Trying to unravel the secrets to success

This past week was a much better one for me. It seems my mood is directly related to my productivity on my thesis. The more productive I am, the better my mood. Being productive on a project that is completely self-guided and has a deadline of some time in 2011 is no easy feat, and it's something I'm constantly struggling with. Whenever I have good days or (even better) a good week, I review it carefully to try and figure out the ingredients for a successful week. So far, to-do lists that include even the most mundane tasks written out every morning, breaking things down into small chunks with deadlines, and cappuccinos during the afternoon slump all seem to help, but are no guarantees. Any tips for me? ...send them on!

Enough about my thesis.... Vic and I recently came to the realization that our free babysitters (i.e., my parents) are not going to be here forever, and that we had better go out and enjoy some kid-free time while we can. Saturday night, we went to see a movie under the stars at Centennial Park. It was great, we packed a picnic of Tasmanian double-cream brie, a baguette, olives and a bottle of wine, and we drank and ate while we waited for the movie to start. It may have been the effects of the wine, but we enjoyed our night out so much, we decided to go back to Centennial Park the very next day with Gus and my parents for a picnic in the park.

Sunday, we returned with family in tow, along with prawns, a salad, and more olives, cheese, bread and more wine. After demolishing the food and wine, my mom had to lay down on a picnic blanket to recover from the wine and my dad and I spent some time debating the whole Israel situation. Uncharacteristically, Vic was not interested in joining the debate, so he and Gus kicked the soccer ball around. This is what normal families do, right? We ended the picnic with a walk around the park.

The yummy prawns we ate:


Some of the wildlife we spotted along our walk.

More wildlife, I think maybe it's a parrot? I recently read someone else's blog, and one of their new year's resolutions was to try to worry less and to be as happy as a bird with a french fry. This parrot reminded me of that very lofty resolution.

Gus laughing.

Gus making faces.

Gus getting tired of me snapping pictures of him.