Rhinoceros beetle on porch

Today we had a rhinoceros beetle on the porch, ad the cats were very interested! Previously we have only seen them in far North Queensland. Apparently they are abundant down here this year. They make a cool hissing sound if you get near them. Our friend Annette has a Rottweiler that was quite taken aback after being hissed at by the beetle....

TWO Boxing Day Parties!

As usual we have been inundated with party invitations around the holidays. We had two invites for Boxing Day, one with Nancy's friend from Griffith University, Analise O'Donovan (who is from South Africa and who served Boerewors (S. African sausages) at her do) and one with our friends Cindy and Jeff (who served AMAZING desserts!). All in all a food-filled day...

Christmas 2008 Video Greeting from Tim and Nancy

Zamboni says: WATCH OUR HOLIDAY VIDEO BY GOING HERE. (Be sure to watch it in HIGH QUALITY for best resolution)

We celebrated Christmas this year wth our friends Roger and Karen, who made amazing turkey and stuffing, yams and cranberry salad, and blueberry pie (Nancy's favorite!).

Ready for Christmas

The house is all decorated and we are ready for Christmas. Unfortunately we ate all of Santa's cookies (we are naughty!). Tonight we are celebrating Christmas Eve with our friends Justin and Elissa and their kids Alexander and Isabelle. Their cat Ella LOVES the Christmas Eve shrimp...

Feeding the Birds

We've had increasing numbers of birds coming by it seems. Have managed to take some pretty nice bird shots...The birds are, from the top: sulphur-creasted cockatoo, black cockatoo, pale-headed rosella, bronzewing pigeon, two rainbow lorikeets and a pair each of hares and wood ducks on the front lawn.

Tim's Graduation

Today was Tim's big day - graduation and the awarding of his PhD degree. It was a great ceremony which his parents watched live at home through the video streaming function available from UQ. It was great and I'm so proud of Tim's achievement!

Denali and Tim

Every morning Tim reads a bit before we go to work and Denali sits on his chest and helps out... It is very cute!

Dog on Drive to work

Thiscute dog in hiscool shades made us laugh on the way to work.

New Chairs!

Tim, after a morning at the dentist, decided that when the going gets tough the tough go shopping, and so we've got these great new Tessa chairs for the TV room.

Our new commissioned art

I commissioned our artist friend Jim Peterson to make a fish sculpture for Tim's graduation. It turned out amazingly well! It is a singing fish whose tail vibrates when you walk near it, making an incredibly musical sound, like wind chimes. It is an amazing piece of work.

Excellent Open House Party

We had a long-awaited Christmas open house party from noon until the last guest straggled home by the light of candles up the drive. Cats safely locked downstairs to avoid "incidents." A really fun day!

Decorating for Christmas

Today we decorated the house for Christmas, which was a lot of fun.


The cats, of course, helped enormously with unpacking the decorations...

Feeding the Birds

I've been feeding our local magpie family, which has successfully fledged one baby. They get fed mostly either chopped beef or sausage meat in the morning, and often the baby is on the porch... Today the magpie also tried to feed the very realistic butcher bird our artist friend Jim made (not sure what the real butcher birds thought of it all...)

First Thanksgiving in Brisbane

This year for the first time since moving to Australia we actually had a real Thanksgiving meal with turkey, stuffing, homemae cranberry sauce and great pumpkin pies (both large and mini-versions!). The dinner was hosted by our friend Meg from Boston.

Talk in Melbourne

Today I gave an invited talk at the Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry meeting down in Melbourne. My colleague Gerard Byrne (a psychiatrist) and I also were promoting our joint psychology/psychiatry conference we are holding next year on the Gold Coast in November.

Visit by a Rhinoceros Beetle

Tonight we were visited by a rhinoceros beetle, which all the cats found quite interesting. Rhinoceros beetles are the strongest animals on the planet in relation to their own size. They can lift up to 850 times their own weight - so Denali better watch out!