Yesterday I turned 40 years old. Beth's birthday is on the 30th. We are about to set out on our big epic adventure, a nearly 3 week journey thru Australia. For my birthday Beth bought me a book that chronicles the life of Captain James Cook, the epic world explorer of the 18th century. She thought it would make good reading on the plane.

As I write this we are flying over the international date line, that mysterious point on the globe that begins each day. I decide that for the duration of the trip I'll leave the time and date on the iBook set to "Cupertino" time.

We've had two minor set backs. Number 1, while we were STILL at the San Jose Airport Beth realized that she had left her sun glasses at the security check in. Number 2, I realized that I forgot to bring a headphone "Y" adapter so that Beth and I could share the iPod. Right now she is SOUND asleep. We are scheduled to land in Sydney at about 8 AM, Wednesday morning.