with land sales office. Sign contract (and get bottle of sparkling wine, MINE.)
Go back to builder. Give them copy of contract. Realise we have forgotten to add $10,000 package. Get electrical plans. Realise this will be another $2,000. Arrange colour information session which will take 1.5 hours.
Email banker copy of contract.
Email conveyancer with details.
Email land sales rep our conveyancer's details.
Get email from bank. We didn't give him [some piece of paperwork] or recent pay slips.
Scan paperwork to banker. Get email back saying thanks but he really needed the 50 page booklet.
Email land sales rep asking for her to email banker. Sales rep does so (fast!) because she's good like that.
Waiting for response from banker as to when we can sign the contract.
Waiting to hear from land sales rep as to when the land titles and when our loan will be taken out.
Try and work out exactly how much money we will need to give to various people, and when.
Get call from builder's head office. Make appointment to select colours (3 HOURS?!). Make appointment to sign contract.

That brings us up to today. The previous happened in the space of about 3 weeks. Also, I work 7 and 8 day weeks which makes it freaking IMPOSSIBLE to return calls or check my voicemail. Why don't these people realise I have a shiny iPhone and I can check emails more often!?

Oh yeah, and after the wedding bridal expo, I have to call photographers, arrange bridal appointments for the dresses, and book the cars. Fffff I want a day off where I do nothing!!!

tl;dr - buy a house off the fricking plan, or already built. SO MUCH EFFORT.

alexthedevil @ 2010-08-05T11:25:00

2010-08-05T01:25:42Z

- Finish Thank you cards
- Send thank you cards
- Write down everything that we have for the house
- Write down what else we need for the house
- Vacuum inside of car
- Take presents to storage
~~- Wash make up brushes~~
- Clean room
- Wash car
- Take car thru car wash (srsly it's a separate job)
- Clean out the crap inside the car so it is EMPTY
- Sort through information from bridal expo
- Make a wedding folder with all our info
- Type up the guest list on easyweddings so I know how many people we have
- Get together all our paperwork for the house
- Do the numbers so I know exactly how much more money we need since we've added $12k to our house (#@$#)

...that's just today D:

House update...

2010-07-27T12:42:28Z

Well, things are moving along on the house front! Had a meeting with the bank today, got one tomorrow with the builders and one on Saturday with the land developers, JOY.

I sort of love the Government right now. They're doing a first home owner's grant where you get $20,000 for building a new home as long as the contract is signed before June 30, 2011. I think it's some job creation thing - I don't really care why it's there, just that we qualify and it will help A LOT.

The banks here have this stupid genuine savings thing going on where if they give you a loan, you have to prove that you've had 5% of the purchase price of the property in savings for minimum 3 months which can be a bit tricky. In our case it's just under $18,000. Can I just say, thank god for tax returns otherwise we wouldn't hit that for another couple of months. We've borrowed 2k from my parents until my tax return comes in later this week and then we can pay them back straight away, but then we should have our genuine savings =]

After that it's a bit easier - the land people required a $10,000 deposit which we have just paid (courtesy of early wedding present from our parents), we need another $15,000 contribution towards settlement in September, plus $2500 for the mortgage insurance because apparently lending over 80% of the price is a ~risk~, but we have this in genuine savings so it's all good. Then after that we just have to pay the builders a little under $4000 when we sign the contract, and we have a loan! Its all 'cause of the 20k grant, if it wasn't for that I have no idea where we'd find the money.

I'm kinda glad, because my parents would probably help us, and so would Glenn's mum - but I'd rather not borrow from others if we could because we'll be paying $2000+ in repayments each month plus everything else so I don't know when we'd pay them back. I dislike owing people money and not knowing when we can repay it, I kinda like to be able to get into my own debt and not have someone get into debt for me, y'know? Glenn's dad on the other hand said that we would "have to discuss a loan" (back when we thought we needed more money), but he's an ass like that. I'm a bit glad we don't have to borrow from him because I just know at some point it would come back to bite us in the ass or he'd hold it over our head or something.

So... yes.. land apparently titles in September/October which is when they can start building, we can't sign the building contract until October 27 (or can't have the loan taken out til then) because of the 3 month savings thing but it is really looking like we will have our own house in another year!!!

Once we have access to the block (they're still... I dunno, finishing the street? We couldn't drive down it a couple of weeks ago) I will take photos of our very own patch of land!

In other work related news, appraisals are coming up the next couple of weeks. I think I'll do okay, I know there's issues I need to work on but I don't get yelled at for major things so that's sweet. Glenn had his last week and has moved up to the next branch, yay for him. The funny thing is that I checked my bank account today because we got paid, and I've already received the pay rise without the appraisal. Uh, nice work there, Oaks.

Of course the shitty thing with this is that the pay rise has once again pushed me over the student loan repayment limit (BY $88 A YEAR GODDAMNIT), so it actually means a pay decrease (of about $45 a fortnight, so it's not sooo bad). Whatever, annoying, but maybe I'll actually start wearing down on that stupid $30,000 loan from uni - they took pay last tax year but because my overall salary was below it, I got it all back because I'd "overpaid" tax.

Lastly, my friend who works at a CD/DVD store is a massive cow for enabling my DVD habit because I have just bought more DVDs, as well as getting addicted to a new TV show - thank fuck Masterchef has finished because that was on for 1+ hours a night, 6 days a week and was hell to keep up with.

alexthedevil @ 2010-07-21T18:40:00

2010-07-21T08:40:48Z

I swear, I did not know how much effort was involved in building and buying a house!

In the past two days I have had an email from the builder's sales consultant with a copy of the quotation, which I still have to go through and read, as well as reply to her query; I have had calls from and emails from the land sales consultant to work out how much they require as additional deposit; I have emailed the guy from the bank we have been dealing with so I know exactly how much money we need; and I have been getting calls from the builder's financial company (who we are not interested in at the moment but who I have been playing phone tag with fffffff leave me alone).

The really annoying thing? THEY KEEP CALLING ME. Okay, yeah, that's fine, except that I work 7am-4pm and don't really have the ability to take calls, I'm lucky if I'm able to check my voicemails before I finish work. So I spent my lunch break playing phone tag BACK, which didn't really work because my lunch break = their lunch break = not answering phones. I ended up just emailing one of them, I don't have the email address of the other guy though who KEEPS CALLING.

In conclusion, email = good, because I can use my iPhone and reply to it quicker, phone = badddddd.

In other news, the tax office really needs to hurry the eff up with Glenn and my tax returns. yes I only submitted on Sunday night, and they take 14 days, I don't care, I want our $2700 NOW! Mainly because it would really help with our deposit, and mean we'd have to borrow less from the parental units. My term deposit matures tomorrow ~~my bad, I haven't submitted the form to Westpac I'LL GET THERE OKAY~~ so at least that frees up some money!

Sigh, I can't wait until the preliminary contracts are signed - yes it will still be a long process and all but at least I know we'll get there!

alexthedevil @ 2010-07-20T23:25:00

2010-07-20T13:25:25Z

'sup, el-jay? I haven't posted a real update here in a while, so here goes.

Work

Is still going okay. Still the only 'official' supervisor, but there's 2 training and I'm hoping that they'll be promoted. I'm still doing the bulk of the supervisor work, but it's not seeming as much anymore, thank goodness. Rumour is we have appraisals coming up - the first, I might add, since I started two years ago - which I'm curious about, I think I'm doing an okay job, sure they do tell me off for minor things but as far as I know there's nothing MAJOR I'm fucking up. Hopefully I go up a pay grade, although it's only a $1000/year increase to the next one, and the one after that is 'Senior' which means you have to be in the current position for 12+ months. The difference between base level and senior is only $2000/year anyway, which is a bit messed. Whatever.

Wedding

No further progress, really, I was on the phone with my best friend for the good part of an hour looking at wedding dresses ("Okay, page 12, Dress 203D" "...oooh, cute!") and am starting to get a rough idea of what I want. We've selected the date, venue, bridal party, and most of the invite list... and that's about it. There's a huge bridal expo in a couple of weeks though, which we're going to which will hopefully give me some ideas. Mum has decided we're entering every single competition we can in case we happen to win a free wedding - why the hell not?

The engagement party is this weekend, and we're expecting the guests to be around the 80 mark =\ How the hell we even know that many people, I don't even know. But apparently a few people will be giving us presents or gift cards, which is yay, because we really need to start getting things for a house. Because...

House

We are buying/building a house! It is a 4 bedroom house, out in Mernda which is about 55 minutes from the city (we're about 40 mins atm). We've been to the bank and been preapproved, so just have to go back with the quote and everything and get proper approval to give the builder, but we've placed down a holding deposit on the land as well as the builder, we just have to give a further deposit of $10,000 (eeeeek) next Monday to completely secure the land. It's titled in September, which is when they can also start constructing (they reckon about early October, once permits are finalised), and the sales consultant for the builder reckons it will be finished in May 2011! I am very very excited :) We have the quote for the house, I just need to read through and check all the inclusions and see if there is anything else we want to add, but I'm really excited about this and I'm looking forward to having our OWN home, that we can pick and choose the colours etc.

http://www.stockland.com.au/assets/Lot_117_Mernda_Villages_(Iris_4).pdf - this is the information for the house, the only thing different is that we are going to try and flip it so that it's a mirror image (assuming they haven't finished the road on the estate), because the right hand side is where the sun will come and it'd be nicer if that came through the living area :-) The best thing is that the location in the estate is pretty damn good, it's about a 5-10 minute walk from where they are building a government primary school, and shopping centre, which will = higher resale value when we come to sell given it's a 4 bedroom house, as well as the fact that the whole area is just shooting up in value the past few years, particularly more when they extend the train line out.

Sooooo, we just have to go to the bank and get them to give us moneys, our main issue at the moment is that we have enough income between the both of us to afford the monthly repayments without struggling (it'll be a struggle when we're on 1 income but I don't forsee that happening any time soon), but that we don't have the initial deposit. We were going to be getting a land loan, and then later on consolidating that into a house & land loan, but I don't think that will happen anymore. My parents are giving us money as an early wedding present for the land deposit, so we're hoping that Glenn's parents can lend us money for the initial deposit. We need an appointment with the bank though just to work out exactly what numbers we are looking at - we got approved for a higher loan/more expensive package so we *should* be fine, fingers crossed.

--

Anyway, apart from that, I haven't really been up to much - work work work, trying to catch up with friends but failing miserably, and I am currently surrounded by a massive pile of paperwork that I have no idea where it's come from. Anyone got any bright ideas for a filing system?!

alexthedevil @ 2010-07-18T21:25:00

2010-07-18T11:25:50Z

In they style of madamenilef , I have a million and one things I need to do. So I am posting to el-jay in the hopes that y'all kick my ass for being lazy becuase I am the worlds biggest procrastinator.

~~- Put away washing~~
- Wash make up brushes
- Sort out 32890248324 pieces of paperwork into 'action' and 'file'
~~- Argue with E-Tax so that it will let me submit Glenn's tax return ($700)~~
~~- Make sure I have all my paperwork so I can submit my tax return (~$2000)~~
- Find memory card for camera and sort through Africa photos
- Clean up all the crap on the floor
- Change the sheets and doona/duvet
~~- Send out the rest of the invites for our engagement party~~
- Put away the million and one DVDs that have ended up sitting out on the shelf
~~- Email the jeweller in South Africa because they haven't sent my damn valuation for my tanzanite ring~~
- EMPTY OUT MY CAR, ffs I moved in Feb and there's still shit in there
- Write out a list of what I want/need for our house/engagement party so I can tell people and go shopping when we get our gift cards
~~- Clear out my survey email account of the 40+ unread emails and actually do the surveys~~
- Clean the crap off my computer and put on my hard drive
- Sort out my hard drives because I have stuff over 2 external HDDs

Er, I think that's all for now that I remember (although when I composed the list it was a lot longer).

F-LIST PLEASE KICK MY ASS, MMK.

Laptop Woes!

2010-06-15T10:28:06Z

So, I still don't have my laptop back from repair. Apparently it'll be another 3 weeks.

I did just get a loaner netbook from them - it's WEIRD. I'm used to big laptops, with 15.4 inch screens, now this one is 10.1" - it's a bit of a pain in the ass to use, mainly getting used to the keyboard (which isn't taking me too long, except for the lack of 'Home' key, I have to hit Fn and then another key), but the touch pad is STUPID and the clicky thing is one long bar which is used for both and is just plain weird.

At least I have a computer now, though, and don't have to keep stealing Glenn's or Mum's. It's relatively new-ish, which is surprising as I was half expecting some piece of junk. And I can still download and use stuff although it has icky security stuff installed on it. I'm half tempted to load a virus onto it when I send it back just for revenge for them taking so goddamn long to reinstall windows and just generally being incompetent.

OH LORD I HATE THIS TOUCH PAD I WANT TO KILL IT.

Er, on a brigher note, no more people have been bugging me about the guest list. I'm generally not a fan of "ignore it until it goes away" responses to situations, but in this case it's the only damn thing that seems to be working.

!!!!!!!!

2010-05-26T02:19:22Z

Yes, this is what you think it is.