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Here are my notes from the trip we made to Canada in celebration of my 50th birthday! Links are to our photo albums of each city. (Historical note: This trip took place during a US government shutdown, so the federal security & air-traffic-control staff in the US airports had not been paid for almost a month.)

• [regarding Senator Matt Gaetz, who bragged about having sex with minors] If the gates of heaven are pearly, the gates of hell must be matte
• A ska musical about the gay couple who raised Mary Poppins
  you know
  The Mary Poppins Daddies
  I'm only about 25 years late with this joke.
• I just did a search for "uncle terwilliger waltzes with bears," and was told that a related search is "human skin lampshade." 😱
• [headline: Study shows humans selectively bred corn to be less aggressive] Not to mention, detassling results in unicorn.

See attached for our news and photos from 2024!

• [headline: Browns gearing up for one last shot at dropping Big Ben] I just assumed this headline was about UPS.
• Goodreads: we know you said you're interested in science fiction, so we thought you might like "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" Because, you know, it predicts the future. Oh, you've read that, and you liked it? Then have ALL THE DR. SEUSS. And also Winnie the Pooh
• How much warmer was December 2021? Our house had 25% less demand for heating than in December 2019, and 36% less than 2020.

• There's a classic filk song called "The Ballad of Transport 18" about a cargo ship stranded in deep space that gets rescued by Mr. Spock at the expense of its cargo of beer. My brain is trying to parody it about COVID-19, but there are just too many possibilities.
• [January 6] So, we always hear that peaceful protests are more effective. Is that why the police are so much rougher on peaceful protestors than violent ones? 🤔
• [January 6] Even George Orwell stopped short of saying "treason is patriotism." Who would have believed that?

Our return trip was uneventful. Although our JetStar flight from Melbourne to Sydney was delayed by both the plane and crew being swapped out at the last minute, and we got shaken down ($75!) to check our carry-on bag even though we hadn't had to do so on the way out on the same airline, we still had a four hour layover before we left for Dallas. The Quantas economy class was much nicer than the American Airlines one on the outbound trip: the seats were comfier and the food was better quality. They did such a good job of adjusting us to the time change that I didn't experience any jetlag to speak of.

Jessie and I got a leisurely start on the day and then went to the National Gallery of Victoria. After perusing the artwork together, we split up around noon so that she could meet Teresa at the Latrobe University campus and I could walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. The day was thoroughly overcast and I got quite lost but eventually found all the plantings I was looking for!

We went for breakfast first thing at an artisan coffee place near our hotel, then checked out and returned the rental car. Our flight from Sydney to Melbourne was via the international terminals at both airports because it was bound for Phuket next; this meant that we (and many other domestic passengers) had to go through lots of extra checkpoints, but fortunately we weren't in a hurry!

We took the train into downtown again to have breakfast with Nathan Menser, who is doing community relations for public works projects. He and his wife have two daughters age 13 and 16; the older one is looking at colleges, so she's about where Nathan and I were when we met! Nathan says the Supercomputer Honors Program did not affect his career path at all as it did mine, but the social connections helped him a lot.

We drove into downtown in the morning to have brunch with Asabi Goodman. She is in town playing Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago the Musical. We last crossed paths with her when the touring company of Hairspray passed through Omaha last year.