Anyway, we went to mum's for dinner, and my sister recounted an entertaining tale from New Year's Eve. Goes a little like this:

Mum decides that she wants to ring me up at midnight to wish me a Happy New Year. Mum has been drinking, thanks to Matt's generosity in bringing a bottle of Bailey's over. So she picks up the television remote control and tries to dial my phone number into it.

From all accounts, mum got a bit confused at this point, as she couldn't see the numbers coming up on the little screen anywhere.

Mum: What's wrong with this thing?

Sis: Mum, that's the remote.

I dunno... the last time I remember mum getting drunk, she danced on the table in the back yard. Lucky she doesn't drink often.

I bought a digital camera yesterday. I've been wanting one for ages, and I finally decided to fork over the money and get one. It seems to be pretty good (criteria for a good camera: shiny, makes cute noises, lots of functions I don't understand), and I can't wait to get out there and photograph the pointless moments in my life.

I remember seeing this sign recently, on the median strip on the Kingsway in Cronulla. It was hand-written on a piece of white corflute in black texta, and all it said was "PRAY". In slightly messy letters. I really thought it was odd but intriguing, and wished I could have taken a picture.

I also remember a couple of months ago, this sign outside a church. It was about Armageddon, full of doom, and I wanted to get a picture of that, too, because usually churches have signs that say "Jesus loves you" or "God is good". This one really stood out.

Now I have the means.

I only wish I had some way of getting the photos from my camera to my journal, but the thing is, this would involve buying a new computer. Believe me... it really would.

I'll try to figure something out, but for now I will just describe the first ever photos I took with my new toy, in all their majesty.

1. My pyjama-ed knees in the foreground; the coffee table, TV and bookcase on a diagonal in the background.

2. Same thing, but without my knees in it, and slightly less crooked.

3. Corner of the room where the dining table is, showing the newly-painted purplish-brownish-plumish wall where it joins the sandy-tannish wall.

4. Daniel emerging from the shower. I kept it PG-rated by aiming only for the upper half of his body. He saw the camera and did the criminal-being-led-to-court thing, kind of hunching away from the lens and wincing.

5. He wandered naked into the bedroom to get some clothes out of the wardrobe, and at this point I thought, bugger the PG rating, and pointed the camera straight at his pasty white arse.

I then held up the little screen and said "see? I *told* you you had a nice arse." I can only imagine how disturbing it must be to see your own naked butt on someone else's camera screen.

Obviously I have deleted these photos. I can just imagine what would happen if I forgot, most likely I'd be showing off our new toy to our parents and then, BAM! Snow blindness for all.

I guess I don't have anything meaningful to say.

I did make a caramel slice yesterday, and I just had some of it. I love how easy it is to make a caramel slice. Basically you just combine a whole heap of really unhealthy ingredients and put them in the oven for a little while.

I got a phone call from Daniel this morning. He said:

"I just got a phone call from dad."

My first thought was, oh God, who died? So I cautiously said, "what did he have to say?"

"My parents are going to the cricket tonight, so they won't be home and we aren't having dinner with them."

We have dinner there every Friday night, but we had been discussing not going this week, as we've spent a lot of time over there lately.

"Well... that works out pretty neatly."

"Yes, I thought so. They also said that they're going to be staying at some hotel in town afterwards so they won't be home until tomorrow. I was thinking that we could go over to their place and enjoy their air conditioning and massive TV screen while they're out."

"You're such a romantic. You sure know how to make a girl feel special."

He laughed. I don't really mind going over there, though I think I'd rather just stay home. There's no need for air conditioning in this weather, and I can live without a huge TV for the night. Plus, since we hosted New Year's Eve and everybody brought over booze, we're stocked up on beer for months.

Oh, I also bought V's wedding present yesterday. I love gift registries, they're such a good idea and they make life so easy. When A. got married she didn't have a registry because she felt that it would make people feel obliged to spend a certain amount of money. Despite the fact that we all said "please, PLEASE just tell us what you want! What do you guys NEED?" all she said was, "well, we don't need any bath towels."

How is that supposed to help?!

Anyway, I need to pay the phone bill and do some homework.