What Aucklanders are Eating

This is a neat link promoting the Auckland Museum's latest exhibit. They've asked people to upload pictures of typical (and not so typical) Kiwi culinary delights. The Auckland Museum has great exhibits -- from what I can tell from walking by, viewing stuff on Twitter or seeing their posters. No, I've never actually BEEN to the museum...

I don't know the people in this picture, but based on where they are and what they're eating, I wish they were my best friends.

http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/1429/showcase

TV and Movie Clichés - part one

Iain and I are constantly pointing out those things you see on TV and in films that no one in real life actually does. Here are a few examples, seen today on episodes of SVU and Gossip Girl:

1. The woman sauntering around the man's apartment wearing his buttondown and nothing else.

2. The woman sitting at her dressing table brushing her hair at night while talking to her husband. Alt: woman sitting in bed rubbing moisturizer on her elbows while talking to her husband (oddly, this one seems reserved for the moms; you never see a single gal doing this)

3. "Surely you can't think I did this?" as an answer during police questioning. Usually followed by "... I LOVED her/him!"

I'm going to start keeping track of these. If you can think of any, please post a comment here or on Facebook.

Token House Shots, part one

A few shots of the house (taken right after we cleaned). More to come.

Declan Michael Occhino!

I don't have any pictures but I wanted to congratulate Och + Kerry on their latest, born June 9th. Simone now has a brother and Pippa has another excuse to bark 24/7. Way to go guys!

Law and Order SVU

Is it just me or does SVU suck now? Honestly, the last few episodes I've seen have replaced decent plotlines for celebrity guest appearances. They've even tried injecting humor into the show which is just totally bizarre.

Also, I guess the writers finally realized how hot Mariska Hargitay is, and so now the show always has a scene where she just happens to play a dominatrix, a hard core lesbian, a sexy speed dater, or a slutty corrupt detective -- but it's okay 'cause it's for the plot.

The latest episode was a ridiculous dramedy featuring Kathy Griffin playing a man hating lesbian-turned-bisexual activist. Yeah.

Of course, I will continue to Tivo it and watch religiously....

Skype!

A year ago I was in NY hanging out with Nam and a very pregnant Danielle. This year, I'm back in NZ and Danielle and Nam have 9 month old Emory. Once again Skype proves to be a saving grace: I finally got to "meet" Emory! Pictures on Facebook don't really cut it. At one point, while Mom made herself a margarita, Nam put the laptop on the floor and I called Emory who came crawling across the carpet to greet me - pretty cool! Iain was out getting a massage and missed all the fun, but we'll do it again.

Queen's Birthday Weekend!

We've got a long weekend! Both of us got out of work early (4.30) and were eager to start the weekend off right. Our plans were derailed when we saw Tama - he'd been in another fight with evil neighborhood ginger kitty and looked quite shaken.

His collar was off and after a thorough search of the yard, I found it by a rosebush and a bunch of ginger fur -- there was obviously quite a scuffle!

We inspected Tama and he seems fine except for his ear -- we think there's a sliver in it so we're taking him to the vets this morning.

Plans for the weekend are pretty tame: we're lying low to save money and take care of our kitty. It's supposed to be cold and rainy, so it's perfect for movies and soup and books.

Tama on Twitter!

Well this RULES!

mashable.com/cats-tweet

Sal's Pizza

About a month ago we discovered Sal's Authentic New York Pizza here in Auckland. Considering THIS is what we've had to tolerate (please see below), finally getting the real deal has been worth the wait. Of course, we had it once. Then a week later had it again. Then Iain's parents were in town so we had it AGAIN. Then a coworker mentioned it so now I want it again.....

More on that list of what we've been up to...

4. We celebrated our 4 year anniversary in style last Thursday in style: a small tasting platter at The Lobby in the SKYCITY Grand Hotel, followed by a traditional Iain Cosmopolitan at home.



3. Now that our weekends aren't spent buying sinks and pricing doorknobs, we have resumed our social life. This has been an absolute novelty. The first year we were here, I was in school so our social life sucked. Then it was all about the house. It's so nice to have a weekend arrive and have nothing to do. Wanna go have brunch? Sure. Two hours of Tivo'ed Gossip Girl? Why not. Sleeping in? What's that? It's great. For example, last weekend we had brunch with friends on Saturday, and on Sunday we hoped in the car and just drove around to different cafés. And why the hell not?

These pictures are from 3 different places we visited. The best part is that we had no intention of doing this, and two of the places we found we didn't even know existed. Really cool! And a really inexpensive way to check out a bunch of places.

One of the places had this insane back garden with a terrier running around, a huge cage of pigeons, and tropical plants everywhere. I can't even imagine how cool this place must look in the summer!

We're Back!

Okay, after a few month's hiatus I've decided to start up again. This is mainly due to the (sad?) fact that I really missed blogging, and while Facebook is great, I don't always want to post everything on it.

I promise not to keep rattling on about the bloody house - we're in it, it's great. I'll post some pictures.

Here's a quick run-down of what we've been up since I last posted:

1. I had minor foot surgery. This thrilling undertaking was 500x better than the same surgery I had on my other foot back in 2003. Incredible -- either they've made huge medical breakthroughs in bunion surgery (doubtful) or the first guy I had in Philly was crap (likely). I got to work from home for a week which was great!



2. Iain got promoted! (I can't remember if that was mentioned before). I'm still working for the same folks and am enjoying it a hell of lot more than I used to. Karma can be a good thing.

3. Iain's parents visited for 9 days in May. They were our first official houseguests! We spent the week eating way too much. It was a really good time and (hopefully) nice and relaxing for them. I think Blue had the best deal: he received twice the number of belly rubs and pats. Tama was still skittish but not totally freaking out, so that's progress.







More posts to come!

Packing!

Packing has begun. The cats know something's up. Blue refuses to give up his favorite spots, but they can definitely tell we're moving. Again!

Last Photos of an Empty House

We're four days away from the move and I officially can't wait. We're meeting with our builder tomorrow night to go over the last details.

While Iain watched cricket I drove over to the house to check it out. I flicked all of the light switches on and off, turned on every faucet, ran the showers, opened and closed the kitchen drawers. I turned on the ceiling fan upstairs, opened some of the windows (with SCREENS! A rarity in NZ!!), and sat on the carpet. It felt great.

As expected (and warned by friends who've undergone renovations), there's stuff we did wrong. But thankfully nothing is holy-crap-this-looks-like-sh*t standout wrong -- it's all in the details. There's stuff like the positioning of a wall socket... or an outside light. But so far, the important stuff is all there.

The next pictures will be of a completed house!

Weekend

This weekend was going to be all about packing, cleaning, and getting prepared for the move.

So why did we wind up:

1. eating lunch by the beach
2. wandering around the Viaduct
3. visiting friends, Jenny + David and week old baby Max
4. watching rugby (Iain)
5. seeing Precious (me)
6. having drinks with our 85 year old neighbors, Mitch + Lois

Maybe it had something to do with the weather -- spectacular!!

Famous!

I've been in this country two years and I've been featured twice in national magazines! (this might having something to do with the fact that it's a country of slightly over 4 million people.) Here's a picture from this month's issue of MiNDFOOD. It's me with two friends at the Kiehl's launch at Smith + Caughey. Truthfully, we were just there for the free wine and samples.

P.S. They made me hold that magazine.