I think our computer is going to need a reformat very soon.

I really like the new ICQ 2000b because I can send free text messages to Drin.

The weather here is yucky. We have finally received a power bill and it is way more expensive than I would have expected. $210.75 for 34 spring days...*choke*

Here is my very first project for Expressions. I am thrilled because I created all the elements of the page myself. I got the tulip photo free online and created a set to suit my expressions page.

My sister said this was a bit depressing. Drin had tears in his eyes after reading it. I feel lighter and tender after writing it and preparing the page.

In future I hope I am able to do photographic expressions to give me some direction for using my digital camera. I have loads of web page development ideas. Making graphics available to the web community is one of them.

I forgot to include an update on why Drin was late. He was having computer problems at work. Then he decided to be social and went visiting. He didn't think to call, and we both spent Christmas day T I R E D...

Lucky me! I got a boxed copy of Paint Shop Pro 7 for Christmas :)

The day was fantastic. Wonderful family time and a fabulous feast. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. More photos for the family album.

2:52 am on Christmas morning. I'm still wrapping presents. Drin is not home yet. I've been phoning his work since 1:10 am. I'm worried, and working myself up to being really annoyed. He's not anwsering his cellphone either.

I figure it must be something really serious to keep him away from home, and if it's not then he is in a whole pile of trouble. Back to wrapping, and worrying...

Now my blog is all up, including the entries from August...not that I said all that much. Presents still to wrap! So I'll put up the redirection and get busy!

So far I've moved the index page and menu. Created a 404 page. Moved the blog, but the archives are in a wee bit of a pickle. Put redirections on the old pages. It will be a slow process, but I love not having ads on my pages :D

We've had a lovely day. We went out to lunch and saw The Grinch at the movies. Stress factor was low and the movie was nice.

The kids decided that they wanted to give Christmas cards to the neighbours. That was fun. They were lucky and were invited to see one of the neighbour's Christmas tree toghether with perfect decorations and an electric train running around the bottom of it. The couple don't have children and they are wonderful.

Merry Christmas

I just had to add a wee picture of my son on his 6th birthday with his new scooter. He was born at 6:43 pm on the 24th of December.

Happy Birthday!

Much more commentary required!

I have my results from my midwifery course for the year. I am thrilled. A x 6, B x 4 with 9 births covered. All looks great for next year, and I'm looking forward to returning to school. Drin wasn't so enthused about my results and I expected more because I think they are jolly fantastic. He was as excited about them as he is about my web pages and graphics ;)

Christmas is a mission. We have been lucky and had a day of present shopping without Amazon Girl and Little Fella. I don't know how Amazon Girl will be about not getting a Baby Born doll. They were too expensive and Drin wasn't happy about buying one for her. I think we've done a good job. I asked Drin for Paint Shop Pro 7 for my present. I hope he is able to get it... We found him a gorgeous watch. He was trying to be fussy, but I didn't plan on letting him get away with it.

The money problems are temporarily relieved. We sold some shares at long last. I don't know why Drin pretends we can afford to save for a house while I'm not working and we are still getting housing assistance. I guess we will get there soon enough. And I don't like the idea of shares...seems too much of a gamble. You shouldn't invest what you can't afford to lose!

I have been brave and signed up with Your-Site Virtual Server Solutions. I hope everything goes smoothly and works!

I have the absolute excitement of a tonsillectomy to face within the next 6 months. I was told that it would take about 1 - 2 weeks to recover. Will be tricky if it comes up when I'm on call for births.

Christmas is on the "go slow" at the moment. No real plans made because we didn't have any money and have been sick. Now we'd better get into gear, because time sure is running out.

In the wee hours of last night I watched Angela's Ashes. Now I'm curious about what happened to Frank McCourt between the end of the movie and writing the book. It looked to be a miserable place and time to grow up. I couldn't even imagine it and am thankful that no matter what miseries children believe they are experiencing I hope very few are like that. My children should have no complaints...

And they gave me a reply to my timeout problem within 48 hours. Wow! Didn't fix it, but I'm impressed that I got a reply that didn't look like a form response. It was appropriate and helpful.

e2/47 shows great promise as a future email provider. 100 MB with shared files. Nice interface that loads relatively quickly. A few services would be helpful, but it looks so good I signed up.

Mischief has asthma today and we had to do the steroid thing. The other two had asthma but it didn't stick around. Looks like Mischief is unlucky...asthma and eczema. What a combination =p

The commercial greed of television always amazes me. Two things to comment on regarding the pursuit of the dollar by television networks.

1. We pay for a cable network and we get free to air channels as well as heaps of other services. Early on this year I noticed that on Cartoon Network, and other paid channels there were advertisements. One thing I really enjoyed about the cable channels was that especially at Christmas time there were no product advertisements bombarding my children. "Mum, can I have one of those..." I phoned up the cable service and complained and they advised me that the advertisements were of a local nature to assist viewers to locate suppliers and services. Baloney!
   
2. The second point was something I noticed the other night on television. Like many countries, New Zealand has a heavy television campaign against drink driving. We have also relatively recently allowed alcohol advertisements to be shown on television. And what do the dimwit television programmers do...they screen a horrific anti-drink driving ad and straight after it put on an alclohol advertisement. What message are they trying to get across?
   

This is worse than the recent ad by Coke showing a plane crash in the ocean with young guys drinking Coke deciding to climb back up the ramp so they can jump back down again. I have heard several people say it is funny, but if your family had died in a plane crash in similar circumstances I'm sure you would have a hard time seeing the funny side of it. I'm a little bit sensitive because my Dad died in a helicopter accident. I have a different perspective on some things.

I really must get my birth stories up at my midwifery site. No one has even ventured close to submitting their story. Maybe they think I am bogus, or maybe it is difficult to find my site on search engines...or maybe there are no cute photos of babies on my site for them to look at.

I will continue developing the midwifery area as it is related to my professional development.

The aromatherapy area will continue to be updated as a service to the aromatherapy club I founded at Yahoo. I have since stepped down as Founder because I just don't have the time to read and interact with over 50 emails coming in a day. I still plan on getting some form of aromatherapy certification once I am a qualified midwife.

I'm bored. I'm downloading a few tubes from Jasc and they are taking forever! I would love to see BlogVoices have an email notification option. I keep checking back at my blog to see if anyone has made any comments.

Drin is once again having a sleep-in. He knows it gets under my skin, especially when he stays up late playing games on the 'puter. I feel angry and used because he acts like he is the centre of the universe. I know he works bloody hard and deserves a break, but a little communication or request would probably appease me. It is the only thing that has brought me to flashpoint with him...and he should know better by now!

I am amazed at product suppliers who forget the person that keeps them in business.

We have a lounge suite. It was cheap... but it was what we could afford at the time. We didn't get the right advice and the fabric has worn and is marked really badly in the 6 years we have had it. The most affected are the seat cushions and they are really badly ripped. The last straw was reached when my 2 year old decided that she would wear one like a sleeping bag and ripped it more.

I phoned the manufacturer and asked if they could supply the covers for the seat cushions. I was appalled to hear them say that they wouldn't do it. Isn't customer service about the product before it is purchased and customer satisfaction and assistance throughout the life of the product.

There is no need to say that we have contacted an upholsterer to recover them. We refuse to purchase fabric from the company we purchased the suite from. We should even have them recovered in time for Christmas :)

I've added BLOGVOICES to my blog so that readers can add comments after reading my posts. I hope you respect my posts and I hope I never have to hover my fingers over the delete button.

I'm not really still anxious. Imood has not updated my mood on the page =(

I'm looking to fine tune and learn more graphics skills. Someone on one of my mailing lists mentioned Fly by Night Graphics. I've signed up and it is so much fun.

I feel a need to release more of my visual creativity. I cannot not yet make stunning and breathtaking graphics, but if I want to consider web design for money (long term income goal) then I'd better make sure my graphical abilities are up to scratch.

Also it's a good excuse to take more digital pics. And possibly joining this collaboration would be another creative outlet. I don't really call myself a writer or an artist online...but I sure want to learn and challenge myself to bigger and better things.

tlIsn't it a small world? My sister's boyfriend went to school with Drin's cousin. We only know this because Drin showed Will a photo of his cousin and Will recognised him.

I have changed the entry graphics to my site and removed the background set buttons from my site menu. I thought this would be okay, but after hearing on one of my mailing lists that this could be in violation of terms I decided that it was better to be safe than sorry.

We got the biggest fright of our lives ever today. Amazon Girl fell down the stairs. The sound of the thumps and thud was terrifying. My heart felt as though it was standing still. She was all right. Just shaken up and split her top lip. We have a gate at the top...she's 4 years old...but she decided to hurry down the wooden stairs after her brother with socks on...and slipped. What a scare! You realise and remember how fragile we really are.

Little Fella went back to school today. He's happy and recovered well. He keeps showing me his scar to make sure it's healing okay. We couldn't keep him still even if we tried.

I've started a page for a new Net Sister. It's titled Belladonna - Pretty Woman, Deadly Poison. It looks fantastic in IE, but the tables do strange things in Netscape. I'll have to try and figure it all out when I can think straight.

I have been busy at Net Sisters. I've made 2 birthday pages this week and have just received an assignment to do a Faerie page for a new member. I am having so much fun.

We have just watched Gladiator and the X-Men on DVD and they were fabulous. Gladiator is a grand epic style movie. X-Men was good but it looks like they had to spend a lot of time building the plot to facilitate more movies and characters.

Little Fella has lost his second tooth. It was so funny...he came to me and said "Mum, my tooth came out and it fell in the toilet". So the tooth fairy will have to be satisfied with a note.

I remember losing one tooth when I was eating an apple and the tooth was never seen again. I guess I ate it :D

It is great to have you back :D

Supporting each other is what we are all about.

If any of you didn't know, I am a student midwife and I have one more birth to attend before the end of the year. I am loving my new house and my career choice. Little Fella is recovering well and we are one happy family.

Little Fella had his operation today. It went well and he was wonderful. He is resting at the moment.

I just had to add a photo of Little Fella from his show at school today :D

Isn't he cute?

I found this wonderful page on Journal Keeping. The author has a fantastic site and writes beautifully. If only I was as eloquent, but what the heck! :-D

I'm so excited! I have been promoted. I am now a Ruby for the Net Sisters Social Charms Society. You might say "who cares..." but I am thrilled :D Kat will be interested in this because she was the groundbreaker before me. So I've got big boots to fill and a great team to work with.

It seems as though getting our house sorted will take forever. We have completely cleared out of our old place and the landlords are returning the full bond. Now we just need to pay an extra $480 to make up the full bond for our new place. And it's only 5 weeks until Christmas!!!!!

I've been off for a week and have to clear my email and this is the message I get: Visto Corporation All Visto Servers Busy. What have they been doing at Visto? I really want to clear my Net Sisters email.

The new place is getting sorted. The phone is obviously on now...hooray!

Drin just pointed out that as we will have no phone at our new place until Thursday, that will also mean no internet. Now, I'm not a dumb person, but I never considered that I would be internet-deprived. I will enjoy the time to get us settled in our new house and work on my web pages offline, and scan bucketloads of photos and copy them onto CD.

We are all technology geek pretenders in my family. This is the site my brother has started: "SIMPLY TO SIMPLIFY". He said he is looking forward to getting his own computer.

Now to add some more midwifery journal entries to my site.

We had a lovely day with a visit from Leigh and Eileen. It was fantastic seeing them and the kids. Drin even managed to make it home for a little while to see them.

Fascinating with this midwifery lifestyle that I seem to be managing (except the housework) and Drin is all into work and stress. He is the one who has to find balance, and I need to be aware of supporting him as well.

Last fave rave for today: Visto.com, where I get my 15 MB email storage, and no usage minimum to keep the account open.

Did you know that I am a new editor for Open Directory - Health: Professions: Midwifery and Open Directory - Regional: Oceania: New Zealand: Health: Nursing: Midwifery? Do you have any links you want to suggest? I'd love to see them.

Sharing some of my faves. Yahoo may be taking over the internet, but one feature I adore is Yahoo! Companion with the ability to use my bookmarks on any computer.

We have somewhere to live. Hooray!!! The first place we looked at we adored. Lots of space, not too flash, and not too expensive.

Wasn't sure whether the landlords would be okay with our dog as part of the bargain. They proposed that if we chose to keep him with us instead of finding him another home that we would be able to as long as we paid another weeks rent as bond money. Expensive, but worth every cent to keep our family together.

I helped my sister set up her very own blog which she has called a day in the life of......me! Well done Ky :-D

My blogging inspirations should get some credit here. I will also set up a Reads page.

The first Blog I ever laid my eyes on was Kat's. And Kat is as local as net denizen's get. She's a Kiwi girl :)

And in my travels I came across which sounded completely logical to me.

And the first/last step to blog addiction came from Me at Midnight. It is both beautiful and truthful.

Thank you for setting me on my way. Any critics have these wonderful people and sites to blame.

Visited Access Brokerage to see how our shares are doing.

This is the bulletin about Restaurant Brands: "AMP Custodial Investments No.1 (CI) proposes to acquire up to 4,649,999ordinary shares (Target shares) of Restaurant Brands New Zealand (RBNZ). Theproposed acquisition of the Target Shares will result in CI controlling morethan 20% of the ordinary shares in RBNZ. The price to be paid for the Targetshares will be between $1.10 and $1.25 per share."

We might be able to get back what we paid for them...

Just watched a documentary about Kiwiflatmates.com. I would love to live in the house. It would certainly solve the homeless situation we will be in on December 3rd. But what a way to live! Like living in a glasshouse but with the whole world looking in for free. I'm sure the web-world enjoys the voyeurism.

I don't like the rising popularity and pressure around Halloween. It all seems to be commercially driven because trick or treating by children is a new phenomenon in New Zealand. I prefer Guy Fawkes which has it's own set of adversaries and complaints.

Today we checked out a few houses from the outside. The ones we like are just beyond what we think our affordable price range is. It will be a mission finding accommodation in time.

I passed. I only spent 20 minutes of the hour allotted for the test. I passed. It was only a provisional result with some sections unmarked, but the worst course grade I could get would be a 'B', and I'm hoping for an 'A'.

And wouldn't you know it... for the small amount of time I spent doing the test, I got a parking ticket! For a grand total of $440, with $40 of it because I parked on a residents parking zone, and the rest as punishment for procrastination for not having registered and warranted the car. I was really philosophical and was treating it as a bad joke, but Drin got angry and into blame mode.

I was thinking of F* (I will use first initials to maintain confidentiality) while I was doing the test. I hope your appointment went well, or as well as it could.

Just a wee note from reading my blog. I wish Blogger converted smileys.

Photocopying pages for colouring in for anatomy and physiology. Sounds childish, but it really increases my retention. I've certainly left study for this test later than usual, but I have had a lucky break. The midwife I'm working with this semester is busy for some of the day tomorrow, which means more study time for me :-D

I will catch you up with the marae visit later. Currently trying to figure out archiving ;-p

I found a mouse trailer script that I like from Dynamic Drive. The rationale for adding it to my pages is that they are not all housed on the same server, and I limit the use of the target=self tag so I don't tick people off by hogging the address bar. So now visitors will realise that I have my own domain name of www.kiwinessie.net.

Drin will be so happy. A Blog from U2. If I tell him about it he might even read mine to get the link ;-)

Counting down to the end of the year and looking forward to more evenings to work on getting my web pages tidied up. Not that I exactly deprived myself of web time to knuckle down and be overly studious ;-)

Another presentation to our class today, and then an overnight marae stay tomorrow night. The kids are looking forward to it, but I was ticked off that even with heaps of notice Drin conveniently chooses to roster himself to work and excuses it by stating how irreplacible he is.

Simple reminder to myself:

ALWAYS check my pages in Netscape.

No one responded to my plea for help checking my page. Maybe no one actually reads this Blog. But on a hunch I downloaded Netscape again and reinstalled it. I know that all pages should be checked in Netscape, but the last download took forever and didn't work, so I was putting it off. Now it's fixed!

A wee problem with one of my site areas. Can anyone out there help? A woman who submits articles for a national midwifery journal was having problems accessing the URL that she is intending on publishing. (My site :-D wow!) If anyone reading this could check it out and email me. Just trying to figure out if it is a Fortune City problem, or a coding problem.

The World of KiwiNessie - Midwifery Index

My Guestbook is now all spruced up and ready for action. I have kept the Bravenet one as backup, and the Spirit book for if I go back into a Site Competition. Now my main Guestbook is from Phaistos. I have changed my main one because sometimes the Bravenet book cuts entries short.

Now I just need someone nice to christen it.

My next efforts will be directed to rounding out my Blog. According to Blog culture it seems appropriate to include a reading list and some Blog rings. That will be fun :)

I was actually going to get a bit of extra sleep because my daughter kept me awake last night, but then my internal lightbulb flashed and I realised I hadn't printed of my bibliography for my women's studies presentation.

Inch by inch, I am updating my pages. My midwifery section is nearly polished and complete. I need to get the ball rolling and add my birth stories so that there is something there for people to read.

After a midwifery lecturer at Conference commented that my Reflective Journal had not been updated in a while, I made sure I spruced the page up and added more entries. My lecturer is currently reviewing my reflective journal for my course, so finishing the entries will have to wait. Having feedback about my journal was a timely reminder that even though I put up my pages for my own satisfaction, that people do actually visit them. LOL

This web publishing angle I will use to my advantage. The university want to use a logo that some of the students designed. I was concerned that copyright issues might be compromised and if we wished to use the logo at a later date that there would be no record of initial creation and ownership. The university has permission to use the logo, but we retain the rights. I should probably research copyright implications...but the first step will be publishing online the assignment that we submitted.

In utter lunacy I thought I might move my family pages to Homestead for the collaboration and easy building option. Their site and tools, and even FTP are slow. I will try it out and see how it works out.

Are there any hosts that are better at collaboration?

The current blog page now seems to be working satisfactorily. Now to add permalinks and archive details. Then deal to the archive pages.

The difficulty has been to find a place to hold the pages that allows FTP, and doesn't have a banner that will mess the page up. Red Rival fits the bill completely, but FTP is down at the moment. How reliable are they? So here we are at Spaceports for reliability :)

I am missing my reflective journal. I've attended 4 births this week and will have to wait for class before I can write. I am thrilled to have attended 8 births so far, and be ahead for the next two years.

I am feeling philosophical. Our landlords visited today to say that we have 6 weeks notice and will need to move out just before Christmas. If we hadn't had a hint of the news beforehand we would have been gutted. There is a remote possibility of a purchase in the pipeline, but I don't want to get too excited about it. Thank goodness we weren't doing Christmas lunch or dinner at our place this year!

I'm being a good wee Open Directory editor and am running through the Internet Detective tutorial to tune up my site assessment skills.

I'm currently juggling the OPD, Net Sisters, my aromatherapy club, and the sites I maintain. This seems to be a happy balance. No more site competitions for a while. They don't seem to achieve much, other than fellowship, and require a lot of time and dedication.

Blog, blog, blog. I just added a post and it disappeared.

Trying to edit this blog. It is a mission!

Some work to do on my midwifery pages. More photos to upload.

Now I can try this out on a Net Sisters page, or my reflective journal :)

So much web page fun and so little time!

I've discovered a much easier way to log my personal and site updates. You can get one too at www.blogger.com. Definitely an easier prospect, and has heaps of uses.