More Team Beattie Holiday Firsts...

Well, things have been really busy around here since Brett's parents arrived.  Luckily, it has been busy and fun! My apologies for not posting more, but between all this busyness and fun, plus bouts of not feeling well and chilly chilly weather, we've had our hands full.

 Here are a few pictures from the first-ever snowman these Aussies have ever made and our holiday gingerbread house.  Details are in the captions:

It was really much harder to make a snowman with Colorado snow than PA snow.  And with the temperature in single digits that day, brrrrr...   Brett named him "Bob" (big surprise there!).  He lasted five days through serving as Baxter's potty hydrant, a bright Colorado Springs sun, and warming temperature before his head fell off.  RIP Bob the Snowman.

Front view:  I really should have read the directions on the gingerbread house sooner.  It has to be made at least a day before you try to put the frosting and candy on top.  Oops.  The front includes a Snowman, Xmas tree, door and wreath.  The candy decorations were so much harder to work with than we imagined.

Side view:  Both sides looked the same and had a lot more plain brown that we intended but it probably would have taken so much extra time and effort to cover it all up like the amazing one on the box and this was pretty enough.  I especially like the heart candy cane on the roof. <3

Well, that's everything for now.  We're heading down south at the end of the week for the great Australians meet Texans family reunion (or family introduction as the case may be).  Wish us luck!

Team Beattie 1st Christmas Tree

Now if only we could convince Baxter that the tree, ornaments, and lights are not food...

For the love of cricket (bats)...

A  long time ago, in a far away place called Adelaide, a young boy named Brett had a cricket bat.  Brett loved playing with his cricket bat and balls in his family's backyard.  He'd practice his bowling for hours on end and he would love to bat even though he couldn't play any hook shots to protect his parents' windows.  The famed Beattie pitch changed over the years but Brett always found a way to put his beloved cricket bat to use playing the all-Australian pastime.  

Brett grew up into a tall, smart, handsome young man and his family was very proud of him.  He decided to move to America to pursue a graduate degree and was sad to leave his cricket bat behind.  Even as he packed his final bags, he knew that he wasn't saying goodbye to his bat because someday they would be reunited and they would be able to be hitting boundaries together again [even if they were six-and-outs].

Years past and Brett flourished in America.  He did well in his graduate studies, fell in love with a beautiful girl, and explored the world.  Every time he visited Australia or his family and friends came to visit him, his heart tugged at him to be reunited with that special old friend--his cricket bat.  He would meet new friends who suggested he just buy a new one, after all, it would be about the same cost as having the old one sent from half way across the world.  But, Brett knew that just wouldn't do.  If he couldn't have HIS cricket bat, he didn't want any cricket bat.  It was only HIS cricket bat, that held so many memories, that felt just right in his hands, and that loved him just as much as he loved it that belonged in his garage. It was his cricket bat that he wanted most of all...

UPDATE:  Brett's parents were very generous and brought his beloved cricket bat to him.  We were able to go outside in the afternoon on Christmas eve and play.  I learned a few of the rules of backyard cricket (I am not very good at it, sad to say), and we found out that Baxter really enjoys going after the balls. If only we could properly train him to bring it back to the pitch! :-)  I'll try to take a picture of the bat soon and post it for those who are interested in what a cricket bat looks like-it wasn't anything like I imagined, and really heavy too!

Snow day!

It snowed a few inches last night and this morning Brett and I went out with the dog to play in the snow.  It is definitely a different type of snow than we got in Pennsylvania and now that it is colder, it didn't "all melt before noon" like the native Coloradoans have been claiming since we moved here.  The dog, having probably lived in Colorado his whole life didn't mind the snow a bit but Princess wasn't having any of it, preferring to sit at the window and watch. 

We were supposed to go to a holiday party this afternoon hosted by one of my colleagues but we were feeling sick (it hasn't been a great week-headaches, fibro, Brett's broken toe and my falling down the stairs!) so we had to cancel.  I give my first final tomorrow--I cannot believe how fast the semester has flown by!  Students also turn in their final papers so I will be busy grading (same thing happens Wednesday with my second section) for the next week or so.

Team Beattie has been slowly preparing for the arrival of our Aussie parents/in-laws (9 days to go).  Brett keeps looking for a real pine Xmas tree, which apparently is pretty hard to find in Colorado where 99.9% of all of the trees are firs of one type or another.  But, our tree will be up and decorated (hopefully) before they get here.

Ok, well, Baxter the Beattie Beagle is being bad (how's that for alliteration?), so I need to run and save the day.

Telling time...

I've been able to tell time for nearly 25 years.  I've lived in a different time zone from my parents for nearly 7 years.  But every time we enter/leave daylight savings time, I have an abnormally long adjustment period.  Add in the fact that we've recently moved from being an hour ahead of Texas (where my folks live) to an hour behind them, and I can't make heads nor tails of when is the right time to try to call home.

Of course, I shouldn't be complaining too bad.  My husband Brett has even more complicated add/subtract mental math when trying to adjust for the time zone differences between our Colorado home (in Mountain Time, US) to his parents in Adelaide (South Australia, Australia).  I used to have it figured out and I knew that late Friday nights (which are Saturday mornings down under), Brett would be up late to talk to his folks.  But, now that we've moved (which put us two hours earlier) and the time changed both here and there, it is hard to figure our when he's supposed to be online (I usually try to be the one to remind him to do these keep-in-touch things).

I found a very useful website online (World Clock Converter) that I can use to find out what time it is in Adelaide.  For instance, right now:

Colorado Springs (U.S.A. - Colorado) 

Saturday, November 24, 2012 at 6:30:00 PM  MST UTC-7 hours 

Adelaide (Australia - South Australia) 

Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 12:00:00 Noon CDT UTC+10:30 hours 

So, while we usually try to call Brett's parents early Saturday mornings before they start their weekend, the fact that he is just now talking to his Mom (and pleading for her to post his cricket bat as an Xmas present or bring it with them when they come visit) means that we will need to remember to call them mid-afternoon on Fridays rather than waiting until after dinner.  Good to know (harder to remember, but we'll try!)

A new addition to Team Beattie

Say hi to the newest Beattie! He's a beagle, 5 years old, and very energetic. Plus, April says he's much cuter in real life than the picture.  :-)

Today we went back to the animal shelter for the Nth time and found a puppy love match with this adorable dog.   Here is the description they had for him:  Well, howdy. I'm Buford. I'm a-searching for a home that will love me just as much as I love them. I'm the energetic sort, ya see. I love to play, and I love to explore new places. I'm just a good ole boy who is friendlier than apple pie. If you want a southern gentleman who will love you forever, I'm your dawg!

We definitely want to change his name (Buford Beattie...um, no!).  And getting the cat and dog to play nice is a high high priority. We have a busy next few days with teaching, meetings, data work and writing for Brett, and an Aussie/Kiwi Club meeting Saturday, but we hope to get the dog acclimated. 

P.S.-->  Brett has decided that we should name the dog Baxter the Beagle. 

Visit from the Texas Gang

This past weekend, Brett and I were lucky to have my mom, sister and 6 month old nephew come visit us.  It was a whirlwind three day adventure trying to balance rest, work, and family time.  It went by so fast, but we had a lot of fun.  Thanks for coming y'all and we look forward to seeing you again soon.  Here's the short version of the weekend:

The Texas gang drove all through the night Wednesday to arrive in Colorado Thursday mid-morning (it is about a 14 hour drive if you don't stop except for gas!).  This would have been ideal except that Brett and I thought that they were going to show up FRIDAY morning.  So, imagine our surprise when we got a text message from them on Thursday at 9am saying that they were 30 minutes away. Panic attack time (note: we were the ones who had gotten the arrival date wrong, oops!!).  We had worked like crazy for two days straight Tuesday-Wednesday on grading papers and being on campus for teaching, office hours and meetings, so our house was a mess.  We spent those 30 minutes trying to run around and do everything we could to make it more presentable.  Mom insisted that it didn't matter, but we cared plenty! Our new vacuum (bought because my 13-year old one finally died this fall) was still in the box from the store, but we put that together and got the floor clean by evening so the baby could play without "Aunt April" freaking out about him licking the carpet.

Thursday was a rest day for the Texas travelers while we cleaned a bit more.  We had an easy lunch and dinner (since we still hadn't gone to the grocery store yet-we really thought we had another day to get ready!). Friday, my Mom and Brett went grocery shopping and everyone pitched in to make an early Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice, though there was the inevitable question to Brett about Australian Thanksgiving traditions (the answer, for those who are wondering, is that they don't do Thanksgiving outside America, it is an America-only thing!).  Saturday we went and drove around Garden of the Gods and toured the UCCS campus where April works.  Then we came back home for a quiet evening to rest before the Texas gang headed home.  Everyone (well, not Brett) got up about 5am on Sunday for goodbyes before they headed back to Dallas.

We wouldn't have traded the visit for anything (well, perhaps a longer visit that included my step-dad and brother-in-law Brian), and we had a wonderful time.  The rest of the weekend was spent grading more papers (it never ends!!!) and preparing for another week. Luckily we only have a few more weeks of the semester.  And we have a visit from Brett's parents coming up (and we won't mix up their arrival dates!) to look forward to too.

Homemade Chicken Salt

Well, I bought Brett a fryer as an early Xmas present.  So, today he is busy watching college football and wanted to make a proper Aussie burger (with the lot except NO BEETROOT) with those special, work-intensive thrice-cooked chips (fries to us Yanks). Of course, chips aren't the same without chicken salt just like they use in the corner fish and chips shop, so we went on a mission to find some.

Now, some of you know the terrible sad story of our last attempt to acquire Chicken Salt.  Brett packed it in our suitcase on the trip home from visiting his family in Adelaide and (I am sure you can tell where this is going...), the bottles exploded somewhere over the between South Australia and Pennsylvania and we ruined the luggage, but worst, we lost the precious chicken salt.  :-(

So this time, we were going to leave the shipping to professionals.  We tried our trusty new international food store find, World Market, but they don't carry it.  It wasn't on the shelves at the local British Shoppe, and while we could order from a couple online places, it was WAY overpriced for 4-6 oz. of salt and misc. seasonings.

At last, we decided we would just make our own.  This was easier said than done however because it appears that the recipe for chicken salt is practically an Australian national secret.  It isn't listed anywhere! We found two random blogs that had recipes and Brett decided he wanted to try the one based on Aussie KFC's version of chicken salt. Here it is:

Chicken Salt Recipe

6 Tbsps Salt
2 Tbsps MSG (Use Salt if one is averse to this ingredient)
3 tsp Sugar (Superfine, or Castor variety)
3 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Cornstarch (i.e. Cornflour: Yellow variety)
1/2 tsp White Pepper
1/4 tsp Citric Acid (Crystals: This creates that zesty flavor!)
1/4 tsp Turmeric (For that "nuclear" yellow color!)
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/8 tsp Celery Seed (Finely Ground)

Mix it all up, use immediately, or allow to meld for a few hours before use...  
THE VERDICT:
 Well, first, I'll note the few issues we had with the recipe listed.  1) We didn't have MSG, but substituted salt as suggested.  2) Celery seed is incredibly hard to actually grind up. 3) We use regular white cornstarch instead of yellow so ours didn't have the typically coloring of Aussie chicken salt.  4) The recipe makes enough to fill an entire spice bottle (we bought a new empty one from the spice store, but you could save an empty one to refill with this new mix).

Overall, the recipe as listed wasn't too bad.  The onion powder and garlic powder were overpowering though, so we would definitely reduce the amounts to 2tsp and 1/2tsp the next time we make it.  Because we already had the mix, to fix it, we added 1 1/2 tsp sugar and 1 tbsp salt to counteract the onion/garlic and it immensely improved it. 

I don't see myself using chicken salt all that much (to me, it has limited applications), but Brett assures me that he is going to be using it plenty.  Makes me happy that we went the extra mile...

P.S.-->  In case Lyn reads this, know that I am probably never going to attempt trying to recreate Brett's favorite tomato paste from scratch.  He'll have to go home (Aus) for that.

First Snow!!

Well, we have had our first bit of snow here in Colorado Springs.  It was the best snow experience I think we've ever had-MUCH better than out in Pennsylvania.  While it was cold (in the low 30s--that's in F...sorry, I still can't convert temperature to C in my head for my aussie readers!), and there was a nice snow-covered effect over the cars, yard, roofs, etc., there was NO snow on the driveway or roads. Today we're getting the sprinkler company to come and winterize the in-ground sprinkler system, getting Brett's car fixed, and we're enjoying a nice fire in the fireplace. 

We've been sick and taking care of one another and also slowly putting together the final little things around the house.  April's mom and sister (with not-so-little nephew Andrew) are visiting us in November and Brett's parents are coming to see us for Christmas. We are so excited for both families to see how our new life is coming together and excited to introduce so many people to the wonders of Colorado.

Gotta Love Ginger Beer

Brett loves ginger beer.  In particular, Bundaberg ginger beer.  It is an Aussie product that we've been trying to find in the States for months.  We finally found it at a local store called World Market and he let me buy him a whole case of it!!!  I love spoiling my husband! 

Bathurst

I am so excited that Brett was able to find the Bathurst race on TV today.  He worked so hard all day on his job application stuff and so this is a well-deserved break for him.  Time to get him another beer and learn something about Aussie car racing.

Aussie/Kiwi club

So, last week, Brett and I went with some friends (a couple of physicists from Perth-the wife teaches at the same university as me) to the Aussie/Kiwi club dinner.  It is a really interesting group of people, a lot of older war brides and couples who have been in the States for decades plus a few younger people in their 30s. There are more Kiwis than Aussies. Apparently the club is trying to become a bit more diverse in the variety of members. 

The food (which is prepared by the pair of hosts so it varies each month) was not as good as we had hoped, but our friends also said that it was usually better.  So, we have high hopes for next month (it will be hosted by a professor at the Air Force Academy who is part of the "young crowd" in the group).

I think I liked it a bit more than Brett did...something about it feeling like a family reunion with old people sorta turned him off.  But, it is at least worth going again.  It costs $10 per person per year with the obligation to host the party once a year (with another member, apparently to reduce the cooking workload and costs).  I think we'll try again before paying/committing-at the very least we've made a couple new friends and talked a lot about things like where to get Aussie-like foods and stuff (still no progress on trying to find out where we can buy a cricket bat though!).

Home alone

Well, just when I was adjusting to the Aussie invasion (er, I mean Evan visiting), the boys left for a long two-week tour of the Southwestern US.  I wish I had made Brett post their itinerary (or at least send me a copy) prior to their leaving since I can barely remember where they are supposed to be everyday.  I know in the first week, they're hitting 4 corners, the grand canyon, and Las Vegas. Week 2 has them in northern California and Yosemite National Park prior to driving back over the Rocky Mountains on their way home.

I miss Brett like crazy, but I am so glad that he's taking this opportunity to have fun with his best friend.  Plus, he's figuring out the best places to go for when he and I (and his family from Australia) can get to have a fabulous vacation too.

I'm outnumbed by Australians!

Brett has arrived back from ASA with Evan.  Now I'm the lone Yankee in the house (unless you count Princess). 

Unfortunately, both boys are under the weather (Evan from altitude sickness and Brett from Denver food/drink/hotel issues). 

Luckily it appears that we all will get a day to rest before returning to real life tomorrow.  If anybody needs anything from us, we'll be on the couch watching television.

New blog or change this one??

So, April got rid of her "Distracted Dissertator" blog as she started her new professor job and didn't want anything coming back to bite her (not that she said anything bad, but just in case) and because she was just HAPPY to be done with that part of her life.

Now, we're contemplating starting a "Team Beattie" blog that follows our crazy adventures as we start our new (married! real job! grown-up!) lives in Colorado.  Not sure if we'd just start a brand new blog, rename and revamp this one (after all, I am not sure Brett is so 'displaced' anymore).  Thoughts/opinions/ideas?

Either way, we're awfully busy these days between finishing dissertations, teaching, and just enjoying the newlywed life.  Blogging is secondary!

100 Foods to Eat Before you Die

Ran across this today and Brett and I went through the list to see what we had eaten.  Turns out he has a much more adventurous palette than mine.

1. Abalone  Brett
2. Absinthe Brett
3. Alligator April Brett
4. Baba Ghanoush Brett  
5. Bagel and lox April
6. Baklava April Brett
7. Barbecue ribs April Brett
8. Bellini April Brett
9. Bird’s Nest Soup
10. Biscuits and gravy April Brett
11. Black Pudding
12. Black Truffle
13. Borscht April Brett
14. Calamari April Brett
15. Carp Brett
16. Caviar
17. Cheese fondue April
18. Chicken and waffles
19. Chicken Tikka Masala April Brett
20. Chile Relleno
21. Chitterlings/Chitlins
22. Churros April
23. Clam Chowder April Brett
24. Cognac
25. Crabcake April Brett
26. Crickets
27. Currywurst
28. Dandelion wine
29. Dulce de leche
30. Durian
31. Eel April Brett
32. Eggs benedict Brett
33. Fish Tacos
34. Foie Gras April Brett
35. Fresh Spring Rolls April Brett
36. Fried Catfish April Brett
37. Fried Green Tomatoes
38. Fried Plaintain
39. Frito Pie April
40. Frog’s Legs
41. Fugu
42. Funnel Cake April
43. Gazpacho
44. Goat Brett
45. Goat’s milk April Brett
46. Goulash Brett  
47. Gumbo April Brett
48. Haggis
49. Head Cheese
50. Heirloom Tomatoes April Brett
51. Honeycomb Brett  
52. Hostess Fruit Pie April
53. Huevos Rancheros
54. Jerk Chicken Brett  
55. Kangaroo April Brett
56. Key Lime Pie April
57. Kobe Beef
58. Lassi Brett
59. Lobster April Brett
60. Mimosa April Brett
61. MoonPie April Brett
62. Morel Mushrooms
63. Nettle Tea
64. Octopus April Brett
65. Oxtail Soup
66. Paella
67. Paneer
68. Pastrami on Rye Brett  
69. Pavlova April Brett
70. Phaal
71. Philly Cheesesteak April Brett
72. Pho Brett  
73. Pineapple and cottage cheese April
74. Pistachio Ice Cream
75. Po’ boy April Brett
76. Pocky April
77. Polenta
78. Prickly Pear Brett
79. Rabbit Stew
80. Raw Oysters Brett
81. Root Beer Float April
82. S’mores April Brett
83. Sauerkraut Brett
84. Sea Urchin
85. Shark Brett  
86. Snail Brett
87. Snake Brett
88. Soft Shell Crab April Brett
89. Som Tam
90. Spaetzle April Brett
91. Spam April Brett
92. Squirrel
93. Steak Tartare
94. Sweet Potato Fries April Brett
95. Sweetbreads
96. Tom Yum
97. Umeboshi
98. Venison April Brett
99. Wasabi Peas
100. Zucchini Flowers Brett

Brett's Total is 48
April's Total is 41

And now we have an entire list of new foods to try!