Saturday, 28 February 2009

Two Small Cards



You can't get one without the other, as they say ;)

(The rather grim face on my EAD is because you're not allowed to smile in such pictures - it's a USCIS rule - and not because I was actually FEELING glum; rather the opposite, in fact).

And now: onwards and upwards!

Monday, 16 February 2009

Young and Free


We celebrated our first US Australia Day a couple of weeks ago... even though the real day was the Monday, we had our celebrations on the Sunday afternoon - which WAS Monday, Australia time!

I dug out my Aussie flag - bought on Stoke Newington High Street one snowy January evening, four years and a lifetime ago - and found a prominent place for it, and we managed to track down an online purveyor of Aussie delicacies...


Anzac biscuits (no one was allowed to call them 'cookies', and most remembered) and lamingtons were prepared,




- my first time with the latter, but they were surprisingly easy, and authentic, even with a circular sponge cake bought from a French-Vietnamese bakery!

We rounded up the usual suspects (from left to right: Rebecca - displaying what was left of the lamingtons by that point - Corey, Matt and Dave),


...all of whom later gamely tried vegemite in the kitchen (no photographic evidence of this; unfortunately, as the facial expressions were pretty excellent)...

and even lit a fire, as it was too cold outside for a barbie.


Not QUITE the same as being at home, but a great evening just the same!


(NB We're still having some trouble with the photo gallery, hence the small size of these photos... my apologies. Should be sorted in time for the next post! In the meantime, you can click on any of the images here to see a slightly larger version.)

Friday, 30 January 2009

A Bracing 32 Degrees


It's been cold the last few days... Houston weather seems to come in waves: we have a cold front, and the temperatures drop down overnight (sometimes to freezing or a bit below), and we have some cold days, but gradually the warmth creeps back until we're in short sleeves and sandals again. And then we hear about the approach of the next cold front...

Yesterday morning was particularly beautiful. I don't know how much you'll be able to see in the pictures, but every roof was white, the sunrise was rose-coloured and golden, and every leaf and blade of grass was transformed by frost.




(By the way, if you're wondering about the photos here, all is well - Dave's in the middle of moving his site to a new hosting service, so some things are in limbo right now, but all will return to normal soon!)