Catch Up

I've been remiss in completing my Australia trip journal. Since returning home, things have been hectic-- catching up with work, mail, laundry, and preparing for parental unit weekend visits (my parents visiting one weekend and Andrew's mom and aunt visiting another). Plus, I'm on a de-cluttering kick. We finally re-organized the kitchen and got all of the kitchen-related wedding gifts out of the second bedroom (thanks, Mom!!). Now we need to unpack the leftover boxes of crap that have been sitting in our bedroom since we moved almost two years ago (if we haven't missed any of it over the last two years, then we don't really need it, right?), re-organize the linen closet, the bedroom walk-in closet, and tidy up the second bedroom. It's also time to buy new furniture for the living/dining room. The furniture we moved in with was fine enough while we focused on the bedrooms and the kitchen, but I'd like to get a buffet/hutch for our china and various things that don't have space elsewhere, buy a wall unit for our tv and electronics that are hanging out, and finally decide on permanent hanging spaces for some art. We went to a few furniture places a few days ago and actually found a few pieces we like, ironically enough, from the same place from which we bought our bedroom furniture.

So as you see, life's been busy. And it ain't slowing down for at least the next 5 weeks. Why? Well, I've got two business trips and both my sister and Andrew's sister are pregnant and due within 2 weeks of each other. Conveniently enough, my first trip is to Orlando the week of January 12-- the week after my sister-in-law is due, so if she has a boy, I will have to figure out how to make it to the brit (circumcision) in New York. My second trip is the week of January 26 to San Antonio, the week my sister is due. In between Orlando and San Antonio is President-Elect Obama's inaguaration, which I plan to attend somehow, somewhere on the Mall. And to top it all off, Andrew's job is keeping him verrrry busy and will continue to do so.

But I guess I should at least summarize what I left out of the trip log:

• We spent our last Shabbat in Bondi Beach, which was nice but would have been nicer had it not rained all weekend
• On Sunday we walked around parts of downtown Sydney
• We decided to splurge and stay our last two nights at a 5-star hotel. That was AWESOME. Some highlights of that: toilet seat that hugs your butt, free breakfast, free coffee, sodas, and drinks at the shi-shi club on the 30th floor, a bed you can just sink in and stay forever, and an Opera House view in a room on the 31st floor. Definitely worth every single penny.
• We walked 1/4-way acorss the Sydney Harbour Bridge
• We saw a ballet at the Sydney Opera House
• We took a ferry from Sydney to Manly and back again, which is apparently the best way to take in the views from the harbor
• We did A LOT of walking :)
• It took us 32 hours and 4 planes to finally get home
  

And, finally, for those interested, here are two links to all of our pictures. Note: the first 30 or so pictures from the Great Barrier Reef are not ours. They gave those pics to us for free. The water was unfortunately somewhat murky at our second dive/snorkel location so it's difficult to see the beautiful fish and corral we saw that day.