Mood:  a-ok

To start off, we called the McKaskills the night before we were to leave.  I asked the question, “Is it better to take a cab to the airport, or to leave the car in long-term parking?”  I’m thinking cabs can’t be that much, but I also would like the freedom of movement to just drive and not have to worry about cab fares and such.  The answer that I got from Peter was, “Neither.  I’ll drive you.”

I didn’t want to put him out, so naturally I refused.  I just needed to know the best way to go about getting there.  He told me that a cab would cost about $100 each way to get from our house to the airport.  Long-term parking would be about that, as well.  Again, he offered.  Again, I refused.  In the end, I lost.  He drove us to the airport and picked us up when we got home.  God bless him.   We certainly appreciate everything!

So, we got to the airport in plenty of time, and had no issues getting to Melbourne.  Once we got to Melbourne, however, we were notified that our next aircraft was experiencing maintenance difficulties, but it would only be about an hour.  We heard that message three times.  So, three hours late, we finally left Melbourne for our one-hour flight and landed in Hobart without incident.  We got our suitcase (we only checked one), got the rental car, and headed straight for the Motel, where we signed in and got our room.  The plan was to go for a historic walk around Hobart before sunset, but due to the delay, all we had time for was a walk around the wharf and dinner.  

Posted by kisajaja at 11:48 AM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 11:59 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Friday, 18 April 2008

7:00a

53 Degrees...

Okay, so there is a small joke about the temperature.  A while back, Kimberly said something to the effect of, "it would be nice to know the weather outside before getting dressed in the morning."  I've always liked the idea of having one of those indoor/outdoor wireless weather monitor thingies, so I went online and started doing some comparisons.

There are two main brands of household weather monitors.  Oregon Scientific is one.  The other is La Crosse.  I checked them both out for features and price.   The Oregon Scientific one seemed to be better, but the La Crosse one has a little guy on it that dresses appropriately for the current weather conditions outside. 

His name is Oscar.  Anyway... 

Deciding ultimately that the Oregon Scientific one is probably better for Australia (the La Crosse one gets its time from American Radio Waves, and has stateside specific time zones and such), I ordered one to surprise Kimberly.  About a day later, I was still thinking about this.  She won’t care about the time zone, or the moon phases, or the any of that.  She would like Oscar.  So, knowing that I already have one of these things on the way, I decided that I’d order another one, with Oscar, for Kimberly. 

Then the first one got delivered.  Oddly enough, it was the La Crosse, complete with digital-dude Oscar.  Odd, since I ordered him last.  Then I received the other one.  Also the La Crosse, also with Oscar.  So I went back and checked my order history and realized that I must have made the Oscar decision the first time, but didn’t remember it. ..

So now we have two monitors, both with outdoor sensors.  One is in the bedroom, the other is in the Kitchen.  Two Oscars.

But wait, there’s more.

Last weekend, we went to the Woden Trash n Treasures (as usual) and wondered around.  There, in one of the vendor stalls, was an indoor/outdoor weather unit.  It was a REALLY nice one, Oregon Scientific, and had features that neither of the other two has (for example, an outdoor humidity sensor).  – And it was only $30!  Apparently, the lady bought it for her husband who asked for a thermometer.  After she paid about $200 for this thing, he said, “No, a thermometer, so I can stick it on my dashboard.”   She headed to woollies and spend $5 more dollars, and decided to sell the big one for next to nothing.

Mine!  I know what this is, and how much it really costs.  I don’t really need Oscar to “bundle up” to determine if 40 degrees is cold.  I like knowing the outdoor humidity.   The deliberation process was quick!

We now have indoor/outdoor weather monitors in the bedroom, the kitchen, and the office.  No excuse for us being poorly dressed, now. 

By the way, it’s 74% humidity outside right now.

On to other things!  Kimberly and I went to play Housie at the Tradies Club last night.  Think BINGO and you are almost there.  It costs about $40 for the two of us to play for two and half hours, with prizes ranging from $30 to $1000 per evening.   Last night, Kimberly came within one number for the $1000 grand prize.  While staring at that number, they called about six others, when someone else finally got it.  We almost had an influx of spending money for our trip this morning!  We are starting to spend a lot of time at the Tradies Club.  J

Oh, speaking of chocolate!  One of the things that we keep hearing about Tasmania is that we have to visit the Cadbury Factory to watch the chocolate being made.  At the end of the tour, you have the opportunity to buy “seconds” at next-to-nothing prices.  The seconds are usually just mis wrapped, or something.  The chocolate it fine.

Anyway, we set up this tour weeks ago and we are now ready to go.  We found out via a news article that Cadbury no longer offers this tour.  Apparently health and safety standards got in the way.  At first I was crushed.  Then, when I read the whole article, I realized the tour was gone, but the shop is still a go.  Great!  I’ve seem chocolate being made before.  I just want to hit the gift shop!

So now, about 30 minutes before we leave, I don’t know if the factory tour is on or off (the website doesn’t say anything about them being cancelled).  We’ll still go to the shop, either way.

See you when we get back!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 10:52 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Last week was largely a normal week, as we are drawing the Strategic Studies unit to a close.  I got all of my work turned in, and was able to get started on my portion of the group assignment, which is this week’s focus.

Outside of work, though, we had a pretty good week.  Jacoby had off-ice training on Monday night, followed by Power Skating and actual hockey practice on Tuesday night.  Wednesday was Hapkido for both of us. 

Thursday night, Kimberly presented me with the option of joining the Australian National University Movie Group, which is a group of people that get together every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights to watch movies in one of the ANU theatre style class rooms.  It’s a pretty big deal!  They show a mix of older and newer movies, one flick on Thursday and Friday, and a double header on Saturday and Sunday.  They publish an actual schedule, so you can come to the movies you want to see and skip the ones you are not interested in. 

Anyway, we went on Thursday night to check the place out, and it was really well done.  The screen is huge (8.5 meters), and the theatre looks like a large Chemistry classroom, with a seating capacity of a couple hundred.  It’s a great sound system.  They even have a snack bar.  We went ahead and joined the club as annual members, which cost us $50 a piece, with Jacoby being free.  This is great, because movies at an actual theatre are $8-$15 a piece (Jacoby NOT free), and after looking at the schedule, there are several movies we want to see.  We spent money to save money…

So, Thursday night we saw a movie called I Wasn’t There, or something close.  Some artsy Bob Dylan-like flick.  It was awful but had a good sound track.  We only stayed to make sure the theatre was a good one for future movies.  We went back on Friday night for Fool’s Gold, and on Saturday, we saw Jumper.  Both were great! 

Also on Saturday, the school (mine) had its International Day.  It was a great day!  We started setting up our booth in the school’s courtyard around 10:00a, for the event which actually went from 12:30p-4:30p.  Each of the International students had a booth for their country.  There was food, music, dance, and more food!  What a great time.  For the American booth, Kimberly decorated the tables and filled them with “free-bees” to give away.  She also made rice crispy treats, I made root beer, Jim made buffalo wings and Lynchburg Lemonade (made with Jack Daniels instead of water), Brian made chilli, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and more rice crispy treats, and Todd brought seven apple pies.  The idea was to bring “traditional” or normal foods from your country.  I think we met that intend. 

Of course we all got the chance to visit all of the other tables, as well.

On Sunday, We went to the Traddies Club for lunch.  Afterwards, Kimberly signed us up for a Lake Burley Griffin cruise through her “welcome to Canberra” group.  It was a low key event, but it ended up being a lot of fun!  We didn’t see anything new, but we did see it all from the water vantage point, which was neat.  We also happened upon Brian and Heidy, and Todd and his wife.  We didn’t know they were coming…

 The Southern Cross - the tour boat that took us on the lake.

 Telstra Tower and the weekly Sailboat race

 Captian Cook Memorial Fountain

 Parliament buildings.  New Parliament in the back, Old Parliament in the front.

The Carillion - a bell tower given to Australia by the British.

And now, today, we are back to work for the last week before the Fall Break.  Jacoby is already off from school, and I will be on Friday, which is when we leave for Hobart, Tasmania.  Until then, we have to perform our last requirement for the Strategic Studies unit, and I have to do my PT test, this unit is as good as done!

Enjoy your week!  I’ll be back soon with pictures of “Tazy.”  J

Posted by kisajaja at 6:44 AM MEST

Updated: Monday, 14 April 2008 7:55 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

So we had big plans on Sunday.  We were going to go to Tuggeranong and check out their Annual Indoor Market, taking place from 9:00a to 2:00p.  We would then run over to Queanbeyan and check out their Annual Multicultural Festival, going on from 10:00a to 2:00p.  After that, if we still had time we would come back to Canberra and check out their Annual Italian Car Show.

That was the plan.  Market.  Festival.  Car Show, if time allowed.

We got to the Tuggeranong Indoor Markets just before 9:00a, and were told that it wouldn’t begin until 10:00.  No problem.  We walked a block over to the big mall, knowing everything was closed, but figuring we could walk around in there and it would be warm.  Finally, at 10:00a, we went back to the market and realized they had nothing.  Complete waste of time.  We got through the whole thing in about 15 minutes.

No problem, we’d just head over the Multicultural Festival.  Canberra’s was awesome.  Really.  If Queanbeyan’s is anything close, it’d be great!  We drove to Queanbeyan and found the market sight.  I’m not kidding, nor am I exaggerating when I saw it was two street performers and a lady wrapping hair.  That’s it.  We didn’t even get out of the car.  By now it’s 10:30a, and 2/3 of our daily plan is exhausted.

Not feeling too good about any of this, we headed back to Canberra for the car show.  It was there!  And there were cars!   Actually, it was a neat show, with exotics like Lambos, Ferraris, and Mazeratis, none of which can I spell...We walked around that for a while and then went home.

Kimberly and I finished the day with a quick meal at the Irish Club and listened to some live music.  Jacoby stayed home.

The work week went by pretty well for me.  Almost all of my work is done, so it was just a matter of participating in the class discussions and waiting for the weekend.  We had a social event at the Kingston Pub on Thursday night, which was great (I love that place!), and then a Trivia Night on Friday Night at the school.  It was hosted by the Australian Rules Football Club, and went really well.  Our table came in Second Place.

The big event of this week, though, was the trip to Mount Kosiuszko, Australia’s highest point.  Jo and Peter McKaskill set the whole thing up.  We drove out yesterday (Saturday), grabbed a quick lunch, then rode the chair lifts to the trail head.  Once on the trail, it was a 7km hike to the summit (Altitude of 2,280 meters), all of which was on a prepared walkway, which was really nice.  It was 58 degrees at the base of the Chair Lift.  It was 40 degrees at the top, with a below-freezing wind chill factor.  Honestly, we didn’t even notice.  Most of our cold-weather gear stayed in my backpack the whole time.  It was a fantastic walk!  Beautiful.

Afterwards, we headed to Lake Jinderbine which is where our cabin was.  We showered up, grabbed a bite to eat at the local pub, then played board games until it was time to crash.  I’m embarrassed, though not at all surprised to say that Kimberly, Jo, and Jacoby destroyed Peter and me at Cranium.  Kimberly won both games of Apples to Apples.  Damn!

This morning we drove back, stopping for pancakes and some outlet shopping along the way.  Once back, we went to the Hall Markets and wandered around for little while.  Then we came home.  I suspect that Kimberly and I will end up at the Irish Club again tonight, but I’m not sure, yet.

Next weekend is the International Day at the school.  It should be a good event!  As for work, we are doing our Group Project this week.  Strategic Studies is winding down.   Our electives will start soon (two weeks, I think), so I’ve begun reading the US Counter-Insurgency manual.  The Aussies don’t have any doctrine, yet, so we are expected to write some.  No kidding, their Chief of the Defence Force (SECDEF, for us) heard we were doing this and told the school that he wanted us to write the Aussie doctrine for CoIN.  We will present him with our work following the third term.

Anyway, enjoy your week!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 7:56 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 6 April 2008 8:15 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Anoher week, come and gone.  I was remided this morning how little time we get to spend here.  The Army Signal Majors' Assignments Officer wrote to me (as part of a group) to remind us that we will all be moving in the next rotation (Winter 08).  However, he couldn't yet provide us with a list of available jobs to fight over, so we still have no idea.

Last weekend, after going to the beach on Friday, we went to the Traddies Club in Woden for lunch.  They have a fairly cheap Chinese buffet that is pretty good, and actually have some (not much) healthy food, as well.  We've been there a few times...Anyway, we went on Sunday and after the meal, a nice lady asked us if we were stayng for the meat raffle.  Now, we've heard of this from a couple of the clubs in the area, but we hadn't yet participated in one.  The lady assured us that Easter Weekend was a great time to buy tickets because the crowd was small and the odds for victory were much much higher than usuall.  So, after lunch, we "hung out" for an hour, playing exactly one game of pool (yes, it took the hour.  Note to self: get better at pool), then bought $5 worth of tickets.  We ended up winning a tray of meat, worth about $30 on the market, and a $10 gift certificate to the club for future use.  Not bad.  A guy sitting near us bought a few tickets and won 7 times!  Amazing.  We've been eatting free meat all week. 

School was fine last week.  The big focus is on assignmnet preperation, since everything is due on Monday.  Several course members are "locked in" this weekend trying to ge their stuff done.  One of them asked me why I wasn't worried about Monday so I told him my work is done.  I finished early.  I can hand them in any time.  I think there is a lesson in there, somewhere...

A while back, I was asked to participate in the Relay for Life, promoting fund raising for Cancer research.  It wasn't just me, specifically, but the whole class was asked who was interested in supporting the event.  The idea was that your team would meet at the track and keep the baton moving for a 24 hour period to raise money from sponsors and individual donors and such.  I signed up, and the event is going on right now. From 6:00p Friday to 6:00p Saturday, the baton is moving.  My shift was this morning, EARLY.  I had 2:00a to 4:00a. Kimberly and Jacoby bundled up (it's getting cold here) and stayed with me at the track, counting laps while I ran.  In the 2hr period, I completed 52 laps on the metric track, which equated to just over 13 miles (by GPS).  Not a bad way to raise some money.  We all slept in this morning...

Next week is more Strategic Studies at work, but over the weekend we are going to the highest point in Australia, Mount Kosiosco.  I have been told that it is great!  I have also been told it is thoroughly underwhelming.  The problem is that all of the surroundkng area is high, as well, so you don't really have a "peak" that is all that impressive.  I don't know, I've never been.  We'll see which is right when we get there, but whatever it looks like, next weekend we will stand on the top of Australia.  Pretty fun.  We are going with Peter and Jo McKaskill, and will be staying in a cabin over night at Lake Crackenback.  More pictures will follow!

 Have a good week!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 1:14 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 30 March 2008 6:18 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Happy Easter, everyone!

We have completed another week of America bash- excuse me, I mean Strategic Studies.  It was a vitally important week in that they imparted a great deal of well argued and factually supported academic thought regarding...

Please I can't even type this with a straight face.  It sucked.  I looked back at my notes and realized all I have for all of last week's lectures are the titles, the name of the lecturer, and the date.  At no point during the week did anyone say anything that I thought was important enough to write down.  It was an embarrassment to the Australian Military Education system, and I shared my sentiments with the College Chief of Staff. 

Outside of school, it was a good week!

Kimberly's big event was having coffee (actually hot chocholate) with Alyison Hoebee, our house managers wife, on Tuesday.  They are nice people, and they seem to genuinely want to look after us.

Yesterday we headed out to Bateman's Bay and Pebby Beach.  Pebby Beach is supposed to be a really good day-trippy sort of place.  They often have dolphines in the water and kangaroos on the beach that are friendly enough.  It was cold yesterday (down in the 60's!), so it wasn't about getting wet or going boogie-boarding.

We went, and we had a good time.  No dolphines, but we saw some Roos. 

Afterwards, we drove into Bateman's Bay which is a lot like the marina side of Ocean City.  It's a Bay town, with all of the bay town amenities.  I had a Fish-n-Chips lunch, Jacoby had a Subways sub, and Kimberly had a sort of gourmet chicken sandwich.  Then we drove home.

All in all, it was a lot of driving (it's about 3 hours to Pebbly Beach), but it was a great deal of fun and it got us out of the house, which is the important thing.

We are "wingin' it" for the rest of the week-end.  No real plans, yet.

Next week is more Strategic Studies for me, and more essays to write.  We all have Monday off, so it'll be a short week.  Jacoby has Hockey practice on Tuesday, and we both have Hapkido on Wednesday. 

Again, happy Easter to everyone!  Enjoy your weekend!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 12:57 AM MEST

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Mood:  cheeky

This week was all about Jacoby...

On Tuesday, he went to his first Hockey practice, and very quickly learned that these guys can skate.  He definately has some catching up to do, but hey, he's only played one season and most of these guys have been playing for years! 

He will have three practices per week.  Monday night is off-ice practice, mostly for endurance and strength building.  Tuesday night he has two practices.  From 5:00p to 6:00p he has Power Skating, and from 6:00p-7:00p is his actual on-ice hockey practice.  He will be busy in the months to come.

-And he still has games on weekends and Hapkido on Wednesday nights.

On Wednesday morning, very early (for him), he left for a three day outdoor adventure with his school.  It is called Outdoor Education and it is a curriculum event.  While at the camp, he went orienteering, canoeing, mountain biking, repelling, slept in tents, and made his own food.  He had a good time!  He came home yesterday and was pleased that he got to sleep in an actual bed...

Today, actually in a couple of hours, Rob and Gail Sanders and their son Matthew will be coming to lunch.  We are having Tex-Mex.  Ordinarily I would say "Tacos," or "Burritos."  However, when I asked Kimberly what she was making, the answer sounded a whole lot like EVERY Tex-Mex dish I could name in ten-seconds or less.  So, we are having Tex-Mex.  All of it...

Afterwards we are going to the Canberra Day Fireworks display.  It's supposed to be the largest fireworks display of the year, for Canberra.  -Even bigger than New Years.  The funny thing is that Canberra Day was last week-end.  It was supposed to be this week-end, but for whatever reason, they changed it.  Not everything can change as easily as a calendar, so the fireworks are tonight instead of last week.  Anyway, it's supposed to be a big event, and we're going.

Work was just work last week.  It was a short week, because of Canberra Day (celebrated on Monday, as per the change).  We are currently studying Strategy, and will for the next several weeks.  I have three assignments due by the end of next week.  One is a 3,500 word essay on the Leadership and Command Analysis of Attila the Hun, a 2,000 word essay on the Strategic Environment in Afghanistan, and another 1,500 word summary of a discussion I have to lead on the topic of Counter Insurgency.  Looks like a lot of time on Word for Windows....

Kimberly continues to do well.  She is keeping herself busy with International Day coming up.  She finished her Uncle Sam pinata, which is fantastic.  She also came to lunch at the school on Friday to meet with the other Americans and spouses to make sure we had International Day locked down.  Outside of that it's been maintaining the household while Jacoby and I are off to school.

I got a ton of pictures from the Joint Capability Tour, but I haven't selected or converted the ones I am going to post here, yet.  Check back in the future and there should be some there.

 Enjoy your week!   I'm sure we will...  :)

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 2:11 AM MEST

Updated: Saturday, 15 March 2008 2:32 AM MEST

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Mood:  a-ok

I haven't written much on this blog outside of Saturday mornings.  Time is a little short with school and activities, so about once a week is all I've got to hammer some of this out.

 That being said, we had a really good day today, and this week is going to be full enough, so I thought I'd throw this week-end into the blog.

It all started on Friday afternoon with Jacoby's hockey team having a BBQ.  We met the rest of the team and several of the parents and jusst generally had a good time.

Saturday was a quiet day, but we did go to the Tradies Club for a buffet lunch that was fantastic.

Today, we drove out to Corin Forest Park.  It's supposed to be a really nice area for both summer and winter fun.  Today, we went up to see the area and ride their Alpine Slide, made by the same people that made the ones we rode in Germany.  All things told, the slide was great!  We each did it twice.

After the slides, we went out to the Gibralter Falls and had a picnic lunch under one of the best views I've seen in quite some time.   After the lunch, we headed out to Tidbinbilla and walked a few trails and then came home.

Tonight ended with dinner in the Greek Club and a few episodes of West Wing.

Tomorrow we are going to a Rugby game between my school team and the Parliamentarians.  It'll be played out in Duntroon, which is their West Point.  About 22 members of Parliament will be at the game, as well as the Chief of the Defence Force (think Secretary of Defense), who will be playing for our team...It'll be fun to watch.

This coming week will see the start of Jacoby's hockey season with the first practice and the first game.  In addition, Jacoby goes to "outdoor education camp" with the school house from Wednesday to Friday.  I think it sounds like a LOT of fun.  He isn't so sure.

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 9:36 AM CET

Updated: Sunday, 9 March 2008 9:54 AM CET

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Mood:  a-ok

Unbelievably, we have already finished the end of the first term of ACSC '08.  We have four terms throughout the year, so, obviously, three more to go, but it's strange to think that we are already a quarter of the way through this tour...

Last week we completed Management of the Australian Defense Organisation (not a spelling mistake in Australia), and the Command, Leadership, and Ethics models.  In completing them, we also wrapped up the overall unit, "Foundation Studies."

CLE was actually pretty interesting.  Some of it was the same ol', same ol' we have been getting through military training since the beginning of time, but some of it was pretty cool.  We have Commander Lippon, who was the Commander of the USS Cole when it was attacked, and the new U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff come to speak to us.  We also had some Aussie big-timers come speak, but I doubt that you would have heard of them...

Technically, the Foundation Studies unit (and thus, Term 1) doesn't end until we are back from our Joint Capabilities tour.  We leave tomorrow (Sunday) very early in the morning on a ten day trip around Australia to see thier warfighting equipment and talk to their soldiers.  We will see tanks, aircraft, ships, submarines, just a ton of stuff, broken out over three military bases that very literally circumnavigate the whole of Australia.  It should be an interesting trip.  I just wish Kimberly could come.  She can't, but then, neither could Jacoby so it's sort of a mute point.

Once we return, we will begin Term 2 - Strategic Studies.

Last night (Friday), we had the McKaskills over for "Pizza and a Movie Night."  I went to Pizza hut, the McKaskills, and Bobby (friend of Jacoby's from school, also an American) came over, and we all ate and watched 300, which the McKaskills hadn't seen.  All in all it was a good night, which ended around 11p, which was fine, because....

Today was my first Adventure Race.  Think Eco-Challenge.  All in all, the course was about 24km on mountain bikes, 9km on foot, 3.4km in a kayak, and another 300m or so swimming.  It was a tough race!  We were in the slow group, since two of the three of us had never done it before, so we started early in the morning.  The guys truly competing started an hour later.  Anyway, we started at around 10a and finished around 2p.  Roughly four hours and change!  We actually led (the slow group) for about 2-3 hours of the race.  Then we couldn’t find one of our checkpoints and fell back pretty far.  Because of all the cross country bush-breaking we had to do to finally find the point, one of the guys (Brett Chandler, the one with experience) had a blow out on his bike.  By the time we got that fixed and made our was through the rest of the course to the finish line, we were still right up close to the front.  Kimberly and Jacoby were there and said we finished around 10th for the day, but the novice course(much shorter distances) was also finishing, so we don't know what that means for us.  Also, the fast people hadn't got there, yet.  Officially, we'll find out how we did via e-mail, once it's all compiled.  I'm extremely happy with our team's performance.  By the way, it was me, Brett (an Aussie), and Phillip (a Brit).  I'm not sure of Phil's last name.

That's about it for this week.  Sorry, no pictures.  I'll write more after the Capabilities Tour.

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 5:47 AM CET

Updated: Sunday, 9 March 2008 9:33 AM CET

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