Per dad's request

I appreciate you all for being such great followers and I love all requests/ desires for information, but my dad really knows how to put the icing on the cake. He not only asked for more information about Dalby, he asked for more information on "the history, the dogs, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, and the religion of Dalby." He gave me not only the icing on the cake but also the little rosebud flowers, writing and other little details decorating the cake! So... it will be quite hard to tackle all of that in one go but I will tick a few off the list.

Firstly, the dogs. What is it about small towns that seem to bread runaway dogs? Maybe the dogs know they will get fed by someone, or the great expanses of land without fences, or carefree owners? Every morning (well, most mornings) I run to the gym along the river and I am greeted and followed by a turkey, a family of ducks with four ducklings, and a large assortment of dogs. They don't really come near me, but seem to think it is a fun game that I am running with them. They will run, gallop, lope? (no fun that horses get all the fun "running" words) ahead of me and then stop, sniff something, wait for me to pass, and then go ahead again.  It is a little game of cat and mouse and I guess I am the mouse!

History lesson time! Dalby was settled in 1840 by a man named Henry Dennis who camped on the grounds where that white obelisk (from my previous posting) is now standing. In 1859 Dalby officially became apart of the state of Queensland and slowly became the agricultural center that it is today. Dalby is host to rich, black soil which is good for the planting of wheat, cotton, and sorghum. I am sure the 26.6" of average rainfall a year also helps the crops flourish. The population has now risen to almost 10K people due to the construction boom and a local shopping center that is a large attraction out here in these parts. So basically, I am living in a very exciting, flourishing town ;-)

The butcher and I are not quite friendly yet but the woman at the Queensland Transport office this morning was very helpful. That's right folks, I now possess a Queensland drivers license. Funky, huh?

More on the town and (yes dad) the religion of the area next time. That's all folks!

Making a house a home

So I realized that I may be getting ahead of myself here because I haven't even shown off pictures of our house and here I am about to show off all the little chachkies that I brought from America to decorate our house. In any case, I guess I am starting on a micro level and then I will expand out to a macro examination of our house (Does micro and macro work in this context or only in econ? hmmm....)

I brought lots of little things with me this last time so that pieces of my American life/ family/ friends could be scattered all around. Here are some pictures of the fruits of my labor:

The green dish with hearts is from Jan (from her last African adventure!) 

My Disneyland souvenirs (from my trips with Liz and Ali :) ) 

Statues from Dad from Africa and a random turtle... I assume Mom made it, actually
I probably did since it lacks artistic finesse... ;-)  

Random assortment of cards (I have lots more where those came from!) :) 

These are just a few of the many pictures, memorabilia, knick knacks that I have lying around to remind me of you all. Not that I need any help! I think of you all daily and love updating you on my goings-on.

Toon in next time for a brief history of Dalby and a macro view of our house. I know, I know, you just can't wait... xox

When in Dalby (with pictures!)

Observations of the morning:
People here haven't gotten the memo yet that smoking is bad... young and old, everyone seems to be on the cancer stick train.

On a more fun note:
I ride Todd's bike a lot and the abundance of wildlife is amazing. Yesterday as I rode by the river I heard these little (actually scarily large) guys scamper up each tree I passed.

Goanna/ Lizard things

On my walk this morning I noticed this:

Apparently, Dalby originated as a crossing over the Myall Creek from 1841. The first public building was erected in 1846 and the swampy little town slowly became the less-swampy but still relatively wet town that it is today!

The river I run along

The lovely flood markers! 

You Know You're in Dalby When....

- You're sweating your face off one minute... and then

- Running outside to pull the laundry off the line just as a storm breaks.

- Our tin roof crackles and groans with the heat.

- Policemen come home to their "misses" for lunch.

- The most attractive girl in town is a bogan that works at the drive-thru beer mart (bogan: Australian version of (excuse the stereotype) "white trash."

- Everything is closed on Sundays (that is actually most of Australia)

- The river has flood markers up and down the banks and yet there has still been no action to try and contain the inevitable flooding.

- The people are incredibly sweet and could talk to you for days.

- I wake up every morning to the sound of a rooster crowing...

- and go to sleep every night to the sounds of cicadas.

I returned to Dalby on Sunday and I am just getting back into the swing of things. I really do enjoying writing and I am going to try and write more and expand my subject areas so look out for more to come soon. Until next time... xox

Tooting Todd's Horn!

With each passing day I am learning more about the complex, frustrating, but truly remarkable world of construction. Although natural landscape can not be rivaled, the human ability to design and construct is mind-blowing.

The spillway and dam wall

Standing on top of the wall looking at the intake tower 

 I first saw the dam two years ago on a family day. The usual strictly guarded gates are opened up to the workers’ family and friends for a casual day of bbq-ing and tours around the site. I remember piling into the bus and bumping along dirt roads flanked by piles of more dirt and clay. Over the hum of other families, the rumble of the bus, and the designated tour guide trying in vain to explain what was outside the dusty windows, Todd explained how the clay had to be kept to a specific moisture content in order to be fit for the clay core of the dam wall. The weather dictated the work flow as the clay would have to be dried or wetted down by huge sprinklers depending on the day and its use. We passed the quarry where the rock for the wall was “harvested,” aka, “taken off “the mountain side next to the reservoir and the temporary office spaces and caravans scattered over the grounds like little base stations.

The main embankment looking at the intake tower

Seeing this same space two years later was astonishing. Gone were the piles of dirt and rock and in their place: perfectly manicured lawns, sculpture gardens and roads of newly laid asphalt. Todd’s main projects throughout the dam were, being in charge of the quarry, "Todd's road", the road built up over the dam wall to give park rangers’ access to the spillway in order to monitor the wall and ensure that it holds and does not cause seepage, and the main embankment, 70 million cubic feet of rock that holds in the water  and was the main earthwork project.  Additionally, Todd is a little bit of a tech genius (or so I think) and so he was in charge of all the gps machine guidance, which are basically computer systems installed on the big construction machines that allow the controller to follow the plans more closely. Todd is such a big shot in fact that you can read an article he contributed to in Technology and More Magazine (http://www.trimble.com/technologyandmore/i1-2009/ - page 8).  Cool, huh?

Other awesome facts about the dam: 

The 20 million dollar capture building!

-      - They spent $20 million constructing a fish capture station that sorts and saves fish that are native and critical to the dam’s ecosystem. 

-      - This stage of the dam (second major upgrade) raised the dam wall by 49 ft and increased the water capacity by 82,000 million gallons!

The dam is now a complete site for sore eyes, complete with a beautifully designed visitor’s center, many recreational areas for the hundreds of visitors expected every weekend, complete with the picturesque backdrop of the Gold Coast Hinterland.  I could not be prouder of him! 

Visitor's Center

View from beyond the Visitor's Center

The beautiful landscape (Todd's workplace!)

My fairly routine life

Big salad (check), Mac (check), LOTS of textbooks (check)!

Most days look like this:



But occasionally, my day looks like this:

Roman after a surf at Currumbin

People playing with a "footy" ball at Currumbin 

Surfer's Paradise in the distance

Todd on the phone to his other half (Russ) :)

The Elephant Rock surf club - can you see
 the elephant's head peaking up behind the building? 

I have been really busy doing exactly what picture A illustrates so i haven't had time to write about... well, anything, but I am planning on writing the blog about Todd's dam this weekend! Hold me to it :)

Also, look what I got on Saturday :)

AND, the surprise was complete with a mini (thank G-d) box of chocolates that contained gluten. ie. Todd couldn't eat them! Is that true love or what... ;-)

Date Night

At the Q1, Todd needs smiling lessons :)

True to his word, Todd has been keeping my life interesting so that I have something to occupy you all with. I think I am just going to have to blog forever because I love when he gets this proactive! This week we had a date night. The last time I was here, he promised he would take me to the top of the Q1, and this can now be checked off my list. The Q1 was the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere (until that monstrosity in Dubai), but the view from the Skypoint Bar (over 700 feet in the air) is truly phenomenal. We walked around the building soaking up the view, while reading the facts and advertising plastered to the floor. Todd used to live in this impressive chick-magnet with his friend Russell, so he showed me the view they had and this experience completely solidified the fact that I never want to live in a building over 10 stories high. Hitchcock wrote that movie about a very real thing… yah, no thanks!

Dinner with the herbs under heat lambs

From vertigo central, we went to the Italian restaurant Vapianos, which was a very unique dining experience. When you enter, you are given a swipe card and all your food and drink purchases are put on the card. This is probably the way of the future, and although it didn’t really affect our one bill meal, if we would have been there with a group, this system would have been a G-d send. We looked at the menu, ordered drinks from the bar, and then walked up to the pasta station and the chef made our food in front of us. Despite the semi-fast-food feel, the quality and taste was superior.  Perhaps the best part of all was that every ledge, table and shelf, had different potted herbs so that you could go around the restaurant and add basil, rosemary, cilantro, mint, etc. to your hearts content. I can definitely see why this restaurant is opening chains all across Australia, and the night, like the restaurant, was an overwhelming success! 

Cooking station

View of the ocean when we arrived at twilight

Night view of Surfers Paradise