T minus 2!

We have 2 days until we leave for the States!!! Are we prepared? I have no idea. For a while my answer was that emotionally, we were totally ready - can't wait to see everyone!! But then this morning Ani saw a golden retriever on our walk and she got all excited. I said "I know - it looks like your cousins (or whatever they are), doesn't it? We'll see your cousins in a few days! ... but you won't..." :( But Ani will be in good hands.

Anyway, we're trying to keep our schedule updated (see the side of the blog - you should be able to click on it to view it). If you're going to be close to one of our stops (Chicago, Lafayette IN, St. Louis, Milwaukee) let us know - we'd love to connect with as many friends/family as possible. And if you have any requests from Australia, let us know - we have 2 days left to shop!

This means war

We have 2 wars going on at home right now. They’ve turned into hard core, knock-down, drag-out battles – there’s no mercy. We’re lookin’ a little beat-up, but I think there’s an end in sight.

One war is against mould; the other is against this vine. They both do their sneaky little dispersal, spreading everywhere relatively unnoticed. And then one day there’s mold on the ceiling and on those leather shoes you haven’t worn in a while and on the far side of the couch and all over that straw hat. Then you go outside and realize that cool tree in front has turned into a carpet of vines, and the backyard bushes look like a massive tangle of string.

So we’ve been tackling the vines for a few days, now, and the battle culminated with a massive attack on all fronts today. The good news is that the vine (at least the visible portions) is pretty much gone. The bad news is that in our vicious attack, we had some civilian casualties: the bushes. It kinda looked like an elephant had come through and munched our backyard – there were frayed, broken branches everywhere. So because it looked horrible and some of the bushes needed thinning anyway, we took some clippers to it. And now it looks like a black rhino came and munched everything, instead. I think we have about the most pathetic looking backyard. I know we’re related to some really good green-thumbs, but we apparently didn’t get that gene.

I can’t tell where we stand with the mould battle – some days I think we’re winning, and then I discover that the box of dog biscuits has turned into a box of blue fuzzy stuff. Seems like most Sydney-siders are in the midst of this battle now – wet cool winter weather with no A/C or central heating to dry things out. Makes me miss Dubbo! But now that I’m working at home, I can race out and stick things in the sun when it decides to show up. And we’ve gone through a lot of bleach and mould remover in the last few weeks. So hopefully we can return to a peaceful home, soon.

AU vs. US (the environment series): Insulation

So builders in Australia apparently don’t believe in insulation. Even after a year, I have not gotten over this fact. I’ll admit that New South Wales is pretty nice in the spring and fall, but in winter it can get down to freezing and in summer it can get up to 100F. To me, it seems like buffering your house from these extremes would be a good idea.

And some Aussies are even catching on – out in Dubbo it seemed like everyone I talked to was insulating their house. Why now and not 50 years ago when the house was built?? I don’t know. It’s kinda like insulation is this great new thing that just came to Dubbo. Maybe it will make it to Sydney, next (you know, Dubbo is so cutting edge compared to Sydney). Even in Ben’s department’s fancy new building, the contractors refused to install insulation – even in humidity and temperature sensitive rooms.

But here’s the thing I don’t understand. The inside temp is always within a few degrees of the outside temp, but the humidity level inside can be twice as high as the humidity outside. I spilled some instant coffee on the counter (perfectly dry), and when we came back a few hours later it had turned to little dots of brown liquid. How the hell did they construct their houses?!?

They say Australia is ~10 years behind the rest of the world. With regards to insulation, it’s a lot more than that! So the US wins this round by a long shot.

Movin’ on up Update

Someone wanted our pans.

You may remember our "Movin' on up" posting. Well, we recently had "council clean-up" - this is where you can put anything you want out on the curb and the council will take it away, but it's customary for people to cruise the streets and go "shopping" before the council comes. So I put our old pots out there, and they were gone within a few hours. I feel sorry for whoever thought that was a good find!

Happy Aus-iversary to us!

11 Aug 09 - our 1-year anniversary in Australia!

*Not to scale.

I really can't believe it's already been a year. We haven't explored Oz nearly as much as we had hoped to, and there are still times I have to think twice about which side of the road I'm supposed to turn onto. I haven't started saying "Ta" (thank you), but I have gotten comfortable with the "-ie" ending to absolutely everything (sunnies, brekky, mozzie, etc.). I still get excited about all the cockies (cockatoos) and kookaburras and other fun birds. Crumpets are a regular part of breakfast, and we always have some tasty cheese in the house, but we haven't quite gotten on the Vegemite train, yet. We'll see what another year brings! (...hopefully more visitors!)

Bye to Dubbo

What I’ll miss about Dubbo:
- the people
- the sun
- living with a kangaroo
- being able to bike everywhere
- the sky, the river, and the red dirt
- listening to all the Aussie slang
- the fact that when I missed a couple days at the gym, people would ask where I’ve been, and they sent me a birthday card
- morning tea with the vets
- trivia night at the South Dubbo Tavern
- the Dubbo Photo News
- running in to people I know when I’m out and about
- biking past kangaroos on my morning commute
- the laid-back-ness
- being able to stop at the Indian restaurant on my way home when I didn’t feel like cooking
- maybe I’ll even miss the Mystery Sound


I know it’s only been 6 months, but there’s a part of me that’s fallen in love with Dubbo – especially the people. The carpenter (i.e., “the grandpa of the zoo”) would give me a little honk when he drove past me on my way to work. One of the ladies from the gym was like a mom and would always ask when I was going to see Ben next. Ben said Abbott was the same – he got really attached to the people and it was really hard to say goodbye (yup – that’s you Katie and Annie!!). I’ve decided that the social dynamic in grad school (maybe all of academia) is just different that the social dynamic in other work environments. I don’t know whether to blame it on the stress or the fact that it’s a temporary-thing. Anyway, I’m definitely going to miss Dubbo – but I’m going home with an “I heart Dubbo” shirt!

Lingo Lessons: Root

So, “root” has a much different meaning here. Let’s just say that if someone caught you “rooting around,” they wouldn’t think you were just looking for something. They’d be more likely to call you a slut. And, since my job title is Reproductive Biologist, I have now been dubbed the Rootin’ Specialist of the zoo. So when you come to Oz, be careful who you root for.

Life with Emmet

*FLASHBACK TO DUBBO*

Emmett is still cute as ever. He has made the transition from being bottle-fed to lapping, and it’s gone fairly smoothly. (Sorry he looks a little possessed in the photo, but it's a pretty good milk-mustache, don't you think?)

And he keeps getting more exploratory. Kristie moved him to a play-pen-thing when he started getting out of his box, but now he has figured out how to leap out of the play pen. He almost landed on Kristie’s head one night when he did this amazing leap out of the play-pen and ended up landing on the couch!

He likes to suck on his pillowcase like it's a dummy (aka pacifier). Or your sweater, if that happens to be more convenient.

And Ben FINALLY got to meet Emmett, so he's happy.

Update: Just after I left, Emmett got a sister, so now Kristie has 2 joeys! Kristie said she didn’t want me to leave because she wasn’t looking forward to being a single mum, and now she has twice the work-load! Good thing they’re so cute.

Grad School Kerry

No – we haven’t fallen off the bottom of the earth. Yes – we’re doing fine. The blogging absence is related to the fact that I’m defending my PhD thesis in a few weeks (aagghhh!) and there’s a lot of writing to get done. This means that Grad School Kerry is back, and I’ve decided that I don’t really like Grad School Kerry. Zoo Kerry is fine, Field Biologist Kerry is pretty good, Hiking Guide Kerry I like quite a bit. But Grad School Kerry is dirty and doesn’t exercise as much and has bad sleeping habits and starts making velociraptor and guinea pig noises. And Ben is keeping me in quarantine in the house so I don’t get sick and jeopardize my defense, so since I don’t go out, I wear the same clothes over and over. My only consolation is that there’s an end in sight.

And I’m taking a break today to post a bunch of old entries that I never got around to posting, so the blog should be a little more active for a bit.