Cast of Characters

I realized I've been going on about different people we've met here in Australia but haven't really given any background or indication as to who they are. My bad. Consider this your dictionary of Australia character's that play a role in the 'saga down unda'.

Dr. Frank Dunshea - Professor who Hyatt will be conducting his research with
Fahri Fahri - yes, his first name is the same as his last. He is a post-doc at the Uni and helped us move (twice). We also lived with him last week during this whole housing catastrophe. He is super helpful and super nice.
Vickey Russo -  new friend who I work with in the animal houses. She and her pal Kristy introduced me to a lot of Australia vocabulary, culture and how to have a good time.
Kristy DiGiacomo - See above. PhD student in Animal Production and all around great gal
Maree Cox - Manager of the animal houses where I work. Helped us get hooked up with our new car (pictures coming), gave me a job and her and her husband Dean helped Hyatt out in a pinch when the new car died.
Grattan and Glenda Savage - Pastors at the church we attend - Salvation Army Corps, Thornbury. They're the pastors but the Corp calls the 'Majors'. Are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to know, are giving us a TV (woot woot) and fed us a homecooked meal.
Natalie, Sally, Henny, Anna, Sarah, Shannon, Alex, Michelle - all current or past graduate students in animal science and have been very nice and accomodating in showing us around, inviting us to dinner and letting us help on their projects.

If I have forgotten anyone, I am truly sorry - there may be a 2nd cast post later after we've been here awhile.

Cheers,
FroBuzz

#winning

Hope you don't mind the Charlie Sheen quote title....

As it turns out, I've been doing a lot of #winning lately.

I won a game of Scrabble against Hyatt
I beat him at Monopoly AND gin rummy over the honeymoon in Fiji

AND.........

I WON THE MARCH MADNESS BRACKET CHALLENGE! If you forgot about that challenge, you should read this first. Go do it, I'll wait for you.

Ok - back now - great.

So, I won the bracket challenge and by my right, I should be getting a pair of these

but it turns out they're pretty pricey. So we'll see.

Cheers

FroBuzz

p.s. - I think I might be pestering Hyatt about writing a blog post so much that it's actually starting to work.

Living with Wildlife

As you can imagine, Australia boasts a different cornucopia of wildlife - some which are a bit scary and some are a bit fantastic. Check out these pics of the beasts we've encountered thus far.

First up - some pretty birdies!

Sick - I didn't take this picture because I HATE SPIDERS

An Australian possum

More birds - big emus!

Cute little blue-ish bird

And da da da da da da DAHHHHH......

KANGAROOS!!!

I was only about 10 feet away from this one!



A joey - either trying to hide or eating

A big male lounging under a tree

Eventually, I WILL see a koala!

Cheers,

FroBuzz

Good and Bad

Bad news: car still not fixed

Good news: we went to the Grampians (small mountain-ish range 4 hours from Melbourne) and they were super awesome neato! Hiking in the country, controlled burning of some forests, wildlife and lunch in a small town. It was a busy day (a long one too the trip was 7am to 8 pm) but well worth the views!

The 'waterfall' - hadn't run dry but it wasn't gushing!

Aboriginal art

Cheers,

~ FroBuzz ~

Packages

We recently got our first package from home! Thanks so much Mom for sending me my thesis materials, POST-IT notes, our wedding announcement, some mail and some other fun stuff.

Clearing the Air

First off -we're not pregnant - thank God. And honestly, I'm a little disappointed at the lack of name suggestions on the part of you all. Thanks for nothing. Except Emily, who suggested Fred.

Other than that we had a fairly mild AFD - although the drama of moving to Australia continues in the next chapter titled:

Our New Car....That Died

That's right folks - we finally got a car so we don't have to walk all over this town. A brand new (to us) Hyundai Elantra and we were very excited to be rolling the streets of Melbourne in style.....and then Hyatt called to tell me that the car died after only driving 20km (12.5 miles) away from the dealership. Not a joke and not cool.

Awesome friends Maree and Dean picked Hyatt up and brought him back to the house and promised they would sort out the car problems with Tony, the car dealership owner (Maree and Dean suggested this guy so they were more than happy to jump in and make sure we were treated fairly).

So we left the car locked in a parking lot and went hiking in the Grampians today. Will find out more about the car tomorrow.

Cheers,

~ FroBuzz ~

You all jinxed us

I'll be coming home to KS, permanently in October. Hyatt and I are both sad that my time in Australia will end sooner than planned but it's best not to fly after 33 weeks of pregnancy or something like that. I dunno, it was on Web MD and I figure they know what they're talking about.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing you all in October! Hyatt and I are excited for the new Joey, I mean addition, to our family although we wish that this could have waited about 3 or 4 more years. Oh well, they say if you want to make God laugh - tell him your plans!

We're accepting baby name ideas - nothing ridiculous, please.

Cheers,
~ FroBuzz ~