Garrulous Geek

More pictures... I really want to blog something more substantial, but there's just not all that much to say at the moment. Things are crazily busy, but it's mostly stuff I've written about before. Being a parent is hard work - lack of sleep, lots to do, feeding, etc... House moving is going OK. We're off to sign contracts next week. It's freaking hot. Um... that's about it. Oh, and Ronan "arse" Keating has covered Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls. His version is near identical to the original, adding nothing, but sounding just different enough that you suspect it's a cover. Then you find out it's him and get cross because it's clearly just some absurd money grab and will probably sell more than the original! Anyway. Here's some photos...

It's Beth in a dress!



It's Ali and Beth at the dedication!



It's the cake my mum made for the dedication!



It's the extended family!



It's my brother (who was really taken with little Beth) and Bethany!



And now for something different... here's some pictures of butterfiles that I've been taking in my garden. We've got a couple of those big butterfly bushes and we've had loads of them turn up. I've seen about half a dozen different kinds, which is pretty cool. Here we go:

Peacock:



Red Admiral:



Tortoiseshell:



So, there we go. I'll blog more stuff sometime, I promise... Hope you enjoy the photos at least. Bye!

Some animated phallus decided to hack my website again. So I've fixed it. Apologies if anyone found anything unexpected. At least it wasn't pr0n this time, just some silly bit of bragging... and no doubt loads of hits from people looking for warez at my site... fun stuff. Still, it should be fixed now.

I'm tired and hot, so I'm glad that it's the weekend and that things are meant to be cooling down.

I need to find some time to blog something interesting... I've got loads of topics to write about in my drafts area, but I never find the time to write anything lengthy these days... need motivation... and fewer ellipses. Is that the plural of ellipsis? My insticts suggest it should be, but it does make the sentence ambiguous. Perhaps it's ellipsises. Hmm. Stream of consciousness ending in 3, 2, 1.

Bye.

Well, last week I said I'd given my notice at work, and this week I've had my exit interview and had a farewell in the end of term meeting, so that's nice. The interview was good - it gave me a chance to say what I think is wrong and what needs fixing in the hope that the things that bug me get sorted to some degree, ready for the next guy. The farewell was nice enough, though some people were somewhat perplexed when they misheard me and thought I was telling them I was starting a career as a taxi driver. Never mind! So, two weeks left at work, then about a month off when I get to do some exciting stuff like change nappies and move house, and then it's time to start doing that tax advisin' thang.

Things are going OK with Bethany at the moment, though her eating and sleeping have been somewhat disrupted. It doesn't help that she's extremely difficult to wind. Ironic that in 5 years or so we'll be telling her for burping, huh? Still, we're getting by. I've just set her down to sleep after her feed, and she seems to have settled OK which is a good thing. Ali is pretty frazzled at the moment, but she's in bed and hopefully getting some good sleep, so she should recover to some extent.

The dedication last week went very well. The service was good, and Beth behaved well enough that Ali and I could stay in church to hear the whole sermon. It was good to have all our families and some friends together with the church to dedicate her. The barbecue afterwards was delicious, and it was great to sit and chat with people I don't get to see enough of. It was the first time my brother had seen Beth, and it was something of a surprise to see how emotional and excited he was by it all! I wouldn't have expected it from him, but it's all good. He's a very proud uncle! I've got some great photos from that day, so I'll upload them sometime soonish.

That's about it really... here's a few random mainstream musical thoughts:

• Eleanor, Put Your Boots On sounds more like Belle & Sebastian than Franz Ferdinand.


• The new single by Rhianna, or however you spell her name, is truly awful. R&B meets EMO with unsurprisingly awful results.


• The new Justin Timberlake single is distorted junk, but annoyingly stick-in-heady.


• I think I do like Muse' Supermassive Black Hole after all. Album might be a purchase for next month.

Right. I'll try to get photos up tomorrow. Bye for now...

PS WTF was Zidane thinking, eh?

Oh man, I'm tired. It's my job to feed Beth at 10:30pm and put her to bed, which is all well and good, but it does mean I end up sleeping in the same room as her and get woken up when she needs her next feed at 3am. Still, it takes the pressure off Alison and it'll only be for a few more weeks so... I guess that's OK.

Bethany is 3 weeks old today. She's putting on weight and getting bigger. Her eyes have changed colour and it looks like she's got her eye's from Ali's side of the family. She's doing well. She's more alert now, which is cool because she can actually see things a bit better and looks around a bit more curiously. We're having a thanksgiving/dedication service at church on Sunday for her, which should be good. I'll give an update next week.
I've been back at work this week, which has been a bit tough, but we've managed. Ali's mum has been down for the week, which has been good as she's been helping out around the house, cooking and so on. Helps to take the pressure off while we adjust to my being back at work. Hopefully Alison will get on alright when she's home alone next week.

In other news:

• I'm not all that surprised or sorry to see England go out of the world cup. We deserved it, to be honest, given Sven's rather mystifying selection of strikers in the squad.


• It was a shame to see Murray go out of Wimbledon without getting much further than last year. Hopefully he'll do better next year. I've been rather enjoying Rafael Nadal's matches though. Also, I caught some of the seniors doubles last night, which was very funny. Not exactly the most serious event it seems.


• I've got series 1 of 24 on DVD, and Ali and I have started watching that now. Quality.


• Our house buying is moving along nicely. The solicitor is shuffling lots of paper and dealing with many people, which is what they're paid to do, so that's good. We should be moving house sometime in the middle of August.

That's about all I can think of right now. There might be more, but my brain is a bit fried right now. Bye.