h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's a pity that west coasts usually get more rain than the east. I had a friend who grew up in Blackpool and swore that when you sit on the beach holding hands at sunset , the sun should go down over the sea, not over your shoulder, and I think I agree with him in that respect, but west coasts get so much wet weather. I'd move to Oregon if it weren't for the rain... but the is a strong attraction and I haven't completely abandoned the idea

Here's the latest update on the ever-changing temperatures for later this week:
Tuesday night 22/-5.5
Wednesday night 18/-7.8
Thursday night 21/-6.1
Friday night 28/-2.2

I think sitting on the beach holding hands at sunrise is just as romantic

Australia west coast doesn't get more rain than the east...

That's because it's the biggest desert island in the world

I don't think Queenslanders or northwestern Victorians would agree with that description just now, Gosho.

Fair point, well made.

Our maximum temperature today was 81F. In January. That's a warm summer's day as far as I'm concerned.

In a little over 48 hours from now, if the forecasts are accurate, it's going to be 22F. Almost 60°F colder.

Oy vey.

Looks like the worst of the weather this week is going to be during my weekend - Tuesday and Wednesday. Apart from having to go out on Tuesday morning to do my weekly food (and beer) shopping, that's no problem - I need little persuasion to stay indoors and it'll give me a good excuse to do some cooking and keep the place warm with the heat of the oven.

I have to bake bread, I've got a good collection of chicken bones in the freezer just waiting to be turned into stock, and I'm almost at the end of my Christmas cake so it's time to bake a malt loaf I think.

That reminds me, I've still got a left over

They've added snow/sleet flurries into the forecast of Thursday night/Friday morning.

And with a bit of luck my amazon.co.uk DVDs should show up in the next day or two It's been nearly two weeks since I ordered them and I believe that's about the expected delivery time.

Ugh... I need to make an Amazon order. Rather than count my change or take it to the bank, I went the convenient route and took a big bag full to the Krogers' Store. If you redeem them there, they take about 10% out, however, if you opt for a "gift card" you get all of it. So, I've got $126 in Amazon credit I can spend. Now, I just need to make my decisions. I know I want the latest Venture Bro's discs, but what else... I was thinking of holding off just a bit so I could try out purchasing ebooks with my new tablet, but it got delayed yet another two weeks. So... Let's see which movies I want.

Oh, and it might rain today.

Dammit, I just remembered something.

I got rid of my TV (the one that I hadn't actually switched on in about three years) about six months ago, and the multi region DVD player a month or two after that. Then I got a second DVD drive for the PC on the basis that DVD drives let you change the region five times before they lock it in, so I might as well have a region 1 drive and a region 2 because DVD drives cost less than the average night out at the pub.

Then I tried to hook it up to the motherboard.

Despite the fact that this mobo has six SATA connector it came with only five SATA cables I've already got four hard drives and a DVD drive on the PC, and it's simply slipped my mind to get a new connector. If I want to watch my British DVDs I'll have to keep switching the data cable from one drive to the other. Not a huge pain because I leave the side panel off the box anyway, but, y'know. If you're going to make a mobo with six connectors doesn't make sense to...?

And yes, it's supposed to come with five - I checked the manual. They didn't forget to pack one.

If you do decide to get another SATA cable, I highly recommend buying one online as opposed to a local electronic store. The mark-ups on cables are insane.

Yeah, I'm gonna wait until the next time I need something from Newegg.

Looks like I'll be bringing the plants back in tomorrow night. It looks like it might be one of the coldest nights so far this winter for our little area with temps down in the 20's overnight. My pencil plant is doing great, but I think the occasional retreats indoors is making all the leaves drop from my ficus. Probably because I keep it so dark in my apartment.

Right now it's hard to believe I'm going to have to bring them in. This is a balmy summer day, at least as far as London goes... balmy early spring day for Texas. It's in the low to mid 70s, kinda cloudy, a pleasant breeze wafting through the open windows and patio door in my apartment.

I reckon I'd better do my weekly shopping this evening, judging by the forecast for tomorrow morning.

23C or so. Wall to wall blue sky. Very gentle breeze. A cool summer day. Perfect.

I'm sitting here at 9pm with the windows open and a cooling breeze blowing through so I can avoid turning on the a/c. It's bloody warm. I'm sweating. I can't comprehend that this time tomorrow it's going to be bloody cold!

Brought my plants in already... better bring my beer in too

I'm turning the bedroom A/C on tonight. It won't cycle the compressor much, but it is a bit warm for sleeping. It's 74 degrees inside at the moment.

The front came through at about 3am and woke me up with strong winds and rain. Sounded like Armageddon out there I believe we had a gust of 52 mph. That's severe gale 9 on the Beaufort scale. I reckon there must be a few limbs down around town. I know from the news reports that about 4000 homes lost power.

It doesn't feel too cold... yet. I guess the bricks and mortar must still have a good amount of residual heat in them after the warm temperatures of the past few days. I didn't even switch on the heat until I got up. Normally I'll jump out of bed on cold mornings to switch on the heater about 10 or 15 minutes before I actually need to get up cos I can't bear getting out of the shower in the cold

Snow, sleet, snow, sleet, and more snow. It's a winter wonderland. I think I'll go take some pics.

Do you have an online photo album broe? I'd love to see that

I used to, I was looking over my page a little while ago for a link to it but probably it was one of the sites that closed. I haven't posted pics online in years. What did yahoo pics go to, is that one fotki? I might have pics there, don't remember. If I have time later I'll try to find somewhere to post them. Otherwise, they'll be on facebook.