Last Day

I spent yesterday taking it as easy as I possibly could and applying copious amounts of ointment to my badly-sunburned legs. Note to self: Do not ever again wear shorts or go swimming during bright, sunny days without applying lots and lots of the high-goop-factor sunscreen. I think this is probably the second-worst sunburn I've ever had in my life, the worst being the one I got when I climbed Mount Lassen when I was about ten years old and did not understand that taking off my shirt during the walk down was a Very Bad Idea. Fortunately for me, I'll have lots of space in my seat for the return flight, so I won't be crammed in cheek-by-jowl with other people for thirteen hours while my legs twitch in agony. I'd buy extra Aloe Vera ointment after clearing security at Melbourne, but they dump and re-screen everyone at Sydney before reloading the plane because, of course, only Americans actually know how to secure airplanes. *sigh*

Today's plans include walking around (in slacks, not shorts; I'm not making that mistake twice!) and not working very hard. I do, however, need to see if I can find a set of metric-only, non-Chinese-made measuring cups for Lisa, I having forgotten to look for them pre-con when I was doing such shopping. I did already find her a metric-only 5m measuring tape, but the only metric-only thermometers were all made in China. (Indeed, all of the thermometers I found in multiple stores were made in China. Doesn't anyone else make thermometers anymore?)

Tomorrow I have to be up at 3:30 AM to be sure of being able to catch my flight, so don't expect to be hearing much from me for the next couple of days. (I'll be reminding myself that it's actually 10:30 AM the previous morning where I'm headed.) At best, I hope to post a short note when I get home to California before collapsing into a puddle of exhaustion.

Last Night

I got back to the hotel tonight early enough to watch the Australia-New Zealand rugby match tonight. In honor of the Bledisloe Cup match tonight, I wore my USA Rugby polo shirt around today, but nobody commented on it.

My own laptop refused to boot this evening, saying it can't find the boot sector. I could run FIXBOOT, but I don't know the administrator password on the company-owned machine. The other alternative is to go to backup clone that I made before I left for Australia, salvaging the files on my computer that changed during the trip (not a whole lot, but much of the video I shot). I can do that (or I hope find someone at the office who knows that the drive's administrator password is) when I get home, but it means I'll be without my computer during the flight back, which is pretty annoying because (a) I planned on getting some work done and (b) Playing Locomotion makes hours melt away. Oh, well, at least I have a book to read and I suspect I'll not have too much trouble sleeping.

I did try to find metric kitchen measuring cups this afternoon, but they were all dual-scale (most appeared to have been old-fashioned units like 1/2 cup first) or made in China. Rats!

Okay, time's running out and I need to get to bed and get the four or five hours of sleep I'll have before I have to get back up and pack to get out to the airport. I won't be back online until sometime on Sunday, I expect. Also, if anyone had my Australian mobile phone number, you can expect that it is no longer valid about six to eight hours after this message posts.