Varrqnuht.net

I’m still in love with LibraryThing. Tim has just posted about new Library Widgets to allow to display lists of books from your catalogue on your own site. I’ve just spent a couple of hours cataloguing a few shelves from the bookcase on one side of our loungeroom - we still probably haven’t reached the half-way mark yet, but there’s enough in there that a random selection of books doesn’t look completely weird.

I’ve stuck a random books list on the right hand side of the site. I like that look the best, but unfortunately the covers link to Amazon rather than Librarything. Apparently it’s part of Amazon’s terms of service that you have to link covers to them if you’re using their images - which is fair enough, I guess. I’d really like the links to go back to LibraryThing though, because the information displayed there is much better. Maybe I’ll switch to one of the other styles at some point.

You can see my whole catalogue (so far) here.

We held a party for Sebastian’s first birthday on Saturday. There were a bunch of parents with babies from our Mother’s Group, plus a few more friends and family. If you weren’t invited it’s because I didn’t think it would be your “scene”, not because I don’t love you anymore.

I spent most of the morning finishing chores I’d been assigned for party preparation, including a last minute vaccuming to maximise cat hair removal and mopping all the moppable floors. You should have seen the state of the floor after the party was finished - it’s absolutely to be expected, of course, but I can only imagine it will get worse as the kids get bigger. I vaccumed it all up again the next morning.

I think everyone had a pretty good time. The babies seemed to enjoy themselves, and my niece Emelia got on well with Tamasin, daughter of friends of Bron’s - so she had someone to play with and a potential crisis was averted. All the food we prepared was eaten, so we managed to avoid our usual trend of having stacks of leftovers. Still, I think everybody had enough to eat.

Everyone stayed inside so it was a little crowded at times, but not too bad once people spread between the lounge and our main living area. Either of those areas will hold more people than could fit in our old unit though, so it’s nice that it’s even possible for us to hold a party now!

Sebastian got a fairly impressive haul of loot - several books, including this beautiful illustrated hardcover edition of Peter Pan and Wendy from Paul, Jo, jack and Lucy, as well as a few different sets of blocks and puzzle things. He also got a ride-on dump truck from his Nan and GG, and a three-wheeled bike that has a handle allowing us to use it almost like a pram until he’s old enough to ride it for himself.

Here are some photos! The first one shows Sebastian in his ball pit with Tamasin. Next up is the birthday cake - a masterpiece, my contribution to which was mixing up the three packets of cake mix. Then we have a photo of Sebastian eating his cake, and finally two shots of him on the bike he was given by his great Uncle, Aunt and cousins.

Finally, in other news: I’ve been pretty busy rehearsing with the TSO Chorus for our next concert, “Ode to Joy”. We’re performing Tchaikovsky’s 1812th Overture, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. It’s my first time performing either of these works, and the first time I’ve done anything in Russian! We’re doing it outside at Port Arthur, so they’ve added in three other choirs to bring us to something crazy like 180 choristers on stage. It’s already sold out, and will hopefully be lots of fun. I’m taking next week off work so that I can share parenting duties during the day, given that I’ll be rehearsing every evening.

And, still in other news: I was approached by a recruiter from Google! I didn’t make it through, but it was certainly a learning experience. They didn’t ask me not to talk about it, so I’ll post more about that soon.

Wow, that was quick. Sebastian was born one year ago today.
It seems as though the past year has gone by in a flash, but at the same time when I think back to life pre-Sebastian (and pre-Lauderdale) it seems like a long time ago. Time is funny like that.

Our lives have been immeasurably enriched by our little man in the year he’s been with us. I actually suggested to Lou that she write that in his card, but she complained that she couldn’t be bothered figuring out how to spell it. It doesn’t matter though, this morning he managed to throw his birthday card into the toilet while I was brushing my teeth.

Of course, I was the one who got in trouble for this, for not shutting the toilet door in the first place!

Here are some photos we took of him this morning.