a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

So we're leaving for the USA tomorrow. Bit scary and wild, but mainly VERY EXCITING!!!!!!!! Here's a rough idea of what we're doing/where we're going:

Friday 26 June - Flying in to LA, hire a car (convertible!!) and drive to Palm Springs, stay 1 night
Sat 27 June - Drive to Williams, AZ and camp for the night
Sun 28 June - Day trip to Grand Canyon with Marvellous Marv (SO excited about that!!), camp at Williams again
Mon 29 June - Drive a LONG way, cross 2 states and 2 timezones (dammit) to Amarillo, TX. Stay in a motel and sleeeeeeeeeeeep
Tue 30 June - Drive to Springfield, MO (we have to go to at least 1!) and stay the night with my friend Colleen's brother and his family
Wed 1 July - short drive to Lake of the Ozarks to stay with our friends who travelled all the way to Australia from the US for our wedding!
Sat 4th July - Celebrate Independence Day, maybe on the lake!
Not sure about the next few days - playing it by ear, but the lake looks like a lovely place to explore!
Thurs 9th July - drive from wherever we are to New Orleans and stay a few days
Sun 12 July - drive from New Orleans through Mobile to visit another friend, then drive a few more hours and maybe camp somewhere
Mon 13 July - make our way to Smoky Bear campground in the Smoky Mountains and spend the night, then explore the next day and spend another night
Wed 15 July - Drive to Washington DC
Thur 16 July - say goodbye to car and explore DC for a couple of days
Sat 18 July - Train from DC to New York!! Stay in NYC for a few days and explore
Wed 22 July - Fly NY all the way to San Diego
Thur 23 July - ComicCon in San Diego (the only way I could get Hubs to the states!!!)
Fri 24 July - Train from SD to LA, then fly out that night
Sun 26 July - arrive Brisvegas 5am, leave 1pm, arrive Melbourne 3pm, collapse in a heap!!

Jealous? :-)

So I'm not sure how much/if I'll get a chance to post much over the next month, but I do plan to have another Nablopomo in August to make up for it! I may even schedule a few posts to pop up, just to keep you entertained! Adios amigos!!

Posted by Renae at 6:00 PM Comments

Yeah, it's good to be a Queenslander. Especially today!! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I'M TALKING ABOUT THIS!!! I watched the game with an indifferent Victorian and a dirty New South Wales supporter! (There's your shout-out DT!! You're famous!!)

What a mish-mash of a game, but what a great record-breaking victory! I could go on and on but I'll save my rant for another day.

GO MAROOOOOOOOOOONS!!!

Posted by Renae at 10:11 AM Comments

As many of you know, I LOVE surprises. And I love giving them almost as much as receiving them! So the last month or so I've been scheming behind Hubs' back, planning a big celebration for his 2nd 21st!! He was getting cranky that everyone else on college is having their 21sts so I thought "why not!?" So I went to work on the organising. I sent out emails, used my friend's facebook account (cos apparently it's easier than emailing the entire med student cohort) and got busy planning the cake. Just remember - I don't do things by halves...

Here's the progression of the cake:


















With Hubs not around, I got to lick the bowl all on my own!!!!!!!














Maybe I should have shared it after all...





























Enough about the cake. Let's get to the prezzies! As some of you know, Hubs got a new SLR Digital camera from our families which he LOVES, but even better than that, I had a street named after him!!

(Biggest coincidence - this street is about 3km away from where we live and just around the corner from the pub we were having his party at!!! CRAZY!!!)

Right. The Party! There were friends, balloons, embarrassing 21st speeches, lots of beer and wine and a GREAT atmosphere at a fabulous pub called The Brunswick Green. I highly recommend it! I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story...


Eeeeeeeeeew grooooooosssssss!


A couple of friends from Brisvegas - Jodes and Nate (and Hubs' birthday pot!)

Hubs' friend from Mackay was also down for the weekend for his birthday, so of course we had to meet up for a drink!!


A few nights ago Hubs and I were cuddling and he told me I fit perfectly next to him. Like a puzzle piece. It's not hard to love this man.
Happy Birthday honey.

Posted by Renae at 10:03 AM Comments

A Marriage Celebrant! For those of you who didn't know, I completed a course to become a Civil Marriage Celebrant, and received my licence from the Attorney General's office last week. It's a very exciting new chapter in my life, and I'm also going to branch out into naming ceremonies and renewal of vows as well in the future. I love weddings so much, so what better way to be involved in more!!?

Looking forward to diving into this once we get back from America!

Posted by Renae at 10:18 AM Comments

This is so cool. Enough said. (Actually, I really should write more about it, but I figure if you're that keen you can look it up yourself!! :-)

Posted by Renae at 4:52 PM Comments

Hubs and I are used to having an "open door policy" when it comes to our home, but that's not really embraced too much here at college. We love it when people feel comfortable just to pop in for a cuppa or a glass of wine (sometimes even out of a bottle instead of a bag!) and a chat. Granted, sometimes we don't have time, but we like to think we can make time for our friends where possible.

When I grow up, (ie when we move out of College. lol.) I'm going to really encourage the "pop-in" and hope that people take up the offer. I like that feeling of community and spending quality time with people. I mean, we see people from College every day, but it's not really quality time, unless we are intentional about it.

I know some people aren't a fan of other people just dropping in on them, and granted, when you have kids, meal times probably aren't the best time for a visit :-)

But all that is ahead of us! We look forward to you popping in to our home some time!

Posted by Renae at 2:40 PM Comments

Say it with me! "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo has fallen into the well!"

For those of who have NO idea what I'm talking about, I refer to a children's book that I used to read at primary school called Tikki Tikki Tembo. And the reason I bring it up is because the most bizarre coincidence occurred last night at dinner. Our resident little dude Elijah was sitting at the table with his Mum (there is a family with 2 boys who live on college). He's almost 3 years old and is such a great little guy. Anyway, he was hoeing into his cherry strudel and all of a sudden he started spitting it out, saying "pip pip cherry" cos, you know, there was a cherry pip and I immediately thought of that book.

I asked Elijah's Mum if she had heard of it and you'll NEVER believe it, but she had just borrowed it out of the library 2 days ago!! What???? SERIOUSLY?? I haven't thought of that book in 20 years and all of a sudden it's in my life again. She promised to bring it to her younger son's christening on Sunday so I could read it. I CAN'T WAIT!!

Does anyone else remember it??

Posted by Renae at 9:54 AM Comments

I've been baking again!! Hooray! Here are my latest creations:

Rainbow Coconut Ice and another batch of Anzac Bikkies


The making of the Rainbow Coconut Ice


Another Pumpkin Pie with the pretties tulips EVER! Photo courtesy of Hubs' new camera!


I really like having the time to put together these creations for our friends down here. I'd like to do it more often too, so watch this space!!

Posted by Renae at 8:11 PM Comments

So it appears that I can't get my navbar to work on my blog, so I think I need to pick a new template. I will be doing this in the next week, unless someone can tell me how to get it to appear on my page. (Rest assured, I know the steps and from what I can see, it SHOULD be visible, but it's not. I think it's because I'm not using a standard template, but that shouldn't REALLY make a difference right?)

Calling all nerds. Calling all nerds. If you have any ideas, please let me know!!!

Posted by Renae at 4:54 PM Comments

I've been threatening to do this for months now, and here it is! Finally! I hope you enjoy a tour of our home.

Posted by Renae at 10:10 AM Comments

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! What a great few days I've just had! As previously mentioned, my friend Ah-dele booked herself in to come down to Melbs for the State of Origin and the Broncos vs Melbourne Storm ("I hate those Melbourne players") game.

Here we are geared up for the State of Origin: GO MAROONS!!!


The atmosphere was really great and there were over 50,000 people there which is only a couple thousand off a full-house for footy games! It was SO much fun.


We even ran into a few people we know who happened to come down from Qld for the game! It was quite a close game, though the score (28-18) doesn't really reflect that. The last 10 minutes were particularly exciting, and even though I never thought we were going to lose (not really, anyway), I realised that I'm out of "footy match watching" practice. My heart was racing!! Subsequently, I lost my voice again, but was TOTALLY worth it!

So then Friday night came around, and we were very excited to be heading out to Melbourne Olympic Park for the match. It's a very old-school stadium and only seats just over 10,000, as well as standing room for a few thousand more. I reckon there were about 14,000 people there and probably less than a thousand Broncos supporters. It occurred to me that I'd never been to a game where my team's supporters were so vastly outnumbered, but there we were, Broncos scarves (thanks TM!) and beanies and gloves and lots of enthusiasm:


Unfortunately, we got completely annihilated. 48-4 was the final score and we were gutted. It was never going to go well, 2 days after the Origin, and missing Hodges and Lockyer, but we couldn't prepare ourselves for such an onslaught. We were NOT happy Jan!!! But credit where credit is due. Melbourne had almost as many players in origin as we did, and they had a blinder of a match. They just couldn't put a foot wrong. Luckily, Melbourne is my 2nd fave team, so I don't hate them too much for humiliating us!!

We left the game and headed to the Turf bar to drown our sorrows in cheap champagne and cheesy 80s and 90s music. A great end to the night!!

Posted by Renae at 10:15 AM Comments

It was only last year that I was informed that, in the Pink Floyd song "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2", the guy shouting at the end is saying "You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds! Stand still laddy!", not "You! Yes! Do you know how to play dead?! Stand still laddy!"

Again, my lyrics make sense, so why would I think they were wrong?! In fact, when someone heard me singing/saying that line (it may or may not have been Hubs :-), they told me the "real" lyrics and I thought I was the victim of a joke and challenged them. But alas, the internet pointed out my error. *sigh*

Posted by Renae at 3:55 PM Comments

Hubs: "Honey, I need you to make me a pie for my tutorial tomorrow morning."
Wifey: "Okaaaaaaaaaaaay. And why would that be."
Hubs: (shuffling around in some uni notes, holds up tutorial paper) "Cos tomorrow's tutorial is number 3.14!"

Far be it for Wifey to get in the way of a good nerd joke.

So I spent the day considering my options, and decided on this Pumpkin Pie recipe (from my fave food-blog!). Why? Cos I've never made a pumpkin pie before and it sounded FUN! I cheated and bought pre-made short-crust pastry, but made everything else from scratch. It was LOTS of fun, and the finished product? Pi-tastic!

Oh yes. There's a Pi symbol on top!


Clearly, I'm in the running for Wifey of the year.


I sent it off with Hubs to his tutorial and it went down a treat! A Canadian girl said it made her day! Hubs saved me a piece that I shared around at the office and it really was SO yummy. I have enough ingredients to make another one, which I'm already excited about!

I wonder what my next cooking adventure will be...

Posted by Renae at 11:15 AM Comments