Maybe in Oz

When Phil put George in his crate on Friday, that cat must have been convinced he was being put on another plane. We let him out in the house and he slinked around very slowly, smelling everything with a very concerned look on his face. He relaxed more as he started smelling familiar things from his old house, and clearly he wasn't too tramatized because 15 minutes later he had found a nice sunny patch on the quilt I'm working on and started taking a nap. He has been extremely cuddly and has been following us around the house. Maybe was super excited to leave quarantine. When we got in the car she immediately sat in the seat on the right. We're trying to teach her that she now sits on the left, but this clearly confuses her. When we brought her home George greeted us at the door, and Maybe enthusiastically gave him a thorough inspection. Then she went running from room to room trying to figure out what was going on. She had a big smile on her face when we let her...

Today I posted bail for our precious little prisoners. I cannot believe the ungodly amont of money we had to spend moving them here. Between the twelve million vet visits, the special USDA-approved paperwork, the massive amount of shots, the plane tickets, and the thirty days they'll spend in the world's most expensive puppy jail, I'm fairly certain we could have bought a car instead. But those silly little creatures are worth every penny. Well, Maybe is. George, um, he's just George. Let's not talk about what he's worth. Let's just say that he's lucky Maybe really loves him because that might have been his meal ticket over here. When I get home from work Friday George will finally be there. I am excited to show him his new cat tree strategically placed in the bird-watching window. He is going to flip Saturday morning when he sees the daily cockatoo circus. I just know he's going to spend every morning staring out the window at them, ...

When life gives you lemons, you're supposed to make lemonade, right? Except what do you make if you're not sure what lemonade is anymore? In Australia, if you order a lemonade you get lemon-flavored fizzy water. Having already learned this the hard way, last weekend we got a craving for some lemonade and so I went to the store to see if I could figure out how to fullfill it. It was a stressful adventure. First I started in the juice aisle, trying to spot something similar. I found their version of lemonade (which is white by the way) and something called cordial, but nothing quite right. Then I went in the frozen aisle to see if they had frozen lemonade. Apparently they do not make juice from frozen concentrate here, as there was no juice section there. At this point I considered making real lemonade from scratch, but I didn't want to buy a new juicer. I went back to the juice aisle and looked again, then figured I should check out the cordial bottle to see what i...

I fell in love with a quilt pattern I saw in a magazine just after I accepted my new job featuring aboriginal fabrics. Knowing that we would have a new guest bedroom over here, I starting researching aboriginal fabrics. The good ones were around $25/metre in Australia, or I could purchase the same material for less than $10/yard online in the states. I stocked up on heaps of it right before the movers came, not really knowing exactly how much I'd need. The original pattern was not large enough and so I needed to add a few borders. The fabric I had purchased for the borders looked horrible though, and it's not like I can really buy much over here. Finally I realized that the only way to not detract from the pattern was just to extend it instead of adding borders. Since the accent colors were already sewn in place I couldn't just add more rows to the top and bottom. Fortunately since I purchased so much extra fabric I realized I had enough of the top and botto...

For the first two months I was here, I was wearing my long wool coat every day and didn't touch my sunglasses until the weekends because the sun rose so late and set so early. Lately though I can get by with a sweater during the day and only need a heavy jacket at night. Before, the weather rarely topped 15 C. Now, we've had several 20 C days in a row. Since they don't have Groundhog Day, I wasn't really sure when spring was supposed to arrive here. All I knew was it was August and it was supposed to be warm outside and it was clearly not. Friends and relatives kept mentioning how it was time for their kids to go back to school, and I thought, "what on earth are they talking about, it's winter, why wouldn't their kids be in school?" So you can see that I am rather confused about how things work now. Foruntately the walls of the office I work in are all glass and I have an enjoyable view of the yard outside and the birds and rabbits that call it...

Last week a coworker showed us an amazing place just a few minutes from work. It's a park where kangaroos frequent - they typically appear an hour or two before sunset to graze on the grass. It was amazing walking around amongst them in their natural habitat, no zoo involved. They were braver than I expected - Phil got quite close to one, but it held its ground and just stared at him. They look like a combination between a deer and a giant overgrown rat. Not nearly as cute as the cartoons, but very fascinating to watch hop around. We even saw one with a joey in her puch - that was quite a treat! It was very exciting seeing a hidden gem like this so close to our normal life. What a different world we are living in now.

We finally finished unpacking all of the boxes and we're getting closer to being settled in. Now if only I could find my rolling pin! We have a few claims to make with the movers, mainly furniture damage, but other than that looks like everything made it over uneventfully. Maybe and George are doing ok in quarantine. George alternates between purring while being scratched and growling or hissing at us or his fellow kitty inmates. The good news is he gets out on Sept 2nd, one day earlier than Maybe. Maybe is doing fine, except the other doggie prisoners have been teaching her how to bark. Between that and howling when we leave we will have to break her of the few bad habits she is picking up in jail. I mean "puppy camp." Other than missing our animals like crazy, we are doing well. It is nice to have everything unpacked, and it will be great getting rid of the boxes so we can finally use our garage. We took a bike ride around the neighborhood today and really...