Profiteroles

Bread Baking

What A Difference A Day Makes

Photos taken from the same general areas as those taken during the dust storm...

I can't get enough of these guys... -joel

I think I'm going to need one as a pet if we ever settle down long enough for that sorta thing.

(hi Sadie...)

Here Comes the Sand (doo do dooo do) -joel

So today is the Spring Equinox. Yay! Spring. It was also nice that it cooled off a bit. Sounds great huh? Well the reason it cooled off was because the sun was blocked by a sheet of sand. Please see photos for reference. These were taken today at about 1245 in the afternoon. I have to admit though, it made for awesome colors for the camera. There were tons of other folks out taking pictures too. Anyway, I guess spending 6 hours outside in this was a good way to exfoliate.

Roma Street Parklands

Today I was doing my normal wandering around town, and I was trying to take a short cut to the the CBD (Central Business District) through a park. My short cut turned into a long cut when I found the "Spectacle Garden." It's the world's largest Urban Subtropical Garden. So awesome! Lot's of iguanas (or whatever) running around all over the place. It was cool. I'll post some more pictures.

Settling In (joel)

So I finally made it! After 2 flights, 5 movies and maybe 2 total hours of sleep spread out in 15 minute increments, I made it to Brisbane. Much to my dismay, though, my bike didn't make it at the same time as me... After waiting around for awhile I talked to baggage agents, to arrange a later delivery. Marlene told me that she arranged a shuttle service for me, so while I was waiting and waiting and waiting for my bike to not arrive, I was nervous that the shuttle would give up on me. Little did I know that the 'Shuttle Service' was Marlene meeting me and us catching a cab. I also didn't know that she was also getting very nervous when she saw that my flight landed and I never appeared.... Going through customs was a breeze, which was nice. The Aussies are super friendly (genuinely). The flight was long, the airplane was hot, and I hardly slept. At least I got caught up on movies...

My first day in Brisbane went pretty well. It's a weird feeling. Weird weird weird. You land, exhausted, awake for 30 hours (or whatever). Everyone around you is enjoying Sunday morning, but you are still trying to finish Friday night. An entire day is gone. When we got to the apartment Marlene said, "do you want a beer?" "Sure" I responded. It felt completely normal, then I looked at the clock and realized it was 9 am... After that we went for breakfast. You're whole body is in a weird time warp thanks to the International Date Line. I managed to stay awake until about 7pm. Marlene gave me a good tour of the city. It's a great place, very walkable, lots of trees, birds, water, etc.

Second day went well too. I did a lot of walking around town, checking out outdoor gear shops, bouldering a little bit at Kangaroo Point, and just generally trying to keep myself busy and awake. I made it to 8pm.

0530 on day 3 and I'm out of bed... I spent most of day 3 in the apartment. I watched the Men's Fianl of the US Open. Great match! Worked out in the little gym in our complex, then swam laps in our pool. I also did some cooking. It was nice to just sort of putt around the apartment and get settled in a bit. I made it to 7pm.

0530 on day 4 and I'm out of bed.... Today is farmer's market day! WOO HOO! I walked Marlene to work then went to the Farmers market. Bought all sorts of great stuff and left lots of great looking stuff to buy next time. It's so great. After updating the blog I'll go get in the pool. It's pretty great!

So far I really like Australia. Australians love sport (as they call it). Far more internationally than elsewhere. I get a daily update on the TV of the Vuelta Espana. Across the bottom of the screen they will scroll updates of cyclists who sign to other teams. They seem to keep up with all of the less popular (in N. America) sports (cricket, rugby, footy, tennis, cycling, motorcycle racing, etc, etc). The Australians also don't seem to try to keep the Americans at arms length as much as the Canadians (probably because they aren't constantly being confused as Americans). There are things where Australia seems more similar to the US (i.e. Target, lots of grilled meat, and ads about talking to your doctor about blood pressure medication) and other things were Australia seems more similar to Canada (i.e. colorful money with the Queen plastered all over it) Speaking of money, I have a big problem with the $2 coin being the smallest of all. Who dreamt that up?? It's the size of a dime! Get it together Australia!

Well... That's how I'm going. Cheers. No worries. G'day Mates, etc.

Riverfire

For the record, all of these photos are not mine and come from a compilation of photos on the website: ourbrisbane.com

So we went to Riverfire yesterday. Best fireworks display I have ever seen. Ever. Ever. There were several barges on the river setting off fireworks, they were setting them off from 4-5 buildings in the CBD and from three of the bridges! It was a 180 degree show! You just didn't know where to look! They opened with a fly-by from the F111's and played the whole thing to music. Oh man, there's just no describing how amazing the show was. I think, if you're going to bother doing fireworks... you should go all out and do it right! The ended the show with the famous dump and burn which was so close overhead we actually felt the heat! And the masses of people! It reminded me of the days when I used to go to Parliament Hill to celebrate Canada Day. Just tons of people outside with families and teens and adults and blankets and food and everyone just enjoying being outside in a crowd and waiting for the big show. It was just super! We also got a nice display from the Roullettes, the acrobatic air crew. It was really great. We luckily got a spot up on Kangaroo Point cliff and the planes were just so close to us. Ahhh, what a night!

Well, I'm off to surprise Joel at the airport!

Another fantastic bikeride

Well, it's Saturday again so I went on my last solo bikeride, seeing as Joel get's here tomorrow morning. He's actually 1.5 hours into his flight right now, should be getting his meal pretty soon.... I headed Northwest to the D'Aguilar Range and up to Jolly's lookout. The ride was 50 km (31 mi) roundtrip and 500m (1500 ft) elevation gain. Felt tougher than that... It was really nice and worth the ride, and the nice thing about riding up into the mountains is that the return trip is mostly downhill! So I heard a story about how the magpies get very ferocious during mating season and have a habit of dive-bombing passers-by, especially cyclists. I have even seen people with eyes painted on their helmets and straws pasted to them to deter the magpies. How big a problem could it be, you ask yourself? Well: I got divebombed by a magpie on my way back today! He hit the back of my helmet twice! It was too bizarre. It didn't hurt or anything was it was distracting and I watched the whole thing as my shadow on the asphalt in front of me. Too weird!

Hopefully we'll have more tomorrow about the fireworks show I'm going to tonight, including a "dump and burn" by the RAAF F-111. Should be interesting!

Big D

I took a little side trip to Dallas to visit Thomas, Susan, and Marley. First stop after the airport was to Chuy's. I had the New Mexico Enchiladas. Green chile, chicken, blue corn tortillas, served with an egg on top. So perfect! We also had a variety of chips, dips, and salsas. The trip to Dallas mostly revolved around hanging out and eating. We had queso, roasted green chile on the grill, and grilled 3 kinds of meat. Thom introduced me to the wonders of tablitas (cross-cut beef ribs with some sort of marinade). We also had skirt steak and marinated chicken. Pretty top notch. In addition to all the eating it was nice to catch up with family. I got to see Whitney and Brad (Thom's sister and her husband)and all her kids. It was nice to see everyone that I hadn't seen in years and to find them all doing very well.

On the trip home from Dallas, Mom, Collin, Lisa, and Laura all picked me up at the Midland Airport and we went to a Midland Rockhounds baseball game. It wasn't too eventful of a game, but it was nice to hang out. I also got a trip in to Rosa's for burritos, tamales and more queso... I also took advantage of a free Chick-fil-a sandwich...

More food...

Carlsbad Caverns

Mom, Collin, Becci, Laura, Lisa, and I all took a trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, about 1.5 hours from Hobbs. It was a lot of fun. Being midweek we had the cave nearly to ourselves. Collin made the walk in too. If you walk down to the big room, rather than taking the elevator you make a 750 ft decent on lots of switchbacks. It really is a great thing to go to, and even though I've been lots of times, I always have a lot of fun when I go. I also really like a lot of the stuff that isn't underground. All of the great Permian Reef complex outcrops, cactus, ocotillo, yucca, etc. After walking through the caves, I put the family through a few geology/fossil stops on the way back into town. Going to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains always reminds me of how much I love the desert.

Hobbs

Trips to Hobbs almost always revolve around food, and this trip wasn't much different. First stop was La Fiesta. La Fiesta isn't that fantastic in the realm of Mexican food or New Mexican food, but it's a Hobbs staple and always required when Becci or I are in town. Their salsa is pretty tasty... The sopapillas too.

We went and visted the new Western Heritage Museum. It was a lot of fun, and really good for what it is. A good history of the Llano Estacado and Hobbs, all the way back to Clovis Man.

It was also neat to see more of my dad's handiwork on the lathe. One of his wood turnings one second-place overall for the art work entered at the Lea County Fair. It's fun to see him so excited about it too. He's always scoping for good mesquite that he can turn on the lathe.

In Hobbs I also learned that Law and Order, in one form or another, or Criminal Minds seems to be on TV 24 hours a day. Being in Hobbs involved lots of laziness and lots of eating, but I like it that way.