Karumba, QLD, Australia
We want to introduce you to something that Tiffany’s mom considers to be one of the nastiest, grossest, ickiest things in the world:
The Tree Frog
Outback pub life
Karumba, QLD, Australia
518 people
About 466 miles from “Cans“
Sometimes, oh and without warning of course, the whole town just separates from the mainland and becomes an island for a few months…so you want to watch out for that.
and the largest gator (sorry…CROC…because it matters while it’s eating you…) ever caught in the history of the planet? Yeah, right down the road.
28ft, 4in long. This is a to-scale model!
Welcome to Karumba
Guys are not “cute”
Pittwater, NSW, AU
As we’ve previously stated, friendships lead to a lexicon whose size is directly proportional to the time invested in the relationship. These lexicons lead to key phrases that communicate much more than the simple words involved when we are lucky enough to have been together long enough to be “in the know.”
It’s not just shared experiences like stumbling up the towering mountains of New Zealand that create this shared vocabulary. Another source of this insiders verbiage is simply and consistently hashing out the meaning of words over time. Because while two people may speak the same language, they probably don’t use the same words to describe the same things. Example: what might be “cool” to one person may be “wicked” to another (“phat” could also be substituted.) Though these words may be synonyms, there are variations of meaning that make each more appropriate at different times.
There is a difference between something that is “gross” and something else that is “disgusting.” The choice of using either of these words describes more than just that fact that something is repulsive; there are nuances (for a 12 year old boy “gross” might be a good thing).
As a married couple (or anyone building a joint vocabulary) it is important to nail down these subtle differences in word use to more effectively communicate with each other.
We ran into this particular nugget of nuptial knowledge when Tiffany started calling Greg “cute.” She meant it as a compliment and Greg took it as a bit of an insult. Then Tiffany got confused:
Tiffany – “But you’re good looking. That means you’re cute!”
Greg – “No. Bunnies, baby horses and Mini Coopers are cute. I am not.”
It was at this point that a working definition of the word “cute” had to be established…
Walking on the Wild Side
Wandering around town, sailing on the ocean, heck, even sitting in the bar or the coffee shop – all of these are great opportunities for communing with the local wildlife (and the not-so-wild also). We’ll start this off with the town segment.
When strolling through town, which of these animals do you expect to see? A – Cats, B – Dogs, C – Iguanas? Well, if you guessed Iguana, you’re right!
(Why? Because the cats are in the bars hustling drinks, of course! –Greg)
Also expected viewing while in a Mexican town of any size are chickens, pigs, horses and…children?
(Oh and now I finally understand why they started enacting those spitting in public laws back in the US. –Greg)
There was a cool restaurant/coffee shop in La Cruz that had free internet (yay!) at a decent speed (double yay!) and as a side entertainment factor they had a fountain with turtles in it – I know, not that interesting. What made it interesting was when the dog would come by and jump in the fountain with the turtles 🙂
~ Tiffany
Milo’s new chin rest and scritcher
I’m at home right now before I go to my STCW training, watching Mom entertain Milo 🙂
Our poor kitty on the way to the airport
Well, the cat has been shipped off to my mom in FL… She was not a happy camper, but she is surprisingly tolerant of travel. Unlike other cats that I know, once she’s in her crate, she settles down and just voices occasional meows to make sure that you didn’t forget that this is something that she dislikes.
Driving her to the aiport to put her on the flight was pretty sad, and it was very tough for me to leave her with the American Airlines people. I started tearing up as I was getting the paperwork filled out and was on the edge of crying when I left her there. 🙁 It was very depressing. I had a tough drive home.
Fortunately she is now with my mom in FL, and is apparantuy adjusting pretty well. Mom said that the first night she spent the entire time hiding under the dresser, not under the bed, she was so traumatized. Since then, Mom has convinced her to come out on her own for love and scritching. She may be ready soon to get introduced to the kitty boys! I’m curious how it will turn out – the last time my kitty was introduced to a boy kitty, she swatted him across the face and drew blood. So we’ll see how this turns out… Greg and I gave her some more boxing lessons before we sent her off, but I don’t really think she needed them. 🙂
Travel and pets
I’m seriously bummed about needing to leave our cat behind. I love her to bits, she’s a great cat, and I know she is going to be very stressed and unhappy about the entire situation. I think we have finally figured out what we need to do to get her sent off, now it is just a matter of picking a date and making the arrangements 🙁
There will be a few benefits to living pet free for a while though: no worries about having friends checking in on her, no midnight toe attacking sessions, and no involuntary dinner sharing!