This one's for you mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! And also a very happy Groundhog Day to you all. I'm not positive anyone here knows what GroundHog Day is, but how cool is that that my mom's birthday is on a holiday?! Well I don't believe they close schools for Groundhog day, but I think they should. I can one-up anyone who mentions it is there mother's birthday... "Oh yeah? My mom's b-day is on Groundhog day...." Let me know the outcome, here I think we're having six more weeks of summer. Tragic.

So happy Birthday mom, I miss you.

I had a pretty lazy weekend. Recovered from the previous weekend's Australia Day activities. So I spent most of the weekend just cleaning up my room, doing laundry, doing my Sunday food shopping.

Today I missed the Superbowl as I mentioned last week. During my breaks and lunch I was able to watch some of it. Nothing special. My last break finished right at the start of the the 4th quarter, so I understand I missed another very exciting finish. Dang. When I arrived at work, for some strange reason, ESPN was on and I had the chance to watch one quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Detroit Pistons. I really appreciated it. Watching A.I. and LeBron was a treat.

Australians find the NFL a bit strange. I always hear "It's so stop and go!" because in their rugby league games, the whistle, basically never blows and the game is just back and forth for an hour. As Carlin said, "None of this standing around the sidelines (blank blank)."

Tomorrow I take my first live call for work. I'm ready although kind of nervous. I know what to do though and there is a lot of help around me. Lets hope I don't get too many complaints. One of my bosses went to McGill University in Montreal and another lived in LA for five years.

My rollerblades and hockey gear showed up today. I believe I will play in my first game next Monday. Will keep you posted on that. The Australian government is known as being pretty ruthless about what they allow into the country, so mom, the box you sent was opened at the airport. But the good thing is, they didn't take anything. Maybe they should have taken my hockey helmet. Something is growing in there. But if any of you do want to send me something (April 11, anyone?) just don't send food or plants. Candy is good, but no nuts. Good thing I am not a plant enthusiast.

Switching subjects now, do any of you know what a meat pie is? Not only is it one of Australia's most eaten snacks/meals, it is also something I eat pretty frequently here. See picture below. There are all different kinds. Everyone puts some sort of sauce on the top. It looked pretty boring when I first saw one, but have really come to enjoy them. I'm not postive what the nutrition value is, but there must be something good in there.

What else? Last night was the Australian Open final between Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal. I was really pulling for Federer but it wasn't meant to be. I wanted to get a good night sleep. Luckily, my roommates have such a technologically advanced remote and TV system, I couldn't figure out how to turn on the match, hence, I got a great night sleep. The match went well past midnight.

Talk soon, Ry