Fun Pictures

I was just going through my picture library for some 'Gator pics for our new work website and I came across some funny pics of Jenee and I. Thought I would share them.

I don't remember why the silly glasses, I think we got them from the movies but as you can see, we were hamming it up.

Neverending Plane Flights

I have learn't another valuable lesson. Flying out on your birthday is not a great idea and neither is driving home at 1:30 am after flying home, sleeping for a few hours and then working a full day only to catch another plane.

Well, I am in Texas with my wife and Brandon and Krista. I think we have all enjoyed relaxing a little. The Wilson's are here because they are seriously contemplating moving here for some Post-Doctoral research. I have been chauffeuring them around the place and God has been great giving them some positive answers to some of their questions.

I haven't taken any photo's as yet because I haven't had time but I will try. Hope you are all doing really well. Send me an email!

Nate

I'm The Birthday Boy!

Yep, I am the Birtday Boy and I am not of the right ol' age of 28! Oh my goodness, I am nearly 30, I don't have a house, 2 cars, a holiday home in the mountains, 2.4 kids and a dog. Ahhhhhh! Panic attack!

Actually I am quite ok and I am so blessed to be working towards those kind of things with a wife who shares the common goals. A part of my birthday celebration was to go to NASA. We got up early after the beach trip and drove down to Cape Canaveral. The weather was forecast for thunderstorms and as we were approaching Orlando the clouds rolled in and after we had passed the Orlando Internaitonal Airport the rain came down. I think I may have seen rain this heavy once before in my life when I was driving in the Adelaide Hills and it was so heavy that the convoy of three or four cars I was in slowed down to a crawling pace. This rain was probably equally as heavy and I felt that it was severe enough to pull off the road. After a few minutes the rain lifted and we continued in hope that the weather may fine up. By the time we got to NASA headquarters, the clouds were gone, the sun was shining and we had some of the nicest weather anyone could wish for.

Jenee had bought tickets for us to go on the NASA up close tour. This was a guide tour on a coach that took us around the NASA site. We got to see the launch pads for the shuttles from fairly close up, the crawlers for the shuttle, the Vehicle Assembly Building that has the same internal volume as 2.5 Empire State Buildings as well as what was a real highlight for me, a walk through simulator inside the room where they launched the Apollo series rockets to the moon where you could see all the original instrument panels that were useds in their original locations and after that you walked through to the hanger for one of the Apollo Rockets laying down on its side. I have to tell you, I had no perception as to how big the rockets were until I got to see this one. As you will see from my pictures, each of the four main engines were more than twice my height. Its just awe-inspiring to see.



Anyone for NASA?

Visit from Zeina

Last week Jenee and I had a visitor in our home from Texas. Zeina, Jenee's cousin, came and stayed with us for a whole week. It was fun to have her and I know we enjoyed her company. While she was here we took her around Gainesville, to St. Augustine Beach and we even went to NASA! I will post about the fun at NASA separately.

While Zeina was here, I learn't first hand about her special gift of making, how shall i put it diplomatically, "special comments". When being shown around a Gainesville friends home (who have finches in a large cage in their home) the owners were questioned as to whether they thought it was cruel to keep birds in a cage... But my favorite 'Zeina comment' happened at Jacksonville Zoo while looking at (along with a group of mom's with strollers) a very pretty but endangered jaguar, I hear over my left shoulder, "Wow isn't it beautiful! That would make a beautiful coat". Yup, a beautiful coat. LOL, I was so embarrassed that I had to walk away.

We did have fun with Zeina though and it was fun for Jenee to have her around.

So I lied...

I actually did the last post a day later than it actually says. The reason? Well being my birthday all you wonderful people were calling me and I want to say thank you, your calls made my day and I am truly blessed by God to have such a wonderful family and friends. So again, thanks for calling.

I am now going to work on the next post... I promise, and if you are really lucky you might get a couple of posts if I have the energy to work on the plane on the way home tomorrow. We just worked a 13 hour day at this workshop and I have to admit, it's not as bad as you might be thinking, there are only 14 people taking the course so the atmosphere is quite intimate and the course lecturer knows his stuff and is very approachable and really eager to teach you what he knows which has made this whole thing worthwhile.

I have learned one lesson though. I am never, EVER going somewhere without my camera again. I am so ticked at myself, the location for this workshop is on an old 1900's mill that uses a waterwheel to power grinders and crushers and so on and the scenery is nothing short of breathtaking. Today we walked down to a large waterfall and I was very disappointed not to have my camera on hand. So I apologize, I will carry my camera so that I can share photo greatness with you at every opportunity.

An Update on Immigration Proceedings

Well, I am sitting in my room in Tennessee and I am 1000 km away from my wife on my birthday. Not overly happy about the whole situation. Oh well, I am in Tennessee to take part in a 2 day workshop for "Powder Flow", a topic that I am constantly gaining knowledge in.

I have noticed that I have about 3 drafts for Blog posts that I haven't even touched in the last couple of weeks so I need to sit down and do some writing. I will start with an update on the fun with the immigration proceedings and then later tonight after dinner I will try and fill youse all in on some other things that have been happening like our visit to NASA, a visit from Jenee's cousin to Gainesville and some of the fun for my birthday.

Enough of the fluffing around, here is whats happening with my immigration; as of the Thursday prior to the date of this post, I have done all that is required of me for my immigration papers. This includes submitting large amounts of paperwork and going to a Certified Doctor to have a medical. Now I have to elaborate on the 'medical'. I was expecting to have lots of poking, prodding, blood tests, psychological evaluations, MRI and possibly a rubber glove inspection, mostly because I was expecting the worst case scenario.

So what was the real experience like? Well, I went to my local GP/Family Practitioner to have my immunization updated and she told me that I should have a blood test to prove my immunization to MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) which most children are immunized against from birth. I also got a painful Tetanus booster for my trouble. A week later the blood tests showed that I had no immunity to the strains of MMR common to North America so lucky me got to have those shots too.

The actual immigration medical was performed by a certified physician in Jacksonville, 2 hours away. We got there early and I was ready to be violated in every way imaginable but when it was my turn a nurse took by statistics (height, weight, blood pressure and blood sample) and then after a small wait the Dr. came to see me. With me clenching tight, he pulled his stethoscope out and listened to my heart and breathing and poked my stomach twice with his thumb and forefinger, finishing with, " Go have your x-ray and then your done". LOL. I was almost breathless from the shock. That was it?

All the tests came back negative so I can confidently say that I don't have HIV/AIDS, syphilis, tuberculosis, rabies, diarrhea, MMR, tetanus, hepatitis, influenza or even a rash, I all clear! Now all we have to do is mail the results off to the Department of Immigration and wait for our final interview.

Its a huge relief to have all of this done and I have to thank Jenee for motivating/encouraging/harassing me to get everything done. With out her I would proably be still procrastinating filling out the documents.

Update Coming Tomorrow

I am working on an update for tomorrow. We have had a week long visit from Jenee's cousin and I feel like I have been burning the candles at both ends a little bit. It's been fun though, we have been to NASA, Jacksonville Zoo, St. Augustine, Down Town Disney and probably more that I cant remember right now.

Stay tuned!

A Long Overdue Update...at 3 AM

Well it is 3am where I am, I can't sleep. I have been laying down for a while now and I just cant pass into the land of dreams so I got fed up with trying and decided that I would get up and post here. I think this is what I get for taking a nap this afternoon.

Why would I take a nap, I never take naps? Well, I guess the story starts a few weeks back when the pre-IAB rush started. It came to a point where I realized how quickly the Meeting was coming and how I had plenty of work to present, but this work was for one of the PhD students that I am working with to present at IAB. So, I made a plan, drafted some help and since then have been working even harder to get some extra experiments done. Last week I was working hard finishing off all my experimental loose ends and trying to work on my presentation which was due on Friday so that CD's could be made. Well, some how every time I had literally 5 minutes to myself, with out fail, someone would come around the corner, poke their head in my cubicle and ask me to do something for them. Now I don't have a problem helping, in fact I get paid to help people, but when its all day, all week and I can't do my work it eventually gets disheartening.

I worked all Saturday, Monday and Tuesday finishing off the presentation for IAB. I got it done, and I got all my other duties done, but by Tuesday night I was feeling way overspent. IAB was actually a very good and productive two days. Many conferences last more than a day and this one is no exception, it lasts 2. Two days that start at 7:30 and finish at 9pm on the first day and 6 on the second. Thats a lot of conference for anyone and I really didn't get much rest Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights.

Jenee's cousin Zeina arrived on Thursday to visit for a week and because I am leaving for Tennessee on my Birthday, Jenee wanted to use this weekend as a Birthday weekend which meant that I got my Birthday present early! I love birthday presents, I cant lie, what I love even more is when I am supprised and get something that I really would like but in no way would I spend the money on my self. And thats exactly what I got, Jenee had been scheming and collaborating with Brandon and Krista, her brother Cory and probably some other people to try and get me a Nintendo Wii. If you don't know what it is, its game machine, like a PlayStation, only instead of tapping buttons on a controller, you have to swing the motion sensitive remote to play the games. It's a lot of fun and I was totally surprised when I opened the present! The Wii is really more fun when you play with someone else and the girls entertained me for an hour but weren't really interested in playing with me after that - meh...

Friday was a crazy day for me, I got to work at 7am and it didn't stop until I forced myself to leave early at 4. Not only was the day crazy but it prety much rained all day after lunch time, and not just a gentle rain, but pouring down so that the carparks were under water, lawns looked like pools and the stream through campus was more like a river, I think it finally stopped raining about an hour ago. Which brings me to now, sitting on the floor in our bathroom with the doors shut so as to not wake up either of the girls as they slumber on. I was smart/stupid enough to take a two hour power nap when we came home and I think I am paying the consequences.


Well it's nearing 3:30 am and my I feel disgusting. I want to sleep, I thing I may go try again, I guess if I don't I'll be back to write more?

Woo Hoo!

Well, it's Thursday evening and IAB is over. It has been a long week and I am very tired. But who cares?

The exciting thing is we have had 2000+ visitors to our blog since it started and it's all thanks to you guys and gals! (I was #2003)

I promise to write a long post to fill youse all in with whats been going on and stuff.

Roach's, Apples and NASA (Jenee's First Post!)

Nate and I had an adventure last night. Right before bed I had to take a tablet, and it typically upsets my stomach, that is why I take it in the evening. So I had a midnight snack of watermelon when I took it. I set my plate down by my bed (because I was very bad and was eating it in bed) and not a minute later I looked over and there was a huge ROACH! (Nate - at was at least 3 inches). They are doing construction down stairs and the weather is changing so I think it is the season for them. Well of course I yelled and Nate, the hero on a white horse he is, came running in to my rescue and tried to kill it. Well the cunning roach got away. We tore the bedroom apart trying to figure out where he went, so I immediately went into the kitchen, cleaned all of the dishes and Clorox'd all of the counters. After about 20 min. of looking (Nate is such a good man) we decided he was gone. So I proceeded to strip the bed of all of the blankets and make sure he wasn’t hiding in there. When my fear was satisfied I covered my mouth and ears (I watch entirely to many gross movies) and tried to sleep. I woke up this morning with a queasy stomach and then I saw the roach dead on the carpet. Nate swooped in and cleaned it up and now my only BIG task is to call the apartment and have them spray again! Oh it was horrible yet so funny to see us both.

Helen has sent us a DVD of pictures and a great letter telling us all about what they have been up to. I look forward to getting home tonight and looking at them. Nate has gotten a computer from my Aunt Paula and Uncle Craig that has a simple scrap booking program so I will scrapbook them while Nate is working like crazy this week. Zeina my cousin is also coming on Thursday for a whole week! We are taking Nate to NASA for his birthday and spending a day at the beach as well. I have gotten him a birthday present that is very exciting. He is sitting here with me right now making a doctor’s appoint for his immigration so I will have to let you know what it is later. I think I am more excited than he is.