Long Birthday Lunch

On my birthday my good friend Kate took me for a long lunch at an Italian restaurant near the University. In keeping with the "eating game birds" theme we both had the roast quail & risotto, many glasses of nice wine, and, for dessert... 

Nice Dessert!

... a beautiful panna cotta! 

Massage

Today treated myself to a 2 hour massage with foot massage - a lovely birthday treat! 

Balinese Birthday Dinner

We had another nice birthday dinner this Saturday, just Tim and I, at the Bali Grill Restaurant. Great Indonesian food - I had the coconut chicket hot pot, Tim had the Bali steak hotpot... 

Happy Australia Day!

Today is Australia Day (the equivalent to the Fourth of July in the States). We had a quiet day at home with the cats puttering in the garden and fooling around on the computer... 

Zamboni Fish?

Here is Zamboni on top of our latest addition to the house - a huge fishtank. Is not filled yet - still toying with ideas of what to put in it (other than Zamboni...) 

Early Birthday Dinner

So we had an early Nancy birthday dinner at the native Australian restaurant we like with some friends. Nancy had emu with avocado puree and sweet potatoes... Tim stuck with steak. Was yummy! 

Brisbane in the Summer

Well, it has been a slow week because I've been sick and Tim's been holed up crunching his data. Still, has been a nice summer so far (if very hot)... 

Lightning Storms

We have had a lot of lightning storms here. For the past two days we have lost power for a couple of hours in the evenings. The type of lightning we have been having is called "cloud lightning." 

Types of Lightning

There are many terms to describe different kinds of lightning. Here are some of them:
In-Cloud Lightning: The most common type, it travels between positive and negative charge centers within the thunderstorm.
Cloud-to-Ground Lightning: This is lightning that reaches from a thunderstorm cloud to the ground.
Cloud-to-Cloud Lightning: A rare event, it is lightning that travels from one cloud to another.
Sheet Lightning: This is lightning within a cloud that lights up the cloud like a sheet of light.
Ribbon Lightning: This is when a cloud-to-ground flash is blown sideways by the wind, making it appear as two identical bolts side by side.
Bead Lightning: Also called "chain lightning," this is when the lightning bolt appears to be broken into fragments because of varying brightness or because parts of the bolt are covered by clouds.
Ball Lightning: Rarely seen, this is lightning in the form of a grapefruit-sized ball, which lasts only a few seconds. 

Happy New Year's Day!

Zamboni has slept all day today - I guess that's what he'll do all 2006...