Scenes from the Arrivals Gate

Me: What’s taking so long? Their flight landed ages ago.
Snook: You do realize that if a bunch of Amazing Racers come running through, I’m abandoning you.
Me: Dude, if any Racers come through I’m totally abandoning them too. We’ll leave a note.

I forgot to mention the other airport excitement: We saw Sir Bob Geldof. He strolled off in the company of two Emirates stewardesses. We couldn’t figure out if they were assigned to escort him to his limo or whether he’d just picked them up while disembarking, all rockstar-style. And then I had “I don’t like Mondays” stuck in my head the rest of the morning…

Well, it’s been 48 hours of living with a jet-lagged four-year-old. I think the cat was the first to crack. At first, Dr. Amy Jones was loving the idea that – finally – here was someone who’d play the “chase the laser pointer” game with her all day long. By the afternoon of the second day, she’d taken to actively hiding from Joey lest he discover her and invent a new game. (We freaked out for ten minutes when we couldn’t find her and she wasn’t answering, thinking she’d gotten outside, when she was just cowering behind the sofa bed.) The rest of us are holding up fairly well though. Friday we walked around Victoria Park and Sydney University. Saturday we went down into the city to see my shop and then to go up Sydney Tower. After an afternoon nap, we went down to Circular Quay to walk around the Opera House. We took the ferry across to Luna Park where Joey rode a couple kiddie rides. Then we took the ferry and train over to Newtown for dinner at Mama Maria’s. The little one was conked out at that point… which meant he was up looking for his Easter basket at 6am. (I totally scored with the Hot Wheels Easter set though.) Today they’re heading out to the big Hillsong church service at Darling Harbour while we heathens have a much needed shower and rest. Onwards and upwards…

Woohoo! Rent Podcasts. (As in, podcasts about the musical Rent, not podcasts that you rent.) I’m getting the lot. No interview with Adam Pascal yet? I’m waiting…

Less than 24 hours til the Garbericks arrive… They should be getting ready to take-off! We’ve done all the major tidying and Annette’s taking care of the rest today. I just need to do a few more loads of laundry, go to the grocery store, and clean out the litterbox. I’m excited and stressed beyond belief. This is the first time one of my parents has visited me since I left university six-and-a-half years ago. It’s the first time Mom will see my house and get to meet Rodd’s family. It’s the first time they’ve been out of the country. It’s gonna be huge!

My sister just e-mailed me a pic from her first ultrasound. Baby Carbo is doing well, all the right number of parts so far and a good strong heartbeat. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go cry at the momentousness of it all. My own little Sissy having a baby…!

Awww, Carissa Gaghan – everyone’s favorite moppet Racer – is doing recaps of The Amazing Race this season. The really funny bit is that Eric and Jeremy are her favorite team. I guess when the sexual “innuendo” goes right over your head, they’re just cute, doofy guys. (And hey, Tricia, Bill Gaghan will be running the Boston Marathon with you!)

A mouse with amazing healing abilities. Obviously the next step is to graft adamantium to its skeleton, thus creating the world’s first X-Mouse.