CONGRATULATIONS DANIELLE & NAM!

Congrats on their new arrival, Dinner (or Din Din, as she'll be called). Hopefully we'll get some better (non-cellphone) pictures soon!

Guy Fawkes Day

Today is Guy Fawkes Day. I don't know what this means, but Iain has warned me that everyone sets off fireworks. The cats will love that....

ELECTION DAY!

The NZ press seems pretty optimistic that Obama is going to win. I'm not as confident. I really wish I could stay home, glued to the TV all day, instead of going to class, but I'll be at home by the time the final announcement is made (I think!) GO OBAMA!!!!!!

Oh. My. God.

Email today from the German:

"How was the tutor today, did he explain more nicely. I am interested if my Email to [the school] have brought some improvement in this regard. Interesting to hear that many others don't show up.

I am still suffering from dizziness attacks and releasing winds frequently, so its not very pleasant around me. Having some kind of a yeast growth producing carbon dioxide, which creates over acidity and effects my sense of balance, which is still under investigation. Therefore I will not show up before Friday, even if I feel better I will first find out if Alex's teaching style has changed. Other wise I am not putting myself in this stress again, which was likely the starting point for my health issue."

In case anyone's wondering, this email was in response to my email, which read:
"Here are the files from today's class."

I heart Flash!

Class today was 100x better. Our teacher went out and got a personality over the weekend and was actually funny and helpful. Even better, the German sent me an email today -- he said he hates the class and doesn't want to go anymore. He asked me to forward him the assignments every day. I wrote back a helpful, "No problem!" I hope this keeps up!

Slow News Day

The Week

Well, Flash class blows. I was really looking forward to it, but our teacher is totally arrogant. He's from Belgium - perhaps the French speaking part? His idea of teaching is to claim that everything is "easy" while he types code at an alarmingly fast rate, and we sit there like monkeys furiously copying what he's typed and hoping it works. Yeah, that's effective. The classes are absolutely exhausting -- it's three hours of really intense "learning" and I've come home totally drained every day. Thank GOD there's only 3 more weeks.

I was so tired that I haven't done any code this weekend which is a first. I meant to do a Flash tutorial to learn it on my own, but I couldn't face it. Perhaps next week will be better.

Iain spent his week getting ready for our windows to have double-glazing installed. He's very excited! Our neighborhood can get a little loud and this added insulation will do wonders to cut down the noise while also keeping in the heat.

Plants! Plants!

This morning we headed to a nursery to use a generous gift certificate from Iain's parents that we've been meaning to use for ages!

I had no idea plants were so expensive! (I'm talking about decent sized plants, not something you put on a desk). I used to complain when my mom would unload her extra plants on my sister and me, but I would kill for that now! I wanted a big ficus tree for the living room -- they started at $150. We bought a corn plant -- the exact same type of plant I reluctantly had to leave in Philly, but this one is much nicer. We also got a beautiful orchid, a big pot for the corn plant, and some garden supplies.

Then it was off to the mall where I looked for the perfect pair of flats and of course came home empty handed. I couldn't find anything decent. Iain bought a fly swatter.

Tama = Paulie Walnuts

Tama busted through invisible fence again and was gone for 8 horrible hours. We're convinced he goes to the nature reserve behind the house and holds card games with the other neighborhood kitties. Maybe sells a few bags of catnip...

We aren't really sure what we can do -- his collar is as tight as it can humanely be. We turned off the fence so he could get back onto the property, which meant poor innocent Blue (Bobby Baccalieri?) had to spend the day inside while Tama had his fun.

I worked through my anxiety by re-potting plants, scrubbing the kitchen counter, stove, bathtub, toilet, plus dusting and doing 2 loads of laundry, stopping every 5 minutes to look outside for Tama. Iain sanded a window and primed it, then did the vacuuming.

Around 3pm I wandered over to the "entrance" to the nature reserve (a huge cluster of weeds and trees and flowers) and there was our small kitty, sitting about four feet away, crying. I guess he'd been trying to get home but was worried about the invisible fence - who knows.... He wouldn't move, and just kept crying, so I picked him up and brought him home. Blue sniffed him all over, then growled and hissed, but we're all happy he's home.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Commentary

I know they're constantly in the tabloids and we're all sick of them, but I'm really beginning to dislike them. I thought it was ridiculous when they claimed that they wouldn't get married until gay marriage became legal. I agree with their cause - everyone should be able to get married - but then stick with it! How lame of Brad to then turn around and say that the REAL reason they aren't married is because he's terrified of going through the same emotional hell as his divorce from Jennifer Aniston. That's lame on like 50 levels. If you don't want to get married, fine - but just say so already!

I also thought the shots of Angelina in 'W' weren't so great. So there! (ok, she looked really pretty in the breastfeeding shots, and the picture of her and Maddox is cool, but that's it)

Yea Phillies!!

I only heard about this tonight during the 6pm news!

Flash!

Well, we started learning Flash this week.

This is the last new thing we learn before getting stuck into our final industry projects. There's a reason not everyone does Flash. Holy CRAP. It doesn't help that our teacher is some coked-up dude who refuses to help (the German already complained). Today he did a bit of code and just when we all sort of maybe kind of started to understand it, he said, "Ok, do it this way!" and left us all to sink or swim. It was like teaching someone how to add then saying, "Great! Try this!" and handing them some major calculus problem.

I am hoping he improves.

Back to School

Man, after 4 days off it's tough to go back to school!

Yesterday was gorgeous outside, so we did a few hours of work inside then headed off for brunch where we sat outside and enjoyed some mimosas and eggs. Everyone was outside with their dogs, their kids, etc. It was great. Then we hung out on our deck with the cats and read books and magazines. The NZ sun is ridiculously strong so we slathered ourselves with sunscreen but I still managed to burn my knee. Not my leg. Not even both legs. Just one knee. I have no idea how I managed to do that.

Then we went for a walk to help offset the eggs benedict and champagne, came home, showered, and watched episodes of Eli Stone (thanks Danielle & Nam!) until bedtime.

Labor Day!

It's Labor Day weekend over here (that's right - I'm leaving out the "u" in Labour). We're enjoying our day off by sanding & painting (Iain) and writing code while obsessively checking Facebook and email every 10 minutes (me). It's terrifying how addictive Facebook can be. I hate it - but I kind of love it, too.

My updated site is up, after a few weeks of finessing. It's still a major work in progress, but at least now I have something to show prospective employers. I added a client login feature that doesn't work yet, but I'll worry about that next weekend.

Our useless group project at school is over, and tomorrow we're scheduled to begin learning Flash. I am really psyched!

Last night we caught about 10 minutes of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". What's the deal with this show? I've never watched a full episode but every time I catch a snippet of it, it's about someone who either fought in Iraq or had something to do with 9/11. Whatever it is, whoever it is, there's always an American flag and someone crying. It's completely bizarre and a little too subversive for my taste.

Once Iain finishes up some painting we're off for brunch!

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