God Friendly Halloween

So tonight is Halloween. But the kid is too young to really enjoy it or go trick-or-treating. And the kids that are likely to come to our front door looking for candy are mostly rich spoiled brats. So we decided to head across the road to "Fall Fest" (that would be "Autumn Fest" for our Australian viewers).

Fall Fest is a carnival/fete type event that is put on by one of the local churches. Basically it is a Halloween celebration without all of the devil worshiping heathens and other "evil" stuff. Let it be said though that neither Jen or I are particulaly concerned about offending any god when it comes to Halloween, but basically we had nothing better to do. Added bonus - Callum got to wear his costume again.



I think the kid was a little tired by the time this photo was taken ...

Jack-O-Lanterns

Jen and Callum returned from northern California tonight.

And tomorrow is Halloween, so we decided it was time to make use of the pumpkins we bought last weekend.

The pumpkins are sitting on a glass top table if you are confused about what you are seeing.

See if you can guess who carved which one.

Grandma Margrett

Last night we flew up to Sacramento and stayed at Jen's parent's house.

Today we traveled down to San Francisco with other member's of Jen's family to scatter the ashes of Jen's Grandma Margrett who sadly passed away a couple of weeks ago. Grandma Margrett had arranged to have her ashes scattered at sea on San Francisco Bay.

Fittingly it was a foggy day on the bay today. Here is a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge taken from the boat. The southern end of the bridge is to the right of the photo. You can see the land support to the right and the base of one of the main upright columns and that is it.

It was so foggy that when we sailed underneath the bridge we couldn't even see the road deck above us.

We held a small service on the bow of the boat before the ashes were scattered and some flowers were laid in the water.

The boat captain suggested that Callum wear a Life Jacket and we decided that that seemed like a wise plan. Of course as an added bonus, not only was it a safety precaution, but it was also super entertaining.




The family all ate lunch together in San Francisco before departing for home.

I flew back to southern California tonight and Jen and the kid will back tomorrow night.

Callum the Pumpkin

It is Callum's 1st Halloween and of course as all kids in America need, he had to have a costume.

We tried to get some good photos of him in his costume, but it was an exercise in frustration really. We did have some professional photos taken recently, where he wore the costume for a couple of the shots and those turned out much better. We will post those once we get the results back.

But in the meantime, please enjoy Callum the Pumpkin.

Pumpkin Carnival

It is Halloween this coming week and we decided to take Callum to the Pumpkin Carnival this afternoon. He is a bit young really to get anything out of it, so it was probably more for our amusement than anything.

For our Australian audience, Pumpkin Carnivals spring up in October every year to sell (you guessed it) pumpkins for Halloween. They are often in the parking lot of the grocery store and other equally desirable locations. Usually they are run by homeless drifter carny folks with freakishly small hands. Some of the more upscale ones have blow up castles and amusement rides associated with them. Oh, and the pumpkins are criminally overpriced. After Halloween the carnival goes quiet for about 2 weeks and then is miraculously reborn into mini Christmas Tree farms. I have no idea where the carny folk live for the other 9 months of the year.

Anyway, we didn't buy any pumpkins (we went into the grocery store and bought them there for a third of the price). Callum did have fun however.

Barbecue Capitol of the World

Tonight is my last night in Texas, my flight home doesn't leave until the morning.

Generally when I travel I like to embrace the local culture, particularly the local food and drink. And in Texas, as far as food goes, that means Barbecue.

The hotel I am staying in is just up the street from what is reportedly the best barbecue place in Austin, Iron Works Barbecue. And I tried it the other night with a co-worker of mine that is here in town for the same conference. It was very good no doubt.

Tonight I decided to try reportedly the best barbecue in all of Texas. In fact, the best and the 2nd best are both in the (very) small town of Lockhart, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Austin. How did the 2 best barbecue places in Texas end up in the same small town you ask? Family infighting!

First there was Smitty's Market, here is a picture of the store front (obviously it is famous for its food and not its decoration).

It is a strange little place, its like stepping back into the 1940s inside. You order from a counter right in front of the barbecue pits, and they just carve off whatever you want. The menu just lists the type of meat they have that day and the cost per pound. It is entirely up to you what you want on your plate and they figure out how much it costs at the end. Pork ribs, beef ribs, sausage, brisket, pork chops etc. I went with the brisket and 1 sausage and this is what I got.

Notice the absence of a plate or a fork! Everything is served on paper and you only get a knife, the rest you manage with your fingers. You do get 3 slices of bread though apparently at no extra cost. Oh and they don't believe in barbecue sauce. The brisket was divine! The sausage was another story. I cut into it and so much grease flowed out, it made me nauseous. The paper went see through! I like to think I have a strong stomach, but that was even too much for me.

At some point the family that ran Smitty's got into an argument with one another and half the family split off to start their own restaurant called Kreuz Market. I visited Kreuz market and the food is almost identical, but the restaurant is like a giant barn, 20 times the size of Smitty's. Here's the outside:


I tried the Pork Chop at Kreuz's. Served on paper, no fork again! It was crazy salty, and after the sausage incident, I didn't have the fortitude to finish it.

So if you are ever in Lockhart Texas (god only knows why you would be though), then I would hit Smitty's if you are in the mood for barbecue and 1940s kitsch.

Photos from Home

I am still in Texas.

Jen sent some photos of the kid to keep me occupied while I am here.

Up Close & Personal with a 747

After our adventure at Disneyland this morning, Jen and Callum dropped me at LAX airport so that I could get on a plane to Austin, Texas for the next few days for a conference.

We arrived at the airport a little early so I had time to kill after I once again braved the inhumanity that is airport security these days. So I hit the Frequent Flyers Club and watched some football.

While sitting there I noticed an Australian icon going past.



But then something quite impressive happened, they towed that bad boy right into the gate near where I was sitting. In fact when I say "near", that is probably the biggest understatement of the year. Check out the photo below.



By the time they finished manouvering it around, I think the front tip of the nose of the plane was probably less than 4 meters (12 ft) from my feet. I just sat there, didn't move and they pulled it right up to me. Very cool.

Now if only it had been one of their new A380s - now that would have been something.

CHOC Walk

This morning, was the fundraising walk for the Children's Hospital of Orange County (you may recall I mentioned it previously). Between the two of us, we raised $400 for the cause and got out of bed at an ungodly hour today to do the walk.

The walk was 5km long (3.1 miles) and the course was laid out through both the Disneyland park and also the California Adventure park. I am not sure how many people participated but it must have been in the vicinity of 10,000.

One aspect of the day that Jen and I had not expected was that there were a lot of groups walking together in support of a specific sick child who is being treated by the hospital and in some cases the groups were walking in memory of a child who had been treated at the hospital but had lost their battle. You don't have to see too many t-shirts that say things like "Walking in loving memory of ..." and have dates like "2001 to 2006" on them before it gets you a little choked up, especially as we walked along with our exceptionally healthy baby.

Anyway, Jen got a little snap happy with the camera while we were there and I took a couple of photos too when I could wrestle the camera away from here. We took so many that we put them in an album instead of trying to put them here in the blog. So here you go:

CHOC Walk 2008

Callum With the Giggles

Here is a video of Jen playing with Callum which shows of Callum's newly discovered giggling ability.



Here is some more of it. This one goes a little "Blair Witch" in the middle when Jen try's to adjust angle mid-stream, but if it doesn't make you sea-sick, it does get better.

BMW For Sale, Slight Fire Damage

Coming home from work this afternoon, I came over the rise on the toll-road next to our apartment complex and I caught site of a huge plume of black smoke coming from the exact direction of our apartment.

After I busted out a few colorful words and my heart started again, I exited the toll-road and got caught in some traffic on the exit ramp. I snapped this photo while I was waiting to get up to the lights to see exactly what was on fire.



Finally when I got to the intersection, it turned out it was not the apartment complex, but a black BMW SUV which had "left" the road and hit an electrical transformer.



The building in the background of that photo is our apartment complex.

Here are some of our neighbors nervously watching the fire creep down the hill towards their garages.



Anyway, since the BMW decided to hit an electrical transformer our entire apartment complex was without electricity. There was some chaos as people realized that the automatic garage doors weren't working so no one could park their cars. Also, those who already had their cars in their garages couldn't get them out - like our neighbor the nurse who needed to leave for work. We saw a bunch of people coming in with pizza and other fast food, since there was not going to be any kitchen action.

So, if you are in the market for 2nd hand BMW, I think there is a bargain available in the Aliso Viejo area.

BTW, since I am posting this, you can safely assume that yes, we have electricity back, and no it did not take all night.

Patriots @ Chargers

Jen and I went to an NFL game this afternoon down in San Diego (the closest pro football team to us). Of course, it was not a coincidence that the San Diego team was playing against my team, the Patriots.

The game didn't end well from my point of view (ie. the Patriots lost), but it is still always fun to wear the opposition's colors into someone else's stadium!

The Cat is Away (Again)

Callum and I are bachelors again this week until Friday night. Jen is off to "exciting" Tulsa, Oklahoma today for work. I am not expecting quite as many photos from her on this trip as her trip to Manhattan the other week!

This means I am sick-kid-duty solo for the next few days. Callum woke up Thursday morning with a crazy cough and some congestion. We ended up taking him to the doctor Thursday afternoon, where he was diagnosed with Croup. So far everything has gone as the doctor predicted with him being worse Thursday and Friday nights and then starting to get better Saturday night onwards. Fingers crossed this continues, as my sister had Croup when we were kids and she ended up in hospital for days in an oxygen tent. Not good.

Beer Tour w/ Brian and Nikki

This afternoon we took our friends Brian and Nikki who are visiting from Colorado to a couple of the fine beer establishments in the area. First we stopped at Pizza Port in San Clemente for lunch (of pizza and beer).

Next stop was Port Brewing / Lost Abbey Brewery in San Marcos. Jen and I hadn't been here before, but we will certainly be returning - definitely worth the visit. Here are some photos.






Lastly we ended at Stone Brewing Company for dinner. What can I say, we just can't get enough of that place.

The Fine Line Between Laughing and Crying