Johari Window

So I guess this is a good way to see how people percieve me. If you have about 30 seconds, go to this site: http://kevan.org/johari?view=katiebelle19 and contribute to my Johari window. It really doesn't take very long and it relieves my boredom!

Eric works for the next couple of nights so I obviously don't have enough to fill my time. Ah, well. Hard to believe tomorrow morning will be March. This reverse season thing is still so strange- I associate March with the beginning of Spring, and flowers, and all the wonderful things. But our Autumn equinox is in the middle of the month! The only thing that seems to be the same is I will be getting more active with the weather change. Here it is because it will be cooling down, so I won't fry like an egg everytime I step outside.

Happy Fat Tuesday!! Here is a fun picture for you that has absolutely nothing to do with New Orleans but everything to do with life in the Outback:

We really took that picture while we were out the other day. I am starting a collection- now I have to find a kangaroo one that hasn't been spray painted like the one by my house. The artist felt the need to let us all know that the kanga was having a bad bowel day when he crossed the road. Graffitti- its internationally understood.

Not doing my taxes

Right now I am avoiding doing my taxes. They are just sitting there, waiting for me to start figuring it out. I will have to do them eventually, and sooner rather than later. But for now I am blogging, yo!

I have become a myspace addict. I love to use myspace, and when people leave me comments or send me messages I get all warm and fuzzy inside. How boring, right? Just came off of myspace and realized that I haven't posted on here in a few days, and I am running out of days in February. Can you believe its the next to the last day of February already? I can't believe its almost March. Yay, hopefully it will start to cool down some. Maybe then I can get off my butt and start to go walking or running or bike riding for some exercise. Right now with the heat all I want to do is walk over to the ice cream place and have a big waffle cone. Kinda defeats the purpose of going out to exercise. Also once the heat lets off maybe the flies will leave. Its so gross, you can't even go outside for more than a minute before they find you and are trying to get into your mouth or ears or eyes. Blech.

I went to a Tupperware party Saturday night. I know, my wild weekends!! While I was talking with my friends there we decided we need to have a card night. Specifically Phase 10. I own the game but haven't actually played it since we bought it. But its not as much fun with 2 people, so I need to invite everyone over so we can play and have a good time.

Well I better go jump in the shower. We need to go to Kmart today (gotta love it!) and get some things, and then have chores around the house to do. Hmm I need to get some clothes washed too so I have something to wear to work. Which is nice to be back at work and I feel great satisfaction that I am needed somewhere, but I was pooped last week from having all that time off and then going back. The worst part about vacation I guess is having to go back to work. At least I can make a dent in my credit card bill, from going shopping while I was gone.

Time to shower and face the day like a grownup. I guess. :)

President's Day

Just wanted to post something on here since the end of February is rapidly approaching. I love short months!

I am working 4 days this week instead of my usual 3, so have been quite busy. Can use the extra cash to make up for what I spent in the US, though. And we have "drama" at work so its good to be there and catch up on everything. I love my job though. I am learning a lot about Australian HR regulations and stuff like that since I am helping to rewrite some manager manuals. I mostly just assemble stuff, which is good. And proofread, I love to proofread! Spent a couple of hours today reformatting documents so basically cutting and pasting and proofreading.

Tonight I have book club. Yay for getting to see some of my Australian friends! The book we read was interesting, its called The Red Tent. Its the story of Dinah, who was Joseph's (Joseph and the coat of many colors) only sister. It a fictional story but was a very good read. I'm kind of looking forward to next month though because its Harry Potter and we've been reading such serious books lately and the discussions get all heated- i.e. Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. But it is nice to get together with the ladies, and eventually the "book talk" ends and people just eat and visit with each other, which is fun.

No big plans for this weekend, yet. I'm sure we will come up with something, other than housecleaning which really needs to be done. I have some movies to watch that should be good- Ray which I never got to see, and Road to Perdition. And hopefully some Olympics!! I can only watch them here after 9:30, and with work that means I watch about 1/2 hour then go to bed. Ah, well.

More soon...

Home again!

So I finally made it home on Valentine's day. Just in time to see my sweetheart, awww. :) It was nice to be back in my own house, in my own bed. I did have a hard time the first couple of days remembering how incredibly far away Australia is from everybody, but I'm doing much better now. I also feel like I am finally starting to recover from the jet lag- who knew how tired it makes you! For some reason didn't seem as bad on the way out but maybe its cause I was so excited about seeing everyone. I woke up at about 8:30 this morning and should be in bed around 10 or so tonight. Trying to get back on a normal schedule so that when I go back to work Monday things won't seem so bad.

Eric did take me out to dinner on Tuesday night. That was quite sweet of him! We went to my favorite Italian restaurant, and my food was awesome. His was okay, but we had a crappy waitress. He tried to order a calzone, but they brought a pizza. And she kept trying to clear us out of the table- granted it was V-day and they were pretty busy but we had reservations for 7 and left at 8:10, which to me isn't a very long dinner. Anyhow- it was very sweet. Then we came home and I tried to stay awake long enough to shower and get ready for bed, and Eric gave me a really sweet card. Which is good, cause I didn't get him a card. Well, I did but it got left behind in my travels and I never picked up a new one. But I did get him some presents from my trip. And I got a present for us, which is this cute scrapbook called "The Story of Us" that I thought it would be fun to fill out. Not that I've done my wedding scrapbook *sigh* and that's only been 4 years... But now I have a good project to get me started on sorting through all sorts of pics I brought with me out here. Its one of my resolutions this year- to get my picture projects done!

Enough with the rambling about being a permanent procrastinator. We went for a drive Thursday and found a beautiful park that we'd like to go hiking in. When its not 100 degrees with swarms of flies out, of course. Its about 100 k from here and had the prettiest rock formations. Maybe we will go camping out there if it ever cools off, which I am starting to doubt. Here is a picture of the area by the gorge:

We imagined that if it ever rains, there must be an awesome waterfall that falls down that rock formation. Don't know if we will ever see it, though!

Another cool thing we saw was a historic "ghost gum" tree. These trees are some type of Eucalyptus tree that grow around here but they have this iridescent white bark that really stands out with all the red and brown in the area. This is the biggest one I've ever seen- especially when you think of the water supply a tree that big has to have. According to the sign it is over 300 years old. Amazing, isn't it? And Eric is standing in front of it, to give you an idea of how big it is. And yes, I should have gotten the whole tree in the picture. However, imagine me standing there trying to take this in the scorching heat with a swarm of flies trying to get into my ears, nose, mouth, eyes, ugh. It was not very pleasant.

We packed a picnic lunch but gave in to the flies and ate it in the car. We also saw a sign for John's rockhole, and curiosity got the better of us. Once we finally made it up the 4WD track to get there, we did get out and hike the 100 metres to the hole. Apparently rockhole is the same thing as waterhole- it was pretty, but the scuzzy green water was kind of gross. Made us laugh when we saw the "no swimming" sign. It was a hot day, but I don't think I could ever be hot enough to get in the scuzzy water. Not for me!

Well that was pretty much the highlight of the week. Eric works all weekend so I have just been catching up on my laundry, watching the tube, and sleeping. Pretty boring.

Work should be interesting when I go back. They are currently remodeling the building I am in so my supervisor warned me to wear "not so good" clothes. She said it has been smelly and loud in there. I can't wait to see how bad it is- as long as the a/c (or air con as they call it here) is working that's all I care about.

Will post more soon- have to have more than 2 posts for the month of February!

Southern Living

Happy Groundhog Day, several days late!!

Wow I can't believe its been over 2 weeks since I have posted. Guess it just shows how busy I have been. I think I have successfully eaten too much, spent too much and played too much. Isn't that what you are supposed to do when you go on "holiday" as they call it in Oz.

Let's see if I can summarize what we've done in the last two weeks:

1. On the 27th we headed down to Tybee Island, GA where we stayed in a condo on the beach. It was wonderful! We ate at the Crab Shack, which is this neat place with little alligators in a lagoon, tons of white Christmas lights in the trees, and a 7 foot tall alligator statue outside the front door. We also visited downtown Savannah, and that was beautiful. Tried to get into Paula Deen's restaurant but couldn't wait 2 hours for lunch. Ended up later that weekend eating at Uncle Bubba's, which is supposedly Paula Deen's brother. Food was absolutely awesome. If you aren't from the South you might not get this but I had the best bowl of Shrimp and Grits there- it was delicious. So good we went back the next day for lunch! We had a wonderful time. Need to go down to Tybee sometime for about a week or so.
2. Came back on the 29th and celebrated my sister Connie's birthday on the 30th. I won't reveal how old she is, but it was a great birthday! We got a cake, flowers, and presents. I even got my 2 1/2 year old nephew to sing Happy Birthday. Too cute!
3. Wednesday the 1st my Auntie had to go home. So we spent the day with her, then picked up Connie and went to the airport. "Fly in the sky" as my nephew says. It was fun to see her, and we were sorry to see her go.
4. This weekend- Saturday just hung out pretty much all day. Got treated like a princess cause I slept in until 9 or so, and woke up to go downstairs and eat a huge breakfast. Then went to sleep on the couch after breakfast. Felt like bums so went on a bike ride right before the sun went down. Yesterday we got up super early and watched a building in downtown Columbia get imploded. That was an interesting experience. Nothing like the sound of dynamite to wake you up on a Sunday morning! But it was really cool. Watching it on TV just doesn't do it justice. They are going to put up a new building for the university where that one used to be. Then we went to Cracker Barrel and had breakfast- yummy. Came home, took a nap then went out and about shoe shopping. Fun times! I got some awesome shoes, so was really happy with that. Then we came home and watched the Superbowl. That was so low key- not that I don't dig a great party but it was nice to just have the four of us eat and watch the game.

So now I have taken you through what's been going on. I have to leave Wednesday :( but I am really starting to miss Eric, so its a good time to go. I will get to spend time on Wednesday in San Francisco with my great friend Kathleen, so I am really looking forward to that. I haven't seen her since this summer, and I can't even remember the last time the 2 of us got to spend some one-on-one time together so that should be tons of fun. Plus she is being awesome and letting me sleep at her place before I have to catch my flight back to Australia. What a great gal! Its so nice knowing someone that you can call and say "Can I stay with you next week?" and know that even though you asked, you already knew you had a place to stay.

Well this will probably be the last post until I get home and recover from my trip. I hope anyone who reads this is doing well.

Until next time (from another Hemisphere)~