Clark.
Jay’s station wagon arrived this week. He calls it a sport wagon, I think it is only missing wood grain paneling and a rear facing back seat… He has chosen to name it Clark. I preferred Shaggy, but got overruled. You may notice the giant tow hitch on the back end. I think Jay has big plans for that. We will see if it ever gets used. Here’s a picture of the wagon…beautiful Clark…

License.
Jay and I are both officially licensed drivers in Australia! The DMV is surprisingly similar to the US. Grab a ticket with a number (from the 65 year old lady with pink hair), sit in the chair in the middle of the room with dozens of dirties, wait for your number to appear on the screen, go to the appropriate window. That is about where the similarities end. In the US, the government employee is an underpaid, crabby, life hating person. Not the Aussie version. Had a wonderful little chat with the guy that helped me. After reasonably quickly checking about a dozen forms of identification, my new Aussie drivers license will arrive in the mail in about 10 days. Woohoo!

Tea Party.
I have mentioned previously that the Aussies love their tea. Not the beverage itself, but the time. What I have come to realize is that if you have a special occasion (birthday, baby announcement, etc), you are unofficially expected to bring in morning tea. Ok, this is not just the typical bagels or cookies. This is an entire smorgasbord of yummy treats. Cookies, cakes, chips, fruits, bread bowl dips. Enough to feed the entire office… Given the fact that food is at least double the cost, these people are spending a fortune to throw a tea party at work. I think that we will not let anyone know when our birthdays are…

Year End Party.
Any excuse to party is a good one. There is an office fiscal year end party this weekend. Jay and I aren’t going because we didn’t think we would have had time to find a babysitter this quick. The party is down on the Gold Coast near Surfers Paradise. We have heard rumblings of complaints from people around the office because they don’t want to have to go all the way to Surfers (probably 30-45 minute drive). Ok, I get that they may not want to drive. But seriously? This afternoon after hearing someone say they were boycotting the party because it is on the Gold Coast, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. To summarize: Seriously? Listen to yourself. You are UPSET that you HAVE to go to the Gold Coast for a party? Um, most Deere employees would LOVE to drive an hour to paradise, but most of us live in Moline, Illinois. So let’s not take this for granted.

If I ever complain about how long it takes us to drive to the beach during the next two years, please remind me of this post… In case you think my reaction was unwarranted, let me remind you about what this area looks like.

Pizza Party.
We thought that since it was the end of the week, we would celebrate with a little pizza party at home. We made pizzas from “scratch”, which means we bought crusts at the store and put toppings on them. Since they don’t sell packages of ground sausage, I had to squeeze the sausage out of the casing (enter gagging noises) and cook it using my Pampered Chef hamburger masher (thank god for this invention). Jay and Lily supervised. Ty spread the sauce, put the mushrooms and onions on mine, and put the sausage on the boys’ pizza, then topped them both with cheese. They were quite delicious!