All Moved In

Our container of belongings finally arrived on Friday. I took the day off so I could be around to tell the movers where to put stuff. Considering that it took a whole day for the movers to pack us up and fill the container in Calgary, I was a bit surprised on Friday when they were in and out of our place in about 2 hours. But they left most of the unpacking to us. It's been a busy few days, but we're pretty much all unpacked. I can't believe how many books we have though. We're going to have to buy a second book shelf just to house all of our books (school books, work manuals, etc). Attached are a couple pictures. The folding chairs sitting at the desk is where Tara and I have been eating all of our meals and watching all of our shows on the computer until now. Very uncomfortable. And the second picture is what our place looks like now, with our furniture. So much better now.
 
 

Tara's been busy busting her hump at school 12 hours a day, and I've been busy working hard and playing hard. I try to make the most of my weekends by getting out for a surf in the morning and then inevitably have some errands to run in the afternoon. On Saturdays and Sundays I've been getting up between 6 and 7 am and heading down to Burleigh Heads with my longboard for a morning surf. I wish I didn't have to get up so early on weekends, but unfortunately that's the best time to surf because you get the best conditions before the wind starts to blow onshore (which usually happens after about 10 am). Also, you avoid the crowds a bit, although there are still a lot of people who get out that early. I've been meaning to try to get out before work during the week because I don't expect there to be nearly as many people in the water at 5 am on a Tuesday, but haven't been able to drag myself out of bed that early yet. Also the surf has been pretty bad, which is apparently normal for the spring time. I'm looking forward to getting out kiteboarding now that my equipment has arrived, but I need to find a good spot for beginners.

I spoke to my buddies on the phone this weekend. They are all in Phoenix on Steve's baby stag: an ingenious idea my friends have adopted which involves somewhat of a free pass for you and your buddies for all of life's major events. At your wedding you obviously have a stag party. You have a baby stag prior to when you have a baby (in response to your spouse's baby shower). I had a going away stag prior to moving to Australia. I'm sure there are a few other scenarios when we could get away with throwing ourselves these stag parties, but the key is to not overuse this free pass. Its strength lies in its infrequency. I miss my boys. I would have loved to have been there in Phoenix with them, or anywhere for that matter. Apparently they were pretty happy to be in Phoenix as well because it was -20 in Calgary today.  It was +28 in Gold Coast this weekend.

We had a few of her school mates over for a barbeque this evening, which was fun.  We just bought a nice new barbeque a couple weeks ago and I've been cooking pretty much everything on the barbeque.  I'm getting to be a pretty mean barbeque-er.  So it was nice to have some people over (for the first time) and break in the new home.  We need to get some patio furniture though.