One more thing I'm excited about -- My Eagles are 13 and 1! Too bad their star receiver is injured and probably out for the season. Typical.

Five things I'm excited about:

1. We have tickets to see The Polyphonic Spree at the Forum and the Shins at the Corner Hotel.

2. As Marjorie pointed out, we found the necessary centerpiece for my traditional Christmas eve dinner -- pierogies. It won't be the same without my grandmother cooking them, though. We also have a turkey for Christmas.

3. On Christmas Eve the Cassini probe we sent to Saturn will start the process of dropping a probe onto Saturn's moon Titan. This may be the last, best chance to see anything like this in my lifetime.

4. Books, books, books. I had forgotten how many I had. I'm trying to simultaneously re-read Catch-22, Beatlesongs, and The Winter Of Our Discontent.

5. Some time off. Since the office is moving, tomorrow is the last day I can work until at least the 4th of January. Which kind of sucks while I'm contracting, but it is still time off.

Ten dog behaviours of Laika, the dog:

1. Playing with her new squeaky toy. The first toy we ever got her that hasn't been killed within a day. We're guessing it's because it squeaks when she bites too hard. She's taken to whimpering while she plays with it, which we can't figure out.

2. Sleeping with four legs in the air.

3. Sneaking off to sleep on the guest bed.

4. Running her face through high weeds.

5. Sitting down when another dog tries to sniff her butt.

6. Hiding from the vacuum cleaner. Every dog does this, but we're happy to know she's normal.

7. Yelping at puppies, especially when two are fighting each other. It gets her really excited but she doesn't know how to express it.

8. Chewing on sticks. If she finds a piece that's three or four inches long, she will eat it.

9. Trying to get you to play tug-of-war with the leash if she's not ready to leave the park yet.

10. Jumping up and down whenever Marjorie or I head for the front door, if she hasn't been to the park in the last two hours. I think she thinks that we don't ever take her unless she shows enough enthusiasm.

Corporate shill. A new list of products I endorse:

Braun electric razors. I used the same one for over a decade back in the States. I had to give it up to come overseas, and used some other brand in Singapore. Now I have me a brand new Braun and will never use anything else.

Jock's Ice Cream (83 Victoria Ave, Albert Park). The ice-cream place around the corner from us. It's really, really good, and dangerous to have so close. For something different, try the coconut-lime.

Redken Rough Paste. Yeah, it's hair product. But it works so much better than any spray, mousse, gel, or wax I've tried. Redken Rough Paste. Ask for it by name.

The Eclipse IDE. No IDE has been able to tempt me to stop using just an editor to develop, until now. I've been using this to develop Java at my new job, and I won't go back. It even makes CVS workable.

Team America: World Police. Parker and Stone's message is starting to get a little tiresome, but this is still a really funny movie.

New Aussieisms that I've noticed:

"How did you pull up?" Basically, "How did you feel afterwards/the next morning?" Used when inquiring about the after-effects of a night of drinking or strenuous activity. Quite common.

"How good is that?" "Isn't that great?" Quite common as well.

"You should call in." "You should come by." Actually, this may be more Irish than Aussie.

"Chockas" Chock-full of things, people, or events. As in, "We tried to get lunch at the restaurant on the corner but the place was totally chockas." I had never noticed before, but this is rather common as well.

I've started to blog several times in the past week, then for some reason couldn't get into it. So now I'm just going to force it out, to clear out my blotter, so to speak. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I just received my official letter of offer for my job. The most beautiful thing in it is the leave entitlements: I'm entitled to 4 weeks of recreation leave per year, and 3 weeks Sick Leave (after 5 days I would have to bring a medical cerificate). After 10 years of continuous service within the organization I will be entitled to 3 months paid long service leave. This is all standard in work contracts here in Australia. What a beautiful thing!

Our things are indeed here, and amazingly, in two years of storage and three months of transport, nothing was broken. In three days we've managed to unpack most of it, and our house is starting to look like a home. Finally. I'm especially excited about having my xmas ornaments and stocking here. It wouldn't feel like Christmas without them. In the same vein, Mark was very pleased that we could find perogies (at the super IGA) to make for xmas eve dinner to continue one of his family traditions.
Laika is surprisingly unfazed by all the new stuff, beyond being a little peeved that she isn't allowed on the couch or the newest bed. She's currently most fascinated with this caterpiller squeaking toy I bought for her. She carries it very gently in her mouth everywhere she goes. I expect her to kill/destroy it at any moment now as her toys usually don't last for long. It's amazing to me how attached Mark and I have become to her in such a short time. She's our baby, and practically runs our lives now. She's a charming little girl.

Stuff! Our things have arrived. Wheee!!!!

We've been living basically out of a suitcase for two years while all our worldly possessions have sat collecting dust in storage for the last two years. Hence, unpacking is a trip down memory lane, and our house is instantly more homey.

I'm currently most excited about: THE COUCH, my books, kitchenwares, Marjorie's guitar, my leather jacket, other clothes, and the extra bed. Christmas has come early.

Spree. Purchases made this past Friday/Saturday/Sunday:

Computer desk

Six kitchen chairs

Buffet cabinet

Vacuum cleaner

Tall bathroom cabinet

Saw

Two screwdrivers

Shoe rack

Microwave

Light bulbs

Brita filter

Barbecue

Can of spray paint

Several bunches of coat hangers

Two basil plants

Shelves

Subaru Forester (okay, we only rented that)

Bottle of Cointreau

Bottle of Cuervo

Finally, I have a job offer. And, of course, it came on a week when I had two other interviews lined up after weeks of nothing. Why is life seemingly always feast or famine? Anyway, a job offer. And relatively close to home, I'll easily be able to get there on public transport so there is no immediate need for us to buy a car which is a huge financial relief. Who knows, we may hold out on the car for another 6 months or so. If we only need a car on the weekends it's cheaper to rent.
So, I'll be working with all types of people accessing disability services, aged 6 to death. Should be interesting, I'm used to the little ones so it will certainly be a change. And there should be lots of opportunity for professional growth. What I really want out of job is intellectual stimulation and learning opportunities, and I should have an abundance over the next few months as this position is fairly dynamic and everything will be totally new to me.
Hurray, a job!! Now we can buy a vacuum cleaner! (how sad am I to be excited about this?)
In other news, hopefully our things will arrive at our house next week. Things are definitely looking up.

One genius, two genius. Marjorie and I had a dinner table discussion the other day about musical genius in regards to bands. More specifically, which bands are based around one genius, and which have more than one? I guess what we were really talking about was songwriting genius more than the ability to play an instrument. We broke things up into categories, and had a lively little discussion. However, the opinions expressed here are mine, not hers. Solo artists can obviously only be single geniuses, and are not listed here.

Two geniuses. The rare confluence of talent that happens only once or twice in a lifetime. Only two bands here:

The Beatles

The Clash

Two near geniuses that add up to more than one genius. Sometimes people can only achieve their best through working with others. This is not to damn these people with faint praise; genius is not a word to be thrown around lightly, and these each add up to more than one.

The Rolling Stones

REM

The Smiths

U2 (actually, a sum total of more than two, I suppose)

One genius, one wannabe genius. Often times a genius will inspire another in the band to better things than they would otherwise achieve, but at the end of the day, there is only one:

The Pixies

Crowded House

XTC

One genius.

Nirvana

The Who (lots of instrumental genius here though)

The White Stripes

Radiohead

Weezer

Many others

Your mileage may, of course, vary. Afterward we had a ton of fun taking turns playing DJ while goofing around with the dog.

My three favorite job titles here in Australia:

"Spruiker" -- a salesperson who addresses passing members of the public from the door of a store, bar, or other establishment.

"Stevedore" -- One who is employed in the loading or unloading of ships.

"Removalist" -- Our office is moving to a new location, and the people that are going to clear out our office have this title. That'd be a cool job title to have.

Spring is gone. Literally. I found out today that Australians mark summer as starting the first of December, basing it not on astronomy, but on the months. Strange to me, but when I explained to my cow orkers that summer starts on the 21st for us, their response was "What? Why?".

So now it is officially no longer spring here. On cue, it rained for most of the day.

Our things have apparently finally arrived in Port Melbourne today. However, we shouldn't expect them to be delivered to our house until the week commencing December 13. I'm glad the stuff is here, but I'm more then a little bitter that delivery will take place a full month later than we initially expected.
In other news we saw PJ Harvey last night at Festival Hall in North Melbourne. The venue sucked, strange lighting, not very good sound, but PJ sounded good. Overall, I was a bit disappointed. I was really hoping for a bit more interaction with the audience and maybe an encore duet with Nick Cave (he lives here in Melbourne). Still, Polly Jean's so cool and her voice is amazing.

Spring has sprung, it seems. About time, too, as it's three weeks until summer. With the heat has come the mosquitos (aka mozzies, which seem to love me as much as North American and Asian mosquitoes) and flies. But the weather is still very nice, and there are lots of outdoor cafes and restaurants.

On Saturday we went to a housewarming party/barbecue for one of my cow orkers, on the rooftop deck of her new townhouse. It was beautiful and clear and the full moon made an appearance late. Fun bunch of folks I work with.

Sunday we saw Garden State, which was first-rate.

Tomorrow night, PJ Harvey.

We saw the Finn Brothers last night at the Palais in St. Kilda. It was an excellent show made better because of the brothers' obvious affinity to Melbourne (they both lived here for some time) and to the Palais (where Neil made his live debut with Split Enzs). There was a guest appearance by Paul Hester, former drummer of Crowded House. And towards the end of the show, Neil and Tim were joined onstage by Neil's sons Liam (of Betchadupa) and Elroy, which was very sweet. Most of the set list was material from the new album Everyone is Here, but they also played several from their Crowded House and Split Enzs days including:
Six months In a Leaky Boat
Message to My Girl
I Got You
I See Red
a brief rendition of What's The Matter With You
Dirty Creature
Four Seasons in One Day (which they had to play as the song is in part about Melbourne Weather)
Better Be Home Soon
It's Only Natural
Weather With You
There Goes God
Great show. I'm really glad we went. Hopefully P.J. Harvey will be as excellent next week.

Tonight we are going to Thanksgiving dinner with an American couple we've befriended in our neighbourhood. Should be quite yummy.

Elvis Costello is playing up the road right now, and somehow, I'm not there. It wasn't in the cards this time.

Tomorrow, though, we're off to see the Finn brothers. Front row!

This Thursday, we're invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of some Americans we met. I'm excited. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, or at least my favorite meal.

Then, next week, we have good seats again for PJ Harvey. There are advantages to living in a country that doesn't have the internet saturation of the USA -- you can score good concert tickets if you're among the savvy.

Comparing countries. I made a couple of graphs, just out of curiousity, with a little help from NCES's Create A Graph.

First, here's a comparison of Australia, the USA, and China, in terms of area. Pretty close, yes?

Now, see the graph comparing their population.

The point? I have none. I just think it's interesting.

Book roundup. Recent reads:

Call Of The Wild/White Fang (Jack London). I've read a lot of London, but somehow, never these books. Now that I have a dog I figured it was about time. Good stuff. London knows his dogs.

Great Expectations (Charles Dickens). I'm reading this for historical reasons. Recently I came across a couple of separate references to this novel which refer to it as a cultural phenomenon of its time. Pretty much the whole world, it seems, was reading it when it came out, serialized in a magazine. So I thought I would too.

Singularity Sky (Charles Stross). Science fiction candy. The guy obviously reads Slashdot. Some seriously crazy technical references, not dumbed down. Still, his short stories are better.

Titan (Stephen Baxter). Timely reading. Written in 1997, the story begins with the Cassini/Huygens probe -- which lands a month and a half from now -- finding evidence of life on Saturn's moon Titan.