Sunshine, Pretty Please?

Only 10 hours till I meet Kate and Kelsey at the airport and I'm still tidying! I haven't been tidying all day...I've had to go run a lot of errands today. Anyway...I've been checking out the rain forecasts for Sydney, Brisbane, and Noosa all week and I didn't like what I was seeing, so I was pretty much ignoring them. Not that I trust weathermen/women, but according to them it is supposed to rain when Kate and Kelsey arrive in Sydney...for their first, second, and third days in Sydney. Then we will fly to Brisbane for two days...where we can expect...more rain! And then we will be in Noosa for 3 days, where we can look forward to...even more rain! But when we get back to Brisbane and Sydney, supposedly we can count on no rain! So, yeah...I'm a bit bummed. I really hope the rain predictions are wrong and Kate + Kelsey's first 7 days in Australia aren't full of showers. Or even if the showers took place at night and we woke up to sunny days! (Hell, I'd even take highly cloudy!) Hmmmm...I hope they won't read my blog when they first land! :-) Hi, guys!

The fact it is supposed to rain on New Year's Eve poses an interesting question - where do we want to watch the fireworks and how long do we want to stake out a spot if it's rainy? I think we definitely need a Plan B that will include getting a decent view of the fireworks without sitting in the rain all day long. Every year I hope to make friends with someone who has an awesome view of the fireworks that doesn't require guarding a spot all day long, but it never happens! :-(

I hate it how I feel somewhat responsible for the weather when I have people come visit me in Australia...I know it's totally out of my control yet I feel guilty when there's no sunshine and hot weather in December! It reminds me of when my friend Dhruv came to visit me for Christmas in 1999 and he couldn't stay in Oz long and I believe it rained every day he was here. Ooops. At least there won't be a heatwave last New Year's Day ...when it got to be 46 C/111 F. That was bad. Welp...back to tidying...

Help Me, Musically!

I have about 30 free songs left to download on iTunes and I know there are way more than that that I would like to download, but I'm feeling a bit braindead, what with the cleaning ahead of me, so if anyone has any suggestions for songs I should download - email me! I have to download them by Sunday, so think fast! ;-) I am a rock chick at heart, but I am also looking for songs I can dance my ass off to, so anything danceable would be much appreciated!

p.s. Huge apologies to everyone I currently owe phone calls and emails to: Kristikeet, Rachel, Dhruv, Glenn, Hussy, in particular. I will get in touch soon!

Queen of Procrastination

That's me! Queen of Procrastination! I have to meet my Aunt and Cousin at the airport in about 20 hours and I'm trying to madly clean my apartment since they are staying with me while they're in Sydney. My apartment currently looks like Christmas threw up all over it. Presents and wrapping paper and ribbon everywhere. Work crap all over the place. My apartment also looks like it's a costume shop. My Halloween Eyptian costume is laying around, along with my Brazilian Carnival costume - I need to work out where I can store my enormous feathered backpiece! If someone broke into my apartment to rob me right now, they'd think that someone beat them to it.

I've been meaning to tidy up for the last month, but I've barely been home, so it all comes down to the last 20 hours! Or, really, less than that since I'd like to sleep tonight :-)

This last month has been so crazy. We had our work Xmas party on our boss's yacht. That was very fun. Lovely people, gourmet sandwiches, yummy dips, sushi, lots of wine and beer, fruit, secret santa pressies, and very generous Xmas bonuses from our boss! YAY! Very nice nice, indeed! And my old job took me out for a fantastic farewell dinner (so yummy!) and gave me an awesome specially made butterfly shaped card showing "Lori through the years" and a fabulous 30 gig iPOD. Very very sweet!

I tried to just go into work for a couple hours yesterday to finish up a few things before I officially go on holidays, but it turned into 7 hours...ooops. And I still didn't get lots of stuff done! :-(

My Xmas Eve and Xmas Day were fantastic. Spent Xmas Eve with Claude, Chad, Mia, Marvin, Rhonda, Johnny, and Monika at Marvin's parents' place. As usual, they prepared a fabulous feast, this year with the addition of an actual roast pig. It didn't have an apple in its mouth, but, still!

I have to admit to being a blissfully ignorant carnivore. I know that pork comes from piggies, for instance, but I don't like to actually think about it too much. So eating meat that I'd just seen carved off of poor little Wilbur, well, it was a tad confronting. But damn if that pork wasn't the best I've ever had! Thanks, Wilbur! His little legs were tied together as if he was preparing to do an Irish jig - very cute!
We danced and listened to good music and chatted and played poker while waiting for midnight to come so we could open our pressies. Santa was VERY good to me this year! :-D

Christmas Day I spent in Newtown with Carlos, Alex, Adrian, David, and Deb. I will have to post the photos I took of the food at Carlos's. Martha Stewart would be proud! We had turkey, roast chicken, lamb, and the most beautiful salads! So beautiful, I had to take photos of them! I made my roast chicken and mango salad which went over well, so I was pleased! I swear I ate 4x my body weight just that day alone! We pretty much just ate ALL day and all night long while chatting and lounging around and drinking more wine and playing Playstation and watching movies. A lovely lazy day!

And an extra special thanks to my parents (Mr + Mrs Claus) who got me my super Xmas package in time, filled with cute clothes and jewelry and more! Plus, they got me DVDs Say Anything and Summer Rental, which I'd requested, so YAY! My dad asked me if I'd ever re-gifted any of their presents. The answer is no, but I have re-used the boxes their gifts came in, many times. :-)

7th Heaven is playing in the background....good lord, how long has this show been on TV? All the little kids are grown up now and wearing too much make-up and getting married! It seems like these kids' only goal is to get married as quickly as possible! Yikes!

In other random news, I've been asked out by 1-2 cab drivers a week, each week, over the last month. I take too many cabs....

Okay, back to cleaning!!!
-Santa's Naughty Elf