HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIELLE!!!

Happy birthday skank!

The first photo is from college -- I'm not sure what's worse: my sideburns or your gold necklace. Actually, I think the Sigma Psi mug in your hand is probably the worst....

The other photo is my favorite from your wedding. Happy one year anniversary!

The camera is back!

Monday

Occasionally the teachers will announce that a company is looking for help, and a bunch of us scramble to jot down the name and apply. A little over a month ago, a job opening came up that was awarded to a classmate who definitely deserves it -- she's excellent. Well, she obviously shares this view, because she comes into class each day and rambles on about how awesome it is. They're so nice! We drank wine yesterday! They let me work from home! They said I'm great at Javascript! They paid for my very own domain name! The work is really fun and easy!

It's obnoxious and really insensitive. I was not one of the people who applied for the job (thank god) but what about the poor schmucks who did? I know it's supposed to be a competitive atmosphere but she crosses the line between "discussing new job" and "openly gloating".

Don't get me wrong - I was happy for her (and happy for me -- with her already employed, I won't be competing with her for future jobs). And for someone her age, indulging in some bragging the first day or so would seem natural, but it's become an accepted daily event.

Our teacher encourages it and makes it part of the class. "Sarah has a real world job!" (I know, it's like we're 5). He takes up huge chunks of class time to help her with work-related issues. They're constantly talking about her job. Never mind the rest of us, working just as hard on sites we aren't getting paid for! I had my hand up for like 10 minutes the other day while I waited for him to finish answering a question she had about a work project.

The BEST was on Friday: I emailed my teacher to ask what we were working on that day. He said, "Sarah came to me with a bunch of questions for her work. As you know, she has a real world job that needs sorting, so we're going to help her with that today."

WHAT?!

Yeah, I stayed home.

Good news: we have 3 weeks left of this portion, then they teach us Flash (I can't wait), then it's on to the big Industry Project. Yea!!

Open Homes are a bit like dating

We saw three open homes today. Each had promise, each seemed to have all we were looking for, and we wandered up the driveways full of anticipation: "Maybe this is the one!!" And then 20 minutes later we'd wander back to the car, dejected, and disappointed, but thinking, "Maybe the NEXT one will be different!"

The first house would've been great, if you could pick it up and move it somewhere quieter. It was slightly larger than ours and had been renovated, but every window you looked out of looked right into another home -- and there was practically no yard. You could hear the loud bass music blasting from the home next door -- no way. Kiwis tend to subdivide, which means they cram homes into backyards, so you get a house with another house right behind it. Great for the original property owner -- they now get to sell 2 homes - but it's greedy and ruins neighborhoods and looks really crappy (in my opinion).

That was the deal with this place. It has no business being there. On to the next house!

The second house was massive -- the entire basement could've held an office for Iain AND an office for me and then there were three bedrooms upstairs and the whole house had a sweeping view of the water. But it was a total dump -- it had that old lady smell plus mold and mildew. It must've been a big family home at one point, but it needed a TON of work. It was also in the shade, and quite cold.

The third and final house seemed too good to be true (on paper) -- 3 bedrooms, 1 office, 2 bathrooms. The two (!!) guest bedrooms were REALLY nice. They looked like they belonged in a lush tropical inn somewhere -- it evoked fantasies of entertaining out of town friends: "... and here's where you'll be staying... yes, it's lovely, isn't it... Look at the palm trees right outside your window. Well, why don't you get settled in -- your bathroom is just off the hall -- and when you're ready, join us on the deck for some wine and hors d'œuvres..." SO cool!!!! Man, the bedrooms were awesome. Iain agreed they were nice but didn't share my romanticism: "Yeah, they're ok..."

It had a nice deck off of the living room, but it was a little small and not too convenient. Like, we imagined having guests over for dinner and we're out on the deck and someone asks for the salt and oh crap, it's in the the kitchen which means walking back in through the living room, down the stairs into the kitchen... It sounds stupid but these are the things that will drive you nuts. There were way too many stairs in this place -- it had like 4 levels. Imagine the vacuuming!

But what sealed the deal was the fact that it's a townhouse and had a narrow, cramped apartment feel to it, which we're not looking for. Also, the townhouse next door looked like a bunch of squatters lived there -- I meant to ask the realtor, "Um, who or what lives next door???" Old mattresses shoved up against the windows, furniture and crap everywhere... It wasn't cool.

Oh well. It's fun to look, and until I get a job we aren't really in a position to go anywhere.

Going crazy without my camera...

So here's a picture from our honeymoon (which sucked, as I think I've mentioned).

Canon has had the camera for two weeks. I am totally calling them tomorrow morn to ask what the deal is. Do you know how many cute cat moments I've missed???

Absentee Ballot!!

I received my absentee ballot in the mail. I was very disappointed to see that the ballot is a generic form, good for any election at any time. How.... frugal. The candidates' names don't appear on the ballot -- you write in your vote. What a letdown - I was so psyched to see their names and tick the box next to Obama. Oh well. At least it arrived! The last time I spoke with the election office in Philly they were really snarky!

Daylight Savings

We "spring forward" today (actually, it already happened).

It's been a quiet weekend.

Today we went for a long walk along the water -- the weather is definitely getting nicer! There were a ton of birds out and everything looked really lush and green. (the picture above is an old one -- the camera still isn't back yet!)

Yesterday, I was on the phone in the morning to Shelby & Danielle, then I spent the rest of the day working on my website. Iain went grocery shopping and scraped paint off the house. I also watched the Presidential Debate. I have to admit, McCain did a pretty decent job, although he looks like death warmed up.

Around 4pm we were both feeling a bit cabin-fever-y so we drove over to Browns Bay for some afternoon drinks.

Today, Iain's back to work on the house and I'm back to my web stuff.

We're going to an open house in our neighborhood -- there's a beautiful 3 bedroom that overlooks the water that's in our price range which probably means there's something seriously wrong with it, like there's no kitchen, or a wall is missing, or there's a dead body in the basement.

Rock the Vote!

The NZ elections are on November 8 and they've got their own version of MTV's Rock The Vote.

There's a commercial targeted to "today's youth" that features four people around a table, including a dwarf featured on one of the local shows. Every time one guy (not the dwarf) starts to speak, the rest of the group shhhsh's him. He keeps trying to talk, and finally one of the women yells, "SHUT IT!".

Then they attack him and duct tape his mouth. (I swear to god, I did not write this spot)

The announcer reads, "If you don't vote, no one gives a shit what you say."

Well said!

Thursday.

My day started off really well. It stopped raining just in time for me to go for my morning walk. I had a brand new podcast of 'This American Life' on my iPod to listen to during my walk. While getting dressed for school, I noticed that my jeans felt looser, proof of my recent weight loss & exercise efforts.

I even lost a gold earring on the bus and had it returned to me by a friendly passenger. I couldn't believe my luck!

Then I got to class.

We had a guest speaker: some PHP genius that our teacher raves about. I figured it would be boring but so what -- all I have do is sit there, right? Wrong. This guy likes to TEACH. He likes to call kids up to the blackboard and say, "Create a new function." Like an 8 year old in class, terrified of drawing attention to one's self, I slunk down in my seat and tried not to make eye contact, and eventually some other chump went up and did it.

Then it got difficult. The guy kept barking out orders: "Class, create a function that gives us the area of a circle. (pause) Ok, who's finished?"

Jeez, slow down! I have to do PHP and geometry??? Whoa - he just typed a function that gives the radius of a circle. Crap. How much time is left until the end of class? Two and a half hours???

I typed what I thought the answer was. The guy asked us, "Did it work? Who's got it working?"

Mine didn't work. My nosy "neighbors" who sit on either side of me glanced over at my screen (theirs worked, of course). They saw that mine wasn't working and started going through my script. Then the kid who sits behind me chimed in: "I know what you did wrong! You're not browsing to the local server!" "Yes, I am!" I argued, getting more and more flustered and annoyed. I was silently pleading with everyone to just leave me alone, to please grant me the opportunity to figure out on my own what horrendous programming logic I'd screwed up in this life-threatening exercise.

Then the guy walked over, followed by my teacher. Oh god...

"What's the problem over here? Someone not getting it? Come on - this is easy stuff." the guy boomed.

So now I've got FIVE people leaning over my screen with the entire class staring at me. I wanted to die. Memories of college calculus began flooding in....

The only difference between a humiliated 8 year old school kid who experiences that and a mortified 37 year old is that I didn't start crying or wet my pants. Close, though, on both counts. But the emotions - the embarrassment, the irritation - are exactly the same. I handled it the way we have to as adults: act like it's no big deal, maybe make a self-deprecating joke, say, "Thanks everyone." and shrug it off. And then write a rambling blog post about the whole thing...

(Follow-up: the problem in my code was a missing semi-colon. Hurray! I'm not a complete idiot! )

The Americans!

Our next door neighbor is moving to a new house. He hasn't sold his current house yet, so he's renting it to some tenants.

They're from California. That's all we know. Oh, and they move in this weekend. I have mixed feelings about this.

Fears:
1) They like Palin (deal breaker)
2) They're young and will have super loud parties (this is a general fear that has nothing to do with their nationality)
3) They'll assume that because I'm American, we're instant BFFs.

Hopes:
1) They're voting for Obama
2) They're our age and super cool and watch Gossip Girl and Lost and can't wait for the Golden Globes
3) Because I'm American, we're instant BFFs.

Stay tuned!

Thing I Won't Miss About School

I haven't discussed school so much because Iain Googled "Swiffer" a few weeks ago and our blog came up. This means if he found it anyone from school could accidentally stumble across it through a Google search for my school's name, etc.

I've removed the options to let Google list the blog and left off my name from the title, but I'm still paranoid. These kids can hack sites, so you never know.

Anyway, I'm a little over halfway through. The homestretch is in sight. We begin learning Flash in a month, and then it's on to our big Industry Project. Graduation is in February.

I can't wait. Here's what I won't miss:

1. Commuting almost 3 hours every day for a 3 hour class.

2. Our Friday morning "theory" classes that are sans computers and therefore a complete waste of time, so it winds up being 2 hours of standing around our teacher's laptop while he plays around on eBay (or NZ's version: TradeMe), or a 2 hour discussion of databases. It's mind numbing.

3. Sitting 1-2 feet away from the people next to me, so every sigh, every sound, every sniffle, every stupid finger snap, every pen click is felt or heard. (yeah, I know a lot of offices favor this same bullpen environment, but even there you've got bigger desks or a small divider)

4. Having this huge industry project looming over us. They never give us strict guidelines for what this industry project should be, leading all of us to question," So, what can I do for my industry project?" I assume they're vague because they don't want anyone to begin working on it early.

5. The constant threat of group projects, to demonstrate that in the Real World you need to work well together. Yuck. I've been in the workforce for 15 years -- I already know I don't work well with others! Supposedly we have one coming up in October - a two week group assignment. Ugh.

6. The school environment: the gross bathrooms, the dirty student lounge that I refuse to sit in, the gaggle of teenagers in hoodies lurking by the front door with their cigarettes and Gatorade and meat pies that I have to walk through every day. Once in the building, I am often assaulted by the sound of kids leaping down the stairs while yelling to each other. I never thought I would crave the austerity of an office building.

7. The still almost-daily Mac vs PC debates. You'd think there wouldn't be anything left to say, but you'd be wrong.

8. The goofy jokes and incessant giggling that one can expect from a group of recent high-school grads, but gets old fast when you're pushing 37.

9. Not knowing the future, having to find a job, etc. Not having a job!

10. No personal space: we don't get lockers or our own desks or anything. So, I have to lug a big bag to school with water, a cardigan, notebook, books, lunch, make-up, etc. And then lug it home again. You can't leave anything.

11. Because there's nowhere decent in school to eat my lunch, and you can't eat on the bus, I am stuck eating my lunch while waiting for the bus at 10:30am. The thought of eating lunch at lunchtime sounds like a luxury.

12. The naive assumptions about business that the teacher doesn't dispute (this baffles me). For example, one student mentioned that the city paid $300K for a new Auckland City logo. "We should all be designers!!!" he said, "Imagine getting paid $300K for a stupid logo!" Fool, the AGENCY got paid $300K.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM!

My brother in law celebrates his bday today!!! Hopefully the celebrations will not include dancing.

Brunch!

On Sunday we had Glenn and Claudine over for brunch. I wish I had my camera (still in the shop) because the food looked great and it was a gorgeous day out. It was so awesome.

Iain has been trying to recreate the tomato sauce at Villa di Roma in South Philly and he's just about succeeded. He also served a fantastic green salad with lemon dressing made from our own lemons from our tree, plus bread and homemade sangria.

I made cupcakes from a mix, which took TWO attempts because the first time I burnt the batch. It's official: I can no longer cook.

Because I don't have pictures of this event, I slapped up a few pictures from our old deck in Philly. I've been feeling a little homesick so it was fun to look at these pictures again! I thought there were more. It's weird -- I thought I was always taking pictures, but I guess I wasn't.

Blue versus Tama: not exactly a death match, but still entertaining

Cigarettes

Yuck. This is like the Canadian cigarette packs that also feature really gross pictures. Unfortunately, when I was in Canada they became a bit like trading cards: "Wait - I've already got the Lung Cancer pack -- how about Bad Teeth? Great - thanks!"

Sidenote: notice the warning on the packs is in English and Maori

Olivia & Matilda support Obama!

With the camera in the shop, I've decided to post other people's pictures. Here's Matilda (top) and Olivia (below). If only they could vote....

CHECK OUT THE NEW WEEKLY POLL! (on the right)

Suggestions for future polls are encouraged*!

*(suggestions for future polls may be ignored)

Escape!

At around 8:30 last night we asked, "Where are the cats?" A quick investigation revealed that Blue was upstairs on the bed but Tama was nowhere to be found. I went out on the porch and shook the jar of cat treats -- it's always a surefire way of getting the cats to come home. No Tama. I went back inside.

An hour later, I tried again -- this time it was raining. No Tama. Weird. I went outside with the jar and circled the perimeter of the house. I couldn't see anything and it's not like we live on a compound -- if there's a cat outside, we'll see him. Worry started to set in.

Iain joined me outside and we began wandering around the neighborhood, calling his name and shaking the jar. The neighbors must've loved us. I was going up to people's garages and calling his name in case he'd gotten trapped. We theorized that Tama's collar had fallen off and he'd run into the nature reserve behind our house and was busy exploring and smelling his way around,no intention of coming home any time soon. This was our best case scenario. The reserve is safe. NZ doesn't have wild animals (just possums and rabbits), so there was no risk of a raccoon or a fox hurting him. We also speculated that he might've been hiding in the bushes right by the house - he's been known to do that.

Defeated, we went inside, dried off and watched some more TV. I was trying not to freak out. Right before bed, I went back outside and repeated the calling and jar shaking. By now I was quite worried and panic was seeping in. Our cats have never escaped or been gone this long. I kept telling myself that I should be used to this -- growing up, our cats were outdoor cats (no invisible fence) and they'd sometimes take off for days. But I also remember lying awake, night after night, crying and wondering where my cat was. It's no fun.

Iain suggested we turn off the electric perimeter. In case Tama still had his collar on but had managed to get out, he might not be able to get through if the invisible fence was on. We turned it off and put the cat door to "in only" so Blue couldn't get outside.

We went to bed. Iain suggested I take an Ambien but I said no. Instead I laid in bed listening intently to every single sound, at one point mistaking Blue's snoring with a cat cry. Eventually I fell asleep -- sort of. Around midnight I got up and went downstairs, intending to go back outside with the jar. When I went into the kitchen, a soaking wet kitty greeted me with a small meow. Tama! I dried him off, carried him to the bedroom where Blue gave him a little wash, and we all went to sleep.

In true cat fashion, we have no idea where he was.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD PATEFIELD!

Iain's dad celebrates his birthday today! Happy birthday!! See you guys in November!!

Back To You

Ok, does anyone remember the marketing of this stupid show? It premiered in a huge media blitz of billboards and bus shelter signs all over Philly, NY, etc. I didn't want to leave the house, for fear of being confronted with 15 foot images of Kelsey Grammar's smarmy face everywhere. Everywhere!

Then we moved to NZ. Whew!

Until now. 'Back to You' has followed me to New Zealand, in keeping with the other horrible TV shows they've brought over here. The list includes 'The View', 'Kimora: Life in the Fastlane', 'NCIS', 'Ghost Whisperer', that stupid spin-off from 'Grey's Anatomy', 'Reba', 'Growing Up Gotti', and the worst show ever: 'Two & A Half Men'.

Camera

Our brand new (thanks, insurance company!) camera has a weird scratch on the inside of the viewer, so we dropped it off to be fixed under warranty. I'm so glad it's still under warranty, but I'll be sans camera for about 2 weeks which SUCKS. Get ready for lots of recycled pictures...

We went for another drive in the country yesterday, this time around Howick, Clevedon, and the surrounding beaches. We keep thinking we'll find our dream house. Actually, we did: (http://www.uprealty.co.nz/property.aspx?ref=UPR11155)
but it's T O T A L L Y out of our price range!!!

It was another gorgeous day -- people were actually swimming in the ocean despite the fact that it's still only in the high 60s at best. I can't wait for summer, though!!

We rented some movies and are settling in for an evening of wine, movies, and Iain's homemade marinara sauce!

CONGRATULATIONS JAMIE & SCOTT!!!

Our pals Jamie and Scott get married today!!!! Way to go guys!! Woo-hoo!!!

I Can't Wait!

Silly Jennifer Aniston. She's been working out daily for 15 years with personal trainers, Pilates instructors, and nutritionists. But with this simple four week plan, I can achieve the exact same results!

Stay tuned!

Loo

Actual sign is posted on the boys' bathroom door at school. The "toilets across the road" refers to the grody public bathrooms.

Shout out to Matilda!

Dumbass

So, I've been trying to upload two new pictures and I keep getting a network error message. On my 9th attempt I stared at the error message and thought, "Man, I should take a picture of this error message and post it!" It took an embarrassing number of milliseconds to work through the logic to realize why that wouldn't work...

The Sopranos

On Sunday we took homemade tomato sauce and meatballs over to Toni and Max's to watch The Sopranos (even though we've already seen it at least twice... some of us three times.) They live in swanky Ponsonby where all the houses look like this.

Picnic

It's been really nice out lately so on Saturday we drove out to the country for a picnic by the ocean. Unfortunately it was a little chilly right by the water but it was still fun.

We also looked at houses in hopes of finding some incredible house in the country with room for a pool that we could actually afford. Good luck....

We drove by a house with an Open House sign in front so we stopped. We were snooping through the backyard and peering in windows before the owner came out and informed us that the open house was actually up the street. Nice job. (Her house is also for sale, and we'd driven past it before, which is why we assumed she had was having an open house but we still felt pretty stupid.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYTHAM!

My nephew turns 7 today.

Palin ?!?!?!??!????!!!!!!??

On The Bus

I started taking a different bus home to mix things up a bit. The stop is a few blocks away from my usual stop, and there's less people so you're pretty much guaranteed a full seat to yourself.

Whether I like it or not, the bus is a big part of my day.

Today, there was a woman was sitting across the aisle from me. She was about 50 or so, I guess, and was fumbling with a bunch of CDs she'd just purchased. I smiled, thinking, "Man, who still buys CDs?" She started the horrible task of trying to get the plastic off, and the noise make me glance back over. I looked at the CD. It was Toto! How random!! Then I looked at her other CD. Toto! I didn't even know Toto had more than one CD! Awesome. And she looked SO excited, like you know she couldn't wait to get home and put them on.

But the BEST was this other woman. She was carrying around a box of tissues -- not sure what that was about. Her outfit consisted of hiking shoes, Mom jeans, sweatshirt with some school emblem on it , and a F.U.B.U. baseball hat. I was DYING to ask her if she knows what FUBU means, but of course I didn't. I'm not saying whiteys shouldn't wear FUBU*, but the fact that this woman was SO white and it's New Zealand just made it that much better.

And then there's Revolting Hairy Lady, who thankfully is not a regular passenger. She is unshowered, has what appears to be a beard, and completely reeks of stale cigarette smoke mixed with horrendous body odor. She's filthy. It's so bad, even when she leaves, the bus still stinks. I need to be more tolerant of this poor woman, who is clearly mentally ill, but it's tough when she chooses the seat right in front of me.

(*after a brief visit to the FUBU website, maybe we should all wear FUBU -- they donate tons of money to charities around NY and stuff. I bet The Gap can't say that.)

Sunday!

Sunday we did work in the morning (ok, some of us worked, some of us watched rugby). Afterwards we drove over to Mairangi Bay for a long walk along the clifftops. This is without a doubt one of the most gorgeous walks in Auckland. On one side is the ocean, and on the other are gorgeous holy-crap-what-do-these-people-do-for-a-living-to-afford-this type-of-house houses. Afterwards we met Glenn and Claudine for brunch and drinks. I LOVE brunch!

Iain took me on this exact same walk when we visited New Zealand in 2005, so it was neat to come back. I remember being so blown away with how pretty it is. Back then, it was summer so after the walk we jumped in the water for a swim. We'll have to come back in a few months and do that again.

Here are some of the eight gazillion pictures I took. I tried to get a few shots of some of houses, but they're obviously well-fenced in, so it's mostly balconies and over-the-wall reaches.

Check it out: wild calla lilies!

Saturday

Well, my project was considered perfect by my teacher except for a small fix. Awesome! On Saturday morning I started making the revisions. Time consuming, but easy stuff.

Four hours into it, I announced, "Cool! I'm almost done!" and that's when it happened. I did something wrong and my entire site crashed. I got a horrible error message on the screen with no clues to help fix it.

So, panic set in, anger, near-tears, mild hysteria as I started unraveling.... Lately whenever something like this happens, it starts snowballing: "Oh my god oh my god oh my god what happened to my site I am so sick of this why does this always happen to me I suck I never should've gone back to school I probably won't get a job what was I thinking my teachers stink and I don't even think they like me maybe I shouldn't even be in this business I should just give up completely and go back to producing but it's been so long now I probably wouldn't even get hired what kind of job would I even be able to get at this stage I don't know anyone or which agencies are hiring and - Huh? Oh, hey. Yeah, I'm fine. What? Ok, maybe I'm not fine..."

With a meltdown imminent, Iain strongly suggested we get out of the house, go for a walk, and get away for a while. We went for a long walk, then drove over to Takapuna to the Belgian place for a beer (ok, 3 beers). It was exactly what I needed.

The next morning I woke up, looked at my files and within seconds figured out what I'd done wrong (another benefit of walking away and then coming back with a clear head). I'm a dumbass.

But, now I can hand back my project today and be officially finished!

First Day of Spring!

Here's a picture of a neighborhood Tui bird in a cabbage tree. We're awakened each morning by the sound of birds. Iain loves it, and I should too, but I sheepishly admit that I sometimes find it a little annoying. But I'll take the sound of a few birds any day over the sound of squeaky Ford Taurus brake pads as one of the old Italian ladies from our old 'hood spends 30 minutes trying to park her car.