Hey y'all I'm back

Pictures to come soon. For now, a summary:

Samoa was great. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had hanging out with my mom and sister - I am really missing family and friends out here. Great to see my grandma and other relatives over there (my grandma and I both cried the day I left.) Had a ball swimming in the ocean and snorkeling, especially nice because I didn't get a chance to get in the water at all this Australia trip partly because of a packed work schedule and partly due to a cold wave in Brisbane. Ate a lot of food, and way too much junk food...that combined with heavy meals in Australia have caused me to gain 10 pounds! Now I just have to figure out how to lose it since I'm not into the gym in my apartment building, am way too shy to patronize a commercial gym (as well as way too cheap and unmotivated)and it's too hot to ride my bike.

Australia was great. Work went extremely smoothly, we rocked our three GMP production runs and preliminary data shows good results-high titer and no plasmid degradation, yay! Also, I love Brisbane..it was great to spend a month in a real city...where I could walk outside and there would be people everywhere, I could walk to restaurants, shops, the waterfront, parks, gardens, you name it.

Finally, the last of our vacay pics

My sucky picture of the Hilton interior

hilton elevators, originally uploaded by tariann.

At the pub:

cute pete, originally uploaded by tariann.

pete!, originally uploaded by tariann.

Pete's last night in town...walking around Southbeach

night, originally uploaded by tariann.

pav and i, originally uploaded by tariann.

brisbane at night, originally uploaded by tariann.

Diving with the Sharks!

We got to dive inside the 2.5 million Liter Oceanarium at Underwater World!

20070520-152355 copy, originally uploaded by tariann.

20070520-152742 copy, originally uploaded by tariann.

20070520-152927 copy, originally uploaded by tariann.

20070520-154536 copy, originally uploaded by tariann.

Underwater World

Mooloolaba Underwater World on the Sunshine Coast was awesome.

pete, originally uploaded by tariann.

shark with buddy, originally uploaded by tariann.

s, originally uploaded by tariann.

side view, originally uploaded by tariann.

ray, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1359, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1360, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1361, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1363, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1364, originally uploaded by tariann.

Air New Zealand flight to Australia plus gold coast

And off we go!

DSCF1313, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1315, originally uploaded by tariann.

DSCF1316, originally uploaded by tariann.

After more than 20 hours of traveling, Pete and I stumble out of the airport into the bright Brisbane sun, acquire our rental car (a Ford Prius that ends up being really fun to drive once we get the hang of it!), I spend about a half hour in the rental car parking lot trying to figure out how to turn it on and then psyching myself up for driving on the other side of the road. We head down to the Gold Coast where we spend the weekend at the Sheraton Mirage Resort. We spend most of our time swimming, sunbathing and eating. Good times!

hotel wildlife, originally uploaded by tariann.

first night's dinner, originally uploaded by tariann.

surfer's paradise!, originally uploaded by tariann.

Chiara's grad party

Pete and I flew to LA on Saturday, May 12, 2007 and met up with my friend Chiara at Zuma beach in Malibu where she was having a party commemorating the completion of her pHD in Classics. Congrats girl, good job! We were sort of tired after our flight (4 screaming kids behind us...including one who woke up Pete by squeezing his head and trying to take off his hat :))so we spent most of the party laying out in the warm California sunshine.

chiara composes a shot, originally uploaded by tariann.

sampling the spread, originally uploaded by tariann.

susannah and i , originally uploaded by tariann.

pete behind the lens, originally uploaded by tariann.

The weather in LA was gorgeous all weekend and we had a great time running around town, meeting up with various folks, eating and shopping. We stayed at Le Meridien in Beverly Hills which was really nice and conveniently located.

May 6 2007

In preparation for our May trip to Australia, Pete and I took a class at Surface Interval Scuba in Arlington, Texas to learn to scuba dive! This has been a desire of mine for a long time...and I'm glad we finally found an excuse to just go do it. After a week of classroom work and pool dives we spent the first weekend of May doing our final dives at Clear Springs Scuba Park in Terrell, Texas and we are now PADI certified open water divers!

Here are some pics our awesome instructor Randy Cook took:

one of our favorite restaurants to eat at in brisbane

....is this japanese place called Sono that is right around the corner from our hotel. my favorite thing to get is the giant garden salad and an order of their onigiri...rice balls filled with ume. yum!

garden salad, originally uploaded by tariann.

salmon, originally uploaded by tariann.

sashimi, originally uploaded by tariann.

seafood salad, originally uploaded by tariann.

April 11

Our second day in Australia, my colleague Lily and I decided to take a walk around town. We stumbled upon the Botanical Gardens and explored them for a bit

duckies, originally uploaded by tariann.

ibis, originally uploaded by tariann.

botanical gardens, originally uploaded by tariann.

me, originally uploaded by tariann.

Apparently someone had been partying there the night before

party?, originally uploaded by tariann.

party, originally uploaded by tariann.

We then walked through to the goodwill bridge and across the river to southbank

goodwill bridge, originally uploaded by tariann.

rooftop garden, originally uploaded by tariann.

view of southbank, originally uploaded by tariann.

ship, originally uploaded by tariann.

clock, originally uploaded by tariann.

Checked out Southbank a bit, did some shopping, then headed back to the hotel over the Story bridge

bridge view, originally uploaded by tariann.

brisbane, originally uploaded by tariann.

southbank, originally uploaded by tariann.

bridge photos, originally uploaded by tariann.