...

My mom sent this out to family this morning, and I think it sums it all up. I'll miss my little dog.

Our beloved cocker spaniel, Spoodac, came into our family after I read an ad on Thanksgiving in 1994 for cocker spaniel puppies and Bud and I agreed that maybe it was time for a dog. Stephen had just turned 5, and we felt we were ready for the added responsibility. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the family/breeder that had the puppies and picked out our little ball of black fur. We decided to surprise the kids on Christmas with the dog…and the breeder agreed to keep him until Christmas afternoon.

Uncle Stephen was there that Christmas and joined the fun when the kids discovered the “one more present,” a box of dog stuff hidden behind the sofa. It was immediate love at first sight. Uncle Stephen kept the puppy on his lap for most of his visit that year and we’ll always treasure the memories we have of him sharing in a favorite family Christmas.

As you can probably surmise, we had to say good-bye to Spoo today. The last couple of nights Spoodac has been waking me up around three which I thought was because he needed to go out. This morning, I woke up to him sounding very anxious and agitated. When I put on the light, he was stumbling around in circles and his head was twitching. He did not calm down…after an hour I gave him some of Katy’s Phenobarbital to see if it would calm him. It did enough to stop the pacing, but he still did not have good balance. Stephen and I were committed to making and baking my biscuits for the 100 expected at the Waynesboro soup kitchen, so Bud came over at 8:30 and stayed with the dogs, while we kept that part of the commitment. When we got home, we took Spoodac to the emergency vets…his first visit unlike our other dog and cat! The vet advised that given the age, the neurological symptoms, etc., that it was most likely a brain tumor. We did not want Spoo to continue to be so distraught though he did not seem to be in physical pain. We made the decision to let him go and permanently rest. It was very quiet and peaceful ending, after we said our goodbyes.

Spoodac was truly a faithful dog. The name came from the kids wanting to call him Spooky because he was born on Halloween. Bud and I had watched Washington Week in Review many a Friday night and had decided we would name our first dog “Dudac” which was the last name of a producer of the show. Hence, Spoodac. Spoodac was very smart; he loved playing catch above all else. Even with heavy cataract eyes, he still would jump and make a mid air catch of the ball or his favorite toy newspaper. Just a couple of days ago, I found the newspaper hidden away because dog toys are a no in a staged for sale house. I played catch with Spoodac and was amazed that he still had such a spirited response. He has been showing his age by sleeping a lot, getting hard of sight and hearing, but he could still catch, fetch and give the squirrels a good chase.

So we have come to an end of the 14 wonderful years of having Spoodac present in our family. I love you, Spoo, my ever faithful, smart, beautiful, compassionate, companion. I will miss you terribly, but I am so THANKFUL for your wonderful, long, healthy life.

Blessings this Thanksgiving,

Jeanne

I figured before time slips away from me I should update this blog again! I have been up to a LOT the last few weeks....Phew! My second semester of school is officially over!!! I'm still tying up some loose ends - namely the proposal for my dissertation. Once that's in I'm free as a bird till March! So...here's what else I've been up to, in reverse order!

me, Jody, Amani, and Amanda

Last weekend was a busy one...Sunday my friend and classmate Amanda (another Canadian!) had a little pool party at her place. She and her boyfriend Rich have been house-sitting for family friends in Logan, which is a suburb of Brisbane and about 40 minutes away on a bus. I went over with Jody and her friend Leigh who is visiting Brisbane. Amanda and Rich had an awesome spread of food ready for us, and since the weather was cloudy and actually a bit cold, we skipped the pool and hung out inside! The highlight of the day - by far - was when Rich gave us a lesson in sabering champagne...the art of popping the top off with a saber (or in our case...any metal instrument!).

all the yummy food and freshly baked bread!

we brought strawberry shortcake :o)

Jody got the sabrage lesson first, and used an axe to get the job done...

(for those of you with young viewers or sensitive ears, Rich is British and there are a few curse words in this video...if you can understand them!)


The pop!



I was given a choice of three tools...pliers, a wrench, or a wood shaver thing.

I went with the wrench.



The Saturday before the 'pool' party us public health girls had attempted to plan a little farewell trip since several of us are returning home over the next few weeks. Those plans fell through, but I still had a car reserved for the day and decided to head off to the Gold Coast Hinterland with Jess to do a little hiking. It was supposed to rain on and off all day, which turned out to be a positive because it's soooo hot here right now that any amount of sun would have fried us! We drove down to Binna Burra, which is part of Lamington National Park. Lamington is right next door to Springbrook, where I did some exploring with Jeremy.

The views of the mountains are always so pretty! Once you get out of the city and off the motorway the roads curl their way up the mountains and through really lush eucalyptus forests. I had the window down and one point and started to wonder why it smelled like kitchen cleaner...then I realized it was the eucalyptus I was whiffing!

The hike we went on was about 2 hours and went through rainforest and eucalyptus forest, with a stop at Kweebani Cave, which was an important refuge for the Yugambeh people who inhabited the area for thousands of years.



This is Jess coming down the steps with the cave in the background...it was pretty huge and looked seriously unstable! There were all kinds of warnings that said things like "rock falls may occur" and "remain on the track and avoid stopping for the next 100 meters" and "your safety is our concern, but not our responsibility."


On the way we had to keep our eyes peeled for these guys!! Didn't see any though...


Our hike ended a kilometer or so away from where the car was parked, so we had to walk back along the road. On the way we happened upon a bird who was calling back and forth with his friend (or enemy?). It was the weirdest sounding bird I have EVER heard! Check it out...



Just before we got to the car I also caught this pretty King Parrot calling out to some friends...he's much cuter sounding!



For Halloween Jody hosted a party at her house that was a ton of fun. I just thought I'd include my costume - a sunburned Aussie touriest! I even had on Australia thongs that you can't see in the picture. (that's flip flops people!) The funniest thing about it was that most people ACTUALLY thought the sunburn was real! Lipstick sure did the trick....



Last, I thought I'd include a picture of some of my mates from school! Jody's house is right around the corner from our campus, so we got in the habit this semester of having lunches at her place after class. One day we had pizza...one day the Indian girls cooked amazing food for us...and one day we had schnitzel made by an Austrian! It was a great idea and I'm so happy we all made the time to hang out and share food. I love this picture of all of us, because it gives you a sense of how multi-cultural my classes are - there are 7 nations represented here!

(from left to right, top to bottom: Amanda (Canada), Etelvina (Mozambique), Jody (Canada), Nayantara (India), Shalomi (India), Me, Amani (Australia), Christa (Austria), Shari (Sri Lanka), Nancy (India), and Anita (India))

Just the Other Day...

Elise walks in to a local shop just down the street from her apartment to buy some items she's run out of.

Man behind counter

G'day, how're ya going?

Elise
(grabbing what she needs)
Great. How are you?

Man
Not too bad.

Elise approaches the counter and sets her items down. The man eyes Elise over and decides she is indeed an American. He begins to ring her items up.

Man
(looking Elise in the eye)
You voted yet?

Elise
(caught slightly off-guard)
Oh yeah, for Obama a couple weeks ago.

Man smiles, rests both hands on the counter, and leans forward towards Elise.

Man
Does anyone in America realize how much the rest of the world wants him to win?

(end scene)

Annnnnnd, that pretty much sums up my experiences abroad.

Also wanted to wish everyone a...

HAPPY TINKER DAY!

President Gray procaliming Tinker Day 2007

Today is one of my favorite holidays. Tinker Day has been observed at Hollins since the 1880s and usually occurs in October. It became an official holiday in 1895. Tinker Day is the ultimate celebration of the new school year, the fall, and Hollins traditions. The surprise element, which was introduced in 1899, adds to the excitement of the day. Early on the morning of Tinker Day (which is a closely guarded secret) the entire senior class is woken up via telephone calls. (I remember sleeping with my phone in my bed for a full week my senior year) Their role in the tradition is to serve as the official wake up call, and they don their decorated graduation robes, grab their pots and pans, and head for the underclass dorms to wake the rest of the student body. It's an incredibly fun, hectic dash around campus. A traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs and Krispy Kreme doughnuts is served in Moody (the cafeteria), and everyone returns to their dorms to don their Tinker Day outfits. Once you're dressed in the craziest get-up you can find, everyone heads to front quad and waits for the president of the school. After the president's official declaration that it is indeed Tinker Day, classes are canceled and students, faculty, and staff hike Tinker Mountain in their zany costumes for songs, skits, and a traditional picnic of fried chicken and Tinker Cake. Even now the news that it's Tinker Day spreads like wildfire. It makes me miss my friends and remember what good times we had together - Happy Tinker Day guys! xxx

Swimming, anyone? No?

Just a 'little' something that washed up on the Gold Coast last week a few miles south of Surfer's Paradise (all the high-rise buildings in the background)...




There were actually two Great White sharks that washed ashore last week...both were victims of the baited drum lines that the Queensland government uses to control shark attacks at the popular Gold Coast beaches. Kinda sad, if you ask me.

Brisbane Romp!

I totally forgot last night as I was posting to mention that I was planning to participate in the Brisbane Romp today! What's a romp?? The organizers describe it as, "part treasure hunt, part 'Amazing Race', and part puzzle." It's a charity event that was held in Melbourne and happened in Brisbane for the first time today - teams of up to six people sign up to participate and you have 4 hours to complete a scavenger hunt that spans the entire city. It was really fun! My team was Jody, Kate, Leah, Jess, and Sophie (and me!), and our theme was 'Romping Wrestlemania!' Teams are encouraged to dress up, so we tried our best to come up with good costumes after a couple of very stressful work-filled weeks. Really, we created them in about a 6 hour span of time last night :o) I think they turned out pretty well!! Kudos to Kate and Jody who designed the t-shirts!

We had a nice breakfast before the fun began and got a lot of attention from tourists and other people walking down the street. A big group of Asian businessmen saw us and nearly fell over themselves trying to get pictures with us - there were around 10 of them, and they each took a turn posing with us in our wigs. They especially loved Sophie in her long, blonde, Hannah Montana wig!!

Summer Begins...

Hey everyone! I've been so busy lately with work and school that I barely have time to do anything fun - let alone post about it! Today I finally got a break and went down to Surfers Paradise again with Jody, Val, and some other girls. The weather was perfect!! We had about two weeks of spring here and suddenly...BAM! It's summer! It's more like a change from dry to wet season, but we were lucky to get a beautiful sunny day today. Thought I'd throw up a few pics of it!

The surf was pretty rough today so the lifeguards had their motor boats set up in case someone got caught in a rip and started to drown! There were also tons of them out in the water playing around on their big yellow surfboards.

I never really thought that they actually wore the silly cloth caps on their heads, but they do!!

I thought I'd also stick some pictures in (for Gena!) of the thunderstorm that happened a couple weeks ago. This was the storm as it approached from the west...


And here it is after it's passed over the west side of the city...the sky was so pretty!


Hope everyone is doing well and having a good September! I have my spring break (thank goodness!) the week after next, and I'm gonna take a few of those days off work to go on a canoe safari in the Noosa everglades (just north of here) with Jody. Should be great! Hopefully I can upload pictures soon...stay posted!

Riverfire!

This weekend marked the beginning of Brisbane's Riverfestival, a week-long celebration of the Brisbane River and the lifestyle of the people here. The festival is kicked off by Riverfire, which is the biggest fireworks display held here each year. I'd been hearing about Riverfire since I arrived in Brisbane, and was SO excited to see it from my absolutely perfect vantage point!!

This fireworks show is a big event in Brisbane, so people wake up early on the day of to secure a spot at the best vantage points. It's like the 4th of July! All the roads surrounding my apartment complex are closed and people start arriving at 10 in the morning.

By the afternoon there are lots of people playing football in the streets and BBQing all along the cliffs. To keep people entertained there is an airshow that I also got to watch from my porch!

The majority of the fireworks (3000 tons in all) are set off from barges positioned along the river from Southbank all the way to the tip of Kangaroo Point. They are set at intervals so that people who own boats can battle for space to watch from the river. In addition, fireworks are also set off from the Goodwill Bridge, Story Bridge, and the tops of several of the skyscrapers in the city!

By dark, there were thousands of people along the cliffs! The news reported that approximately 600,000 people gather here and in Southbank to watch the show.

John and I had decided to have a little party, so we each invited some of our friends, got a ton of food, a new grill (so excited!), and got down to business yesterday! It was wonderful - we ended up with an apartment full of great people and lots of yummy food.

The show is opened by what everyone knows as the "dump and burn." I've been hearing about this for WEEKS now and was really excited to see it happen! I got to see them practice on Friday, so that only added to the anticipation. Basically, an F-111 jet does a low fly-over with its burners on full tilt - I guess dumping fuel and burning it off? It looks like a rocket shooting past, and from my porch you can even feel the heat as it flies by! So cool!

The rest are videos and pictures from the fireworks show, which went on for about 30 minutes. It was spectacular - my mouth was hanging open by the end! I'm so glad I got to see this.

Me, Leah, Ina, our new friend Sophie (just started the MPH program), and Jody!

I love this picture because it shows how many buildings in the city also had fireworks shooting from their rooftops. All the ones going up in a straight line are coming from buildings - wacky! There were also a few of the sky scrapers in the city and a few buildings on Kangaroo Point that were shooting fireworks as well. I can't imagine how complicated the planning is for this!

Long Time No Blog!

Two weeks ago my very most highly extremely anticipated visitor (boyfriend Jeremy) finally arrived in Brissie!!! He made me wait forever in the arrivals area but when he finally came out of customs he was definitely a sight for sore eyes. It had been way too long since I'd had a visitor from home, so I was beyond excited and ready to get his trip started. I had planned a few mini trips, so I'm splitting the blog postings up by destination to make it a little easier! They should all flow in the correct order - enjoy!

(if anything appears weird or videos have no sound try reloading the page)

Brisbane and Lone Pine

Jeremy arrived on the 4th in the early morning so I hadn't really planned anything for the first two days of his visit. Luckily his jet lag was minimal so we got to explore Brisbane a little bit. We spent the day walking around the city on Monday, and that evening met up with Jody at Southbank for Jeremy's first kebab! I'm pretty sure he was an instant fan.

After kebabs we decided to head over to Batavia for some chai lattes. When Jeremy showed up he had an envelope from his dad Leif that had a few gift certificates to local cafes and restaurants (including Batavia) that he's read about on my blog. It was so thoughtful, I couldn't believe it! Thank you Leif!! We stayed at Batavia until Jeremy was practically comatose, which actually didn't happen till close to 10PM.

The next morning we got up and caught a bus over to my favorite little zoo, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! I'm pretty sure Jeremy was excited. We got in just before a bunch of big tour groups, so we made our way out to the kangaroo field first and found this fuzzy little guy. I think this picture really shows you how fuzzy they are. I love the younger kangaroos because they really feel like a stuffed animal when you pet them!

Shortly after we arrived the lorikeet feeding started, so I dragged Jer down towards the madness. He snapped this shot of a little bird that didn't want to get off my head!! I had to shake it all around before he finally flew away.

I love this picture (even though his eyes are closed!) because it really gives you an idea of how crazy it is at the feeding. There are birds flying everywhere and the noise is almost deafening!

This was also the first time I had seen the lorikeets bathing in the little fountain near their feeding area. They were loving it! They roll around in the water and then flap off so quickly that they give everyone standing around a little shower too.

The wombats were out of their logs again, so we got to see them pretty close up! They are so weird looking and so much bigger than I had pictured before coming here. This one is about 3 feet in length!

I took Jeremy up to my other favorite part of Lone Pine (ok, ok...they're all my favorite!) which is a row of bird cages containing different parrorts, doves, etc. This black cockatoo is another bird that I love to see. He's so regal looking and is SO loud when he squawks!

He was also ready for his close-up.

On the way down to the koala cuddling area, we got to see this tiny little baby in his mum's pouch. So cute! This was the first baby koala I've seen so I was pretty excited by it.

Now for the fun pictures! Jeremy got to hold Yabbi, who is one of the younger koalas at Lone Pine. It was so funny, because his keeper would place him in Jeremy's arms and he'd immediately try to climb up towards his face!

It took a few tries before he settled down and we got the perfect shot! How cute!

After koalas we collected our free kangaroo food (can I say, my year-long pass to LP is really coming in handy!) and headed over to the roo field once again.

There are a few emus roaming amongst the kangaroos and wallabies, and this one was reeeeeally interested in having some pellets. He actually wouldn't leave Jeremy alone, which made for some funny pictures...

Once the emu finally decided to leave, Jer made this new friend. I was so impressed, because the wallabies in the enclosure are usually pretty skittish and prefer small children to the big adults. I've only come across a few who will let you feed them, but this one actually hopped up to Jeremy! He must be a wallaby whisperer or something.

Keep this little guy in mind as you read on to some of the later posts!!

After we got home I had planned a little BBQ lunch with most of my friends from school so they could meet the guy they've been hearing about for so long. We met at the new grill that was just installed directly across the street from my apartment. It was so fun! We had an excess of food and ate till we couldn't move. Yum.