Merry Christmas!

Note to self - I should really spell check these posts... that last post is chock-a-block with spelling mistakes. Oops. Good thing no one really cares.

Christmas is so nice at home. Different when my brother isn't here. But he and his wife will be here on Sunday, so we get to open presents then too! Spent Christmas brunch and morning with my brother-in-law's family - a good new tradition. Then we came back to Lincoln Ave and did presents here. Then we watched Elf while we had dinner and my mom and sister did the puzzle I gave them.

I've been spending time with people from high school - all reconnected through Facebook - and it's been really fun to catch up. It's nice to be back home for awhile. :)

I've caught a cold, but that's par for the course after a transcontinental flight I reckon. Trying to remember I have a tri on 25 Jan... gotta keep training, but the bed here is so comfy, and the movies are too numerous, and there are too many books, and the food is so yummy, and the beers are so good.... excuses excuses excuses.

Hope you all have had spectacular Chrsitmases/holiday celebrations!!

It's winter!

Went for a ride this morning and wore all my winter clothes that I didn't wear in Cnaberra... and it's some good stuff, kept me warm and dry! And guess what... I wore my cleats and didn't fall off, didn't dislocate anything!

I'm home now and it's pretty good... nice to have homemade french toast and waffles the last 2 mornings!! And nice to have central heating in the house. And nice to see Maggie and Jed!

I won't go into too much deail... but I spent 2.5 hours at the San Francisco airport waiting for my mom on Friday after I landed... she had a hair appt that couldn't be moved. No comment. Since I'd been anticipating being picked up my head wasn't in the space to figure out how to deal with the situation, so after 4 credit card calls on the pay phone to my sister's cell (mom wasn't answering hers...) I completely lost it because Westpac turned off my credit card and it turns out that my back up credit card (US) had expired last week. Good times for the Katie-miester with 5 bags of luggage and no real way to get in contact with anyone or get cash to feed herslef... so I ate the food I brought home for my family. Finally mom showed up and it's over now.

Harumph.

Heading home

This is it - I'm leaving my office for a month! It's a great feeling. Enhanced by the glass of bubbly I just had with our section Chrsitmas party. :)

I'll be in the other hemisphere when I reach out through the blog lines...

Wombat in the office!!!!

We just got a visit from a baby wombat named Bertie! The daughter of one of my co-workers is a wildlife rescue coordinator and she's foster parenting 2 wombats, a male and female. This is the female, she weighs about 4kilos and was sooooooooo cute. I'm surprised you didn't hear my squeals from there. :)









Trying to escape (I know the feeling!!):

Who would've thunk it?

Apparently watching too many romantic comedies gives you unrealistic expectations for real realtionships. Hmmm....

And by the by... this Poll on The Australian Broadcasting Corporation website doesn't even include my favorite Christmas movie* as an option!!!

Poll
What's your favourite Christmas film?

The Muppet Christmas Carol
Bad Santa
Love Actually
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Home Alone
Miracle On 34th Street
It's A Wonderful Life

*well - it's a tie between Meet me in St. Louis and A Christmas Story.

I better pack my woolies and a raincoat!!

This is Canberra this week:

Today: 24° | 9°

Wed: 21° | 9°

Thu: 25° | 10°

Fri: 23° | 6°


This is Alameda this week:

Today: 9° | 3°
Tue: 9° | 0°

Wed: 7° | 3°

Thu: 10° | 6°

Time is a weird and wily phenomenon

Only 3 more days.

And so much to do, and time seems to be going so slowly and so quickly at the same time... sort of like light, with the physical properties of a particle and a wave. Or something like that.

Three more work days and SO much to do it's ridiculous. Three more nights with training and christmas parties and oh yeah, I better pack too!

If my head doesn't explode before Friday morning 10am, I'll count my lucky stars.

things that make me happy:
*knowing my brother is back from Iraq with his wife and that I'll see him in about 18 days
*the prospect of having lunch with my sister every day starting in 10 days
*sunny days and summertime
*running a sub 8 minute mile (YAY!)
*the picture of Spencer and the jack-o-lanterns up by my computer
*my pants are fitting better :)
*my car is fun to drive
*the dang koel didn't wake me up at 3:30 this morning (the koel is a bird with the MOST annoying call that he likes to do around 4 in the morning, right outside my window)

I decided to make this list because I needed to remind myself that even though I've had a crap morning (and it's only 8:30!) it's not all bleak.

It's grey today, my bike ride this moning sucked cause I got dropped off the back of the novice group (the fast novices, but still - the novices!), I seemed to hit every weird bone while putting my bike in the garage when I got home (the ankle bone, the wrist bone), I was covered in grease, I couldn't get my front door open. I'm confused in my heart, I'm stressed about work and how much I have to do before next Friday, and I'm going to miss summertime while I'm in Cali.

But I do have much to be happy for, if I could pull my head out.

Katie in action

At the triathlon a couple weeks back there was a professional photographer, and he took some awesome shots. My favorite is the finish line - cause I was so happy to be there and he definitely captured that!









Now I know you all love the oh-so-sexy tri-suit I'm wearing! It's so great for racing though. Not so good in high-def pictures, but that's allright. However - when I know there's a photog around, I don't think I'll be using the pockets on the thighs for storgae - not the place I need to be wider, thank you very much!! :)

wise decision

This Sunday I was going to be getting on a plane to Bangkok for a week long training course, but the course has now been postponed to next year, probably March. So, I'll have to wait for my Thai experience till then.

I'm okay with waiting. And now I have an extra week in Canberra before I head back to California for the holidays... maybe I'll go down to the beach one last time before my winter Christmas!