July Update

Started the month off well with Fiona's birthday (my sister-in-law).  We hosted the party at our place, that way she wouldn't have to hold a party for herself (Jeff my brother, really isn't well enough to organise one himself for her - so every year we try to do something on her birthday).  This year we had an Italian themed party.  Hellie, Mum and I, as well as Fiona brought a dish or two along.  Hellie kindly made the delicious birthday cake (I really am not good at baking!).  We had a lovely afternoon.  I even bought some Campari to make Orange and Campari cocktails - Campari being an Italian alcholic aperitif.

The cake that Hellie made - great idea decorating it with chocolates!

The dishes we prepared included slow-cooked bolognaise, chicken cacciatore, beef and red wine casserole:

Fiona cutting her cake:

Here is a layout from the event:

School holidays commenced in July - and the girls got to spend a whole week in Goulburn with different members of the family - first their Aunty Julie and Uncle Les, following by their Nan and Pop, and then their cousins and second cousins - Robert and Arlene, and their little ones.  They baked a birthday cake with Nan Bo for her birthday, went to the movies to see Ice Age 4, had a sleep-over with their cousin Chloe, and their second cousins - Bai and Darien.  We also attended two birthdays on the weekend we dropped them off! On a walk from Ban Thai down to Gloria Jeans for coffee Eliza got to sit in the fire truck (she thought she was the bee's knee's!):

The girls and their second cousins - Bai and Darien, enjoying a bit of disco dancing on their sleep-over night:

Eliza sitting in the fire truck:

 A birthday party for Jess and Em - our brother-in-laws sister's twin girls:

Whilst the girls were in Goulburn, Dave and I enjoyed a trip out to the cinema to watch "The Amazing Spiderman", surprisingly better than we expected. We watched this one in the Dendy Premium class cinema, where we also had dinner.  On another night we enjoyed a meal out at Soju Girl in Canberra, this is one of the four desserts we enjoyed!

When the girls returned to Canberra on the school holidays they spent a couple of days at a school program, which they once again enjoyed.  This time they did some street funk and hip-hop dancing, went on a excursion to Questacon, and also to the cinema to see Ice Age 4 (yet again).  The Questacon excursion was almost a disaster, as Eliza and another child were missing from the head count on the bus!  As you all know Eliza has a a hearing problem, so in the noisy atmosphere of Room # 4, she missed the call for her bus.  She was located still happily playing in that particular room!  Jazz told me she was so relieved to see her that she hugged and kissed her all the way back to the school!

Dave and I also took a day off work to enjoy a day in the city with the girls at "Skating in the City". A temporary ice-skating rink set up during July and August for ice-skating sessions.  I chose the lunch time session which was great as it was nice and sunny and as it turns out, not as busy as the later sessions.  We also put some entry forms in for a "Skate your way to the Snow" competition that day - and guess what - we were notified a couple of days ago that we won.  So we will be going to Thredbo one very early morning on a Saturday in August to enjoy a day at the snow.  It will be Eliza's first trip to the snow!  Here are some ice-skating pics:

July -also sees the building of our next investment property with Julie and Les well underway. We are building this one on the back of another investment property that we have - a large block which we sub-divided.

Finally - the other event of note for the month, was a trip back to Goulburn for a girls weekend.  My sister Hellie wanted to re-watch all the Twilight movies prior to the release of the next one. Yes, I know it's not until November, but this was one of the only weekends I had left prior to it's release!  We had lots of fun - ate lots of food, drank some wine, watched the movies (I won the quizzes of course :0) ), and we even managed to fit in a little scrapbooking on Sunday morning before we departed that afternoon.

Hellie's BFF from Wollongong also came up for the day and night:

I especially like the pic of Jazz "chillaxing" with a milo during the fourth movie!

On a more serious note - this month Eliza got a pair of glasses - I have never seen someone so excited to get a pair of glasses in my entire life.  I think she thinks they are a fashion accessory (and yes they are pink!). 

Reading

Still making my way through a heap of books.  I have discovered a web-site called Goodreads. I am enjoying having a place to record what books I have read, and want to read.  I have entered a couple of reviews - mainly for the books I think deserve five stars.  I am also enjoying seeing what some of my other friends are reading.  I also subscribed to the email newsletter, which must be dynamically generated, as it tells me what books are new from authors that I have read, as well as suggesting books which I might like to read.

I have a few favourites this month.  Both books from John Scalzi.  Both were audio books read by Wil Wheaton (from Star Trek Next Gen), who is apparently a good friend of Scalzi's.  The Robert J Sawyer book, WWW:Wake, and Cinder, were my other favourites for the month.  All favourites this month are sci-fi books.  Here is what I have managed to chomp through this month:

51.  Afterlife - Book 4 - Evernight Series - Claudia Gray

More of the same in this series.

52.  Balthazar - Claudia Gray

Enjoyed this more than Afterlife. Balthazar is a character from Evernight Novel - this book gives him some history and a present.

53. Cinder - Book #1 - Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer

I really quite enjoyed this one.  It's just another retelling of the Cinderella story - but set in a futuristic Earth plagued by a disease, brought to earth by the Lunars (people which inhabit the moon). The main character Cinder is a Cyborg, a girl who had 37% of her body reconstructed after a hovercraft accident.  She falls in love with the Prince who loses his father to the plague and becomes Emporer of the Eastern Continent. He faces an unwelcome future of marriage to the Queen of the Lunars in order to prevent a war.

54. The Girl in the Clockwork Collar - Book #2 - Steam Punk Chronicles - Kady Cross

Good follow up to the first Steam Punk book. Further develops the plot and the characters.

55.  Redshirts - John Scalzi

Read by Wil Wheaton - so fitting since the book is about the red shirts (the ensigns that get assigned to away missions and end up biting the dust). Quite an interesting twist to plot in the book, and an interesting ending!  Love John Scalzi's humourous style of writing.

56.  Sweet and Deadly - Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris's debut novel.  Not a big book, entertaining enough - but lacked full development of the characters in the book.... probably because the book just wasn't long enough.

57.  Mind Games - The Disillusionists Trilogy Book #1 - Carolyn Crane

Took a while to warm to the main character in the book who is a Hypercondriac (don't think I've splet that one right!), but a decent read.

58.  WWW: Wake - Robert J Sawyer

One of my favourite books for the month, he is such a good story teller, and makes you believe in a concept which is almost unbelievable - the concept that the world wide web is starting to develop a consciousness. I also admire the author who can write from the opposite gender's viewpoint. The main character in this book is a blind teenage girl, who by the end of the book gains back part of her vision.  Looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy as it will complete the two major storylines of the first book, as well as some side plots.

59.  Fuzzy Nation - John Scalzi

Another great book - and another favourite for the month.  Once again read by Wil Wheaton. A science fiction set on a planet where a large corporation is set to strip mine the planet, until they discover a race of fuzzy creatures. If it is proven that the creatures are sentient, then the corporation and Jack Holloway a private contractor who discovers a seam of precious metals, stand to loss a large sum of money.  This book was actually based on another book written by Piper in 1962.

60.  Locked On - Tom Clancy

Typical Tom Clancy Fair. Not a bad book, but not brilliant either.

61.  Fallen in Love - Fallen Book #3.5 - Lauren Kate

Just a filler book - probably written to make more money! Not bad, but short and definitely nothing spectacular about it.

Photography and Scrapbooking

Some of my efforts for the month - very much done whilst multi-tasking (ie. watching True Blood and various other shows!).

This one I did as party of a stamping workshop with Jen Gallacher on Two Peas in a Bucket. Example of using alpha stamps to stamp the alphabet:

This one was also from a stamping workshop I did with Jen Gallacher - stamping the first letter of a sentence etc:

A page on our dinner at Braza a couple of months ago - definitely one of Dave's favourite places to eat at the moment:

This is a layout about where each family member is at these days, done in the style of a clothesline:

Some layouts based on sketches from the Big Picture Classes course - 28 days of sketches:

Here are some layouts I did at Hellie's place on the Twilight Weekend:

And here are a couple more layouts I completed:

Cooking and Eating

One night I decided to use three pears that I had for a couple of weeks and were in danger of being thrown out if we didn't use them promptly - so I quickly whipped up a dessert of Pears poached in red wine and safron (was meant to be ginger wine but I didn't have any) - Dave and I really liked the combo of Safron and red wine though. Delicious!

I have also had some over ripe bananas this month, which I used to make three loaves of Banana bread  using a Donna Hay receipe.  I added raspberries to them - so banana and raspberry bread was born.  It was also very delicious! 

I thought I would include this layout that I scrapbooked this month. Thought it would be interesting to record some of the meals we eat in a month, and look back at it in the years to come.

Well that's it for this month, lots of things to look forward to in August, September and October including a trip to the snow, birthday parties, a trip to Fiji for the Civic Video conference, a trip to the coast and more!