Almost Home

Well our adventure in Australia is coming to a close. I went back and read my original blog about my fears for the trip, and I can't help smiling. It worked out just how I wanted it to. Comparing what i was freaking out about, what Kent was worried about and what actually happened is good times.

I was worried about money and places to stay and all the deadly deadly things. While i jumped anytime i heard something in a bush or tree, all of those things worked out so well. Not only did i go scuba diving, thanks to a persistent Kent i went cage diving with Great Whites! I got a job almost immediately and made so many fantastic friends. The months FLEW by. As I sit here at LAX again, in the same exact spot i did 6 months ago, i can remember my panic and excitement. The nervousness that most people get when they are starting something that they know will change their lives somehow. And it most certainly has. I feel like i have confirmed the confidence that i always had, that if i want to do something i can, and i will do it well. I left Australia completely content in my experience. For Kent i think he got to prove himself to a few doubters, as well as himself. It was great as an individual experience as well as couple experience. For example, i will never ever get in a two person kayak with Kent again, this is something that almost ended in murder, we know our limitations :-) My mind has been in a whirlwind the last couple of days. I've been scrambling to remember as much detail as possible, every sunset at the harbor, saturday nights at the apartment, Monday movie night, how cold the water was on our shark dive, sitting on a boat on the ocean, morning tea while staring out balcony at Sydney, the CRAPPY theme songs on the trains. These are things i never want to forget.

Thank you to all the people that supported us and all the amazing people we met who made Australia fantastic

quick explanation

Just to answer those who did not understand the Kilojoules reference, i would like to explain what that is. In Australia, and from what i hear most other countries, on food/drink they also have something listed as kilojoules. this is besides sugar, caffeine, and carbs... as kent enjoys sugary sweets, he eats things with loads of kilojoules. i can only assume the obvious, and that this measures that actual amount of energy that can be produced from such items, so when he says "kilojoules" it refers to a running gag between the two of us when he was on the train and eating lots of candy and i thought his head was going to explode when he was stuck in one spot. this also became annoying when one is trying to sleep....

ok so I just saw a naked irish man next door and am kind of disturbed,

it was weird really there was knocking then I went to the door then there was a naked irish man, then two french men came home. seriously weird night.

I wrote this on the bus from Coffs Harbor to Sydney. The reason I post these is for FEEDBACK so please feel free to FEEDBACK. Danielle says it's my best work, personally I think it's pretty weak, I think that it holds a special place in her heart because it's

A) the only story I've written where she doesn't die.
B) hits home for her.

I think my best work is the first one, the second one is finish just not posted and then I have a third story posted that I think is my weakest work. Tell me what you think PLEASE! whether through email or just commenting on the board cause I always at least check.

*****

“Kilojoules?” He said

“No, no more of that PLEASE!” she said, more annoyed than she’d ever been.

“Bug? BUG!? PAY ATTENTION TO ME!” he started to get more and more annoying the more he talked.

“JUST LET ME SLEEP!”

“You don’t have to yell I’m just playing, I’ll let you sleep” He apologized, feeling rather bad.

“Bug?” he said once again.

“WHAT!?” she screamed just loud enough so the neighbors couldn’t hear.

“I’m sorry” he apologized once again.

“Just leeet me SLEEP!” she whined.

“I’ll just go into the other room, sleep well.” He said even more apologetically.

Half an hour later she was finally able to drift off to sleep.

BANG BANG BANG, came a annoying loud noise from the other room.

“What the hell is he doing” she said dozily not entirely sure if she had actually heard him banging on something in the other room but the buses rarrlte as he tried to type these sentences didn’t make the sentence typing any easier. “What are you doing?” she asked incredibly annoyed.

“I donno, just playing I guess.” He said.

“playing what?”

“I donno……… hit the table……with a hammer?” he asked although it really wasn’t a question, he had in fact been hitting a table with a hammer.

“can you do ANYTHING, quietly?” she asked, even though it really wasn’t a question that she expected an answer too.

“not really”

“could you TRY!?” she exclaimed.

“Well maybe if you paid a little more attention to me I WOULDN’T HAVE to be so loud”

“I can’t possibly pay anymore attention to you, unless I give up sleeping”

“We have coffee.” He said a little exasperated.

“are you actually advising, that I give up sleeping, so I can pay MORE attention to you?” she asked

This conversation seemed to go on forever, neither side gaining much ground but voices definitely started rising as they always did when they had this conversation. Eventually she hit the table with the palm of her hand, not intentionally knocking the hammer into the air, and hitting him right between the eyes, with the claw end. He dropped like a stone to the floor.

“Oh god…..Josh are you ok?” she asked but he just continued to lie their, like a big lump of coal. “Well, at least you’re being quiet …... hahaha.” she laughed nervously not entirely sure how coup with the situation at hand. “Ok, keep a clear head.” She told herself as she reached down one more time just to see if he was ok. “Josh, how are you feeling?” she pushed his one side until his body slowly rolled over. Just then she finally realized, that the claw hammer hadn’t just hit his face, it had stuck to his face, and when he fell pierced through his skull and collapsed most of his face.

“Oh god” she screamed as she slowly began to sob. What could she do, she thought to herself. Everyone on the block could of heard the argument by the end of it, and there was no WAY the police would believe a hammer had ACCIDENTLY killed him when it had completely destroyed his face, and the neighbors had heard the fight. So they’ve been fighting all night, and she accidentally hit a hammer that he had been playing games with into his face, which then he fell onto claw end first and it pierced his face. That wasn’t even REMOTELY believable, never would anyone happen to believe that. SHE didn’t even believe it, I mean in all her years this is really the most UNLIKELY thing that had ever happened to her.

Just then it occurred to her what she had to do. Removing the hammer from between his eyes, she then used it to remove every single one of josh’s beautiful teeth. His smile had been absolutely perfect, if she was caught she’d go straight to prison for ruining the national treasure that was this man’s smile. Next, going to the cabinet she fetched the bleach, and used it to burn off his finger prints, wrapped him in a bed sheet and began to drag him to the elevator.

“Oh god” she had said to herself, it was at least two miles to the harbor from their apartment she had no idea how she could get there. Hailing a cab, was the best way, she could pretend it was luggage, hopefully the cab driver was to dense to really understand she was bringing her dead boyfriend to the harbor hopefully the current would take him out to sea and one of the thousands of deadly things in these waters would take care of him for her.

“Where to mam?” the taxi driver asked.

“Oh the Harbor please!” she said as the sweat poured profusely down her face.

“At this time of night? The driver asked.

“Yeah gotta get this package down there before 4am, or I’m in deep shit.” She explained.

“Really? What’s in it?” the cab driver asked AGAIN.

“uhhhh, cabbages! Lots and lots of cabbages.” She said as she desperately searched for words.

“Really? What for?” the cab driver asked yet again.

“ummmm, the homeless?” she said starting to think she should of thought this through before getting in the cab.

“Why is it so important to get these too them by 4am? I mean with all due respect they’ll still be homeless in the morning.” He asked yet again.

Why couldn’t I have gotten a less chatty cab driver. She thought to herself. “Not these homeless, they’re uhhh getting homes at five, and this is their last chance for free cabbages?” she listened to herself and desperately trying to stop the onslaught of her verbal diarrhea.

“Well I guess that makes sense. Why are these cabbages bleeding?”

“ummm uh you’ve heard that old adage, you can’t squeeze blood from a stone? Well for months now I’ve been trying to prove you can. I started small with apples and moved to grapefruit I’ve finally managed to get cabbage to bleed next up? Who knows?” her voice cracked as she spoke each word.

“WOW! Really you’ve managed to make cabbages bleed? How did you do that?”

“A hammer!” it was the first true comment she has said in the last half hour.

“WOW! What an age we live in. Well that will be twenty two fifty, unless you’re willing to part with one of your amazing bleeding cabbages.” He eyed her eagerly then glanced to her wrapped boyfriend.

“No that’s ok” she handed him thirty dollars “keep the change” her voice continued to crack with each syllable.

“Wow thanks!”

There was no way that worked she thought to her self. That was even less believable than the actual story, and that wasn’t even close to believable. She dragged the body to the closest wharf tied some rocks to it, and threw her bleeding cabbage into the harbor, then began her long walk home.

Tan?...I didn't think I could do that....

Yes, it is true, I am tan. Well by my standards. When you see me you think, oh thats only a little bit of color, but then i show you the tan lines and you realize how freaking white i normally am, and you think i am black. Crazy. It only took spending hours outside in the australian sun to get what little i've gotten. oh well, i will take it!

besides my tan, things have been going great. Money is low, but that means we've been having a good time and that what this trip is all about. At the moment we are in Byron Bay, more gorgeous beaches and LOADS of backpackers. I think the tour on Fraser Island got us a bit more social and we met some cool aussies last night over Coronas and James Boag (one of the 3 aussie beers kent enjoys). Ladies i think i found the aussie men you requested. all engineers, but aussie so they have tans and while slightly dorky, still hot....sorry kent, they were. two are in the reserves, one as a contractor (aka, mercenary), they other as something else, i forget. but anywho, i will try to get them to come to the states with me so i can distribute them accordingly. Kent is now giving me the evil eye but, he has no room to talk :-)

This is Kent standing up very shortly after his first try on his surfing lesson. YEAH!! I was so proud, he didn't even think that he would be able to get up, and after 10 minutes he was catching his own waves! This was in Surfers Paradise, where oddly, most people don't surf. You can take lessons and its a good place for beginners, but the surfers say its too touristy and busy. I thought it was great. While i was laying on the beach i got to watch a Doberman puppy attempt to go in the water for its first time. his owner would put him near the surf and as soon as the water would come up, he would run away. SOOO cute.


umm, i will also post a picture of a tiger cub we saw at the Australian Zoo, but Kent wants to write another installation of what i can only assume will be me getting killed again. most likey by a shark...

******

This is the worst title in the world, I call this one Sunscream!


"Don't worry about it" he said "we're almost there."

"Well it is a little disconcerting when your skin starts to bleed like this" She said point to her chest. Sun bathing for two days in Australia with ABSOLUTELY no sunscreen on is apparently a REALLY bad idea.

"Well that's what you get for not listening to me." He said in his normal smarmy tonality. he had told her several times, to put on sunscreen, but she had constantly told him that she can't burn. what had started as an harmless looking enough burn had in fact healed but continued to feel like it was burning. One day while walking, she kept brushing her chest and it had started to bleed. After several days had gotten so bad they were pretty sure there was no skin between the muscle and the air. just then the bus stopped right in front of the hospital.

"Finally" she said keeping a white towel pressed against her chest.

"well we could've taken the ambulance or a taxi, but we're completely out of money." he said chastising her for some reason, even though she was OBVIOUSLY in really bad shape.

"will you just leave it alone" she cried. "I mean I didn't exactly want this to happen."

****

The Emergency room was literally shoulder to shoulder, he had to fight just to get to the window to get the paper work he had to fill out.

"Outta my way, lady with a dead baby" he exclaimed.

finally reaching office, he began to fill out page after page of tedious paper work.

"hope the next time my chest bleeds she fills out MY paper work" he mumbled desperately trying to think if she had ever had sex with someone from Africa . "Why do they even need to know that?"

"Who cares just fill out the damn paper work!" she screamed as if her chest were bleeding or something.

after what only seemed like a few thousand pages of questions about her life, they were finally done.

"Dr. Frank Hobart Jr." he said, "right this way mam."

"can you get me a wheelchair," she asked, "It's getting a little hard for me to walk"

"Not a problem" as he said that two orderlies came up to her with a wheelchair and wheeled her away. all he could do was sit and wait.

several hours passed as he sat there and counted tiles on the ceiling to help him pass the time.

"eight thousand one hundred and eighty two" he said, "eight thousand one hundred and eighty three"

"Excuse me sir?"

He jumped from his seat, "great now I've lost count."

"My name is Dr. Frank Carrington" said a rather attractive man who's teeth seemed to gleam every time he smiled.

"Is every doctor in this hospital named Frank?" he said

"Yes, but that's not important right now." Said Mr. Carrington

"What happened to the other doctor?" he said

"Your girlfriend bit him, she has no pulse or anything to suggest that she's alive, but we're sending her home with you right now." Dr. Carrington said

"that doesn't seem like it's all that good of an idea" he exclaimed.

"Well she's moving and she keeps asking for brains so we think it's best to get her out of here." just then another orderly rolled her up in a wheelchair.

"Hey sweetie, how you feeling" he asked.

"Brains?"

"Ok, we'll work on that," he said "thank you doctor you've been a big help I'm sure." they left the hospital and walked across the street to a cafe.

"maybe they'll have some brains here for you?" they quickly picked out a seat and he began to read the menu.

"Can I help you?" a young man came up to them with a paper and pencil ready to jot down their order.

"Brains?" she said.

"that's odd," said the waiter.

"what's odd?" he asked.

"well we've been getting orders for those all day! they've been so popular in fact we made them our special"

The waiter pulled out a slip of paper, and showed it to the young, incredibly handsome man, who's girlfriend would have no reason to look at other men who are missing their two front teeth. "Hmmm Brains in brain sauce?"

"Yeah, it's just tomato sauce but no one really seems to notice!."


*
*****

More on that later.

KMO

CRIKEY!

Today was the Australia zoo, I really enjoyed it. Both informative and fun. For example, women are 10 times less likely to be bitten by snakes than men are, you may be asking yourself why? well according to the guys at the zoo, snakes don't like going into kitchens, it's weird but snakes hate kitchens.

I wonder how snakes feel about pies, I should do some research on that.

really not much to report making the frigging most out of this FREE INTERNET!!

Brisbane finally

The trip is almost over, and we've made it all the way to Brisbane, Funds are CRAZY low, but we're still managing a good time. I'm not sure how often, if at all, we'll be able to get back here so it's good to get most of it done now, something to tell my kids when/if I have any.

one good thing about Brisbane is that our Hostel has FREE WIRELESS INTERNET!!!!!!! which is both exciting and a bad thing since it's now 10:05 and i'm online just typing away, but what am I supposed to do my American dollar is worth very little over here and my AUD is slowly slowly going the way of the dodo bird.

Money troubles aside its been a great trip! after Darwin we went to see Uluuru and The Olgas (can't spell the Aboriginal name for that one, it's offensive to call it that but if they want me to be able to spell it they have to make it easier to spell, inconsiderate aboriginals) They were big rocks, but impressive big rocks, sunset is supposed to be really great there, but we had so much cloud cover that it really didn't change the color of the rock like it's supposed to. Not really all that worried about it I got a picture of me touching the top of it, standing right next to it touching the top(the rocks not that big)

There's a guy outside my window talking about how his Mother was in a Nazi concentration camp and fell in love with the guard and was allowed privileges which he then used to cement his case for his mother being a gypsy, interesting story.

After Uluuru we went back to sydney and flew out to Tasmania. We booked a tour that looked good at the time, but after we got on it we were REALLY pissed, and ended up having to go back to a place because our cameras had died, but that place had a baby wombat and they're like 3rd or 4th on my list of the worlds cute things.

1)Gizmo
2) Kracker
3) Baby Sea-lions
4) Baby Wombats

I think that list is pretty solid, I DARE anyone to come up with better list. but our camera had died and we needed to get pictures of a Tasmanian Devil for barb, which are pretty cute animals in themselves. Then I started talking to a Kangaroo, which was weird since I may or may not have eaten his brother, and every time I asked a question it would shake its head and answer, danielle tried to video tape it, but that didn't work out because like every other bizarre situation in this world once you try to record it they STOP DOING IT!!!! stupid hyper-intelligent kangaroo. We tried to extend our stay in Tazzy because it is ABSOLUTELY beautiful down there, but it would've cost 204 AUD to extend ONE DAY!!!!! stupid airlines and their not letting me do things for free rules. I missed the part of the trip I really wanted to go on as a result, we would have taken a 4 hour boat ride from Port Arthur to Pirates Cove on the southern end, and we'd already done MOST of what was on that trip, but i really wanted to see the Tazzy coastline, it's supposed to be great.

back to Syd then the next day we flew up to Hervey bay where we IMMEDIATELY booked a trip for Fraser Island than watched TV and played Chess for 2 days since the Fraser Island tour took up roughly 1/3rd of our remaining funds.

The CoolDingo tour was REALLY great though first day we went all around to these Basin Lakes that are made out of sand and water and the water is crystal clear and the sand is white.(notice most lakes have some degree of sand/water combo) there's something about rotting vegetation and trees zapping nutrients but whenever I try to explain this Danielle corrects me so I'm not going to try. Most of this trip was just swimming at random basin lakes, and creeks etc, but we got sunburns and had a really great time, meet two english people, a welsh girl and a big group of Norwegians who we hung out with on the last day and even into the evening back on the mainland. Our tour guide Mike was a really great guy, hung out with us, went swimming feed us so much damn food we could probably not eat for the rest of our time here and still be using the fat from our Fraser island trip.

after that we took a bus to brisbane and slept most of the way. That'll get you upto date. I wish I had another story for everyone, but really the last one was a lot more spontaneous and now I can't get started. Also if I write a new one and it's not as good oh the pressure. I might try to write another one tomorrow but who knows. I got so much positive feed back from the last one that I really want to do it again.

Love
-KMO

IT'S LOBSTER TIME

So I had been driving for probably 4-5 hours, getting a little sleepy then out of no where i scare the crap out of kent by pulling VERY fast into a driveway. mind you this was the highway, so i was going fast in the first place and i saw a GIANT LOBSTER and i was like HOLY SHIT, we gotta stop here. once kent recovered he saw why i was trying to kill us, jumped out of the car and yelled IT'S LOBSTER TIME!! oh Australia, how i love thee and all your giant structures. now it was kinda sad that this little tiny village is completely built around this thing. there is a lobster motel, and lobster items for sale... and it takes about 2 seconds to drive through. the restaurant was closed for renovations, but we had to keep driving anyway.

this may be slightly anti-climatic after shark cage diving, but what could possibly beat that? so after we left port lincoln, we drove down to kangaroo island (i am skipping port augusta and adelaide because they kinda sucked due to a lack of time in each place). about 20 minutes south of adelaide is probably the most beautiful land i have ever seen, and it just gets better as you get closer to kangaroo island. as the name may suggest the island is full of animals (not a single kangaroo was seen). we saw the rarest species of sea lions just hanging out on the beach. watched fairy penguins court (and heard some mating, they are loud little buggers). one was on the stairs with us and trying to run away and because they have those non-exsistant legs, it would wobble then stop, and hop down the stairs, trying to get away from us. poor little guy was probably terrified and all of us were just going, awwww how cute!! the sea lions were a highlight for sure. this is the only place in the world where the public is allowed to share the same beach with these magnificent creatures. here is a video of the pups playing in the water. AWWW!!


after kangaroo Island we switched vehicles and headed down to melbourne via the Great Ocean Road. LONG drive, but very worth it. just gorgeous. when it got really pretty i wasnt really able to watch cause the road is ridiculously curvy and one side is sheer rock and the other is cliff, and no one else seems to be watching the road. kent almost had 12 heart attacks. i did too. go to Kents facebook for all those pics. we actually posted a lot of the pics. Melbourne might have been cool had driving through it not been the worst experience of my life. so picture this, you are driving on the left (they do that here) and you want to make a right, but there is a sign, it says, "right turns from left lane only." thats all. no diagram, no explanation. needless to say i made left turns till i ended up where i needed to be. i pulled in the parking lot, grabbed our bags, checked in the hostel, then went straight to the bar.

the next morning we went to the museum, much more impressive than the Australian Museum in Syndey. very very cool, and only 6 bucks! they had a huge exhibit on the mind and the brain, i think kent and i spent at least 2 hours in there alone.

the next morning we head out early 5:30 am, and catch our train to adelaide, haul all our crap to the YHA hostel, do laundry fall asleep then head out early again to catch the train to Darwin. two nights, three days on a train. very interesting. the first night was only bad because of the 12 kids running around screaming. They got off in Alice Springs so we had one night of decent sleep. We met a nice guy from Melbourne. He was moving to darwin for a job, he is a pilot. we also made friends with an 18th month old. she liked kents stuffed dog, so she was showing it off to everyone in our carriage. She made the trip very enjoyable. She also made us think of little sophia, and how excited we are to finally meet her in November!

Now we are in Darwin. where it's hot as hell and so humid when you get out of the shower you never dry...or is that just sweat...? the tap water is labeled cold, but after about 3 seconds it gets hot...We did manage to come up here right before the Wet so its our own fault. Tomorrow we are headed out to the Lichfield National Park so swim in croc free waterholes and waterfalls (guided tours so we wont get eaten, we promise) afterwords we are going on a croc cruise where we will go along the croc infested adelaide river and bait 5 metre crocs to jump out of the water and get hunks of meat hanging off our boat. good times!!! i am very excited.

now i need to fill this space with more mumbo jumbo while the video of the sea-lion pups load...wait i have a better idea, here is kent.
~D

what to say what to say.

It was a night, very much like this one. Drunken people were hanging out by the pool, when the girl got up to go take a pee. Her useless BF was sitting on his laptop killing time until a stupid video of sea-lion pups finished uploading. "Loading this video is costing us a fortune" he said to himself as he tried to think of what on his ipod could possible replace the incessant whining of the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack the Girl had thrown on.

"Ahhh" he heard a scream from downstairs.

"For me to get up and go all the way downstairs to see what it is could end up costing me even more if I'll wait until this stupid video finishes uploading." He said

Then a thick red fluid very much like blood, or tomato sauce(Ketchup to those americans reading) splattered across the window.

"Just a minute" he said waiting for the video to upload.

The screams got closer and closer, echoing down the hallway like a pack of sea-lion pups carefully playing in the.....hallway?

"Just a minute" he said as his mind tried to formulate a better metaphor for the sounds going on in the hallway.

as he continued typing not really paying attention to what or how his sentences formed on the page. another thick red fluid seeped through the hole between the door, and the floor, similar to the first one but this one was on the floor rather than the window, and also there apparently was a lot of it, cause seriously it just kept coming and coming through the door. Very shortly after he started hearing thuds as if some very heavy footed individual was walking down the hallway, after every step a dragging noise as if he were carrying something. Possibly the size of a small the medium sized human or several children, not moving at all, quite possibly the body of a sea-lion pup or several for that matter. also there was a sloshing noise coming out following that. Much like the thick red fluid that had become so abundant recently were squishing out of the thing being dragged by the heavy footed individual, or at least he thought having not moved from the front of his stupid computer screen and rather than investigate he would like to write LONG run on sentences.

A knock on the door followed.

"Is it important" he said to the door, or the individual knocking on the door "cause if I get up and this video finishes uploading while I'm at the door and I could post my blog post and log out then I've wasted extra minutes that I didn't need to and could use them tomorrow for more important things like checking the redwings information that I so desperately crave or even check my email to make sure my spam folder is empty, I do seem to be getting them a lot recently!" As he finished his sentence he wondered why he so craved to explain his every thought to the person behind the door, I mean he really didn't need to know about his red wing fetish or that it was costing him fortune sit here typing while he could be doing more important things.

"Well not really" the voice on the other side of the door said, "I mean I can always come back, if you're busy"

"Well, a little, I could put it on hold but really if this video finishes posting and I don't notice then I might lose a lot of precious minutes and have to pay another fucking 30 dollars for half an hour of internet time."

"Well I'll come back think half an hour would be good" the voice on the other side of the door said.

"Yeah that should be fine, what do you need"

"Oh nothing that can't wait until 1030"

"Thanks I really appreciate it" he said, still waiting for that annoying video to load.

"Not a problem" The voice said "see you around 1030"

the footsteps and dragging and sloshing noises started again, as he heard a knock on the other door of the second floor of the youth hostel that until right now he hadn't thought of how inaccurate that name was since a lot of people staying there seemed in their 50's. The screams soon began again, and the red fluid once again began to flow underneath the door.

"Someone out there must really like tomato sauce." he said completely oblivious to the fact that the entity on the other side of the door was obviously killing people and collecting their bodies and dragging them off. Completely and utterly un-phased that most likely his girlfriend who had been so good and understanding through the years was indeed included in those bodies being dragged off.

"I wish I had some chips, or fries as the americans would call them" He said wondering why he felt the need to explain to himself that the americans, himself included, call fries something other than chips, and Australia actually calls them Hot Chips, as well as Chips and fries, although his sentence hadn't in the least covered even half of that.

"I wonder when danielle is getting back" he said without capitalizing her name in his speech which he also thought was impossible til that moment. "I hope she brings back some chips"

The clock struck 1030 and once again the knock came on the door.

"I'm still waiting, again if it's that important then I'll just answer but could I possibly get another half an hour?"

"No worries mate, I'll just move up to the third story" voice on the other side of the door said to him.

"Thanks I really appreciate it" he said thinking desperately for a different way to say he said.

The footsteps slowly made their way upstairs, the knocking screaming and sloshing continued. Sure enough from the ceiling down their ceiling fan came that same red fluid that reminded him so much of tomato sauce he could almost taste the tomato sauce in his mouth as that same fluid dripped into the center of the room.

"I may have to file a complaint with management about the overabundance of tomato sauce but the surprising lack of chips" he explained to himself as the tomato sauce like fluid continued to pool in the center of the room. It now covered more than a centimeter of the entire floor, and that stupid video had yet to load.

the screams at the top of the stairs soon enough stopped and sure enough after that the footsteps slowly made their way down the stairs and stopped right in front of his door. The knocking followed and he again responded with the same response.
"Still not done" He exclaimed.

"Seriously, this is getting ridiculous, there are other hostels I have to get to in town tonight you know." The voice on the other side of the door roared.

"I know but I only have 32 minutes of internet time left, and if I miss my opportunity to load this video then well then I might have to pay another quadrillion dollars to get more wireless time, and it's PRICEY." he fought back in his typical overly defensive early in an argument.

"I'm sorry about that I really am, but it's just that I have a REALLY tight schedule tonight, do you have any idea how many backpackers there are in this town?"

"Not really, I mean it's kinda off the beaten path, and it's off season, you don't happen to have any chips do you?"

"Why would i have chips" the voice asked sounding more confused than ever.

"Well it's just that there's all this tomato sauce and that I thought maybe you were delivering chips to all the attendants here at this lovely hostel, seemed logical at the time" he explained once again not really sure how long this damn video was going to take to load.

"No I'm not delivering chips, I assure you, could you just come and answer the door?"

"I guess gimme a minute"

He canceled the video and got up to answer the door.

HOLY CRAP MY PANTS!!!!!

Ok;

So we started today FREEZING, we've been sleeping in our car for the last two days. got up early to go on our SHARK TOUR!!!!!

2 Hours out to the Neptune Islands! Saw wild seals then went around the corner where the crew started to throw out bait for the sharks within five minutes there was one there, first group went in and not a lot happen, by the time the second group had gone I started to panic a little, danielle will at test to the fact that I was concerned that I wouldn't get to see sharks while I was actually in the cage. I did get to see them breech 2 or 3 times which was PRETTY AWESOME but when the second group went and we spent the whole time feeling bad for them I started to panic.

Third group goes and by the end I'm CRAZY JEALOUS, everything I wanted to happen with the shark diving happened to them. It bit the cage, it hit the cage with it's tail, swam around a lot, you know all the things that sharks do.

We're supposed to be up next but two people jump in front of us.

So the next group goes, EVEN BETTER than the last dive. Still not great but the shark did all of the things that sharks do with the biting and the swimming.

Our turn to go and right as we're getting ready the shark bits the cage so hard he closed the lid! WE'RE STILL NOT IN THE CAGE!@!@#$%^

so I'm like GET ME IN THIS CAGE!!!!! so they get me in the cage, and for like what seemed like a terrifying eternity I was a lone in the cage until SOMEONE finally got their ass in there (this probably took a whole 2 minutes I was just alone in water with a big shark and it wasn't even around I was just pretty much scared.) So everyone gets in and the shark is going CRAZY, it ate EVERY piece of bait that they threw in the water swam RIGHT UP TO THE CAGE, bit the Cage, Bit the BOAT, bit everything that it could bit. At one point it was so close to me I could almost touch its fin then realized that that would be incredibly stupid because I could potentially lose an arm. after the dive everyone said we had the best one, and almost the entire Highlights DVD that we purchased was for OUR DIVE. which is more by default than anything cause the guy only filmed like 2 of the other dives, but seriously dream come true, such an amazing expirience. Danielle is starving and now I have to feed her and then go drink manly beers since I've done such a manly thing all day!

OFF TO THE MANLY BEERS!

Love
KMO

Just about to go!

Well it's been four short short months here at Sydney. we've explored Cairns upto daintree and we've explored Sydney to Newcastle. Next up is Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Adelaide, Darwin, Alice Springs, Uluuru and the Olgas, Adelaide, Melbourne, Adelaide, back to Sydney, then to Tasmania! unfortunately since we've got rail passes, and all trains pass through adelaide we end up going back there a lot. after that who knows, we're either going to try to do the east coast or New Zealand. OR god willing BOTH, but we'd need something along the lines of ehh at least 1500 to do both, I haven't ran any number on that that's a rough estimate, but I figure, probably not possible. Who cares it's going to be a great trip after port lincoln I'm probably not gonna care what we do. today is becoming quickly a pain in the ass because of all the packing. We may have met our "replacements" not NEARLY as good looking as us but seem like nice people, sucks because we don't leave til Wednesday and they would be sleeping in our bed. To bad we didn't keep Jeff's Airmattress, oh well couchs are all right.

Gotta go

Love
KMO

pictures!!!

These are a few of my favorite shots from the trip with all the Michigan people. All of them have Lindsey in it cause i was sending her some of our pictures, also I think these are all from the last night in Sydney, so I sorry Michelle, you aren't in any of them :-( The other set I like are from the Reef Trip, but there are 300 of those and i am too damn lazy to go through them all. Anyway, ENJOY!!

Cairns and Beyond!

Ok here is a really quick summation of what we've done over the last week. Jeff, Lindsey, and Michelle arrived Saturday, we walked them around Sydney to see the Opera House, the RBG as well as the Bridge. Sunday was my Birthday and we went out to this great pizza place. Monday I worked and Kent took them to the Sydney Aquarium, after work i ran home finished packing and we flew to Cairns. In Cairns we eventually found this great hostel/hotel called the Northern Treehouse. Great room and atmosphere. We stayed in Cairns for 4 nights, we went on an all day Scuba Dive (swam with a shark), laid out on the beach, visited the shops, drank, and slept. Awesome time. We rented a station wagon and headed north to Cow Bay near Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Rain forest. The drive was spectacular, well from what i could see, the curves were so tight and on a cliff that i spent most of the time focusing on the road while everyone else appreciated the view. That was an interesting experience, driving for the first time on the wrong side of the road in a large wide station wagon on an extremely dangerous road. Once we arrived in Cow Bay we went on a Daintree River Tour where you spot Crocs, that was a lot of fun and our captain was the stereotypical aussie. We were the last tour out and we got the boat to ourselves. The next morning Kent and I woke up super early to go on a ocean kayaking trip where we kayaked along the coast line while the sun rose to a private beach, where we were served breakfast and snorkeled off shore at the reef near by. Perfect way to start the day! We made the trip back to our hostel (giant elevated tarp tents in the rain forest), picked up Lindsey and spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the beach and getting too scared to snorkel after we spotted a sting ray.... yeah i know, we are babies. You couldnt see three inches in front of you at this beach though and if you learn anything from shark week, if visibility is low, dont go out to the reef... We left early the next morning for Cairns and spent our last day on Trinity Beach soaking up some rays...getting burned in odd places, Kents ankles, my shins, michelle had two spots on her hips.... oh and my neck...

Now we are back in Sydney, and I need to get back to work :-D

Would Everyone Please Put Their Hands Together

For the newest member to The Morton/Russell family, SOPHIA MARIE RUSSELL!

wow

So I was thinking about what our plans are for the next few weeks and i realized how fast this is flying by!

Squi, Jeff, and Michelle are flying in this Saturday. We leave for Cairns Monday night after i get home from work, return late the next Monday. Send off Dave and Lu (roommates), Kent and I go back to work Tuesday, but spend the evenings showing Syndey to Squi, Jeff and Michelle. They leave the 2nd, Kent and I work for a short week. APEC is happening so Sydney is pretty much shutting down. We are going up to Newcastle with friends from Randwick that Friday, taking a long weekend. When we get back from that, we only have three more weeks of work and then we go backpacking! CRAZY!!!!!!!! I can't stop saying that it seems like we JUST GOT HERE! I'm sorry everyone, but i haven't even had time to really miss anyone! Maybe when we are backpacking and i am sleeping in a tent at a croc infested campground i will long for home. It also helps that facebook and e-mail exists, i can check up on whats happening while i work (shhh, dont tell my boss). I think the only person i don't talk to is Lindsey (Parkin) and thats cause she NEVER RETURNS E-MAILS OR FACEBOOK MESSAGES! hint hint!

So whats been happening here in Sydney. I made stuffed shells again, they turned out much better this time. I broke down and bought a glass casserole dish so i could make them properly. It was our turn for Monday dinner and Australian movie night. Lu and Dave brought their two friends, and the regular crowd (david, aoife and sarah) turned up, so the total in our apartment was 10. We had plenty of food (but not forks or couch space) and it was a blast.

Saturday we went to the Clovelly Bowling Club (lawn bowling). That also was great. The club was right on the ocean with spectacular views, the beer was super cheap, and we all brought something for a big BBQ. I made crack pasta (its a hit here too mommy!), and we had sausages, roo-kabobs, chicken, salad, loads of awesome cheese and crackers, and then lots of other things like olives (they LOVE their olives here), these AMAZING peppers stuffed with cheese, breads, etc. I have pictures of this as well. I think you are all getting used to not seeing them, so I won't promise anything this time. Jennifer was much better at posting pictures than I am, sorry. Both the Mortons and my family have CDs with almost all of them, inlcuding 30 pictures of gravestones and about 50 of sailboats, so if you REALLY wanted to, go bother them :-D

umm, i think thats about it for now.

MAKING HIS DEBUT!

Kent! THE NEWEST AUSTRALIAN MODEL!!!!!!!!

Australian Idol is on now

My god Australia is actually MORE obbessed with reality TV than the rest of the world. but they don't have their own shows, they just rip off american and british shows.

This week I had to throw a BBQ for aussies, and it worked out really well. Oh my god Australian Idol is painful, why is it still on! this weekend consisted of the flat mates going out to dinner and drinking a buttload of wine, we finished off 5 bottles between the well, 5 of us, but that was mostly me and Dave, the english flat mate.

Other than that this weekend consisted of Laundry and celebrating our extensions, Oh my god an austistic kid is trying out for Australian idol. Australian TV is really bad. Friday we worked all day, then after that I went home and Aoife (eefa) picked us up and we went to a friends house and they decided to show us several Australiana films, we watched part of, my god some australian girl is singing Glamorous by Fergie it's really high pitched and terrible. We watched Ten Canoes, which was an aboriginal film that made really little sense, something about cell phones and having 3 wives and dancing in front of on coming spears, it had a lot of really great colors if I was awake for most of it(or sober) I might have actually enjoyed it. We also watched part of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which is about Transvesitites, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce are in it and play two of the three Transvestites, there is one really disturbing part dealing with a drunken asian girl and ping pong balls, I'm not joking when I say there's a man in a banana suit peeing into a urinal. speaking of banana's we went to Paddy's market to get our fruit we didn't get any banana's but they had them we got apples and oranges, the guy in the banana suit plays a a ukelele, we also got red peppers and green peppers which here they call capsicums because it is apparently the genous of the pepper for more information on Capsicums please visit here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum

they also call like hot peppers Chillis which seems lazy, they also pronounce the J in Jalapeno and the T in filet. Ok I'm done for the day, so I'll talk to everyone later, I'm really tired if no one noticed.

-KMO

Hunter Valley

It was just fantastic!



We got up at 6am packed our bags, headed down to the bus station around 8am, and began our journey to Hunter Valley. It was only about a 2 hour bus ride, and I got a book from the library before we left that's called 101 questions, so we did that for most of the trip up there. We've been dating 5 years, but there was a lot of stuff we didn't know about each other. It was fun, at least I thought it was :-D



When we arrived at the hostel around 11 am, we checked in and walked around the grounds, had a cup of tea for like an hour, then got on a mini bus to start our wine tour. Our guide, Gordon, was the only person on duty at the hostel (just to give you an idea of how small this hostel was) and we had a total of 17 people in our mini bus. Gordon has worked in the Hunter Valley for quite some time, befriended a lot of the workers/families from the wineries, so we got to visit a few of the very small boutique wineries. He picked each winery for a different reason, the first place was family owned, and because of that the prices are a bit lower. They ferment in the "traditional" way with wooden barrels, and we got quite a range of wine to taste. Kent found this absolutely amazing Shiraz. When ever I drink wine, there has always, ALWAYS been this bitter after taste, not this stuff. It is the smoothest wine I have ever drank before. so we got one bottle of that. Then Gordon took us to a cheese shop to taste cheese......OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! Australia specializes in soft cheeses, there were two kinds that kent and wanted to get soooo bad. they are $14-$16 a jar, im seriously thinking about going back to buy them. and then there was a chocolate shop, bread and olive oil tasting, and this jam cart. i was in heaven. Kelli, you would have died had you tried these cheeses, SOOOOOO GOOD. they put gregs cheese sauce to shame! So after i pried myself away from the cheese we all got back on the bus and headed to winery number 2.

This place fermented it's wine in steel barrels, i guess it makes the flavor a little truer to the fruits used. The guy that guided us through the wine was good friends with Gordon, so we tried a LOT there. they had two wines i had never heard of before. a pinot rose and sangiovesse (sp?). Both were very good. We only got the pinot rose, kind wish we had purchased both, but i think we can find this particular winery's wine in the shops in Syndey.

Then we stopped for lunch and went to the tempest two winery. wasn't impressed with anything they had. Then we moved on to our final winery. As Gordon said, he didn't pick this place for the quality of the wine, he really like the owners and the land. It was just gorgeous!!!!!! and the guy that owned it was named Diamond and was a horse whisperer.

I can't say enough about this trip, the price of that package was a steal and we have some great memories. eventually i will post pictures....

also, this is zach braff's blog. i find it halarious. http://www.zachbraff.com/

I need to use the loo

As the title may suggest, this isn't going to be a long post...

I've been a bit remiss with blogging lately. Sorry about that. My computer at work decided to blow up (figuratively, not literaly), and I've been busy at work SOOOO deal.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have an interesting surprise picture posted for you all. It will not disapoint and a few might even be jealous (even more so i guess). It will just demonstrate how awesome I am of a girlfriend.

I made Mrs. Morton's stuffed shells for everyone at the apartment, along with Mark's parents who just flew in from Ireland. They all loved them and had second and thirds, so your recipe has been spread around the world Lorna! I think I used a bit too much ricotta and the casserole dishes were a little shallow, so I didn't get to use as much sauce as normal, but I think I did your dish justice. It's not the same without Greg's breadsticks and cheese sauce though.

Kent finally got his hands on Harry Potter, he's been reading it since Saturday. I did get him out of the room long enough to go to the Aroma Festival (coffee, tea, and spices). that was a lot of fun, it rained, but we had good $1 coffee to keep us going. We went to this cafe that Dave's friend works at and had more coffee and he brought out these AMAZING desserts which he gave us for free (yeah he got a GREAT tip). Im not kidding you, these things were fantastic. It has a bakery at the cafe so its all fresh and yummy....im drooling just thinking about them. I think Dave has pictures, I may just ask him to give me a copy so you can see them.

I was going to talk about something else, but the desserts have taken over and I can't remeber...

~D

models everywhere

Well another event of mine has finally gotten underway. Sony Vaio organized a photo shoot on the square so there are models out and about. Earlier when the first model came out, there wasn't much of a crowd, but then the second one came out (with a lot less clothes) suddenly out of no where, men were standing all around! MAGIC!

Work has been crazy lately, my computer is freaking out so I am on another one right now. I can't do any work till its fixed. YEAH! My desk is just full of folders of new clients and because its all happening so fast when I finally get around to putting it away I have to pull it out again! I find myself wishing for a vacation...then i remember i am on vacation.

Kent and I made reservations for Hunter Valley, finally. We said we would do it in July and we stuck with that. I am proud of us. We will be heading there the 28th, we are going on a wine tour and staying at a hostel. I am really really excited. This is something that both Kent and I REALLY wanted to do, especially since Hunter Valley specializes in Riesling, which is Kent's favorite wine.

Shepard's Pie

Well a while ago Mark (Irish) made Shepard's pie and let me try some, and it was YUMMY. So i decided to make it last night. It came out almost perfect, I think next time I will use a bit more gravy, but other than that it was so good. Kent ate 4 pieces :-) It surprisingly easy and its a great winter dish. Yeah for my improving cooking abilities!

Kents now banned from the Blog

So last night around 3am kent comes into the room and says in a whispered tone, holding back giggling laughter "i updated the blog while drunk" then he left to go play medieval again. So this morning I signed on to read what damage he did. Besides suggesting that i am upset all the time, he did alright. he was even able to type decently, i am impressed, but that doesnt mean that he is going to be doing it again...SO he is now banned from blogging while drunk....

The Future is in the Future

Those are the lyrics to an electric six song. but my point is still valid. Danielle started getting upset today and my whole point was if you think that will happen then it will happen. Think positive. So As of this week I have been offered a postion to stay here, but I didn't have to turn it down before they offered it to someone else. I didn't want to take it, I'd rather fulfill my plan of working at schnieder and getting an IT degree, but it was nice to feel wanted. But at the same time, restaurants will give full time Visas here it's not hard. but again, it was nice to feel wanted.


Right now I'm sitting watching the tour de France pissed out of my mind with my roommate dave he's probably pissed because i've been on the PC so long. Matthias has long gone to bed and I should too soon. danielle and I plan on taking the ghost tour this weekend or going up the tower. I'm a great typist.it rules, I really am awesome.

we were supposed to go out to get drinks but I ended up telling a bunch of mom's ghost stories as well as dads! and we just got pissed here, even though lou was to scared to goto bed, it's been a really great time here. the bow flex LOVEs australia, and so does boxed wine.

My job seems to take more time in Morning Tea and Afternoon BBQ's than actual work. which is fine I'm well fed. Danielle seems to get a little upset, but I'm well fed. Despite the fact that after the second time I had a Morning Tea, I said to her doesn't this seem like a great waste of time and resources. I'm hammered right now, and LOVE how much my company feeds me.

the wings signed Rafalski who should help them out defensively and offensively. but if they plan on going on with Lilja as their 4th they should just resign Danny Markov because he's better and they could Trade Lilja for a Bag of pucks and get fair return.

Dallas Drake signed, or should I say resigned with the wings, the player once called the dumbest player to play hockey by Senoir Scotty Bowman is now a Wing AGAIN, which isn't TO promising, but whatever, they say they've wanted him for 6 years I find that hard to believe.


in my opinion Sign Mike Johnson, and Danny Markov or JUST DAnny Markov and let the rest fell it's self out. I gotta goto bed because I'm tired. but Our forwards are stocked. just let the rooks play. Just my comments on the wings offseason moves. Also let the lions die, just move them out of detroit so they aren't so bad anymore ahh whatever. I'm sure they'll last.


love


KMO

Success!

Last night wasn't bad at all. I got a really nice free dinner (wine, appetizer, and dessert included). Met some VERY interesting people. Most of the night I talked with this one guy (currently practicing artist, but came from the 70's). I thought he was about 70 years old, but Jennifer informed me that he was only 55. Must have been all the drugs. Seriously though, this guy has the long crazy hair, gestures wildly, and if he was from the states i swear he would have said "man" at the end of every sentence. He is a total hermit. I guess it was a big deal he came out to dinner. BUT ANYWAY, despite his hermit like existence he was very up on new technology, and Jeff and Jen you would have LOVED talking to him. Poor him, got stuck trying to talk to me about math and geometry on they molecular level, and how everything can be reduced down to that and how he thought it was an artists responsibility to represent what technology can't see yet. When i said, oh my friend did research in nanotechnology he said "oh what did he do?" then I said "SHE did something with something...it was over my head." then he went off on this tangent about molecules and I think silicone and all I could think was, I bet Jen and Jeff would love this guy.

Then there was this famous Asian photographer that was there...again, these people were wasted on me. But he was very nice, he spoke very broken english, but he seemed genuinely interested in what i was saying and what i was doing in Australia.

its 5pm, i will write more tomorrow.

Schweppes Dry Ginger Ale makes my teeth hurt

I couldn't think of a title, and my bottle of Ginger Ale was next to the computer so that's where the title came from.

So tonight I am invited to attend a celebration dinner for the exhibit that just opened up at Customs House. I'm a bit nervous, most of the people are artists...and we all know how they can be. Kent won't be going with me (I was specifically told no significant others) so it should be interesting. Normally I wouldn't mind him not going, but its the whole artist scene...that scares me a bit. I will just drink/eat constantly so no one can ask me questions... Maybe Aussie artists are different though. WE SHALL SEE.

I think we are going to another Sydney Swans game this weekend (Aussie Rules Football). That will be a blast. It's a really fun sport to attend and the fans are fun too. Good environment to be in. Plus the drinks and food are a reasonable price. Still not cheap, but not the 9 dollars a hot dog crap we have at home. Its probably because its such a huge part of the culture, well American football is a huge part of our culture, and they still price gouge, so maybe its just the Aussie attitude.

Kent and I did not go to the Zoo this weekend. It just seems to always be canceled. We did go to the Aquarium though and that was great. It was a rainy Sunday so the place was packed, and I do mean packed. It took away from the experience a bit, but once you got down in those underwater tunnels, you forgot about it. I got some great pictures and video. Who knows when that will be posted.

Speaking of posting pictures, I'm a bit slow and I forgot that with my library card, I have free access to the internet at a bunch of libraries, including the Customs House, which most stations have a USB port, so Kent and I can post as many pictures as we want. YEAH! We just have to come down here on a weekend and do it, so we no longer have the excuse of lack of internet bandwidth, we are just lazy :-D

We also made the trip down to Kings Cross to check out the US aircraft carrier docked there. That was pretty cool. I wish I could have gotten a chance to board, but you either had to be on the list or a prostitute....

Ok well thats enough for now. Back to work!

My Sister is the BEST!

Yes, indeed she is. In case you haven't seen it yet, Jacqueline was nice enough to post Kent and I's aussie pictures on her facebook seeing as we can't. If you want to check them out, go to her Facebook!

TGIF

Even though I am exhausted (due to a week and a half of terrible sleepless nights), I am glad its Friday. Out my office window right now the sky is cloudless, the Sydney Harbor Bridge is in view and I can hear the ferries in the Harbor. Can't get much better than that. Yesterday after work, I crossed the street and watched the sun set at what is considered to be the most beautiful harbor in the world. You all can be jealous, it's ok :-) Did I mention its the peak of winter here and I don't need a coat?

Yesterday it was very windy...again. In fact it tore the roof off one of the trains crossing the Sydney Harbor Bridge...now I don't know if that's a testament to the wind, or the quality of public transportation here. You be the judge.

I bought Kent and I tickets to the Sydney Aquarium, so now we have to go. No excuses this weekend! We plan on doing that on Sunday, it's supposed to rain, so it's a perfect day. On Saturday at least Kent, myself, and Matias are going to the Torango Zoo. We also plan on checking out the US Ships that sailed into Harbor yesterday. I saw some footage from one of the photographers here at the Customs House and they were impressive. I know my Dad will enjoy any photos I take.

My boss and co-worker have left again, I figured they left for lunch, but it's been an hour and a half now, so they probably had to go to a meeting. They've been especially busy today. So i am here, updating the blog again. I think thats going to be it for now though!

Oh and jim, your webbles (sp?) are great!

My New Life Goal

So I decided what I want to do with my life. Jackie Sue, you already know this, I told you like 3 years ago. When I grow up Iwant to be the host of a travel show. Before I was just kind of tossing the idea around, but now I'm starting to be more serious about it. So far its the only career that gets me excited. Everything else just doesn't really suit me. So anyone know how I would go about becoming a host for a travel show? Do you think I need to take acting lessons? god i hope not.

Happy 4th of July!

I meant to post this yesterday, but I kinda forgot. Seeing as it's already 6pm back in Clarkston, it's a little late, but I wanted to wish all the park people good luck. I hope it's not too hot and you only have a couple assholes to deal with.

Kent and I spent our 4th eating Subway (ode to my tradition with my family) and lighting sparklers on our balcony. We went out there and didn't tell our roommates what we were doing and Mark ran out saying THE BALCONY IS ON FIRE! He was pretty freaked out, then we gave him one and he was happy again :-D Wasn't the same as spending it with my family in Clintonwood, but Kent's surprise of sparklers made it very special.

As for everyone else, HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

To my family, try not to have too much fun without me, I know UNO just isn't as vindictive when I'm not there :-) I miss you guys!

5 Years

Yep, it's true, Kent and I have been together for 5 years. CRAZY! I can still remember the time we played poker at Jen's with Jeff and I kicked their asses and got all the Cheezits. Was that really five years ago?...wow. Dinner was really nice and this whole BYO policy saves so much money. I had hot sticky toffee pudding for the first time and ohhh man, it is amazing. I want to go back and have a cup of coffee with it. Champagne was great, but I bet coffee would be even better.

Before we went to dinner we walked around Crown St and met this really nice guy named Glen and his puppy. That made our day. She was very sweet and very loving. I offered Kent and I's services any time he wanted a dog sitter :-D We also watch Eurovision (sp?) and oohh man my life is changed. Jackie Sue, you would really love this. Look up Eurovision, Ukraine, 2007 on you tube. thats all im gonna say. prepare to be AMAZED. i was and i am in love.

On Sunday Kent and I finally got up to Le Perouse which was this beautiful little fishing town. It was more than that, but so great. We felt like we had the place to ourselves and got to see this guy and his snake show (we missed most of it and plan on going back). we climbed all around this old fort which is on its own little island. (we didn't get to go inside, it was closed and tour guided only). We sat on the beach and ate sandwiches and cookies that i made. Then we just walked around a bunch and watched the sunset. A couple hang gliders scared the crap out of us, we were taking pictures of the sunset and they just came out of no where in front of us, but other than that, it was great. It was a perfect Sunday evening. Then we went home and I made tacos....so really it was a perfect day :-D

Work is going well, it has picked up a lot. Friday was a blur and I'm still not sure what all happened that day. So much all at once....

Ok well I think thats going to be it for now. TTYL!

This weekend

Thursday danielle and I went to a pub with a group of Irish, and a Kiwi, we both got sick. it was generally a bad Idea. Friday my boss got mad at me for working to much, which is kind of weird but I guess it's unreasonable for me to want to work SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS A DAY. completely unreasonable.

I haven't Posted in awhile, and Danielle continues to gets shit about it. :)

Saturday we did laundry and went out and had a VERY nice dinner at a little place on Crown street for our 5 year anniversary. Then we went to the clock hotel for drinks afterwards. They were packed so we went on to their balcony and drank in a reserved area. Oops!

Today we went to LaPerouse, which is just a little town. It has a fort and a museum but by the time we got there those were closed down. It was still probably my favorite part so far. Just little seafood restaurants and people fishing off rocks. I think after I make my hundreds of Millions of dollars I'll buy a fishing charter boat and live on the east coast somewhere, like the guy from the fog. Either the new one or the old one, If it was the new one I'd be a lot sexier, but i'd also be a complete tool.

I just heard that there was a Yahtzee stabbing in the states. Crazy americans. But work is going well, everyone wants to ask me question about what it's like being hated wherever I go for being american and I make a joke about them shutting up or I'll bomb their ass, if they're english I'd say that they'd be speaking german, or germans would be speaking russian right now. Danielle and I celebrated FIVE YEARS which is official tomorrow. Tomorrow smoking is Illegal in every indoor areas in australia. Bar owners are pissed because they figure people on their gambling machines will have to take breaks to go smoke outside. I hate not being able to drink smoke and gamble at the same time.

That's it

-Kmo

:-(

Got some bad news. My Grandpa Joe passed away.

YEAH!

i almost forgot!

The new Louise Rennison book comes out next month! YEAH!!!!

blogs are a pain in the butt

I don't make a blog in a few days and I get yelled at. GEEZE! it's not like i have a job and am trying to explore another country! My job has picked up the pace a bit which means less time spent on blogspot updating. This is a good thing, believe me, i was going a bit crazy sitting here staring at the screen for 8 hours. I've also noticed that my old habit of eating constantly while working in an office has started up again. Luckily, kent and i dont have much food, but when we do...oh boy watch out. then tammy and jennifer bring in chocolate and im eating that every two seconds...

So its raining again. It's alright, it suits my mood today. Got some bad news about my Grandpa Joe. I guess he isn't doing well at all. Makes me very sad. I ate a lot of chocolate last night. Went through most of my travel size tissues as well. Those don't last long at all. :-(

Other than that, it's been a good week. Kent and I did this costal walk in Randwick (where he works) and it was gorgeous. kent went as far to say it was the most beautiful coast he's seen. i would agree. The way the set up the coastal walk was very nice. they have sections where you can just go sit on the edge and stare for hours on end at the waves...and the stupid body boarders who get freakishly close to the rocks. We plan on taking jeff, squi and michelle on this walk. We only did a very small portion of it, but you can walk all the way from bondi to coogee (sp?) beachish area and it take a few hours. so beautiful. we have pictures...just havent posted any yet. Then we went to an Aussie Rules footbal game that night with Mark (Irish). That was a blast. Drank lots of beer and the two boys heckeled the magpies (we were cheering on the sydney swans), and got threatened by a couple fat men. it was a lot of fun. i'm kind of a fan of the sport now :-D

Sunday wasnt the best weather...again, so we chilled out. we finally found K-mart so we did a little shopping there, then went back to the apartment and watched movied with the flatmates. well we watched one movie, Lord of the Rings 3, but since its so damn long with 15 endings it counts as mulitple movies.

last night kent picked up a bunch of veggies and we made veggies and rice and he ate chicken along with it. very very yummy. i think i could live off pasta and veg.

ok back to work for me, hope thats enough to satisfy you jen!

also who the heck was that guy that commented on my last post?

Well, Kent's done it, I'm insane!

I really don't think that it is Kent's fault though, many people who knew me before would say I was insane then too.

So I figured I hadn't told anyone yet about how we made Roo Rolls. I might have, but I'm just too damn lazy to go through all the old posts and see if I did. Kent and I decided to be adventurous and buy kangaroo meat and make burgers. We were a bit apprehensive, the meat looks really gross we weren't sure if it was like beef and you weren't supposed to cook it all the way or like chicken and if you dont cook it all the way you die. (I hear the chicken hear kills you too...not really). Seeing as neither of us wanted to get sick, we (meaning Kent) pan fried those up and I sauteed some onions and made some homemade baked potato chips. OH MAN, it was sooo damn good. Roo Rolls rock. Kent liked them as well, but felt bad, I didn't. I hope to have them again sometime soon. I have pictures of us making them, but I'm at work and can't post.

Last night Kent got a hankering for Manwich, but the dont sell it here, so we made our own. I think we used a bit too much tomato sauce, but it was damn close and yummy. Lu was really interested in it. She had never heard of it before, she tried a bit and i think she liked it, but im not sure. i cant read the British.

This weekend is supposed to be great weather and Kent and I both get pay checks so we are GOING OUT!! We plan on visiting Le Perouse, its a city about 45 minutes south of us which has an old fort and a museum and a park where this guy puts on a free snake show. (you sickos, actual snakes). They also have a beautiful beach there as well, so we plan on spending the day walking through the town and seeing the sights. We also are going to go to the Tarango Zoo, which i hear is great. Probably spend half a day there, then we plan on checking out the Chinese Market in Paddington. Lu told us that if we go there around 4 or 5 they are trying to get rid of their produce and we can pick up some cheap stuff. If i see some good deals i plan on doing most of our fruit and veggie shopping there. It's just so expensive every where else. I so excited to be out and about this weekend. The rain has put a real damper on the sight seeing, but now that we are getting paychecks we can go to more museums and the aquarium, and maybe convince the roomies to have a night out at the Casino. Well i'm at work so i better get going!

no one tell

I'm secretly removing danielle's posts and putting them back up once she realizes. Lets see how long it takes her to go insane. Mwahahahahah


-Kmo

Ok Ok ok

So before anyone asks why I haven't been updating and only danielle has, I SHOULD put up and update before everyone thinks danielle fed me to crocs.......AGAIN!

SO, I started my job today, some may ask why I'm posting on my blog, on my first day. Well I started on a friday, and everyone left around 4 except for all the bosses who left at 11. some country eh. actually this place only makes you work 9 days every 2 weeks, I will be worknig 10 because I need the money, but regardless, I rule.

The last 2 days have been a drag I was supposed to start work Wednesday that job got cancelled and I had to wait til friday to get started which means less money on tomorrows thursdays paycheck, but also means 2 days of video games and laundry with my roommate dave from england. YEAH!

In the next two weeks, I would like to, Goto a game of Aussie Rules, Wrestle a kangaroo again, Visit the Aquarium, just goto a beach and eat something in one of their many many cafes over looking the water, convince everyone to play a game OTHER than medieval(i prefer medieval alone) maybe convince Mattias to buy an xbox or something it'd be a waste of everyone's time but now that we're both making money that whole More time than money thing can just go out the door and I can try to get a equal balance between time and money where I make just enough to do everything I want to do and live it up.

while typing this I was disturbed my co-workers just wanting to chat. I think I'm one of 5 people in this entire building. So So Different.

Ok now its there..... i have no clue as to why it chose not to show up when i first checked it.

Damn Internet

I posted a long cool blog yesterday, but it's disapeared now. CURSE YOU EVIL INTERNET GODS!!!!

I beleive I tried to explain why there were no pics, but I dont feel like doing that now :-(

~D

sorry for the delay

I guess it turns out that if I don't post, we go days without putting something up and people think we died. We are not dead, don't you worry!

Brad, in response to your message asking where all the pics are, I will just do a quick update. Here in Australia, and I guess other places as well, you have different levels of broadband. The cheaper plans allow you to use up to 2 GB of bandwidth a month. That's what we have. The price doubles for anything higher, and we are poor so we arent upgrading. THIS means that we will only be posting minimal pictures seeing as we share the internet with all the roomies and we ruined last months internet by trying to download the last episode of Lost. We weren't aware of the bandwidth limit :-( We will still post them, but we at this time, we can't. We ruined the internet till the 15th when the new billing cycle starts. SO KEEP YOUR DAMN PANTS ON!!:-D

If anyone is wondering, yes, I am updating from work. Everyone abandoned me and I am praying that only people who have questions I can answer call. So, I decided to update our blog to stick it to the man.

Apparently there are Targets and K-marts in Sydney, and I am planning on visiting them this weekend. I want to see if their household products like toilet paper and shampoo are cheaper then their grocery and pharmacy stores are. I REALLY hope so because 6 people go through a LOT of toilet paper REALLY fast. We just rotate who buys the stuff and its our turn. Mind you, someone bought a pack of toilet paper about 5 days after we got here, so we went through a pack in about 1 week and 3 days.

Ok boss is back write more later!

~D

yo yo yo!

Well, this weekend was a bank holiday, it's the Queen's Birthday, so Kent and I were all excited to go up to Manly and North Sydney and see the beaches...It's rained, and when I say rain, I mean monsoon! It's kinda funny because as you walk down the street, you see broken umbrellas everywhere. All the trash cans are full of them. Ours has lasted so far, but it does have a tendency to go inside out at the slightest breeze now. The winds are unlike anything I've experienced before. This isn't normal though, all the aussies keep saying that this is very unusual. The rain isn't, but the 40 mile an hour winds are. OK anyway, So kent and I went up to the Australia Museum, that was cool. Then we came back to the apartment because our shoes and pants were soaked through. The weather reports seem to say that Monday will be a little better, so hopefully we can go up to Manly and North Sydney then.

Oh, so I don't know if any one else noticed, but there is an American show playing here called Torchwood, the main character is the lead guy from Shark Attack 3. I was excited I noticed, Kent was embarrassed that we would know that. There is a part in the preview for the show that he says something like "didn't you know that I'm the man that can't die" and then he makes the "Megala-who!?" face, and i was like, HOLY CRAP ITS THAT GUY!

So I survived my first week at work (by that i mean two and a half days). Seems very interesting. My boss is an interesting woman. I am going to wait a couple weeks to pass any judgments though. I'm not sure quite how to take her yet. She seems to like me and has been very nice so i can't complain. The building I work in is so awesome. It's a government building, but its very modern in the inside, and it has a free "lounge" where they have a huge selection of national and international newspapers and a room full of magazines that people just come in and read before work or on their breaks. It's like a library but not. And they have a Library as well, plus three restaurants, a scale model of the CBD (central business district) under the floor in the entrance way, exhibits through out the building, it's just such a neat place.

Alrighty, there is a special on deadly Australian animals that i have to watch! TALK TO YOU LATER!

~D

Be careful

What you wish for or you just might get it.

For the last five days danielle and I have been saying, oh how I wish it would rain. Today it's raining, yesterday it rained it will rain tomorrow and the next five days. Today danielle worked and I did as well, all I did was tell people, Yes it is raining, no it won't stop, the wind sucks I know, no I can't do anything about it at the meteorology department for Sydney. met a man named warren invited me out for beer couldn't make it because of the rain, but plan on calling him up and seeing if we can go next Friday. Turned down a trip to the Tree(3) Wise monkeys to get drunk at home which should explain everything. Danielle is asleep I am denmark The english are pissed at each other and all is well. does anyone know if ashton kutcher plays the drums in a band? I swear he's on the TV right now. Apparently Aussies say "Hows it doing" Rather than "Hows it going" which is more grammatically proper in the first place. Don't point out how terrible the grammer is in this entry. Jim moved to Chicago and we will be posting a link to his blog on this blog, then we will join the two in a cross promotion. No one will care, but regardless we'll triple our fan base, Michelle, Mike, Jeff, My parents Kelli, Kyle, Karla, Danielle's parents, Brad, and then well that's about it, if jim and I had more friends out blogs would do better. Please send jackets parents this country has become freezing over night. I NEED A JACKET!

David's B-day!

Well today is our flatmate's birthday, so far we've (and i mean the boys) played hours of Medieval 2 Total War. In about three hours we are going to head to this Italian place called Remos. They have a BYOB policy so we are going to stop and get some wine and try to save a little money. I'm excited to get some good food. As most people know, i am not the most talented cook, so poor kent and i have been have noodles and chicken nuggets a lot...and i do mean a lot. Our British mates always make these delicious dinners and we are all staring at them eating, drooling on the sidelines and all Lu ever says is, it's just veg with some sauce! (vegetables) and they seem to think its some simple easy thing to do. and it's not sauce from a bottle, they make it from scratch and its different every time....and it smells soooo gooooood. Ok, well now im hungry and bored so i'm going to go take three hours to get ready for dinner.

Oh i forgot!

My first day of work went well. I am working at the Customs House for the manager of the building. I have a lot more responsibility than I had imagined, but it will be a great experience! if anyone wants to check out where i work, here is the site. It's a very cool building!

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/customshouse/

~D

Boys are the same, no matter what country you go to!

So, I'm sitting here updating the blog because Kent and the other male roommates are all playing Medieval 2 Total War... Michelle, you know how much fun this is. This just goes to show that England, Ireland, Germany and the US aren't really that different. Crazy boys.

Today Kent got to make photo copies for 4 straight hours. Lucky him! I cleaned the apartment (yeah, I did, so no laughing any one!) and walked around Surry Hills a bit. Hung out with David (the Brit) until Kent got back from work. Learned that Kent and I need to move to the UK because degrees actually help you get jobs there. Who would have though!? He also told me about this radio station that used to be on ship and would sail 10 miles off the coast and broadcast into England so they could avoid the laws. Totally redefines the meaning of pirating music to me!

We've also taught the roomies how to play Texas hold em'. A previous tenant left a set here and we saw it and were like, "Any one want to play." And they all did and tonight was the second night in a row we played :-) We ate pizza and played poker and it was great!

OK, I'm gonna head to bed. Have a good night everyone!

~D

sunday sunday

Well today Kent and I went to Bondi Beach. It was very nice. We walked through the Bondi Market which I guess is held the first Sunday every month, lots of good deals and I will definitely go back when I get some money. Jackie you would fall over and die if you saw all the skirts there. And they are all like $10, which for here is UBER cheap. There was some sort of surfing competition going on when we walked down on the beach, so we didn't stay long. Not to mention, it was rather chilly, but oh man i could spend a few days there sitting on the beach and trying all the food along the strip by the water. Kent and I walked by there when we were hungry and it took all we had to not spend our money there. It also was our first time using the bus, it was unusually crowded (according to a girl I talked too), and on our way back, it stalled in the middle of the street and we had to all get off and wait for another one to show up. Beginners luck! It really wasn't too bad.

Other than that, not really much news. Tomorrow is my first day at work. Yeah! I'm excited and I doubt I will sleep well tonight. My legs/feet are killing me from all the walking, but on the good side, my legs will be in GREAT shape in 6 months!