Back in the chair

Time to go to the dentist again. Whee. This time, the Star Trek dentist decided I needed inlays, which he designed in front of me using 3D CAD software and had fabricated down the hall within 10 minutes. Inlays suck much more than fillings. I had to go back twice to have them adjusted.

Llama Llama signed by Mama

The LA Book Fair is very kid-friendly. Besides a show by the Fresh Beat Band, there were plenty of children's authors and characters in attendance. Ellen had her Llama Llama book signed by Anna Dewdney. Her first autograph. (We refuse to get those silly autograph books for the characters at Disneyland.)

Preschool arms race

A kid turned four. His birthday party included a petting zoo set up in the backyard and pony rides on the postage stamp sized front lawn. Am I the only one who finds this over the top?

Eye-catching

I'm attending an accreditation conference in California. Not exactly thrilling stuff. This vendor has slightly overdone it with the giant neon signs on their booth.

Rough Rider

We're on a "date" at the mall. She likes making silly faces for the camera now.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be

She was very happy to get her first library card and check out some books.

Still in the air

A little post-midnight break in the bar, as our long flight back to LA continues.

Laugh until you puke

Alas, time to go home. V Australia likes to put cheeky, humorous notes all over their planes -- everything, including the salt n' pepper packets, is covered with sarcastic little jokes.

Distracting

Trying very hard to pay attention at the conference roundtable. Kind of difficult when the view behind them is of surfers and beach volleyball games.

Tasty, tasty cheese!

You gotta love a place that characterizes their cheeses as either tasty or extra tasty.

Action or Cottons?

From the minibar at the Manly Novotel. What kind of night are YOU going to have?

I'm a Manly man

The vacation part of our Australia trip is technically over for me. We took our luggage on the ferry over to Manly, on the north side of Sydney Harbour, where I'll be attending a conference for the next few days. The conference hotel is a Novotel right on Manly Beach -- this is the view from our balcony room. We could leave the doors open and go to sleep listening to the surf.

Walk with the animals, talk with the animals

We spent Easter at Sydney's Taronga Zoo. This was the best zoo I've ever visited. The Australians may be a little less lawsuit-phobic than Americans. Many of the exhibits let you get in and mingle among the animals. In this exhibit, we passed through a sally port and wandered around a trail populated by kangaroos, wallaby, and emus.

Femme Fatale

Ever since she worked in Corrections, Rachel's been obsessed with prisons and prisoners. She has a collection of toy prisoners (which she easily added to in Australia, a landed founded as a penal colony). Here at the police and justice museum, she got to indulge her passion.

Ered Luin

The Blue Mountains aren't just a place in Middle-Earth. They're also a gorgeous range of sandstone features and eucalyptus forest in New South Wales. We drove up into the mountains for a few hours, then hiked about 200 steps down a cliff face to get to this overlook. The air was full of oxygen and eucalyptus vapor. My lungs have never felt better.

If I could, I would retire here.

Mmmm, pie!

At Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Chinatown, we had their famous meat pies. (Technically, I had their famous meat pie, topped with mashed potatoes, mashed peas, and gravy -- the "tiger pie.") Rachel wimped out and had a seafood pie or something like that. You can guess which tower of yum is mine.