The other night we went to a game!

None of the pictures are very good - my good camera's battery is dead. My small, portable camera's batteries died after taking just a few pictures, so you're left with my camera phone pictures. Nonetheless, it was a really fun time. We watched the US beat Trinidad/Tobago 3-0. The goals were all scored by one guy (all 3 assisted by Landon Donovan I think) and they were really pretty.

It was also cool because I know a soccer-crazy family here whose 4-year old son has cancer. Make-a-wish hooked them up with all kinds of things for this game. They got to meet all of the players and Landon Donovan gave the son his cleats!! They were so excited. I really like that the team took the time to really hang out with the family. It's pretty neat!

Go Bulldogs!

We visited with dh's great-uncle John today. We really like him. He's the "grandfather" dh never had, and we're really excited to be close to him. He is trying to convert us into Bulldogs fans. I'm a bad rugby fan (and have no idea what the difference is between Rugby LEAGUE and Rugby UNION) and I have no idea if the Bulldogs are in the League or in the Union... oops... Well anyway, he gave us each a Bulldogs scarf and they're kinda cute (the scarves, but probably the players too ;) lol).

Still have no idea about internet access. We're at an internet cafe now, which is actually really cheap. Heaps cheaper than the stinking mobile phone. I'm hoping to get a phone too one of these days. DH has one, and since we're together all the time now, it will suffice. But holy cow, his phone number is like 11 digits long. ELEVEN. We picked it because it ends in 411. Yeah, whatever that means.

We're hanging out with cousin Louisa and her uber-cool husband Reuben tonight at some art thing (dh's words, not mine). They're the godsends that are helping us here - we really have no idea what we'd do without them. Plus, Reuben has the best American accent when he tries. It's quite hilarious. They're a fantastic couple. Thanks Lou!!!

One of the funniest things about watching the Olympics in Australia is that they have nicknames for each of their sports teams. Like the "Kookaburras" are their fieldhockey team. The Opals are their womens basketball team. The Ollieroos are... I forget. Tonight, the Boomers are playing the US Dream Team. I find it funny that Aussies refer to our basketball team as the dream team. That still conjures up pictures of Jordan and Bird and Magic in my mind... ah, the good old days...

Hmm, what else? Oh, the best idea we had while traveling was to get a bag (literally like a plastic grocery bag full) of snacks at the commissary before we left the US. We got sweet, fruity, salty, and chocolaty snacks (not all in one, that would be gross) and had them to eat on the plane. But then, when we arrived, we had them to snack on throughout the first few weeks. We found ourselves to be really hungry in the morning (due to jet lag) and starving an hour after breakfast. We could just sneak back to our room and have a granola bar and not be rude to our hosts. It was one of the best things we did, I think.

We're slowly catching on to the Australian accent. I mean, we can understand all that they're saying, but I'm getting a little closer to being able to imitate it. Closer. Still a long way to go. But we went out with Uncle John today, and he and his wife were cracking jokes and we had no idea what they meant... we were just clueless.

Good news - we and both cats are still alive. We're pet-sitting, which gives us free rent. I had thought that I could be both a cat and a dog person. This has taught me otherwise. At this point, we're peacefully coexisting. Sometimes not peacefully. Like when I'm cooking and they're jumping on the counter. But, I'm slowly getting used to them, and who knows, if this continues at the same pace on the dislike to like continuum, I may like cats by the end of the few weeks.

Well, we're headed off to the gallery. One of these days I'll post pictures - it's pretty cool here. Beijos!

20,000 screaming girls plus me.

This weekend I drove 4 hours each way to watch my sister-in-law's competitive dance team perform. Yeah, I spent roughly 3.2 MINUTES in the car for each SECOND she performed. She's on the hip-hop team. At this Cheersport competition, there were allegedly 20,000 cheerleaders. TWENTY THOUSAND girls (plus a few boys) from approximately three years to twenty years old. Some were performing pom routines, some were doing cheering (cheering for whom, I'm not sure... because everyone was cheering for them... cheering for the cheerleader, who is cheering on... herself?). Anyway, I survived and was there to support her. Her team even won first place in their category, so that was pretty cool. DH stayed home to study. I should get extra wife-points for going to extreme lengths for his family, right?



I remember in college how one of my professors was against the words "extreme" and adjectives of the like. These gyms are not of the same philosophy. Almost all of them were "ultimate" or "elite" or even my personal favorite, "Champions Elite Allstars" - clearly allstars needed two modifiers...


After sitting in an arena for 5-6 hours listening to hip-hop and techno (let me just say that I still have an electronic version of "When Doves Cry" stuck in my head), I came up with a list of approved activities my future children are encouraged to do (by me). I seriously hope they do not want to be cheerleaders (no offense to those that are/were cheerleaders).

- Bagpipes (they're just stinking cool)
- Ballet dancing
- Basketball (per dh)
- Chess team
- Hula dancing
- Irish step dancing
- Soccer
- Surfing

Perhaps I will add to this... but for right now, Junior and Juniorette have that list to choose from.

But dh says I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch... I just want to be prepared

commentators

Or "they're just your average potato..." Get it, common-tater? Common-po-tato? Haha. I'm funny.

Anyway, the commentators on ESPN crack me up. Either they're crazy over-dramatic, or like today, they're just plain silly. Take tonight's Vandy/Kentucky game, first, he said "Vanderbilt's having it once, twice, three times a lady." Um. How does that metaphor work? I understand it was their third three-point shot made in a row... but still? Then, when Vandy was ahead by 20 points, he said "Vanderbilt's finding it 'easy like Sunday morning'". Just weird. It's now halftime, and Vandy is up by 30 points. That's huge. DH says it's an "oldfashioned buttkicking." I simply say, "Go 'dores!"

On another note, it seems that since highschool, the schools that I have been associated with haven't had definable mascots. Foresters? Yeah, um kinda like lumberjacks. We wear flannel and big belt buckles - oh, and have axes. Colonials? Um. We dress up like people of the original 13 colonies, or we wear things with hippos on them. The hippos are because former president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg bought a big huge bronze hippo statue once (legend has it that he was inebriated and his wife wouldn't let him keep it, so he donated it to the school). Ask my sisters about Pres. Trachtenberg and his lovely going-away speech at graduation. They < 3 him. Or not. And now, Commodores? Yeah, turns out a dude donated money to start a college in the South, and they named it after him. They're not sure why he is called "the commodore" but sure enough they named the school's mascot after him.

Jen D, this makes me think of you. Not for the queasy.