Back in the US of A

Howdy y'all. Before I get onto this post I should let you know that my Aussie phone doesn't work while I'm here in the US so I'm missing any calls or texts. However, both our old US mobile numbers still work. Email me if you need them.

Ok, back to your regular programming...

A quick post with a few notes I threw together on re-entering America. I had a great trip over mostly because it wasn't a full flight and I got my upgrade.

Premium economy was awesome (Qantas). Not a whole lot more room but room in all the right places and it reduced the whole press of humanity feeling that you get in economy. Of course that was helped by the fact that I was in a row of two and had no one sitting next to me :) I ate dinner, drank more whisky than was good for me thanks to the awesome Jules (my new flight attendant friend) and watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader which was so-so but filled in the time. Then I popped a melatonin (around 9pm destination time) and snuffled round to find a comfy sleeping spot in the hope of at least dozing for a few hour. I surfaced a few times but figured I'd only been out an hour or so. The next thing I know there's a PA call asking for a doctor and I checked the flight path to see 2.5 hours remaining! I was positive it had to be wrong, I've never slept that well on a flight! There was just enough time left to eat breakfast, fill out my customs forms and watch an episode of Big Bang Theory before we were packing up for landing.

Some notes on re-entering the US:

• Why is it that Immigration always makes me forget which is my right hand?? Also, apparently I have sucky hands for fingerprinting.
• I should stop ticking the customs box for food when I only have candy but I just can't, it doesn't feel right...
• LA smells faintly of poo. This is always my quickly forgotten impression on walking out those doors.
• Iced tea is as good as I remember. Why can't we make good iced tea in Oz? And i remembered to ask for unsweet which makes me proud of myself even after forgetting which hand was which.
• A 6 hour layover in LA is waaay overkill.
• Sorry to harp on but iced tea really is something Australia should get the hang of. For me iced tea should be unsweet and black with a wedge of lemon, not that fruity sugary stuff. It is wonderful!
• I like shrimp. I like coconut. I do not like coconut shrimp. 
• I really shouldn't go to chain seafood 'restaurants' for breakfast, especially not in airports!
• Toilet bowls full of water...seriously? Does the tide really need to be that high? And how come I never manage to remember that little quirk until I go and stick my bally hand in there?

Americans are generally really nice people. There is a noticeable difference between sitting around among my fellow humans in the crowded backend of LAX compared with, say, the crowded backend of Melbourne airport. Australians go to a lot of effort to ignore their fellow man whereas Americans will strike up a conversation, and usually it isn't is a creepy way, just friendly. There's a huge difference between the two behaviors and to me, Australians just seem so suspicious; which is odd when we pride ourselves on our 'g'day mate' attitude... but I think you only get that after you prove yourself to be a mate.

Border protection/customs/immigration don't count under the above but that's ok, they have an important job to do and as a nervous flyer anyway I totally appreciate what they do. Some of them even manage to smile. Never the ones I get mind you...

The other odd thing I've realised is that I have lost my ability to clearly distinguish American from Australian in almost all aspects (other than building and car construction which are both uniquely different). I used to be able to scan faces while we boarded the flight to LA and pick out who was an Aussie and who was from the US just by facial structures and gestures. Now both are so normal to me that I have totally lost that ability. The faces, the language, the brands... Everything from both worlds feels so normal to me now. I'm even having trouble picking accents, well at least I thought I was until I chatted to my beloved on skype and realized how broad her Aussie accent has become. Mine must have too because people here who used to understand me just fine are now cocking their heads and looking puzzled whenever I talk.

Anyhow, I'm in Texas now after a week in Portland. I can't post pics until I find some way to get them off the card. Tomorrow is my first day back at my old workplace AND my birthday so a good combo really.

It has just been pointed out to me that it is officially my birthday in Oz so happy birthday to me...

"Happy Me Birthday!"

We did it, we survived hosting a birthday party for our two year old. TWO! Can you believe it?? It seems like almost no time has passed since we were driving to the hospital in San Antonio with a bag full of sugary snacks and tiny clothes and that moment when we finally met our purple eyed boy.

I'll keep this short and sweet but a huge thank you to everyone who sent cards, packages, messages and love, and to everyone who managed to swing by and join in the chaos today. Marty has had an awesome birthday!

Jo and I spent last night baking slab cakes and cup cakes and since baking has never been our forte I don't think we did too badly on the cake front! We had to make up the design... When we were working out what to make Marty for his 'two cake' and both of us quickly realised that is had to be a cockatoo. He has been obsessed with cockatoos every since a horde of 16 or more black cockatoos descended into out garden and completely stripped all the nuts off the hakea. Marty was entranced and kept wanting to rush out and help them by picking up the ones they dropped in case they missed some. He hasn't stopped talking about the even and since he calls them "tooos" we figured it was a good match for the cake. Black not such a good match so we went for the good old white cockatoo.

Not to bad for a design that came from an internet line drawing and my head. The beloved made a practice cake during the week because she could and I also think because she wasn't entirely convinced that I could cut the shape we needed out of a cake! Pffft... I has knife skills (although I do not want to see another banana lolly for a LONG time).

We also made slightly odd looking mini cockatoo cupcakes so the kids could have some cake without us having to hack into the main one which would a) either upset Roo or b) mean that those coming late would miss seeing it. We probably should have thought more about the construction of these rather than winging it 5 minutes before people arrived...

Of course we over-catered a little on party food but not too badly. The Roo had an awesome day even thought he started it at 5am (his choice) and managed to fall off a chair and smack his head on the table leg just before people arrived. Poor little mite. He was so exhausted by the afternoon that he went down for a nap in the middle of the chaos.

This was by far the most unusual gift he received, but given his well known love of cheese (a story for another time perhaps) it was totally appropriate and very well received.

He's been a bit train obsessed of late (thanks Papa) so I'm glad we somehow didn't managed to give him his Christmas present last year because today was really the perfect time for it. A Brio starter trainset with its own tunnel (tunnels are another obsession, as are train crashes).

One more day of crazy packing, hair cutting and leg waxing tomorrow then I'm off to the States at sparrowfart on Monday. I'm going to miss my family (not to mention all those new toys...)

In the bleak midwinter

Winter kind on snuck up on us this year, on account of it having started in early May instead of around now. Now, however... now we really know it is winter! The mountain is covered in snow, down to 200m for those of you who care about these things, and the temps for the weekend are staying in the single digits (Celsius that is). Those two things would be fine on their own, but when you combine them with 50km/h winds of pure icy nastiness it is just darned unpleasant! I have spent this week sitting at my work desk in thermals, my windbreaker AND my big wool coat just trying to thaw.

I won't spend any time dwelling on the many germs and ills that have been lurking amongst us because this blog is starting to read like some try-hard Grey's Anatomy script. Let's just say Jo's lungs are clean as a whistle, mine suck and are going to be internally redecorated by yet another foul poison and our friend giardia has finally departed from his unwelcome visit. Yay winter

I have lots of random bits of news and such so here's the skinny...

Not the best family photo but we're reading Mog and Me

Marty is awesome. I know you already know this but at the moment I find myself caught unaware by this fact over and over again every day now. His language is developing at lightning speed. He has taken to calling me Pogga (with a hard ah at the end) and it has well and truly stuck. He constructs the most beautiful and economic sentences like "Pogga open? Is hard for me" or "No sick in bucket. Sad" (a memory of the unwelcome visit from giardia...) Hard to believe he'll be two next week. Looking back over old posts it seems like both a short and looong time ago that we were packing our hospital bag!

Marty building himself a house :)

My brother's TV show starts next week, on Marty's birthday so that has to be auspicious timing! I'm really looking forward to seeing him play a main character over a whole season! Keep an eye out for Crownies starting on ABC (Australian ABC that is) on July 14 or watch it on iView. There's some great promo footage of his character at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/crownies/ (You're looking for Richard Stirling)

While I may be suffering through midwinter I am about to get a little ray of sunshine. On the 18th I'm heading to the States for two weeks - one in Portland and one in Texas! It is a guilty ray of sunshine though because I'm leaving the family behind :( Too short and too much work to do. In some kind of weird planets aligning kind of timing it so happens that I'll be spending my birthday with our Texas family, which is a pretty darn neat present AND it means I get a second birthday with my family here.. (er right?)

Writing a whole blog post on the ipad is much harder than it first appears. This deficit is made up for by the pure awesome that is Infinity Blade. For those who know these things I have finally finished grinding my way through BG10, back to NG and am about to start climbing NG+ in the hope of being able to get the black gear in my store AND get to shard. For the rest of you I now return you to your regular programming.

Oh and did I mention Marty?

He's a well respected man about town

And he's oh so healthy in his body and his mind (to continue the Kinks theme...)

As it turns out we are very thankful that he is so healthy because the beloved and I are not! Somehow we both have pneumonia! (psst, she gave it to me...We have to tone down this whole sharing and caring thing) Actually it really sucks. We both feel absolutely shocking and we're barking like a seal colony. To top it off it looks like some kind of atypical pneumonia and we won't know what is the cause until next week because it is a public holiday Monday (and it took 4 tries to get any blood out of this little needlephobe). Thanks goodness for the Bears, especially Jeannie, for taking Roo off for adventures every day. Anyhow, so far Marty seems healthy so here's hoping he stays that way. The alternative is that the little bugger brought the bug home in the first place!

Yes folks, that is a seersucker suit with a matching peach tie.

But enough of that, onto these super cute photos of Mr Roo. I can't believe our little man will be two next month! He is awesome fun to be around at the moment, aside from the small moments of terrible-twodom that he drops into occasionally. These photos were taken on Easter Sunday when we went to a big Catholic church for baby Frankie's Christening.

The white sneakers do make him look like he was styled by Ellen...

The ironic thing is that we bought this suit in Texas for the previous Easter! (Suits for Easter Sunday are a big deal in San Antonio - probably America in general) We knew Marty wouldn't fit it that Easter but we were hoping he's be able to wear it to the wedding we were going to just after we arrived home. But of course the Roo turned out to be a skinny little elf so it was awesome that he ended up wearing it to an Easter service after all.

Waiting for the audience to go quiet before making his sales pitch...

He was, of course, entirely overdressed for an Australian Easter service but he seemed to make a lot of people happy just by looking so dashing so we didn't care :)

Spotty wot?

I am spotty. I am itchy. I am cranky. And I am tired. Because every-time I try and fall asleep the itching drives me mad and wakes me up again. I have some non-contagious viral rash that can take weeks to go away and only causes drive-you-mad type itching in some cases. Yay me. I can see why the first part of its name is pity...

Rashes aside we had a lovely Mothers' day and to celebrate such I thought I'd leave you with this awesome little comic Miss B sent us from the New Yorker.

Dusting off the blog

Eek, it sure has been a long time between posts. I'm here to blow the cobwebs off this here blog and hopefully get a few posts in before anyone realises I'm back.

I'm going to break all of those blog rules about posting in chronological order and all that and just get down to some good stuff for now. Many of my loyal blog followers have been writing to me and demanding Marty updates so let me get started on them since that is sure to be far more entertaining than any other news at this point (and if you want more then jolly well leave a comment below!)

Last time I posted about the Roo was early October and he was 14 months old and really getting the walking sorted. Now he's nearly 20 months and running, climbing and talking!

This was the little ruffian last time you saw him...

And a few months later...

And a few months after that!

Here seen getting his own breakfast - not entirely successfully but amusing nonetheless!


I won't put too many updates in one post - This one is just a teaser, plus it is helping to get back on the blog horse. The biggest nightmare behind this has been trying to organise my photo library which is now spread across three computers and one back up drive. Not the smartest thing I ever did!

Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, some Tassie wildlife (and me!!)

I know I have heaps to catch you all up on but for now bear with me. This past Wednesday was the BEST HUMP DAY EVER! Through a wondrous twist of fate and the good graces of my friends at the Bookend Trust I spent last Wednesday night with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer on a private night tour of the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary! Whoo. I'm still recovering.

Forget vegemite - this is my ultimate sandwich.

I know there are a few philistines among you who won't know who I'm talking about. Actually, I think I was included in the group because I have consumed the majority of the creative works each have produced. Neil is the awe-inspiring author of (amongst many other things) American Gods, the Graveyard Book, Stardust, Coraline and of course Sandman. If you haven't read any of his work you should first punish yourself and then get hold of one of his books. The libraries here have huge waiting lists for most of his work, which is wonderful, but you won't regret buying them. And if you tell me you don't need to read them because you've seen the films then I'm sorry but we can't be friends anymore.

Me and Neil Gaiman. This photograph will always make me smile.

Amanda Palmer is another kettle of fish entirely - goddess of punk cabaret, street performer, and allround queen of awesome. She's a big fan of Australia and her new album, a tribute to this land down-under, came out this week and you should buy it (download for a donation of 69 cents or more) at least for the Vegemite song. Not to mention "Map of Tasmania" which has been stuck in my head all week and which has a film-clip that everyone should watch at least twice because you will never find a more wondorous collection of merkins in one place. That being said it may not be safe for work for fear of being misconstrued if viewed from a distance. Thus I shall link it rather than embed it. Watch the video already!. And while you're there, pick up a copy of her acoustic, ukulele driven Radiohead covers which, though bizarre in concept are somehow even more beautiful and powerful than the originals.

Me doing my best not to explode with excitement all over Amanda Palmer. And failing.

Oh yeah, also, the two of them were recently married!

Anyhow, that should be enough back story to catch up the un(pop)cultured few. We went to Bonorong. It was the evening, the Sanctuary was closed and the animals (being Australian and nocturnal) were just waking up and getting ready to be fed. It was a gorgeous night - still and dry but not hot. There were only about 12 of us all up, between their party and the Bookend group, including Amanda's super cool tour manager who I bonded with over a mutual love of Portland, Oregon. Our guide from Bonorong for the night was Greg Irons, the devil-whisperer himself.

Gorgeous evening!

There was much petting of the super friendly forester kangaroos.

And if you catch them just right under the chin they roll back in kangaroo ecstasy. The poor little fellas can't reach that spot with their paws - a bit like the t-rex in Toy Story who needs someone else to cover his eyes when he gets scared.

Neil and Amanda were brave enough to feed Eric 1 and Eric 2 the sexually ambiguous but very friendly echidnas. I say brave not because of their spikes but because their food is a mix of condensed milk, minced meat and I was too grossed out to hear the rest, which they eat by lapping it from your gloved hand with their 15cm tongues!

After having followed both Neil and Amanda on twitter and their blogs (they are prolific sharers) their physical selves were pretty close to my imaginary versions of them (except that I'm actually able to hold a conversation with the imaginary ones without turning into a shy mute or blubbering fool). They were both wonderfully down to earth and exuded a kind of calm enthusiasm - Neil's tinged with unending patience and the sense that he was stockpiling every sensation for later examination and Amanda's with a restless energy and wonder. (For Sandman fans - Amanda is a wonderful mix of Death and Delight with a fierce intelligence thrown in the mix).

At the end of the night I finally plucked up the courage to ask Neil to sign the two books I'd spent the day lugging around; the beloved's copy of Odd and my copy of the collected Sandman vol 1. Josie had the right idea suggesting Odd which was at least 10 times lighter than Sandman!

Neil signing Sandman. Me holding my breath.

Not only did he sign my book, he freaking drew Morpheus! I have no words, only happy grins.

PS. Today Josie made me wash the t-shirt I was wearing that night...

Finger painting for grown ups

Well I'm back. There are a bunch of things I want to post about but I've been slack since posting requires photos and I've been too tired/busy since I got back from the US to pop them on the lappy let alone get a post out.

However, since I'm at work waiting for a 6gb file to transfer across the planet I thought I'd let you in on what has been getting me through the work days, or at least the meeting component of those days. I have always been a fan of sketching while listening. Somehow drawing helps me focus on what people are saying in a way that watching them just doesn't. Now that I have the 'new trinket' aka the ipad, I can do this in full colour while looking like I'm taking notes! Awesomesauce no?

I haven't spent a lot of time fooling around with the shiny thing yet but I can tall you that the Sketchbook Pro app is totally worth whatever measly price tag it has. It it intuitive, stable and lets you layer and stuff. The following pic is only my second attempt at using the program (Josie say's the first attempt was too dark - probably something to do with how I was feeling about the meeting I was in!) This little guy is far from perfect but he was fun to create and took maybe a couple of hours all up. And yeah, it's all done with my fingers, I don't have a stylus and I don't really think I want one now.



Anyhow, just thought I'd share to get the blog rolling again!

Howdy y'all

Not only am I posting this from the lounge room of one of my best friends, in Texas, I'm also posting it from my new trinket, the iPad! Fun stuff all round.

I arrived in the US on Tuesday after an epic but smooth set of flights from Tassie, through Melbourne and LA and then on to Boston! Definitely the most epic all in one trip I've done so far. Had basically a whole row free on the flight to LA so I got some really good sleep, which always helps!

I was in Boston, well Cambridge actually, for the Genetics Analysis Workshop 17, which is an intense semi conference semi workshop that runs for 4 days and covers enough stats to make your brain melt. It is designed to test and extend the methods we use for analysis of genetic data by getting everyone to work on the same dataset based on whatever is cutting edge in the field at the time. I got lucky this time and attended as a data provider, which took the pressure off me on the workshop side but somehow left me just as exhausted as I bounced around a bunch of the workshops. The focus was mostly rare variants and exome seq so for the few genetics folk who read this I learned that collapsing signal with noise gives you noise (der), families are beter than individuals (again, nothing new there) and that no matter how thorough the simulation, the data providers will always be blamed for something. I am now even more skeptical about association but it was still a great meeting and gave me a bunch of ideas about what (not) to do. The thing I had forgotten about GAW is that there's never time to leave the hotel and see the city!

On Saturday arvo I hopped a flight back to my other home, good old San Antonio. Being here has been awesome. It feels very weird, almost like I've just been away at a conference and I'm back now - except that I don't have my family here with me! The main reason I'm not staying until Halloween is I can't bear to be away from them for much longer.

I won't bore you with too many details and others I'll post later once I get pics off my camera. Mostly I've been split between working hard (weird but normal to be back in my old workplace) and playing hard, mostly trying to hit all my fave restaurant and catch up with people before I go! I've also been trying to fit a bunch of shopping in there, especially with the dollar :) Joanne was kind enough to take vacation yesterday and we hit the San Marcos outlets. The weather has been gorgeous, sunny but not hideously hot. I spent most of Sunday with out dear friend Lizzy (sadly Anna was out of town for the entire time I'm here!) and made it to Spirit of Peace to catch up with our church friends - another kind of coming home.

Anyhow, since most of the other news I have relates to food I'll save it for another post. Tonight I made chili (I didn't really expect to get away with not making some this trip) and an extra pot of vegan chili which is surprisingly tasty. Might post the recipes when I'm at a real keyboard. Somehow being here and making chili, watching trashy reality tv and drinking wine just felt so danged normal that it really kicked the homesickness in. Bah, being split between two places is bloody hard!

The main thing is that I'm making the absolute most of being here and having an awesome time catching up with friends and family here. I only wish Marty and the beloved could be here too - next time!

The year of two Springs

I could probably focus on the fact that we have weathered two Winters this year, but since it has been in the 20s (70s) the last few days and everything is green and luscious, I'm going to focus on the good instead.

When we left San Antonio, Spring was just breaking and it was looking like an awesome one for wildflowers. San Antonio may only have a few different kinds of trees (mainly live oak and mountain cedar both of which I am, of course, allergic to) but it sure does have the most insane collection of wildflowers. Below are a few of the pics we took in our last few days.



These bluebonnets (a kind of tiny lupin) are the State flower of Texas (and another *%$# allergy risk) but when you see the whole side of the highway covered in them they are truly amazing. Mind you, that also means you see families with their kids dressed up in their Easter finery posing for pics next to six lanes of traffic roaring past at 70 miles/hour!

Hard to believe this little boy was only 9 months old and not racing around like a blue bottomed fly in a pickle bottle!

Well, that's a little snapshot of San Antonio in April. Now we're smack in the middle of another stunning Spring, half a world away. The flowers are less wild, since most of them are in our garden, but they are just as gorgeous. It may not be as warm as the Texas Spring but there's also a heck of a lot less pollen in the air! Those of you who haven't experienced live oaks in all their yellow glory are surely thinking that I'm a drama queen but the rest of you know better.

These pics are all from our garden, which is filled with about 15 different kinds of camellias, more bulbs that you can poke a stick at as well of all sorts of other lovely things that just keep popping up and surprising us.

Many layered daffs that get so heavy they fall over!

Part of the front garden - bulb central and there's more coming.

And yep, we even have orchids...

Two kinds!

Then of course there is that little boy, now nearly 15 months (although still wearing some of the clothes from his first Spring...) He's walking confidently, has a mouth full of teeth and the absolute inability to keep his pants up! I'm hoping he grows out of that last one...

It's a hat with a small boy attached to it!

Shown here clapping his hands after finally having ditched the hat...

Or so he thought!

Walking footage!

In a shameless attempt to placate you all for the fact that I haven't posted in ages!

First here's the baby-cakes walking at 12 months. At this point (a few days after his birthday) he'd been walking for a few weeks and cruising round taking steps here and there for much longer.



Now here's some footage from a few days ago (14 months) with 'crawdad' his fabulous wooden crayfish that Papa Bear found him in the US. Much sturdier on his pegs!



I kind of miss when you could pop him down on his lambie or his play-mat and leave him there! Mind you, even then he could usually manage to roll himself off to somewhere he shouldn't have been.

Animal wisdom

My cat and I are share similar views about all things apple...

Birthday aftermath

Can you believe the Roo-ster is one already?

July is birthday season in our house with Marty and I less than 2 weeks apart. This year we managed to spread the celebrating over several weeks, culminating with a joint celebration (which I predict I'll have to get used to in the future). We also decided that since we'd be opening our house to the ravaging hordes we might as well make it a house-warming as well!

We tried to explain about blowing out the candles but he tried to wave goodbye to this one instead.

Marty has sped past a number of major milestones in the past few weeks. He's walking now, he's pointing, he's responding to a wide range of words (a lot of them either food or cat related) but the biggie has to be his voracious present opening skills! This boy has mad unwrapping skills. He strips tape and shreds paper like a pro. We had to keep my presents out of his reach!

First present was from us. Yes, it is a vacuum cleaner. Yes it talks ("Is that a rabbit? No, it's a dust bunny! Mwahaha") and no it is never switched on to 'talky mode'.

Please don't judge! The boy is vacuum cleaner obsessed ok. Who needs a baby sitter, we could just leave him in a room with someone's vac and he'd be happy for hours.

Not only does he unwrap, he does it in colour coordinated style!

Purry are you in there?

Master technique - shake the booty out!

Our dear friends sure kept the postie busy! Thank you to everyone who sent packages and cards and good wishes (and we will do our best to reply soon!!)

Occasionally there was some confusion about just which bits were exiting to whom. Prime example - Hamish and I are busy constructing the toy. Marty and Clare on the other hand are much more interested in the sample box of medicine!


Some of Marty's other toys are also fun for adults. Of course the first thing I made with these block was a giant robot and of course the first thing Marty did was pull it down on his head!

I know I've talked a lot about Marty's birthday but that's because turning 1 is way more impressive than turning 33, and because he looks better in pics than his Poggie. I had a wonderful birthday lead-up and party. I got some brilliant presents (my beloved gave me superpowers...or at least the next best thing in the form of gorgeous bird-watching binoculars) and one really sucky one (4 days of gastro) that landed me in bed on the actual birthday day. Thanks goodness only Jose and I got sick, Marty seemed to escape. Maybe it was that magic birthday cupcake we let him eat at the end of his party...

I can't tell if the sombre look is exhaustion or fear that we might remove the delectable sweet and sticky thing from his little death gripped paw at any given moment. We didn't of course and he loved it!