lizard boarding & australia day by.peter mon.jan.29

Several of Sam's friends recently arrived from Perth to visit the US with a short stay in Seattle. They organized a weekend trip to Las Vegas so they asked if we could look after their pet bearded dragon, Cleo. Now I'm certain Cristina would have much preferred for Sam and Alice to have had a puppy for us to baby sit, but nope, they had a lizard. They had looked after Lana during our trip to Vancouver so we, of course, agreed to look after Cleo. Since they were flying out on Thursday afternoon, we made arrangements to pick up Cleo on Wednesday night. It was also an opportunity for us to have dinner with them and meet some of Sam's old school friends. We dined at the "King and I" Thai restaurant in Bellevue then headed back to Kirkland to collect the tank, food and Cleo. Alice and Cristina thought it was girl at first and had come up with the name Cleo. Sam later decided it was a boy because he thought it looked like one, but the name stuck. Now, no one knows whether it's a him or a her. You decide ...

Meet Cleo...

Australia Day
Australia Day was marked by increased activity on the ANZAC email list. One of the more senior members had organized an Australia Day evening at one of the Irish pubs but since none of the guys we knew were going, there was little incentive for us to go. None of the Americans we spoke to knew anything about Australia Day. I was asked whether Australia Day was a celebration of independence or something like that. I wanted to come up with something grand and patriotic but the larrikin in me couldn't help myself:

"Err...Australia Day doesn't celebrate any victory over the British like Independence Day. It doesn't celebrate Federation when Australia became a nation nor does it celebrate the discovery of Australia by Caption Cook. What Australia Day celebrates is the day the first convicts were dumped on the beaches of Sydney Cove - all because your country didn't want them."

;P

lana's home! by.cristina sat.jan.20

how can we not miss that face?

lana's had her spay procedure and she's home with us now ...*breathes out*. we picked her up from the vet around noon today and they told us her operation went really well. the vet nurses kept commenting how well-behaved she was, and so quiet and sweet too. it looked as though they had fussed over her quite a bit while she was there hehe. they said she was even up for a cookie for breakfast! that's our girl!

thankfully, lana's not licking at her stitches so they said no elizabethan collar was necessary. what a relief! and it seems she's not upset with us at all and she even gave us puppy kisses when we first held her :-). and now as i type, she's soundly sleeping on my lap :-D.

lana's pre-op haircut by.cristina thu.jan.18

our little girl is undergoing her spay procedure tomorrow (i'm a nervous mummy!), so we opted to get her hair cut very short today, in anticipation of a two week period of not being able to bathe her. we dropped her off at her usual grooming salon in bellevue this morning, and i picked her up after i got off work (it's an easy walk from my office). i took her for a walk in the area until peter picked us up and we both agreed she looked so tiny! it's like we just brought home a new puppy hehe. as you can see, her top knot (ponytail) is gone and her head looks perfectly round now ...

her groomers call this a "teddybear cut" :-D

the vet performing her procedure is the same vet that lana's breeder has used for years, so he came highly recommended to us. when i called to make the booking for her op, we were told we had to wait a month because he was fully booked! he's over an hours drive from us but we're more than willing to drive the distance. we're dropping lana off at the vet tomorrow morning and she has to stay overnight for monitoring, and then we get our baby back on saturday. this weekend will no doubt be spent pampering her in an attempt to get her to forgive us hehe.

cube, sweet cube by.cristina wed.jan.17

my cubicle at work ... ain't it cozy? :-)

back! by.cristina mon.jan.15

hey everyone! i know we were missing in action for awhile but we're back! (to blogging more frequently that is heh). life's pretty much gone back to normal for us, with work resuming and all, and my parents having flown back to australia :-(. having mum and dad here was wonderful, with mum's delicious home-cooked dinners, dad making us laugh with his unique sense of humour, playing board games with them till late, and shopping like crazy!! but their visit went by way too quickly! ah well, i'll work on getting them back here asap - if the shopping experience won't lure them back, i'll just have to resort to pleading and whining haha.

we've been getting below freezing temperatures lately (-6 degrees celsius!) and constant snowfall. peter and i rugged up on the weekend and stepped outside of our condo to play in the snow. the snow was so fresh and fluffy and easy to shape that we ended up building ...

... a snowman and snowdog! :-)

when we got home from work this evening we saw that our snowman and snowdog were still in tact! (it's been 2 days since we built them). i hope they bring a smile to our neighbours when they walk past them hehe ...

photo taken this evening
(isn't the doggy soooo cute? building it was peter's idea and i think it turned out great!)

despite the cold weather and snow, peter and lana have still been going for walks (though very short ones!). lana enjoys her walks so much and peter spoils her rotten, so he braves the freezing temperatures so she doesn't go without. yup, she's totally got him wrapped around her little paw ...

i stopped them on their way out tonight and took a quick shot hehe

more holiday photos by.peter sat.jan.13

Taking photos of yourselves whilst riding fast moving rides is tricky...but I had to try! :P

Good timing eh?

our christmas & new year holiday by.peter fri.jan.12

Time has gone by so quickly and so much has happened since our last entry (sorry guys!). So, here's an update …

The season for giving
To prepare for the arrival of Cristina’s parents, we had to convert our study room into a suitable guest bedroom. That meant disassembling Cristina’s desk and clearing out the half dozen boxes that were occupying the built-in wardrobes and coat closet. Unfortunately(?) there wasn’t any room left for us to move those boxes anywhere else in our condo, so I finally fought my hoarding compulsiveness and created a new rule: if I haven’t used an item in the past 2 years, I’m probably not going to use those items again. Cristina was absolutely thrilled that I had finally come to my senses. The only challenge now was to decide what goes to charity and what goes to the tip. In the end, we collected 8 large bags of clothing and 2 boxes of various items still in good condition. We dropped off the items at a local charity and it felt really good to give.

... And just as good is the receiving part :). Even though Cristina and I were half way around the world from our families and closest friends, many of them still sent us Christmas cards. Almost everyone tells us that they regularly check up on us through this blog of ours. It’s comforting to know that in an age where you would rather email the person in the desk next to you than talk to them, that technology compensates by removing the distance between people half way around the world. Keeping in contact with family and friends is the reason we started this blog.

To finish the topic on giving…Cristina gave me an easel and some canvases for Christmas. She knows I enjoyed painting in high school and thinks I should get back into it - I agree! Now, hopefully I won’t have to give my easel to charity in 2 years ;).

Holiday in LA
This year, mum and dad gave us a holiday for Christmas. They paid for our flight to Los Angeles, accommodation at the Hilton and entrance to California Park, DisneyLand and Universal Studios! We were thrilled! So, we dropped Lana off at a dog boarding place the day before our flight. We headed up to the airport early the next morning and parked the car at the daily parking area. The flight took less than 2 hours. By the time we arrived at LA airport, mum and dad were already waiting there having come off a flight from Sydney. It had been almost 8 months since we’ve seen them but somehow it didn’t seem like we were separated for that long at all. I’m sure the almost daily phone calls between Cristina and her mum had something to do with it :).

We caught the transport to the Hilton, found our rooms and immediately made our way to DisneyLand. We spent 2 days visiting DisneyLand and California Adventure park. With the Christmas season, the park was teeming with families from all over the world. A day was spent at Universal Studios where we managed to go on most of the rides and see most of the shows. We had a great time at these attractions, but the best part was seeing mum and dad again and spending time with them, eating out together and just chatting like old times.

At Disney's California Adventure Park

On Disneyland's "It's a Small World" ride

At Universal Studios

Parents in Seattle
Our flight back to Seattle was early on New Year’s Eve. We were excited to show mum and dad our new home and we hoped that maybe even some snow would fall, since they had never experienced it before. On the drive back to our place, there was what looked like some left over snow in our area but we were all hoping that before they left on the 11th, that Seattle would really have something to show…

The first week, Cristina and I had taken time off work to show mum and dad different areas of Seattle. Knowing how much mum and dad enjoy shopping, we took them to all the major shopping areas around Seattle. Nothing was spared, we did everything from Walmart to Macy’s and Premium outlets. And the timing couldn’t have been better, post-Christmas shopping sales were in full gear and they were nowhere near their baggage limit.

I also took them to Microsoft campus to show them my humble office and a quick visit by Building 34, where Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer’s offices were.

Showing mum and dad around at my workplace

Two days before they were due to fly out there was a severe weather warning for western Washington. We were told to expect high winds, rain and snow. Hopefully, this time the county would be more prepared and there wouldn’t be the traffic chaos we had back in November. Cristina and I left work early to beat the weather and picked up mum and dad from Bellevue Square. There was wind, some rain and a little snow fell that night but nothing impressive. We were all a little disappointed because we were hoping for some decent snow. The following day, at about 4pm the weather changed suddenly and out of nowhere the snow started to fall very hard. We decided to leave work early again but it was too late, it seemed everyone in Seattle wanted to get home as soon as they could. Some people decided they would stay back until traffic died down but since we had to drive mum and dad to the airport early in the morning we need to get home as soon as we could. I left the office at about 4:45. It took 2 hours to get to Bellevue to pick Cristina up and then another 4 and half hours to get home to Sammamish. The closer we got home, the worse the conditions seemed to get. Again there were cars abandoned everywhere by the roadside and some were in ditches. This snowstorm was stronger than the last time. By the time we made it home, it was 11:15pm and we had to leave for the airport at 3am. When we got home, mum had already made us a nice hot dinner...she's one incredible cook!

So it seems the snow mum and dad wanted to see had arrived just in time for them. Even though it was nearing midnight, we all decided to have a play in the snow and dad took some pictures....

Playing in the snow with Lana

Mum came out for a quick look at the snow in her pjs! :)

... and here's our snowbaby that Cristina built :)

Having mum and dad stay with us made us miss home a lot. We've always enjoyed their company back in Sydney with the dinners, movies and games of mahjong. Going shopping, having dinner, watching movies and playing scrabble with them during their visit here reminded us of those times. Saying goodbye at the airport was difficult for everyone. Cristina and I are missing Sydney very much right now....