New DVD Player

Going to get a new DVD player? This one!

Toshiba DVD

More Food Updates

I've recently been abused (by an lawyer of all people) for eating "like a 12 year old." I think it more resembles the eating of a 15 year old. And what's wrong with that?

More milestones:
-> Cold pizza for breakfast
-> Nice cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
-> Ben & Jerry's triple fudge rump widener
-> Wendy's Bacon-a-holic burger (nb: the kids are totally unable to eat kreppy fast food fries now that they've gotten used to Aussie hot chips. Which are made of real, you know, potato.)

More to come, I'm sure.

Food Blogging....

I had a large list of things to eat when I came home, and here is the progress so far:

Done 1; BoJangles - Chicken, biscuits, spicy fries
Done 2; Q from the butt master, Greg Leman
Done 3; Brisket sandwich with hush puppies and BBQ beans from the Q shack
Done 4; Chick-Fil-A with extra pickles
Done 5; American hot dog, grilled, with ketchup, spicy mustard, fresh onion
Done 6; Ginormous greek buffet at Sparticus
Done 7; Pizza. Sadly, Pepper is finis, as is Mellow Mushroom on Franklin. However, Satisfaction served up some nice 'zar.

Still on the to-do list:
- Chili
- Good pizza from Punk Pizza
- Corn dog (not a Pluto Pup!)
- Deviled egg (hello Penny, you listening?)
- Mexican at Flying

And I'm sure there are more.

Home Alive

Sorta, jet lag excepted.

I got home Sunday at 9:30pm, after an additional fun 7 hours in JFK. Well, three hours on the runway, and four in the terminal. Fifteen minutes before we started boarding, a thunderstorm rolled in from Jersey. Lovely. The kids were great - at least the two I had. Kudos to my folks for picking me up (finally) with Bo-Jangles, Greg of Q, and Greg The Other for the additional BoJ biscuit and a diet coke (with vitamins and minerals!).

Amanda got home Monday, six hours late, after having an equipment problem in HNL and then getting re-routed through DFW. Charlie did a good job coming home too, apparently.

The house is a tip, of course, as Curtis is partially moved out and we're partially moved in - but this was all expected. I'm a little surprised at how hard the jet lag is on the kids, but this coming week we'll get that all straight.

Amanda's headed off to Academy Of Management (AOM) in Philly for a week or so.

We'll do a few more catchup posts on the blog in the coming week or so.

Lions Tigers and Airplane Rides

Oh my!

Today was another tour of the North Island - some forests, 1,000 year old trees (all three of 'em), lack of snakes, lack of leeches (yay!), magnetic volcanic sand, squid diving tubes (long story), and a fair bit of driving.

This is on top of more riding in big cats, islands, dormant (hopefully extinct) volcanoes, rain, bit more rain, cold wind, rainbows (lots and lots of rainbows), and plenty of pix to come.

Tomorrow am we hit the taxi with our pile-o-bags (tm) around 8:15, airport by 9, then the flight at 11. Eight and a half hours later and the previous day (!!) we arrive in HNL.

Yowza, warm up the biscuits and chill the tea, the Elam's are comin home!

How Cold is NZ

Very cold. The high here is the low in Brisbane. And we were cold in Brizzy.

Yet we bravely struggled to the store after a large and delicioso Italian dinner. Yes, we flung ourselves on cookies, chips, soda, and, of course, lowfat milk for brekky. People are strange.

Our hotel, the Quay West, if lovely. Our front balcony (7th floor) looks out on the harbor and we can ships coming and going. Just a block and a half from our front door is the Viaduct (I think it is called) which is like Sydney's Inner Harbour -> choc-a-bloc full of restaurants and things to see.

For those of you counting, we came to Oz with 6 rollaboards (5 regular, one large) and have come home with 9 bags (5 regular rollaboards, 2 large, one large duffel, one medium softside, one box of wine). Plus, of course, we sent home 12kg books and a large bag with K&B.

Not too bad, really, if you consider that we had two birthdays and 7 months to accumulate 'stuff.'

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, not really quite yet, but we move into a hotel tonight (hope they have internet!)(broadband!) and doing the pack and clean. On Saturday we head to Movie World to use the last of our Australian currency (kidding) and then on Sunday we're off to Auckland.

No recent pictures. Nothing else to see here, move along folks.

Amanda goes to Madrid

Here begins a long awaited post on my conference trip to Madrid. It was absolutely fabulous! The first time I have been back to Europe in many years and my absolute first time visiting Spain. Cliff and the kids unfortunately had to stay home. It would have been nice to share some of the adventures I had. Here are a few of the incredible highlights:

Gardens and Architecture
Madrid is such a beautiful city. The architecture is a gorgeous blend of styles, from moorish arches and spires to ornate wrought iron balconies. Very grand in some areas and quaint in others. The gardens are lovely, too. Very magical and fairy tale like in places. Here are a few pictures that give a flavor.

World's Smallest Hotel Room
I stayed in the world's smallest hotel room, I swear. The bed was a twin which I didn't mind at all. Unfortunately, the room was so small, there was hardly space to turn around in. I swear I could touch the bed, the desk, and the window all comfortably at the same time. Despite the cramped space (by North American standards, of course), the amenities and the service was very good. I think the suburban lifestyle has spoiled me plenty. It's hard to imagine life in some of the small city apartments that so many urbanites live in. I am so used to having room to spread out. Wish I had thought to take a picture!

Standing at the exact center of Spain

Art Museums
I can't say enough about the art museums in this city. I visited the three biggies - the Prado for classic art, the Reina-Sophia for modern art and the Thuyssen-Bornemizza for art from all periods. The first two stops were heavy on the Spanish artists. At the Prado, I learned so much about Velasquez, Goya and Bosch among others. For example, after seeing some of Bosch's 14th century paintings, I realized that Dali was not quite the original artist he has been credited to be. The Reina-Sophia was filled with work by Miro, Picasso, and Dali among others. I have never been as drawn to modern art as I have been to more traditional works, but this experience has changed that. It was incredible to see so much work by individual artists in one place. The Thuyssen-Bornemizza was also unique. It holds a fabulous collection of impressionist artwork, for one thing. I was tickled to see so much Hassam Childe there. It also holds a fascinating collection of less well-known pieces from all periods - which I always find fascinating because that where you find the real diversity in talent and representation in period art. It really had the feel of a personal collection (which it is) made public. A nice surprise.



Shopping
I didn't have time to do much more than window shop and buy a few souvenirs. How sad, too, because the clothes were gorgeous - lots of classic lines with very unique stylings, gorgeous silk embroidered skirts, ruffley summer blouses, and beautiful sundresses. The hotel I stayed in was located near a very upscale shopping district, Salamanca. Lots of very expensive stores and gorgeous little boutiques. Next time!

Salamanca at night

Tapas and Flamenco

The food. Wow. The food in Spain was incredible. I have had tapas before but never this good! Jambon Iberico became a new addiction along with the potatoes and spanish omelette. The Spanish do amazing things with meat and fruits and cheese in their tapas. I also loved the Spanish practice of selling fresh potato chips in small shops around the city, not unlike popcorn vendors. How cool is that! I missed out on Sangria and really good Paella, but then I had to leave something for next time. Our last night of the conference our hosts arranged for some Flamenco dancing. The dancing was very good, but only part of the show really. The singer and guitarist who accompanied the dancer made it an extra special treat. I have always loved the Spanish guitar style of music.

So Madrid is highly recommended! I can't wait to go back. Friends tell me that Barcelona and Sevilla are even more beautiful. Hard to imagine, but I can't wait to find out one day.

Sugar Museum

One of the few things, it seems, that we did that the kids really dug was the Sugar Museum just below Cairns. It was a huge building including the Post, the museum, a cafe, and a small gift shop - all run by one guy. Small town living indeed.

General pictures here, but here are some classics:

3,200 Klicks

No, not my son with a remote control, but the length of our drive through Queensland.

And all with no accidents, road kills, or fights in the car. Well, fights not involving kids in the back seat, anyway.

I've uploaded some photos - they span from M's birthday to our first beach huts in Cairns. Sorry, more organization at a future date. (Yeah, sure.)

One thing that was fun was buying not one but two diggeridoos.  We got one for visual art and one for taking around to play. Not that anyone of us can reliably play, mind you.



The interesting thing is that the super painted diggery plays wonderfully. Both are traditionally produced termite hollowed from families close (w/i 300K) to Cairns. We have a kind of one page bio of the guy who produced the painted one.

But we wanted one that the kids could take to school, etc, without a big fantod of worry.