Wow, That's Offal!!!

On a recent shopping trip to Springvale we came across a poultry shop selling chicken hearts for about 3 dollars a kilo. I happily forked over my cash for a bag of the tiny delicacies. This brought rather disgusted frowns to both Matt and Tara's face. I know people are weird about offal meat but I really don't understand why. Angela almost lost her burrito one night when she realized I was eating one made with tongue. I grew up with my Mom cooking liver and tongue so maybe it's not that weird to me. I mean really giblet gravy, YUM! Pate,Yum! Matt loves steak and kidney pie so I didn't think it would be too hard to convert him over to being a heart lover especially since he loves my Thanksgiving stuffing and gravy both of which contain the contents of the chicken innards goodie bag. It's really easy to make an awesome stir fry.

1 pound chicken hearts
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 toe garlic, minced
1 teaspoon corn starch
2 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Everything was coming along nicely. Smelled good, CHECK! Looked good, CHECK! Tasted good, CHECK! Well at least I thought so. I will give Matt credit for trying(notice the forced smile). He picked out the mushrooms before actually digging in. When the words "It's chewy" came out of his mouth I knew my quest had failed. He apologized profusely but just couldn't bring himself to eat the tiny hearts. At least he tried and YAY more for me!

Creature Feature

In my never ending quest to take as many cheesy tourist pictures as humanly possible there was a quick stop off the other day at what looked like an abandoned Fern World. There is a giant dinosaur outside so of course there had to be a moment spared for a picture.

We also have a new creature living outside on our porch. We have always had one "Charlotte" who lives in a crack above the front door. She has a very messy web. This new "Charlotte" has a massive web but is courteous enough to actually take the web down everyday and put it back up every night. She varies her location a bit each night from the possums tree to right across the whole walkway.

For my last creature picture of the day a swimming penguin. Yesterday, for Sandra's birthday we all went to the Melbourne Aquarium to see the King Penguins. They were so cute, eating fish and swimming around. Lovely, lovely animals.

Rolling Down the River

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day outside, all sunny but not too hot. Matt and I were doggy sitting Bosley and decided to go have a little sausage sizzle down at the Yarra Bend Park. We shared our bbq with a lovely family from Chile and had a very nice picnic. Tara (Bosley's Mom) got off work early and came and met us. That's when I decided to rent a row boat. I may have bragged a bit about my rowing abilities that may or may not exist. So off we went. Well, not only was I a horrible rower but I almost tipped the boat over. Matt took over the rowing and sat in a massive puddle of wet jeans. It was great fun though and at least I didn't completely fall in. Me getting soaked wouldn't have been so bad but if I took my purse (including camera, phone, passport, etc) with me that would have been tragic especially if all of that ended up at the bottom of the Yarra River. Fortunately it was only the bottom half of me that got drenched.

Dandenong Ranges

It has been blazing hot in Melbourne for the past few days so one great place to escape the heat is in the Dandenong Ranges. It is so beautiful and full of fern trees and mountain ash which are as tall as 65 metres tall. There are tons of walking tracks where Matt and I spotted an old wombat burrow, two kookaburras arguing over a sausage and lots of other creatures of the bird and insect variety. Back in the 1890's a plan was enacted to help end poverty in Melbourne. Families could have plots of land in the Dandenong Ranges if they cleared the land, built a slab hut and grew berries and vegetables for a living. As dense as the vegetation is I can imagine this was quite a difficult job with hand tools of the age. This area was also used for commercial timber until the 1930's. Luckily the land has now been preserved and returned to it's natural beauty. It is also home to the Lyre Bird which of course I didn't see. If I couldn't see one in a zoo enclosure I am beginning to doubt I will ever see one. I hear them just never see them.

I love these giant wind sock men. Matt felt the urge to dance along with them. He looks more like he's "walking like an Egyptian" than dancing with a wind sock.

Christmas Highlights

I am back in Australia after a wonderful trip home to visit friends and family in the States. Here are some highlights.
A quick stop over at Daytona

Visiting the "Living Nativity" at Ponte Vedra Presbyterian

Watching Jack dance up a storm

Having a Thai bubble tea on Argyle.......gosh I miss those!

Visiting the massive "American Gothic" on Michigan Ave with Chris

Seeing Wicked...Thanks Phyllis, Colin and Jack!!!

Remembering how pretty the snow is at Christmas time

Remembering what a pain the snow is and wondering how I lived in it for 10 years

Making the most of the snow

Visiting the Wicker Park Fire Station with Jack, who is a teeny, tiny bit obsessed with anything to do with firemen

Visiting the tree at the Christkindlmarket in downtown Chicago



Going to St Augustine to see the lights

Playing trucks with Sam and Wright

Matt sharing his boomerang expertise with Colt and Adam

Helping out Sam on Uncle Mike's construction sight


My Mom and Dad's birthday dinner

Even though I got a cold for Christmas it was still a great time. I hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Christmas Fun

Matt and I spent yesterday finishing up making and buying Christmas presents. I have been a little Scrooge-esque about getting a tree. Matt spotted a tiny tree and pointed out it was only $4.50 so we got it. We decorated out little tree and it was perfect for the amount of ornaments we have. Matt was very happy and I must say our little tree is very cute.

We went up to Canterbury for carols in the park. I was making fun of a spelling mistake in the program. "Noel" was spelled "Nowell". Turns out it is an English way to spell it. Never seen that before. Nobody really sang along with the carollers where we were sitting but Matt and I did a bit. There was a choir from Tonga that was quite good. I am going to be taking a "blogging" vacation but will be back in 2009. So to everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

The Bells Will Be Ringing

With Christmas time comes the bell ringers from the Salvation Army. I think the Salvation Army does great things but I am not always the biggest fan of the bell. I am however a BIG fan of the brass band!! They have been outside of our local grocery store on the weekends playing Christmas carols. Lovely!