I told my Dad I had won a job back with the Australian Public Service and this was the email he sent me:

New element discovered at ANU to be included on the Periodic Table:

The Nuclear Physics Department of the Australian National University* has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 – 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each re-organization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.

This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons

* They haven’t really, it’s just that this is the University located in Canberra.  Canberra is the capital of Australia and thus where all the politicians and governmental departments are located.

1. yellow van, #410 in explore !, 2. Walk In My Yellow Shoes, 3. inconspicuous yellow umbrella, 4. Yellow Bike, 5. Happy Yellow Sunshine Rainbow Baby Tighter Crop, 6. yellow Y and blue sky, 7. it was all yellow, 8. Parking on double yellow lines, 9. Photo Course 01.03.10

I’m in a yellow kind of mood today.  Not sure why, yellow isn’t one of my favourite colours either so it’s doubly surprising.

The last week has been interesting.  HUBBY is still job hunting while I’ve been patiently awaiting a call from my new employer letting me know when I’ll be able to start.  While I’m enjoying the time at home with HUBBY I’m starting to get a little anxious about when we’ll both be back at work.  There’s a few things we’d like to do this year that rely on both of us working.  (Like eating regularly!)  But it’s in GOD’s hands so I guess I’d best just chill and enjoy the time I have at home.

On Saturday night we caught up with HUBBY’s Dad and his partner.  It was a great night.  I forget just how much I enjoy their company until we’re all together again and then I spend the next week or two wishing we all lived closer together.  His Dad was traveling with friends of theirs from Melbourne, A and P.  A and I had a great natter about the marvelous-ness that is Etsy.  We had an awesomely delicious meal at La Rustica in Kingston; it was just a shame that the service was appalling.  We waited over an hour to get our meals and the wait staff were not the friendliest wait staff.  One of the waitresses was wearing a rather lovely set of gold bangles that had little medallions hanging from them.  Only one problem, every time she served food she dragged the bangles through the dish.  Yummy!

We spent Sunday the way we’d spent most of the week.  Lazying about the house amusing ourselves with various media outlets.  It was a cloudy day that threatened rain and failed to deliver.  But it was clearly the first real day of Autumn, which is grand as it means Summer is over and Winter is just around the corner.  I love this time of year almost as much as I love Spring. I love seeing the colours change around the place and the ability to wear scarves.  I just love scarves.  In fact I’m going to have to make it a priority to learn how to make one this winter.

On Monday I went to a photography course with M called Love Your Camera.   (The rubber duck image above is one I took as part of the course.) It was great to catch up with M who is positively glowing in her pregnant state.  We spent the day having a good natter and a laugh.  The course was enjoyable and the facilitator really lovely.  I spent half the day wishing we could have a photo session with her because she was so captivating.  The course was a great rehash of a lot of the fundamentals that I had been taught at university.  The course is geared towards taking photos of your kids it’s still good practical advice for anyone wanting to just take a better photo and understand their camera. The facilitator is clearly really good at what she does and has a wealth of information to share about the business, tools of the trade and how to interact with your subjects.

Despite being enjoyable it just felt like it was missing something.  I really felt the lack of a handbook as I’m a note taker that likes to make notes on the slides as I see them.   I also thought it was hard to see what we were all doing when you just relied on the digital display on our cameras.  It would have been great to do some practical work in the morning, have the facilitator load the images over lunch and then talk about what we’d all been doing, with a follow up in the afternoon to correct what we’d done in the morning.  Or even set a homework task and have people take photos prior to the class and go through those and then show the improvement at the end of the day.  Besides being really helpful people always get a kick out of showing off their talents and subjects.  (Or is that just me?)

At the end of the day did I feel like I got my $225 worth.  Unfortunately not.  Due to the size of the class it was hard to get one-on-one time with the facilitator and because we couldn’t see the difference in our images over the day it really made it hard to adjust your style and settings to see some improvement and take advantage of having the expert with you.

Would I recommend the course?  Probably, but only to those that had children or were looking to start a family portraits business and we’re looking at a really basic introduction in to what to do.

Would I book Angie to take photo’s of me and my family?  Hell yeah!  She was wonderful and clearly talented.  My brother’s 30th Birthday is coming up and she’ll be in Brisbane around that time.  I’m seriously considering flying up there and getting her to take the family portraits my mother has always wanted of us.  I will definitely be keeping her in mind when my Sister-In-Law has her baby later this year.  It would be a wonderful gift to give new parents.

♣♣♣♣♣

If you want to see other people’s Flickr Faves head on over to ArtMind. While you’re there check out the latest, and way cutest, offering from ArtMind: Bunny Art

Image source: ArtMind

Image source: Gnomeangel, In Game – World of Warcraft

Who said nothing brilliant ever came from playing World of Warcraft?  Tonight my fellow Guildies helped me out with a domestic crisis; what to have for dinner!

I was talking (i.e. whinging) in Guild Chat that I didn’t know what we were going to do about dinner; “The cupboard is bare and I don’t want to head to Woolworths.”

A few minutes later Cromonztro tells me he’s sent me a recipe in game.  I thought he meant a WoW recipe.  No, he meant an actual recipe.

Turns out we had everything, with a few minor tweaks, that I needed to make what I called “Cromonztro’s Dalaran Delight” but is actually known as “Impossible Pie”.  It’s like a quiche without the carb and calorie loaded pastry.

When I’d gotten it ready to go in the oven I sent my Guildies a little preview.

It came out of the oven golden and perfect.  HUBBY was so impressed that I’d managed to whip up dinner without him knowing, or without having to send him into Woolworths.  It tastes awesome and it’s so filling, even if you’re not missing 80% of you stomach.

For those of you that want to try it out at home here’s the details:

Ingredients

6 x Eggs

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Flour – sifted

1/2 Cup Grated Cheese

Handful of Bacon Bits or Cooked Chicken (I used diced ham as we had no bacon or chicken)

1/2 Diced Onion (We didn’t have an onion so I just skipped this bit)

1 Sliced Tomato (We only had about 10 grape tomatoes so I just halved them and used that instead)

Directions

Combine Eggs, Milk and Flour and mix well.

Add cheese and mix well.

Add bacon/chicken/ham and onion and mix well.

Pour into a well greased tin. (I used a slice tin and just doused it in cooking spray)

Place tomato slices on top.  Be careful not to let them sink too far, they should “float” just don’t jiggle the pan too much.

Bake for 40 minutes in a 180 degree Celsius oven.  (I baked at 160 in a fan forced oven.)

Can be eaten hot or cold and served with green salad.

Serves 6. (Or 4 hungry people!)

Thanks to Rainie and Cro for the awesome dinner!

(Sorry for the quality of the dinner images, they were all taken on my iPhone.)

1. Roller Derby – Skate of Emergency, 2. Baby Kylee’s Bathtime, 3. two little owls!, 4. MOVIES TIME :D

I’m running a little late this week with my Flickr Faves, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time.  I’ve had a busy week with lots of new adventures.

On Saturday I went to my first ever Brown Owls meeting.  Much fun was had and I feel like I’ve got a brand new chapter happening and that’s exciting.  I backed it up with my first ever Roller Derby social skate on the Sunday.  Freshmeat doesn’t start until mid March, but already the new recruits are hyped.  It was a great day out in the sun.

On Monday night we went to the movies with COUSIN and LEE LEE.  We also ran into M and R while we were getting some pre-dinner food.  It was awesome.  We went and saw The Blind Side. It was spectacular.  It’s the first movie I’ve seen in a long time that had a positive vibe to it.  There was a happy marriage and family at the centre of it and the message of the movie was one of hope.  It was awesome.  I left the cinema on such a high and feeling like we can all make positive changes in our lives, and the lives of those around us.  I was also grateful to see a positive marriage portrayed.  I feel sometimes like the world just gives us all negative messages about marriages; that they’re all doomed to fail.  Sandra Bullock rocked in her role and deserves her Oscar nomination.  Tim McGraw was also a great surprise.  I can’t talk highly enough of this movie, if you can afford the movies – go see it!

We also got some wonderful news; my sister-in-law is pregnant!  It’s such great news.  It’ll be the second grandchild and it’s going to be loved like nothing else.  It may also have another cousin some time soon.  We got some great news from my Gynocologist.  We are able to start on IVF.  I’ve been scheduled for an examination on my tubes to see how much damage was done from the surgeries I’ve had.  Once that’s known we can start.  It’s going to be awesome.  For the first time in five years I feel like we may just, finally, get that family we’ve always wanted.

All in all a pretty outstanding week.

Not many people in my circle play, or understand why I play, World of Warcraft.  In fact, if you’d told me that I would become a World of Warcraft player two years ago I would have told you to “get real”.  But here it is nearly two years since I first started playing and I’ve spent 80% of today playing World of Warcraft.  And you know what, I enjoyed every minute of it!

I don’t know why, but I love playing this game.  I love the changing environment.  I love the graphics.  I love the yearly in game events.  I love it all.  I even love that it’s task based and has it’s own economy.  I’m just crazy like that.

When I haven’t been playing World of Warcraft I’ve been completing the first of two of my Doll’s for Haiti.  I had planned to only do one and get it in the post today, but HUBBY has yet to secure a job so I’m holding off on spending the money on international post until we know what’s happening there.  I’ve also decided that one doll would get lonely in the post so I’m doing a boy and a girl.  I’m not 100% happy with how the girl has turned out, so I’m going to mix it up a little when I make the boy.  I’ll be sure to post all about it when they’re done.

I also managed to hand in all the documentation for my new job.  Apparently a security clearance takes 48 hours to complete and once that’s done (and I’m cleared) they’ll extended a start date.  So I’m thinking I’ll be back at work within the fortnight.  It’ll be strange to be going back to the first place I ever worked full time, but it will be nice in other ways.  (Like the income and security!)  HUBBY’s contract offer fell through and so he’s back to the drawing board.  But I’m positive that all things happen for a reason and it’s in GOD’s hands.  Until it’s sorted out we’re just going to have to watch our spending.

Tonight I played indoor soccer as a fill-in for someone who wasn’t able to make it.  I had a blast.  I’m so unfit it’s not funny and I have no idea how the actual game is played, but I still had fun.  Unfortunately the person who started the team wasn’t so thrilled to have ring-ins.  Oh well, you can’t win them all.  (Oh, and we didn’t win the game either!)  Maybe next season we’ll try and field our own team or something… who knows maybe Roller Derby will be more than enough for me to handle!

All in all it’s been a fairly relaxing day.  Spoke to my parents which was good (like always) and we had some laughs.  I’m really hoping that we’ll still be in a position to go away in April/May.  If we’re both not working soon though it’s looking shaky.  Just need to have faith I guess…

This Sunday will see the Park Hyatt in Canberra hosting Mathilda’s Market.  It’s a market specifically for selling handmade childrens items.  Now I don’t have any children (at the moment) but 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the childbirth for most of the women in my circle so I’m seizing the opportunity to do some baby present shopping. Besides, it’ll be a nice excuse to get out of the house on Sunday morning.

Mathilda’s Market is held in all capital cities, with the exception of Darwin.  (But I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before that is rectified.)

A month after Mathilda’s Market there’ll be the Handmade Market!

This market is not just about the kids, it’s got everything for anyone.  The market has become so popular it’s had to change it’s location to accommodate more stalls and shoppers.  Which is a great indication of how much people love to buy handmade and support local artists and crafters. I’m going to be saving all of my pocket money for this event in March.  Which will mean staying away from the fabric stores!

If you can’t wait till March, you can get a sneak peak of what’s going to be on show and the people doing the showing at the Canberra Handmade Market Blog.

As of April if you can’t make it to a market day there will be the Handmade Market Shop to supply you with your handmade fix.  The shop front opens April 16 and you can keep up-to-date with all the pre-opening happening at the shop’s blog; here.

With these new kids on the market scene it could be easy to forget about the tried and true Old Bus Depot Markets.

Held every Sunday in Canberra in what used to be, strangely enough, the Old Bus Depot these markets are an eclectic collection of craft, art, jewelry, fresh produce and specialty food items.  They also have a food court type area that has a small, but diverse, collection of stall holders.  These markets are a staple in our household.  HUBBY likes them because he can get his coffee fix from the wonderful people at Wagonga Coffee; and I love them because I’m a sucker for anything bright and shiny.

So that’s how I’ll be spending my Sundays for the next few months…

Image used with permission. Photographed by Nikon+Apple=Happy on Flickr.

We have a beagle.  Not this beagle, but one equally as adorable.  Our beagle, George, has lived with us since she was eight weeks old and we adore her.  Sure if you lived next door to us you’d be forgiven for thinking she was the bane of our existence.  Especially because you can routinely hear us yelling out an exasperated “George!” or an angry “Off the tiles!”.

We had no idea what getting a beagle meant when we got her.  We had absolutely no clue about how much trouble she would find, or how she’d end up running the house or just how much you could love a dog.  But we’ve come to know the true meaning of love and frustration.

Would we change it if we could.  Hell no!  For as much as she drives us mental we still love and adore her.  In fact, it’s all I can do not to convince HUBBY that we need another beagle.

So in honour of the little miss that has captivated our heart and ruined our furniture I give you a George inspired Music Monday.

I’m a massive Cat Stevens fan.  In fact I thought he was quite the handsome man when I was in high school.  I have spent many a good night singing along to his songs.  One quite memorable night that involved singing “I’m being followed by a moonshadow” at top level drunk as a skunk.  Good times.

He has one of the most amazing voices and I think I could listen to him for hours on end and never tire of it.

The other reason I love his music so much is because it was a gift from my Mother.  A lot of my musical inclinations are spawned from my Mother.  She always has music playing and a lot of my Saturdays at home involved playing music on the stereo while she went about her chores and we tried to annoy her.  Whenever I hear Cat Stevens it’s hard to separate him from memories of my Mother.  I hope one day I can pass on his music to my children.

Etsy: Good Things Will Happen Note Card

I got some very, very, good news today.   I got a job.  Not only did I get a job, but HUBBY got a job yesterday.  It was touch and go there for a few weeks, but once again the LORD has provided and Casa Wilsonia is back on it’s feet.

Having two unemployed people in the one house with bills to pay and no income is a scary position to be in.  We have both been extremely lucky.

I don’t know how people manage with long term unemployment.  Nor do I know how they manage when they have children and they’re unemployed.  The pressure of the stress must be crippling.

Needless to say a large weight has been lifted from our house.  Much rejoicing shall be undertaken tonight.

When I started this blogging lark over a year ago I didn’t really know what I had in mind.  I wanted to move from the LiveJournal world where I’d been happy but contained to a bigger sandpit.  Sure I had the dreams that every wannabe blogger has of being the next big thing in the blogging world, but that all seems like too much hard work.  I wanted to have a place where I could experience who I am and record the things that I enjoy.

I had been reading (and still do) Decor8 and Design Sponge and thought I’d like to have a blog in the same vein as those.  A place where people could come and look at the prettier things in life and dream of how they’d make their homes more their own.  So for awhile there I tried to find things that I thought other people would like.  It went well, and I enjoy it, but it never really rang true with me.  I struggled to find the motivation to post regularly or add anything more to the discussion.

Then I found Kindness Over Matter and I thought, “Maybe I’ll just spread joy and happiness.  I like joy and happiness so I’m sure other people will too.”  And for awhile there it worked, but again it didn’t really sing true to who I am.  I started to miss the intimacy of blogging about the real world; about what was happening to me.

But I was scared.  Scared that if I shared who I am, warts and all, that people would reject me.  So I continued to live a double life.  I bottled up what I was thinking and only showed what I thought people would find acceptable.  Then in November when I made a life changing decision I couldn’t keep it in any longer so I started Skinny Girl Trapped.  I started to blog about the personal side of life.  The things that I was going through medically and how it was affecting me.  It felt good to let it all out.  To have a place where I could just vent and rant and share about what I was going through and engage in a discussion with those reading and commenting.

Still something was missing.  It was too much hard work trying to keep the two sides apart.  To try and be me – but what I thought was a sociably acceptable version.  So I let somethings slide.  I avoided other things and I stopped doing what I enjoyed because of fear.  Fear of rejection.

It’s not a new thing in my world this fear.  It’s been here for a long time.  Not exactly sure when I let it in or when I started letting it dictate my choices in life.  Then last night while laying in bed thinking about my current state of affairs I saw the connections.  I’m living my life from a place of fear and it’s causing me to make decisions and react to things in a way I’m not happy with, or proud of.  I’m losing sight of who I am because I’m worried about what other people will think.  I’ve let myself be ruled by the critical voices in my head and not by the voice of reason I know I have.

Lately I’ve been operating out of a “hurt them before they hurt me” mentality.  I’ve been on the defensive, and I don’t like the person that makes me become.  I’ve felt attacked and so instead of just letting it wash over me I’ve decided to go on the defensive.  I’ve been negative, judgmental, irrational and hurt.    Which is not the person I want to be.  It’s not the person I believe myself to be at my core, but it has become the person I am putting out into the world.  It has to stop.

It’s time for me to drop the guards and be the person I know I am.  I need to reassess what’s motivating me and look at the way that I have reacted to those things.  I need to remember that the people that love me and the people I love will still want to be with me, warts and all.  I need to believe that as long as I’m true to myself then I will find people to compliment my world.

I need to remember that just because I don’t ‘click’ with someone doesn’t make me or them any less valuable.  It’s not a popularity contest and I don’t have to please everyone.  My days as the performing monkey are over and it’s time to move on.

As I lay there in the dark having this mini revelation I also had the accompanying moment of “How the hell do I do that?”.  I’m not really sure how one puts the fear aside and lives a true life.  I have some theories which I’m going to put into practice and see how it goes.  One of the theories involves this blog space.  I need to be true to my blogging self and stop worrying about the “audience”.  I need to do what makes me happy and use this like I used to use my Livejournal.

It’s a scrapbook of my life in digital format.  That means warts and all.   I have opinions and tastes and not everyone is going to agree or enjoy them, but I do.  I also like to learn about the world and debate the illogical reasons of my beliefs and choices.  How can I do that if I’m filtering my world to make it more ‘palatable’ for this mystery audience?

One thing I can do is stop with the double life.  So I’ve merged Skinny Girl Trapped and gnomeangel.  I’ve imported all the posts into the one place so now people will know I’m battling morbid obesity and I’m doing it through radical surgical treatment.  Being ashamed of that fact is part of what lead me to the position in the first place.  Eating to quieten the voices was not the most successful decision I ever made.  So there it is, I’m fat.  Not as fat as I used to be, but still fat.  I’m working on it and I’m ok with that.

I’m also going to start blogging about the little rants I have in life.  It might help me save HUBBY from having to listen to them over and over again.  I find that when I write it down it leaves my system and I can get on with things, where as at the moment I rant and rant and it gets bigger than it should be.  It won’t be pretty and I won’t be apologizing for being a fractured person.  It’s all of what makes the good things about me so good, because under it all I’m struggling every moment to overcome the nasty fearful hateful place that seems to want to taint everything.  Because I’m human.  I’m trying to be the best version of myself, but to do that I need to realise I’m not perfect and I don’t need to be.  I just need to be honest.

Long rambling post short; things are going to change around here.  Not drastically, because after all what I’ve been doing to date has been a part of me (just a slimmed down version, ironically) it’s just going to expand.  There’s going to be some remodeling and hopefully some regular posting.  I hope you stick around, but if not that’s ok.  You’re ok and I’m ok.  It’s all good.

1. How to Crochet a Blanket, 2. Mitsy’s crocheted babuschka’s, 3. Heart Burst Crochet Rug, 4. Multicoloured Crocheted Bag

I happened to stumble across something rather cool this week and I’m either sociably late to the party or nerd cringingly earlier.  I’ll let you decide which.  Awhile back I featured an artists work in one of my Friday Fancies, I didn’t know it at the time but the artist also has a rather awesome blog; ArtMind.  I’ve spent a few quiet moments today drooling over the pictures and words and thought I would take up the weekly challenge that is set on ArtMind and put together some of my Flickr Faves for the past week.

As you can tell I’m in a crocheting frame of mind this week.  I’ve been diligently working away on my first ever crochet project, however I’ve still managed to find some time to squeeze in some web snooping to see what others have been working on.  I’m such a big fan of colour.  Sometimes I feel like I’d love to live in a rainbow… or better yet the spot where the rainbow meets the earth and all the colours pool out.  Such vibrant colours can’t help but lift the darkness that the rain has brought.

It’s also been Valentine’s Day this week and I’ve been thinking about the hunk o’hunk burning love that is HUBBY.  We’re rapidly approaching our 5th Wedding Anniversary.  While it’s only a small milestone when compared to the likes of both of our parents who have a total of 76 years of wedded bliss between them, it’s still a big achievement for us.  (I suspect more so for HUBBY as he’s married to me, but I won’t be telling him that!)  We don’t really “do” Valentine’s Day (which is lucky for him as he went to an AFL match with some of the lads on Sunday!) but we do enjoy telling each other that we love and appreciate the other.  It’s nice to be in a house where “I love you” is said so often.

So that’s been my week in photo’s.  It’s been a good one, despite the rather large personal issue that’s hanging over our heads at the moment.  But then I guess the test of a real relationship and human spirit is the ability to laugh when things aren’t rosy, and in this house we’ve been positively pissing ourselves – so that’s a good sign.