Sex and Money

Randy said that we hear "most divorces are due to sex or money" but in fact, those are just the two venues in which the real, underlying problems are played out.

Two thousand years later

"The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."

--Cicero, 55BC

Jet lag

It appears I'm pretty much back to my normal schedule. Note that this is ten days after getting back from Australia...

Battletech

Got the Battletech 25th anniversary boxed set. That means I now have a game in which 30ft tall robots sprint (or plod) across the landscape, blazing away at each other with incredible weapons from ridiculously short ranges and still missing. This is implausible but still curiously satisfying...

Melbourne: Tuesday

Also Los Angeles, Charlotte NC, and Norfolk VA. It was a long Tuesday. Got up at 5:45am Melbourne time, got home at 11:00pm US East Coast time, with a sixteen hour time zone difference.

Melbourne: Monday

Last day in Melbourne. Josh and Gwen came over around lunch time; Josh and I played MegaMek, Diana and Gwen talked about Secret Girl Stuff. We went to a Lebanese place for dinner, where I had felafel and kebey, neither of which I've had before, plus hummus with ground beef and pine nuts.

Getting everything packed now for the flight home tomorrow.

Melbourne: Sunday

Drove back from Phillip Island with Gwen and Josh, with a discussion about the wool industry and how the wool is graded, sorted, tested, and made into cloth. There are a lot more factors in grading wool than I'd realized: thickness of the fibers, their tensile strength, whether they break at the tip or in the middle, how curly it is, and on and on.

In Melbourne there's a place called the Convent, which had a craft show and a display for Adult Fans of Legos. Around the back of the convent there's a petting zoo / kids' farm, including sheep. Gwen and Diana elected not to make the long walk to the sheep paddock but Josh and I made the trek, and bravely faced down the woolly beasts. Having survived that experience, we had a picnic on the grass and headed for the Exhibition Hall, next to the museum; Diana and Gwen toured the Australian/Asian Quilting Exhibition while Josh and I stayed on the grass with our laptops and he blew up my mechs.

Dinner was Thai at Lemongrass Cafe; we had "tears of the tiger" which was a spicy, seared medium rare beef; chicken with lemongrass; coconut rice; pad thai; and something with duck. First time I've ever had duck; it was okay although the beef was a lot better. Down the street to an Italian gelato place, and then home.