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May 6, 2006 Well, those survey questions are trickling in quite slowly, so if you have a spare minute, send me a question... I'd have updated this by now, but there have been very few questions sent in. I'll give you another couple days to respond before I post what I have. This week I started working out at the KX (Read: Kings Cross) Fitness Center. It's not that I'm getting fat or anything, in fact, I'm in better shape than when I left, but I still want to drop a couple extra pounds, plus, Billy knows the guys down there pretty well and he got me a free two week pass... so I figured, why not try it. I've never worked out at a gym before... at least nothing since our high school gym. It's a new experience for me. I started on Monday... I've only been going for about a half hour each time but it's been intense cardio stuff... rowing machine, bicycle, cross-trainer... nothing heavy. I'm just not interested in gaining too much muscle, just toning myself up a bit, dropping a few pounds, and getting my lungs back into shape (this season's allergies has given me a bout of asthema.) So I've been in 3 times now, and I can honestly say I HATE it. I have decided that I abhor just working out. It needs to be more fun. Maybe if I was going with someone that I could talk to instead of Billy (he just puts his headphones on and goes) but this working-out for working-out's sake is DULL! So I will probably keep going until my pass is up, but I doubt I will continue afterwards. Plus, now it's cool enough out that I can consider skating or something outside without worrying about overheating. I hate being hot. The reason that I've only gone 3 times since I started is that today and yesterday I've been filling in for Justin at work. He went on a boating trip or something and asked me to take his shifts. So, for the first time in almost a year, I'm working 6 days in a row! Wow. Yeah, my life is rough. Actually, it kind of is. I have to work 6 days in a row immediately before I take my quarterly trip out of the country. I get off of work (my sixth day) at 4am on Thursday and have to be at the airport by 8am! We leave on the 11th and return on the 13th. This time we ARE going to Hobbiton! So help me if I have to walk there I'm going! It could be an exhausting trip. So it's going to be rough on me, I hope that I can manage to get enough sleep on the plane that I can enjoy my time in New Zealand. The benefit of this is that I've already paid for my plane tickets and accomodations, so these 6 days are nothing but spending money for us while we're there. Plus, I've already saved up a bundle, so we have money to have some fun this time, plus we can buy a bookcase and bedframe when we get back... yeah, we've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor this entire time. It may seem like I make a ton of money, but there are just SO many things that we had to cover during our time here that things like bedframes get put off till the end. Once we have the bookcase and bedframe, that will be it for furniture... we won't even need any more electronics. Three computers is plenty for our purposes (although I may do some minor upgrades). So I will begin saving money for larger items... like our next trip home, paying off my parents for all their help throughout the years, and then a boat. Yeah, I really want a boat. I think it would be fun to live on for a while and maybe even learn enough about sailing to find my way back home. Well, I suppose people are looking for more pictures and fun stuff like that. Ok, hold on, let me see what I've got. I have been working pretty hard on artwork lately. I've had some custom pieces that needed to be drawn up plus Sheryl asked me to draw her a picture. She had this wacky idea that she wanted to get a temporary tattoo on her belly now that she's pregnant. She wanted a picture of an alien baby ripping it's way out of her. So I drew this up for her. Yeah, you ask me for something sick and disgusting like that and I'm more than happy to oblige. Seems to come naturally to me. I don't know where it comes from... I had such a happy upbringing.... so no, Mom, it's not your fault. I also finally got the new SleeveMasters website up and running. I invite you all to check it out. Soon we'll have an area that you can order mechandise as well. I'm working closely with a small company that is setting up an online store and they will be carrying all our stuff... until then, if any of you want anything, just email me and I'll be glad to get you something. If that's not enough, I finished the new magazine ad as well. I've been getting such good responses to it (including kudos from the printing company) that we've been considering making the ads into wall posters to sell on our site. Last week Tuesday was Anzac Day. From what I was able to glean from everyone, this is kind of like a Veterans Day here. They take it a lot more seriously, though. During 1915 there was a war in which the New Zealanders and Australians tried to take Anzac Cove from the Turks. Apparently this was a pretty rough job because of the terrain. The invasion force was named the Anzacs. They were supposed to have help from the French army, but seeing the rough terrain, the European forces opted to land in a different area. The Anzacs stuck to the plan and rushed the Turks. Apparently they were outnumbered and most of them were killed but they managed to take the cove. So Anzac Day was started as a rememeberance of the Anzacs and even though all of them are now gone, it continues as a day to remember all veterans. I don't know about you, but if half my force didn't show up, I'd put off the invasion until another day rather than get all my men killed. So it half seems like a celebration of dumb luck and brute force... stupidity rather than heroics... no offense to any Aussies intended. Just my view on it. They take the day very seriously.... far more than we take our Veterans day... although I have a feeling it's primarily because it's a good day to drink and gamble. Still, they have a very moving cerimony at dawn on Anzac Day down by the harbor. I didn't go. I didn't find out about it until about a half hour before it began and I was just getting off work. One of the traditions of Anzac Day, other than an excuse to get totally wasted, is to gamble at a game called Two-Up. It's a game where you bet whether heads or tails will come up on a coin. Seriously, it's about the most useless and boring form of gambling I can think of. Circles of gambing formed up all over the place... in bars, clubs, even right on the street. People just stand around a flip a couple coins and if it's heads you win if it's tails you lose, one of each and it's a draw. I heard people bettng as much as $200 on one flip of the coins. I just didn't get it. It went on for a full 24 hours. On this particular corner, they had thrown down pea-gravel to keep the coins from bouncing all over. It was there when I left from work at 4 in the morning and was still going at 8pm when I came back. Crazy Aussies. To make matters worse, my counterhand is a proud Australian and felt it his duty to imbibe as much alcohol as he could... so he came into work smashed. He kept trying to pick fights with the customers. For the first few hours I just had him sit in back and try to stay calm. After about 4 hours he started to sober up a little bit... that's when I tore into him. I had him clean all the tubes, not just mine but everyone's. I had him clean everything else twice. I really worked him hard. When he got all finished, he mentioned how much harder that night's work had been than most nights. I replied that these things happen when people come in to work drunk. I told him that I more than likely would never dock his pay, I probably wouldn't fire him... but when he screws up he will wish I had fired him. Come into work drunk again and I'll make him scrub the grout in the floor with a toothbrush. Anzac day meant dealing with a LOT of drunk people, not just my counterhand. I would have to say that 100% of the people who came in for tattoos were at least tipsy. It made for a very stressful work environment. It wasn't all bad, though. I had a LOT of people come through the door and as a result had a couple really good days in a row. Completely unrelated... I saw this and I thought, "Yeah, Matty would really enjoy this picture." Ella and I were at the movies and these two girls brought in their pet ferret. It just seemed like a Matty dream... cute girls out on the town with their ferret. So this is for you Matty. Anyway, that's about all the news for now. I should have more for you when we get back from New Zealand. Till then, don't forget to send me some questions. -Bob |
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April 18, 2006 I'm sure some of you have questions about what I've been doing, or questions specifically about Australia... so I thought it might be pretty cool if I send out a request for questions. If anyone has anything that they want to ask, send it to my email address NoOnesGod@gmail.com and I'll be happy to answer any and all questions. I'll make up a nice little survey with the questions that you ask and answer them on my blog. Plus, this will give me something to write about when my life gets humdrum enough that I don't think you'd like to hear about it. So there you go. Nothing that interesting today, but a project for all my friends to work on. Cheers! -Bob |
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April 15, 2006 Well, this is an odd one... here I am updating my Australia blog! I bet you're all wondering what my excuse will be this time. The truth is, I just haven't been doing all that much that is really interesting... at least not Australia-wise. It's pretty much become a day to day of doing my thing... which I'm sure would be pretty boring for all of you. To bring you up to date, I've finished redesigning the SleeveMasters website, now I'm just waiting to get the codes to upload it to the server. Once I do that, I'll repost the link so you can all check out my new work. I've been asked to create another magazine ad for Tattoo Revival and I've started working on that. I recently finished redesigning all the t-shirts in the shop. We made a pretty large order this time and we should have the new shirts in some time this week. Once they're in, I'll post some pictures. I've finished designing the Kings Cross Art Guild poster and that has been approved and is currently in printing. On top of all that, just like everyone else in the States, I had to pay my taxes, so I've been saving up my money so I could send it home and pay the $2K I owed... yeah, I OWED that much! Blech! Serves me right for taking money out of savings to go to Australia! Lee, my counterhand, has finally gone off to do his tattooing stuff at Skin Deep Tattoo in Newtown. So I was left to hire a new counterhand. I did one better and hired two. Ben helps me out on Mondays and Tuesdays. He's a great guy, he's going to Uni for music and we talk music all the time. We're actually in the process of helping each other with songs so that we can go out busking, just us two with guitars and him on his sax once in a while. Lee brought Ben in to help out. Apparently Lee used to coach Ben. Ben is kind of doing Lee a favor by counterhanding for me. he doesn't really have an interest in tattooing, but loves the job. Hey, what can you say about being paid to talk to people and essentially doing about an hour of work a night and getting paid $100? He thinks it's the best job ever! My other counterhand is Toby (not to be confused with the Wisconsin Toby) and HE is also a great guy who is really interested in being a tattoo artist. He is just amazing when it comes to helping me with the artistic side of things and has also been a graphic artist for a number of years and we are very in tune with each other on that level. With Billy, we're currently working on a way to print out stencils directly from the computer. I think it should be pretty easy.... Billy is working on the dot-matrix/heat generated printer idea... I'm convinced I can make something else work for me... we'll see. If either of us figures it out, we'll make quite a bit of money selling the product. See... I'm getting off the subject... Back to Toby... I met Toby while I was tattooing him. We got to talking about art and whatnot. I asked him if he would be interested in learning to tattoo and he jumped at the chance. Well, jumped at the chance may be a bit strong... I called him up months after I tattooed him and asked if he was still interested. I also had some ulterior motives... his friend, Paul, who I also tattooed, has his own recording studio and runs his own record label. Yeah, I like my new friends. Anyway, I've been jamming with Paul and occasionally Toby. Paul wants to start a new band. I've been mainly playing bass, but it's really difficult to practice without mine here. I've tried to feel it out on the top four strings of my guitar, but it's just not the same. So I have some new friends, some new co-workers, and a lot more work than I had last time I blogged. I bet everyone wants to see some more pictures, though. Ok, fine. Here in Oz, Easter is a really big deal. It's the end of summer, so all the autumn activities that we have, end of harvest fairs and such-and-such, get bundled into this holiday. There are all kinds of events going on all week. Unfortunately I've been kind of under the weather and tomorrow I have to go back to work again... so I miss out on most of it. Speaking of being sick, I can't ever remember getting sick this often before in my life... and then it hit me... I'm working in such close proximity to people... in such an intimate fashion... plus I'm working on a lot of backpackers, a lot of travellers... I'm picking up so many germs from all over the world... it's no wonder I get sick. I wash my hands religiously, but nothing keeps them from breathing on me. Hence... I'm sick more often. Sucks to be me. Ok, back to Easter. So Easter is kind of like our Halloween, they throw all of their end-of-summer celebrations into it. So there are a lot of costumes for the kiddies. Like this one. Now tell me, how many mafia members do you know that go around with t-shirts proclaiming that they're in the mafia? Since when are mafia members anti-christian (as inferred by the upside down cross)? Ok, that aside... do mafia members call their jewelry "bling"? I mean, I want mafia "bling". I think everyone does, don't they? This part is not Easter, nor even Australia related: I was working on my computer the other day and I was trying to do something that really shouldn't be done with my graphics program... and I got this error message. I've never seen this before. Is it like throwing a shoe on a horse? Is it more like a child throwing a tantrum? What the heck is throwing and exception? I just picture my grumpy little dwarf inside the computer, stomping around and waving his tiny fists in the air. (Sketch of Aloysius courtesy of Jim, circa 2002.) Back to Australia stuff. I've been telling everyone how things aren't nearly as dangerous here. I mean, the riots that everyone heard about were a BIG thing... but nothing compared to the rioting and looting that was going on in New Orleans. Heck, can you call it a riot when the police are able to put a cap on it so quickly? That and I didn't see anything about guns. Want to know why? They don't use them here! I swear, people will offer to stab you in the throat at the drop of a hat, but you never hear anyone say they're going to blow your head off. Not like in the states. If there IS a shooting, it makes for huge news. Like this article... I mean, he wasn't even killed! What were there the night I left Milwaukee, 7 shooting deaths or something? I mean, seriously, this city is bigger and things like this make the paper. Please. The other day when I was working at the shop, Mick came in for a visit. Mick is owned by Max, one of the owners of SleeveMasters. Mick is an Australian python, one of the few non-poisonous snakes that Australia has. I held him for a while, but he really wanted to go back to Max... and let me tell you, even at that size, you don't want to tell him he can't. Very strong, those little pythons. Last week Friday, Ella and I went to the Maritime museum. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say, I let little miss lush try and plan our trip there and we ended up walking for miles. Maybe that's how she got her name. At any rate, we were only at the museum for a couple of hours before it closed so I don't have any pictures. We will get pictures up later because we WILL be going back. This was probably the best museum that we've been to.... that is if you don't count the Sydney Aquarium as a museum. Plus, it's free... so yeah, we'll be going back. On our way TO the museum, though, we had a chance to walk down by the Opera house and the harbor and there was a young man doing a street act. You don't see many street acts like this. Most of the time you have to go to a circus for this kind of performance. Here he was, though, out on the sidewalk, 15 feet in the air, on a bed of nails, juggling fire. It was a good show, even though we walked in on the end of it. Anyway, that brings you up to date. Looks like we're going to be taking a vacation to New Zealand again next month, Ella hasn't gotten everything quite squared away with her school visa yet, so we need some more time. I'm also saving up money so that I can buy the entire Lord of the Rings Extended Trilogy with the special edition boxing while I'm IN New Zealand. It just means more having it come directly from there, you know? So watch this space for more updates and hopefully something more interesting will happen to us. -Bob |
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March 26, 2006 I'm not sure how to describe today. It was productive, but not in the way that I would have preferred. To begin with, I had a lousy Sunday. Probably the slowest Sunday I've had since I got here. Just one tattoo. So I'm going to have to take money out of my savings to pay for rent this week. Then I find out that someone at work had to go to the hospital the night before. It wasn't a complete waste of a day. I did a lot of cleaning, emptied and filled the autoclave, re-upholstered the arm-rest, the foot rest, and the counter stool with heavy vinyl. Plus, after some major uploading in the last few days, I can finally update my blog with all the stuff that everyone has been missing out on. Major accomplishment. So my day was productive... but the non-paying kind of productive. How do you classify that? Good or bad? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the major update. I'll try to stay more on top of it now. It was just one of those things where I got behind because I came home for a couple weeks and couldn't update... then when I could, there was so MUCH to update... and then I had to catch up on the new stuff... just a snowball rolling down a steep hill. I'm caught up now, though, so I hope you enjoy. Also, check for new updates in my "Tattoo" and "Fine Art" sections. -Bob |
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March 16, 2006 Recently a couple of my dearest friends posted bulletins to have a new MySpace group banned. The group in question is "Fuck the Troops", so all the armed forces supporters are signing a petition to have them booted. My question is, "WHY?" First of all isn't part of the reason that we're at war right now is so that people can have the freedom to speak their mind, the right to voice their opinions, no matter how ill-conceived? The right to say what they please without the fear of death, imprisonment, or, god forbid, being booted from a blog site. Secondly, I just can't fully disagree with their point of view. I've gone to the group, read some of their posts. It seems to me that the group is just fed up with the way we've glorified the military. They just don't want their significant others, their children, their siblings, friends, etc., to be drawn away to fight in a war that most people don't even agree with and that very well may end up with that person being injured or even killed. I mean, forgive me if I can't say that they're completely full of shit. My protest against the current administration and their need to fight with the rest of the world is one of the reasons that I'm living where I'm living. Now, before you go getting all up in arms and thinking that I want all the troops to go to hell, keep in mind that I have a few friends in the military, I have more friends and family members that are vets than I can even count... the name of this blog was "An unfortunate name..." I think that the group actually has some good intentions, and while I can't back all of their beliefs, I certainly don't think that they should be banned for having an ill-conceived name. The simple fact is that I don't want people to start censoring anything. I WANT to be able to read (or hear) other opinions. It keeps my mind open even if don't agree with said opinion or I think they're complete morons. Freedom is what we're fighting for... for our own, for the freedom for others in less priviledged countries... I think it's hypocritical for us to petition for them to shut up. -Bob |
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March 13, 2006 I got up and went to get a haircut. I had let my hair grow out quite a bit in order to keep me a little warmer when I came back to Wisconsin. When I returned to Sydney, though, the heat was just too much for me and I decided to cool myself off by getting a little off the top. Unfortunately I was butchered. I got the worst haircut I've ever gotten. I don't just mean that it wasn't the style that I like, but it wasn't even cut well. I'm thinking a blind, epileptic, midget on stilts with a hedge trimmer could have done a better job. I've been wearing hats perpetually ever since, it's fine because I like wearing hats, but I don't like feeling like I HAVE to. Still, it's so bad and I'm so embarrassed by it that I won't even take a picture for you. You'll just have to imagine. Last weekend was the gay Mardi Gras. Ella and I didn't get a chance to go, we were busy relaxing after Sheryl left. I did take some time to go down to the Cross and take a few pictures. Things were a lot busier than normal. There were also quite a few costumes, but nothing like what was over on Oxford street. Not many people were willing to let me take pictures, though. Still, when I went into the grocery, there was a... um... person... wearing a tight pink blouse, a short, tight, yellow skirt, and y-front briefs. Yeah, the skirt was so tight and sheer that I could tell. Oh, the bulge and goatee were a dead give-away if that wasn't enough. It was an interesting time. I saw some interesting artwork and there were even some people playing in the fountain. It was a busy couple of days at the shop, too... but afterwards things just died down to nothing. So Lee and I had to find other things to occupy our time (video). Yes, that was a water balloon. I took some more pictures of the people I work with, too. This is Lee and his new girlfriend, Megan (pronounced Mee-Gan... there are no Meg-ans in Oz). I even got a couple pictures of Justin. Justin is the guy that I relieve when I come in on Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. He's pretty cool once you get used to him. Plus he's been giving me quite a few tips in the last couple weeks. Well, that's all for now. I'm just glad that the site is back up and running. -Bob |
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March 4, 2006 I know it's been a long time since my last update... so this is going to be a doozy of a read. I have a lot of pictures, though; some videos, so it will be worth it. Once we got back to Sydney, things started to go a lot better. We breezed through customs and spent the last of our cash on a taxi ride home. Once we got home, we had nothing in the refrigerator for food or drink... not even enough sugar to make Kool-Aid. Lee had made some while he stayed here, but he doesn't like much sugar in his, so it was pretty bitter. Luckily we have a change jar. Ella went down to get some groceries while I took a quick shower. This bit took me a bit by surprise. While I was in the bathroom, I hear a female voice from outside. "Lee! Lee! ... LEE!" I couldn't believe it... I'd been home, what, 45 minutes and already Lee's harem had started to converge on the place? How many women had he brought up here while I was gone? What kind of brothel had my quiet little apartment become? "Who are you looking for?" "Oh, you're back? I was just looking for Lee. So he won't be here much anymore, will he?" "Probably not." "Ok, sorry to bother you." Believe me, the tone I used in this little dialogue was FAR from welcoming. Come to find out later that she was my neighbor from across the alley and Lee had just watched a movie up here with her one night. Nothing sorted. Apparently I had tattooed her and he had hit on her a little bit. Well, one night after work he was walking back here and was inadvertantly following her. She got kind of freaked out and he explained that he lived in the building right next door. Lee, of course, charmed her into watching a movie with him. I probably should have my couch cleaned just in case. Still, it kind of bothered me that there was anyone here... including Lee. I don't really let people come back here. I don't like for people to know where I live. So I'm kind of keeping my residence at low-profile. So having someone yelling up at my window was a bit disturbing. I only had a couple hours before I had to be to work, so I unpacked a little bit and got my equipment ready. Ella and I picked up a couple boxes of Magnetic Poetry while we were back home, so I put some of that on the 'fridge. We'll be making a page of the better things we come up with at some point. For now, this one is for Ben. After I checked my email it was about time to go... especially if I wanted to obtain some caffine on the way there. This is where it started to go a bit wrong. Spuds & Douglas, the cafe where I usually get my mocha was closed. Fine... I can get a Coke or something... I get up to the shop and it's still closed. I figured someone would be along soon, so I set my box down and grabbed a seat. I had given my apartment keys to Lee, along with the shop keys. I assumed Billy would be there soon. Noon... 1 O'clock... the guy who had been taking my shift showed up, realized I was there and took off. He didn't have a key either. 2 O'clock... Max, the half-owner of SleeveMasters pulls up and asks what I'm doing there. I told him I was there to work. He asked where Billy was and I responded with a shrug. He let me in and I started my day. I had just about gotten all my new equipment into the sterilizer when I had my first customer walk through the door. I was really hoping they didn't want anything big because most of my stuff was being cleaned at the moment. I had forgotten that everything I had needed to be sterilized. I lucked out and they ended up not having enough money. By the time the sterilizer was through, I had gotten a good bite and was setting up. It ended up being a slow day, comparitively. Billy came in around 5 and was THRILLED to see me. Seriously, I don't think, the entire time I was home, that anyone gave me as warm a welcome. I'm pretty sure he didn't think I was coming back. At any rate, I made enough money to pay rent and get some more groceries... so it was all good. On the way home, I got a reminder that I am back in Kings Cross. Precilla, one of the resident weirdos, was having something of a breakdown and had decided that she was going to sit in the middle of the street and wasn't going to move! I took a short video of it. What you are seeing is the cars in the street driving slowly into the parking space on the side of the street in order to get around her. The interesting parts, that aren't on the video because I didn't get it out in time, were when the bus came up and it knew it was too large to fit in the parking space and had to wait for traffic on the other side to stop before he could pull around. The best part was when a cab started to go around her and the sports motorcycle behind her thought he was pulling in to stop, so the bike revved up and gunned it only to see Precilla at the last minute. He stopped hard and end-oed right in front of the cafe that caters to bikers... so there was applause. It was an interesting sight and strangely enough, I stayed until she got up and moved, 15 minutes later, and nothing happened. No one yanked her up by the collar, no police showed up, no one ran her down. It just ended and the Cross went back to normal. I got home from my shift with the intention of staying up until at least midnight. I needed to get right back onto my schedule or I would be completely useless come my next shift, where I had to stay awake until 4am. I unpacked everything and then started to edit some of the pictures from back home. All of a sudden I realized I was sleeping! I had completely passed out and I didn't even remember laying down. It was dark out, and I looked at the clock... 11pm. I tried desperately to figure out what had woken me up... my phone... I stumbled towards it but it stopped ringing before I could get there. Then I hear from outside, "Oh, there you are, mate! I just wanted to check to see if you were in. I'll come up." I still wasn't awake, on top of that I was stumbling around in my underwear and then I hear a knock. Lee had come to bring the keys to me. Nice of him except that I was in no condition to see anyone. I was so out of it I could barely stand up. I just wasn't waking up like I should. On top of that he brought his girlfriend with. So there I am, being introduced in my underwear. Nice. Lee was also really happy to see me and gave me a big hug, which kind of surprised me but I was in the condition I was in, I couldn't object. So he introduced me to his new girl as "The One," and I wasn't in any shape to mask my disbelief as I rolled my eyes. To his credit, he has been with her ever since and, to my knowledge, hasn't been with anyone else... so maybe... but if you, my gentle readers, had experienced all the flirting he's done and all the times he's said that he was done with the sleeping around and had found "The One," you'd have rolled your eyes, too. The next day I got up and went to get a haircut. I had let my hair grow out quite a bit in order to keep me a little warmer when I came back to Wisconsin. When I returned to Sydney, though, the heat was just too much for me and I decided to cool myself off by getting a little off the top. Well, unfortunately I was butchered. I got the worst haircut I've ever gotten. I don't just mean that it wasn't the style that I like, but it was even cut well. I'm thinking a blind, epileptic, midget on stilts with a hedge trimmer could have done a better job. I've been wearing hats perpetually ever since, it's fine because I like wearing hats, but I don't like feeling like I HAVE to. Still, it's so bad and I'm so embarrassed by it that I won't even take a picture for you. You'll just have to imagine. The rest of the week was pretty typical. I was working hard on trying to get some artwork done. The first thing I had to do was the artwork for the Kings Cross Art Guild Events Calendar Poster. I was told that I had pretty much free reign as long as it wasn't too risque (apparently they'd had complaints about a previous year where they had a woman being spanked) and it could only be three colors, black, red and white (Black and Red being the colors of the Guild.) They had suggested a Waratah, a symbol of Sydney, and also suggested some imagery that would bring to mind the characteristics of Kings Cross. This is the drawing I came up with... but it needed something. It needed a bit more edge to it... and of course it needed to have that high end graphical construction, so I finished it off on my laptop and everyone has been oohing and ahhing ever since. Here is the new poster design for the Events Calendar. The poster wasn't that difficult, just a bit time consuming considering I had to draw it all out and then find models for the photography and put the whole thing together. That's Jusin's arm and Lee's hands, by the way. So it took me more than a week to put it all together. Well, we got back on Sunday, and by the next week's Monday, Sheryl showed up for a visit! I got off work at 4am Monday morning and had to be to the airport by 6:30am to meet her! Ella and I got there about 10 minutes before Sheryl was supposed to land. We had to take a cab there because we fell asleep for about an hour after I got off work and didn't get up in time to catch the train. So that was about $45 each way. Then we got there and we waited. Because of the snow in Chicago, her flight was delayed. We finally saw her at about 10am. Her flight had delayed over 2 hours and then there was a glut of flights in at the same time that all had to come through customs. Ella and I had a LONG wait, obviously. At one point we started to comment how if Sheryl didn't come through customs soon, we'd just pick some girl with long hair and call her Sheryl. We figured after a 15 hour flight and an hour or two in the customs line, most people would be so buggered that they wouldn't even be able to complain or even understand what was going on. We had a few possibilities... some that actually could have actually passed as Sheryl... one was even a guy! Seriously, he looked just like Sheryl; slender feminine frame, long straight hair, you shave that goatee and he could have been her twin! Finally we got a hold of her and loaded her up into a cab to take her back to our place. She was pretty energetic after having such a long trip. Ella and I had purchased a higher-end inflatable mattress and pump and it only took me about 5 minutes to get it ready for her. Then we slept. We were all pretty exhausted. I think we slept until about 3. It wasn't a very energetic first day. I had to get up and do some work and the girls kept sleeping for a while. Sheryl was up and down quite a bit. Her sleep patterns were very messed up. She really didn't get the hang of our schedule until a couple days before she left. The first night we got pizza from Pizza Planet. It was ok, but as usual, the garlic bread is just to die for. Sheryl popped on the computer for a bit and after that it was time for me to go to work. Sheryl said she and Ella were going to come down and see me at work, but they never showed. Just before I left for work, Sheryl passed out in the bathtub-lounge. Apparently she didn't wake up until about 2am... and I was home shortly after that. So, as I was going to bed, Sheryl was just getting up. She pounded on the keyboard for most of the night. So when I woke up, finally, she had just gone to bed again. We gave her a couple hours and then we all went to Spuds and Douglas for coffee and a snack and then on to the movies. It was Tuesday Movie Night! We saw Casanova with Heath Ledger... we figured it was a good movie to see considering it had a very Aussie star. It was ok, the kind of fluff that you'd expect out of a romantic comedy. Afterwards, we walked through the QVB a little bit, then we headed on back to the homestead so I could get ready for work. Once again I went off to work and once again Sheryl passed out and then when I got home she was all over the internet again. I'm not sure if it was a blessing or a curse, but somewhere around this time, out wirelss modem burned out. If anyone has been having a hard time reaching us, the primary reason is that we don't currently have a working internet connection so all our internet usage has gone back to the cafes. We are supposed to have a replacement modem delivered on Tuesday, so keep your fingers crossed. At any rate, Sheryl very well might have spent her entire time in Sydney jacked into the internet if it hadn't been for that little malfunction... so blessing or curse, it had a decent outcome. On Wednesday we just kind of took it easy. I had a lot of work to do so I just concentrated on that. Not only was I finishing up the Kings Cross poster, but I had someone come in that wanted me to design a full back dragon... and let's face it, I'm not going to muck something like that up. Sheryl didn't get up until late so we just took some time and walked around Kings Cross for a bit. I showed her one of the good places to buy souvineers and she walked through it for a while. I went to show her the famous Kings Cross fountain... but it was actually turned off and they were cleaning it! It figures. It was the first time I've seen it off since I've been here. I went to work that night and the girls finally came down to see me. I introduced them to Lee and his new girl. They stuck around for a while, but I had just finished a tattoo when they came in and I didn't start another one until after they left. Just their luck. It was kind of a slow week, and I was usually paying for everyone so I got kind of broke after a while. Not to worry, the next week made up for it. Finally, I have the next three days off, so we started planning some adventures. On Thursday we went to the Sydney Aquarium. This time I got some really good pictures and some very fun video. And of course what blog would be complete without me complaining about the Freaking Aussie Babytalk? We spent quite a long time at the aquarium and then took a cab out to Paramatta to Fred's Tattoo Shop to see Steve. Steve had covered some of my shifts at SleeveMasters while I was back in Wisconsin visiting everyone. When I came back, I got the opportunity to hear more about him. Apparently Steve is a Kenpo healer... which is something that Sheryl is studying right now! So I took her out there and they had a good long talk, then he had to do a tattoo so we went over to get some food at the nearby Italian restaurant. I think I can safely say that we were not terribly pleased with our experience there. The food was adequate, but not really for the prices we paid. I don't think Ella really enjoyed hers at all. She got a shrimp scampi rice dish... it came out and they had arranged it with the full-body shells of the prawns on the top of the rice dish! I know it was supposed to be artistic and all... but when someone who is as hard to gross out as Ella takes one look at it, turns green, and whimpers, "Oh my god... it has antlers!" you KNOW that they've failed in their main attempt... to make it look appetizing. We waited forever for service, we waited forever for our food, we waited forever for our bill. Actually, I told everyone to get up and leave, then I very slowly started getting up from the table. The waitress finally came over to our table (keep in mind that I'd had one soda during my entire meal and I could have drank 7... I was that thirsty, but no one ever came to check on us.) and asked if everything was ok. I kind of lost it. I told her that I had never had such poor service and that I'd had enough of this and if they hadn't found the time to tabulate my bill yet, then I didn't think I had time to pay them. She responded with, "Oh you'll GET a bill," at which point I started walking towards the door. What, are they going to tackle me? It's not like I'm trying to skip out on paying, these guys were just morons! In the end I paid, but of course, if I don't have to tip, in this instance, they certainly weren't getting one, I think I threw the money at them. Then we went back to Fred's Tattoo and talked to Steve a little more. He read Sheryl's palm and told her some other things about herself. It was all very interesting. Then we caught a train back to the Central station, but by that time (1:00am) the trains to Kings Cross had stopped running. So we had to grab a cab back home, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than taking the cab all the way from Paramatta. The next day we got up kind of late and bummed around a bit. Sheryl and I went down to the koi pond for a while and played guitar and just talked. I took some pictures of the ibis birds that are always running around. They're kind of weird looking birds, about the size of a small goose. They really started to get brave after Sheryl started playing guitar. Walked right up to us. It was very nice and relaxing. Oh, this one is for Stacy. Then we went back and got a bit dressed up and went out to the Opera House. Lee was supposed to go with us, but as usual, he had more important things come up. We purchased our tickets... three in the mezzanine for Kiki and Herb. Then we went and grabbed a couple of small pizzas at a restaurant on the harbor. It was a great view with good food and excellent service. Believe me, after the night before, good service was really important to us. After paying for our fine meal we took a leisurely stroll back to the Opera House and found our seats. The show was very fun. It had a couple of lagging bits and sometimes came off a bit heavy handed, but the music was great and the actors were hilarious. Maybe it helped a bit that they were American. After the show we tried to find a cab, but it seemed like all of them were busy, so we just walked up to the train station and got tickets back. When we got back to the apartment, Sheryl insisted on me taking some extra pictures of her. So these are for you, Stacy. Sheryl dressed for Opera House 1 Sheryl dressed for Opera House 2 The next day we got up early and took the train all the way out to the Blue Mountains! This was our first foray out of the city so it was really exciting for all of us. It took us a few hours in each direction (I really didn't pay attention to how long it took). In fact it was such a long trip that by the time we had eaten a quick Chinese lunch at the nearest restaurant and found a place to get some info and pay for some tickets that we were almost the last trip of the day! Apparently things kind of close up around 5 at night... and when we didn't get up until 9 or 10 (Hey! That's early for us!) it got to be a short experience. Still. We got a lot of nice pictures and took some fun rides and had a nice walk. Ella and I decided that we liked it enough and it was cheap enough that we're going to go more often. Plus, the train ride is really quite relaxing. We also really want to go down next spring when the waterfall is in full swing. Right now it was kind of dried up. Not much more than a trickle. I can imagine how it might look during the spring thaw, though. When we first got up to the Blue Mountains, after we had eaten, we picked up a pass for the trolley. It was a day pass... and we got to use it for a whole 3 hours! Still, it was cheaper than paying each way. It took us around the area and filled us in on some of the more mundane scenes and where the resorts were. At one point we picked up an Irish Rabble. No, seriously, that's what the driver called them when he picked them up! They were, too. A bunch of Irish girls and one guy. Nice enough, but they never shut up the entire time they were on the trolley. Here the driver is trying to tell us about the tour and they're playing twenty questions! Actually at one point, they were asking each other at what point they should get off and none of them knew where they were. The guy of the group piped up with, "Maybe we should shut up and listen to the guy, ya think?" Still, they were more entertaining than irritating... so I let them be. Then the trolley took us out to the Scenic Rides Park. They have three different rides, two of which we had bought tickets for. The first one was the Scenic Rail Car to the Valley (video). It has the steepest incline of any railcar. 60°! Let me tell you, it's kind of creepy. Railcars are generally rickety feeling... and then it takes this massive tilt and you're practically standing on the dashboard. It was fun. Little bit of fun info: The Blue Mountians acquired their name because of the blue haze produced by the scattering of the sun's rays striking dust particles and droplets of moisture in the atmosphere. The blue haze effect is magnified by the droplets of oil produced by the extensive population of eucalypt forest within the Blue Mountains. We also saw The Three Sisters.
The rock formation is what is referred to as "The Three Sisters". The statues are something that was created for the Scenic Ride Park. Once we got to the valley bottom via the rail, we took a walk on the paths. It was a nice walk, but I wish we'd had more time. We only had about 45 minutes in the Aussie bush until the last trolley ride of the day and we had to have time to take a ride back up to the top to catch it. A lot of the area is riddled with mines and this is one of the drains. It was constantly running, like a little waterfall. Exciting, hey? We went a little further on and came upon a waterfall. The waterfall was a little slow because this is the middle of the dryest season of the year... but it was still kind of cool. You can imagine what kind of rush would be going by in the middle of spring. I took off my sandals and backpack and ran down the rocks by the water. Ella took some pictures while I was down there... she's such a good girlfriend. After running back up and grabbing my sandals and the camera so I could take some pictures of my own, I started back up. On the way, my sandal slipped on one of the rocks and I had my sunglasses in one hand and my camera in the other... hence the rest of my body had to take the brunt of the fall. Sheryl was so funny, she said, "It was so nice, after 10 years of knowing you, that you finally had a not-so-graceful moment." After the waterfall, we had to turn back. We took the cable ride back to the top and caught the trolley just in time. Back at the train station, Sheryl took some time to play hacky-sack with a few guys that were there. That Kenpo stuff can really improve your hacky skills! She was one of the better people playing, great control. We grabbed some snacks and then the second to last train of the evening back home. It was a really nice day. The next day I had to go to work. The girls just kind of hung out and hit the internet cafes. They stopped up at the Tattoo shop again and saw me. The following day the girls went to the zoo. Since I had to work at night and I had a big tattoo coming in, I stayed home to work on the art. So this next section was written by Ella (and then heavily edited by me because most of it was scribbled down on the back of bar coasters.) On Monday Sheryl and I went to the Taronga Zoo. Actually, it’s a bit embarrassing that I’ve lived here this long and have never been there before and it took someone else making the journey down to motivate me into going. And now I can’t wait to go back. The Taronga is the best zoo that I’ve been to, and I’ve visited a lot. First, they’ve got one of the best possible locations, right on the shore of North Sydney. There are plenty of views of the bay, and an ocean wind keeps the temperatures mild (as well as dissipating odors from the animals.) Though the layout is a bit confusing, the map itself looked more like random strands of spaghetti on a placemat than actual paths, it’s obvious that it was done for maximum aesthetic appeal. They’ve made great use of the hilly land and old growth trees, so that it looks more like a forest than a biological preserve. It also stood out from American zoos in that more trust was shown to the visitor. In American zoos everything possible is done to keep the visitors away from the animals, going as far as high walls and moats for the more dangerous ones. While they did use secure enclosures for their large animals, in many places are person was able to get right up next to the bars, or would even be able to touch the animal. They simply posted warnings about some animals being prone to bite, and trusted that visitors would have the good sense to heed the warning. Since we got a late start, we prioritized and decided to see the native Australian animals first then meander off to see the other animals. The first exhibit was came upon was the “Walkabout”, a small, enclosed area that housed a number of wallabies. The remarkable aspect was that it was completely open and visitors simply followed a path through their habitat. I guess this is a sign that wallabies don’t mind people and that they’re not that fragile. Or the pessimistic conclusion would just be that they’re easily replaceable. We then found the first koala exhibit, which was a slight let down since the koalas were somewhat distant and all asleep. Actually, the latter was an issue for the most of the visit, since a lot of the really interesting animals are nocturnal. Which is why a good number of the pictures I took were of animals sleeping in the corners of their habitats. On the bright side, some were cute sleepers, like the cuddling tigers. We then proceeded to the nocturnal building which housed a platypus, a wombat and kangaroo mice. Because of the dark lighting, I didn’t get much in the way of photos, and even to the naked eye the animals were difficult to see except for the kangaroo mice. Immediately outside they had a wombat, which fortunately woke up just as we headed back through on the way out. His pen was shallow enough that a person could try to touch him or even take him out. Next on the agenda was the bird show, which took place in a little amphitheatre that overlooked the bay. The zookeeper showed off a number of trained birds with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the background. After that we went to the koala show. Since koalas normally sleep 20 hours out of 24, the zoo has a special feeding time so that visitors can see them wake up and move around to get the fresh eucalyptus branches. While feeding them, the keeper provided a lot of information about koala habits, breeding and personalities. Last year for her birthday, we got Sheryl a koala from this zoo, well, we put in her name as a sponsor, so she’s a “zoo parent” of one. This enclosure featured one active male named Ken, so it was decided that this one is hers, and that Ken is short for Ken-Po. At this point we had an hour left, so we just walked through randomly, and I took a couple pictures of everything in the hopes that some would come out well. Highlights included the Tasmanian Devil (though he was asleep), the cuddling tigers and lions, the emus, the echidna (the only other egg-laying mammal besides the platypus), the quokka, who shared an exhibit with the echidna, the dingo, the peccary, and my favourites, the meerkats. -Ella This is the point where Ella became too drunk to finish what she was writing. So I'm going to do my best to fill in the story for the rest of the pictures. "P" is for Porcupine. Apparently they have lions and seals at the zoo... multiple seals. How many pictures do we need of seals, though? I think this is an emu, but I'm not really sure. Is the plural of "emu", "emus"? I'm pretty sure these are kangaroos... it's kind of hard to tell. I'm not sure what she was thinking here. To me it's just a really big picture of rocks. Maybe there's something I'm missing. Maybe Sheryl didn't listen to me and water down her Jack Daniels when she wasn't looking. Oh, and of course, what trip to the zoo would be complete without visiting the monkeys? I like monkeys. In fact, I like monkeys so much, here's one more picture of monkeys! Somehow I don't think these were part of the bird show. Although, I think these cute guys might have been. Through her drunken stupeor, Ella kept mumbling something about "BFT's" and pointing at these pictures... I'm not sure, but I think it might be an Air Force term. Here is a rare red panda being fed... either that or it's just some creature in the bush. For all I know, this was taken in someone's back yard. Why am I trying to write someone else's story? Here we go, now I can clearly tell that these are goats. I'm assuming by their habitat that they're of the mountainous variety. I bet they enjoy hopping around on their little rocks, hiding in their caves... maybe they're Hobbit goats! They have furry feet and live in holes in the rocks! Precious, my precious! Here are some pretty pictures of white kittens.... or snow leopards. Either or. Pet one and find out. Finally the zoo decided that Ella could no longer be trusted around the animals and closed early. They kicked both Sheryl and Ella out into the street and pulled down the door. Worried murmurs of "pyronecrobestiality" could be heard through the mail slot. Sheryl did what she could to negotiate an understanding... but because of the "unpleasantness", Ella can never go back. I apologize in advance for all of you who were hoping to visit the zoo when you come to visit. I've been petitioning them via mail to allow her back, as long as she's kept under close supervision, and I hope to have an answer by June. The girls stopped in later that night while I was at work and I put some tattoo cream on Sheryl. She can be kind of funny sometimes (video). I also caught Ella influencing her. Apparently she decided she was drinking for two now. The next day we got up and went to Spuds and Douglas for coffee and breakfast. I hauled Sheryl up to the fountain to get a nice picture of her. Then we rushed off to the airport. We each took a picture with her and gave her some love goodbye and then grabbed a cab back. We already miss her. Thanks for coming, Sheryl. Can't wait for you to return! -Bob |
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February 10, 2006 Nothing can be easy. I swear, I tend to have some of the worst luck. If it wasn't for my tendency to plan for almost any event, I'd be screwed six ways from Sunday. To begin with, the day I leave... snow. This wasn't a huge deal because most of it melted by the time we were ready to leave, but it still made us worry about how long it was going to take us to get to Chicago. Then there was Jim. Ok, not entirely his fault and I'm not about to say anything about him when he was out on a job interview... but it still caused me a bit of stress. You see, for the last 8 months Jim has been in possession of my large hard drive from my work computer. It has copies of all my graphics work as well as a TON of music and video that I/we collected. I told him when I left that he'd have to mail it to me as soon as I had time to build a computer. I never asked him for it while I was gone, because he was pretty short on money and I figured I could just get it when I came back. When I came home, I told him that I needed it and he had plenty of warning. When I saw him last, I told him that I was leaving Friday and needed the drive before then. Granted, I was supposed to leave a little later in the day today... but I just couldn't get a hold of him. Finally, in the 11th hour (um, literally) I tracked down Tobi at work and got her keys from her so I could get into their apartment so I could pull the drive from his computer. I'm really glad I opted to call her one more time, because I had been calling both her work and their apartment all morning and was seriously considering breaking down the door. I mean, what would they do? Call the police and have them put a warrant out for my arrest? By the time anyone realized it had happened, I'd be in Chicago and before the authorities could get their act together, I'd be in Sydney. Still, it was good to see Tobi and talk to Jim one more time. So then we're off to Chicago. First problem happened when my big piece of luggage was 2 pounds over the allowed weight. So shuffle-shuffle-shuffle and pulled out my steel-toed shoes. Just under the 75 pound weight limit... which I had to pay an extra $25 bucks for.... but I expected that. Unfortunately, they had already checked my other bags, so I am currently carrying the shoes. Not that huge a deal. What was a huge deal is that when I was making my way through security, they found my Zippo lighter in the toe of the shoe! I had just forgotten that I packed it in there. Yeah, I got pulled out of line for that one. How does this look: I've got a Zippo, hidden in the toe of a steel-toed shoe, with a pair of wool socks holding it in place? Yeah, I look all KINDS of suspicious. Anyway, after a quick pat down and confiscating my lighter, I'm back on my way. Then I remembered that I forgot to get our friend, Kelly, who is watching our place, the candies that she asked for. I mean, I feel really bad that she asked for something so simple and I forgot to get them. So I took off down the concourse looking for some J&B's. Unfortunately they're not that popular yet. I didn't find them but I found a nice little kiosk that was selling dried fruit. After my roadtrip with Sheryl the other day, I had a craving for them... so I picked up about half a pound, a nice little snack for Ella and I. I returned to our gate and read some. At one point I decided to visit the facilities and stood up. Now, I'm pretty sure no one ever notices, but every time I stand up, I check my wallet to make sure it hasn't fallen out while I'm sitting. It's just a habit I picked up. Unfortunately I checked and it wasn't there. Yeah, someone nabbed my wallet in the fifty feet from the fruit kiosk to the gate where we were sitting. I'm SURE I put my wallet back in my pocket, because I had stuffed the change from my fruit in my front pocket. Again, another habit that makes me realize that I put my wallet back early. So I know I got nicked. On the plus side, I didn't have to worry too much. I always keep my passport somewhere other than where my drivers license is. All my credit cards were empty, maxed out, already cancelled, or a bank card that was only good in Australia. Plus, all my change was in my pocket... leaving only two dollars in my wallet. So in that way, I kind of lucked out. No money can be taken from me and everything is easily replaceable. The only thing that bothers me is that I have to buy a new wallet, I don't have a second form of I.D. and also no way to rent a car in Sydney if I don't have a valid drivers license, I have to get a new library card, and my brother had given me a new password to do my blog... well... now I have to have him give me a new one or send the old one to me. Just a little bit of inconvenience... but ones that I didn't need. Finally, we had been sitting at our gate for three hours... we got there kind of early because Mr. Miles had a previous engagement to attend. In that time, without announcing it, they had changed our gate on us! So here we are, ten minutes before the flight is supposed to take off wondering why we haven't started boarding yet. Well, we went up and asked someone... oh yeah, sorry about that, we changed the gate to the other side of the frigging airport! So after hustling from gate 24 to gate 2... we just made it and had to get yelled at that we should have checked our gate before that. Well, it was right 3 hours ago! So, then we get on the plane, and all the flights are booked solid. There were no empty seats like there had been in previous trips. Ella and I don't even have seats together. On the flight to SanFran fom Chicago we just took what we had and dealt with it. On the longer trip to Sydney, I had Ella trade seats with someone and we at least got to sit together. Regardless, it was on United Airlines, which has really uncomfortable seats, and we were packed in like sardines. Then, when we were on the flight to Sydney from SanFran, my seatbelt didn't work. I could tighten it, but only by manuevering it funny... and then it wouldn't stay tight. Think if the buckle was put on wrong so that it pulled and pushed in the wrong directions. So it's been an interesting couple of hours. Anyway, I thought I'd take this time to show everyone some of the pictures that I took while I was back in Wisconsin. I figured in the process I'd tell you a little bit about all my adventures there. Yeah, I'm sorry this is such a long post, but deal with it. It's been a few days since I've been able to post and I need to get all this down. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. When we first got into Wisconsin, Ella's mom and sister, Stine, picked us up at the airport. Most of the flight was pretty good with the exception of Ella's head injury. When we got there, they had balloons for us. They had a "Happy Birthday" balloon for Ella and a "Welcome Home" balloon for me... which I initially mistook for reading "Go Home"... but I have a sick sense of humor that would find that hilarious, so it's all good. We stopped at a roadside restaurant for pizza for dinner. It was pretty bad pizza, it had been sitting out for a while, but it still had good cheese on it, so it was heaven compared to what we've been used to. We ended up crashing at the Miles residence that evening. While everyone was happy to see us, I think the best reaction I got was from Cody. Cody had missed his playmate. I felt kind of bad when we walked in the door and Cody sniffed once at Ella, his caregiver, and then noticed me behind her and practically flew out of his skin in his attempts to be noticed by me! Cody is the coolest dog ever. Seventeen pounds of pure canine muscle. Very fun to play with and almost as tireless as I am. We crashed hard that night and got up the next morning and met with Sheryl and Stacy who took us to lunch at Rocky Roccoco's. Now, I knew I had missed Wisconsin cheese, but I really had no idea how much I had missed it. I took one bite of that heavy bread and cheese and I about passed out from pure gustatory bliss. Stacy had a bit of trouble with her pizza. She had to wait for it to finish cooking while we all got to sit down with ours right away. Now you know your pizza is fresh when it can melt a fork! After that they took us around to a couple of stores so I could finish my Christmas shopping. I had already done quite a bit of my shopping online, plus I had made quite a few gifts and also brought quite a lot of souvineers with me... so it wasn't a long shopping trip at all. Once my shopping was complete, they ran us all the way out to my parents house where we spent the second night. After Sheryl and Stacy left, my parents took us out for pizza (yes, AGAIN... we missed it, dammit!) at The Next Door Pub. We met my sister and her family there and I gave my nephew, Andrew, a tiny kangaroo and I gave my neice, Izzabiss, a little koala. We also met some of my parent's friends there. They ended up joining my parents back at the homestead for dessert. I took that time to do a little wrapping. The next day, for breakfast, my mom made us french toast. YUM! My mommie always knows how to take care of me. On Saturday we got up late, still sleeping off some of the jet lag. We did some wrapping and orgainzing and waited around for Jim to pick us up. He let us know that he was running a bit late. So we started to watch a movie.. then we finished the movie. The movie we watched was Forty Year Old Virgin and just as the movie was about to wrap up... it ended! My parents had recorded it and put it on a video cassette that was too short! So we watched this LONG movie and totally missed just the end part! Finally Jim shows up to hang out with us and get sushi that night. Sheryl and Tobi joined us and we all had a wonderful evening of GOOD sushi. If anyone has a chance, I highly recommend the crispy eel roll at Fujiyama on Hwy 100 in Milwaukee. I swear it tasted like a donut! Afterwards we dropped off Ella because she was still having some jetlag issues and the rest of us went to Jim's and played video games. Stacy joined us later on and we played some Halo. The evening was cut short when Stacy had to leave because of her allergies. So Stacy, Sheryl and I all crashed at Stacy's place. The next day we got up and Stacy and Sheryl drove us both out to my parents house where we celebrated a late Christmas with my family. Sarah and her entire entourage was there. Ben even made an appearance (and not too terribly late) with his lovely girlfriend, Lexi. Everyone seemed to really like their gifts. Andrew was a lot of help... he kept handing out all the presents for me. I think Ella is the only one who really knows how much work some of those coin collections were. You know, they seem to be a really cheap and quick gift... but when in the last couple days we had to scour the city looking for a replacement ink cartridge for the printer and had trouble with finding the right coins so we could put together so many of them... not to mention each one has about $4 worth of change... and that's before the frame... anyway, I really hope people liked them. I know I would have loved something like that and it would have definitely proded me to visit Australia earlier. We had a good time with good food, although we had a lot of new board games, we just didn't have a chance to play... AGAIN! Something tells me that when we eventually do get to play as a family again, we're going to have it so built up in our minds that it will be something of a let down when it doesn't meet those expectations. On Monday we stayed at my parents house again. We really didn't go anywhere, but my Aunt Sandi came to visit me and I just kind of had a family day. The next day, Ella's mom picked us up and drove us back to Milwaukee. While Ella ran some errands, I went and hung out with Jim for a while. Later we picked up Ella, her sister Christine, and Tobi and we all went to Tuesday Movie Night. At the movies, we met up with Sheryl and Mikey and we all saw Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Afterwards, Jim and Tobi took off for parts unknown and the rest of us went to the Forum Restaurant for coffee... or whatever. We had a good time and made many jokes at Jim's expense. After we noticed how late it was getting, we quickly hurried the high-school-aged Christine back home so she could get some sleep and get to school on time. We crashed at the Miles residence that night. On Wednesday I went over to Jim's and hung with him for a while. Ella had some more errands to run. Later in the evening, Stacy and Sheryl came out and picked Jim and I up, then we went to pick up Ella, and then we all went to Cousins' for subs. Afterwards we dropped Jim off and went back to Stacy's to play some video games, watch some movies and sleep. On Thursday we all got up early. Stacy had to go to a doctors appointment on one end of town and Ella had a doctors appointment on the other end of town. So I drove Stacy's car and dropped off Stacy, then dropped off Ella, then drove all the way to the other side of town and dropped off Sheryl so she could pick up her car and run some errands for her mom. Then I went and picked up Stacy from her appointment, then all the way to the other side of town to pick up Ella from her appointment. At that point, all that driving had made me very hungry, so we went to IHOP for breakfast. Afterwards, Stacy took us shopping for video games and souvineers and sheets (Kohls was having a white sale). We went back to Stacy's to try out some of the video games for a few minutes, then Stacy had to go to another appointment so she dropped us off with Sheryl. Sheryl had to run a quick errand across town and then she took us all the way back to my parents house in Elkhorn. I had an appointment with a tax consultant to get all my taxes out of the way. Afterwards, we went back to my parents house and went to sleep. Friday Ella and I got up and borrowed my Mom's truck. We went out to my sisters house and picked up an entertainment center that she had given my brother for Christmas. Let's just say that there were some issues that were brought up concerning the manner that the entertainment center was transported. Before leaving the area, we stopped in to Comic Alley, my old comic book shop, and saw Tryke and picked up my last 6 months worth of books. Ella and I then ran it all the way up to Madison and spent a few hours hanging out with Ben. You just would not believe what it takes to keep my website running and secure. Ben really knows his stuff... his apartment would make Neo jealous. I swear, I think NASA is funding portions of his rent. At around 8 we went out to dinner with my friend Jen and her new beau, Matt. We had a nice meal of Mexican food and then went back to her place for some more conversation and a little bit of tattoo design discussion. We ended up crashing on her couch. Saturday we ran the truck back to my parents. On the way we took some pictures to show the guys back in Sydney... yeah, compared to the pictures that I send back of Sydney, why would I want to come back to this? It's no wonder we seem to spawn more serial killers than anywhere else! Matt Dunham picked us up a few hours later and took us to Pizza Shuttle in Milwaukee. We hung out and talked a great deal and then he dropped us off at Ella's parents house because he had a hot date. We spent the night at the Miles' residence and in the morning we got up and went to Chicago with the family for a Superbowl/Birthday party for Ella and Christine. There was a lot of yelling, a little bit of silly dancing, and, of course, cake One really interesting thing was talking to Ella's grandma. Apparently she had gone to Sydney years ago and had some really interesting experiences. She brought back quite a few souvineers, one of which was a "Traveller" magazine. Something that promotes Sydney. It's so interesting reading this because I know most of the things it talks about and I can tell when some of the places haven't been around for a while. Anyway, I scanned them all in because I thought you might enjoy them as well. We returned that night to Milwaukee and slept at Ella's parents. On Monday Ella and I split up in order to cover more ground. Ella still had some errands to run regarding her schooling... so I took off with my friend Mike and played some pool and watched a movie. Mike was nice enough to run me back to my parents house where Happy picked me up and I spent a couple hours with him before he took me back. I spent the night at my parents and Sheryl picked me up early on Tuesday and we drove to Waupan to visit Kelly. Neither of us had seen him in a while and it was good to have most of the band back together again, even if we didn't get to play. We ran a little late but made it to Tuesday Movie Night with plenty of time to play some video games. Mikey met us again and the three of us started watching Rent. For some reason, Ella was supposed to meet us there but didn't show. She'd had some transportation difficulties. I hung out in the back of the theater and waited for her. She showed up about 20 mintues into the picture. Afterwards Mikey, Sheryl, Ella and I went to the Forum again for pie. It was yummy. That night we slept at the Miles place again. On Wednesday Ella went to the museum with Sheryl to see the Pope exhibit. I didn't have any interest in it, so I let them go and I kept Stacy company during her doctors appointment. Once the girls were done at the museum, we met up with them and we all went to Culver's for lunch. After, we retired back to Stacy's again for a nice long relaxing night of video games and then some sleep. On Thursday we ran some morning errands and then picked up Sheryl and drove out to my parents house again. My mom made homemade macaroni and cheese for all of us along with sundaes with homemade hot fudge topping. After some more video games, Stacy and Sheryl went home and Ella and I got our last sleep in Wisconsin. In the morning, my mom took me to sign for my taxes, then up to Milwaukee... and you know the story from there. Ok, my fingers are pretty well tired, my laptop is pretty well dead... and my food is on it's way, so I'll sign off... I enjoyed seeing everyone. If I didn't get to see you, I'm really sorry, I did my best to make time for everyone, but as you can see I was busy nearly the whole time I was back. I'll have to catch you next time (probably around Christmas) or you can always come and visit me. I'll be happy to have you. -Bob |
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To third 3 months (February to May) To second 3 months (November to February) To first 3 months (August to November) To Pre-Australian preparations (February to August) Back to Odds 'n' Ends |
