I finally convinced LJ to let me back into my account. I think it's been a long time but at least I can get back in now.

Hope those that don't do facebook are well and happy. I hope that those that do facebook are well and happy!

This icon is from a picture taken in Caloundra, Queensland, just North of Brisbane. I'm here again, this time with Douglas.

Weather is nice, friends are wonderful and my Telstra phone connection is working well.

Today was an adventure on Fraser Island, a UNESCO site. Huge 4 wheeled drive vans driving sand beaches at 80kmh with 18 inch ruts...oh my aching...

Life does not suck.

In case you get mail from me that looks stranger than usual. It is possible I was hacked.

I've deleted all my mail and changed my passwords :(

yippee

See icon for referent.

Deva is not well. Her left side is involved but blood tests are negative for stroke and 2 vets agree her heart is strong.

Conflikt was wonderful, many lovely musical things and good friends and joy.

Harry Hemp will never come home with us again yay...

Thanks to all that made the con a great place to be!

To all my friends and kin, may your year be filled will less "interesting" times and replete with joy and wonder.

Please note I still love my ASUS. G74SX laptop particularly for WoW but it's not a lot of fun to carry anywhere especially casual trips upstairs or next door as it's like packing for Armageddon. Hence the tablet. :-)

I'm still limping along with the cell phone from hell due to x-country requirements and shared plan but... I now have a Nexus 7 tablet. This means I can drive friends crazy with more convenience and update my travel info at various hot spots without carrying my 200lb uber laptop into Macdonalds to check for LQ phone numbers etc :-)

On an unrelated note Roberta just told me tonights 3lb roast is just slightly smaller that Giselle. Hmmm

So, the trees are down and cleared away. It's sad that our shade is gone and they were a fair size so replacing them will take growing time but again - Thank you Emerald Ash Borer.

The garage door is again working, although we did have a minor glitch which my dear judifilksign managed to circumvent yay.

and.... last but certainly not least, The HVAC system is completely replaced and after another service call to set it up properly (installer missed something in the settings) we now have a 71 degree house instead of HEAT.

NOW, all I need is a nice inexpensive balance of year to make up for my $10K week in July.

OK. so yesterday was the broken garage door mechanism, requiring new springs and new cables $350.

Last night we noticed the ground floor of the house was 82 - 85 degrees and upstairs was correspondingly hotter. Slept next door to stay as comfortable as possible. HVAC guy came today.... tried to fix it but power went out so he did what he thought he could and left. $480

Power came back on 3 hours later -- air buzzed and fan fan'd and stopped. I'm now waiting for the HVAC guy again. The furnace and air conditioner are both 1988 and the house appliance etc warrantee expired 20 days ago.

Arborist came today, 2 hours early than scheduled and same time as HVAC guy. We now have large expanses of open viewlines and sunlight on the front and back of the house :( 3 Large Ash trees are gone, Bank account is $1000 lower.
Thank you Emerald Ash Borer. So we'll need to look at getting new trees, not Ash, planted.

While I was watching the mayhem I noted that the front windows are all single glazed. Oh goodie, I wanted to spend more money.

So now I wait for the HVAC guy, $2K poorer that this time yesterday and contemplating the fact I may still need a new HVAC system ($8K) and knowing that more efficient windows need to enter the queue. Yippee

UPDATE -- yes we need to replace the entire thing. They come by tomorrow to measure and assess and give me recommendations and quotes ... yippee again