Happy Birthday Lana and Rick! I hope you both have a great one.
Lana, I tried to email you and don't have your current email address. Could you email it to me?

I bet Jon Stewart had something to do with this decision. Thanks Jon.

The weather forecast for Melbourne today was a low of 12C and a high of 18C. The weather forecast in Atlanta today was for a low of 54F and a high of around 64F. These are almost the same, but it's supposed to be summer here (in spite of the fact that we are wearing sweaters and jackets). Brrrr.

An interesting read. The Edge magazine asked a bunch of really smart people, "What do you believe is true even though you can't prove it?". Their responses are quite interesting.

Doggie, doggie, doggie! OY! OY! OY! We've decided Laika is our "punk doggie". We imagine her singing "Smash it up, smash it up!" as she tears up the kitchen, typically when she's been left alone too long. Psycho doggie, qu'est-ce que c'est?

Today was the first day in Australia that we both went to our respective jobs, leaving the dog alone. She was pretty good, but she did get into the recyclables -- she dragged a six pack box and two empty Corona bottles to her dog bed. We're starting to take photos of the artwork she creates each day she's left alone; we'll post them en masse at some point.

Marjorie's at her new job, which I'll let her tell you about. Me, I'm in the new office building, which is a big, sterile Gattaca-like monstrosity. It does have a great choice of restaurants though (a giant food court, and Chinatown and the Greek area right up the street). Our office space is, unfortunately, a newsroom type of office; I can peek over my monitor and spot just about all fifty or so people in the company. Fifteen floors up, but the view is mostly just the ugly tops of other lower buildings.

Marjorie starts her new job tomorrow. I don't go back to work until Wednesday. Actually, most of my company doesn't go back until the 10th. We're starting in a brand new office building, that's right on the tram line that starts right by our house. Nice.

It'll be hard to get back on sleep schedule; I've been staying up until 3 or 4 a.m. these days. My interest in chess has had a resurgence; I've been up late playing people from all over the world on Yahoo games. I'm only a mediocre player, but the game still fascinates me. (Particularly the games of Bobby Fischer. Too bad he's completely lost the plot; it kills me that he and Kasparov are both still alive, and will never play each other.)

Ouch. When Marjorie was back in the states, she got me some Dave's Insanity salsa and sauce. It's, like, really hot and stuff. I can only do about a spoonful of the salsa at one sitting. It hurts, but I get a strange sort of happy buzz from it -- probably endorphins or something. Heat aside, too, i'ts actually tastier than anything you can buy here.