New URL

I've moved my blog to http://blog.smallworldcommunication.com

I think I've set up the redirects correctly so that old bookmarks won't break. But I can't guarantee it.

Consider this phase one of actually creating a professional website!

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Can I live without a cell phone?

OK, I'm obviously not going to die without a cell phone. I don't use one at all when I'm out of the country (international roaming charges suck). But it's really handy when I am home. Like yesterday I was at the grocery store and Billy called to ask me to pick something up. Or when I was on my way to parents and I called Billy from the parking lot to tell him where I'd parked (since he'd be flying back and picking up the car).

I've bought a Skype In number to be a contact number for banks and things. Call it and you get me on my computer as long as I'm logged into Skype. If I'm not logged in, it's got a voicemail box to hold my messages. And it doesn't matter where I am in the world, it's still only $30 per year to have the number (and about another $30 per year to make unlimited calls to the US on Skype Out). Like I said, when I'm out of the country, I don't use my cell at all.

So I'm definitely dropping our family plan with AT&T. But I hesitate to be totally without a cell phone. Prepaid seems like it might be the way to go. I could get away with that for $100, or even less if I'm not in the states much. But I'm tempted to just send my brother or in-laws $120/year to add me to a family plan. Which depends on whether I want to be on Verizon or AT&T.

I'm going to cancel service as soon as our contract is up (end of September). I'm pretty sure I'll break down and get a new one one way or the other before the end of the year.

I'm not a very good blogger

I stopped updating again. Oops. We finished up our time in Tumut earlier than expected. So we took a week's vacation in Sydney. It was amazing. I refer you to my husband's blog for details. If you go to Sydney I highly recommend Featherdale Wildlife Park, the BridgeWalk, buying SeeSydney passes with public transport passes, and sitting in the choir loft to watch the orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.

We came home for a week, then went to St Felicien in northern Quebec. It's a long pretty drive (about 8 hours straight north). No touristy stuff this trip - we'll have to get to the zoo and fromageries next time. Now we're back in NY for at least a week. Billy's taking off to work on his trucks. It'll time to get it in show-shape...but he should be able to at least get it down to a single truck by the end of the year. We're trying to get rid of all our extra stuff. Not only do we get some cash and clear the clutter, but it'll make it so much easier to move out. It'd be so much easier to just have a little apartment where we didn't have to worry about maintenance so much.

And I have to restart my push-ups challenge. I took too long of a break to pick up where I left off. I only lasted a few more days after my last post. I got a really nasty flu and was out of commission for a full week and still recovering on vacation. Once we were back I'd totally forgotten. But I've remembered and I'm restarting tomorrow (too tired and full to properly take the challenge tonight).

In Australia

I'm in Australia now. It's a bit colder than I expected. I knew it was supposed to be 30s-60s but I was hoping for more of the upper half of that range. The hotel is essentially not insulated, and we just have little AC/Heat units in the rooms. It took a few days, but I've finally gotten those figured out and the room to stay a reasonable temperature. Unfortunately, the room is like a cave. The bedroom has a glass brick window, the living room has a big picture window. On a sunny day, I can leave the curtains off the bedroom window to let in some warmth/light, but the but picture window has to stay covered. The glass just sucks all the warm out of the room otherwise. And it's not like I have a view. The big window just looks at the other side of the hallway our room is on. Even on a sunny day there's no direct sunshine, so I'd just have a view of a gray wall. So the curtains remain shut, and I live in a cave with no sense of whether it's night or day.

I'm pretty settled in now. But I'm totally off my 'forced activity' schedule. I haven't done a yoga session or completed a day of my pushups training since I got here. I did the first two sets of pushups for week 3 day 3 yesterday. They were killing me. I could only make it half way through the set and had to let my knees down to take a breather. I took too many days off. I think I'll go back to taking a daily yoga break (or a walk outside when it's nice). But I'm not giving up on the pushups.