86. Send a birthday card to every member of my immediate family for a year (4/11)

My baby brother's birthday is next week, thought I don't know if I can really refer to him as a baby since he's about to turn 26 and has two little babies of his own.. but he'll always be younger than me and so he's my baby brother... thought he deff hasn't been 'littler' than me for a very very long time now!! 

My brother back in 1997 - He looks NOTHING like this these days!! 

My brother, Ryan, grew up fast - leaving school at 16 for an apprenticeship with Holden, moving out of home not too long after that, falling in love young, starting a family at the age of 19... in fact both his little boys where born while Ryan himself was still a child (well I thought of him that way) - every choice and decision Ryan has made in his life has made him happy

Anyway its his 26th birthday on the 21st of March and when I saw this card I just KNEW it was the card for him... but maybe thats an in joke :D

Happy birthday baby brother.. I hope your family brings you a bacon and eggs breakfast in bed, maccas for lunch and a beer with a jacks chaser for dinner!! Hope Sunday brings a wonderful start to your 27th year on this planet... wait a minute, holy crap.. that means I'm getting closer to my 29th birthday!?!?!? 

91. Read and review 100 books (9/100) The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan

'All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of victory are grim. Kronos's army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan's power only grows. While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it's up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.


In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate'


Good last book, left me wanting more.. I didn't feel as if the story was completely over as there where a couple of threads left open.. but *sigh* I guess it is over.... then again never say never!! 

49. My Two new words of the week...

phantasmagoria

  \fan-taz-muh-GOR-ee-uh\ , noun;

1.

A shifting series or succession of things seen or imagined, as in a dream.

2.

Any constantly changing scene.

Loved playing the game phantasmagoria, a horror game played out with massive amounts of video and one of the first ever computer adventure games that used a live actor as an onscreen avatar.. it was released in 1995 (so I was like... 14) and was a little revolutionary for its time... even if it did come with 8 CDs to be able to fit all the data (yes this was before DVDs kiddies). Reading the wiki on it apparently it was banned in Australia due to its graphic violence.. guess I was lucky to have a copy!!! 

AND

bal·der·dash

   [bawl-der-dash]

–noun

1.

senseless, stupid, or exaggerated talk or writing; nonsense.

Since I seem to have a video game theme going here the second word.. was one of my first ever video games that I used to play on the Commodore 64 back when I was like 5 or 6... yes now I really am showing my age!! LOVED Balderdash.. would love to get a copy of it again.. at least it will no longer be on a cartridge!! 

Hmm these could be hard words to work into normal day to day conversation.... 'balderdash'!! 

91. Read and review 100 books (8/100) The Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan

'Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun.  But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical. 

In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth—a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.'

Same old same old - Great book, kept me turning the pages, or rather clicking the 'next page' button through work transits and lunch breaks until I'd finished it... within 24 hours or so :) 

19. Spend at least 24 hours in 10 states (3/10) - New Mexico

We jumped on another plane last weekend bound for those snow covered mountains.. trying to make the most of the season before it melts away...  this time we landed into Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Excitement State, late on a Friday evening pumped for our two and a half hour haul into heart of Indian country and the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range to our final destination Taos. 

Heading up the mountain on that warm sunny morning we were both charged up and ready to hit the slopes! 

Riding the cattle car from the car park to the chair lifts... warm day!!

Expecting it to be nice and slushy due to the positive temperatures I headed up the lift planning to practice my carving... Only to be massively surprised when I heard the terrifying sound of 'packed powder' scraping away my boards wax on my first blue run... uh oh... its been a while since I've taken my chances on a hard surface... why so nervous? You see soft, fresh or slightly powdery or slushy surfaces are ULTRA forgiving... you dig in an edge or only partially commit to a turn and the surface forgives you and compensates, keeping you upright and still hurtling 'in a controlled manner' down the mountain.. on packed surfaces... totally different story!!! On hard surfaces you need to be totally and utterly committed, you need to be aggressive and succinct in your motions or the mountain makes you pay... uh oh indeed.... I hit the ground HARD on my first run - thankfully my head broke my fall.. even more thankfully I had decided to wear my helmet that day... and it was just my neck and arm that took the brunt of the fall... off to the bar I went... yes I knew it was only 10:30 but seriously screw it... I just narrowly missed a concussion.. time for a beer... 

You know its going to be a bad day on the mountain when your sitting at the bar at 11am!

So after my injection of liquid courage I thought, stuff you stupid evil mountain (there could of been more expletives in there) you're not going to beat me... I strapped up and jumped on that chair lift ready to give it another go... Everything was good! I made a number of runs without having anything go awry.. the beer helped calm my nerves a little and I was gaining confidence and picking up speed... UNTIL WHAM!! I dug in a heel edge and hit the snow once again HARD... this time my butt took the brunt of the impact... Not fun!! Well at that point I'm afraid to say I decided it was time to call it a day and I limped and hobbled my way across to the bar for some liquid condolence.

Yup, the mountain kicked my ass... BAD!!!

So I spent the rest of the day at the bar... unfortunately I didn't meet any cute alpine ski instructors.. but I guess that would be counter-productive these days anyways (teehehe) 

At the end of the day we decided to trek a couple of miles down the road (by car... I was in no condition to walk) to check out the Rio Grande Gorge - which  was actually really cool - just like the Grand Canyon, its a gorge that has over time has been created by a river, in this case the Rio Grande... very awesome! From there we headed back to the hotel, showered, I took about a million Tylenol and we headed out for pizza and beer in the picturesque and historic town of Taos. 

Standing on the bridge across the Rio Grande Gorge

...So 5 days later everything is finally starting to feel normal again.. apart from my poor upper arms and shoulder blades... yup.. guess I might have two more things to add to that phyiso list! 

91. Read and review 100 books (7/100) The Titan's Curse - Rick Riordan

'In this installment, Riordan continues to enliven ancient mythology with wit, contemporary staging, and teenage heroics. Percy Jackson is now 14, a bit older and wiser, yet still entangled with the Fates. Friends, monsters, dysfunctional gods, and the romantic stirrings of all things natural and mythological are encountered. His good friend, if oft-time rival, Annabeth (daughter of Athena) is missing, as is Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Joined by best buddy Grover-the-goat-boy and an argumentative array of accomplices, Percy sets off to fulfill, and hopefully foil, the foreboding prophecy of the Oracle. Plagued by ominous dreams, thwarted by hideous monsters, and challenged by conflicting partnerships, the search party's success hinges on unlikely unity. The droll pitch is teen-perfect, as when Apollo heats up the scene by arriving in his fire-red Maserati, wearing jeans, a sleeveless T-shirt, and loafers. 'Wow,' Thalia muttered, 'Apollo is hot.' 'He's the sun god,' I said. 'That's not what I meant.' Intricate prophecies and relationships are neatly braided into the adventurous plot.'

Still really enjoying the series but unfortunately its such light reading that I seriously have nothing insightful to report... looking forward to the next novel in the series... 

80. Treat Paul to something he's always wanted with my first US paycheck

Paul has been wonderful to me since moving to Houston 18 months ago. To make the move, I had to quit my job and move to Houston accepting the reality that I would be unemployed temporarily... well we thought it would be temporary... with fantastic typical us timing we actually ended up moving to Houston just weeks before the global financial crisis hit and all those job opportunities and interviews I had spent months dutifully setting up suddenly didn't seem to have employment opportunities attached to them. So I sat in Houston being a glorified housewife and wedding planning for the first 12 months of our expatriation assignment rather than being the independent financial contributor that I am used to being... let's just say I wasn't a happy camper being relegated to housework, household budgeting and errand running!!! 

I returned from our wedding and honeymoon in November, ready, willing and completely able to hit the job market hard - luckily for me the US economy was beginning to turn the corner and the market had begun to pick up (or rather the price of oil had strengthened). Within weeks I had an interview for a contract position with Chevron, and only days later I was being offered a 6 month contract with their US Land Drilling and Completions Department... finally a foot in the door!!

Paul and I had an agreement that I could spend my first pay cheque on whatever I liked, kind of like a reward for finally getting a job... Well I always knew that I wanted to spend that first pay cheque on something for him... something that he had been lusting after for months and months, kind of as a thank you for being so good to me throughout my days of unemployment (I beat myself up over it WAY more than he ever did... in fact he wasn't concerned at all with me being a housewife... damn my ambition and deep seated need for independence... I could still be living the easy life right now!!!) I really wanted to buy him the Tag Heuer he had been eyeing off since his Thai knockoff died 18 months ago but unfortunately as I began to do my research I quickly realised they had discontinued that particular design... so I either could risk it and purchase the new model, hoping that he loved it as much as the original OR i could ruin the surprise and ask him what he would like to do.. typical practical me went with option number two... after all who wants to spend that much money on a present that isn't exactly what the recipient wants?!?!?!

I hatched a plan and decided it made more sense to give Paul and option - Sitting, enjoying a frozen margarita at Pappasitos a day or two after my first pay cheque cleared I hit Paul with my plan... ' I want to buy you either your watch (as close as we can get) or your car pod... he surprised me and chose the pod... maybe he's not as impractical as I always suspected.... ;D 

Thus weeks later, the Thule Boxter 611 car pod arrived on our doorstep... and now the massive box lives on our office floor, just waiting to be taken out and used on a cross country road trip... dont worry, that's something we're definitely working on!!!