drowning

Still struggling to pull myself out of the mountain of work that accumulated while I was gone. Ordered online groceries again, so didn't even have to go out for food haha! Am forcing myself to go to the gym now, though, then will be working all evening.

Got word that my trip pics are available online! I'll be posting some here as well as finishing up my trip report (with photos!).

Went to see a 10:30 pm showing of The Mummy with Brian and Helen last night. Cheesy but amusing. :)

still drowning

Still swamped. Got Inklings sent off all right this morning, though.

Went to another movie late last night (10:30 pm showing, half-price ticket night) with Brian and Helen...went to see the Matrix again. Enjoyed it even more the second time around. Still not exactly sure how we ended up at the movies again; both Jeff and I were dead tired (partly because we have both been working pretty hard, and also because my alarm went off in the middle of the night because I still had it on British time!). When Brian called at around 9 pm, however, we couldn't resist.

Online grocery update: I am still ordering from Grocery Gateway, by the way. The delivery guys seem to be getting younger but are just as robustly cheerful.

My nieces Sara and Annie have their first pet! Apparently Sara's nursery school class had a pet fish named Flounder Bluey (the class picked the name), and Sara was chosen to be the one to bring him home for the summer. Sara and Annie are VERY excited. I'm sure my sister just hopes that Flounder Bluey survives the summer.

full trip report

Full trip report with pictures can be now seen at http://www.inkspot.com/blatherings/reports/debbieuk.html.

My computer is driving me crazy. Netscape crashes on me an average of five times an hour (no exaggeration), and each time I have to reboot my computer, arg. Still behind in email...

cottage

Went to the cottage with Brian and Helen. My current read: _Cryptonomicon_ by Neal Stephenson. I confess I did a bit of work for my book, but limited this to a few hours and spent the rest of the weekend napping, reading, eating, painting my toenails blue. I don't usually paint my nails and did a astoundingly absymal job (I'm sure I would fail Girl School if there was one). I think it all stems from how much I despised colouring when I was little; I never had enough patience to stay inside the lines. :-)

Also practiced penny whistle. I can now play relatively comfortably in 4 keys on my D penny whistle (D, C, F, G), working on others. I have three D penny whistles now; all having slightly differing tones...don't really have a favourite yet, though I find myself practising more often with the Clarke Sweettone right now ($6 at Steve's Music Store).

Got Sam Baardman's newest CD, The Rookery, in the mail on Friday! VERY cool CD; everyone must buy one. :-)

Going to the Royal Alex with Cathy tonight.

Officemusic: The Rookery (Sam Baardman).

austin powers

Saw the second Austin Powers movie with Helen, Jeff, Doug, and Craig a couple nights ago. Until recently, the worst 'big-budget' movie I had ever seen was "One On One", a movie I saw in the seventies which starred Robby Benson (remember him?). "The Spy Who Shagged Me", however, has now taken its place.

For the record, I -did- like the first movie quite a bit. The sequel, however, seems to have run out of ideas. It takes whatever was slightly funny in the first movie and bashes the viewer over the head with it (over and over and over again). I found the humor far cruder, more juvenile than the first movie. Ok, enough Austin-bashing.

The best part of the movie was sharing a freshly-baked cinnamon pretzel from the concession stand with Jeff. :-)

Officemusic: DOUGLAS BROTHERS (got this tape from Dave Clement).