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!!