Visits

I dropped in to hear LK's speech at the Sydney conference Thursday. Just in time to hear such gems as:

"I asked my husband to help me put this slide together. Looking at it, I think you can see why I don't ask him to help me decorate the house."

Or, how about: "Think hard before starting a blog. The Internet is a graveyard of blogs that have four or five posts and stopped. My husband has been blogging for three years, and he tells me how hard it is to keep coming up with topics. But he has a mother who gets on his case if he goes too long between posts. You won't have your mother telling you to write."

It's nice to be someone's punchline. I guess I have become the latest in that long line of husbands that includes Cher's Sonny, Gracie's George and Phyllis's Fang. The good news is that the people that used to work with us thought it was funny stuff.

The trip north was great this week. Well, the weather sucked - rainy and cold in Canberra, even rainier in Sydney - but it was great seeing all the people we did. You couldn't have crammed too much more into the five days we were on the road.

We had two lovely nights staying with Jason and Laura (aka Lora) and the two cats that actually own the house. It was our first time ever staying at one of our kids' places. I think it kind of counts as a rite of passage for them. And a rite of getting old for us.

In Sydney we had a schedule that ensured we never went hungry. Tuesday night dinner with Davy - a fantastic meal and great catchup. Wednesday lunch at our old haunt, Lee's Fortuna Court, with Andrew B and Shirley - a fantastic meal and great catchup. Wednesday dinner at the Mexican restaurant with Lily (and I have vague memories of Matt and Rachael also being there) - a fantastic meal and great catchup.

We skipped lunch so LK could prepare for her afternoon duties, but had martinis with Caroline, Andrew G and Ian - fanastic cocktails and great catchups - and then another martini and tapas with Caroline.

For some reason, neither of us was all that hungry the next morning, so we were ready for the dry sandwich on the flight back to Hobart - not so fantastic. And no one left to catch up with.

What a feast of friends and family. There can only be one thing better - more of the same. So we head off to the US in ten days. And it won't hurt that we're heading to heat wave territory from a place that went down to the low 30s last night!

(And by the way, my mother didn't nag me to write this post even though it has been 2 weeks since the last post. Oh, I was nagged al right, but you can guess who cracked the whip and told me to get back to work.)