WEDDING!!!!!!

Yay wedding! This was the first wedding of the Lenio family kids, and heaps of fun.

So this past Saturday Bobby married Natalie, and now have two sons named Liam. In their speech at the reception, Nat promised if they have a little girl they'll call her Lia :)

Both Mary and Lucy were in the bridal party - Mary as a bridesmaid, and Lucy as a groomswoman. The Liams were ringbearers. I was MC. 'Twas lots of fun.

Here are some photos. They're mostly terrible. Phil was my +1 and responsible for photography since I was busy MCing, but my camera sucks (seen here) so he used his camera for the rest of the night, and now I don't have the photos :( Phil! Please send me photos of my brother's wedding!!! k, thnx.

The Clan:



Bob & Nat receiving:



The Liams, Big & Little, looking sharp:



And Justin Beiber, 'cause everyone in Canada knows each other:



Day 10 - A book you’ve always meant to have read and never got round to
Les Miserables

Monterey Bay with Magoo!

Gettin' in the groove of taking the kids out to fun stuff. Here's Magoo with a turtle:



and jelly fish are awesome when there's no risk of touching them.







Day 9 - A book you read when you feel down
The Blue Castle

Other Updates

Because I have to catch up:

- last Wed, got back from Australia. Went straight in to work, worked late, missed water polo training
- Thursday - Laura Billing arrived! Hooray, guest!
- Friday - all-day meeting in the City. Laura caught a lift in with Scott and I. Laura and I stayed over at Justine's. Had tasty Mexican for dinner, did some knitting and watch some Jane Eyre. Good times.
- Saturday - Mat, Justine, Margot, Laura and I all went to the Monterey Aquarium! It was awesome. I have photos, but need to get them off my camera, so I'll post them later.
- Sunday - Laura and I went to Sonoma, went on a wine tasting tour at a biodynamic vineyard, which was super yummy and super tasty. We had a picnic in a garden there, then went to the Charles Schultz museum and checked out some Peanut stuff
- Monday - met up with Justine & Laura in the City to go see HP7: Part Deux. Mat babysat Margot. It. Was. Awesome.

Ok, all that's out of the way then. Laura's with Justine & Mat 'till she leaves on Thursday. I'm packing up my flat in preparations for moving house again next week. And that's all you need to know for now.

Next up: MY LITTLE BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!! Exciting times. Look for the photos next week.

Day 8 - The book you can quote best
Pride and Prejudice

Parliament House

At our final day of UniGames in Canberra, we had to check out of our flat at 9:30 a.m., however the gold medal match we were playing in wasn't until 1:30 p.m. What to do for the next 3 hours in the most boring city on earth? We did what every other Australian does when they're forced to come to Canberra in Year 6 (and possibly again on later school trips): We went to Parliament House.

As Jess Woo and I are "Imports", we were all allowed to be tourists for the day. Here's the team takin' on Parliament:



And Leyla dancing with Canada's gift to Australia: a soap-stone carving of a dancing walrus. It's way cooler than the vase that Korea sent.



We also went and actually watched the house sitting and voting on some bills. Julia Gillard wasn't there, but Peter Garrett was, so I actually recognized an Aussie politician. They all got up and played musical chairs when voting. There was no name calling, which I have heard is popular in Australian politics, so that was a little disappointing. But it was on the radio that in the afternoon, Julia Gillard did turn up, and one of the other MPs was meowing at her. Love it!

Day 7 - A book that reminds you of somewhere
Listen To Me, Grace Kelly
also, Word Nerd

Austraaaaaalia!

Last week I arrived back from 2 weeks in Australia. I bought the ticket about 3 months ago, thinking it would be incentive to write faster, so that I could go back, submit, go to unigames, party for 2 weeks, learn to surf - the whole shebang! Unfortunately I didn't finish writing in time :( But, since I had the time booked off, the plane ticket, and a desperate need for 2 weeks of uninterrupted work on my thesis, I decided to go anyways.

The trip had a lot more library and a lot less party than was originally intended, but there was still a lot of awesomeness: I got the first-class upgrade BOTH WAYS! so no jetlag and lots of sleep. I have the structure and content of my first 5 chapters approved in general (just need to finish writing them now...), I wrote the intro and lit review to completion, and I still went to UniGames! And we won silver! And after 9 soccer games in 5 days, my knee is still great. So all in all, a HUGELY successful trip back. Here are some shots of the team, after having won silver, and on 80's night:





Day 6 - A book you either couldn’t finish or struggled to.
The God of Small Things