2 Tickets to see "Iron Man" movie: $35
Tapas and glass of wine at Kasbar restaurant: $45
Money to pay babysitter: $75

1st official "date" in Australia with my husband = priceless

Laugh dammit!

Another good one:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/79424

Not to rub it in but....

here in Melbourne we have moved into our first week of winter.

It's 64 degrees and sunny.

The Connor Sports Report - Aussie Footy

Ben and I joined a health club last week. Our membership includes 3 complimentary sessions with a personal trainer. So while I'm familiar with gyms and their equipment, I thought it would be a good idea to meet with a trainer and develop a fitness program that would suit my needs and time constraints.

So I was assigned to Mark (Aussie pronunciation = "Mahck"). Mark is an ex-footy player with a neck span of about 3 feet. He is passionate about footy so while taking me through my workout, he gave me the low-down on Australian Rules Football.

For those unfamiliar (read: non-Australians), Australian Rules Football is extremely popular (read: obsessive) in Melbourne. The game and teams are governed by the Australian Football League (AFL). The fans call the AFL governing body "The Devil Reincarnated". There are a total of 16 teams in Australia with 9 of these teams residing within Melbourne area. So needless to say there is a lot of footy rivalry in this town. Ben and I have attempted to watch this game on the telly a few times and came away completely confused. While it's called football, the game itself is more like soccer and NFL football but without any protective padding. Players throw, kick and run with the football. The game referees blow their whistles, but the players don't seem to notice or listen to the whistle-blowing and keep on playing. Mark says this is because while there rules to the games they are not set in stone and are are considered "interpretive". So the referees calls/decisions might change from game to game.

Mark says this makes the footy fans "chuck a spaz" (read: get angry).

A popular (read: required) thing to do within Melbourne is be associated with a footy team. There are generations of families who all "barrack" (read: cheer) for their team. The Connor Family has already been asked several times who our team of choice is and since we are undecided, the pressure is on for our Aussie friends to recruit us to cheer for their beloved. Saturday is footy day and everywhere you go, whether the market or the pubs you'll see fans with their footy scarves on promoting their love for their specific club. The scarves are just like the scarves we wear in winter, but they have the footy team's name and colors on them. Sort of like wearing a Chicago Bears winter scarf.

Anyway, back to Mark. In the midst of describing the fervor people have for their teams he also said it is very common for rivals (this means FANS not the actual team members) to seek each other out and "give it heaps". In American terms, this means to "talk trash" about the other's team.

For example, Mark said if you really want to offend a fan from the opposing team you walk up to them and say

"Hey Filth.."

and if you really want to insult them you say "Hey Filth" with an American accent....

(Picture me lifting weights and cracking up at the same time - ROLF! :)

Anyway, Mark is trying to recruit me to support his team which is Carlton (or is it Collingwood? or St. Kilda? or Richmond?)

He has one more training session to convince me....

My stomach gets all Misty('s)

I have an Aussie girlfriend who lives in Perth and her name is Catherine. We met each other when our kids were littlies and she turned me on to an Australian website that sells US foods like peanut butter (Jif), A&W Root Beer (1 can is $2.20!), etc. Anyway, if you want to take a look it's:

http://www.usafoods.com.au/products.php

We haven't purchased anything off the site but another plus is they have a store located near us so we can also go shopping for that much-craved Apple Jacks cereal if we need to.

However, the best find on the US Foods website is the link to Misty's American Diner. Yes, that's right A-MER-I-CAN.

http://www.mistysdiner.com.au/index.asp

Ben and I have been craving an American burger since we got here and McDonald's just doesn't do the trick. So we visited Misty's this evening for dinner and came away fat and happy. Misty herself took our order and we exchanged "Where are you froms?". She's from Arizona -- how she landed in Melbourne is an answer we'll get the next time we go there to dine. Ben and I ordered two American cheeseburgers, onion rings and chocolate shakes. Kaia got the Kids Burger Special which included a juice box. I mention the juice box because unfortunately, she ended up drinking 1/2 of my shake and 1/2 of Ben's.

Which was a darn shame because you have to understand that when Aussies make milkshakes they don't put ice cream in them. They only put chocolate sauce in milk and blend. That's not a shake - that's CHOCOLATE MILK. Misty on the other hand made a true American stick-to-your guts shake and the shame was that Kaia drank most of ours and left the people who pay for her meals wanting for more....

The burgers were outstanding - thick, delicious and topped with the works. Misty tried to talk us out of the onion rings because she "doesn't hand make them". We wished we took her advice and gone with her homemade breaded cheese sticks instead. Kaia's meal came with french fries which were de-lish. Misty made sure we liked everything and even gave Ben a sample of her home-cooked chili. Plus she sells Hershey's Chocolate Syrup so we happily took one bottle off her hands for the bargain price of only $12.99

Rest assured we'll be back for more.