I hate mowing lawns and basically anything that relates to grass, weeds, dirt or yards.
So today, because I was being hassled so much by Leah and the Merrys about being lazy and non motivated, l felt the need to prove myself to all the non-believers.
And yes,I did eventually get the lawns mowed and whipper snippered.
Every since I got my Samsung,I have to admit, the battery life has been terrible, lucky to get about 13-14 hours on a charge with not a lot of use.
The only time it's had good battery life, and let me really love it with constantly thinking about the next charge, was when in Japan.
Which made me realise that it's the data connection that drains the battery.
So with a quick search of the app store and a new app installed to turn data off intermittently when the phone is not in use, I now have awesome battery life.
Today is quite a record though. nearly 30 hours and it still has over 30% battery left. Unbelievable!
A couple of weeks ago we taught Grace how to play Hide & Seek. I have to admit I kind of regret it now, since it's all she ever wants to do.
She is getting better at hiding though, at first she just always hid under the slide every time, but now she is getting more creative.
Her favourite at the moment is to hide under a blanket.
I think she did well tonight while hiding from Leah!
Today I got Grace a Peppa Pig Deluxe Playhouse from the ABC shop. It came with Peppa and George and a heap of furniture. Grace absolutely loved it, and played non stop for almost 2 hours. Her favourite thing was putting Peppa and George to bed. Over and over and over!
And of course she had to take them to sleep in her bed with her tonight.
I also got my bracelet fixed finally, as this was the first chance I have had to go to Woden and have it done. So happy to have it back.
I finished work early today, and arrived home to Grace asking me to take her to play at the park.
She can be a bit of a harsh critic when it comes to parks and which one she wants to play at on any given day, so I tried to impress her with a different one.
I must admit, I don't remember this park being nearly as good as it was. But it worked, Grace had a great time, and told me it was an 'awesome park'.
I think I finally have to admit defeat and get a new pair of glasses.
These have been held together with blue tac for some time now, but it's finally starting to fail me.
I don't think I ever blogged about my awesome little USB fan.
I bought it in Japan when it was so hot, and it proved to be a life saver over there during the meeting, in the stuffy meeting room.
But I'm finding even back in Canberra, its nice to have that little bit of fresh air in my office too.
And being USB powered, my boss can't complain about the power bill anymore!
Spending the weekend at Merimbula with Cass, Nathan and Maddie.
We got here this morning, straight to the beach where Grace was not keen on walking on the sand.
The cabin park we are at is awesome, with pools, games rooms, a jumping balloon.
And once Cass, Nathan and Maddie arrived we went to the aquarium where the girls loved watching the fish, turtles, octopus and other sealife.
We went to the Circus tonight, much to Graces excitement. Second time for her, and she had been telling us for weeks now about clowns falling over.
Was a good night. We were strictly forbidden from using cameras, so Leah had to sneak in a shot of Grace and I eating popcorn.
Seems like parks are going to be popular this summer. They are all Grace wants to do.
Tonight I met Leah, Grace, Cass and Maddie at the park near home after work.
And then after dinner when we got home Grace had a hissy fit because we wouldn't let her 'drive the car herself' to the park again.
Its going to be a looooong summer.
Today Leah, Grace and I went to try out a new playground I found at Yarralumla.
It turned out being every bit as good as I thought it would be, with some very cool, different equipment we had never seen before.
Needless to say, Grace loved it and didn't want to leave.
So I haven't got Android Jelly Bean available for my phone yet, but today I installed the next best thing. A Jelly Bean custom launcher, which works so much better than the stock one I have been using.
It also looks a lot better, and with a couple of small tweaks, battery life has almost doubled.
Awesome.
We had a fairly quiet day again today, but in the afternoon we went to Harvey Norman where Grace got excited at baths, toilets and showers! For some reason she has decided she loves the shops!
Then afterwards we got a drink and went to a park Leah had been to before, but i hadn't. I did believe that the springy foam on the ground would give me super jumping powers.
I was wrong!
Today Grace and I went back to Harvey Norman and bought a new bathroom mirror cabinet for the ensuite. For the second day in a row, Grace was very excited to see baths, showers and toilets. Especially the black toilet she found.
Tonight I got the new cabinet up and also put three mirrors in the dining room.
Today we made a start on tidying our 'alfresco' area, and making it a nice, usable space for summer again.
Its looking a whole lot tidier already, and makes the whole house feel a lot more open without the dark blinds.
I found this design for a watch on Pinterest and fell in love.
I mean seriously, how utterly awesome is it? A black bracelet with hidden LED digits. Unbelievable.
I've always had a bit of a love for watches, but this is just too cool.
I need one.
It occurred to me today that part of my desk at work really is pretty out of control with crap and I really should tidy it.
But instead, I took a photo, and didn't tidy. Much easier way to deal with it! :)
Grace is currently loving bathing her toys. It doesn't matter if its in the actual bath, or the dogs water bowl, they all get a clean at some stage.
Tonight it was the dinosaurs turn, so she had a bath with 6 of her favourites.
As you can see, they do keep her entertained.
Yep, I'm addicted.
I've always loved wasabi ANYTHING. Peas in particular are high on my list.
I even have some wasabi flavour KitKat chocolates that I bought in Japan.
But these peas came from CostCo, were very cheap, and are delicious.
I got 6 tins and in the last 2 days at work, have managed to finish 3 already.
Yep, I'm addicted.
Today was my first day back at work since before my birthday in August, which felt a little odd.
I was surprised to get these flowers and a nice card from my workmates with their condolences for Mum.
Maybe they have some compassion after all.
I didn't take any photos today, but I did have this cool photo of Grace trying to climb through the bars at the park yesterday.
And for extra effect,I also added some extra effects!
Not all cool gadgets in Japan are electronic and this is proof...
I bought this bread cutter when I was there, and today was the first chance we have had to try it out.
It stamps a teddy in the bread, then you place a filling between two slices, and press the cutter down to cut of the crusts and seal the two slices around the edges, so you finish with a filled bread pocket.
It's very cool.
Back home today, and gosh its nice to be here. I have only spent 1 day here since my birthday on August 23, and a lot of that was spent on last minute rushing to get to Hobart, so its been a very hectic time.
In the mail today we got our membership for the Questacon Science Museum, and they included these cool cards.
I assure you, they are the same size.
I told myself I wasn't going to blog or Facebook anything about my Mum, as it didn't seem like something I wanted to be public about.
But just about every thought today has been of her, and we had her service this afternoon, so I have nothing else to say.
Goodbye Mum. xxx
Gave Grace a bath this morning and took this photo while she was being cheeky.
But other than that I've got nothing today...
Back in Hobart again, to get things organised here for the week.
I only took a couple of very dark, very crappy photos at McDonalds tonight.
You can't even see Grace in them, But I must admit,I also didn't see the freaky smiling moon face when I took the photo...
It's been a very sad day for me today; slightly lightened by the fact that 'someone' I know paid $3.02 for a tomato. Yep, a SINGLE tomato.
And it wasn't even an essential ingredient. I mean she was not making a Bloody Mary, Tomato Salsa, tomato soup or anything that even remotely required a tomato as an essential ingredient.
She made a sandwich. That's all.
Unbelievable.
Anyway this is our last tomato that was starting to rot and got thrown out...I'm sure glad we didn't pay anywhere near $3.02 for it.
Back Home again, and just in time for Fathers Day.
We spent the morning exchanging gifts: me giving Leah, Grace and Jen the things I brought back from Japan; and me getting awesome Fathers Day gifts. Plus a belated birthday gift from Jen.
Grace was keen to get her Grand Piano open (yes I fitted it in my suitcase), and I love my globe lamp, and cool weather and photo ruler, among the many other very neat things!
It's my last day in Japan, and I'm writing this while on the train to the airport.
I thought I would leave Japan with 4 things you do NOT see in Australia.
1 - Impressive Shop Window Displays. I'm not even sure what the shop was or what it sold. But I liked the leopardcycle.
2 - Helicopters Flying around and hovering lower than your hotel room window. They look cool.
3 - 24 hour vending machines for everything. Because you just never know when you might need a giant Hello Kitty head.
4 - Mint Aero Ice cream bites. YUMMMMMMMMMMMM. What else CAN I say about them?
