Diary of a geek

Diary of a geek: "Cool cat...

...warm computer"

Oooh a new extension in firefox allows you to right click on any text on the internet then blog directly to it using blogger. How exciting :) This is linked from Andrew's blog.

W minus 4 weeks

Mmmm... it's all pretty quiet now. I got my shoes today. That was pretty easy. I'd been to a few places such as Mathers and Betts, and they had nothing, so I went to a couple of more "bridal" shoe stores out of the local wedding guides, and the first shop had nothing that caught my eye, so we walked straight out. The second place (just around the corner from the first) we walked into, and they had "weddingy" shoes on a stand, and straight away I saw exactly what I wanted. They had my size, she was able to punch some extra holes in the strappy bits as they were a little loose, and they were only $56. Woohoo!

We also went to a wedding shop that has everything wedding that you could ever need! So we got a fluffy cape for myself to keep me warm, some ribbon for the cars, cake knife, nice brooch-like pins to hold the capes together (they didn't have any more matching ones for the bridesmaids, so had to get them elsewhere), ear rings and necklace for me, ring cushion, and also had a look at flowergirl dresses while we were there.

Andrew's mum is an organist at her church, and quite likes classical music, so we've given her the task of choosing music for the string quartet. She rang us up today and played a couple of pieces on the piano that she liked and thought would be good, so that was great!!

Tonight we'll probably go through the list of songs for the DJ and pick out a few hours worth of stuff.

The next 4 weeks are going to fly....

One of those weeks!

It's been wet and rainy all week and I've been feeling very unmotivated. There's also been a few family dramas this week, which have kept our stress levels a little higher than usual.

The cardiologist rang me on Wednesday as well. This guy is awesome, but more about that later. So he tells me what the specialist in Sydney pretty much said, but asked if I'd like to come and speak to him face to face to discuss options, and to bring Andrew as well, as it was good to have a second voice there. So he said he could come in at 8:15am the next morning if that was good for me, and I could see him then. So we did that and rocked up on Wednesday morning.

So basically, I have a 50/50 chance of having the same condition that my dad and aunt had. There seem to be 5 things that cause aortic dissection, and the only one they can actually test for is Marfan's syndrome, which is characteristised by having a very long slim body, really long limbs, and fingers, curvature of the spine and a few other fairly obvious signs. So the other 4 causes they haven't been able to develop a test for gene wise (which makes me wonder how they know there's 5 causes if they can't test for the other 4).

Due to this, the cardiologist wants to take the cautious approach, which I can fully understand. So he's put me on beta blockers to lower my heart rate and blood pressure. Both my blood pressure and heart rate are normal already, but it's a preventative measure to ensure they don't get too high, especially during exercise as it can put extra strain on the aorta and cause dissection if I have the condition. He's also said to try to avoid getting my heart rate over 120-130. With the beta blockers, easy exercise should ensure this. Unfortunately it may make me feel lethargic and not feeling like exercise. I'm on a low dose though, so hopefully this will be a happy medium.

The only problem is that I'm quite sensitive to medications, and after starting taking them on Wednesday I was feeling quite ill yesterday!! As well as that I had swollen glands, feeling generally achy and started getting a sore throat today.

So went along to the GP today just in case it was some weird reaction to the medication, but no - it's sensitivity to the medication which should settle down and a virus on top of that. Throat infection, swollen glands, achy body. Just got to rest and drink heaps of water. Just what I need right now!!! Oh well, better than getting it in a few weeks time. No riding for me tomorrow!

W minus 5 weeks

Meant to post this a few days ago - time is just flying by!!! Booked in for hair and make up last week for myself, the 2 bridesmaids, my mum, Andrew's mum and my sister in law. Now apparently my nan and aunt also want their hair done for the day so I need to either book them in with us or find somewhere else close to where they're staying.

Also sorted out flowers finally which is a bit of a relief! We've got a fair few RSVP's in now, so we're adjusting the tables a bit so everyone fits in.

So all the major stuff is done now. I'm going shoe shopping this weekend, and will also need to sort out a suit for my 22 month old nephew who's hopefully going to be a pageboy, providing he can handle the whole walk down the aisle thing!

Fixed bike and a ride!

Got the bike back from the bike shop, and the frame is all fine, it got a bit of a service and has a spanky new wheel. It's got a few less spokes than the last wheel which makes it go faster or something...

The bike got it's revenge on the car last night though. I went for a ride in the morning, put my bike up on some boxes at about 2pm I guess where it seemed nice and secure, and about 9pm last night it just decided to throw itself at the car and scratch some of the paint off the car. Sigh.

The ride yesterday morning was great though. We aimed to meet at 9:30am, but it was probably closer to 10 by the time we got away. We just went for a nice easy 35k ride from Kaleen out to Hall and back via Gungahlin. It was a nice day, perfect for cycling, and we could see the snow on the mountains in the distance. Very pretty.

My heart rate averaged 146 which is a bit high, but given that I haven't done any exercise in a while, I guess that's to be expected. I'm also going to either get an extra chain ring or some bigger cogs on the back. Getting a couple of bigger cogs will be cheaper, but the extra chain ring will give me more gears and makes hills easier, and therefore won't get my heart rate quite so high. Mmmm decisions...

W minus 6 weeks

Ok, we're doing pretty well here!

- Already getting RSVP's back in
- I've got a tentative seating plan knocked up
- The boys suits are all organised
- booked a string quartet for the ceremony, and a DJ for the reception
- A friend has a flowergirl dress that may fit our flowergirl, so we're going to get that sent to us to try it out
- The bonbonniere is sorted, we're getting placecards/bonbonniere in one in the same colours as everything else we're doing
- We've booked cars (just hiring Commodores from Thrifty and doing them up ourselves) and getting rellies to drive them
- Accommodation has been booked for most of the family (we've got around 35 rellies coming from between Gladstone and Melbourne!)
- I've started looking at flowers which has been an effort and a half!! I just have noo idea what to get....
- Started looking for hair/make up packages as well. Prices are ok for the bride, but they all seem very expensive for bridesmaide and accompanying families, so I'll continue ringing around tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're finalising the menu, hopefully booking hair/makeup people, and next Saturday I'll decide on flowers. After that we're pretty much sorted!! If anyone can think of anything I seem to have forgotten, please feel free to mention it to me... :-)

Car vs. bike

No, I wasn't on the bike! The bike was in the garage, and must have been knocked so the front wheel was poking out a bit too much. When Andrew left for work in the morning, we heard an unpleasant sound as the front wheel got caught in the wheel rim of the car. The results are below.



Methinks I may need a new wheel before I go riding again...