Is this thing still on?
Wow. Been awhile, huh? Blogging just hasn’t been a priority for me of late. I’ve managed to limp along by padding things out with Twitter favorites and Instagram links, but when one of those fails (my Instagram parser is currently broken — oh wait, I think I fixed it), you really notice. Sorry about that.

Obviously the big event of the past month was the arrival of my Mom, Step-Dad, and little brother for a two week vacation. I took off work the whole time they were here, and we had a blast. Joe and Joe climbed the Harbour Bridge while Mom and I climbed the pylon lookout. We did the Bondi to Coogee walk and took the ferry to Manly. We visited St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Art Gallery of NSW, and the Australian Museum. Mom and I visited some of Sydney’s finest quilt shops.

In the middle of their trip, we took off for the mid-north coast. We stayed with the Snook family and ate lunch at a fantastic restaurant in Nambucca Heads. We bought some sweet treats at the Honey Place in Urunga. We patted dolphins and kissed seals at the Porpoise Petting Pool. We rode the toboggan and had chocolate frozen bananas on a stick at the Big Banana. We checked out Smoky Cape Lighthouse and Trial Bay Gaol in Southwest Rocks, scene of my marathon triumph.

Yeah, that’s a lot. We also spent a lot of time together. We had dinner with friends. We drove for hours. We talked a lot. Yet somehow you never really have the conversations you really want on have on these visits, do you? You feel silly wanting to say, “Are you proud of me? Is this the kind of life you envisioned for me when I was a kid? Am I a grown-up yet? Do you think we’ve made the right decisions?” Instead you pose for photos and you argue over the cheque, and you never say those things. And then a quick trip to the airport and some rushed hugs, and it’s all over. It’s hard, you know? It’s good but it’s hard.