Catching Up

Hi All!

We unintentionally missed a week of posting - and promise long novels to make up for it. A lot has happened to Bill and I in the past few weeks, so grab your favorite drink and get cozy.

Easter weekend was a long one in Australia - we managed to arrive

in time for the first 5 day Easter/Anzac weekend in 60 years. It was hard not to fe

el lucky to have 3 paid days off in the middle of fall/spring. Bill and I spent it in a way that won't shock many of you - we went wine tasting and hung out with family.

Our big plan was to go down for a few days with my boss and his wife - fellow wine lovers, especially reds. They had to cancel at the last minute - but Bill and I decided to forge ahead. We flew into Melbourne on Thursday night and took off to an easy, 2 winery day on Friday. We were aiming to hit some places in a town called Heathcote - well known for shiraz. We discovered a few good bottles before heading to our hotel in Bendigo - about 40 km away.

Saturday morning we had only 1 definitive plan - find Wild Duck Creek Estate. My initial thou

ght was to head there first, but after driving around about 25 minutes, we gave up and headed to 2 other wineries we had been pointed too. After finding a nice pinot we discovered a map that showed us where to find the elusive Wild Duck Creek.

Ultimately we discovered 2 things after arriving - 1: they don't have a "cellar door" (aka tasting room) and 2: the Winery

Owner and wine maker is a lovely man nicknamed "Duck" who loves to share his passion. Bil

l and I were quickly poured a glass of very, very nice red and toured around the crush process (that was actively happening upon our arrival). It turns out this pretty well know winery is still very much family owned and operated. Duck is the "guy in charge" but seems to be more the operations guide and expert, while his son William (Liam) has taken over the wine making role. We did

everything from helping wash

out the bins that the grapes are loaded into and transported from the field to the winery (mostly Bill) to riding along on the grape picking machine. Along the way we got to taste some of the best wine I have ever had. If a

nyone ever needs a recommendation and can find Australian wine, I highly, highly recomm

end anything from Wild Duck Creek Estate. We ended up staying through dinner (Duck made steak sandwiches) and left with the

promise to return and the offer of a place to stay when we did. It was an unbelievable day, one I know Bill and I won't ever forget (and we definitely will be going back to visit our new friends).

Here is our new friend Duck, aka David

His picking machine can clear dozens of rows a day - this is a view from the top

I will let Bill tell about our adventure in Bendigo/Castlemaine on Sunday and Easter with the f

amily (we decided to split the stories).

Meanwhile - we have been productive towards our search for a new home. Yesterday we went to about 6 open houses for different apartments and town homes, hoping to find one that fit what we were looking for. The first town home we saw was nice, but a bit smaller in terms of living space. The rooms weren't bad - but the dining and living room are combined and at the end of our time in Carp, that started to feel really small. The next few places were very

uninteresting - with the last 2 places we went being the best (in my opinion). There was a nice, smallish town home that had great cathedral ceilings and nice new tile and carpet throughout. Bill wasn't a huge fan, but didn't mind it. The last place we went to seemed to fit everything we wanted though. It is a end unit town home with a huge garage (huge, 3 cars could easily fit in it) as well as 2 different spaces for dinning and living room and a kitchen big enough to eat in. It is a bit older, and needs some new paint as well as updated fixtures, but nothing we can't handle. With a competitive rental market, who don't know if this one will work out (though we would like it too) but we endured the laborious application process and have crossed our fingers. Because we don't know what is going to happen (though we should find out some time this week), the search continues next weekend :-p

The one thing we did learn at all of the places we saw (and weren't expecting) is that most of the major appliances have to be supplied by us (:-0) not exactly what we had expected, but

manageable though it means we will be buying a fridge and washer/dryer in addition to the TV, etc. I started doing some online searching and, unlike buying a car, didn't see too many super high priced options, so that made me feel better. One step at a time though - we need the place to put all those purchases.

I think I have rambled enough for now - stay tuned for Bill's post!

Taxes & sodomy a tale from downunder.. Uncle Sam's waist.

Let me start by say in I that I love being married. everyone should be so lucky as me. I genuinely enjoy contemplating the rest of my life with the person I love most on this planet. What I want to know is why good old uncle Sam seems to be so dammed jealous of our happiness. Stephanie and I just got done paying a shit load of dough to IRS and Franchise tax board of California. I am OK with taxes in general, and will pay my fair share. But the way they make you go about paying your taxes is just painful. We are still skirting under the evil AMT thank God. But after we got hitched they(being the man that is) started screwing with our with holdings. So this weekend instead of just paying a little more (in Stephanie's case) or getting a little back(in my case) we ended up having to pay as much as was already with held from us. That was a really painful check we had to write. To rub salt in the wound California wants to charge us $70.00 because the amount out standing this year was more than 20% greater than what we owed last year on April 15th. Our income didn't change but our marital status which for some reason affects how much money they steal out of our paychecks, by their rules not ours. Somehow this puts us in the wrong and gives them the opportunity to fine us for something other stupid reason. Ughh! well enough about that. I am actually feeling less angry today about it than yesterday when I spent five hours trying to figure out why our tax bill was about 15 times greater this year than last. Nothing like a couple bottles of wine to ease the pain of Uncle Sam's diamond encrusted fist rooting around for all your loose change in your descending colon. The bottles, fortunately had been bought before we knew how much cash we had to pony up. It would otherwise have been tap water and tears. The last thought I had before nodding off from a fuzzy wine buzz was if it is this bad next April 15th then we may decide that Australia really does rock and never go back to the US. OOh OOh I just had another thought. Or we tell everyone we know in the US if they ever want to see Stephanie again (because lets face it, she's the draw, I just carry the luggage) they have to pay Uncles Sam's ransom to let us back into the country. Wish I had thought of that one a couple of days ago. Oh well next year.

International Tax Filing

So Bill and I had the best of intentions to file our taxes early so we weren't worrying about it last minute from Australia. That didn't play out the way we planned...our big adventure this weekend? Filing our taxes before we do anything else - which will be further complicated by the different physical location and time zone we now live in :-p Oops. Thank god for the internet, I just hope we don't hit any snags that require calling for advice...stay tuned.

Another thing that didn't go as planned - turning over the blog to Bill. He was a bit reluctant to do a post, but quite pleased with himself when he finished it. I didn't get a chance to read it before it was posted, clearly intentional, and not sure when I am going to pass the mantel back :-p Continue to stay tuned :-)

We have survived another week and actually made some progress on our neighborhood search last weekend. We found a place called Crow's Nest (not sure the history of that random name) and really liked it. The shops/cafe street is really cute and everything we could need (minus public transport) is within walking distance, including this beautiful "rest" park. It is an old cemetery that has been converted into a city park. They left up a number of the headstones and added little descriptions of the history. While it may sound kind of creepy - in reality it was really nice and peaceful.

Sunday we went to the famous Manly Beach - Bill's first time. But we picked our days badly - the weather didn't exactly cooperate. We got a few hours of nice, sunny weather before the rain started. I took some pictures before that happened, but it did cut our day short. Good news is we can always go back.

This is our side of the Pacific Ocean, as the clouds roll in...

I should probably start dinner - it is after 7 pm and Bill isn't home yet. That usually means a long day and a hungry soul will be walking through the door any minute. Till next time!

A tale from the Y (chromosome that is)

Yes, I have finally managed to wrestle the pass word and user ID from my wife in order to bring you all my side of the 'story' so far. I don't know what Stephanie has been telling you all but Australia is pretty frakin' cool(what do you expect, with all the free time I have had I couldn't possibly remember to read my wife's blog). Of course I was able to weasel my way along with Stephanie and her new bosses as they traveled about for work and stayed at fabulous hotels where I sat at the pool and toured around all the fun tourist spots. Unfortunately that gravey train was never bound to last. stephanie began to wise up and wonder when I was going to find a job. I did try to delay it as long as possible. I spelled peoples' names wrong, told the truth about my work habits adn skills, showed up late to interviews, and despite it all some one actually hired me. The company's name is Cellar Link, and they have brought me on as the Logistics Coordinator. Cellar Link is an online wine retailer, cellar manager and wine invenstment advisor. (No my boss was NOT partaking of the stock when I was hired, he was on pain killers.) Cellar Link's clients treat wine not as just something to drink but as a long term investment. I have made it through my 1st 3.5 days of work. And boy am I rusty. The atrophy is pretty bad. How did I ever do this six days a week at Mammoth?! I barely remember how to answer a phone much less use outlook. I am sure I am dazzling my new bosses with my skill and efficiency. I am hoping they just think of me as a slow american (fooled them, I'm Costa Rican). Hopefully this coming week will be a little easier. But who knows. I guess I will by Friday. Let you know how it went then. If Stephanie ever lets me back on.

Spring Forward, Fall Back

Today Daylight Savings has ended in Sydney - and while our family and friends sprang forward just a few weeks ago to longer afternoons and more sunshine (or rain for those of you in Seattle) our days are going to start getting shorter. I am glad we got a few nice weeks of summer after we got to town, because otherwise we would have missed getting summer for another 6 months :-p I included some pictures Bill took this morning so you all can see our view and the great day that is just starting.

I don't mean to be a narcissist, but I have to pat myself on the back - 3 posts in 3 weeks, yeah me! Haha, I know what some of you are thinking, Stephanie, a narcissist? No way (nudge nudge wink wink) but truly - now I just need to get Bill set up to post. This one is on me, he has asked for the login and password, I just haven't gotten it sent over :-p

Last week was a bit of a busy one - Bill and I went down to Melbourne to visit Nicole, Steve and the girls then we stayed on because I had a work event in the CBD. Bill didn't stay the whole week as he had an interview scheduled for Wednesday, but there was time for a quick wine tasting trip to the Yarra Valley. The weather was beautiful and clearly there had been plenty of rain as everything was wonderfully green and lush (not us, the flora and fauna). We only made it to 2 tasting rooms (or cellar doors as they call them down here) but found some very good and pretty pricey bottles. For those of you who enjoy wine as much as we do - Google 'Yarra Yering'. It is a relatively new tasting room, but has been producing wine for a bit. Everything we tried there was amazing! They were also all $75 or more a bottle (we didn't buy anything....maybe next trip).

Bill took off to Sydney that night and I stayed on to man a booth at the Cisco Live event for the rest of the week. We had decent traffic throughout the 3 days I was there - but am not convinced that 100% of the attendees were our target market. That being said, it was good PR for my new job and I am sure the first of many events where we have a presence.

While I was talking it up, Bill came home only to find out his interview had to be postponed. This allowed him to focus on other things, but he was excited about the meeting and had done a lot of prep work in the days leading up. It has been rescheduled for tomorrow (Monday) afternoon though, so everyone send him good vibes.

We are off to wander around the neighborhood of Balmain. This is where everyone we have talked to recommends we move to. The proximity to downtown is great and the mix of cafes, restaurants, shopping, etc is supposed to be the best. It is also one of the most expensive places to live, but aren't they all :-p Wish us luck, more from the Barbee's down under this week!