Angst

Laika always looks sad in the morning when we go off to work:

Comments

Haloscan, the provider I was using for comments for years is going away. So, I've been forced to switch to the comment system that comes built in with Blogger. I have all the old comments saved, but unfortunately there's no way to import them to the new system yet.

I have all verification turned off on the new comments, which of course means it'll fill up with spam shortly. I'll have to do something about that when it happens but in the meanwhile, enjoy.

Super Bowl

How I'm watching the Super Bowl this year:


Typical. Geaux Saints!

Lizard

More crazy backyard finds. Found this lizard skin while doing yardwork today:


I have big feet too, to give you some sense of scale. Since it's just the skin, we're thinking the guy who shed it may still be around. Our best guess is that it's one of these.

Hat

After car shopping we went to City Hatters, which has thousands of hats but EXACTLY ONE THAT FITS MY GINORMOUS MELON:

Mini

We came home empty-handed from car shopping today, but figured out a lot about what we're looking for. Here's Miss Marjorie test driving a Mini Cooper:


(which we decided is pretty sweet, but generally too small.)

Mantis

Preying mantis in our backyard. About an inch long:

Jets

Australia Day jets over our backyard:

Anglesea

On the beach at Anglesea:

Ouch

Maybe I should have reapplied.

Skim

This is my skimboard:


It's ancient. Not sure the exact year, but I know I bought in 1983 at the very latest. Lots of good memories associated with it. I just had my second skimboard session in Australia here in Lorne which was very fun. From what I've seen I'm the best skimboarder in the country. :-)

Lorne

On holiday in Lorne. The view from our hotel:


Some visitors, with eyes on the cheese plate. (One of Marjorie's coworkers happened to be staying in the same hotel with a friend so we had them over.)

Birthday

Marjorie, at our friend Fleur's birthday in the park:

Spicy wing!

After five years we finally found proper spicy wing in Melbourne!


The Gertrude Hotel on Gertrude Street does them up proper. We're more excited by this than you might expect!

Neko

Neko Case last night at the Hi-Fi Bar:


She's super talented, and sounded great, but truth be told her songs leave me a little cold. Marjorie's the bigger fan. I haven't written her off or anything yet though...

Palace Westgarth

Escaping the heat inside our favorite movie theatre; here to see the Fantastic Mr Fox:

Beans

My sister-in-law has been posting a lot of recipes on her blog, but they're all, you know, vegetarian, filled with twigs and acorns and such. Here's a decidedly non-vegetarian recipe for the best beans we ever ate, at the Democrats Abroad Christmas party last month. A bit labor intensive, but so good that I will have to actually try to make them some day:

Bill’s Baked Beans

Start with Slow Cooked Beans in 4 to 5 litre Crockpot Slow Cooker

375m White Beans (Great Northern or Cannelloni Beans) Big batch 500m size

1 large salty meaty ugly smoked ham hock ( the more white residue visible on the hock the better, it is not pretty, not meant to be – If I can’t get a good big hock, I use 2 smaller ones, (try for 750g to 1 kg total wgt) if using a 5 litre cooker, 500g to 600g if a smaller cooker)

The beans need to be checked for foreign material (rocks & discoloured beans removed), rinsed, then soak for at least 4 to 6 hours, then rinsed again before using. I add the hock to the cooker, (rinse in water only, the smoking process leaves lots of flavour), cover it with the soaked rinsed beans, then add water to cooker to cover beans by at least 1-2inches, even if it is almost to the top of the cooker

Slow Cook overnight, usually starting right before you go to bed. Then cook for 9 to 12 hours using the Auto setting on most cookers. (This is also a stage that they can be served as an especially good soup, but it is so good that you eat too much to finish the baked bean variety, you need to eat them as soup at least once in this experimentation process).

Let cool for at least an hour, then thoroughly remove Bones and Fatty outside from Hock (yes, you do get your hands dirty this way). Be careful as there are some small bones in most hocks, (usually like knobs from the ends of bones). While doing this, I tend to break up the large chunks of ham from hock into smaller pieces to distribute this slow cooked ham throughout the dish evenly

I then discard waste, then put remaining bean mixture to fill 2/3 of a large Pyrex baking dish (putting aside any leftover excellent ham hock bean soup away to have on it’s own)

Then add to your mix

2 large cloves of Garlic crushed

1/3 cup of Smokey BarBQ Sauce (optional, use your favorite or KC Masterpiece from USA foods)

1 large onion chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup Heinz Ketchup (Aussie tomato sauce poor substitute, but works in a pinch)

1/3 cup American Style Mustard

1 Small Jar Tomato Paste (or ½ of a medium jar)

½ Teaspoon Black Pepper

Combine all of the above ingredients into the bean mixture, then cover the entire top of the dish with the bacon (trimmed of thick rind if Rashers)

6. Large Bacon Rashers or 10 pieces of Streaky Bacon

Cook at 160 degree medium heat for 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, (Just til the bacon starts to crispy up, but do not overcook til burnt, I tried it once, and not as good with burnt bottom of pan…

Variations to the recipe:

• I like these with less Black Pepper, but a good bit of Cayenne Hot Spice to taste…be careful
• As an addition, some people add a couple of Teaspoons of Worcestershire Sauce. (good this way)
• Two teaspoons of Jack Daniels, or any good bourbon never goes awry with this recipe

New Year's

New Year's Eve party at our friends', Brendan and Kim:


Much fun. Lots of cheek kisses at midnight, thanks in small part to a contingent of Italians (including a couple visiting from Italy who spoke no English).

Burgers

In honor of our 2000th day in Australia (Marjorie figures these things out in Excel), burgers shaped like Australia:

Boxing Day 2

Since Boxing Day fell on a Saturday, we got a bonus Boxing Day today. After house cleaning we took a ride up the river, as far as this Russian Orthodox Church:


Then, since we have a friend's car for the week, we took the dingo up to a fenced in area I discovered on an earlier bike trip, for a little rare off-leash time:

Mall

Braved the Westfield Mall today:


Meet the new mall. Same as the old mall.

Boxing Day

A great day for relaxing...

Xmas chow

Our Xmas day meal:








Just for the two of us! Our fridge is as stuffed as we are right now. (I made the sweet potato soufflé.)

Pierogies

Our Xmas eve tradition: gorging ourselves on pierogies...


Traditionally it's done at my grandmom's house, but obviously that's a lot farther these days than over the river and through the woods. Instead, Borscht, Vodka, and Tears has to suffice.

Ick

Woke up this morning to my eye looking like this:


How did people live before the Internet? Within seconds I was able to learn that it's harmless, often causeless, and will likely go away within ten days.

Sidewiki

Remember this idea I posted about, way back when, about a comment system that lets you post comments on any web page?

I actually forgot I had that idea so long ago. It's been percolating around since then, and I still hadn't found any inherent flaws in it. Recently, I ran it by a couple of coworkers at lunch, and they both thought it was a good idea.

So, finally, after two and a half years, I set a plan to at least work up a prototype over Christmas. Then, just the other day, I ran across a little company who had the same idea. For all practical purposes it's EXACTLY the same idea. It's been getting some buzz.

I've recently come to the conclusion that laziness is my defining personality trait, and here we have a classic example. I can't be too angry, to have come up with the same idea as the mighty Google, but of course it's a little disappointing. I'm mostly just happy that someone built it - someone with clout and technical competence - because the other reason I was excited about the idea was that it was something that I want to actually use.

Radio shows

When I was a kid, my mom and dad used to take us on long car trips every year, down to Florida. I think it was on one of these trips that my dad brought along cassettes of some old radio shows. I don't remember where he got them; maybe they were just rebroadcast some decades after the fact, and he taped them off the radio? At any rate, there were two in particular that I remember, quite distinctly in fact. I thought of them again the other day, and decided to see if I could find them. And I did. See what you think of The Thing On The Fourble Board and Three Skeleton Key (starring Vincent Price). Lots more episodes here and here.

Xmas in Oz

Xmas shopping in Bourke Street mall:


The crowd on the left is queuing for the window display, which is as close to pageantry as Melbourne gets:


A few cheesy animated displays. Don't mean to be a Scrooge, but it's more conveyor belts than the animatronics you'd expect in America.

McDeco

This is the art deco McDonald's in our neighborhood:


I refused to eat at Mackers (as they call it here) for fifteen years prior to coming to Australia. Finally went back once while we were in a the middle of a hectic move, and one more time soon after that, but I decided it was gross and haven't been back since.

Behind this Mackers, there's a brothel (no lie).

M$ Xmas

At the Microsoft Xmas party last night, at a somewhat over-the-top nightclub called Silk Road:

Sauce

Think we maybe should've thrown this out a while ago:

Xmas party II

Marjorie at her office Xmas party, at Fitzroy Bowling Club:


Obviously bowling has a different meaning here.

Ahhhh

Weather was perfect today as I waited for Marjorie and our friends Tamara and Simon to show for our night out at Japanese restaurant Yu'u.

Xmas Party

A few lousy shots from my office Xmas party, same place as the Thanksgiving do we went to last week, and the same lousy weather...

Butterfly Club

We stopped by one of Melbourne's nuttier nightclubs, The Butterfly Club, for a tipple this evening:





It's in an old hotel, and each room is decorated differently. The main attraction is that have actual cabaret, though we have yet to see it.

Trivia

Big winners! We had an epic night at trivia tonight at the Cornish Arms - there were only four of us, but not only did we win first place ($50) for the second week in a row, we also won the $175 bonus question (they add $25 every week until someone gets it) by correctly answering these three questions:

• What chemical element has the lowest boiling point?


• What inappropriately-named land is known as Kalaallit Nunaat by its natives?


• With 89.5 million visitors, what country drew the most tourists last year?

Of course, it's all bar money, meaning we have to go back...

Crush

The morning crush outside Flinders Street Station:


The pedestrian walk signal gives pedestrians the whole intersection.

Thanksgiving

We just waddled home from an awesome Thanksgiving picnic thrown by Democrats Abroad. Melbourne's a good food town, but today all the dishes were cooked by Americans, who know how to do Thanksgiving right. Really great! We made a pecan pie that went over well. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures during, so here's Marjorie during our soggy walk home...

Food porn

The Japanese pancake from Wooden Spoon we ate last night:

Festival

The Johnston St Mexican Festival we wandered across while shopping yesterday:


We've attended on purpose in the past, but just did a run-through this time.

Coffee

The local cafe, where I fetch Marjorie a soy latte with honey every weekend morning:

Lecture

Lecture I went to last night:


Pretty good, but the parts I wasn't already familiar with seemed kind of speculative. I guess there's no alternative to glossing over when delivering a one-hour talk to the lay public.

Flinders

Flinders Street Station, where I take the train to every morning:


(One of the better shots I've taken with the iPhone camera, I must say.)