Michael J comes up for air

It's been a while now, and quite a few things have happened since I actually had a little time to keep my blog up to date. I'll give you the executive summary and then inanely ramble for a while.

Highlights
- Spent a weekend in DC with the family
- Went back to Brisbane for a week
- Finished work in Chicago
- Had David visit for a fortnight
- Worked in Dallas, Texas for a few weeks
- The weather's superb - what a difference!
- The Barry family becomes American

Weekend in DC
The weekend after almost being stuck in Chicago and flying to DC to spend some time with Marcel and Belinda, funnily enough, we had a planned weekend in DC with Marcel and Belinda. Except this time, the weather was great and the rest of the family could come too. Because Alicia hadn't been to DC before, we spent some time checking out the sights of the nation's capital. It was supposedly cherry blossom week, but we didn't see the promised cherry blossoms. I think we beat it by a few days, judging by the photos we saw in the papers the following week.

Back to Australia
In early April, we managed to get back home for a bit of time in "normal land". I only went for a week, but Alicia and Kyan managed to get almost two weeks. It was good to be back home, where the food was normal, the people were normal, things were, well, normal. I ducked into the office a couple of times and caught up with my old friends from work. They've moved buildings, and it looks like a pretty good layout. Best of all, everyone gets their own desk, so no more hotelling problems.

It was especially great to catch up with the family and spend some relaxing time at home. I kept waking up at 4 in the morning for the first few days (love jetlag) so spent a couple of early days drinking coffee and watching the World Cup Cricket. Mum's cooking was great (of course), as were the meat pies and Ice Breaks.

Back to Chicago
The day after I flew back to New York, I had to get on another plane and travel to Chicago to continue the work I had been doing there. I was pretty tired, but had nothing else that I needed to do that day, so I took my time getting to the airport. It takes a couple of hours to get to Chicago, so I was in no rush. Anyway, when I landed, I turned on my phone to find that I had a voicemail message. No surprise there. What I didn't expect was that the message was "Don't come to Chicago. We're having a quiet week."

Great. I'd just flown half way round the world and backed up for another flight to Chicago, just to be told not to. Oh well. As it turns out, the team was shrinking anyway, so I will ahve already done my last work on the job. It took most of the next day to figure out the new team structure (and that I wouldn't be part of it), so by the time I was trying to get back to New York, most of the flights had already gone or were full. That worked out pretty well, because it gave us the chance to have a farewell dinner with the team. I flew back the next morning and actually got to spend some quiet time back in New York.

Visit from Dave
Five days after I arrived back in New York from Australia, the rest of our family showed up, with an extra. David (my brother) came to visit us for a couple of weeks. Initially, it was looking like I'd be spending most of the trip in Chicago, but by finishing on that job, I was based in New York again. That was fantastic. I think Dave managed to get most things done that there are to do here, and even got me out and about seeing a few things I hadn't done yet. One of these was going to a baseball game. We managed to get $5 tickets to see the New York Mets. It was good to go to a game and see what things are like. The stadium wasn't too full, but there was a good crowd and a decent atmosphere (although the atmosphere was lacking oxygen up where we were sitting; they weren't cheap seats for nothing).

Because I was still working, we did quite a few of the things at night. This made for a tiring couple of weeks, but we certainly saw a lot. Alicia and Kyan looked after him during the day, and I looked after him at night. One of these trips was to Coyote Ugly, as in the original bar that the movie was about. It was certainly interesting, and another thing to cross off the list of things to see in New York. Unfortunately, all of us missed out on what seems to be Dave's favourite bit of the trip, his visit to Popeye's in Harlem. That's his story, and perhaps a good reason to start a blog. Very funny.


Down in Texas, y'all hear
After finishing with Chicago, I had a new job start in Dallas, Texas. Even better, this was a Finance Function Effectiveness review. Exactly the kind of work I moved to the US to do. Very long story short, the job went well and the boss was happy.

Anyway, Dallas is an interesting place. Compared to New York, it is very new, very clean and everything is very big. The cars are enormous. Every second person is driving something with an engine that would probably be useful in an aircraft carrier. Luckily, they've got the enormous roads and open spaces to cope. One of the coolest things in Texas is the food. In the couple of weeks we were there, we went to a huge range of different places. The best was probably a place called Texas de Brazil; a Brazilian-style barbecue restaurant. You have a disc, red on one side, green on the other, which you put next to you. When the green side's up, they keep bringing skewers of every kind of meat imaginable to you, carving off whatever you want. When the red side's up, they leave you alone. After a few rounds of meat, you're thankful for the red side, just to have a breather.

The most unusual food was called Chicken Fried Steak, and this is how it goes. First, they take a piece of steak and sear it in a pan, like a normal person would. Once it's nearly done, they take it out and crumb it in herbs and spices and bread; not completely normal, but not totally bizarre. Then they put it in a basket and deep-fry the lot of it. Yes, deep fried steak. The seasoning tastes a lot like Kentucky Fried Chicken, except there's steak in the middle. You wouldn't want to have it more than once every, say, lifetime for fear of an instant heart attack. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience.

Winter's over - bring it on!
We're finally out of all the coldness of winter. Amazingly, it coincided with Dave's visit. When he left Australia, it was 3 degrees C. When he arrived, it was 19, and varied between 15 and 28 for his whole trip. It hasn't gone backwards since, and has even warmed up a little. This weekend was a long weekend, for Memorial Day, so we headed out to Jones Beach on Long Island for some time in the sun. It was absolutely fantastic to get back out in the sun. We've actually had two winters in row, and no summer since early 2006 because we moved at the end of Australia's winter into the start of America's winter. Jones Beach was fantastic because they were having an airshow with a heap of US Air Force demonstrations. The best part was the Thunderbirds, an acrobatic group who did an outstanding performance. I've got some good shots, but they're classified.

The Barry family becomes American
No, we haven't become citizens, nor have we gotten Green Cards or anything like that. The exciting news is that we're about to grow by one. We're expecting a new addition to our little family, due on Christmas Day. The good news for the new bub is that they'll automatically gain US citizenship, so they'll be welcome here long after we're not. Alicia and I are very excited, and happy to be expecting again. Kyan is very cute; he's signing songs to the new baby. We had some scans done yesterday, and the little jellybean just wouldn't stay still. That's just what we need; another kid that won't stop for 10 seconds. Anyway, she looks healthy and happy. We can find out in about 10 weeks whether it's a boy or girl, but I'm pretty certain it's a girl this time.

So it's been a pretty busy time for the Barry family (+1). Now I'm up to date, so it should be a little easier to get back into the routine again. I might even be able to make them entertaining again, rather than an infinitely long diatribe about life in New York.