Just spent two weeks with my girlfriend лена in New Jersey and New York. It was wonderful. I met her family and friends, and she met my friends, most of whom still live in New York state. We are still trying to workout the whole future thing, although I'm confident that we can work things out. The shitty economy stateside is decidedly not helpful.

This is what a jerk I am. When I was in the Hudson Valley we went on a hike where the fall colour was in full force and my friend Brad said something like “This beautiful colour is our reward for having to live through the cold hard winter”, to which I responded reflexively “Speak for yourself, I'm going to the beach!”. Yay for Australia being awesome. Only, wait for it, then I started repeating this story over and over for people who were actually going to have to live through the winter in New York this year (which in my defense I had to do six times). The awesome thing about my friends is they still like me anyway.

It's weird now though because just a week ago the trees were all red and yellow and some of them were on the ground and walking to work today they were green again and fastened tightly to the trees. And to be honest, it isn't warm enough yet to go to the beach (karma). How can two places so far apart seem like home.

• 28 September 2008 10:31pm: It was hot and sunny today. I had the front and back doors open and a nice breeze through the house.
• Yesterday at 07:19pm: Best reason to be the first one off the train: not having to breath the smoke of those that are. Long pointless day; am glad it's over.
• Today at 02:21pm: Guy walks up to me with a post-it note that says "I'm deaf please give me $5" and puffs cigarette smoke in my face.

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We had some light rain this morning. I had a nap out in the atrium my grandma had built, resting to the pitter patter of rain drops outside. The sun gently woke me up an hour or two later and I watched the clouds scoot across the sky over the neighbours house. It made me really glad that I moved up here from the city^[1].

The rain reminded me of this time when I overheard this kid talking to his mum in Sydney while it was raining and he refused a brolly, saying “guy's don't use umbrellas.” I remember thinking to myself, gosh guys are kinda dumb. Me, I like to be dry, so I guess I am not a guy. Next time a girl tells me that guys are all alike I can say “hey, I like to be dry when it rains!”

1. although, lets just see how much I still feel like that when I wake up at 6am tomorrow to go to work :P

Today really felt like shorts weather. Yay for spring! I was in the parking lot down at Wyoming shops today of all places and I felt better than I have in months just because it was so warm. So awesome to feel so alive! I am excited about the approach of beach weather.

$5 got me a once-again-working tyre and for $60 I replaced the ink cartridge in the printer (well more like $30, but I also got a B&W one), which I think I already had a replacement for in a drawer somewhere. These things would be much easier to find if they were on the floor where I can see them.

Also excited because 30 Rock is back on iTunes. I am pretty sure it is on TV here somewhere, but I am also pretty sure it isn't on Aunty which means commercials which I hate. Why does everything have to be about selling stuff? It seems like they can't even sell me something without trying to sell me something else now a days. Like the other day I noticed someone had an iPhone so I asked how she liked it. She said it was wonderful, except for the phone part (it drops calls apparently). Remember when we used to get phones primarily for... well the phone component? Apple has done this really amazing job of making us focus on things that aren't really important. That would make Steve Jobs a wonderful President don't you think?

Brendan Fraser was awful in that Dragon Emperor movie. He was terrible in the first two but he managed to set a new low. The start of that movie so wanted to be Indy 4, which is weird because it was the least cool movie from the series (though still so much better than any of the Mummy movies).

Wanted was pretty bad too, but it was the Russian version which sort of made it interesting. All of the writing was pretty much in English except for the stuff that was important and you were supposed to read, which was in Russian. The audio was English though, so it must have come from a source that was subtitled, although said subtitles had unfortunately been stripped. Cyrillic on the bottom of the screen is the only thing that would have saved it. Seriously. Why do I watch terrible movies? Still, I can't complain for the price of admission on either count.

Next up was the bedroom. I have a two bedroom flat, but I use the larger of the two as my computer room/office. Basically my computers need more room than I do.

If the blinds were open, you’d be able to see The Company’s Sydney corporate headquarters. That isn’t the reason I closed them though! If I opened them then I wouldn’t have been able to take a photograph.

Notice how you can see the floor, and the top of my dresser. Things I found packed away today was another smaller chest of drawers (yes, I apparently had an entire piece of furniture that I hadn’t unpacked, after over a year after moving in), and my soccer trophy. When I was five I was a member of the Purple Rockets, the only team in the league to win all of its games. I contributed primarily in my ability to out pick the opposing team in terms of dandelions.

Hanging over my bed is my favourite picture of rust. Yes. I have a favourite picture of rust.

Today I did the rest of the living room. I love my red plates and monet-esq placemats.

I also unpacked a whole bunch of stuff which was still in boxes when I moved in last... well we will just forget when exactly it was that I moved in :) The table covering on my coffee table (seen yesterday without anything on it) is from Mexico.

Here I started filling up my bookshelves. On the top shelf here you can see my language books, German (Deutsch), Chinese (中文) and ... uh... er... Klingon (tlhIngan Hol).

I also found this while I was unpacking. It is one of my oldest material possessions. It has a little gear under its head so the trunk moves up and down as you scoot it accross the floor.

Finally got started on my spring cleaning. Did the kitchen today. It looks real pretty.

Also did part of the living room.

and this is one of the turkeys that we didn't eat yesterday. What do you think I should name him?

Apparently she and the Doctor had a thing for her entire life. Typically, he was into it for about an hour.

In unrelated events, spring is in the air. I need to do some of the requisite cleaning.

Happy Turkey Day everones who is in America (or who celebrates anyway).

I for one am going to spend the day doing some spring cleaning, because it’s spring and the place is starting to look like it needs to be done.