Another Visitor!!

Yay – someone else is coming to visit!! That will bring us up to 4 visitors in 3 years! (Unfortunately that includes Stan the Man – a paper doll.)

My cousin Ingrid is coming over in June for 4 weeks, and we’re really looking forward to it. Theoretically she’s coming over to get some science experience, and Ben and I have outlined a project for her to work on… but my mind keeps turning to all the fun things we could do with her, instead!

Our families have had some great adventures together – a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, summers in grandma & grandpa’s pool, family reunions in Hawaii, lots of hikes. When Jen and I were in high school, we visited them in North Carolina over spring break and took a road trip out to Cape Hatteras.

My most vivid memory from that trip was on the drive home – Ingrid’s stomach was having a rough time, and after the second or third time that we stopped, her loving brother Carl said “Why don’t we just hang her out the window – then she can ralph all she wants.” Don’t worry, Ingrid, I promise we won’t hang you out any windows.

And when Ben and I were working in Alaska, they came up to visit us in Kantishna. And even though they were attacked by giant mosquitoes while trying to make a cast of a bear print, they still seemed to have a good time.

So we’re looking forward to more good times with Ingrid, and excited about showing-off Oz to another visitor!

My Birthday

Another year done-and-dusted!!

It was a low-key celebration this year, but we had a surprise delivery from "Mum" (whoever that is) and Dad :)

Lingo-Lessons: Pear-shaped

I’m learning that many of our “Aussie lingo-lessons” are actually “Brit lingo-lessons”. But we’re learning them here, so I’ll continue to attribute them to Oz.

So for me, “pear-shaped” means that something is shaped like a pear.

Here, it is used when things have gone wrong, or not quite the way you planned. As in “The date was going really well, but then his ex-girlfriend showed up and things went a bit pear-shaped.” Or “The Tigers just keep narrowly loosing – this season has just gone all pear-shaped for them.”

I forget which natural disaster it was recently – the floods, the earthquakes, the cyclones, the bush fires – but for one of them, I heard a news reporter state “Things have gone all pear-shaped in (wherever), with the body count continuing to rise.” I’m obviously not that comfortable with Aus-speak, yet, because that totally didn’t work for me - it just seemed to trivialize the whole disaster.

Flat Stanley

Another visitor!!! Yes, he may just be a paper doll, but we'll take anyone we can get!

Flat Stanley is a children's book about a boy who was accidentally squashed as flat as a piece of paper. The advantage of being flat was that he could put himself in an envelope and mail himself anywhere in the world. This has led to the rise of a popular school project, where kids mail their Flat Stanley out to learn more about different places in the world.

So my wonderful cousin (second cousin? cousin-once-removed?) Molly

decided to send her Flat Stanley to us!

And Stan the Man arrived just before we left on holiday to Tasmania, so we had a great time travelling around with him! He was good about keeping a journal to tell Molly about all the things he learned. And we did our best to take lots of pics to share with Molly.

Apparently Stan the Man traveled further than any other Flat Stanley in the class. The downside is that he was the last one to get home. But the upside is that it further boosted Molly's popularity - which was already sky-high, but a little more coolness never hurt, right?

Movin' right along... again

Surprise surprise – we’ve moved again. We are self-professed geographic sluts. We have once again erased all trace of ourselves from one house and started "scent-marking" another house - replacing the remnants of someone else's dirt with our own.

On the road again

Kerry's contract at the zoo ended and Ben needed to run some more experiments for his PhD. So we’re back in Sydney, now. Ryde, to be specific. And with Sydney just announced as the most expensive real estate in the world, couldn’t be a better time to move back! Yay!

So you should help us take advantage of all this money we’re spending on rent and come visit us. :) We have 3 bedrooms, so there’s plenty of extra space. And we have a great back porch, with a view of the city (and any fireworks that might be going on in the greater Sydney area). And we’re within walking distance to some great restaurants and nice parks. And shopping, if that’s your thing. So let us know when you're on your way!

Ani overseeing the unpacking process

Ummm… Anyone have an ark we can borrow?

When we moved to Dubbo, we were looking forward to dry weather, big blue skies, water restrictions, none of the chronic mould problems we had in Sydney. And that wasn’t just being naïve – that was based on my experience in Dubbo over the last 1.5 yrs. We were NOT expecting one of the wettest years in history. But that’s what we got.

Burrendong dam has gone from 8% full to 130% full over the last 6 months. Farmers have gone from one of the best harvests due to the rain to one of the worst harvests due to the rain – even small farms have lost $80,000 in the blink of an eye. The river has been higher than I have ever seen it, and the rain keeps interfering with my bike commute to work – a problem I never had before.

And then last week, the clouds took it to a whole new level. On Wednesday, the bike path bridge went under. On Thursday, the Serisier/“little” bridge went under, meaning there was only 1 way to get from one side of Dubbo to the other. Traffic chaos ensued – there were back-ups that would put Chicago or Sydney rush hour to shame. The highways in almost every direction from Dubbo are closed. A few remain open, but are covered with water. And I don’t mean there’s a bit of water on the road. We had a friend coming home from the coast who said the water was almost over the hood of her Forester and she couldn’t tell where the road came out on the other side. Several towns around central-west NSW are being evacuated or have already been cut off completely.

And there’s another major storm heading our way this week.

And the locusts are starting to move in. Guess the “worst locust outbreak in years” doesn’t pose much of a threat to the farmers anymore.

River lookout when Mom and Dad were here.


River lookout on Thursday.


Now it's all underwater - I can't even get in to take a similar pic.

For more pics you can check out this website

Our new baby!

Didn't know we were expecting, did you?!? Neither did we!
But we are now the proud parents of a baby sugar glider - a little boy, 37 grams.

How cute is he!?!
He was found in a tree that had been cut down. His mom and siblings probably moved on after the tree was cut down, and he was left behind. He will be released eventually, so our job now is to get him to that stage. He's on 5 feeds a day: 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm. Other than that, he pretty much hangs out in his pouch.
And he still needs a name, so suggestions are welcome!