Christmas Week

A short slideshow of our dazzling Christmas week. Merry Christmas from us.

Feliz Navidad

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...as the song goes. It feels so different here with cold weather, beanies, jackets and almost snow weather - yes it's coming!!  We haven't put up a xmas tree but our lovely friend from running shared this photo of her tree. Christmas tree decorating is serious business here and it's an art. We felt very special when we saw the little Aussie touch to the tree - a keyring we gave her recently.  

My lovely niece bought us two baubles for Xmas but without a tree to hang them, we have placed them on our fireplace ledge. Batman and Wonderwoman - she knows how to look after her aunties.

We had planned to see the White House Xmas tree at night but the weekend was pretty busy so we will go through the week. Hopefully Deb hasn't forgotten that we are going to Zoo Lights !!  I love my Xmas lights and it will be pure luck if I make it through the holiday season without a car accident (I stare at the lights when I'm driving).

 

The Embassy Children's Xmas Party was on this week with 50 little (mostly) Aussie kids coming to see Santa and get a taste of home. Check out the Xmas lights outside that show santa on a surfboard being towed by kangaroos. I did the food and provided sausage rolls of course, little boys (best equivalent to be found), chicken nuggets, jelly cups with choc stick (no frogs here) and egg sandwiches. There was other food but that's a good summary. I wanted to make fire engine drink for them (or Santa Fuel as I called it). I got Sprite Zero to limit the sugar intake but they don't do cordial over here. You can buy this powdered stuff called Kool Aid which sounds like stuff you put in your car radiator. I could only buy Tropical flavour but, it had to do. So I filled up this big glass drink dispenser with about 12 litres of sprite and shook in some Kool Aid powder. Holy bubbles Batman, I created a big red volcano that erupted everywhere - and I mean everywhere. It was all over the trolley and the floor. The cleaner was with me at the time thankfully and we just looked in horror and then laughed together. What a bloody mess I made. I actually lost about 3 litres of sprite in the effervescent eruption. None the less, it still tasted like 'tropical' cough mixture albeit a little less bubbly. So this shows that I didn't pass chemistry that well at school.

I took the dogs to the vet for their annual check up and vaccinations. It's always an adventure taking both dogs at once to the vet - it's like taking kids to the local play centre I imagine. Our dogs are very social and it's ALL-ABOUT-THEM !! It's always expensive here and this visit was no surprise. We spent $1048 which included 6 months worth of heart worm and flea tablets for them both. At last we got the nail trim for free. I weighed them first as usual - Cricket was 15kg and Macey was 28kg. This was definitely not right. If it was, then I wanted to use these scales to weigh myself. I know they have both put a little bit of weight on so the vet took them out the back to another set of scales which were not so kind. Cricket was now 18.8kg and Macey was 33kg. Well, this is probably a little more than I expected (and probably still not accurate), especially for Cricket - I still think this is a bit much but they've put on weight so we went with that. I feel like a bad mum as they gave them their 'wellness examination' and highlighted that they are little bit too fat.  But despite feeling like a bad mum, I have to share their little report cards from the vet. 

Macey and Cricket are both such cuties. On today's physical examination they look great besides being overweight and Macey's dental disease ( she's getting teeth cleaned after Xmas). We collected a blood and fecal (poo) sample for their annual parasitic screening test.

Cricket - Body Condition Score 6/9 - Cricket is mildly overweight. Ribs palpable with slight excess of covering. Waist is discernible viewed from above, but is not prominent. Abdominal tuck is apparent.

Macey - - Body Condition Score 7/9 - Macey is moderately overweight. Ribs palpable with difficulty, heavy fat cover. Noticeable fat deposits over lumbar area and base of tail. Waist absent. 

So our goal for 2017 is to find Macey's waist again (and reducing our waistline would be a bonus too). And hopefully with me stopping work soon we can get back to our long daily walks in the forest. For now, less dinner and snacks. Thank god the vet doesn't do our 'wellness exams'. I dread the report card we would get.

On a lighter note, the vet was super lovely (as they all are) and she had this sweater with Fleece Navidad on it. I googled it and the picture is on the right. I asked her what this meant. She said it was their ugly xmas sweater day. There is a song called Feliz Navidad which is Spanish for Merry Christmas. The song was released by Jose Feliciano in 1970 and it's very popular here. You would likely know it if you heard it. I love it. Anyway, being a vet, the sweater was a cute play on words with the sheep fleece and Feliz. Anyway, I learnt something and know where that song comes from now. I just used to mumble the words when I sang along.

Speaking of ugly sweaters, I have ordered ours and they should arrive this week. I thought it was just a joke in Bridget Jones' Diary movie when Colin Firth wore that embarrassing sweater his mum gave him. But a-pparently, ugly sweaters are 'the' thing to wear here. So, we are getting into the spirit and going to get our ugly sweaters. So look out for our Xmas photos in days to come. 

A guy at work had a Golden Girls ugly sweater on the other day. It was a scream - but you wouldn't know it was the Golden Girls if he didn't say so.


It was a pretty cold week with the wind making it bitterly freezing on some days. We were well below zero and we woke on Saturday to a very icy morning outside. During the night we heard the sleet tink tinking on the window. We needed to walk the dogs and were worried about all of us on the ice outside. We had a giggle at Cricket sliding on the ice in the back yard as he went to the toilet but he didn't seem to mind. Our steps outside, driveway and street were all ice so it was a slow tippy toe walk to the forest. Once there, the dogs were off and didn't look back as usual. Thankfully we didn't end up on our arse or break any bones. I decided it was time to buy salt to throw on the ground to help melt snow - we got pet friendly stuff which is actually not salt.

 

On Saturday we went to watch the American Navy Band play their Christmas concert. A good friend has been twice and recommended we go. It's free and tickets go fast. Wow, it was fantastic. I love this sort of stuff. They were excellent, funny and entertaining. In between sets they played a video of sailors talking about xmas and giving messages and kids talking about their parents in the Navy. It was funny but quite teary at the same time.

I watch carols by candlelight every Xmas eve at home so I will miss that this year. I figured this was the closest I will get to carols by candlelight.

They played a fabulous version of Feliz Navidad so I've been singing it ever since. 



Over here they do 'potluck' a lot. I've never heard of it but it's basically a 'bring a plate' kinda thing. Deb's work team had a potluck lunch on Friday. I cooked a roast lamb and made a tim-tam cheesecake. It was a great lunch and it was nice to sit down and eat with friends. Her work area brings together a bunch of other areas including the cleaners and it was just a lovely spread of food and a good Xmas lunch.

The Four N Twenty pieman came again to deliver the next stash of pies to pie-craving hungry Australians. It's like kids at the tuckshop....a rush of people to the loading dock to meet the truck and line up to pay their money for a carton of pies. We got some more and we have a good little stockpile in the freezer. 

My last food venture for the year is making lamingtons for the school currently hosted by the Embassy. They are not found in the shops here of course, so I said I would happily knock a few up for the kids. They are coming to work tomorrow for morning tea and to show the cards they made from the animals we taught them about on our coins (recall my last visit in November). I have to provide them a quick story on how lamingtons were invented. Thankfully a friend here gave me a history sheet (courtesy of Fast Ed from Better Homes and Gardens) so I'll study it tonight. 

This is my second crack at lamingtons and like most things, it's better after a few go's. Still bloody messy but they taste ok. 

I've also taken to making a weekly stew in the crockpot either with mince or chuck steak and lots of veggies. This lasts the dogs for a week and they have been performing more for dinner each night now that warm stew is going in the dinner tin. Cricket is hysterical with his howling singing and Macey growls and spins. It's almost an OH&S hazard now at dinner time.

So it's the week before Xmas and we've noticed people say 'Happy Holidays' rather than 'Merry Christmas'. With so many different religions they find it more appropriate to say Happy Holidays. At least they still celebrate the lights, dazzle, family and food festival. We are doing Christmas lunch with several Aussie friends and orphans and it's shaping up to be a wonderful day. 

Leaves are falling

This week saw some colder weather hit us. Some mornings it was cold but by lunchtime, the temperature had dropped five degrees I reckon. It was bitterly cold.

The work Xmas party was on this week and it was a huge success. I helped with the catering, planning the menu, getting some catered food in, cooking some old favourites and helping on the night. I rolled over 340 sausage rolls which is a record for me. A few workmates helped me do the final cutting and preparation of the food and I was very grateful. The social club gave me a restaurant voucher as a thank you for my help with catering the happy hours for past few months. I was very surprised but flattered - it's to a restaurant I've wanted to go to and the voucher was very generous. 

I also organised the monster Xmas raffle which had over $2500 worth of prizes. There were over 40 prizes to be won and it was a huge hit. One of the prizes I bought was this green fluffy dinosaur toy. I couldn't resist him when I surfing Costco for prizes. On the way home I decided to name him Bruce. We gave him a name badge at work and he sat outside Deb's boss' office on the lounge chair for a few days before the Xmas Party. He was pretty popular. Sadly, I didn't win him in the raffle. But he was won by a lady who was dancing with him all night long. He was really having a great time so it seems he's gone to a good home. 

 

We enjoyed a brunch with one of our good American girlfriends and her husband. We exchanged some funny stories such as 'Not Happy Jan' - the old Telstra yellow pages ad. The joys of mobile phones and internet allowed us to watch the ad. It will never stop being funny.

They then told us about the lonely Maytag man ad. They used to feature the Maytag repair man being bored on his job. He was bored because Maytag appliances were so dependable and never broke so the repairman never had any work to do. The first ad featured the introduction training to new repairman, they were told the appliances never broke so they won't ever see inside the washing machines or other appliances. Their tool box was kitted with playing cards and crossword puzzles to help the boredom. Only Maytag repairmen can battle the loneliness. They explained it much better than me but it was quite funny.

Well the leaves are falling and its incredible to see such huge piles of leaves on the streets waiting for the leave collection trucks to come by.

The forest near us is totally bare again, just like when we first arrived. The dogs still find it full of new things to sniff and pee on. 

And the Xmas lights are going up everywhere. I am starting to take photos so you can see just how fabulous they all look.

I have pulled out crock pot (slow cooker) and will make a stew every weekend - for the dogs. It's better than tin food and the warm stew at night has them really getting excited for their dinner. A final pic of the dogs in the bare forest.

Snow boots

It was a busy week for both of us at work. My work team held a function for its stakeholders and I took care of the catering so I was busy shopping, preparing and cooking. I ordered some catering dishes in but I supplemented with my own specialities. The night was successful which was the main thing. I managed to find this hat when I was shopping for US decorations - couldn't resist for $2.

I bought the dogs new beds and blankets for their kennels. It's going to get pretty cold in coming weeks so I want to ensure they've got plenty of warmth during the day.

We finally headed out on the weekend to buy some snow boots and thick coats. There is a store here called LL Bean - it's amazing. It's got all kinds of outdoor clothing and very good quality stuff. We gave the Visa a good flogging but we now have good warm boots to wear outside when its wet and snowy. We also got thick coats with hoods and furry foxy stuff around the hood. I never thought I'd get a hood with that stuff on it, but I can see why people have it now. There is so much variety of clothes here and it is much cheaper than home - well generally cheaper. We've also both had to buy some thermal running tights and Under Armour brand is very popular here. 

 

I've really taken to wearing my woollen beanie (Xmas pressie from big sister). The Xmas lights are going up thick and fast all over the place. I just love it. There are santa's hanging from gutters, lights all through the trees, xmas trees in every house window...and there are real xmas trees for sale at churches and schools. It's funny watching people carrying their trees to the car, struggling and dragging them or carrying them in a trolley, and cars driving along with trees on the roof. And the Xmas tree is up at the Emb. And Santa and reindeer lights are on the roof above the entrance - Santa's on a surfboard and kangaroos are towing his sled.  I’m going to have to do something at home. I have this vision of Chevy Chase in my head with Xmas Vacation movies. The Zoo has Zoolights - there are lights everywhere in the zoo and you go stroll around at night for free. We will go near Xmas. Poor animals probably can’t sleep with the place lit up like Vegas.

We are going to New York for New Years to meet friends and we're excited that it might be snowing. We'll see the Rockefeller Xmas tree and I've booked tickets to see the famous Rockettes dancers at Radio City. 

Deb has started a half marathon training program and did her first session on Sunday. I also signed up for some personal trainer sessions at the gym for the next 3 months.

Well, not much else to report. A few pics of the dogs as always. I laughed at Macey with her face deep into the leaves and Cricket doing his nightly sprawl.

 

Chasing Turkeys

This week was Thanksgiving - on Thursday. Many places have a public holiday on the Friday, or people take the long weekend to travel and be with family and friends. It is an absolutely wonderful time in this country. It's been explained to me that it's bigger than Xmas and far more special as it's ALL about family and friends -  not the presents, not the shopping, not the hype, not religion. And from what I saw and heard, American's love Thanksgiving and value its importance on 'giving thanks' and being together. 

Our day started like many Americans with a traditional Turkey trot or Turkey chase. We chose the 10k run around our local area with about 10,000 other keen folks running to work up an appetite for their day of eating. It was pretty cold in the morning and a warm sleep-in would have been smarter but, I couldn't believe all the people out running, volunteering and supporting all us Turkey Chasers. So, we don't literally chase a turkey but we had to get a pic taken with the race mascot. I was doing my best attempt at the chicken dance but nobody seemed to work that out - not even Deb? There were several costume runners - turkeys, chefs and a bunch of girls with matching t-shirts saying Young, scrappy and Goosie. I asked them what it meant - Young and Scrappy comes from Hamilton, the current theatre musical about the former President Hamilton and Goosie was their girl group name. Fair enough. I gave them my best turkey gobble gobble gobble sound as I passed them. The run was hard, little rolling hills and I have to say I couldn't wait to finish. 

Interesting thing, you know I'm always up try something 'local'. So I had a hot apple cider before the race. Sounds crazy. But it was cold and it was kinda like warm apple juice. But, the crazy bit was being asked to add the caramel topping and whipped cream on top. Oh god, I could see that coming back up along the race. So no, I didn't brave that sweet little addition. The apple flavour was a bit tart on the toothpaste flavour in my mouth having just brushed my teeth before we came. Anyway, it was nice and warm and I sipped it down. Thankfully I didn't need a toilet stop along the run.

It was a long 10k but it was an experience to partake in. We went with a few running friends but the speedy girls got ahead and we ran with our good friend for the race. Not much conversation was had, it seemed harder than that Chesapeake Bay bridge run the other week.

I was so glad to finish and you can tell by the look on my pretty little face.

We didn't get adopted for Thanksgiving despite all my attempts. A lot of people were travelling away so that made it hard. So we joined some good Aussie friends at a hotel in the city for a buffet lunch. It was super lovely...turkey, ham, mac n cheese, sweet potato with marshmallow stuff on top, mashed potato, corn bread stuffing just to name a few. It was a lovely long lunch with good friends and feeling pretty weary from a big feed and that turkey chase, I came home and slept for 3 hours. We have since learned that Thanksgiving tradition is about watching the Thanksgiving parade in New York, followed the by the International Dog Show (yes, you read that right) and then the football. We missed all three but we still enjoyed our first Thanksgiving.

The rest of the week was tame, no action to report. We worked the Friday after Thanksgiving so no long weekend for us. The Xmas lights and decorations are slowly going up and it's very exciting to see. I LOVE Xmas lights so I'm just going have to get something sorted out the front - there are hooks and a power point so I have to do something. Everyone, and I mean everyone, gets a real Xmas tree. They are on sale everywhere. I'm not sure about putting up a tree cause we'll have to buy decorations as we left them all at home. Maybe something small and simple will suffice - not sure what we're doing Xmas day yet but best start thinking about that. 

I mentioned earlier that Thanksgiving was not about shopping and presents. Well it's not really but they do call day after Thanksgiving - Black Friday (nothing to do with the 13th). This is like Boxing Day sales at home. The stores and shops are flooded with people fighting for the big sales. It's pretty serious here. And Saturday is Small Business Saturday to help the little guys get some business too. And now that online shopping is so popular, they have Cyber Monday just after Black Friday. So it's a long weekend of sales. I've been trawling online for a few things myself but it's like a frenzy here...but then so is Boxing Day and New Year sales at home I guess.

I cooked some new things this week. We've decided to have a 'meat-free Monday' in order to try cut back our meat intake. So my first vege dinner was a black bean and rice quesadilla thing. It was pretty nice actually. Not as tasty as the mexican restaurants but still tasty. Given the cold weather is upon us, I pulled out the crock pot (slow cooker) and cooked up a pot roast with some dumplings. Wow, that was quite a success. I also had a crack at making lamingtons - I've never made them before and I've heard they're simple to make. It was a bit fiddly with the choc dipping and coconut rolling but I'll get better with more practice. And yes, they turned out fantastic. So Deb will have some happy workmates tomorrow as they try my new experiments. Next time I might put jam and cream in the middle - yum.

 

I keep saying it's getting cold and I've taken to wearing a beanie outside when we go out to the shops. My head gets pretty cold and having a rude short haircut at the moment doesn't help things. I can wear any beanie I like cause nobody notices or looks, except Deb.

I sent this picture to our dog sitter who sadly had to say goodbye to their old Lab this week. He was a lovely old boy and our dogs loved playing with him. It was so sad to hear he had passed. I sent this photo to our dog sitters who are keen to get some cuddles from Macey and Cricket very soon. I thought this picture might put a smile on their face. It did apparently.  They are wearing the little scarves that Deb's niece brought a few months ago. Very cute indeed.  

Broken Week

This week saw a flurry of things break. First to go was Deb's crown which fell out two weeks ago. She had to get the ol' root canal treatment and then an interim crown. But it fell out a few days later. She saw the dentist again (note that two different dentist do the work in this process) and they stuck it back on, took the mould for the new crown and she's been fine for the time being. Mind you, the Visa took a nice $5000 hit. 

Next to break was the trash (garbage) disposal unit in the sink. It just stopped. Ok, no hurry but then I noticed it leaking everywhere underneath so it then became a hurry to get fixed. I managed to get a plumber 'on the day' I called (miracle there). Have to say he was a funny dude, he was Asian and when he checked my name as he arrived, he quickly said, 'no no, you a QUEEN' (if you know my name you'll get his joke). The Chinese shop at home says this everytime I pick up takeaway.  After discussing a few repair options and costs I opted for the less expensive repair to save the landlord some money. But we discovered the disposal unit had a long crack in it so it was not repairable. So a new disposal was fitted. Thankfully we don't pay for that $500. 

And then the car. Bit crapped off that the front brake pads need replacement. It certainly sounded pretty rough but the car is not even 2 years old. Deb reckons I drive like this picture. The forest area near home is very windy and narrow and I guess I think I'm Peter Brock on my good days and James Bond on my better days. Maybe my driving is a bit brake heavy? So ching ching $620 later and the brakes are good and my driving has not improved.

I thought they could have washed the car for me after that much money. Last time I just had a service for $44 and they washed and vac'd the car for free. I might mention this in the feedback survey.


And next was my phone. I only got it in Feb!!  The battery has been losing charge way too quick so a visit to the Apple store saw them replacing the phone completely. Apparently the battery was swelling so they don't replace the battery - too dangerous - so a whole new phone for free under warranty. Thankfully I backed everything up the night before and could easily download my info on the new phone in a jiffy. All good.  I wish they could do the same for my waistline as it's been swelling since Feb too :o 

Ah lets see, what was next. The house at home. Apparently...the bathroom and ensuite sinks are both leaking underneath again or maybe still. This first started when we left (I've never had problems in 12 years) and despite a plumber replacing all washers before we left, the leaks started. So a plumber came and fixed them (again). But it started leaking again in both bathrooms. Hmm, sounds a bit strange. So after an email rocket to the real estate advising their plumber may not have done a good job, I told them to use my plumber and talk to the tenants about hand-pressure on taps.

We enjoyed a relaxing weekend and caught up on washing, ironing, sleeping and paperwork. I had a pile of paperwork to file and sort out and I managed to find some new recipes to try out. Deb has decided she wants to do meat-free Mondays. This is her putting her little toe in the vegetarian ring. I certainly won't go vego but I guess a little less meat won't hurt. The cold weather is coming so I'm going to get the crock pot (slow cooker) out and cook some meals during the day. 

Work is keeping me busy. I have organised a monster Xmas raffle to be run. I did one at home few years ago. It's basically a no-profit raffle where all ticket sales go into prizes so the more tickets sold means more prizes are bought. The social club started with $2000 prize pool and I'm sure we'll get that easily. After that is raised, we buy more prizes. We started selling tickets on Friday and it was a smashing success. Nobody gets away without getting a ticket or 5 from me !!

The weekend has been cool but today was a shocker - really windy and cold. The dogs were restless so we had to walk them. I pulled out my wooly beanie that my sister gave me for Xmas. It was freakin' warm as toast. A guy at her work knits so he made us two beanies and my sister gave them to us for xmas last year. So here's a few pics to finish with showing us walking through the forest with all the leaves falling. 

 

Election and School Day

We have seen our last visitor leave on Monday and life returns to normal - or as normal as can be here in hotdog land. I'll get the bad news done with first but you all know how the election turned out. We had some friends over to watch the results come in and it was seriously a very sad night - we kept flicking the 200 channels to find one with good news but unfortunately, the writing was on the wall by midnight. We all finished up and went to bed in a numb shock. Needless to say, the next day was quite sombre in DC - it's a democrat town and people took the day off work or came in late and just sat there looking like zombies. We felt like we backed the losing horse in an un-losable race. But, Hillary isn't Phar Lap and Trump romped in with a big win albeit controversial. Although Hillary got more 'popular' votes overall than Trump, Trump won more seats across the states. You win all seats in the state if you have the majority votes in the state. The states are weighted differently so he won the high numbered seat states while she only one the small numbered seat states. The same outcome saw Bush beat Al Gore in 2000. It's similar in Australia, some states have more/less members in the House of Reps and Beasley got more votes than Howard in the 1998 election but still lost the election due to the seat counting and coalition. But you have to note that both Trump and Hillary got about 50 million votes each so it was close. And only half the country voted so overall, it's a pretty shitty outcome for the US and the world.

Moving on to nicer things, I went on a city lights tour with a friend who stayed overnight on Sunday. It was really pretty and I took note so that we can do drive around ourselves and see the memorials and sights at night. It was a clear night, a bloody cold night and the tour was pretty good. The tour guide was called Mr. Holiday - got to be a joke. I always learn something new on tours. This night it was about the President's plane - Air Force One which it's called (One) when the current president is onboard. When he's not on board, it goes by it's tail number 28,000 or 29,000 (as there are two aircraft in the fleet). After a presidential inauguration resulting in a change in office, the outgoing president is provided transport on a VC-25 aircraft to their home destination. The aircraft for this flight does not use the Air Force One call sign because it is not carrying the president in office. For both Presidents Clinton and GW Bush the flight was known as Special Air Mission 28000, where the number represents the aircraft's tail number. Same happened when plane flew deceased Reagan and Ford to Washington for their state funerals.

I have come to greatly admire both President Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr during my time here. The tour stopped at both their memorials and I was able to recognise more features of the memorial given our travels to Gettysburg and the South where both of these men have played a significant role in history. We also went to the US Marine Corp Memorial or often referred to as the Iowa Jima Memorial. I never knew the story of Iowa Jima but now I do. I might watch the movie now but suffice to say, I can appreciate why this memorial is so important.

 

This week I was asked to do a presentation to a school class on Australia. Each year, the Embassies are allocated a school to work with in an effort to teach them about a foreign country. I went to the final presentation by a school in May but we now have a new school. So I put on my Aussie shirt, an Akubra-like hat, RM Williams boots and my best Aussie slang accent and talked to the kids about Australia's features, climate, history, money, cities and animals. It was a great morning. I had a cricket bat and ball and found myself thinking I was Steve Irwin. So after jumping around like I was chasing crocodiles, the kids tell me they don't know Steve Irwin - uh oh. They were probably not born when he died back in 2006. Never mind, I made up for it by doing my best cockatoo screech, kookaburra laugh and emu bob walk. I was entertaining to say the least, a bit of an idiot but at least I held their young attention spans. I taught them to say G'day mate and See ya later mate. Very cute. 

They asked lots and lots of questions - I was surprised how many given they have only just started learning about Australia. The funniest question I got was 'How long did it take you to learn that accent?'. Another kid yells out 'I really love your accent' in his best little US drawl. He could listen to it all the time apparently !! I taught them Crikey and told them what a 'dunny' was. They were shocked how old Queen Elizabeth was and asked 'how long will she be Queen?'. Good question I thought - if only we knew the answer also. One kid asked me if I had a computer - I must have looked bloody old to him. They loved the cricket bat and ball, kangaroos and joey's and koalas (which I had to remind them are NOT in fact bears). I told them crocodiles were dangerous, man eaters and would kill them. So one kid had to clarify what would happen if he stood on one - run fast I said. And then they asked if crocodiles really run and how fast. The questions kept coming. And this one stumped me when we talked about the little Tassie Devil....'is the devil's neck really thick so that animals can't bite it?' Hmm, that's one for that little kid to research for her assignment.  Google just tells me that the Tasmanian devil's large head and neck allow it to generate among the strongest bites per unit body mass of any extant mammal land predator. Apparently they can bite through thick wire. I will be sure to tell the little girl next time I see her (in Dec at the morning tea with them).

Well the weather has quickly become cold, down to about 3 degrees (celsius) overnight and cool during the days. Cricket now wears his coat and the leaves are falling heavily in the forest - really pretty. I can see the dogs better now the trees are thinning and I can hear them rustling through the leaves. We crossed the creek the other day and I thought it was too cold to swim but no, not too cold for them. But they didn't swim and we just kept walking.

A friend told us about a TV show called 11.22.63 which is date format for 22 Nov 63 which is the day JFK was assassinated. It's about a guy who finds a time portal in the back of diner that takes him back to the same day in 1960. The story is based on a Stephen King novel and is about this guy who goes back to prevent the assassination of JFK as he believes the world would be a better place if he lives. Anyway, can't say anymore but we had a binge session and watched the eight episodes. It was great - so look it up and watch it.

We are now catching up with Blacklist, The Americans and Elementary as the previous seasons are on Netflix or whatever cyber thing Deb's got us connected to.

Thanksgiving is next week and we are yet to be adopted - I'm working on it though

Capitol Hill and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Run

It has been a very busy 5 weeks with visitors from home. But we continued to put in big days and see and do a whole bunch of things. I spent the weekend catching up on sleep and managed to get 15 hours on Friday and Saturday. It was greatly needed. We ended daylight savings this weekend too so we got an extra hour sleep - just awesome. The weather is cooling, the leaves are falling and things look quite pretty around the place.

Despite being tired through the week, I managed to watch the baseball world series finals. They play the best of 7 games and the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians were battling for a long overdue world series title. The Indians were up 3-1 games and then the Cubs got on a winning streak taking the series to 3 all. So it came down to a deciding 7th game on Wed night. It was a fantastic game - I've never seen such great baseball. I couldn't go to bed so at midnight they were 6 all after 9 innings. This means extra time until until someone scores a run. There was a rain delay and I couldn't risk staying up any later so went to bed. I woke in the morning to see the Cubs had won, breaking a 106 year drought. I was pretty happy and had been backing the cubbies.

Onto more serious things, a few weeks back we were treated to a personal tour of the Capitol Building by a friend we have met here. The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the seat of the US Congress, the legislative branch of the US Federal Government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall.

The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, particularly with the addition of the massive dome. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.

It was really interesting, we asked 578 questions, and we got to see things behind the scenes. Two things of great interest were the balcony (picture with me and Deb) which overlooks where the inauguration will take place in January for the new President. Such a great view. The other cool thing was underneath the various floors is the crypt (I think this features in the latest movie Inferno by Dan Brown). It was intended to be the burial place of George Washington, with a ringed balustrade at the center of the Rotunda above looking down to his tomb. However, under the stipulations of his last will, Washington was buried at Mt. Vernon (just outside DC). The Crypt houses exhibits on the history of the Capitol. A compass star inlaid in the floor marks the point at which Washington, D.C. is divided into its four quadrants; however, the geographic center of the city lies near the White House.

 
 

The other highlight was running the Chesapeake Bay Bridge 10km fun run. One of our local running friends had wanted to do this run so we decided to register a few months ago with her. While our running had been going well, the past 5 weeks or so with travelling and visitors gave us little chance for exercise. So the run was going to be a tough struggle, particularly since the bridge has a very long climb. 

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (commonly known as the "Bay Bridge") is a major dual span bridge in the state of Maryland at Annapolis (about an hour from DC). Spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state's Eastern shore region with the urban Western shore.The original span opened in 1952 and with a length of 4.3 miles (6.9 km), was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure; the parallel span was added in 1973. The incline was a nice 3% and the highest point of the bridge is about 56m above water.

The run is capped at 25,000 people and it's very popular with both walkers and runners. We all decided to just do our best and walk if we had to. We stood there in the 'Start Corrall' and I looked at that beastly bridge, wondering if it actually got to the other side. It was so bloody long that I couldn't see it. I could see people running up the start and kept telling myself this would be over in an hour or so, gulp !!  This seemed like a good idea over breakfast sometime ago?

We headed off amongst the mass of feet and as always, there's a range of dress styles. I quite enjoyed a t-shirt that had this on the back 'IF YOU'RE BEHIND ME THEN YOU DIDN'T TRAIN EITHER'. Yep, that was kinda me.  Deb pulled away early and didn't look back. She says she did but I said nope, I saw ya' just trot off. 

So our friend and I jogged together as we are similar pace. It was quite frustrating to dodge walkers - you think they would walk on the side but no, they were all over the road making this physical challenge a real obstacle course. We chatted along the way about a range of things and I explained how in Australia, a sausage sizzle would be at the end of the race - how I would miss this at the end. And then a moron ran past quite fast at some stage trying to save 6 seconds off his race time and I commented that he was running for sheep stations. I had to explain that term to my friend also. We made it to the top of the bridge without stopping and it was literally all downhill from there. The last few km's were flat after the bridge and the legs were getting pretty tired. But we ran all the way and crossed the finish line to receive a serious chunk of bling (race medal).

The logistics for this race was outstanding. There were parking places away from the race start and school buses were ferrying runners to the start and back from the finish. It was highly organised and took away a lot of stress. 

 

While finishing was a great relief, the most exciting part was getting to ride on an a yellow American school bus. Wow, this is an icon of all things American. Our friend was surprised that we didn't have such buses in Australia. Wow, so another box ticked by taking a ride on a school bus. I was quite excited and waiting for everyone to burst into song with '10 green bottles, sitting on the wall, 10 green bottles....". 

So we came home quite tired and I had another few hours sleep. We have another busy week ahead but I'm glad to start the week feeling quite refreshed...I might rethink that tomorrow morning when the legs won't work.

Well the weekend draws to a close but this coming week will see Election day on Tuesday. It has been absolutely frantic here with trash, slander, bullshit, hype, promises and just a little bit of policy. Early voting has finished and I think this is the biggest turnout ever so I wonder how many will vote on Tuesday - note it is not mandatory to vote in the US. We are having a little election party on election night with some friends coming over to watch the results come in. I figure it will either be historical or hysterical, depending on who wins !!

And check out the bumper sticker. It's fair to know voters are fairly unhappy with both candidates and consider this election picking the best of the worst. Sound familiar??