Quality Donkey Work

Nothing out of the ordinary has been happening for/to us lately, which is basically the source for any blogging inspiration. It's been raining a lot lately which sucks for doing laundry, but nothing beats the smell of post rain in Australia. It brings me back to February when we first moved here when it rained constantly but was still smokin' humid, and it just reminds me of what an exotic place we're living in. The rain also makes it difficult to play Soccis, which is a combo of tennis, soccer and volleyball. Apparently they play it in the US and we love it here! I'm not great at explaining it but essentially it's juggling the soccer ball within the tennis boundaries, never juggling more than 3 consecutive hits in a row before passing to your partner/hitting it back over the net/letting it bounce once, and not let the ball bounce more than twice while it's on your side of the net, and never two bounces in a row. You can juggle the ball out of bounds but it cannot drop AT ALL while out of bounds. We play it on the tennis court as either singles or doubles but the perimeters are the same regardless. You also have to bounce the ball then kick to the opposite court during serve, you can't drop kick it like a goalie. This has taken some time mastering. The rain prevents us from playing because we aren't allowed to go on the courts within 24 hours of rainfall because the courts are sand/clay.

Last night one of my coworkers had her 40th birthday party with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Colin and I went as the modern Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from the more recent Johnny Depp Movie.

I'm obviously Tweedle Dee because I don't have my suspenders hiked as high as my counterpart. One lady was dressed as a flamingo, she had the best costume, and I must give her props for keeping the beak on most of the night. That's hardcore.

I'm in the process of planning Thanksgiving dinner for our Canadian friends next weekend. It's difficult finding a turkey outside the month of December so I'm going to have a butcher order me one in. I also have to make pumpkin pie filling since they don't sell it in cans here. I've found a recipe that looks 'easy as pie' so maybe I'll never go back to the old fashioned way of buying it in a can, heh... It's pot luck style, so I'm really looking forward to eating what everyone brings. Until this year I hadn't realized how monumental but overlooked Thanksgiving has been in my life. It's truly the stepchild of holidays. Back in Thanksgiving of '04 I invited a cute classmate to spend the weekend with my family and we've been an item ever since. That was my first time going to the Calgary Zoo in many years, and now it has become a tradition to go to the zoo every thanksgiving weekend we're in Calgary. Now that my brother and sister in law have kids, going to the zoo is 100x more fun seeing the animals through the eyes of a child. The last Thanksgiving we were in Calgary, my nephew, Søren, went dressed as a skunk and got to see his favorite animal, the giraffe, for the first time.

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving. This will be our first turkey cooking experience, so here's hoping that we actually get a turkey in time to cook. Wish me luck!

E.