A *very* good day

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Today has been a very good day indeed.

The picture above is my new car. Traded in my Scion xB for it. I'll blog more about the experience later, as it was nothing but positive.

Tomorrow is my Mums birthday, so some flowers were sent and they arrived today! Mum was my first call on my bluetooth connection to my new car as a result :)

Hopefully the rain tomorrow has forecast won't be too bad, and we can get some driving and photography in!

Memorial Day Weekend

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It's a three day weekend, and it's going to be a great one.

I heard from the car dealership, and my Camry is now sitting on their lot, waiting for me to get to them at 2pm tomorrow to pick it up.

We have a couple of friends over who will be staying with us this weekend, and it's nice having the company :) The weather is great, the garden will get some mowing done to it tomorrow.

Happy Birthday on Sunday to my Mum, who is presently without internet! Congratulations to my brother, who ran the Manchester marathon recently!

Up and down

We've been having a roller coaster week.

I'm still waiting on my car, it was due today, but these things aren't always science.

We received news today that our annual bonuses were the maximum possible, and getting paid in the next paycheck, which is a month shorter than we normally expect, and we've never had the 100% of our bonus before (the goals to get it are always high, so we don't expect to get it normally).

Not only did we do well enough to get a full bonus, but we were also sent an Amex gift card with a few hundred on it, which was fantastic, a bonus bonus if you will.

But the ups came with the downs. I've been very quiet this week. Too quiet. I've been getting bored, and trying to find ideas of things to occupy my time. Dancer has also had a rough week, but we pull through these things well together with each other.

We're looking forward to a fun weekend, it's three days off work and we have friends coming over. We've got no plans other than hang out, potter around the homestead and clean the lawn up.

It can't get here soon enough!

New car?

I put a deposit down on a 2007 Toyota Camry today. I'm fed up of my teeth rattling on the way to work and back, and having to shout over the radio to anyone in the car (if the radio is down, the engine noise drowns it out).

The specific model I ordered was a Camry SE V6, with moonroof, leather, heaters in the seat and mirrors and the upgraded stereo. If we're going to be doing 100 miles a day in it, we may as well enjoy it!

It doesn't arrive at the dealership until next week, so I've not had chance to get a good look at it yet, but I drove a 4 cylinder version in Miami over the last few days, and have test driven both the V6 and 4cyl, so I know what I'm expecting.

Mine will be black exterior, with black leather interior.

On the road

I'm back in Miami again for work, which isn't so bad.

Travelling on these short, two day trips is kind of fun. I actually find I like waiting at airports, and if I get chance, I take my time before the flight and get there a couple of hours early. I enjoy spending time with my book, or a dvd, people watching and just mooching around with my own company.

Of course, it could get dull if I did it too much, but right now I'm averaging about 2 trips a month, and thats perfectly find by me.

I'm in a nice hotel, I've got a nice rental car, and I'm going to grab my book and go and find the hotel bar to get something to drink and something to eat before hitting the sack.

Best video. Ever.

Hard drives

Like most IT pro's, you will likely remember the days when hard drives were pricey, and buying multiple gigs or megs was a big deal.

Today I came home with two external USB drives, 320gig each, for $99 a pop. It's a silly silly price.

It also means I can now archive my 7gig and growing iPhoto library on another machine, and I can start building good backups of my movies when I pull them off my camera.

The other drive will hang on the iMac and become a backup drive for the network.

Yankee Candle

After hearing all the stories from my parents and I, Dancer really wanted to go to the Yankee Candle store, and I really wanted to take her.

So we did.




The first section is taken in just one of the many rooms they have, dedicated to different Christmas items and themes. The last section was taken in their Kitchen and Home area, with bookshelves full of books from your favourite Food Network stars!

Two weeks with the family

My parents came to visit over the last two weeks, as you can see from the Wii photos below. I always love having them stay, and it's always hard to drive off from the airport after I leave them to catch their flight home.

But my life is here, and I love it :)

Spring is definitely arrived. The days are warm and bright again. I'm now starting to think about watering and managing my lawn. We had two pear trees planted in front of our house yesterday by the building company, and rumour has it they will be laying a sidewalk down the road too, which will make the development look much better, and a lot less like the building site it does right now.

Things go on, and go well.