Kommisar Rex, on the case!

Well, I've once again gone far too long without posting, which means my brain has accumulated a million thoughts floating about, all labeled "for the blog." Hopefully, I'll get most of it in without boring you something dreadful, dear readers.

First off, things are going swimmingly here! Not only have I gotten some paying work from my beloved and greatly missed workplace back home, aka SolDesign, but I have also gotten another design gig. This news gave me and Craig a breath of hope; there will be money coming in. I have also been applying for jobs; I put out around twenty applications, and I got two interviews so far! One was at the Alfalfa house food coop and the other was at Bird Textiles, which is a boutique that sells sustainable and pretty fabrics. I already did the coop interview yesterday...it was intense. The interview took 1.5 hours, and it was conducted by a panel of four people. They asked insanely difficult questions. What do you think leadership is and how do you lead? What is the difference between a coordinator and a manager? What would you do if several people came to you and complained about another staff member? How do you understand the differences between paid staff and volunteers? What would you suggest to the Management Committee if there was net loss over the last four months? How do you understand consensus decision-making?? And so on...

It was rigorous. And I rocked it. I got the job. It's full-time, it pays well. I'm very excited.
And I have the other interview on Monday; I figure I'll go anyway. It's part-time, and it might be a good option to keep in my back pocket...

Now, to the bad news. Craig has officially rendered his third (and last) pair of jeans unfit for evening wear. Since we moved to Australia, he has busted the left knee of every pair of jeans he owns. This is ridiculous, friends. The other night, he resorted to wearing a bandanna tied around his knee just to keep it warm.

We're keeping our spirits up through this trying time by watching Australian television a lot. Let's get this straight right now. Australian TV is terrible and miraculous at the same time. We get to watch programs here that are only on cable back home, such as Curb Your Enthusiasm or Flight of the Conchords. We just enjoyed our very first episode of MythBusters! They actually built swashbuckling robots. We fell in love.

We also get to see a lot more international programming. SBS is the channel geared toward a more sophisticated viewer, which means it's not owned by Rupert Murdoch. SBS airs Polish news, Saudi news, and Czech news during the day. Well, they may air other nationalities' news as well, I just can't always tell for sure. Happily, SBS doesn't just show droll international news. They also show wacky international TV shows, too! SBS is nice because you can get the experience of being in another country (crazy Austrians!) without having to embarrass yourself in another language. Take Komissar Rex, the show about an Austrian German Shephard (Rex) that regularly investigates and solves cases. I know you're all thinking this is a Turner and Hooch rip-off. That's what I thought, too. But no. No, no. This show is not a comedy. This dog is actually an investigator. He is allowed to jump, slobber, sniff, and generally act dog-like all over a crime scene. This is problematic, no? The cops aren't at all concerned that the dog might disrupt some evidence? In the episode I caught, a restaurant owner was murdered, and the dog just jumped on top of the stove and overturned a pot full of soup! The woman being questioned by the human policemen asked if the dog was hungry, and I thought for sure, for sure, they would all laugh and it would be clear that this show is aware of how silly it is. But the policemen just said, "No. He's looking for something." Completely serious. It's so bizarre. I'm riveted.