Twelve Days of Christmas

I've been giving this some thought and felt that sometimes the standard annual update might not inspire and truly share the highs and lows of what has been happening in our lives during the past year. So what I decided to do was combine some lists with the Twelve Days of Christmas as my attempt to say Hi, I'm Thinking of You and Wish You the Best for 2005. So ........

Here Goes:

Top 12 Things Katy & I Bought at Garage Sales This Year

1 All our Christmas Presents for the adults for my family (hey, when the budget is 10 bucks please tell me you could go better)
2 Three fake palm trees which are over 2 metres for the inside lounge
3 An iron pot hanger that hangs from a kitchen ceiling
4 Two bright green vinyl lounge chairs which we sprayed the legs purple
5 A full truck load of trinkets from some nice ladies which included an ice bucket that indiana jones would appreciate
6 Several plants which are all alive and doing well
7 Souvenirs from places we haven't been to
8 The bavarian flag and a Sombrero
9 A XXXX stubby holder
10 The boobie lady .... a 3 inch statue that someone's parents bought back from somewhere and has been handed around as an unwanted burden by various family members ..... until we came along
11 Camping gear from a deceased estate sale (hooray for hoarding old men with large garages)
12 20 weeks of fun and hours of meeting interesting people whilst going through all their stuff

Top 11 Dogs at Our Dog Park

1 Tamale (our wonderful greyhound with the Monty Burns overbite and sweet sweet demeanor)
2 Turtle (Tamale just hugs her ... alright, hope you don't have a problem with that)
3 Pikey (something like Tamale's little brother that she loves but annoys
her)
4 Bessie (The wrinkly dog with a lisp)
5 Thistle (Frustrated Sheepdog that can not explain why all the other dogs can't be herded)
6 Midget (little dog, big attitude)
7 Minnie (not always sure what is going on but loves noisy toys)
8 Ziggy (old dog, young heart)
9 Jack (poor jack has health problems, but a worthy inclusion) 10 Helmet (a little terrier and a real pistol)
11 Willie (one of the fluffies, small dogs that Tamale really likes cause they remind her of racing lures)

We had a great night during November ... all the parents (of dogs) got together and went to a chinese restaurant for some duck .... jack's dad organised a maxi-taxi which roamed the streets of our suburb collecting all to get there and home safely

Top Ten Songs of 2004 (In my opinion)

1 Float On - Modest Mouse
2 What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani
3 Common People - William Shatner & Joe Jackson
4 Where Is the Love? - Black Eyed Peas & Justin Timberlake
5 Breathe (2AM) Anna Nalick
6 Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters
7 Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
8 Somebody Told Me - The Killers
9 Look What You've Done - Jet
10 The Reason - Hoobastank

Top 9 Things I like about my job

9 things ... you got to be kidding .... but the people are nice .... well two of them are and we have been around to their place bb-cue'n and out for dinner ... even camping in a week or so ...me ...imagine me, socialising so much ... must be katy's charm, i just do the introductions


Top 8 things we did with Clare and Andrew

1 Created cool bedrooms (one each) including japanese futon from a ......
garage sale (good guess)
2 Splashed around in the lakes at Fraser Island
3 Hung out at a Gold Coast Hotel with a humungous pool while I ran the marathon
4 We rode the Spooky Coaster and Lethal Weapon at Movie World
5 Got waterlogged in the pool (in our place, although pool maintenance is not a favourite subject)
6 Were dazzled by their report cards
7 Enjoyed the stories of their Little Athletic triumphs
8 Dined on Clare's lasagna

Top 7 Highlights of 2004

1 Dad's 70th at the German Restaurant with the world's largest cuckoo clock
2 Katy aced her exams and completed her post grad certificate in ants, frogs and gooberblobs
3 Michael Longs walk to meet Howard (putting indigenous australians back on the agenda)
4 Shopping at the markets for the fresh local produce each Sunday morning
5 Surviving the Gold Coast Marathon
6 The creation of Katy's mosaic table
7 Eating breakfast outside in the tiki lounge (outdoor furniture collected from the curbside collections, splashed with colourful paint and accompanied by an odd assortment of tribal artifacts and succulent plants)

Top 6 Dishes we cooked this year

1 Sushi (I made Sushi and it worked)
2 A variety of sir fry dishes with bok choy, honey and soy tofu, pine nuts, jasmine rice and a wok full of flavour
3 Sunday brunch eaten in the tiki lounge including houverderos
4 Fresh pesto this basil leaves picked from our own herb plot
5 Katy's ice-cream, especially the pink mint choc chip
6 Cookies .... yes Katy bakes home-made cookies ..... how good is that .....
and it's not even on her resume

Top 5 Reasons for moving to Brisbane

1 The weather
2 We have a better chance of getting visitors if they want to come to the best place on earth
3 The Brisbane River and Southbank for runs, driving along and funky markets
4 Did I mention the weather?
5 We can go the Gold Coast EVERY Weekend when the rest of Australia plan their whole year for a short vacation to the same place

Top 4 Lowlights of 2004

1 Where's our dream home? ... we paid out $10 deposit but they forgot to draw our name
2 Moving house on the hottest days that have ever been recorded
3 Katy's injury to her shin whilst completing the Bridge to Brisbane run
4 Seeing the movies Bad Santa and Garfield ... although the company was good

Top 3 Restaurants

1 Sombreros (only authentic Mexican in town)
2 Pancho's (bay bread, best pizza, worst service)
3 Cafe Venice (throw a rubber band on your lamb shank and waddle out stuffed with the free cake and coffee)

Top 2 Things to Look Forward to in 2005

1 Our honeymoon in Thailand which includes a marathon, massage, cooking classes, night markets, hill tribes, elephants and tigers
2 More adventures and unplanned fun

Number 1 Hit of 2004

1 Tamale's Song

(to the tune of 1 little, 2 little, 3 little Indians ...)

I'm a little dog my name's Tamale,
If I rode a motor bike it wouldn't be a Harley, If you thought I was brave, (pause) I'd have to say "hardly", I'm Tamale, I'm a wuss, Wuss, wuss, wuss, Tamale Puss.

.....

If you get the time, drop us a line,
It doesn't have to rhyme,
Cause that's just too much hard work