Although Cammie tends to play the "If I ignore it, maybe IT will go away" card, she has taken Nora in stride and has not been too put off. At times I have understood what it must be like to have twins as after Nora has cried then been fed and put down to sleep Cammie starts to scream for attention herself... can lead to a long night, but still I would not change a thing!

Last night was fairly productive for me. We went over to Neybors house to help resolve some technical issues and for Angel to be fed. Sherri then tried to help me install the car seat but somehow Angel, with her mac and cheese, jumped into the car while we were looking at the instruction manual and installed the damned thing herself. Sigh.

I then went off to restock booze supplies then went to the court house to try and reschedule my court date (for speeding ticket and failure to show insurance ticket). I actually was lucky and got in to see a judge very quickly and got the insurance one dismissed and the speeding ticket reset for 90 days, to allow me to take defensive driving... which will take that one off my record. From there I headed over to my parents place to check that the mattress we have for the craddle fits... which it does. Off to Kroger for some late night grocery shopping. Back home to try and pack up the hospital bags for Angel and for me. While all this errand running was going on Angel was working... which she did most of last night, and Cammie was helping her organize her papers, was acting as a drill sargent, trying to get her inline and trying to get her to bed, and also acted as an alarm clock when needed. All this was very stressful on the poor cat as you can see below, and she has disappeared off to bed this morning and I doubt I will see her all day!

Second of three baby showers was held in Beaumont on Saturday night. Hosted by Regina Rogers. We drove down with my mum as well as Randy and Leah (neighbours of my parents) on Saturday late afternoon, stayed until about 10pm then drove home... getting stuck in traffic on the way back because the highway was closed due to a serious accident.

Prior to the shower we (Angel and I) had dinner at Raven Grill on Friday, one of our local favourite places for a quiet meal. Oh, I did also get my hair cut on Friday afternoon, but no worries, I only had an inch or two removed from the back, and an overall cleanup on my hair.

Sunday Angel went out for a girl's lunch while I napped at home and worked on, some of the photos from the baby shower, which are now online...

Baby Shower at Easys

Throughout this Cammie has been stuggling through, feeling the weight of the world on her back! If any one has read any Discworld books, you will understand that the Discworld world is ultimately perched on the back of a giant turtle, but what you may not have known is that that turtle is perched on the back of Wabbles! Such a heavy load!

...with different flash types!

Cats must be like Asians... they don't take good photos with direct flashes... indirect seem to work fine... Oh and she talked throughout the whole process... directing me, telling me how to take the photo, making sure I got her good side, etc!

So here in the US o A we had a long weekend. First one in what feels like months (but probably not that long). I had the day off but Angel was working to bank the day for maternity leave. I dropped Angel at work then headed out to play golf at Hermann Park. Started with a par, then hit a bogey on the next 7 holes (sigh). I did finish the front with a par. 10th hole was double par (which is not good) but then hit par on the next three holes before getting rained out after the 13th. I was completely drenched and learnt that the Capris I was wearing did not deal with the wet well... unless you like the see through look!

After cleaning and drying up I relaxed at home until it was time to pick Angel up, after which we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I really enjoyed the movie. Plenty of fun action sequences and lots of laughs. Not as good as Raiders or Last Crusade, but a solid movie in its own right. We then watched Bride and Prejudice on DVD. Another fun light movie.

Saturday we hosted the parents and some friends for lunch which was cooked by Angel's mum, and we looked through a bunch of photos of Angel and Sherwin as kids. I went to play poker on Saturday night while Angel worked and relaxed at home (no I did not win) and Sunday we went to parents for dinner. More relaxing weekend that some recently... and some coming up I imagine, but still feeling tired this morning. Sigh... why must Monday's be sooo painful to wake up to?

Good news is that I just received the new camera I bought (after spiderwebbing the lense on my old Sony). Got the Nikon D60 with two lenses, a carrying case, extra battery and a Speedlight flash (for indirect/soft flash). Not played with it much (but have some) and here are two of the first photos... one taken with a direct flash, and one with an indirect flash (flash pointing at 90 degrees to target). Nothing else was changed apart from angle of the flash... Oh... if only our photographer at the wedding had such complex technology as a soft flash... maybe most of the photos would not have come out as over exposed!

Direct Flash

In-Direct Flash

Dominated by the one and only Wazzwa!!!

Mind Control Part Deux

Who be the pretty cat in the window... oh, it is Moi!

First that idiot (Mike) steps on my toy, now he locks it in a glass case... hmmm... very X-Men... could this be Magneto in there?

Mandatory flump quota for the day achieved

It ain't cute woman... I am NOT a salad!!

Angel had a conference up in Vancouver for the past several days. All very exciting stuff around statistics, trending, image manipulation, polar bear issues and other such exciting Scientific Editor stuff. Needless to say any session (apart from the polar bear keynote session) would put me to sleep in 5 minutes flat, so kudos to anyone who could stay awake... and even better understand what was being said.

Anyhoo... we both flew up to Vancouver on Friday evening (photos will be posted soon). Angel started the conference on Saturday morning and I took myself out for a long walk around Vancouver. While on my walk in Stanley Park I saw a couple looking intently in a shadowy area. Being curious I approached. They asked me a question but with my iPhone on I heard nada. Anyway, there was a Racoon (photo below) hanging out with his buddy the white chested squirrel. The Australian couple asked me what it was... and my answer was 'uh, a Racoon?!' They then proceeded to ask if the squirrel was a baby racoon. It took a lot of self control not to laugh at them, but my answer was 'nope, that would be a SQUIRREL!'

Silly Ozzies.

Trip was fun, although having to get up at 5:30 in the morning on Monday (Pacific Time) to start the work day was not fun. Vancouver is a nice town, and we had fantastic weather for the weekend which worked out really well for me.

On the flight back I went to boot my PC up to download some photos and to maybe do some work. When I tried to take it out of hibernation I got the following error message, which freaked me out as I had not backed my PC up, in uhh... never!!! Finally, after pleading, begging and threats of violence, the PC booted up, and as soon as I got home I backed up my critical files. Sigh... What a pain.

Anyway, to wrap up this brain dump, it has been a long week and is only Wednesday. I finally got home at around 9pm with Cammie with me (picked her up from my parents). She was screaming the whole way home, but after a good brushing, she settled down and was very cuddly Monday and Tuesday night. Tuesday morning I was up at 4:30am to fly up to Dallas for a meeting, and I got back from that at 6:30pm, only to have to get on another call at 8pm. Sigh... I will be glad when this week, and with it the engagement dominating mylife, will be over.

As usual, the morning has been spent on endless conference calls dealing with the latest issues and crisis at work... nothing new there... although having had a late night last night (due to Anne's fun housewarming party, watching the latest set of Idol performances and results, and having to to more work at 11:30 at night) both Angel and I are tired today.

Anyway, while I was on one of my calls the cat came in wanting a brush. I of course had to oblige her (I now keep a brush in the office for these moments). With the amount of fur that I took off her I was able to create a little fur ball which, when rolled up tightly, bounces and rolls really well. The next 10 minutes were then spent with Wazzles running around and batting her own fur ball around the floor.

Several hours later and the fur ball (one that was doing the batting) is now asleep on the lower level of her climbing frame, and the other fur ball (the one that was battered around the floor) is still in one piece and still bounces when dropped on the desk or floor!

Why spend $5-$10 on a ball at the pet store when you can simply use the aminals fur as a toy!

We went out to meet a group for Kirsten's 30th bday dinner. We get home, and I am fetching clothes for Mike to change into. I turn on the lights to his closet...Thank goodness I turned on the lights!

Because the housecat, she, errrr...well, Mike has to post the pics.

UPDATE: Here is the photo of one of the presents... we found another by her scratch pad!