Christi and Jen at the 4th July fireworks.

Christi in all her finery

Fishing!

Some great shots of my last fishing trip.

This is my fishing partner, Ralph, with a huge Panamanian Red Pomfrey.

The scores of fish i caught due to a rare neuro-degenerative disease i released. Releasing the disease on monday meant that i could sit around until wednesday then ejoy the haul!

I seem to have misplaced my grundies, though this massive tadpole, caught in the west-Arctic, surely made up for it!

Footy!!!!

And so it is, with the Winter out of the way,
the footy season starts!!!!

Although i can't watch any live games, i'm keeing up to date with the AFL, and cheering on the Cats all the way, let's make it two in a row!

The Hawks, though, have hit a purple patch,
and as i'm quite partial to them, and the fact that i
play for the Philadelphia Hawks, they're next in line for The Cup.

Philly has their first game in June against North Carolina in North Carolina.
So training will be full on, and practice matches will start on the 19th April.

And as a passionate Australian, this means everything!

Goodbye

Matty C!

And so, on the weekend, we prepared to say 'Goodbye' to a great bloke who is leaving for North Carolina.

Matt and Katie Curtis are leaving for North Carolina this week so we thought it'd be great to fit in some guy-time before they left.

On Saturday Matty, Matty and I went Disc Golfing at Scarborough Hills Disc Golf course, very nice. We've played there heaps of times in the summer, and despite the cold we played a sensational round, adding much to our previous best scores!

Some of the usual shenanigans included a 'Drop pants' round (the person with the worst score that hole had to drop their pants for the entire next hole), several rounds of brews for the day's play and a little sling shot action to get rid of our used bottles!

Despite the caption on the picture, this PHOTOGRAPH was taken by me and shows how rediculously awesome Matty C's pec's and ab's are!

Then on Sunday we went into the woods with a huge group of dudes to play paintball, 'twas awesome!!! I copped a paintball from about 5 metres away right on the calf, it freakin killed, and left a round blood blister on my leg!

Matty V's head-dress was surely a highlight, as was this shot capturing the head-dress, a flying bottle and Matty C with a smoke in his hand!

Mmmmmm.... Stuffed Chicken!

MMmmmmmm! Stuffed Chicken! I made this tasty treat for my wifey the other night, i even made up the recipe!

It's pretty easy guys, just get some fresh chicken breast and cut a hole in it (so the chicken is now a big pocket). Then take bread crumbs, parmisian cheese, one tomato, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, capsicum and whatever else you think will be awesome and chop them finely.

Mix it all up with an egg to keep it together and stuff the mix into the chicken's new cavity! It's great to be able to use all of the cavities created in this world!

Bread the outside of the chicken, then bake at 180*C for about 45 mins, and "Holy Awesomeness!" you've got a dish which is sure to please the Mrs!

Table Tennis Tournament: Project Awesome

And so it was, on the 10th Feb, 2008, Matt and i entered a table tennis tournament. Training for about a month before-hand, we made sure we could hit the ball hard, flat, top-spin, side spin, back-spin and loop-the-loop. We were in the gym four days a week working on our muscular physique, and were in tip-top shape, ready to play.

Not knowing much about the tournament, we entered and decided to dominate, killing off any opposition with cunning and a large dollop of malice.


Having given my Australian Socceroo's jersey to Matt a while back, Matty thought it'd be a good idea to give me a US Soccer jersey, so we could both look the part. And boy did we ever! As we entered the warehouse turned table tennis centre, everyone stopped, all balls fell to the ground (table tennis balls) and people dropped their paddles, never had such a handsome duo set foot in such a nerdy place. There was complete silence while we registered and took a table to warm up.We were told who would be up first, Matty was chosen to be up against a guy who went by the name of 'Staaz'. Matty soon cleaned up this 11 y/o 3-0, and it was then my turn to crank up the heat and punish this kid for ever setting foot on the court with me. I polished him off 3-0.

My next opponent was another kid, he had a pretty mean fore-hand if i put it out there for him, so i didn't. I kept it hard and flat right at his body, he limped off the court losing 3-0 and suffering ball sized bruises all over his chest.Matty and i were relentless, after dominating all 5 competitors under the age of 12, we faced off, old school style. We went to five sets, playing long, hard points and each not being able to kill off the other. Right at the end of the fifth set, i smacked one hard into Matty's left eye, seeking to gain the advantage. Almost losing an eye, Matty conceded, and i pranced mightily around the court, jeering and giving the old 'how's your father' sign to the crowd! It was then time to face the eventual winner's of the tournament, two Asian people! Although we put up a mighty effort, Matt and I both lost 3-0 to both of them.

The trophies were awarded, though the
runner's up decided to be generous (silly fool!) and hand over the trophy to the third place getter, ME! and i happily accepted! My young opponents all tried to shake my hand, i did so, and lightly tapped each on the skull with my new piece of mantle-candy!And so endeth the tournament, and all were pleased... well, maybe just me.

Sunrise at the Beach

Christi and Jen at Rohobeth Beach at sunrise

(superbowl sunday)

Jaden!

Australia Day

I spent most of my Australia Day at the Aussie restaurant (as the token Aussie), thought there was some great food to be had. I had a meat pie, some roast lamb with a mint gravy and finished off with a pavlova with real cream, fruit and passionfruit syrup... GOLDEN!!!!

And what about Gilly!? Oh, my gosh, it's just as though all of the Aussie cricket players i watched growing up have retired! Oh, that's exactly what has happened! Ah well, i'm sure we'll be awesome for at least another 20 years or so.