Sept. 3, 2007

Wow, I sure have fallen behind here. And there is so much to share now too!!

So, where did we leave off from last time? I think my last quick update mentioned that I got to do a quick trip to a winery called Seville Hill. We went for work to taste some stuff and pick up some bottles as gifts for clients.

Since that time we've been hitting the real estate and car stuff pretty heavily. I took some time during the week last week so that we could do a little car shopping.

And great news!...we have a car...sort of. All of the financing is approved, but since my visa is not 100% final, they won't let me take delivery of the car. Really pretty annoying. Once we physically have the car, I'll tell everyone what it actually is and share some photos. Hopefully that will be this week but I really don't know at this point.

On Wednesday last week we got up and went to see Vegas. He's still doing well. This was Leslie's first time seeing him since we all got here so he was excited to see her. We even spent some time in the outside section of his pen. Very odd...Vegas outside is a different concept for us.

The rest of Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal. Did some work, researched apartments/houses to rent. That was about it.

Friday, however, was quite cool, for me at least. I did my first of many day trips to Sydney! Obviously I don't get to see much of the city in a day, but it was still great to go (especially since the weather in Melbourne was windy and rainy all day while Sydney was warm and sunny).

I went with Kerri and John to visit a prospective client not far from the downtown area. After landing, we walked over to the Avis car rental garage to pick up our car. It's actually cheaper to rent a car for a day than take cabs in Sydney.

Our car was something to behold. As we walked up to it, I jokingly said, "I bet we have THAT one." and sure enough...we did.

I don't think that even the Crayola people could come up with a word that would do this shade of purple justice. Even this photo doesn't quite tell the story.

The type of car was the Holden Commodore. Holden is the GM brand here and the Commodore is their main sedan. Was a nice car...from the inside. You know your car is an attention-getter when the shirtless guy at the intersection who wants you to pay him to clean your windshield gives you the big, emphatic thumbs-up.

We made the short drive to the parking garage near the office of the potential client and stopped at a coffee shop to regroup before going to do the sales pitch a few floors up in the attached high rise. We were on the 25th floor pitching our software and services to a big wine retailer here.

As we were getting settled in to the conference room, John asked I had seen the view. As the blinds were closed due to the mid-day sun, I hadn't. But knowing that we were on the 25th floor, I figured it would be pretty cool. I was right.

From Sydney Day Trip

It was a great view of the main downtown area, the harbour, the opera house, the bridge, everything. I didn't get to see anything close up, but it just makes me realize that we have to get there to check it all out.

After a rather successfull meeting, it was back to the purple monster and off for some lunch. Since it was my first time in the Sydney area, John and Kerri decided that they wanted to take me to Bondi Beach. I wasn't going to protest.

Bondi Beach is the big, popular beach area in Sydney. It's also where the Aussie celebs hang out. In this photo, supposedly people like Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, etc. own places in that white building on the right.

Even though it is still technically winter, there were still people hitting the water, sunbathing, etc. John and I took a moment to pose for a photo with our fine rental automobile.

We found a greek restaurant across the street for some lunch before heading back to the airport for our flight back to Melbourne. The team here is going to be working hard to try to get me to eat some seafood. Now, I'll try some things, but one of the selections they chose at the greek place was not on my list. At first, it looked like a small bowl of onion straws or onion rings. Only upon closer inspection did I realize that they were tiny little fish that had been breaded and fried. Yeah...like the little fish you keep as a pet...the whole thing...fried...to be eaten...whole. No thanks.

So, back to the Sydney airport. We fought through rush hour traffic only to slightly miss our 5pm flight. But we knew this was going to happen so we got on the 5:30pm flight. Needless to say, there are a lot of flights between the two cities.

I got home around 8pm and we dove in to looking up rental places to inspect the next morning. We found six that we wanted to check out.

The first place we looked at in Mitcham, at around 9am, was something to behold. We really regret not taking photos of it. Upon walking through the doorway we immediately realized why there were no interior photos online.

Not only was each room covered in hideous, dark, 40-year-old wallpaper, each room got progressively worse as you walked through the house. Think of a pattern that you've seen. Any pattern, doesn't matter. Got one in your head? Good. Yes, that pattern was on the walls of this house. We quickly left this location and moved on to the next.

The next place was in Donvale, just slightly to the north of Mitcham. When I say "slightly" I mean, like 2-4km. The suburbs here are more like what we're used to simply calling neighborhoods, but they each have their own post code here. We had three places to check out in the same basic area in Donvale.

The first one had some major potential. A nice little three bedroom 1.5 bath cottage type house in on a nice looking little street. Nice hardwood floors throughout. Recently updated kitchen. Nice back porch and back yard area (within a fence that is connected to the car port). Overall, one of the first places we saw that we could really picture ourselves in.

We had seen one the week before in Mitcham, very close to the new office, that was more like a townhouse that we kind of liked. Good location, tons of space, but it had kind of, well, weird space. We couldn't see the best way to do the living rooms and stuff. That, and it had very blue carpet everyway. Still, we had put an application in for it.

Back to the place in Donvale though. Amazingly, we were the only ones to show up for the inspection. Usually there are at least 4-6 families/couples checking out each place. We were alone. So we got to talk to the agent and she said if we got our application in quickly, they'd see it first thing Monday and we'd have a great chance at getting the place.

At this point we had more than 30 minutes before looking at the next place which was right around the corner, so we explored a little bit. We found a great little shopping center right around the corner. It had a Coles (the nice grocery store chain here) and a ton of great little places to give it a cool downtown feel (eventhough we're in the 'burbs). There were a couple of bakeries (great fresh pastries in the morning), a butcher, a market with fresh fruits and veggies, a great flower shop, a couple of cafes and restaurants. It was great, and it was all within a short walk from the neighborhood we were just in.

I'll wrap up the rest of the "Quest for a House" for Saturday quickly here. We looked at 4 more places that morning. Two were...eh..ok. Two were...eh..no chance.

We then had the rest of the day to do what we wanted so we hit yet another big shopping center/mall in Ringwood (feel free to Google Map these different suburbs I mention...it's easy if you just look for Ringwood, Victoria, Australia).

Saturday night we rented "Wild Hogs" from the rental place down the street. Leslie is the official member. Kind of exciting actually. No permanent address. No car. No drivers license. But we can rent DVDs!

Also, on Saturday, we coordinated plans to have dinner Sunday evening with Shinko and her boyfriend, Kevin. (For those who don't remember, Shinko is one of Laura's good friends from high school and college who has lived in Melbourne for the past 4 years)

Sunday...we slept in.

View Album Get your own

When we got up, we decided, kind of spur-of-the-moment, that we should go check out the Melbourne Zoo. We knew that we wouldn't be able to see it all and still be able to get back in time for dinner but we went for it anyway. It was totally worth it.

We actually joined the "Friends of the Zoo" program which is one annual fee with unlimited access to the zoo (plus two more zoos in Victoria, discounts at the shops, etc.). We figured that if we go to the zoo more than twice in a year, it pays for itself. Sold!

The weather was perfect, as usual, and we checked out about half of the zoo. We made sure to see the Australia section, naturally. It's so unlike a US zoo. The section with the kangaroos, emus, etc. was just an open area for the most part. One big emu just kept walking up to people (and scaring the bejezzus out of them).

Next it was back to the house to change for dinner. Shinko recommended a place called Riva in St. Kilda. Hopefully you just Google Mapped St. Kilda to find that it is right on the water. It's a very trendy beach area just outside of downtown. We got there just before sunset and the views of the water and the city were unreal.

From St Kilda

We met up with Shinko and Kevin and had a drink and some exceptional food along with some great conversation as we caught up on the last several years.

After dinner we came back to the house to fill out all of our rental applications from Saturday. The place we really liked in Donvale, had an online application we could do. The others would have to be faxed. On to Monday (today)...

I got up for work as normal and started the 20 minute drive to the office. When I was about 5 minutes away from the office my phone rang. I answered it using my cool bluetooth speaker thing. It was the real estate agent for the Donvale house we liked. They had gotten our online application and we were already approved!!! We had the house!!!!

So, we're now working through all of the details and will be taking care of the deposits and signing the lease tomorrow afternoon. We're very excited to get in and start making it our own. I'm especially excited to get a grill in the back yard. I've been without one for too long now.

Oh yeah, I also got a call that we were approved for the blue carpet place too, but we had already made up our minds. Donvale it is!

We'll be in touch with our next adventures soon!

August 25, 2007

Happy weekend everyone!

As you'd expect, we had a pretty eventful Friday and Saturday this week. Leslie is starting to feel much better so that has definitely helped.

Friday was just a basic work day for me. The first excitement for me though, was the arrival of the new Blackberry. It's the 8800 model if you care to look it up. Quite simply, the thing rocks. I had an older model Berry in the US and this thing blows that one away. It's just nice to have mobile email and web browsing once again.

But the coolest feature, by far, is the Google Maps download you can get for it. It would be cool enough if it would just show you the great maps that Google has. I'd be fine with that. But this model phone goes one step further…the thing has built in GPS capabilities in it. That means that when you bring up the maps, it shows you where you are within a few meters. For a map geek like me, this is the ultimate.

Another nice bonus for Friday morning was the fact that Leslie's Blackberry arrived as well. Now we both have our own cell phone numbers and really nice phones.

We also got a cool Bluetooth speaker for the car (http://www.blueant.com.au/supertooth-light-bluetooth-handsfree.htm) since it's a hefty fine if you're caught with a phone to your ear while driving here. Thankfully, the Australian people have not started to think that silly Bluetooth headsets are a fashion statement like many people have in the US.

The rest of Friday went like any work day with one exception…the Friday team lunch.

I'm not sure if this is something they plan to do every week, but we did it this week. We ventured out into the hills/small mountains just east of the office for two reasons. The first reason I'll fill you in on in a few weeks (top secret work related). The second was simply to get some lunch.

John drove and I got stuck in the back. Me + back seat + winding hilly roads = a great chance at car sickness. I did ok though. About 10 minutes before I was going to hit my "I need to get out of the car" threshold, we pulled into a cozy little restaurant called Pie In The Sky. (Sidenote: I found out later that both John and Kerri also have carsickness problems…fighting for shotgun on roadtrips should be fun).

Pie In the Sky is named as such because they specialize in a big Australian delicacy…the meat pie. I know what you're thinking…those are two words that should never sit next to each other. That's what I thought back when Kris first started warning me that they'd get me to eat one upon my arrival here.

A meat pie (or just "pie" as they are usually called) is really a ridiculously simple concept. Think of a chicken pot pie that you've all seen in the US. Now, take away the chicken and veggies and insert beef. When you get a good one, it's very good beef like cuts of different steaks. The cheap-o ones look to be ground beef. I've seen these in the freezer section at the grocery stores and have kept my distance. But they do have the good kind frozen too. I should know. Kris was sure to get some for our house before we arrived.

So, the beef that is inside the pastry is really like what you'd expect from a good, hearty beef stew. They do mix up what else they do with the beef. Sometimes there are veggies or other goodies, like bacon and sometimes they just have marinated the beef a certain way.

Pie In the Sky was not my first meat pie experience. I did try one of the frozen ones earlier in the week, and enjoyed it. Like most foods though, fresh is better than frozen.

Going with a recommendation from John, I ordered the Steak and Guiness pie with Chips (that's fries to the rest of us). The beef had been marinated and cooked in Guiness beer. The pie included some potatoes as well. Quite simply, it was excellent! Kerri took a photo of me with my meal that I'll share as soon as she sends it to me.

We wrapped up lunch (saw a few wild cockatiels walking around near the parking lot) and headed back down the hill to the office. We did take one quick stop for a photo op near a breathtaking scenic overlook (the first of many for me, I'm sure). Again, once I have the photo from Kerri, I'll share.

That was about it for Friday. We did start to research some places to live and scheduled some of the "inspections" as they call them (that's the term they use when you look at a place that is for rent or for sale).

Our first thing on the schedule for Saturday was to check out a townhouse up for rent in Mitcham near the new office. But that wasn't until 12:30 so we had a lazy/relaxing morning at the house. Leslie was feeling even better today so she was going to venture out with me today.

It's interesting how they show rental properties around here. There are not the big apartment complexes we were used to in the Raleigh area. It's pretty much all just houses and condos that are rented through real estate agents. This being the case, you can't just walk up to the door and ask to see the place whenever you want. The agents set inspection times, which we can view on various websites, and everyone who is interested just shows up.

The catch is that the inspection times are only short little 15 minute windows. We were actually early for the one today so we drove around and checked out some other houses we plan to inspect next week. Then, once it was time to inspect today's place, we were one of 4-5 couples/families checking it out. The agent takes your name and number and everyone then just wanders around the place.

This place was not at the top of our list so we checked it out, grabbed an application and moved on. After browsing through a nice pet supply store (think PetSmart, but a little smaller) around the corner and a quick bite for lunch we planned out the rest of our day.

Originally, our only plan was to pick up a few more of the items we have found out that we needed (this happens pretty much daily, but that's actually part of the fun).

But, due to the incredible weather, we changed our minds. About the weather…remember, it's winter….now, my C to F conversions are a bit rusty, but according to my math it was scheduled to hit close to 70 degrees today, with nothing but sun and a nice breeze.

So, since we had the weather, and Leslie was out of the house for the first time since a quick trip to the doctor earlier in the week, I decided we should go downtown.

This part of the story will be told with some photos, since we had a camera with us (see slideshow to the right).

One last thing to mention about downtown though…the hook turn. It's hard to explain, but I'll try…the hook turn is something that is done on downtown streets that have trams running in the middle lanes. As I explain this, remember that we drive on the left side of the road here…

The concept of a hook turn is this…a right turn is made from the LEFT lane. When you have your green light, you get in the left lane and pull forward into (but not through) the intersection, with your right turn signal on. You stop your car just in front of the traffic waiting at their red light to cross the intersection. All the while cars are moving through the intersection on your right.

Once the lights change, you now make your right turn and proceed through the intersection. You pretty much have to since you are blocking all of the people who had been waiting for that light.

I fear that I've lost you all at this point so I'll wrap up this section by saying that I did NOT perform a hook turn while downtown. I could have. I probably should have. But I opted for the 3 lefts = 1 right technique and went around the block and headed back to the safety of the eastern 'burbs where a right turn is done from the right lane.

We wrapped up the day with a quick stop at the store for some basics and then some dinner at the house.

Couple of new quick observations to wrap up this one:

• Instead of Burger King, we have Hungry Jacks. The reason for this is that the "Burger King" name was already owned when BK expanded here.
• The smallest paper money they have here is $5. There are $1 and $2 coins. I'm only just starting to get used to this. The $1 coin is bigger than the $2 coin which are both smaller than 50 cent coin (it's a beast, actually).

Well, that has got to be all for now. Hope you've enjoyed and we'll be in touch!

August 23, 2007

Hey everyone,

This week has been going ok. Leslie has been slowly improving. Hopefully by the end of the weekend she'll be back on her feet.

Today (Thursday) I didn't go into the office because our shipment of our 17 boxes of stuff was scheduled to arrive. Since Leslie had not gotten out to see Vegas, I was going to take the time to do that too.

The delivery guys were supposed to be here around 10 or 10:30am. After a couple of phone calls to my contact at the delivery company, they arrived just before 1pm. I don't think it was the drivers' fault…they seemed to not know that we were scheduled for earlier in the day when they were across town.

The guys who unloaded our boxes were worth the wait though. The main guy was a tall, skinny, white-haired guy with various tattoos all over his arms and hands. Oh yeah, he only had one tooth. It was on the bottom. It's horrible to say it, but he is just the type of guy you'd expect to see drinking a beer in a bar in the middle of the outback. Nice guy though. As with everyone, as friendly as can be.

Once the boxes were unloaded into the garage and I signed off that they all made it (which they did), I grabbed my keys to head out to Spotswood to see Vegas.

The route in Google Maps from our house in Forest Hill to the quarantine station in Spotswood clocks it at around 45 minutes. But I wasn't going to go that way because it involved some of the toll highways in the city and I don't have a pass for them.

So, I headed out the long way, planning for a drive of about an hour. Had I not missed one of my turns towards the end, it really would have only been an hour.

The drive wasn't bad, thanks to all of the entertaining radio DJs I get to listen to. It's amazing how much you can learn about an area and the culture from listening to the standard male and female radio host teams throughout the day.

Apparently, the big things in the news right now are underage smoking (we're talking pre-teens here), some politician who was caught at a strip club, a guy from one of the sports teams (I think maybe one of the Aussie rules football, aka footy, teams) was suspended for 7 weeks for some nose-breaking incident during a match, Justin Timberlake tickets go on sale tomorrow, and I could win a trip to Hawaii.

The best part, though, is how incredibly un-PC the DJs are. Actually, everyone here is. It's actually a bit refreshing compared to the be-careful-what-you-say-because-it's-going-to-offend-or-upset-someone mentality we've been used to in the U.S.

All of that from just driving around over the past few days. One last note on that underage smoking bit I heard. One girl, maybe 14 years old, was asked how she affords to smoke a pack a day when a pack costs around $10. She said she takes her $10 per week allowance, buys one pack and sells them to other kids one cigarette at a time at an inflated price so she can afford to buy more packs for herself. Great girl. Trying to drag down the rest of the youth of Australia with her.

Anyway, back to the Thursday adventure…

The quarantine station was a bit intimidating at first. It was behind a huge gate (like the kind you'd see at a TV studio or something). I expected one huge building with some outdoor areas for the dogs to play and run.

Instead, it was a small building for an office, where I checked in, and then various smaller buildings for the different animals. I was taken to one of the smaller buildings that was for the cats. Vegas was in a building with about 5-6 other cats, each with their own approximately 3x6 foot pen inside, with access to the same sized area outside.

He was extremely happy to see me and we hung out for quite a while. The guy in charge of his area said he was still getting acclimated to things, but it seemed like he was doing quite well. Some of the non-stop dog barking from around the corner at the dog pens would spook him sometimes but otherwise he seemed to be good.

After about 30 minutes or so of hanging with Vegas, it was time for me to head back to the homestead in the eastern suburbs. This time the trip took significantly longer thanks to the beginnings of rush hour. But it still wasn't bad. Unlike most areas in the US that have traffic, the cars actually move here. Imagine that!

Before I got home I realized that I had never really had lunch and it was now almost 4pm. I decided that it was now time to try the Aussie version of McDonalds.

The building was quite impressive. Much nicer looking than what you see in the US. Service seemed to be a bit friendlier as well. I played it safe and went for the Quarter Pounder combo (yes, it's called a Quarter Pounder even though we're on the metric system…it's not a Royale with Cheese). But I do want to try the McOz burger I saw on the menu some time.

So, back in the car (I'm doing well with the driving, but wasn't ready to try drive thru yet) and to the house. The McD's food tasted just like you'd expect it, but not quite as…heavy? I guess that's the right word. At no point did I feel the McRegret or McNausea after I ate.

I then ventured out to the garage to check out some of the boxes. So far so good. Those that I unpacked looked to be complete and in-tact.

That's all for now. We'll see what the weekend has in store for us. Tomorrow morning should be exciting though since I get my new Blackberry (just using an old loaner right now).

August 21, 2007

It's been a few days since we arrived here in Melbourne so I figured it was time for a good update on what we've been up to since leaving Raleigh.

Our flights were, thankfully, uneventful. The L.A. to Melbourne leg was as long and uncomfortable as we expected but we were at least seated by a window and the seat next to it (but nothing really helps 14 hours in Economy).

More important, however, was the fact that Vegas made it the whole way without trouble. We had to pick him up in L.A. (literally from the baggage claim area on the same belt where golf clubs are sent out). He was a bit shaken up, but otherwise ok.

Once we had him, we had to get him checked in and sealed into his travel crate around the corner at Qantas Freight. We had several hours before our next flight so we got to take our time here. While waiting we met a nice guy named Travis who was checking his cat in for his move to Sydney. Once we were done there he was kind enough to give us a ride back to the main terminals so we could get checked in for the big flight.

After a bite to eat and a slight delay, we were loaded on the big white and red 747 and on our way. We were scheduled to leave just before midnight on Wednesday.

We arrived in Melbourne about on time at around 8am Friday morning. Yeah…no Thursday this week. Immigration check in was no trouble. A couple of quick stamps in the passports and we were on to baggage claim. Amazingly, all 7 of our bags (including golf clubs) arrived in tact.

Next it was time for customs. This one had us somewhat worried since we had a lot random non-clothing items in our bags. Thankfully, they didn't really care about that stuff.

What they did care about, though, was my golf shoes. One of the questions on the customs form asks about dirt or soil. I said "no" that I was not importing any. I never even thought that my golf shoes or clubs could have some dirt or grass on them. Once the customs guy started asking me, I knew right away that my spikes were loaded with dirt.

He told me that I was looking at a $200+ fine (for the dirt, for lying on my customs form, etc.). Welcome to Australia!!!

But, I decided to play the "I'm moving to Australia" card, and it worked. He said, "Well, I can't fine someone who's moving here. As long as you understand why we're doing this, we'll get the shoes cleaned up and move you along."

So, they cleaned the shoes (rather poorly, actually…they must not be THAT concerned about the invasion of NC soil) and we moved on.

We walked out to the waiting area and saw John and Matt from the CA office right there waiting for us. John gave the Melbourne quarantine station a quick call for us to make sure Vegas was taken care of (which he was, they had already picked him up) and we then headed out into the (pleasantly) cool day to load up John's car with our bags and head to our temporary house. Kris was waiting there with a cell phone for me and some basic food items in the kitchen.

The guys all left and we started to unwind a bit, starting with much needed showers. After that, since we didn't yet have a rental car, we walked down the street to the nearest mall (shopping center) to see what kinds of necessities we could find.

Conveniently, John called right when we were about finished filling a shopping cart with items. He drove by and gave us a ride back to the house where we promptly crashed for an hour…just in time to get up and force ourselves to eat some dinner and then turn in for the night…for about 13 hours…we had finally hit our wall.

The next day, feeling somewhat refreshed, we walked to the corner where there happened to be a rental car agency which happened to have one Mitsubishi Lancer left on the lot for us. Against everything I had ever learned, I jumped into the right side seat and headed down the left side of the road to another shopping center with a Target. Yes…Target!!! We were back in our element now.

The Target experience is a little different from that in the US, but still similar enough for it to help us to adjust. The excitement from this outing (other than the driving) was the fact that Leslie temporarily stole a bottle of water. It seems that the cashiers are not used to customers having an open beverage when they go through the line (or queue, as it's called here). It wasn't until we paid and left that Leslie realized the mistake and ran back into the store to pay up. Starting off as a thief, while ironically appropriate, was not what we wanted to do.

Once that was taken care of, we dropped off our packages in the car and went back inside (much to the dismay of the vultures in the "car park" who were swooping in for our great spot….some things are universal. After that we headed back to the house to relax, make some dinner and enjoy the satellite TV we have that has the never-ending supply of The Simpsons, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, Drew Carey, Family Guy, Entourage and other slightly out of date US shows (not that we're complaining).

That was about it for our initial shopping experiences. We were amazed at both how much things were just like the US but how many little things were different. Some examples:

• Eggs are not refrigerated in the stores (though everyone says they pop them in the fridge once they get home)
• When you pay with a debit card (or any card) you are asked if you want "cash out" instead of "cash back" as we hear in the US. The first time I heard this it took the girl about 3 times repeating it before I knew what she was talking about. Prior to this, the only place I had ever heard "cash out" was at a casino.
• All four wheels of the shopping carts turn. It took me a while to realize why my cart was all over the place until I realized this. Handy for pulling the cart to the side to get out of the way, but rather out of control otherwise. I've noticed that no one truly has full control of the cart. Oh yeah, they're not carts…
• Shopping carts are called trolleys. Which I guess is still better than "buggy" that we've heard in NC before.
• You'd better like butter if you order a sandwich…if there is bread, there will be butter on it.
• There are no pennies. Therefore, all sales are rounded up or down to the nearest 5. Sometimes this works in your favor, sometimes not.
• A Milky Way is a 3 Musketeers and the 3 Musketeers are nowhere to be found (most likely waiting on their visa like me)
• Many imported items are very expensive, such as a paperback book for $20 or a 6 pack of Corona for $21 (it's best to stick to the Aussie beers for this and many other reasons).
• Finding unscented toilet paper (called toilet rolls in the stores) is very difficult.
• The locals will eat a sandwich with peanut butter and vegemite (and butter) but think that a PB and J is repulsive (yet they do like jelly).

On to Sunday…John from the office had invited everyone from the team (and their families) to his house for a nice relaxing Sunday lunch to welcome Leslie and I to the country. Kris picked us up around Noon and we drove to John's house.

The hospitality we've experienced from everyone since arriving is truly beyond words. We have been fully welcomed into their world and their families. We were at John's until close to 6pm just relaxing and talking after we at a great meal.

Things started going slightly down hill after we got back to the house though. Jet lag was still with us and Leslie wasn't feeling too well so we still hit the sack early.

We were both up early on Monday. For me, it had a bit of a feeling like I was heading back to school…I was looking forward to it, but some of the unknowns were creating some anxiousness. This was the first "new" job I'd gone to in almost 7 years. While I know the company very well, everything else was different. It was exciting though.

For Leslie, Monday morning was not good. Whatever was making her feel bad Sunday night had gotten plenty of rest and was ready to make her feel miserable all day.

Kris picked me up for work and Leslie tried not to get some rest. My work day went just fine as I eased into my responsibilities here. Our temporary office location is actually the offices and warehouse from Kerri's (the head of the office) old business. It's quite a mess, but it works until we get into the permanent space, which looks to be very nice.

By Tuesday Leslie had not improved. We went to the doctor (who is John's sister-in-law, naturally) and she confirmed that Leslie has a really nasty flu that is going around. The really bad news is that it should stick around for almost a week. The good news is that she was able to eat some soup and popsicles (harder to find here than you'd think) tonight and keep them down. Hopefully tomorrow will continue with some improvement while I'm at work.

On Thursday I'll be home for a bit while our big shipment of stuff from the US is delivered. Pretty exciting. We're hoping to get to go see Vegas that day too.

Our next big tasks will be to find our own place to stay, and to find our own car. Once we do that, we'll be free to start checking things out a bit more.

So, other than the flu that has invaded, things are going well. The weather is incredible (though the lack of rain is actually part of a bad drought). Having a winter that is in the upper 50s and sunny during the day is perfectly fine with us.

I'm not sure what we have in store for this weekend. It will depend on how Leslie is feeling, but we'll try to keep everyone posted.