Winding Down

Let's catch up.

Yes, my mustache is still growing.

Exams went well. I was a little apprehensive about it all but after getting a few key grades back (which I did really well on) I felt a lot better about it all. Bottom line, I smashed out my exams and have no reason to be worried about my grades. Whoop whoop! I've been done with school for a few days but Alex, Will, and Teish are still studying and stressing about their exams.

Study station. Outdoor Ed. 

My parents flew into Tasmania a few days ago. It's been really weird getting emails from them in real time. For the first time in nearly half a year, my parents and I are in the same time zone. It's a bit weird, but it's a great feeling.

As you well know, I've been the culprit in several cases of rooms being trashed over the year. Well, it came back around to me. My room got a bit messy when I left my door open the other night and I found my clothes hanging all around the unit and my mattress upstairs in the kitchen. It's all good, though; it didn't take me long to clean it up. I'll have the last laugh, though.

Saying goodbye has been hard.

As people are finishing their exams, they're leaving to go home. I've been saying goodbye for two days now and it's only going to get worse. Last night I had to say goodbye to Georgia, although everyone calls her GK or "geek" (pronounced "jeek"). If you ask anyone, they'd tell you that GK is a "mad bird." She's a great time and one of the boys. Always keen and always had a smile on her face. She was a delight to be around.

Today I said goodbye to Dori, one of the RA's who was always hanging out in our unit. She might be back on Saturday night, though. I also said goodbye to Benny, that one's been the hardest so far. We had a lot of good times together. This is what he posted on his facebook. It got me pretty good.
"Well, thats it for semester one at uni.
A shout out to my man America who is going back to the US, hope you enjoyed Australia, your a dead set legend and won't be the same without ya next semester! All the best mate."
That was tough on me. Saying goodbye to Alex and Will is going to tear me apart.

I've been doing a rather minimal amount of cooking lately. Today I made the most amazing omelet, though. Three eggs, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella, pepper, Italian herbs, parsley, chives, garlic, shallots, and bacon. I had toast and coffee along with it. It was hefty and delicious. I'm also marinating some chicken wings in the last of my secret sailor jerry BBQ sauce that's been in the freezer. I'm looking forward to those.

I've been listening to Brief's "Bleeding Out EP" and it's sick. Can't wait to be home and see some live shows.

Parents will be here real soon and my brother soon after that.

Life is a wild life. This next transition is going to be real heavy. But I'm looking forward to the next chapter in life.

Stay fresh out there
~Daniel

Fire, Ice, and Meatballs

Life. How crazy is that?

First of all, I have to announce that my mom got her first (and only) tattoo last week. She let me know she was upset that I didn't mention her in my last post entitled "tattoo time." So there it is, my mom is gaining cool points left and right. Try and keep up. By the way, here's a picture of Will's tattoo.

So I haven't been up to much this past week. I've let my studying take a bit of a back burner and have been finding other ways of entertaining myself.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I really enjoy messing with Teish. We've done just about everything we can do to her room, short of setting it on fire, so this week, I started a new trend. First, I took her key card while she was studying and froze it in a plate of water that popped out nicely once it was set. She was upset, but took it well and laughed it off. The next thing I did, she did not take well and did not laugh off. Over the year, Ash has been stealing her stuffed-animal monkey and hiding it places. It's quite funny because Teish goes into hysterics and actually smashed a window one time in a rage while trying to get her monkey back. So, I took her monkey and froze it in a block of ice. She didn't speak to me for two days.

The other night, Alex and Teish were making tea for some of their friends and, long story short, set fire to the kitchen. Lucky for them, I was there to heroically put out the flame before it grew too much and set off the fire alarm.

After a few days of hiatus, I've started studying for my finals. My PE final is a bit of a worry simply because there's a LOT of information to remember, but it's also all multiple choice. My Outdoor Ed. final is a bit of a worry because it was only a seven week long class and I haven't had it in the past two months and now I'm expected to remember it all. Also, if you asked me how to set a bearing on a compass, I would struggle a LOT and that's the sort of thing we're going to be tested over.

Anyway, other than that, life is simply that, life. I'm having a hard time sleeping at night because all I can think about is life and my brother and getting home and getting back to "real life." I'm not cooking much because I'm not eating much because I'm not doing much. It's almost 6pm and I haven't eaten today. I made meatballs last night for the first time. I'll probably stick to just meatloaf in the future.

I stopped smoking, but now that it's finals time I'm wishing I hadn't. Funny story, it was actually finals week my first semester in college that I started smoking. I'm realizing every day that I'm a grown up and that's weird.

Nathan told me "Dude, you're mustache is really starting to look like Dad circa 1985." That's pretty much the exact look I've been going for this whole time.

I saw sunshine and a full blue sky for the first time in nearly a week today.

Will snapped this today while I was talking to my mom.

My friend MJ leaves in the morning for Greece for a month. I'm really excited for her.

19 days until I see my brother.
~D

Tattoo Time

Something I've noticed about Ballarat, if you look up, you won't see planes. Ever. There just aren't air traffic patterns over this part of the country. And why would there be? It took me almost five months to realize that.

Also, Australians don't have Twinkies, Kool-Aid, Resse's Cups, Jolly Ranchers, Pop Tarts, or Toaster Strudels. Devastating.

About a week ago, Will finally got accepted for a bunch of government money that he had been trying to get for a looooong time. He was very excited about it. So, to celebrate, he went on a whim, yesterday, and got a new tattoo. I went with him and it was really interesting to watch the artist work. She had been tattooing for four years but the way she tattooed and the quality of her work wasn't quite up to par with my brother's, who has been tattooing less years. Will got a cat in the hat tattoo on his leg, which kind of fits with the theme of things he's got going on. He was really excited about it and really happy with it, so that's good. One of the other artists in the shop started talking to me and said he'd never heard an American accent before. Then he picked out the Native American in me. I have a bit of a hard time believing he actually could tell by my looks that I had 1/32 Indian in me. I feel that it was a bit of a stab in the dark for him. But who knows.

Also, while Will was being tattooed, a few very obvious meth addicts came in and wanted to get their "back-yard" tattoos fixed. They (the people and the tattoos) looked real rough.

Not much time until my brother gets here, less time until my parents get here, and less time until finals. These next few weeks are going to fly by.

I've gotten on a sticky note kick. I'm having all sorts of random thoughts and so my room is covered in sticky notes with non-sequiter on them.

Stop me if you've heard this already...  
I made a new lamb recipe the other day. I bought a rack of lamb for less than $10 which would have cost me $25 in Springfield and made a recipe I hadn't used before. Herb encrusted rack of lamb.  I sealed the lamb in a pan, then put the pan in the oven for eight minutes. After that, I took it out, brushed it in Dijon mustard, coated it in an herb breadcrumb mixture, and returned it to the oven for four minutes. It turned out something like this...

Look at those toasty bread crumbs. 

 Perfectly rare (my plating skills leave much to be desired). 

I made it again the next night with the other half of the rack and it came out undercooked. That's what I get for not using a meat thermometer. 

I've made lamb several ways but I think this has been my favorite. Or maybe it's just because I'm finally getting good at cooking lamb. *sight* And now I'm about to go back home where nobody sells lamb and if they do, it costs an arm and a leg. 

Stay hungry, my friends

~Daniel 

What Fresh Hell Is This? I

"Australia, what fresh hell is this?" I got to use that quote in one of my final essays today. That felt good. In my grandfather's words, I found the proper way to eat an elephant, one bite at a time. I finished my two big essays today. They've been weighing on me so I'm really excited to have them done.

It's a bit lonesome on Res right now. Everyone I would normally hang out or associate with is gone, some of them, until Monday or Tuesday. But I'm making the most of it.

As you all know, I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Gordon Ramsay. I've started watching his British cooking show "The F Word," (and in case you're wondering what the F stands for, it's FOOD) and it's really quite brilliant. In the series, Gordon has taken over a kitchen with a hand-picked brigade (so there's no yelling) and opens once a week with a three course menu for 60 guests. The thing is, all the menu items are designed to be easily cooked at home by novice chefs and he walks you through how to make everything. Needless to say, I'm cataloging heaps of recipes in my head and coming up with all sorts of new things. I'm learning a lot and I'm excited about that.

I've started putting honey and milk in my coffee over here. Give it a try if you like. It gives the coffee a nice velvety finish. I recommend it.

Tonight, I hatched the idea for a new writing project. Well, actually, it's an old idea that I finally figured out how to write. I'll spoil the beginning of it for you right now. He consumes a lethal amount of drugs and dies in the parking lot of a hospital. I'm excited for this one.

I haven't cooked anything exciting in a while. I made chicken stock tonight from the bones of a roast chicken my RA cooked tonight. It's tasty. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can get my RA to go in on groceries with me. I'm betting that for every $5 increment, I can add a course to the meal. So, if he want's to throw in $15 for dinner, I'm hoping it'll look something like risotto, herb encrusted rack of lamb, and creme brulee.  But we'll see.

Take care guys.
Have a good weekend.