Pool, beef and sausage on the barbie*, MP&HolyGrail, Sims, Insomnia

* No, they called it a barbecue. ;)

Late afternoon, Jillian and Oscar came over to bask in the A/C and go for a swim; after we frolicked in the somewhat crowded pool for a good while--and it got cooler** out--we biked back towards their house for a barbecue, stopping along the way to pick up some meat. Set up for the BBQ--which was not on a grill, as it was more griddle-like, a large flat propane-heated cooking surface, no lid, cleaned with hot vinegar before using--to cook sausage and some hamburger patties that had another name which I've forgotten, eaten without buns rissoles, along with beer, soda, juice, crackers (biscuits! or crispbread!), cheese, etc. Their friend Alex arrived, as well as (Evil) Steve, and a grand old time was had, followed by a watching of Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Jillian went off to work, Alex and I chatted about aircraft (simulated, real, plastic, R/C) while Oscar coached Brooke through starting to play The Sims; after Alex left I watched that for a while--entertaining, but not a game I'd hold an interest in.

** It got up to about 35ºC (95ºF) here early in the afternoon, while they had a friend out in Hay where it was 44ºC (111ºF) at 6pm yesterday!

Messaged a coworker earlier and verified No Work 'til Monday, so I'll go to Insomnia for a while. :)

First call from home!

I got a message from Shauna at 1309 (2109 EST) saying "if you wanna call in the next hour or so, phill and sarah and tucker and people are here." My computer responded with "Mm, sleep. Tasty tasty sleep."

I actually got up around 1530 (2330 EST), noted this message, lamented my low cell phone credit and $1.54/min rate direct-dialing from the room, and pondered what to do.

At 1541, I got a "call NOW if you want to talk to phill before he goes," explain the above and that they should try to call me instead, so they try.. and try, as Phill is really having to leave, and so he IMs me and says he'll try from home. They discover (after talking to an international operator) that you have to drop the 0 off of the city code (thus making Australian numbers anywhere from 6-10 digits depending where you're calling from/to), so I got a call, and chatted with mom, Shauna, Sarah, Phill, Shauna again, and mom again, not in that order. (Since Shauna was all sick and stuff on New Year's, and since there were mountains of food left over from a couple recent extended-family gatherings, mom told Shauna she should have a friend-gathering at the house, and she was more than happy to oblige. :) Other people present were Phill, Tucker, and several other people I don't know as well, like Andrew McAlpine and Elly. :)

My first call from home! How nice. :) (Now, they just get to check the phone bill and see how much it cost them. ;) (Come to think of it, given that I can get fantastically cheap rates AU-US from a phone card, they could probably do the same in reverse.)

Photo software problem, pool

After setting up Gallery Remote on my computer, and then installing ImageMagick so it could resize prior to uploading, I tried offloading the new photos off of my camera.. only to find that Nikon View would hang while trying to transfer the files if initiated from the computer, and crash if initiated from the camera--despite working fine two or three times before. Finding nothing in Help--offline or online--I'm downloading the 45MB new release of the Nikon View software in hopes that that will help. (I could try reinstalling from the CD, or use iPhoto, but I figure I'll try the new release of the intended software first.)

Shortly after that Jillian and Oscar came over to pick up her driver license, which I'd realized was in my pocket (rather than have it fall out of hers after leaving Insomnia), and they invited me to join them and go play pool. Off to North we went, only to find it closed, so we walked back to the Civic Pub, where my coworkers had been but I had not. Nice place--good layout, at least 20 pool tables, a music-video-jukebox--and we played a few rounds, wherein Oscar or I won most (if not all) of them. :)

And now, back home, where my download is 20MB done. Work again tomorrow, after a nice relaxing break. :)

Update, 22:26: Submitted questions to Nikon Tech Support for both the non-transfer issue and the previous "can only transfer all photos, not just select ones" issue. Almost 25MB downloaded!