A backpacker hostel here in Australia burned down a few days ago. I didn't
get a single concerned e-mail. How rude.

I'm still getting over the loss of my pictures. My fax to Nikon requesting the
sponsorship of a digital camera "so that I would no longer have pictures to
lose in the mail" and was an exercise in retarded logic and a failure.

Work continues as usual. I finished most of next week's work last week,
for the next few nights I get to go in and play games for a few hours.

I've been going out and partying like a madman lately. I became buddies
with one of the bouncers at Paramount after learning that he was from
Colorado, and I'm making lots of Aussie friends. I went bowling last week
with one of them, and I was shocked to find the same scoring computers
that we have in our bowling alleys at home. Entering our names and starting
the game was a cinch. I went on to bowl a 162, one of the best games of my life.

Michelle got Frida on a house-cleaning kick today, and I got laundry duty.
I explained the virtues of tumble drying to Frida and offered to sit at the
Laundromat for an hour and a half while our clothes dried. Frida has been
drying her clothes on clotheslines for as long as she can remember. I
offered her a freshly tumble-dried towel, and she was taken aback by its
fluffiness and lintlessness.

On the way home, I stopped at McDonald's for a very affordable Footy Meal.
Love the two all-beef patties and the large fries. Australia has a
population of more than 18 million people. According to the Web site,
McDonald's restaurants in Australia serve more than one million customers a
day. Think about that for a second.

Tonight I went to see the new Jim Carrey movie, pretty good if you like
genitalia gags and animatronic animal cruelty. Before every movie, they
have an annoying little animated film strip dude who surfs around the
cinema logo on a film canister just like they do back home, only the
Australian dude doesn't slip and fall into a black hole of spiraling filmstrips
like our dumb-ass American dude does.

It was cold today , but I still think it's warmer than the rest of the country.
I think I picked a good place to ride out the winter.

It's late and I'm tired. Good night.

No Regrets.

Jeff