Big News!

I would like to annouce a very exciting change to this blog. Amy Marshall (my lovely sister) is now going to share the blog with me!!! So we will both be posting. Two Marshalls for the price of one!

If you haven't noticed down the bottom of each post where it says the time the post was published it also says posted by Mindy. We'll try and make it obvious but if you're not sure just check at the bottom of the post and it will say which one of us wrote it!

Let the good times roll!

Amy's Photos

Hi! Well I had a busy weekend. But enough about me. Amy sent some photos so I'm going to post a few.

"The less populated bit of wreck beach, down a different trail. It is a nice beach, the tide is in here. I liked this bit better and you had a better view of the ships going past. If i had the camera moved slightly to the right you may have seen some of the 'locals' ;-) "(Note from Mindy, this is a beach right near where she lives, and actually happens to be a popular nudist beach).

"my pride and joy. it took me so long to take a picture of a squirrel- they move quickly. i took this yesterday in stanley park (google it those of you who don't know what that is). There were heaps around. they have black and grey ones here, the black ones are probably more common and look really evil. They are quite clever. they climb into rubbish bins then jump out at you, giving you a hell of a fright. they use their hands to hold their nuts. it is very cute. i don't think i will be able to send racoon pictures as they are nocturnal and when i see one i won't be sticking around (they are huge and attack with rabies)" (Note from Mindy: to overseas people who don't quite get this picture we don't have squirrels in NZ so they are extremely exciting...)

"at last a picture of me! i know that is what you were all waiting for. this is me in front of the stanley park totem poles. they are pretty cool. a lot for colourful than maori carvings. i haven't been to the museum yet where the world's largest collection is but willl soon hopefully"

Red Eyes

Well I was going to post a picture of a bloodshot eye and say "I went for a swim this morning and now my eyes look like this:" and then there would be the picture. But I can't get the picture on so that plan is completely ruined. I spend seconds, minutes even divising that plan and now that was just a waste of time. Sigh.

It was fun swimming, I haven't been for ages. Like I haven't swum laps for years. I haven't been to public pool for years either! Like umm... the last time probably would have been when I played water polo in 7th form, that was 1999. Gosh. That's a long time. No wonder I forgot how horrible chlorine can be. I'm glad Mum and Dad don't chlorinate their pool as heavily as public pools.

Darren wasn't in Akaroa last night so that was great. Also he's not there tonight. Lucky me. So we watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force Together... awww. It was great.

I'd better get to work now. If my eyes stop fuzzy and I can focus on the screen.

Actually I've just realised I complain an awful lot about my injuries and illnesses. I'm always moaning about something. I think I had better try and stop now as it will only get worse as I get older. So next time I do it, scold me!

Also hi to Amy in Canada, and Andrew in wherever. I hope you are both having fun. Well actually I know right now Amy is trying to find her lecture as the room changed. Good luck Amy!

:)
Mindy

Popple Education

Ok so these are popples. I only ever knew them as toys but apparently there was a tv show of them too with popple puppets. I don't think we ever got that here in New Zealand. They were around in the 80s. The coolest thing about a popple was they "popped" kind of. They have a big pocket on their back which you turn inside out and the whole popple fits inside (well that was on the ad, in reality the head usually sticks out). So they kind of look like a big ball, then you "pop" the rest of it out! The orange looks like the one I found abandoned and have adopted, though it has had it's tail cut off :( The pink one is what my popple looks like. And the last picture is what they look like when they are all tucked up in their back pocket.


So really just another fad toy. But I had very few soft toys when I was little, actually very few toys, I liked drawing more, but popple is one I have hung onto! Very cuddly too.

:)

Well...

I really should say something... hmmm.

I have two exciting pieces of news. I'll do them in chronological order. Actually three pieces of news.

1) I had lunch with Claire last Wednesday and we went and sat in the park and ate and it was nice. (She made me say that, I've been in trouble for the last 5 days for not mentioning that on my blog yet!).

2) In the weekend I was driving down my street and there was a box on the side of the road labeled "everything for free". Sitting right on the top of that was a popple! Yes a popple! So I asked Claire (coincidently she was with me again) if she'd get out and get it for me. She said no. As she is mean. So I got out and got it myself. Also a dinosaur which appears to be haunted but that's another story. So now my popple, affectionately named "popple" (apparently I wasn't fussy about naming my toys when I was younger) has a friend!!!! This one is orange and stinks so I'm going to wash it very soon.

3) I still have a catfish! Darren and I bought this whiptail catfish ages ago for quite a bargain (they sell for $70 at Animates) I think we paid around $20 off trademe. Anyway we got this wee catfish and it hung out on the side of the tank for a few weeks then disappeared. This was seriously long over a month ago. Now we have tons of fish that "disappear" (i.e. die then get eaten before we notice), and I had assumed the catfish had suffered the same fate. But last night, totally out of the blue the catfish came out again! It's bigger too!

Ok so those were my pieces of news. Hope you didn't hate them, enjoying them may be a bit much to ask though ;)

:)
M

Still on South Park

Ok just wanted to put something up in the air here.

This is Nick's impression of himself (borrowed without permission from Adam and Nick's site also I'm assuming I got the right Nick, if I'm wrong correct me please Adam):


And this is how I see Nick:


Obviously there are some discrepancies between the two images! I mean I'm not saying by my image that I see Nick as a friendly, hyper guy, who talks a lot because he has great stories how often wears Hawaiian shirts... ok that's exactly what I'm saying.

Anyway smile Nick!

:)
Mindy

South Park Characters

Hi!

Hehe I really love that site Adam turned me onto to create South Park characters. So much so that I got home from work and turned on the computer and made another couple (plus figured out how to give them backgrounds)! Turning on the computer after work is very unlike me.

Also seems I'm not the only one, check out Adam and Nick's site where Adam has been collecting them from people he knows, they're so cool!

This is Kirsty out ready to go work the streets.


And this is Darren, wearing a Metallica t-shirt he doesn't actually have but he has some of their albums so that counts.


This is my baby sister Claire she's eating an icecream coz she's at the beach (obviously!) - and by baby I mean 17 year old.


This is Amy at a theme park, if it were her choice it would be Disneyland, but she's at Cartmanland instead, listening to her ipod.


This is Andrew in some old European forest enjoying a European beer. He's stubbly and looks tired as he's been partying so hard on his tour (check out his blog for details of that).


And finally, here's Bradley the warrior cat.


:)
Mindy

South Park Me

Well I'm very sad because Amy has gone. And I miss her already. And I'm worried about her because I hope she is positive enough to make the most out of every opportunity she gets over there. I hope she does!

Also Adam had a cool link on his site to create your own South Park character, so I'm going to copy him and put the link on my site too! And below is me (for those of you who didn't know yes my hair is brown and short now). So here's the link South Park Studio. Bye!

Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Stargate!

Well something really exciting happened on Wednesday night. My two favourite programs combined (sort of) to form a fantastic super-program. Or put simply Aqua Teen Hunger Force took off Stargate. Well actually it was a Fargate. Below you can see the Plutonians, Oglethorpe on the left and Emory on the right, standing next to the Fargate.



Here is a blurb of the episode (taken from this site).

"Emory and Oglethorpe travel across space and time through the "Fargate" (which is actually a copy of the Stargate) to steal the Aqua Teens' cable. In order to control which channel they watch, they use the Universal Remonster, a small robot made of several remote controls that accidentally wanders through the Fargate and ends up in the hands of the Aqua Teens. As Shake comes up with creative ways to abuse the Universal Remonster's powers (many of which revolve around terrorizing Meatwad), Frylock sets out to do a little investigating. He discovers the Fargate, and catches the cable-thieving Plutonians in the act. It turns out that they're completely high. Unsurprisingly, Emory and Oglethorpe behave exactly the same as when they're not on drugs."

Here's some quotations from the episode:

Oglethorp: We have successfully traveled beyond and across both space and time through the Fargate. To get free cable!

Emory: I think it's a Stargate?

Oglethorp: It's the Fargate! "F"! It's different from that movie, which I have never seen, so how would I copy it?

Emory: Chill, man. It's alright. Let's just turn it on.

Oglethorp: I just want to make sure that we are clear it's the Fargate. "Goes far." Get it? And there is no way it came from that movie or that syndicated series based on the movie.

Emory: But it sure was a good movie.

Oglethorp: Ya, yes it was. Turn on the TV, maybe it's on!

Isn't that just fantastic. I truely enjoyed reading this blog entry, and I was the one who compiled it, hope you all did too!

ps In other news I think I left my gloves at Mum and Dad's, determined not to let that stop me I now bike to work with my ball gloves on with socks over the top of them.

I choked on a ganster because I'm not a homosexual

Kirsty sent me this yesterday. You should all do it and write a comment on the blog with what you get (it's designed as an email forward but I think this will work). Hope everyone has a nice day!

Pick the month you were born:

January--I kicked
February--I loved
March--I smoked
April--I dry humped
May--I choked on
June--I murdered
July--I did the Macarena with
August--I had lunch with
September--I danced with
October--I sang to
November--I yelled at
December--I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a Mexican
6-------a gangster
7-------my cell phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10-------my neighbor
11-------my science teacher
12-------a banana
13-------a fireman
14-------a stuffed animal
15-------a goat
16-------a pickle
17-------your mom
18-------a spoon
19-------myself
20-------a baseball bat
21-------a ninja
22-------Chuck Norris
23-------a noodle
24-------a squirrel
25-------a football player
26-------my sister
27-------my brother
28-------an ipod
29-------a permanent marker
30-------a llama
31-------A homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:

White----------because I'm cool like that
Black-----------because that's how I roll.
Pink------------because I'm NOT a homosexual.
Red------------because the voices told me to.
Blue-----------because I'm sexy and I do what I want
Green---------because I hate myself.
Purple---------because I'm cool.
Gray----------because I was drunk
Yellow--------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange-------because I hate my family.
Brown--------because I was high.
Other-------because I'm a ninja.
None--------because I cant control myself

Now type out the sentence you made and put it as a comment on my blog!

Not much to say

Good morning! Since I once again made it to work before 8.30 (8.15 to be exact) I thought I'd treat you all with an update.

So here's the update.

It's coming...

Hmm what to write.

This plan of updating had so much merit, and looks to be fizzling terribly.

Oh! I could tell you that my finger is sore from playing guitar. I'm quite happy about that, rebuilding the callouses I so diligent grew and maintained a few years ago. And yesterday in a unrelated finger incident when I got to work and took off my gloves I had somehow cut myself and was bleeding everywhere. Now this is unlike me to not feel a cut, normally I feel it then publish the fact to the whole world in search of sympathy, but since this cut had gone unnoticed for a good 10 minutes I could hardly claim I was in agonising pain and demand sympathy for it. So that was a waste of an injury. Though I did get a wee bit of sympathy from Kirsty on Andrew's blog, so that was good.

The weekend was ok. We had Amy and Andrew's going away dinner on Friday night. And Gran made Spanish cream and it was delicious, and Claire made a delicious cake too. And the whole night was very tasty. Then I went to the airport to say goodbye to Andrew in the morning and that was sad. The rest of the weekend was just filled with mucking around, watching Star Wars. I actually was a bit sick, really sore chest and throat and spent most of Saturday in bed. Also I had a three day weekend because Darren got Monday off work so I took it off too and we hung out at the mall pretending to be truancy officers. Actually I don't think he was pretending, he might have just been shopping, but I definitely was pretending in so much as I scowled at each kid I saw in uniform. Hehe.

Anyway:

What I'm reading: Farewell my lovely by Raymond Chandler
What I'm listening to: One Hot Minute by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
What I'm craving: Nothing at all
What I'm looking forward to: Cleaning the kitchen and buying jam (seriously I will feel so much better once the kitchen is clean).


:) See ya

List

As I lay awake at 6.12 this morning I decided to make a list. A list of the things I didn't want to be woken by at 6.10 in the morning. Here's what I came up with:

• My home phone beeping to tell me its battery is running flat

That's all I've got so far. Grrrrr.

In other news I had a lovely dinner at Kirsty and Nick's last night, Andrew, Hamish and Janet were there too (Darren was in Akaroa). Andrew is leaving tomorrow. How sad. Sob sob sob sniff sob sob sniff. If anyone hasn't already done so they can check out his blog by Clicking here or by following the "Don't click here" link, conveniently situated on your right. He's going to give me $5 for every pageload he gets that was referred to by my page (he doesn't know this yet though).

Happy Friday!

SO'S YOUR FACE

I am using the medium of blogging to challenge one Andrew Revell to undertake a task of momentously funny proportions, with a hint of danger and a possibility of being slapped, or maybe spat on. Andrew, your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to say to one person in each country you visit on your European Tour (hehe that makes him sound like a rockstar) "so's your face" in a language that they will understand. This person is not allowed to be a person he is travelling with, and he can skip countries if he is there for less than a day.

To help Andrew complete this task I have sought expert advice and am providing some translations (most translate more directly to "your face is also" which means the same thing).

French: votre visage est aussi
German: Ihr Gesicht ist auch
Spanish: Su cara esta también
Italian: la vostra faccia è anche

NB: If anyone can provide improvements of these translations I will make sure Andrew gets them, and maybe someone knows some other European language, that would also be helpful. BUT no tricking Andrew, if you make him say "so's your monkey" that will not count, it must mean more or less "so's your face".

There is one question left.... Andrew will you accept this challenge?

In other news I decided it was time again to have 6 strings on my electric guitar so I set about changing them. Since I hadn't put a new string on at all since I bought it I decided to change them all.
Now soon after I had begun this task it quickly became apparent I had no idea what I was doing. I basically followed the string to see where to pull it out, ended unscrewing all sorts of bits of my guitar and finally sought expert advice from Darren, who does not play or own a guitar, and this was quite possibly the first time he'd ever touched an electric guitar in his life. He promptly turned the guitar over, unscrewed a panel on the back and had the old strings out. Duh Mindy. Oh well. I managed to put it all back together, with new strings, and I'm hoping when I plug it in it will still sound the same. I comforted by the fact when I put it all back together I had no pieces left over. Anyway that picture is exactly what my guitar looks like, a Squier Strat, not something to be incredibly proud of, but perfect for my needs.

Have a nice day everyone!

:) M

Confetti

Well Amy and I went to see a movie last night. And it was interesting, though not great, but not terrible. Like some movies are still ok but I can't stand to sit through them, but this movie was not so great but easy to sit and watch. Maybe that makes it good. Who knows? Anyway it was called confetti and had Martin Freeman in it, which Amy was so excited about but I didn't know him by name, but he's that guy from hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Love Actually and other movies I can't think of right now. Oh but if you like nudity, there was TONS which I was not expecting. The basic premise was there was a competition for the most original wedding, and there were three finalists and we watched the process of planning their wedding. One of the finalists are naturalists and so most of the time they were in shot they were naked, it was quite beautiful actually... :)

So about this picture I posted. I like posting pictures with my blog and I didn't have anything to post a picture on so I went to google images and typed "random" and this was one I got. I was quite impressed with it actually, maybe I'll do some research and tell you all tomorrow who these little guys are.

I don't have any other news. Darren was away last night. My toe, though not causing agony like it did that first day, does not seem to have improved at all.

Oh yeah I though I'd do one of these because I want to.

What I'm listening to: Stadium Arcadium by the Chili Peppers
What I'm reading: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Food I'm loving right now: Bread!
What I'm feeling: Tired as I slept terribly last night
What I'm craving: To go back to bed!

:)

Very Quickly

I really want to update as I have a lot to say but I also really want to get to work. So I'll try and give myself 3 minutes to update then do work. Damn I used a whole minute getting that picture of a loaf of bread on, which, lets be honest, probably wasn't really worth it.

So anyway I had a great weekend. We went out on Friday night to a party at what turned out to be a cool bar called Rootes, behind Minx on Lichfield Street which I would recommend you have a look at if you like those kind of things. Also we then went to the Mad Cow for a foam party, it was my first one and tons of fun!

Amy is going so so so soon. So is Andrew. How come everyone is leaving me? Is it my personal hygiene? (Hehe kidding I have excellent personal hygiene). Maybe it's nothing to do with me, and it's all about their life and plans and goals. Some people just have all the wrong priorities.

Also the most important thing I had to say was Klava had her baby. Baby Tessa. And she is so gorgeous. I just want to go visit them everyday. We saw her on Friday then Darren let me go back again on Sunday and I got to hold her again and she didn't cry at all. It was great. That was the best thing that happened on Sunday.

Anyway since I spent a whole minute putting the bread on I guess I may as well explain it. Well thanks to Earl I have a new hobby... bread making. And I'm not talking bread machine bread (which is great and fine if you have one) but I'm talking leaving it in the hot water cupboard, kneading it, the whole deal. Last week I was on a quest for the perfect French Stick, and I did not find it, but I made a pretty damn good one, it wasn't the recipe that made as much difference as the process I found. So that was the 2nd best thing that happened on Sunday.

Now bread making is so fun I would encourage you all to try it. Here is a recipe for you all to try (this is the easiest recipe ever and is the one that started it all for me):

1 330ml can of beer
2 2/3 cup of self raising flour (or add 1 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 1/4 tsp baking soda to normal flour)
1 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 170
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl.
3. Add half the beer and stir
4. And the other half of the beer and stir
5. Pour into a well greased loaf pan
6. Bake for 40-50 minutes

Then eat it! It's really yummy.

Ok better go now. Make bread all of you, it's so rewarding!

:)

Toe Update

Well my toe is doing much better, also I've learned to walk on just my heel and the ball of my foot. Thank you to everyone for their kind messages, advice and painkillers. And thanks to my Dad for ringing to apologise for laughing at me.

So today is an exciting day for my friend Klava, she's having her baby. Well she's getting induced... isn't that strange almost like planning what day your baby's birthday is going to be 10th of August is a pretty good date, I think I'd be happy with that if I were a baby. Anyway my thoughts are with her and I'm really hoping everything goes well.

I have terrible news, I missed Aqua Teen Hunger Force last night! For the first time! I'm gutted, but I'm planning on buying the dvds at some point so I guess I'll get to catch up. This is now my favourite program ever, it's great. I might have said this already so sorry if I'm repeating myself, but it's this program about a thing of fries (Frylock), a shake (Master Shake) and some meat (Meatwad) and they do stuff, and it's just fantastic. Truly wonderful :)

AND... there's a movie coming out! I think in September, here's what it's about (apparently): "The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Film for Theatres is an action-adventure epic that tackles the mysterious circumstances that brought Meatwad, Frylock and Master Shake together. An immortal piece of exercise equipment threatens the balance of galactic peace, and it is up to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force to run away from it. Complicating matters, the Plutonians team up with the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future for ultimate control of the deadly device." Doesn't that sound like something you'd want to watch!

Also we watched a really weird old movie on Tuesday - by old I mean 80's which is old to me! The Fly. It was highly recommended at our store and I'd say that's a risky call, I mean I did enjoy it but I'm not sure I'd be in the majority.

Right well work is busy at the moment which is great so I'd better get onto it.

:) M

You are lucky

I was going to post a picture of a little toe with this entry, but I had a look and they were all yucky. If only I had a really good digital camera on hand as my feet are stunning ;)

Well they were until something horrible happened last night. For some reason I was rushing through the lounge, in the dark and a crashed, no, smashed into one of our couches, and totally smushed my little toe. It is so sore, I couldn't believe it. I actually couldn't sleep I was in that much pain. This morning when I woke up it was all purple and puffy, luckily I had an appointment to go to the doctor anyway so while there I showed her my toe and she bandaged it up. She said it's probably cracked, but as it's one of the smaller toes they don't bother with x-rays or anything for them, they just heal themselves. But it hurts so much!!!!!

To add insult to injury (literal injury) as I had been to the doctor I was late for work and there were no car parks, so I had to park ages away! And limp/hobble in agony to work in the rain. Sob sob.

Now I can't run either which sucks. And driving actually hurts a lot too, it's my left foot and pressing down the clutch is horrible. So I've taken to driving everywhere in first. Just kidding.

I know I'm being a wuss, but I don't care.

Also yesterday I bought a random book, but then found out that it is third in a series of 3. Groan. I've found the first book of the series on trademe for $6 so that's good, now just need to track down the second one.

:)

Hello

Isn't this a lovely picture of a freesia. The answer is yes :)

This weekend wasn't so good as the last, though that would be hard as last weekend was so good. I did go to a party at Fenia's house, actually a few of our friends have been holding lingerie etc parties. Just like tupperware parties but selling much more interesting stuff. Although I will admit we probably really need more tupperware at the moment anyway! But yeah it's funny because someone will have a party then someone at the party will decide to hold their own party and it just keeps going like that.

What else happened in the weekend? Well Mum and Dad are making great progress with the house they are doing up. Darren and I are moving in as soon as it's done. It's looking great!

Also I watched Monster's Inc last night and it is a great movie. I'm so glad I bought it all those many years ago when I bought it. Ahhh :)

Also Andrew hasn't updated yet so he sucks! Haha!

Geese this was such a short post, but better it be short than I go on and on filling it up with boring stuff.

Oh I forgot the most important thing, the best part of my weekend! Well Darren and I went to bed at about, hmm, 6pm last night because Mum and Dad bought us an electric blanket so we figured the bed was the warmest place to be. Also neither of us had got around to chopping any wood so the rest of the house was really cold. So anyway I had my lovely cow pjs on and there's this sharp knock at the door. I was a bit worried because I look a bit funny in my cow pjs, and also I didn't have a great explanation as to why I was already wearing them at 7.25pm, so I was just hoping it was someone I know... and it was... it was Lara!!!!! What a lovely surprise. And she had a nice present for me, a just because present. A cool book by Michael Palin.

:)

Sigh

Manners

Hello,

We have a new person here at work that I have been helping a little bit. Now there is something amazing about this guy (if by chance he comes across this blog this is totally complimentary, I applaud you), he has manners. Proper manners. I am talking he stands up everytime me (a female) enters the room. I bet some people these days didn't even know guys were supposed to do that. Now in some circumstances I guess this isn't necessary, like in a movie theatre or a large open-plan office, but I reckon the rest of the time the rest of you just have no excuse. I'm going to start working on Darren. This is going to be a very difficult task but I have perserverence.

Speaking of Darren he's away in Akaroa building was supposed to get home tonight but now is staying another night. Boo hoo. I miss him. It's weird having just me in the house. And having to cook for just me. (But mwaha I've been cooking delicious things like broccoli and mushrooms, but now I'm all out of mushrooms). It's funny because how much you miss someone really depends on your mood I reckon, but also it's harder to be the one who stays behind than the one who goes, because for the one who stays behind they just live their daily life but with something missing, but the one who goes is having totally different experiences to normal. Don't get me wrong I'm not really sad and it's not tradgic or anything, just saying I miss him a bit.

Well that's all from me for today.