I haven’t been very happy lately, for no particularly good reason. Well, there was that situation that cost me a lot of money, a friendship, and my faith in honest business practices. And the weather has been wretched all spring. But OTHER than that, my life is great. Successful business, loving and supportive partner, stable home, cutest cat ( Read more... )

Lately I've been getting a lot of press. O Magazine, AARP magazine, Yahoo news. Apparently mid-life career changes are all the rage these days, so suddenly my going from software engineer to circus aerialist is big news. People tell me I am inspiring, to have had the courage to walk away from a career that had become unfulfilling and then ( Read more... )

We are now one hour into our ~14-hour return flight to LAX, this time seated in Premium Economy rather than the opulent Business Class section. In order to help you all choose just how much money you'd like to blow on your flights to Australia, here's a quick comparison of the two:

Business Class:

• VA Lounge access - really nice at LAX since that ( Read more... )

Lengthy trip report ahead...feel free to skim.

( The 11 days of Circus Festival )

Traveling, for me, is about more than seeing and experiencing new places. It's about breaking out of the orbit of my life, shaking myself out of habits and routines, paring myself down to the person I am when I'm not defined by my usual context. I've thrown myself halfway around the world so that I can get some perspective on my life and consider ( Read more... )

We arrived in Melbourne three days ago and immediately put on our hoodies. It was maybe 65 degrees out when we walked out of the airport, cloudy with a cool wind. Quite a shift from the 85 degree heat and 95 percent humidity of Cairns ( Read more... )

We awoke this morning excited as kids on Christmas: it's time to go diving ( Read more... )

Wait, how did it get to be Monday again? We got to my sister's last Tuesday and have been busily traipsing around North Queensland ever since. Today we've resolved not to get in the car at all - and in fact may not leave the property. Some highlights of the past week ( Read more... )

After a lovely few days in Sydney, we headed back to the airport for our flight to Cairns. Thankfully I'd thought to check the baggage allowances ahead of time, since we'd packed for international limits (70 lbs per bag, 2 bags each) but Virgin Blue only allows 23 kgs per person and charges $10/kg over. We ended up shipping one bag (with our ( Read more... )

Given how much the Sydney NYE fireworks display had been built up, I was braced for disappointment. And prepared for it to be crowded and full of obnoxious drunk people ( Read more... )