Oh, the wonderful land of Oz.

Life looks like it's settling down a little bit.

I got off the plane, went through customs (and had a little hiccup when they learned that I had been "in proximity to" cattle, goats, or other farm animals), and met with Benjamin, Tamara, and Maria, who whisked me off to the waiting minivan.

There really is too much to talk about in paragraph form, so I'll list as many things as I think of, in no particular order.

~We went swimming in the ocean in full-body wetsuits. In the winter. It was FREEZING (but an absolute blast).
~Koalas live naturally near the beach, and are big, furry, cute, and scary.
~Parrots live naturally in the beach area of Australia. They are very tame.
~Charity answers "whattie?" to anyone who calls her name. It's pretty funny. "Charityyyyyy!!" "Whatieeeee?"
~It is awful when you don't have a voice, but everyone else sings before every meal. Kinda frustrating.
~Doorknobs are really high. Like, five feet from the floor.
~Light switches are backwards. Down is on, up is off.
~They drive on the wrong side of the road. It was disconcerting.
~Toilets have two flush settings: half flush and full flush.
~The blackwood's toilet doesn't seem to "swirl" either way, clockwise or counterclockwise.
~If something is cool, they say "sweet as". They leave off the noun at the end. This formula works for almost any adjective. "Sweet as" "lumpy as" "cold as" etc.
~I was not jetlagged at all.
~Instead, I got sick.

That's about it.

Ruth put cayenne powder in a batch of brownies. We ate "Mexican Brownies" that day.
~Thomas