Know.   Know-it-all.   Kiss.   Kepler.   Kaizen.  Karen Carpenter.  Kindergarten.   Kinesthetic learner.   Knock off work to carry bricks.  Great Keppel Island.   Kookaburra.   Koala.   Keyboard.   Kangaroo.  Kindness.

I thought I knew in what direction this post was going to go, until I sat down to write it. Turns out, this post is for the purpose of giving kudos to our time in Aus, and our Aussie friends.

Kudos to the guys in the band, Dave, Don B, Graham, and Don P, who gave me a chance to join the band, playing the keyboard and singing backup vocals.

Kudos to the people of Australia who have managed to keep a lot of it untamed, where we could see kangaroos, koalas, and kookaburras in the wild.

Kudos to the friends we made, and especially the time we spent on Great Keppel Island with a group of great people.

Kudos to the very kind mother of a friend who asked me how I was doing, and even though we had been there for a year, I was homesick, and her kindness was my undoing. I still have the cloth handkerchief she gave me to dry my tears.

Kudos to the lovely Capuano family for sharing their Christmas with two Americans who were very far from home and family.

Kudos to Bruce who cared for his sick wife, just like he said he would when he married her, and for the clever phrase he used one time, which has stuck with us for over twenty years, “Knockin’ off work to carry bricks.”

Thanks, friends. xoxo