Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been very busy getting a bunch of work projects finished off before I leave for Australia tomorrow morning.

To get there, I'll be undertaking a grueling marathon of flights from Minneapolis to L.A., then on to Auckland, New Zealand, finally arriving in Melbourne sometime on Thursday morning. Altogether, I'm looking at around 20 hours of flying with another 12 hours of layovers. Here's hoping I don't wind up with deep-vein thrombosis from all that sitting around in in cattle class and uncomfortable airport lounges.

I've never been to Melbourne before, and it looks like a fun town, so I should be able to locate some interesting things to do while I'm there. As an added bonus, it's midsummer in the Antipodean hemisphere and Melbourne is currently cooking at around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which sounds pretty damn good compared to the schmuddel wetter we're currently experiencing here in Wisconsin.

I was briefly very excited to find out that there's an actual Tiki bar in Melbourne, and even more psyched to discover that it was only about a mile from my hotel. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was short-lived after e-mailing the proprietor, a very nice chap named Kevin Clark, who dashed my hopes by telling me that they'll be closed for renovations during my visit. Bugger.

In other alcohol-related news, I'll be contributing to a new 'blog called Cocktailians, along with a couple of other crotchety old Metafilterians, Vidiot and Chico Bangs. I had hoped to make my first entry something about Polynesian Pop Down Under, but I guess I'll have to drink my way through to a different topic.

Bon Voy-a-gee, as the Wabbit would say.