They gave him his orders in Monroe Virginia

I just now Googled the lyrics to ''The Wreck of the Old 97'', and discovered that I've mis-heard the lyrics all these years:  I thought it was ''Montville, Virginia!''.

Anyhow.

One of the things we did on our holiday is visit the little town of Montville, which The Lady hasn't visited in many years.

Of course, as with the rest of our vacation, it rained.  That took the shine off of wandering down the street, looking in to various shops.  And the kids were all whiny.  I ended up taking the kids to the car and sitting with them while The Lady looked into one last shop.

We also took the long way back to our rental place. You wouldn't know this unless you were from Western Washington (state) -- esp. north of Everett -- but the weather **and** the terrain really reminded me of back home.

It's up in the hills a ways, so year round it's cooler than the lower-lying areas (like where we live) -- which would suit The Lady just fine.  She said she sometimes wishes she could live somewhere up there, on a bit of acreage.  Not too many universities or govt. departments to work at, though.  Maybe after we retire...


--GG

Hope it does not pop

We're about halfway though our first ''family trip'' **ever** -- if you don't count flying back to Seattle to visit my parents and siblings.  We're up at the Alexandra Headlands, near Maroochydore, staying at a rental place that's just a block or two from the beach.

It's been drizzling fairly constantly since we got here -- which is unfortunate, since the month prior to this has been reasonably clear.  Ah well.


Took a day trip to the Bundaberg ginger factory.  Took the tour, rode on the train, and etc.


As we walked past the parked train, something caught my attention.  Notice the red lines I've added to the photo, which emphasize the direction of the brackets that hold the ''door'' closed on the front of the steam train.  Three of the four seem fine -- but that lower-left one seems a little dodgy...


As it turns out, it's not **really** a steam train:  it has a gasoline-powered engine.  But still:  take pride in your work, people!!!

I wonder how many tourists notice that mis-aligned bracket?


--GG

Quasi Christmas

My first weekend in the U.S., my folks held a remedial Christmas for me: a family gift exchange, plus the food things.

Rcv'd lotsa great things (not that Christmas is about receiving gifts. Actually, part of it **is**.). Included many argyle socks from my parents (oddly, can't find them in Australia), and a instructional book on Krav Maga from my brother.

The socks pictured to the left aren't the gargoyle socks I received: it's just an illustrative image I grabbed from the internet.

Yeah, one of my standard puns is to call them ''gargoyle'' socks. My other one is to use ''gerbil'' for ''herbal'' -- e.g. ''gerbil tea''. It amuses me. Quietly.


--GG

To insights to job hunting

Hm.

As I've mentioned, I've been (essentially) laid off: the project I was working on has ended, and my supervisor's follow-up grant didn't come through. So, I've applied for a few jobs, and am asking around to previous people I've worked for if they have any part-time work.

Two insights to job hunting:

1) Because December-January is summer **and** Christmas break in Australia, a lot of folks take their vacation during that period. Thus, it's really hard to contact folks: all you get is their vacation messages stating that they'll be back in mid-January.

2) I was gonna go sign up at a temp agency. However, it's hard to look for work during a natural disaster.


Hm.


--GG

Australian Fathers Day

(Again, I've intentionally omitted the apostrophe from this blog's title: it generates a weird character code in the URL.)

Today was Father's Day in Australia, and the photo to the left has very little to do with what I did today. Except that it's a photo of me.

Lovely weather today (and yesterday) -- springtime-y. Wish I could've done some yardwork, or maybe puttered around in the shed, or did some yardwork. Instead, logged a lot of hours cleaning this data for work. Ah well -- getting near done.

The kids gave me a bunch of things they made at school/daycare. Cute! Also a book on tools.

The Lady gave me a few things, including two Steve Irwin DVDs and a roofer's hatchet.


Father's Day, so dealer's choice for dinner. I ordered pizza. Two larges are about right for us -- but I ordered three, in order to wrangle some leftovers.


All in all, a good day. Lotsa hugs. :)


I probably **should** stay up 'til 2am or so to work on this data -- but, dagnabit!, it's Father's Day. So I'm calling it quits at midnight. Plus or minus two hours isn't gonna ruin my timeline. ;)


--GG