words were passed in a shotgun blast

Feb 26: person in chute??

Feb 25: "I tell everyone I'm a legal secretary"

Feb 24: Zanne is an early riser. her pre-dawn life involves photographing the sunrise and showing me the pics hours later when I'm finally up. this is quite the sunrise eh?

Feb 23: a gift from my Ma - radical gumboots!
Shan

Tagged!

Woot! We've been tagged! Our fave new daddies at It's Daddies, Plural tagged us (thanks gents and Kensi) and now we're excited to tag it forward.

The rules for this award:
1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Scrap.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

Right-e-o, here's our 10 honest things:

Zanne: I want to get married in sneakers in the snow.

Shan: I paint sometimes, and screenprint t-shirts.

Zanne: I always seem to pay bills late. Not too late, but they’re never early/on time. I think this is a small part of me rebelling against ‘the man’.

Shan: I quote lyrics in conversation. I can’t help it, I love music.

Zanne: For the first 5 months that we dated I sent Shan a new song every weekday so I could tell her how much I liked her without having to tell her, myself, how much I actually liked her.

Shan: Travelling solo for 2 years is my greatest achievement so far. I set a goal, I worked hard, I funded it all myself. I am now confident and independent and know I can achieve that which I set my mind to. I now know myself and I attribute this to my experiences overseas - the good ones, and the bad ones.

Zanne: I love volunteering on the Brisbane Pride Festival organizing committee.

Shan: I study an undergraduate degree externally. Ever the over-achiever, I’m terrified of a fail.
Zanne: I got a video camera for my birthday and have secret dreams to be a youtube sensation.

Shan: Home is where your heart is and my heart is in Vancouver. I can’t wait to return in August and I have high hopes that Zanne and I will stay there for a few years.

7 Blogs we read on a regular basis, and think you should too:
It's Daddies, Plural

Girl's Gone Child

Dooce

blankanvas

2 moms with a plan

Grunt n Squeak

Dorothy Surrenders

I went to the Valley and I saw...

I went to the Valley and I saw... two of the Valley’s finest ladies getting into fisticuffs in front of the food court entrance. This is nothing new, there are drunken disputes here constantly. But what was interesting was the 6 or so suits standing close by with smirks on their faces and hands in their pockets making no move to break up the fight. If it’s guys fighting no one stops, to stare or intervene, but as it was two women (as sadly decrepit as they were) the suits of the Valley found it appropriate to stop, stare and smile in a way that said they were secretly hoping the show would continue. Pricks.

new job: new people to come out to

I came out to my supervisor yesterday. It all began with one of those “girlfriend” or “girlfriend” moments. The conversation was fine, I could chat about Zanne all day long, but I do wonder: If I was straight would I be answering questions about my family’s thoughts on my relationship at the mere mention of my partner?

- Shan

Cute as a Noah

I think the phrase "cute as a button" should be re-phrased as "cute as a noah" because this kid breaks all cute rules, pushes all cute boundaries and and makes puppies look like poopies.

We babysat on Saturday morning and the mornings always go too fast when Noah's around. Here we are playing horsey rides. I was the horse and Noah was the cowbaby.

Then we played with Aunty Shan's sunnies. He can see them..

but they keep moving further away...
his expression was like - "say what?!"this is why he's a champ. he sees what he wants and he goes for it.
and just in case you weren't convinced of his cuteness - I give you this:
You're welcome.

me and Suzie had so much fun

Feb 22: a post-breakfast 7-11 slurpie - Milena, Cassie and Zanne

Feb 21: napping - Zanne and our nephew Noah

Feb 20: our peeps Tarquin and Kelly - we had dinner at Garuvas, a restaurant where you eat sitting on the floor, surrounded by curtains
Shan

Ass. Prices

Today we went to the Valley and we saw... books advertised for the price of ass.

Hit on by a chicken breast named Pat

Yesterday morning as I was preparing to make lunch, I unwrapped a chicken breast from its butcher's paper and a small slither of paper fell out. it read "Pat - 0406 *** 719" in awkward teenage boy handwriting. I giggled.

When Shan woke up I was quick to show her how cute I thought it was that I'd now been hit on through a chicken breast medium. Shan's reaction: "But you were all sweaty! and you're gay!" And she's right - on both counts. We'd just done a 45 minute spin class at the gym so I was wearing my gym shorts and a t-shirt, my face was still a bit red and my hair was all side-parted and flat from wearing a sweatband (yes, I am that person). Plus, I'm a short-haired, boy's t-shirt wearing, rainbow flag carrying lesbian! Obviously this is what teenage boys are after these days because Pat from Woolworths at Spring Hill was keen and I have his number on my fridge to prove it!

white girls can't jump with their feet together

Feb 19: my Valentines Day flowers are still going strong *smiles*

Feb 18: not quite a Guinness skyline - Milton's own XXXX version
Shan

an interesting and recurring cast of characters

The day-to-day life of me involves a regular "ride to work and go to the gym" routine. The two excursions have come to reveal an interesting and recurring cast of characters…

Riding to work I see:

The lawyer-looking muscle man who struts along chewing gum and wearing a bandana
The shirtless old bike riding man with saggy pecs
The unicycle guy
The guy who looks like my friend Travis
The guy who rides with his infant son sitting in a little seat on the crossbar of his bike (like a joey in a pouch – it is so sweet!)

At the gym I see:

The Great Wall of China Marathon woman who is so skinny she makes me feel uncomfortable
The ladies man RPM trainer who always plays to a packed house

I see these people almost every day and they have become familiar to me (in their particular settings), even though we don’t know each other. It makes me wonder whether we are all an interesting and recurring character in the day-to-day life of someone?

- Shan

40 days and 185 nights

From today there is:

* 40 days until we both get new tattoos. I'm getting a small one on the back of my arm. Shan is getting a half sleeve. Yeah ok, I know she's way tougher than me. 

* 185 nights until we leave for Canada. Put your party pants on Vancouver!

an ergonomic assessment for a mouse pad?!

Feb 17: Brisbane's own Eiffel Tower - Park Road, Milton

Feb 16: I ordered a dress on ebay and it arrived today all gift-like. aw!


Shan

Awesome blog, average haircut

You may have noticed the new layout and name of our blog. As the weeks have gone by and our blog has taken shape it quickly moved beyond me and my musings and became very much about our life as a couple. The Shazanne Show is the name I've been using on youtube and it seemed more appropriate for our blog as it is now, since it is all about us!

We got the brill idea for the background change from Two Moms With A Plan (thanks muchly!) and Shan made the header herself using nothing but pictures of us, the Paint program and a her ability to make the most bland objects beautiful - a trait I absolutely adore.

But, as one thing that was drab becomes fab another that was fab becomes drab - neat segue to talk about my new haircut. We get our hair cut by a guy who lives in our complex, will come to our house and only charges $30 each. He's a great guy who works as a senior hairdresser but does our hair outside of work, which is why I've kind of put up with the hit and miss haircuts. And this one is definitely a miss. Now I understand that maybe I wasn't very clear with him when I said "just kinda do the same as last time but go shorter". He got the short right, but it's nothing like it was before. There's no style and it's just short. Before, I could get out of the shower, shake my head and if I was feeling lazy just put some product in it and it would look fine. But now - no. I know, hair's hair and it will grow out but when it's this short and I have only two ways to wear it, and then only one after a bad cut - it sucks!

Ok enough griping...

Shan and I had another wonderful weekend. After the craze that was Christmas/NY/Holiday/Birthday we've settled into a quieter routine of spending time alone on the weekend to save money and just to hang out with each other. With me being a morning person, and Shan a night-lover we don't really have a lot of quality time together during the week so we've come to love spending at least one day on the weekend just doing our own thing - breakfast at Fatboys, vegie shopping at the markets, Will & Grace marathons (I kinda enjoy this one a lot more than Shanny). As Saturday was V Day and our 8 month anniversary we had a really cool day planned - and then it rained. We still went for breakfast with our awesome friends Cassie and Melina, but tandem biking in the botanical gardens turned into a nap and surfing the internet, and later in the evening the Moonlight Cinema became watching the final episode of season 5 of The L Word. Turns out that being wrapped up in a blanket under the aircon on a rainy Saturday is actually the perfect way to spend Valentines Day.

Here are the dozen roses (chocolates) that Shan gave me :)

On Sunday we hung out with Shan's brother and baby nephew Noah - a cuter kid you've never met! And I have nephews of my own! Even with the flu he was happy to play all afternoon.

Post-family bbq we went to Cassie and Milena's for dinner and to check out their new décor courtesy of their Grandma who's selling her house and giving away her furniture. Their dog Rufus is totally cute but apparently has a behavioral problem that only affects like 5% of his breed which makes him a little crazy. The girls say it's like having a kid with ADD - they're hyper but you love them.

oh hey Britney

Feb 15: my nephew Noah - hands at 10 and 2

Feb 14: Happy Valentines Day (look closely)
Shan

the black friday that was all pink

Feb 13: an early Valentine's Day gift for my love

Feb 12: continuing to make my workmates jealous with another fabulous Zanne-made lunch

Feb 11: the day the trains broke down.

here's everyone waiting for buses outside the Valley's finest (adult) establishments
Shan

We went to the Valley and we saw..

Ok so it technically wasn't the Valley, we were at New Farm Park having a late afternoon picnic and were playing a little game called 'pick the gays'. You see, when you see two guys and a baby or two women and a dog in New Farm Park it's like a 50% chance they're gay and it's often hard to tell. So when this cute, well dressed boy and girl came trotting along with a dog each I said 'straight but metro' and Shan called 'gay'. I was trying to convince Shan that he was straight when he ran past with a white poodle and yelled to his friend, a little too gleefully, -"My dog matches my shirt!"... yeah, totally gay.

travel on the left

Feb 10: Zanne (the pre-workout version)

Feb 9: a wall at work I like to call the Vajayjay Wall
Shan

true tears of joy

Feb 8: me outside "my" buildings (look closely)

Feb 7: Zanne posing outside an interestingly named local hair salon

Feb 6: another Friday night, another visit to our (only) local LGBT video store
Shan

We went to the Valley and we saw...

Today, we went to the Valley and we saw... a crappy car parked illegally out the front of our apartment building with a parking ticket on the windshield, a bottle of water on the roof and a sausage roll thoughtfully left in the door handle.

i adore you. i adore you.

Feb 5: I'm not sure why this is my new favourite intersection?

Feb 4: My favourite gig ever! Ani Difranco at the Tivoli, Brisbane (photo by our friend Kristen)Shan

I went to the Valley and I saw...

There's that game that you play during long drives and long drinking sessions where you say: "I went to the shop and I bought..." and you go in circles with each person saying what they bought, addding to a list that you have to repeat before adding another item.

Well I'm starting a new game of a similar fashion. It's called "I went to the Valley and I saw..."

Today, I went to the Valley and I saw... A man walking around with a snake. A real, live, 3 foot long carpet snake that he pulled out of a backpack. What the shiz?!

I've got a bell and I'm not afraid to use it

Feb 3: toilet humour

Feb 2: mmm Cold Rock icecream (always cookies and cream with cookie dough for Zanne)

Shan

A marketer's dream

For lunch today I went to the little supermarket near my office to get some chicken for my pasta. It turns out today is "market day" in the supermarket so all the staff were dressed like farmers and the shop was covered in country paraphernalia. I don't know if it was the flannel shirts or the cowboy hats but I was totally caught up in the whole thing and walked around grinning on the inside (and sometimes on the outside) and left the store with two bags of fruit and vegetables that I hadn't planned to buy.

For someone who works in PR and marketing I thought I was immune to cheap ploys but apparently no. No I'm not. I was completely sucked in and now wish every supermarket had dress-up days.

smiling

Feb 1: Zanne made the most awesome breakfast!

Jan 31: Zanne and my nephew Noah watching the playback (so cute!)
Shan

GFD or CEC?

I haven't decided if I prefer 'Global Financial Downturn' or 'Current Economic Crisis'. Both are disgustingly pessimistic and overwhelmingly depressing which is why I'm now only using their abbreviations - GFD or CEC.

It's the story of every person's life right now isn't it? if you haven't been affected yet, when will you be? Unless you're comfortably employed in a government agency the country will just never do without, then it's almost certain you're going to be affected soon enough.

Six months ago our life was going along swimmingly. We were working, saving and looking forward to moving to Vancouver with a sack full o' cash and hundreds of prospective jobs. Then Shan got made redundant in November last year. She was working at a legal firm as a secretary and due to work slowing down they had to let a secretary and a lawyer go. She was kind enough to let them know she'd be going travelling again when she started there and that was enough of a reason for them to choose her over the other girls, oh and she earnt more. When she left we didn't think much of it. We thought she'd take a few weeks off and then just take one of the many secretary jobs that had been available in the months before. So Shanny took a much needed break and then went back to job hunting. Then nothing. Combine the GFD/CEC with the impending Christmas period and even the many reruitment agencies were saying there wasn't anything available right away. So we decided not to worry about it til after Christmas.

During the Christmas break my friend Sharon told Shan about a job which had come up at the Teacher's Union where she was working and encouraged her to apply for it. Which she did and thanks to her superior skills she was offered a permanent job. It's better pay, better conditions, she can ride to work and she gets a 9 day fortnight. me jealous much? yu-huh!

So then it was my turn. About 2 days before Shan was offered the new job my work became very unstable. I work in PR and up until recently most of our clients were travel and property related and when those two industries had dibilitating strokes last year we suddenly went from raging to limp. I've been at my current job for over a year, since arriving home from London, and have seen a complete turnover of staff so they were kind enough to offer me a few options rather than just hand over a redundancy right away. I came home and joked with Shan about how funny it would be if she were to get a job right as I lost mine. She didn't think it was funny at all.

But then Shan did get the job and I worked out with my job that I would stay on, get paid less until we were making more, and then get reimbursed for all the time I've worked and not been paid for. OR give it a month, re-evaluate and take a redundancy then. I still spoke to a few recruitment companies who, six months ago would have 5 jobs I could take, told me if I left now I'd be waiting in a line. So I have to wait it out and hope for the best.

The fearful thing is, even if we do stay employed, save lots of money and really do make it to Vancouver - what if we get there and can't find work? What if we can't find work, run out of money and come home only to find we can't get work here either? It's really scary and really worrying and for me personally I think I'll feel like a bit of a failure if I can't support my family especially if we want to start having little Shazanne's in a few years. But for now I'm going to try avoiding that with more education and just working hard and trying to keep things as stable as possible for as long as the GFD/CEC will let me. Damn you money.

Nacho Sunday

Shanny said I'm not allowed to have nachos until I blog. So here I am. Nacho Sunday is a little ritual of ours. It started right after we moved in together and has become our favourite time of the week. Nacho Sunday is the last thing we do on a weekend. After we've visited our families, hung out with friends, done the shopping and cleaned the house we buy all the ingredients and settle in for the night with a big plate of delicious nachos. Shanny gets all the ingredients ready and I cook it up. We put on a movie, sit on the floor and eat the most delectable meal in the whole world and then settle back with our bulging stomachs and talk about how much we love Nacho Sunday.

Here is a picture of our very first Nacho Sunday. My hair was so short then!

Yesterday my baby nephew Jimmy turned two. I wasn't in the country when he was born so it's nice to be able to share a few important times with him. My sister has 4 boys, him being the youngest and I have to say, most cute. With his curly strawberry blonde hair and big brown eyes he looks like a little doll. This is Jimmy with my Ma.

After Jimmy's party we swapped my family for Shan's and took her baby nephew Noah and her sister-in-law to Sizzler. I have to say, Sizzler has changed quite a bit since the last time i went and the food was actually pretty good this time. Or maybe it was just the company. Noah is by far the cutest 9 month old in the ENTIRE world. He was enamored with the salad bar and kept wanting to touch the ice. Here's his reaction to it:

until next Nacho Sunday :)