Happy Birthday Josh!

Yesterday was my husband's 30th birthday. I think that the story goes that back in 1979 his mom was told that she could have Josh on July 3rd or July 5th, but that the doctor really didn't want to come in on July 4th. So July 3rd it was and what a great idea because it meant that it was easy to take extended weekends and not work on your birthday or sometimes you actually got your birthday off as a holiday when the 4th falls on a weekend.

Until you move to Australia.

Josh had to work yesterday. He was very tired when he got home.


The orange in his hand was his birthday gift from the guys at work. Also, as a side note, please ignore the lack of real furniture in our house. Cardboard moving boxes and a kitchen chair work just fine as side/coffee tables, thank you very much.

He already knew about his golf clubs since we spent 2 hours in the golf store swinging and looking and putting and swinging and changing out drivers and swinging and purchasing. Then we spent another hour at the driving range that day. Then we spent another 2 hours playing 9 holes last Sunday. He played the best 9 holes he ever has with them. I think it was a good investment.

I also got him a golf towel as little, unknown gift since it poured last Saturday and we were in dire need of one.

He changed out the driver that was part of the package for a square driver. So it's red while the rest of them are blue.

And yes, I actually got on the ground to take this picture.

Some more little gifts - That 70's Show Season 6 and 7 (we're big TV on DVD fans).

And a set of double-6 dominos.

I can't control craziness in the pictures.

Also, happy birthday to ME!

I spent most of my holiday day trying to figure out how exactly I was suppose to be making Josh's birthday dinner of boiled shrimp....excuse me, prawns.... and hashbrown casserole. Especially considered that Old Bay seasoning isn't allowed in Australia due to a quarantine on some of the spices. I believe that you can buy Zatarains somewhere, but not any of the 2 Dalby grocery stores.

So I trusted the internet and made my own. And since I also has trouble finding cheesecloth, I went ahead and used another internet suggestion of knee high panty hose. It turned out fine.


The prawns were big! Here I am pointing at them.


They had their heads and eyes on still which is not how we typically partake of them, but I couldn't find any fresh, shells on, heads off ones.


These were okay, but not as good as the ones from the Alabama shore. Hopefully we'll be back next summer to have some.

As for the hashbrown casserole, they only sell hashbrowns in those big chunks (not in strings or southern style), but I did find some potato wedges and I think that it was fairly good. The cheese situation just isn't working down here though.

I believe that cake made up for everything though. Then again, when doesn't chocolate make everything better?

And since there are only 2 of us, we'll have it for days and days.