Back track post or "how to surprise Ann."

How would you respond to a telephone call... "hey Ann where are you?" I say I'm at the Temple. The response was then can you give the phone to G. Okay.. I'm handing the phone to my boss and trying to figure out what in the world is going on. Then I get are you logged into your gmail account. Yeah.. so my boss goes to my computer and is looking at my incoming mail.

I get the phone back and am told if I'm a good person I'll disregard the email from her and not open it. Okay... now I'm thinking what in the world would be coming to my email address that I wasn't suppose to open.

This is coming down to move day, too. So I'm thinking maybe they are thinking of doing something for us. I keep looking at my email to look for any emails that might be suspicious and that I should just toss. NOTHING.

Then I'm wondering was it an email about a meeting that I no longer need to be involved with or what in the world are they saying about me. Not that I'm paranoid or anything.

Friday we have dinner at N's godparents house and I went to temple. Was bittersweet. I love my Temple family and will miss many of the people there.

Saturday we go over to S's house. I expect a "surprise" but arrive and the table is set for dinner for my family and hers. Awww - I think I guess there wasn't time to do something for a goodbye. We have a great dinner and I am using the dryer to dry two loads of laundry. Yes, the dryer really did die.

I'm folding laundry and the boys are being boys in the living room and I look up and one of our friends is standing in the kitchen with ice cream. I stare at him and my girlfriend goes, "surprise". :)

The email that I wasn't suppose to look at was an email to our chavurah giving the details for Saturday night. For D's sake she is lucky that my alum account is being forwarded to a gmail account I only check once a week.

I seem to have a sixth sense for surprises but this was surprise.

Welcome to Wirilda.

This will be our abode for the next year or so. There are a few more leaves on the trees and the car in the driveway is now a white Camry.

I went out to Chadstone Centre yesterday and didn't scare any of the locals with my driving.

The customs gods must be smiling on us because our belongings arrive today - sans two pair of hiking boots that need to be steamed cleaned. I guess my cleaning job of the four bikes must have worked.

Yesterday was interesting. I mean besides the fact that I drove to the mall with only N. in the car.

N. and I have started running. Bad timing with the heat getting upwards over 100 F. We went out after 4 for a jog around the neighborhood. When we returned there was no power. I wasn't sure if the house blew a fuse. So we handled it for a bit. Played some Ziggity and cooled down. Then I went on a fuse box hunt.

Hmmm.. did you know that if you take the panel off the alarm box it will go off? Yes... the alarm is going off and I don't know how to turn it off. N. is getting worried. I call have N. call S. I'm told there is a handbook that should have the information or I should call the realtor. It finally stops its buzzing and I reset the system.

Turns out that it was much of Victoria without power. With the bush fires they can't move around the power grid.

I made my signature brownies but they were not up to par. I have to learn how to use this oven. It can heat from the bottom.. heat from the top, blower on. UGH. Plus it is much smaller than a regular oven since it is a side by side. I think the larger size will be too small for my baking stones. So sad.

I also had to substitute for graham cracker crumbs in my s'more squares. They turned out very well.

N. has been introduced to the humor of Jeff N. He was thrown into the pool, had water poured on his head and almost had water tossed at him. I think N. loved it. He loves their dogs. I can hear it now for when we go home.

A. is off at Netzer camp. What is the first thing I get texted messaged from him? Why didn't I send him with money. OOOPs.

Yesterday when we returned from the mall the mall was here. There was a box by the door. I got all excited thinking it was one of my boxes I had mailed from the States. No such luck. It was a book order that the owners had placed in September 2006 that must have backstroked here from Vermont.

More pictures and news when I get my computer up and running tonight.

First post for our blog during our time in Australia.

Settling into Oz.

Left NJ - Wednesday, January 10.

Of course even leaving NJ was not without its ups and downs. Tuesday evening I was still doing errands. Stopped at CVS to pick up some drugs and wanted to print out pictures for N's picture board for his Bar Mitzvah. I made the mistake of not turning off the headlights and asked A to do it since he was staying in the car. Long story.. but when we got back to the car, it wouldn't start because A never turned off the lights.

It could have added to my many reasons that I could have melted down but did not. This did put me a few hours behind but I knew not to expect I'd leave the house in perfect condition. Maybe if I was cloned.

Wednesday I still had to pick up meds, pictures, drop off cable boxes, plants for care, laundromat, bank, post office and finish packing and straightening up. Oh.. yeah and have a bite to eat with friends before we left.

Let's see I was able to do all but dry my clothes and get the stuff in bins. Thank goodness for friends.

I even kept the limo waiting while I returned from the photo lab with pictures for A. No it wasn't that much after the time that we were suppose to leave.

I left without knowing where the envelope with three checks and cash were. I decided that I would deal with that from Oz. I was pretty good and tears didn't start to flow until I had to say good-bye. Debbie and Luann were fantastic and had things for me to check before I left.

Boys were very pensive on the way to the airport. Luckily we were going north on the Turnpike. We saw and overturned truck in the southbound lane. It backed the traffic past the exit for the airport and the road was still backed up when we took off from Newark at 5.

I was very impressed all six checked on suitcases or duffles were 50 pounds or under. I even had 4 pounds more I could have used in one suitcase.

I've decided that our bodies are not meant for long trips. Trip to LAX was uneventful. A. did want to trip a little kidlet that was running up and down the aisle. I did not notice but he did have the aisle seat.

Yes.. my Lands End bag did make it through both Newark and LAX. It would never have made the weight limits Quantas has for the way home but going no one weighs carry on. Let's see what interesting things were in our carryon - hard drives, a DVD for computer, tax papers, batteries - not to mention books. Of course the boys' GameCube with a few games. Both boys' backpacks were taken aside and zippers checked with pad and chemicals.

I can finally stop worrying about what else will go wrong with my house or car. I can't believe before I left I had to deal with Verizon for our landline (phone weird for 2 1/2 weeks -including cross linked with a neighbor down the street), dryer deciding to up and die, garage door spring, and finally the stove needing the electricians to come back and correct the connection to our new electrical box.

House construction is close. I won't get to see the big bathroom done but I know it is in good hands.

Posting since it is now Wednesday and I started this post over the weekend.