As with most things in the “new” economy, I don’t understand how people monetize blogging. I get that they sell ads, what I don’t get it how they blog all the freaking time. I can barely make myself type two sentences if not under duress or strangely inspired. Count this as a strangely inspired point in time.

Here’s everything you maybe sort of wanted to know about what we’ve been up to…

We bought a place! A condo, or unit, as they say in Australia. We’d been renting an older apartment with all sorts of annoying everyday issues like the pipes making a high pitched screaming noise when the hot water in the kitchen sink was on. It was habitable and cheap, but we wanted something a bit more comfortable.  In a typically decisive fashion, we looked at houses on the Sunshine Coast and units around Brisbane and decided not to buy anything because we only sort of liked this one unit. The rest were a disaster of various awkward layouts such as having 3 separate living areas and other assorted nonsense, giant jade Buddha statue anyone?! When we got back from our trip to the US over Christmas, it sank in how annoying our rental was and the unit we sort of liked kept coming up in our brains so we decided to see if it was still for sale. A contract had just fallen through so we made an offer. After much back and forth and an attempt to get our best and final offer up a smidge (it’s called best and FINAL for a reason) we thought we weren’t going to get it, but then the realtor called and just like that we were property owners on two continents. Our unit has two bedrooms and two baths and a lovely view of the Kedron Brook which also has an amazing biking and running trail along it.

That took up quite a chunk of time at the beginning of the year, but we still fit in a few comedy shows and a few sporting events, Brisbane Heat, Brisbane Broncos and Brisbane Lions, oh my.

And we went on a great long weekend getaway to North Stradbroke Island. Straddie, as they say, is a gorgeous, mostly undeveloped paradise. Our Yarris got to visit too.

Unfortunately, on our first day just moments after we got to the beach, Jon got stung by a bluebottle jelly fish.

Ouch. It packs quite a wallop, but Jon was stoic and though he claimed he was fine to stay at the beach, we packed it in and headed back to the place we were staying so he could run the sting under hot water – the recommended cure. We managed to get over being too fearful of the water after that and got in a few good beach days in the end.

Jon can’t get enough of super long distance travel so he went back to the US in May AND June.

May was Jon’s annual golf trip with a side trip before and after golf to catch up with his mom and brother and stop to see Mike as well. I had the good fortune, ha, to do some short distance work travel to Canberra, the capital of Australia during one of the weeks Jon was gone. Jon got to go on vacation to warm weather while I had work travel to cold weather hmmm…

We both traveled back to the US again in June. This time for our 20 year UVA reunion which Jon did not attend because he didn’t express interest in doing so until after I’d already made it a girls trip – woo 🙂

While I was at the reunion, Jon took a short trip to Austin to visit his family. In typical Jon fashion, he didn’t remember to take any pictures!

We got to catch our nephew Adam in super sporting action, beating the Dodgers in his Little League game and kicking butt at a swim meet.

We also had two festive pool days at my mom’s house, hosting my oldest bestie and fam and later Father’s Day fun for my brother-in-law, Lyon, and his dad.

And because all of that just wasn’t enough togetherness, my sister, nephew, mom, Jon and I road tripped up to Binghamton, NY in one car to celebrate my great aunt’s 85th birthday.

Now we’re back down under for a while, enjoying the mild Brisbane winter but still feeling a bit jealous of those of you enjoying the Northern Hemisphere summer.

Yeesh, we’ve been slacking on the blogging lately. Since our last post, there have been a few adventures.

Fiji:

Sara’s company was celebrating it’s 20th anniversary and to do so in style, they took the whole company (including families) to Fiji for Easter weekend.  It’s was a short (3.5 hours) direct flight for us from Brisbane, woo.  All expenses were paid, so there was much eating and drinking!  Our room was a ocean view Bure (Fijian style villa) and it was wonderful.

There was a bit of stress with a category one cyclone passing near us on the second night.  It was very windy and quite loud, not an experience I’d like to repeat.  The next morning, we awoke to a lot of standing water and quite a bit of debris that washed ashore.

So that was a bit more excitement than we bargained for, but the rest of our time there was quite enjoyable and relaxing.

Sports:

In the summer we made it to a NBL basketball game and a T20 cricket match. Now that the seasons have changed, there were some different sports on offer – including a quadrennial competition, so it was time for more!

First, the Commonwealth Games were coming to the Gold Coast.  We decided the best option would be to pick a sport that we would otherwise never see live and then make a day out of a trip to the Gold Coast (which is about 1.5 hours away, but the event ticket includes free train travel).  After narrowing down our options to Squash, Weightlifting or Badminton – we decided on Badminton!  But first, time for beers!

We live just down the road from Suncorp stadium, which is the rectangular stadium used for rugby and soccer.  We chose to go see the Brisbane Broncos play – they are a rugby league team.  When we were in Melbourne went to a rugby union game.  Don’t ask me what the rule differences are, because I have enough trouble following the game.  I think rugby league is meant to be the more exciting of the two.  It certainly has a much larger professional league in Australia.  Unfortunately, the Broncos lost.

The Brisbane Lions are the local Aussie rules football team.  They play at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, otherwise know as the Gabba (it is in the suburb of Woolloongabba). They’ve been pretty terrible the last few years and are doing about the same this year (currently 17th out of 18 teams).  Unsurprisingly, the Lions lost.

USA Trip:

As I’m always up for an excuse to travel across the world, I decided I’d join my mates for the annual golf trip to North Carolina again this year.  This year we were treated to glorious weather with the courses all in great condition.  Our golf skills remain as mediocre as ever.

I combined the golf trip with a stopover in California to see my mom and brother both coming and going.  Jeff and I even managed to sneak in a round of golf.

I also stopped in to see my friend Mike in SC.   Shockingly there is no photo evidence of the time I spent with Mike in South Carolina.  We played golf and ping pong,  ate tacos, grilled steaks, drank beer and sat in disbelief as the Caps actually beat the Penguins in the NHL Playoffs.  It was a good time.

Brisbane:

We are still loving the Brisbane weather.  The autumn / winter here has been pretty great.  Still shorts weather and days full of sunshine.

I’m still golfing with my Australian mates as well.