Ooops!

Congrats to Beth who won my cheese contest. I'll get your prize to you in the mail soon...

I'm a bad American

So, this week has been a big week in American politics. And Australia has been covering it pretty well. But why does that make me a bad American? Um... I'm registered to vote. Kind of.

Yeah, the former poly-sci professor doesn't have an updated voter registration. You see, I was registered and did vote in Hawaii, but I haven't gotten a new driver's license since I moved to the South. It's not fair that dh can keep residency where ever he wants, and I have to change every 6 months when the military moves him/us. So, whatever. I still have my Hawaii drivers license. Plus, it was a great picture.

The state of Hawaii sent me a nifty little notification thing when we were at dh's family's house in FL that my address wasn't up to date. So now what do I do? I wasn't going back to the state in the South for another 6 months. I don't really live in Florida (and who knows if my vote would have counted - hanging chads and all...). And I don't live in Hawaii. So... I did nothing. And now I'm not registered to vote. In one of the greatest elections of my voting career thus far.

Any suggestions, anyone??

Friday Musings

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that when we went on our Great Ocean Road trip, not only did we see kangaroos, um... we ate them too. Not the one off the side of the road, but at the uber-cute country pub in Lavers Hill, we ate a kangaroo fillet. And here, fillet is not pronounced the french way, but instead prounounced "fill - it". That, I believe, is reason enough to eat fillets, make that fillits, all the time. So I had the kangaroo fillit and dh had the fish fillit.

Also cool about the Great Ocean Road is that dh's grandmother and grandfather went touring there on their honeymoon...

DH and I have found a place to live for the month of September! So, we've been housesitting since we got to Melbourne, and in October, we'll hopefully move into Lou & Reub's place. This place that we found for September is pretty cool. I'm excited about it. The only bad part about it is that it costs an arm and a leg. But for a month or so, it's doable!

DH started school yesterday - he has a short, intensive course before the real term starts. He said everyone here uses different terms and that his group has no idea what he does... poor dh.

Well, the kid next to me at the internet is listening to Lil Mama's Lip Gloss on his ipod at volumes that could break glass. I think I'll go...

We'll miss you Sarah

Sarah Rife, our pastor at Elevate's wife, died on Monday.

Please pray for Elevate and Pastor Mark.

So a Koala, Kangaroo, and the 12 Apostles walk into a bar...

Ha. Not really. Those are just some of the things we saw on our trip down The Great Ocean Road.

Dh doesn't start school until tomorrow (Thursday), so we took a few days (Monday and Tuesday) and explored the southern coastline. We took the Great Ocean Road from its start in Tourquay to Port Campbell.

Wattle (the reason Australia's uniforms are green and gold)

Bells Beach (near Tourquay)
Home to the Ripcurl Pro tourney

A Koala!!! In real life!
We drove up a road suggested by the tourist information people
and saw several koalas in the wild - it was really cool!

Here, it probably was 2 yards from us!

Another koala

Me at the 12 Apostles
(limestone rock formations)

An "apostle"

The cliffs looked like they were on fire in the sunset

Dh with our rental car.
He did a really good job driving on the correct side of the road!

'roo crossing!

the arch announcing The Great Ocean Road


Sorry, these are a little out of order - whoops!

The beautiful landscape of the Otway Mountains
(on the way to Johanna beach)

DH at Johanna beach - an alternate site for the RipCurl tourney

Johanna Beach

Cool blue bird

More Otway scenery

A kangaroo on the side of the road

View from Mount Defiance Lookout

Tourquay surf beach

Great Ocean Road Recap

We really enjoyed our trip down the Great Ocean Road

Here are some tips:

We stayed one night at the Melba Gully Cottage Flower Farm Bed and Breakfast - it was wonderful! Virgina and Bob were great hosts, and served great food, as well as wonderful advice. We did miss out on going to the Melba Gully park, where you're supposed to go to see glow worms at night. Next time, next time...

Go to the tourist information booths where ever you see them - the information is invaluable!!

We saw koalas in the wild in the town just past Wye River, we went up Grey River Road.

You'd think I was from the midwest or something...

... with all this cheese

1. Tasty cheese (one type of cheddar) - to use with tortilla soup
2. Mozzarella - to use on pizza
3. Parmesan - to use in spaghetti
4. Brie - to eat with crackers
5. Goat - um... I dunno yet... maybe on a salad? or melted on a tomato?
6. Babybel - to munch on
7. Bleu - to eat with crackers
8. Aged cheddar - to eat with crackers
9. Pizza blend - to use on pizza

Pics: San Fran baseball

One of the last things we did before leaving the US was to go to a San Francisco Giants game. It was tons of fun!!

Hey batter, batter!

We had fabulous seats (bought from a scalper - shhh!)

Field reflected off dh's sunglasses

AT& T Park

Pics around town

Dh's school, Melbourne Business School
part of the University of Melbourne

Dh on the Yarra River

Melbourne on the Yarra

The city and Federation Square

MCG, the Melbourne Cricket Ground

A tram - our main mode of transportation

Uncle John and dh in his Bulldogs scarf - thanks Uncle John!

Me and Aunt Buelah

Pics: Sydney

Dh and his cousins heading out for a surf

My view... not too bad, eh ;)

Visiting Fiona's mum

Great view of Sydney

Checking out surf another day

Dh got to golf in New South Wales - a really good course

Taronga Zoo

Dh with an emu

See the kangaroos?

Echidnas - cool animals!

Croc hunter?

Nice view from the giraffe house!

Look at what we saw at the polar exhibit!
A picture of a CG Ship!!!

Great view of Sydney from the Zoo

On the ferry back home

Cool buoy/lighthouse

Harbor bridge

memorial downtown Sydney

Fountain downtown Sydney

Shark net to keep out unwanted sharks while swimming...
yeah, let me know if that works...