I pledge allegiance to the flag...

one nation, under God, indivisible, ... (then a whole lot of nonsense talk)

Australia Day Celebrations

We had a special Australia Day playdate yesterday. Lucy made a sign for the front door (she drew fireworks) and we got out all our Australian books, toys and stickers. We cooked up a storm, serving pavlova, lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits. We even had a quiz about Australia for the moms which consisted of 18 questions from the citizenship test and 9 language questions. The highest score was 11! I guess none of the moms will be emigrating to Oz with us. We had a very fun time, even banning the word 'cookie' for the day. It was a lovely day at 20 degrees celsius (amazing given that it snowed last week)! Good luck to all the Aussies in the heatwave he he.

Any good books lately?

I recently purchased about 25 books, a mixture of new and used books that should serve as my reading list for the majority of the year. They're sitting on the bookshelf in my bedroom winking at me. I can't wait to get into them! In fact I read the first one in 5 hours on 2 January (White Tiger, last year's Booker winner, go read it). I'm on the second book now, the more weighty Thomas Wolfe's Look homeward angel.

Someone suggested to me last year to use www.goodreads.com to keep track of them and to share reading suggestions. Check out the website, you might find it handy.

Product of the week: Dough in a can

In the interest of attempting to short circuit the amount of time it takes to get a pizza ready we tested the concept of dough in a can. It can be found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, along with the cookies in a can and biscuits (ie scones) in a can. It was reasonably expensive for 1 piece of pizza dough but given we were only planning to cook 1 pizza it made sense to use. However it didn't turn out so well. We cut the dough into 2 small pizzas and unfortunately one of the dough bases didn't cook all the way through. The taste was okay but it isn't economical to use. I think we'll be back making our own dough and we'll just freeze some in small portions for family use.

While you were sleeping...

it snowed!

and the pizza oven construction inched forward!

and not much else apart from all the regular things.

By the way, happy Australia Day!

It's snowing!!!

Time to breathe

I'm taking a few weeks off blogging to give myself some more time. More time to do all those things that I want to do and never seem to have time to do. More time to email people, more time to finish 'reading the bible in one year' (6 big OT books to go from last year), more time to plan activities for Lucy, more time to scrapbook (well any time to scrapbook is more time to scrapbook!) and more time to just think.

Back soon. Feel free to email in the meantime to say hi and catch up.

Year end: 2008 highlights

Dancing at the Robbie Seay Band concert

Cheering on Hawthorn to win the grand final at an Irish pub in Harvard, Boston with heaps of other Aussies

Enjoying the outdoor hot tub at our beach house rental in the Outer Banks with our friends Jenny & Joe whilst watching Mad Max (using a system rigged up by Andrew)

Picking Lucy up out of bed in the morning and she says 'I love you mummy'

Eating vicchysoise at Bistro Bis in Washington DC

Discovering unexpected friendships!

Tasting our first pizza from Andrew's Pizza Wilmington

Lucy finishing potty training!

Learning to kite surf

I'm taking a break from blogging for a few weeks. Back soon.

Year end: DVD round-up

Not as much fun as the book list, but here is the list of movies we watched this year. We got to the cinema twice (Fireproof and The Secret Life of Bees) but the rest were courtesy of Netflix.

My personal favourites are in bold but let me highlight two. If you want to watch something to make you laugh watch Air Guitar Nation! If you want to watch a serious drama I highly recommend The Lives of Others, with The Pianist a close second.

Shadowlands
2 Days in Paris
The Visitor
Legends of the Fall
Love in the Time of Cholera
Sweet Land
27 Dresses
Sicko
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
Becoming Jane
My Left Foot: Special Edition
Baby Mama
Northern Exposure: Season 4
Sex and the City: The Movie
Knocked Up
Death at a Funeral
No Reservations
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man: IMAX
Foreign Correspondent
Before Sunset
Before Sunrise
The Corporation
Luther
Juno
The Darjeeling Limited
Dan in Real Life
To Catch a Thief
Lars and the Real Girl
Get Smart, Again!
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Hairspray
The Joy Luck Club
P.S. I Love You
Mad Hot Ballroom
Northern Exposure: Season 3
Mad Max
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Babel
Facing the Giants
The Business of Being Born
Northern Exposure: Season 2
Amelie
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Manhattan
The Pianist
Air Guitar Nation
Cool Hand Luke
Dreamland
The Bourne Ultimatum
Northern Exposure: Season 1
Broken Flowers
Like Water for Chocolate
Half Nelson
Amazing Grace
Office Space
Frida
Melinda and Melinda
Notes on a Scandal
Stranger than Fiction
The Lives of Others
North by Northwest
49 Up
Spellbound