Lyin' Eyes

Girls, I need you to be honest with me. Have you ever cheated? I think it's safe to say many of you have. Sometimes you don't want to but you're forced into it. Maybe being away from home causes it. Or perhaps the timing of things means you have to look further afield. Sometimes it causes you angst and guilt, other times it might lead to more permanent change if you discover something that's been missing. Regardless, it's not a situation you enter into lightly.

I'm talking about hairdressers, of course. What did you think I meant? I've been unfaithful to hairdressers in the past and it rarely ends well. Instead of a slight trim you end up losing inches and need to wear a hat for weeks until it grows back. Or they do such a bad job of matching your colour that you look like your 4 year old did it at home. But sometimes, seeing someone new is entirely unavoidable.

I'm up against this right now. School holidays and public holidays means I've run out of time. I'm jetting off to Sydney for the launch of Kerri Sackville's first book When My Husband Does The Dishes this week and I need a hair cut. My choices are to go and meet a bunch of fabulous tweeps in stylish venues and attend the launch looking like bedraggled street urchin, or take the risk and have it done in Sydney. Neither is an appealing prospect but I fear I have no choice but to go with the latter.

I'm not comfortable with this scenario. One of the worst things is getting caught. You know what it's like, you stray, and when you next see your regular hairdresser they know you've gone somewhere else. They can spot it straight away. You tell them what happened, but it sounds like a feeble excuse, you feel ashamed and unable to make eye contact. Which is really unfortunate given my current stylist is a 21 year old, straight, footballer with abs of steel. But that's beside the point.

So, Sydney folk, I need your help. Save me by recommending a hairdresser in the CBD who can squeeze in a procrastinating, disorganised prospective street urchin at very short notice. Otherwise, the results may be disastrous!

(Blog) Love is all around

My friend Mark at Thoughts from the Dark Side has kindly opened his blog to others, all in the name of introducing bloggers and readers to blogs they might otherwise have not known about. Since he was nice enough to mention me in his post I thought it only fair to do the same here.

Since Mark has already mentioned my friends Feral, Jack, and Kerri I won't go into detail about them here. You'll have to go and read his blog. Also, in the name of more equally sharing the love, I'm not going to mention some of my absolute favourite blogs because they already have more than their share of adoring followers and they're in my blogroll (but they're welcome to give themselves a plug here!).

Instead, I'm going to share a few of my new-found faves. Meet Nicole at Ironing and Apostrophes as she talks about her two big passions, and other stuff too. Stella Orbit talks about motherhood, friendship, the painful and the joyful, with total honesty. Visit Twitchy Corner to learn about her take on parenting and having a good time when you're on the outside (might be time for an update though Twitch!). And lastly, have a look at 4 Kids, A Dog and a Blog as she settles in to living in a new country with her family.

I don't have time to read all the blogs I like now, but I'd still love you to give yourself a plug here. So, who are you and what do you blog about? Let's share the blog love a little!

A change is as good as a holiday

Unless you're really not paying attention, you will notice that there's been some redecorating going on around here. The fabulous new colour scheme is courtesy of the totally gorgeous Sass at Life of the Bees and her new venture MooZoo Designs. She designs all kinds of pretty Blogger templates, and can do custom blog designs too.

The best part of this redecoration is that, not only did Sass take care of everything for me, she didn't expect me to move any of my techy toys nor remove the accumulated dust bunnies. A win all round, I'd say!

iGeneration (or My Kids Need to Get Outside More)

Do you ever get the feeling that your kids might have inherited a particular gene from you, rather than their other parent? I'm not talking about hair or eye colour, or height, or skin tone. I'm talking about one of your traits that may, or may not, be a positive attribute. Maybe you're a neat freak and your child is showing similar tendencies. Or maybe you have to read the last chapter of a book before you decide whether to read it or not (yes, I have a friend who does this. Weird!). 

As for my kids, let me put it to you this way, all 3 are more likely to be found in front of some kind of techy electronic device than lovingly stroking a motorcycle with The Chef. Now, I know kids these days need to be computer savvy, 10 year old Thing 1 uses one at school and often for homework. This doesn't explain how Thing 3, by age 18 months, had worked out how to unlock my iPhone. At age 2 she recognised the app icons for "her" games (mostly games sourced for 4 year old Thing 2), and could even navigate to the video files and find an episode of In The Night Garden to watch. All without direction. I'm not sure whether to be stunned by her obvious genius, or concerned for her future.

Friends were stunned when, during a visit just after Thing 3's 2nd birthday, she trotted out of the room and came back with my backpack. Before I could ask what she was doing, she'd unzipped it, pulled out the iPad and, in one smooth movement, was on the couch watching ITNG. Surely that's not normal?

I do admit, though, that I indirectly encourage her because it's so cute. I probably spend more time looking for kiddy friendly apps than I do useful, grown-up apps. I swear they're for the kids. Really truly!

I fear we may have crossed the line though. Thing 1 asked for Plants v Zombies, so I downloaded it for him for the iPad. Thing 3 can now often be heard calling "Zombies ate my baaiins!!". Should I be more worried about being questioned by her daycarers, or the future therapy bills?

The one who dies with the most toys wins

Yesterday I got a new toy. Well, in truth the new iMac will be used mostly for work, but as with all techy goodies it's still a toy.

That I got a new toy isn't an especially huge revelation. What is extremely earth-shattering is that it wasn't unpacked and set-up immediately. Especially when the new desk had even been cleared of the AFS filing system and was itching for a new tenant.

It did eventually get taken out of its spunky white box and put in place yesterday. Oh how she sparkled! The reason it didn't get fired up yesterday is because I had work to do. We all know how long it takes to get things going by the time you do the important things like download software updates, import all your old bits and pieces, sort all your settings, and choose a screensaver. So the machine I had bought to do work on couldn't be set up because I had work to do. The irony wasn't lost on me.

So today as soon as I was able, it was time for the great unveiling. Removing the keyboard and mouse from the small box. Peeling off the protective plastic coatings (and let me just say there's a whole other post right there!). And finally turning it on with the sound of the familiar Apple chime. I was in geeky heaven!

Of course, things never go as you plan when it comes to technology, and the same was true today. I got an email. That email. From the ISP. "You have used 100% of your quota." NOOOO!! My morning of downloading and updating and sorting and organising my new puter was out the window with the words "we will apply shaping". The only bright side being that the new month begins at midnight tonight. *sigh*

So, my new precious and I are halfway there. First thing tomorrow I'll be hitting the "Software Update" button and off we'll go. I might even stop procrastinating and do some work!