Earthquake

Just felt an earthquake and its aftershock. We were talking to a friend on our stairs when we heard a possum run across our roof. Immediately following this a deep rumble sounded and our house began to shake. It sounded like a herd of cattle were running across our verandah! It passed in only a few seconds but it was my first first-hand experience with an earthquake.

First, a picture of where it hit:
Click for a larger view.

Source: http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2011/04/16/224201_news.html

And now,  a few of the statistics surrounding it:

Magnitude	5.2
Date-Time	Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 03:31:19 PM at epicenter
Location	20.034°S, 147.659°E
Depth	10 km (6.2 miles)
Region	QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Distances	124 km (77 miles) SE of Townsville, Queensland, Australia 145 km (90 miles) E of Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia 991 km (615 miles) NW of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia 1697 km (1054 miles) N of CANBERRA, A.C.T., Australia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 17.4 km (10.8 miles); depth +/- 3.3 km (2.1 miles)
Parameters	NST= 45, Nph= 49, Dmin=146.9 km, Rmss=0.92 sec, Gp= 76°, M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usc0002stu

Source: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0002stu.php

Sounds of Life

Today we took our family to the doctor and heard our new baby's heartbeat on the dopler. Its rate was averaging 145 beats per minute and was coming in quite strong. It is now fifteen weeks old. Today also marks the first day that actually felt like Autumn. Just walking outside today, I could feel that Summer had departed and that Autumn had fully arrived.

Zemiel has recently recovered from another ear infection. We were able to catch this one quite early thankfully and do something about it before it got too severe. He continues to improve his speaking ability for individual words and is showing signs of trying to join conversations - but no one can understand him when he does that. His loves at the moment continue to be steam trains and he watches some documentaries we have about them regularly. He also is very attached to his ipad and especially the puzzles thereon. To be honest, he is getting quite good at them. He loves to help with the washing up and the only thing that he likes more than yoghurt is nectarines. But nectarines are now out of season for another nine months, so we return to the ol' fallback. He also helps watering the garden and pot plants.

Azariah is cheeky and mischief rolled into one. Last week in Townsville, we called in at Australian Hearing to get some more batteries for Zemiel. Azariah was immediately recognised and the ladies in the reception and office areas went goo-gaa over him. (Azariah usually spends quality time with them when Zem does his testing). Azariah is also managing to climb the ladder up to the top bunk during rest times. Thankfully, he hasn't attempted to get down yet. He has had a few prickles in his feet recently and tonight we held him down and used a needle and tweezers to get them out. He complained that they were sore but when given the option to go to bed or get more prickles out he opted for the pain! Ha ha! Sharlene thinks it is because he is such an extrovert and just doesn't want to be shut away. He has been helping with the laundry and really enjoys throwing the dirty items over the stair rail to the cement, where I stand to catch them. Fun times!

Sharlene is in her last week of a 12 week term. She has been quite ill for the last 10 weeks and has lost weight compared to the start of the term. There are signs that it might be starting to ease up, so hopefully things will improve for her over the Easter break.

My Dads' Playgroup is still happening, despite being almost canned due to lack of patronage. It is now opened to the whole family with the focus remaining on fathers. I have the SES coming in tomorrow for a special event and hopefully we will get a decent turnout. I have finally put in my application for registration in Queensland for teaching. Hopefully, we will here something about that in a month or so.

Looking forward to some great Autumn days at the beach.