Canberra: Telstra Tower

In Canberra, we visited the Telstra Tower, which sits on a hill overlooking the city. The view from the top of the tower was great.

Telstra is Australia's largest cell-phone company, similar to Verizon in the U.S. The tower emits such strong signals that it interferes with car alarms in the parking lot. In fact, when we got back to the car, the keyless entry on Louie's car was disabled. Just imagine what it does to the fertility of the Telstra employees who work at the tower... Yikes!

Canberra

Our friends Andy and James (and their father Louie) invited us to go with them to Canberra, Australia's capital, for the long weekend. We drove in caravan with some of Louie's relatives who live in Albury. We stayed with Louie's sister, and enjoyed meeting Louie's family.

When we weren't visiting with family, Louie, James, and Andy did an excellent job of showing us around the city. We went to the capital buildings, the Australian Institute of Sport, the CBD, the mall, the tennis center, and Telstra Tower.

Funny Language

"Shout" - is the Australian word for picking up the tab. If you say "my shout," it means it's your turn to buy a meal or a round of drinks. When we overhear people talking about someone who never shouts, we used to think they were talking about a quiet person, now we know they are talking about a tightwad.

"Root" - is the Australian word that is commonly used in place of the word sex. If you are in Australia and you hear somebody say "boy they sure are rooting loudly in the other room," it doesn't mean the people in the next room are watching sports on tv... Also, tennis coaches need to be careful when they talk about rooting for their students.

It's Tuesday today! The 1/2 price movie we are seeing tonight is Vantage Point. The weather has dropped to the mid 90s. By the end of the week is will drop agian to the 80s. We can't wait! The hot weather has allowed us to use Graham's pool a few times, but we are ready for the weather to be cooler.

-K & D

Happy Birthday Kristen!

Here is a picture of Kristen at her work desk. See those flowers in the background... I bought them for her for her B-day. To celebrate, we had planned to go out with some friends to a restaurant called Source, but when I tried to book the reservation, I learned that Source is not open on Mondays. Then, when I called the other fancy-ish restaurants around, I found out that all nice restaurants in Albury/Wodonga are closed on Monday. So, I hosted a dinner party at Paul's house instead.

In addition to Kristen and Me, the others who attended the party included: Paul (duh, it's his house), Graham (it's really not a party unless Graham is there), Margaret (Graham's mother as well as our friend and our new golfing buddy), Andy (our best tennis mate), and James (Andy's brother and our second best tennis mate).

I made Kristen's favorite meal: chicken tetrazzini, garlic bread, and salad. Cooking was difficult because all of the measurements, including oven temperature settings, had to be converted. Additionally, some of the ingredients (e.g. half and half, broth, etc.) either don't exist or are called something else in Australian markets. For dessert, Kristen made strawberry shortcake. The meal was a big hit, and the party went smoothly. Everybody had a fun night.

Tonight is tight-ass-tuesday, but we have not decided what half-price movie we are seeing.

The weather has unfortunately heated up again. This whole week will be in the 100s(fahrenheit). Tennis isn't cancelled unless it's 102 or hotter! At least Kristen will be working indoors. We will probably head to the pool after work in the evenings.

My sister (Blossom) and Kristen's brother (Sam) also have March B-days, so we want to give them a little blog birthday shout-out.

-D (& K)