The Good, the Bad & the Soon-to-Be Adventurous

Hi!

Well. Yep. Am late again. This is becoming a bad habit. And just think, am going to be late again this coming weekend..... Hmmmm. Apologies. I really do like checking in Sunday afternoon, it's become a nice weekend-closing ritual of sorts. Now, if I always had 3-day weekends, this late business probably wouldn't happen because I would have the Monday to run around...... Hmmm. Never mind - here I am!

So work. Yep. Is pretty good, more or less. Thing is, all good things must eventually come to an end, no matter how groovy the gig. Yes, my contract has been renewed for the last time, due to expire on Sept. 30th, which, in light of the fact am headed away on vacation on Aug. 30th, that makes my last day the 28th of Aug. So yes, applied for one job already (outside of my whole company, yet still within the clutches of the Queensland Government - hey, they have decent enough perks) and have put the word out all over the street for folks to keep their eyes and ears peeled. Sigh. It's pretty much way out of my hands, stupid government stuff that I won't sully the waters with here. Suffice to say it's not me, it's them, it's nothing I've done (or not done), it's just stuff, contracts against permanent jobs that are nothing like what the job really is - it's all really confusing and incredibly frustrating. I asked my boss to think of options for me as I put a lot of work into, well, my work, and he sort of wrinkled his nose. Like I said it's beyond my control. Shame, I quite dug this gig. But, chin up, will look forward and who knows, with the great experience and mad skillz I now have, I could end up with something even better!? Here's hoping with fingers and toes crossed! Otherwise work is good, as always.......

And then the weekend. Friday was actually quite a quiet and dull evening in. For once I didn't fall asleep on the couch in front of a good DVD and wake up at 2am only to be awake the rest of the night thus throwing my internal clock out the window for the rest of the weekend. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Hooray for a normal, quiet Friday evening!

Then Saturday. I had every intention under the sun of job-hunting and applying...... Didn't even turn on the computer. Instead I cleaned and washed just about everything I could think of. By the time I was done with that, well, it was time to relax, have a beer, read, and then whoops! look at the time - dinner time! Sad when chores are more fun than job hunting.

And then Sunday. What an absolutely fantastic day that was. I met my friend Kim, who I used to work with in New Zealand. She had a good christmas with her parents (in NZ), applied for a job here, came over for the interview and an Andre Rieu concert, got the job, packed her stuff, left her boyfriend of like 100 years, and here she is! So yesterday was our first time seeing each other since I left NZ, what, 4, 5 years ago. We had an absolutely fantastic day and it just shot past. She's been to Brissy before, but usually only quickly seeing stuff as a tourist. So Sunday we took our time and walked all over the show, rode the commuter ferry (part of the nickel and dime tour, plan on it when you get down here), had a lovely lunch at the pub, walked and talked some more, next thing I was waving her goodbye to her train (she lives in a 'burb, Strathpine, about 1/2 an hour north of me). It was wonderful to see her. One of the few Kiwi's that was kind to me during my whole time in NZ. Sad, but true. So that is why am late, again, in checking in. Because by the time I got home, a mean and nasty headache had set up shop in the right side of my head, so drugs were had and headache successfully banished. By that time tho, it was past dinner and time for reading and bed. But never mind - here I am! And a good weekend was had by all!

So yes. There you are. It was a really nice weekend after such a sadly stressful week. Always a bit dismayed to hear when my good gig comes to an end. I hope I can stay with where I'm at, tho perhaps a different department for necessity and variety's sake. Ahhh well.

And oh yeah! This coming weekend, hold yer horses and have a seat - am going on An Adventure! And I have to get on a plane to get there! Gasp! Shame I organized it before finding out about my gig, but there it is..... Anyways, am off to Townsville with Hasse (guy from work)! His brother, and, well, his whole family, are Danish (but moved here in the mid-80's) and every year his brother, who lives in Townsville, throws a "traditional" Danish Solstice/birthday party - marking what would be the height of lovely weather and the longest day in Denmark, so for here he throws a Solstice party marking the shortest day (us here in the Southern Hemisphere, being in the middle of winter and all) and seeing as his birthday is the 17th, well, it's just an even better excuse to have a par-tay. And I remember Hasse coming back from it last year going on and on and on about what a fantastic weekend it is, so nice to catch up with the family, eat traditional food, drink traditional schnapps, etc, so this year, as soon as he started to talk about it, I invited myself along. Happily he thought that would be fine - the more the merrier, cross-cultural education and all that. Hooray! So I leave first thing Friday morning and return mid-day Monday. I can't say Townsville was on my List of Places to Scope Out while am here, but hey, neither was Coffs Harbour at Christmas a couple years ago and that was a lovely place! But I hear Townsville is really quite nice and hopefully one of the days we can get the ferry over to Magnetic Island (called so because back in the day of Captain Cook, when he sailed past the island, he thought his compasses all behaved strangely) and have a look around - it's meant to be beautiful - 70% is national park! So will take lots of -new- photos and check in hopefully Monday evening.....?

So there you have it. The good news and the bad news. Ehhh, what can I do but start looking for a new gig and make sure my camera has batteries and enough space on its memory card! And who knows, if Townsville knocks my socks off, we'll head up there when you get down here! Hooray for New Adventures!

BYE!
J!

A Birthday Gift from the Queen - 3-Day Weekend!

Hi!

Well. Am late. Again. We have today off in honor of The Queen’s Birthday, even though her birthday is somewhere around the end of the month, never mind, it’s a 3-day weekend! Hooray! Which kind of explains why I’m late checking in – went out yesterday to run errands and well, didn’t get home until way late. But here I am!

So work. Yep. Is good. It’s kinda funny that I’ve managed to get quite a few little projects to the printing house, yet I still feel like the only project am working on is still The Big Project, my RoboHelp cd-rom thingy. Which, it turns out, not as many people are going to actually use it as I thought I understood. Sigh. Modern technology wins in the end, with perhaps a teeny bit of help from me. Eh, it’s been great to learn a new program, even if I can’t really use it for much. The IT guys at work told me not to worry, that our department had to spend the money (on the computer program) regardless, just to spend the money in order to get it back for the budget next financial year. So here was me worrying that we spent $1,400 on a computer program that turns out we use it for one project and it’s just ok. Well, goes to show worrying gets you nowhere! But speaking of worrying about going somewhere, my little contract is due to end at the end of this month, so I guess it’s time to start rattling boss’s cage and worrying maybe just a little…. Sad news, employee with nose out of joint is due to return, well, tomorrow (it’s been away doing another job for these last few blissful months). Sigh. Otherwise, work is good! Always happy to have a good and interesting gig! Fingers crossed!

And then the weekend. Started off lovely Friday evening with some of the folks from work and I going to the pub near work for a glass of wine or two, then we headed into my old ‘hood of Spring Hill to go to dinner at the St. Paul’s Tavern and to see some sort of comedy show. After two bottles of wine, we all decided we were having such a good time that we decided to give the comedy a miss (good thing we hadn’t bought tickets ahead of time!). Then we headed directly across the street to my old pub to see what’s happened since it’s finally been sold, refurbished and re-opened – it was nice! Kinda the same, but downstairs, in the basement, they set it up to be, well, another sort of club, except cool, laid-back and jazzy! Shame the guy who owned the place couldn’t be bothered before, cos how cool it would’ve been if I lived next door to that all this time! Neat! But we didn’t stay long, in fact we looked around, I marveled at how fantastic it looked and then we piled into a cab and made our ways home. Ahhhh, was a lovely evening.

Then Saturday. Was very good for once, and did alll the chores in one fell swoop. Lately I haven’t been bothered (I mean, the place is teeny and it’s not like Kona is the size and filth of a Saint Bernard, but at 15+ pounds, he's getting close). But busted them all out and now it’s happy and clean. Plus, the rain seems to have headed to New Zealand (where it rightfully belongs) and the weather has turned lovely and cool and DRY. Ahhhh, I can think when the humidity drops. Could be why I can get so much done. Weird. But good weird. And then the rest of the evening was quiet as I took 4 attempts to watch one movie (kept falling asleep), “Perfume: Story of a Murderer”. In the end the movie wasn’t all that great and it had a super weird ending. So if you’re into strange-ish, pseudo-European films, this one could be for you. Really good story, interesting idea. Way wacky ending. Like, way wacky. Way. I’m either getting old or my wacky sensibilities point in a different direction, but I just didn’t dig this one. Hmmm. And why yes, I did just so happen to go to film school!

And then yesterday, Sunday, was errands galore, including getting mah hair cut shortshortshort, not that it was all that long, but it sure felt that way. So yes, I buckled; I couldn’t grow my hair out. Not at this point in time anyways. I can’t help it, for some reason I just really love having my hair shortshortshort. Ahhhhhh! Tho, as punishment for snapping and not planning the cut ahead of time, I ended up going to one of those chop-shops in the mall, ehh, I kinda came away with a bit of a jail haircut, but eh, enough wax and goop and stuff, no one will ever be able to tell. And give it a week it’ll look fantastic! Hooray! And then met Hasse for a wander to South Bank to a reallyreally nice restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try out for a while called River Canteen (if you come down here on your visit, we’re so going). It was really good, if not slightly sparse yet artsy in the food-on-plate department, the food was fantastic and the views of the river just lovely, and the staff were in no means in a rush to get us in and out, there were tables there long before us who left minutes before we did, and we were there a fair while – so it was a most lovely, relaxed and lazy afternoon. Then we headed over to the Convention Center as Lifeline (charity organization) was having their yearly, massive book sale – where they literally fill half the convention center with used books, most of which are under a dollar, and the money goes to a good cause! I found manymany books I could’ve taken home, but too hard to carry that many books around on the bus! So I just settled for 2. Then we wandered into West End to see what interesting bars might be open on the Sunday before the Queen’s Birthday holiday (cos lots of places close) and come to discover the place was really buzzy busy! I don’t ever go down into West End, even tho it’s spitting distance to South Bank and crammed full of fantastic, little cafes and restaurants, I just never really get the urge to go down there for what ever reason . So we walked for a bit and settled on this cute little pokey bar called Sling that had a cocktail menu something along the lines of 70 pages…… I just stuck with good ol red wine. After a few glasses of that, we realized the place had really started to get bloody busy (our clue was that the bar-back kept smashing glasses the faster he tried to work, poor guy, and his boss (French guy) kept sighing and giving him looks), so we moseyed from there back into town where we had one last glass of cognac at the casino and watched the strange desperation of too many young college students try their luck. Where the hell they get that kind of money to just gamble away, I’ll never know. And that was the evening! Lovely!

And today, well, it’s been an easy, quiet day so far. Will get my stuff ready for tomorrow, maybe run up to the store, maybe a nap…. Ahhhh! Hooray for long weekends!

And that’s about that. Hope you’re all well up there… drop a line sometime… come down for a visit, the weather’s fine!

BYE!

J!

Trek to Golf

Hi!

Well. Yes, am late, I spotted that too. But that's ok, here I am and it's not even noon yet! Weekend was nice, even if it ran a little late for a Sunday, a nice weekend was had by all. Well, I had a nice weekend anyways….. Sorry for being late!

So work. Yep. Is good. Fine. Now that it's June we're in the home-stretch to the end of the financial year. Which means a few things - 1) My contract is up for hopeful extension (fingers crossed it's for 6 months and not the usual 3), 2) Tax return time - refund (uh, hopefully....?)! and 3) Everyone will be too stressed out fighting with budgets and stuff to notice that they've let a couple projects slip, but that's ok by me, I have plenty to keep me occupied. So there. Should be an interesting next few weeks! Otherwise, work is fine. I still quite like it regardless!

And then the weekend. Started off most excellently (is that a real word, or a word that "Bill & Ted" made up?). Had a lovely "party" at work of wine and cheese and nibbles put on by the Director of our department. Then Dom and I headed over to the Victoria Park Golf Course to meet his friend Shawn for a round of (drinks) mini-golf (tee hee, the locals call it "putt-putt"). Man that was fun! Rain and all! Ha, the rain made it even more of a challenge just to walk from one hole to the next, carrying a cheap, little, plastic cup full of wine, on fake plastic grass, in shoes with positively no traction, in the rain! Points for not slipping over or spilling too much wine! And I have to say, that mini-golf course has to be one of the best I've ever seen. Really clever, tidy, and creatively laid-out. So if you come down here for a visit, whether you like mini-golf or not, we're going! Mini-golf and barefoot lawn bowls - my 2 new favorite past-times!

And Saturday. Yes, was a bit of a slow start, but still managed to get some chores done. I can’t say what else I did with the day besides laundry and chatting to my neighbour Daryl……. No naps were involved I am proud to report…….. Nope, can’t remember anything more exciting happening Saturday than laundry. Sadsadsad.

And then Sunday. Was up and out bright and early to meet The Usual Suspects (minus a couple) in town for breakfast. Always nice. Then 3 of us headed to the movies to go see the new “Star Trek” movie. Pretty good. Interesting take on the ‘beginning’ of the whole thing. I kinda liked it. It was quite good to see on the big screen that’s for sure. So if you like that kinda thing I highly recommend it! Then we wandered over to a pub for a couple glasses of wine when it all became too much excitement for Hasse and he headed home, whereas Sarah and I went for a wander around the Queen Street Mall and ended up in a little café for a late lunch/early dinner and more wine. Lovely. Then she left to catch her train and I had a walk around my old ‘hood of Spring Hill. Man, I really miss my old apartment – tho not the rent!

And then by the time I got home it was dark! Silly winter. Hooray that the solstice is the 21st – longer days again! ‘Course, every year I complain about the sun going down too early and waking up in the dark to go to work, but I haven’t forgotten it could be far worse! And that was pretty much the weekend! Hey, at least it wasn’t as dull as the last few weekends. But see what I mean about leaving the house costing money?! That’s ok tho, we’re on track for our trip savings and paying things off. Nearly there now, couple months to go! Yippie!

And that’s that. Hope you’re all well up there. Drop a line and let me know if anyone actually reads this thing!

BYE!
J!

The Bank Told Me to Have a Quiet Weekend

Hi!

Well. Here we are. Nice, very quick week. Now arriving at a rainy and cool Sunday evening. Suits me fine after all the stinky hot weeks that were summer! Week was good. Weekend was good. Ahhhhh, everyone is happy!

So work. Yep. Is good, if not slightly confusing at times as to who does what, when exactly. And that’s all I’ll say on the subject. Suffice to say I have never let go of the fact that I’m on a contract that could end either A) At the expiration date or B) Boss’s will (which is pretty much the same thing). Oh yeah. I’m meant to expire at the end of June. I optimistically organized (tho haven’t sent to HR) my renewal paperwork for either a 3 or 6 month extension. So we’ll get to the middle/end of June and see what shakes down….. Otherwise work is good, really!

And then the weekend. Was just fine. Try as I can, I cannot say it was exciting, no matter from which angle I look at it. The only thing lively about it was the schizophrenic weather – raining sideways one minute, lovely, calm and sunny the next. Made doing laundry and chores interesting. Yes, I’m afraid it’s savings lock-down mode. The Girls and I just paid off 3 of our domestic plane tickets in one shot, so all of our bank accounts are suffering slightly. Plus, I had to take the car in for its regular tune-up and oil change. $325 dollars later (needed a new battery, sigh)………….. Which means, for the most part, the bank says there really will be no fun having!

And today. Was mainly quiet (gasp!surprise!). Spent a good part of it organizing and detailing our trip plan. I know all this planning must seem a bit overboard (you haven’t seen my Trip Plan Spreadsheet), but when you’re showing two gals all over the US, who’ve never been, over 4 weeks, covering both coasts and a fair few places in between, flights, rental cars, hotels, etc, with that many details to keep track of, you’d fill out a spreadsheet too. So I did that today. Researched rental cars, hotels and their distances from stuff. Hard to believe it’s only like 3 months away! I must say, all this research and planning is kinda fun. Hooray!

And that’s that. Quiet but true. You want for things to liven up, then come on down! Yaahhooo!

BYE!

J!

Paws in Weekend

Hi!

Well. Here we are at the end of another week. Another short week I may add, but regardless, the end always seems to come too soon. Ahhhh, never mind, it was a perfectly nice week followed by an even lovelier weekend. The lorikeets chattering away outside announcing the sunset is my hint to get started writing!

So work. Yep. Is good. My Big Project that got pushed up to be due in like a week, well, it's going fine. I showed the "draft" to the main "client" and overall he really like it....... "except, well, can it do this.......?". So it was back to the drawing board for a couple of fairly major adjustments. All I can say is I owe Hasse at least one case of really nice wine. The request that the "client" made, I thought was needing at least a few weeks to fix up, took all of ten minutes. It'll do for now. Next year, bells, whistles, the whole lot. As long as the client is happy, I'm happy! Hurrah! So yes, so far so good on the work-front! Whew!

And then the weekend. Started off kinda painful by taking the bus from work into town to run errands. Mistake on a Friday. Errand-in-town day is usually Thursdays but for some reason I thought I'd shake things up a bit by doing them on Friday. Guess it's been that long since I've taken the bus into town on a Friday evening. Plus there was a rugby game on at the Suncorp Stadium (near my house), so traffic was doubly-horrible. Put it this way, it took me over an hour and a half to get from work to town. Normally takes around 20 minutes. Traffic. Sigh. Nevertheless, got my errands run, and to treat myself for being so patient on the buses (cos bus to home from town took about 45 minutes instead of the usual 15, because of everyone walking into the game), I bought my first batch of Indian Takeout all by myself. Yeah. There's a reason why I don't ever buy Indian food on my own without having someone to help me decipher the menu. It was good (love naan bread) but the next day...oooooh, tummy doesn't agree with Indian food. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Weird thing is I can eat really spicy Mexican and Thai food until the cows come home, but something about Indian food.......... Hmm.

And then Saturday. Was up and out bright and early to meet the girls for a morning Trip Planning Session. And boy did we get lots done! Booked all of our domestic flights (except San Diego to Tucson cos we're not sure of the dates yet, depends on length of roadtrip), and booked most of our hotels except Vegas and LA - those'll be easy. Whew! And now that we have a good idea how much all this stuff costs, we can pay it off now and save the rest for partypartyparty! Ha, more like shopshopshop! Hard to believe it's only 3 months away. HOORAY!

And today was up and out bright and early to meet Jan and her family out in her neighborhood of Samford, which is about 40 minutes north-east of the City, not toooooo far from me, kinda. Very pretty, for the Million Paws Walk for the RSPCA. Oh it was really fun! All these dogs! Big ones, little ones, everywhere, all getting along! And supporting a good cause! Jan's mom had made the costumes for the 8 dogs in our group - Brisbane Lions football uniforms and cheerleader outfits! We won for Best Dressed! Hahahahaha! Oh it was fun. And I got to "borrow" a gal's dog while she ran the RSPCA merchandise table to take him on the walk! He was a lovely Golden Retriever named Danny. Funny thing is, she was from Northern California! I thought she sounded kinda familiar...... Ahhh it was a reallyreally nice day out. And really cool to meet Jan's mom and niece and god-daughter!

And that's about that. Soooooo nice to get out and about for once instead of keeping my head down saving money! Ahhh well, there's a great trip to be had for it! But until then, you should come visit!

BYE!
J!

An Adventure without Bailey...

Hi!

Well. First off - am sorry am late. I didn't do a single thing even remotely exciting over the weekend. But I knew I was having an adventure today, so I thought I'd wait..... And here we are!

So yep. Work. Is good. Had a day off today because I could. It's cool how the Government works with little scrubs like me - for every standard day of 7.15 hours you work, technically you earn 15 minutes towards a day off to be used any way you see fit. And you're supposed to stop accruing it at 22 hours (but, depending on how you play it, you can save up to at least 30+ hours, sweeeet). Well, because Qld Gov't employees are wussies with their sorry little standard 7.15 hours a day (they wouldn't last a week in New York City), I work about 8.5 hours a day, therefore I accrue these little gems faster than the average bear. It's EX-cellent if I do say so myself. Ahhhhhh, short weeks. So yes, had a well-earned day off. Otherwise work is good. The big project am working on has had its due date pushed forward about a month, so they want it in like 2 weeks. I'll have to save all my money to bribe the 2 super busy IT guys to help me with the final interweb touches and adjustments! Fingers and toes crossed that they can help and that it works!

And then the weekend. Started off reallyreally cool Friday evening. Went with Hasse (guy from work) to an art gallery show opening thingy. Friends of his own the gallery, and it was photography, so he thought I'd get a kick out of it. The photos, eh, I have some good stuff that I've done, and if I took Photoshop to some of them and blew them up and put them in fancy frames, they'd be just as good as this chick's. But what made the evening even more interesting was the fact that the Governor General of Qld was there! She's not much of a real, governmental decision-maker or anything political like that, she's basically good for - and this is my tourist understanding of an already strange system of Government - she's good for basically reporting back to the Queen what's happening in Australia. And she just so happens to like art. And she lives like a couple blocks from me in a huuuge mansion down the road! She was there for about an hour, chatted with the owners and the artist and anyone else who had something to say. I couldn't think of a thing to bother her about, so I drank another glass of champagne and thought of my first art gallery show opening for my photography. Hmph! Then we headed off for a lovely meal of Thai food, which, for some reason, if it's spicey and made with coconut milk, I eat it like someone at the next table, or someone even walking by, is gonna take it away from me. Wierd. I just really like Thai food... Then it was home and sleeeeeep. Can only handle so much excitement for what had been a school-day.

Otherwise, the weekend was Yawnsville, Australia. I couldn't even be bothered to do all my chores beyond laundry. Eh, the place is teeny, am only here to sleep, how dirty can it get. And really, vacumming this carpet, am not too sure it really matters (one good thing about this crappy place and its crappy carpet - the cat can throw up on it and all I have to do is just pick up the chunks and know not to step on that section for a few days. Cool).

But today - an adventure was had! Even if it was kinda small and short-lived. I took the day off and so did Lauren and Hasse - so we drove up to a lovely, quaint little town in the hinterland up north of Brisbane by about an hour and a half called Montville. Very cutesy, country, crafts, wind chimes, tourists with babies in strollers (including one on a leash - the kid, not a tourist, but the kid coulda been a tourist......). We wandered through pretty much most of the shops then finally had lunch at a pretty neat restaurant called the Poet's Cafe. Then we drove back into town to miss the evening rush hour. Even tho it was short, it was a really lovely way to spend a day off. Must do that more often.

And that's about that! It's tough going this saving money to go on vacation for 4+ weeks. Gahhhh, I sometimes lose my mind from boredom and too many naps some weekends. But, nevermind, will be there soon and it'll be fun! Hooray! So hurry, c'mon down - the weather's fine!

BYE!
J!
P.S. Tho some sad news - my pup in Tucson, Bailey, died over the weekend of some scary leukaemia. It was quick and kinda painful. Poor pup. Now he's up there with all the other good pups and cats have known over the years - Piper, Freddie, Muffy, Teddy, Grandma Kitty, Chelsea, Joey, Maddie, Geisha, countless goldfish, a couple of birds, numerous lizards, a few mice......... Here's to you Bailey!!!!!!!!!!!!

Field Trips with the Rent

Hi!

Well. That was a fine week. Didn't seem to get much done, but I went to work for 5 days, from 7.30am til 4pm, so I must've done something to keep myself entertained that whole time. And then at home..... I know I didn't bother with tv at least one night..... Oh yeah. Week went by quite nicely, just like most weeks......!

So work. Yep. Is good. Semi-busy, in a very manageable way. Projects ticking along slowly but surely. If I can just put the cool RoboHelp project to bed (hopefully in the next month or so) then I can really get started on another, tho not as cool, project. Heck, they're all cool, but this RoboHelp has been the coolest so far! Annnnd then I get to go learn Flash level 2 (website animation kinda stuff) towards the end of the month! Yeeaaa for learning! So yes, work is good, ticking along quite nicely!

And then the weekend. Ahhhhhhhh, another 3 day weekend! This time it's because of Monday being Labor day - hooray! Tho I didn't know it was a long weekend until the Thursday before, too late to really plan anything major like going out of town. But, the little group of work folks and I have just managed to put together a little field trip for tomorrow - we're taking public transport (so no one gets caught drinking and driving) up to Sandgate (not too far north of the city, but by train it takes about an hour), where we're going to what's known as a pretty awesome pub called the Full Moon Hotel (never been there, have heard it's really good, am excited), plus it's right near the water so it should be really pretty. So we'll have lunch and then hopefully try to find a lawn bowls club - my absolute favorite weekend thing to do in this country! So that'll be a lovely way to spend Labor Day! That's if stuff is even open, owing to the holiday lots of stuff actually closes here. It should be interesting nonetheless!

Otherwise, yesterday was nice and productive in a very chore-like way. My neighbor has just got his lease renewal, he's been here 6 years and they've decided to raise his rent an extra $30 bucks a week. Highway robbery for this dump. So I brought my little laptop over to his little place (and I thought my place was crap) and helped him look for a new apartment. We found a couple but he'll have to go check them out. So if they raised his rent that much, I'm terrified to see what they do to me! I should be receiving my lease renewal soon too, since they're mailing them out like 2 months in advance. Weird. So who knows, I could be pulling up stakes again. Sigh. Someday I'll be able to stay in one place longer than a year.

And today was very quiet in a studious kinda way. Doing research for a new screenplay I'm developing. Should be good. Won't say any more as will jinx it. Suffice to say it's another sell-out Hollywood bit of semi-fluff. Hey, I don't care, just want the money, then I can be artsy. Yeah!

So there you have it. Am looking forward to tomorrow's field trip. Haven't been out on a field trip in ages. I should do this more often, I know. If it turns out to be quite good, well, when you come down I'll take you!

BYE!
J!