love the car, love the house...

oh wow, what a great weekend.

saturday was my 31st birthday, so to celebrate, we went car shopping. after much cruising of the main car lot drag, protesting from nova, fending off drooling and bloody-toothed used car salesmen, we found our new ride. we had looked at the toyota hilux (think four-door tacoma with a little bed), the nissan navaro, the holden rodeo, the jeep cherokee (liberty), the toyota land crusier (they love their cruisers here, and the price tag shows it)... but all a no go, for one reason or another. and then, the last dealer at the end of the day.... we found her! and you can't get one of these in the states.... a turbo diesel nissan patrol (nissan's version of the cruiser). she's a tank. she's gold, so we named her gloria gardner, but call her gg for short. we are so proud and can't wait to get in to the outback - apparently a common past-time for aussie's in the winter (a good time to go interior, as it's just WAY too hot in the summer) and with their families. payton and i figured that camping and being feral are a couple things we know how to do.

but the adventure continues... all along, with all the recent craziness in our lives and lack of exercise, i've been telling payton, "we need to get on some sort of sports teams when we get there" - you know, a great way to meet folks, play, get some exercise... astound with our athletic prowess.... and what do you know, but we're sitting down to sign the papers on gg and the gal looks me up and down and asks if i've ever played basketball. sure (in middle school, mind you. marie - i hope you're reading this). well, she says, i'm eight months pregnant and need someone to take my place on the team, you want to do it? (aussies may be a bit too trusting, or optimistic, or mistaken that a "tall enough" american probably knows how to play basketball). so i say, uh...sure. i see payton's head crank around to look at me in shock (i prefer to think of it as awe, however), and then she invited payton to be the coach!! now it's my turn to stare at him as he says sure (i, of course, being a homemaker, am thinking "who's going to watch nova?").

now, let me tell you, payton and i are athletic enough to try anything (i ain't saying it's going to be pretty, or fast, or successful, but we'll try) and there are many sports that either one of us might be alright at due to past experience.... but basketball is NOT one of them. footy, rugby, soccer,... even cricket, since we could claim total ignorance, would have been a better choice. but no. i can't shoot a basket to save my life and payton just keeps repeating, "pick and roll, pick and roll", whatever that means! first game is tonight... oh boy.

well, the rest of the weekend was uneventful (which is fine, because it was eventful enough as it was). we had our potential rentals down to two: one more inland, closer to payton's work, closer to the city and in a cool, funky part of town; the other was very near the beach, but teensy tiny with no patio/grilling/sit-outside-and-drink-a-beer space. we chose the one inland, knowing gg would be happy to take a few trips to the beach every week and knowing we'd enjoy the space more day to day. i'm considering not posting pictures, so you have to come visit if you want to see it.... but probably i'll post pictures. mind you, there are three bedrooms, so we're planning on company....

hope all's well in everyone's time zone.

cheers,
lindsey