Impromptu Travels

Yesterday our computer crashed. Now, most people would decide that this situation warrants one of two responses: a) spend the money to get it fixed, or b) buy a new one at a local store. Us? We look at it as impetus to blackmail a family member into visiting us in Australia.

This Wednesday a lovely 13-inch Mac Book Pro will be flying in to the Melbourne Airport. Accompanying the laptop will be my sister (who I have tried to convince countless times to start an international couriering service. She, however, thinks it sounds a little too much like drug smuggling, and has kindly passed on the obvious career trajectory.)

Lucky for us, my sister is not currently working and has the flexibility to drop everything for an impromptu trip to Melbourne. Considering I am about to start a full-time job, and Chris will most likely be entering into the labor force in the near future, I thought this would be as good a time as any for her to come hang out before we both become serious adults again. (Poor Will... we've already discussed that there is the possibility for lots of communication via animal noises and weird voices, as tends to accompany any extended periods of time spent with my sister. He says that Darcy is the only one with an excuse for that sort of behavior, but I think he has a sinking suspicion of what he's in for.)

Funny enough, Chris was the original Hearon sibling to live in Melbourne. The year before she started college she lived here for several months, so true to sibling-rivalry form, I had to move here for several years. Obviously.

So our apartment will be rather tiny for the next couple of weeks, but that's to be expected. At least we didn't have visitors this past week during the Big Bathroom Incident. Thursday night we realized that the bathtub drain was quite clogged. Several bottles of Draino later and still no results, we decided to give up, with the consolation that at least nothing smelly was going on. When we flushed the toilet, of course, we hear a blurp-blurp-blurp sound and look into the bathtub just in time to see the terrible t's--turds and toilet paper--making their way into the bathtub from the drain. And it wasn't stopping. After furiously dialing the property manager, going back and forth with several plumbers (who obviously did not want to come out for a job at 11:30 at night), and convincing everyone that potential turds on the carpet very clearly qualifies as an emergency, we finally managed to contain the problem. Whew.

But I'm sure that won't happen again. There are too many other disasters in this world for the same one to befall you twice :-).

I cannot wait to get my new computer, as I am currently using the ten-year-old dinosaur that I took to college with me. (I know, I cannot believe this thing still runs! It's a Dell, people.) And I REALLY can't wait to see my sister! We're going to have a lot of fun together. I'll keep you updated . . .