Party in NYC

Zack's company had its end-of-year party last weekend, and the theme was "New York City." As Americans, it was pretty interesting to see which parts of our culture and food they chose to highlight at the event. When we got off the shuttle bus from the CBD, we walked a red carpet while the "paparazzi" took our pictures and tried to interview us. They acted like we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-ha!

The setup was incredibly impressive. There was a jazz band at a cafe-type setting in front, and on the main stage, there was a gal singing songs such as "New York State of Mind" and Broadway show tunes, accompanied by dancers. We were encouraged to dress for the theme (hence my sparkly dress and tights), but some people went all out with NY Giants football jerseys or Statue of Liberty hats and such.

The whole place was decorated with subway signs, flashing pictures of stores and icons of NYC, and other themed items. And the food was fun too...a deli section with sandwiches; a diner section with fancy hot dogs, burgers, and fries; a taco stand; and a dessert stand with cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzels. We kept wondering where the New York style pizza was, but at the end of the night, they brought around slices! All of the caterers were dressed in I Love NY shirts.

Later in the night, a live band came on stage, and the atmosphere became more club-like. There were even club-type dancers performing above the stage; it was kind of crazy!

We talked with various folks throughout the night from Zack's previous and current project and eventually found our friends Klem and Vesna. They were dressed for the theme-Vesna was the Statue of Liberty and Klem looked like one of the Newsies! It was a great party with a fun American theme.

City to Sea Sunday

We interrupt your regularly scheduled posts about our Northern Territory trip to bring you an update on today's City2Sea race. Zack ran this 14km race this morning, as did our friend Emily. It started near the Arts Centre and ended in St Kilda. Here's Zack stretching before the race.

Today is Remembrance Day in Australia, which is basically like their Veterans Day. Here's a guy playing a trumpet as part of the commemoration before the run started.

And he's off! This is Zack at the starting line. I found Emily before she started as well!

Adam and I rode our bikes and met up with our spouses at the finishing line. They both ran a sub-9 minute mile pace! Zack was pleased with his 1:17 finishing time, considering he barely trained at all and hasn't even run in a couple of weeks!

Zack's company sponsored a swanky post-race party complete with catered food (including a full BBQ), unlimited drinks, and a jazz band. We sat in the sunshine outside the tent for awhile enjoying the free food. What a beautiful spring day for a race-nice job Zack and Emily!

P.S. As of about an hour ago, Notre Dame is now 10-0 for the season. Go Irish!!!

My Husband the Senior Manager

Last week, Zack got the awesome news that he was promoted to Senior Manager with Accenture! He worked incredibly hard over the past few years (especially on his most recent project), so he definitely deserved it. I'm very proud of him!

I made a sign for the door to welcome him home on the day he found out about the promotion and then forced him to pose for cheesy paparazzi-style pictures as he came down our hallway. My kind husband is very tolerant of my excessive picture taking!

I found a store in South Melbourne that makes balloon bouquets, so I quickly rushed home from school that day, had them make up a Congratulations one, bought a bottle of champagne, and biked home (not easy with a bag full of balloons!) to get ready for the Senior Manager to arrive.

Congrats Mr. Senior Manager!

We have a tradition in my family: whenever someone gets a new job, promotion, or raise, he or she has to buy pizza for everyone. So I made Zack buy us pizza for dinner! It didn't quite go with the healthy eating plan we've been trying to follow lately, but we made an exception considering the circumstances.

It was a fun, celebratory evening with a shared bottle of champagne, lots of pizza, and several kind Facebook 'likes' and comments from friends and family. We've been waiting and hoping for this news for quite awhile, so it was great to finally be able to enjoy the official announcement of his promotion. Congratulations Zack!

P.S. Zack is probably going to be embarrassed when he reads this post. Too bad...this is what he gets for letting me take over the blog! :)

Netball Newbie

This past weekend, a lot of our activities revolved around Zack's work. On Friday night, Accenture had their end of year party at the Crown Towers in the Palladium. It was quite a spectacle. The theme was "Arabian Nights," and there was food, a band, belly dancers, and decorations to match. Some people even dressed up, and while there, I got a sparkly henna tattoo on my arm. Fun stuff.

The crazy netball team doing the Accenture symbol!

The ref explains another rule.

On Saturday, I went and watched Zack play netball in the Corporate Games. Hundreds of companies from all around Victoria competed over the weekend in various sports, including footy, soccer, cricket, squash, etc. Zack joined a netball team with some coworkers. No, he had never played netball before the one practice he attended before the tournament. Neither of us had ever even heard of the game before moving to Australia. But I guess it's pretty popular here, especially among females (yes, a few friends have since made fun of Zack for playing netball). It's easiest to understand if you think of it like basketball combined with ultimate frisbee. There is no backboard, just the net on a ring attached to a pole, and you can't dribble the ball. So there is a lot of passing and other rules I didn't understand. Zack didn't quite know all the rules either, so the referees had to explain things to him sometimes.

Anyway, the Accenture team played three games, and I can say that they improved with each one. Note that I didn't say they won any of them! Oh well, at least there was a nice catered lunch provided in the Accenture tent after the games. Sunday involved Accenture too, but that was just Zack working for several hours from home in the afternoon and evening. And that was pretty much our weekend!