New car... almost

So last week we went by the Subaru dealership and ended up putting some money down on a car that they had in stock at a different location, on the condition we could still reject it after it arrived and we had a test drive.

We had the test drive today, and everything was great, except that when we went to switch drivers, we smelled something burning. So we checked the oil, and it had way too MUCH. Some must've been spilling out onto the engine block, or something.

What can that do to a car? I'm not exactly sure, but now we are going to have an independent mechanic check it out before we buy. Bummer.

Soup

Had this soup at an Indonesian restaurant:


Any guess on the mystery vegetable? It was about as appetizing as it looked, and the flavor stayed with me all afternoon.

Balloons

Spotted this balloon hovering up the street:


Wow, that's really close, I thought. Then I looked up over our house and saw this:

News

We recently got some scary news about a family member, which I won't go into details on, but which today we were overjoyed to learn is not as bad as it could have been. It's an enormous relief. Enough said.

Running almost simultaneously to that drama we have been dealing with a tumor on our dog Laika. She got it removed two weeks ago but all the signs were bad. Last week we learned she had a stage 3 mast cell tumor, which is about the worst kind you can have - very aggressive. And today Marjorie took her to a specialist to find out more. An aspiration of her lymph node indicated that it indeed had spread, and so she got her first round of chemotherapy straight away, and has to go back maybe five more times. This will give her a 60% chance of surviving a year. We are still reeling from this, but will do whatever it takes to give her a full life in the time she has left.

So, whatever the Chinese calendar may say, we're declaring this the Year of the Dog. We've actually bought a car (contingent on a final test drive we'll take on Saturday) that will let us take her around.

Stephen Fry

We caught a talk given by Stephen Fry yesterday, which was fantastic. Just him on stage with a microphone for two hours and ten minutes. He was lured to Melbourne by a grassroots campaign, and the show we saw was a second one that was added after the first sold out (in a pretty big venue). Here's the article from the local paper about it, which is a little overly-fawning (but then so am I).

Did you know he played Lord Snot in that famous Young Ones game show episode? Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson are also down there with him.

Tortillas

I made these! Using actual lard. They rocked.

Trip

The more I have to blog about, the less inclined I am to do it. So you know this long hiatus means that a lot has been going on.

I'm still going to be brief about it. After Montreal we went down the Florida to see my side of the family plus Marjorie's sister's gang, including a fun day at Blizzard Beach, and the USA's awesome win over Algeria in the World Cup. Then to Atlanta to see Marjorie's parents and our old friends. I got to see USA get knocked out of the World Cup with a bunch of my old friends in a bar that was wall-to-wall people. Finally, we spent one last day in Los Angeles filling up our suitcases with cheap and hard-to-find-in-Australia goods.

My birthday was soon after we got back. Marjorie got me a slow cooker, which I'm excited about, though it tends to require a major grocery shop beforehand, which is difficult sans car. That's the other news, we're back in the market for getting one. It's been too long without.

I'll be posting various pictures from all this when I get around to it.

Montreal

We are in Montreal now, and enjoying it muchly.

We're hoping to have a refresher on our high school French as much as possible on our visit, and it's certainly a good place for that. I wasn't sure exactly how French it would be, but it certainly seems to dominate. What makes it a great learning opportunity is that just about everything that's written comes in both French and English versions, so it's like having flash cards everywhere. My vocabulary has been skyrocketing in just a few days here. And people typically will greet you in French, so you always have the opportunity to respond in kind. Unfortunately, we've typically been getting the polite thanks-for-trying smile followed by a response in English.

Yesterday was rainy and so we mostly just putzed around and did some shopping. In the evening we went to a lovely French restaurant, Restaurant Le Mas Des Oliviers, chosen largely because their menu posted on the street had no English translation, but again we were spoken to in English. They were very nice though - we have yet to encounter the notorious French snottiness - and the food was delicious.

Today we walked to the Parc du Mont-Royal overlooking the city. We had lunch at a Montreal institution, Schwarz's Deli, then hired public bikes and rode down to Old Montreal.

It's a shame that the winters are so harsh here; it might otherwise make a lovely place to live.

Pickles

Marjorie and a plate of pickles at Izakaya Den:

Bikes

I love this!


Rental bikes hit Melbourne.

Vet

Laika at the vet, for an ear infection:


Not her favorite place, of course, but she copes okay. I think it's the liver treats they give her.

Balloon

Spotted from the train station in the early morn:

City view

City view while biking along Capital City trail to Brunswick:

FA Cup night

FA Cup night with my soccer club:








The object of the game in the middle shot is to kick the ball (on the right) into the trash can (on the left). A dollar a shot, for fundraising, with a chance to win a bottle of whiskey.

Workout

In the middle of a twenty minute session on the stairmaster at the local gym:

Sunrise

Sunrise on my street:


Nice enough, but if I never see a sunrise again it'll be too soon. The price of working for a startup.

Warrandyte

Lunch along the river in Warrandyte, while we're working out of the boss's house:

Hoodoo Gurus

At the Hoodoo Gurus show at the HiFi:

La Niche

It was French Night at the French cafe near Marjorie's work, so we went down and practiced our horrendous French with the waiters and enjoyed the beautiful boeuf borgonaise. And the entertainment was nice too:


Loves me some accordion.

Galahs

Galahs take over a puddle, spotted just after my soccer match: