AlMOst there!

Pirate or porn star?



Just a few more days to sponsor him...

Thanks to everyone (esp Arthur and Shannon) for the generous donations already received!

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Thanksgiving

Today (Friday) is Thanksgiving in the US (Thursday). Darren and I aren’t big fans of the holiday, as we think it glosses over the real history between the pilgrims and the Native Americans. Still, it is a day I always looked forward to spending with my family and also turns out be a significant marker of time.

For the past several years – at least 12 now – family has meant: my brother Kevin, his wife Maurya, Maurya’s brother Wes and sister Barb, and Barb’s husband Tom. The six of us got together for Thanksgiving every year (that I was in the country) and shared the day together. Sometimes we would all converge into Maryland at Kevin and Maurya’s house, other times we’d go to Virginia to Barb and Tom’s house. I usually had some crazy dating/break-up story to tell (until Darren, of course!), Kevin would always control the cooking – even if we weren’t in his house – and the boys would inevitably end up watching football.

Three years ago I was on vacation here in New Zealand, and two years ago Darren and I announced after Thanksgiving dinner that we were thinking of moving to Wellington. Last Thanksgiving was our last holiday with the family all together before our move here just one week later.

Last year was also significant because Tom had had some unsettling medical tests. His doctors weren’t quite sure what was happening with his liver, but none of us even dared to think of that horrible word: cancer. But it did turn out to be cancer, which was followed by chemo and biopsies and lots and lots of fear and worry. And then a woman died and generously donated her organs – gifting Tom with a new liver. A year since those first unsettling tests, he is 10 weeks into his transplant with no rejection. It’s been a crazy year for Barb and Tom, and while we all worry and care (and Kev/Maur are close enough to help out), only Barb and Tom live with it every minute of every day.

I don’t miss the US for the most part, and I certainly don’t miss the commercialism of Thanksgiving and what the holiday theoretically stands for. I do, though, miss the family getting together and catching up, laughing and eating really yummy food. So many families do the holiday dinners out of obligation, but I always enjoyed getting together with the family. I have been looking forward to my phone call home today since…well earlier this week when I remembered Thanksgiving was coming up. =) Wes wasn’t there this year either, since he moved out to Las Vegas not too long ago. I’m sure we’ll all figure out how to make the distances smaller in time, and maybe one of these years we’ll all be in one place again.

Until then, we miss you guys and we love you!

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Mo update

On my request, Darren started growing out the sides of his Mo so he looks less like Ned Flanders:




He kinda looks like a prisoner, but at least it's a bit hotter! To add to the look, he managed to injure one of his eyes at work this week, and had to wear a patch:



You can only imagine all the pirate jokes he had to endure both at work and at home! As luck would have it, one of his coworkers actually brought a real parrot into the workshop and the Weta photographer snapped a couple pics - I will post a picture as soon as I get a copy!

Movember goes until the end of this month - you can still sponsor him! Just click HERE

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Tidbits

Just a few things for ya today, including some "fun with words", a new blog feature and a new project Darren is working on -


First, fun with words!

Here are some new phrases I've learned:

Jumper = another word for sweater

Pet Hate = easy to recognize as the Kiwi version of "pet peeve"

Hen Night = bachelorette party

And finally, Spit the Dummy. I love this phrase! When I first heard it, I thought my co-worker was just stringing words together to create a hilarious phrase. Turns out it's a widely used phrase to describe someone who is really upset/angry. A "dummy" is a pacifier! Apparently, when babies cry, they spit out their pacifiers and then throw a tantrum (who knew? Certainly not me!!). So...that gives us "Spit the Dummy". Love it!


Subscribe!

In other news, you can now 'subscribe' to this blog. Yep, due to popular demand - ok, just my friend Jude, but he's popular. Well, he was in high school...I think...
In any case, just go to the sidebar over there <-- and scroll down a bit. You'll see a link that will take you where you need to go to subscribe. Why subscribe? Well, because I am lazy and I don't update the blog very often. The subscription will let you know when I finally get off my ass and write a sentence or two!


Kiwis continue to amaze me with their cuteness

I've written before about the morning traffic report and how there is often nothing to report. However, yesterday morning, the traffic lady reported a backup on the main highway coming into town. Why? She didn't know for sure, but she guess it was because a barge was coming into the harbor.



Movember

Each November, men in New Zealand compete with each other by growing mustaches (a ‘Mo’) for a good cause - thus the moniker “MOvember”.

Every year in New Zealand 2,656 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 600 die of the disease, making prostate cancer the second largest cause of male deaths, after lung cancer.
As you would expect, each “Mo” can be sponsored. All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand who will use the funds to create awareness, increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer, fund research and scholarship programs.

As we arrived at the very end of November/Movember last year, Darren has decided he would like to compete this year. If you’d like to sponsor his “Mo”, go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Foundation’s website and enter in his number: 117992.

It’s only been a few days, but he already looks like a State Trooper! Ack!!



Finally, read this little quote on the Overheard in New York website, and it gave me hope for tolerance in the future:


"Mom, about man on train with flowers: Awww, he has flowers. They're probably for his girlfriend.

Eight-year-old daughter: Mom, you never know! They could be for a boy.

--LIRR"


UPDATE:

Here's a picture of Darren's "mo" so far - I'd say he surpassed 'State Trooper' and is well on his way to 'Ned Flanders'. Maybe if he could grow the sides out a bit...

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Another Anniversary

Last weekend was also the one-year anniversary of the death of our cat Figaro. As some of you know, he developed cancer about a month before we moved here to New Zealand. The cancer moved quickly (I personally think he'd had it for a while, but it was undetectable) and we had to have him put to sleep only a week after the diagnosis.

That week was a horrible one, as I said goodbye to my constant companion of 10 years. I didn't sleep so I could stay awake and pet him, and I cried all day at work and all night at home. The grief was so overwhelming I wondered if I would ever stop crying. Darren was much stronger - he offered to be in the room when Figgy was put to sleep because I couldn't bear to see Figgy lifeless. He handled all of he arrangements, and I know it took a toll on him. We buried him in my brother and sister-in-law's back yard near where their cat was buried. We like to think that they are playing together somewhere....

It helped to move across the world, and not be in a house where I could see Figgy everywhere. I've dreamt about him a lot too, which has been really nice, and there are still mornings where I swear I can hear him purring like he used to do to wake me up.

Because I still miss him, here are some pictures to celebrate the years I had with him:

Figgy as a kitten, shortly after he first appeared in my life (as a stray). He was so cute - how could I not take him in?

His favorite perch in my first Pittsburgh apartment.

On the road with me.

A hot summer in Arizona + too many knots in his fur = the "lion cut".

His favorite chair.

Can you spot the kitty?

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Last Weekend

As always, there is lots to catch up on, and so much of it relates to last weekend! Among other things, we had a Halloween Party to rival all parties we've thrown in the past, I made a career decision AND Darren showed me around the Weta Workshop.

The biggest event, of course, was the party, but I'll start off with the tour. I've been wanting to do one for a while, but tours are typically only held during the week when I'm working. I had taken a couple days off last week, though, so Darren called up and asked if he could bring me in. Since Weta had just completed a couple of projects, I was able to see more of the Workshop than usual because the props had been cleared out.

The first room I saw was a meeting room, which totally would not have been impressive if it didn't also contain all the awards that Weta (and Richard Taylor) have won for various projects. I must have stared at the 5 Oscars from LOTR and King Kong for 10 full minutes! I've never been that close to an Oscar before! I was also happy to report to my boss that the "Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year" award he received last year was hanging on the wall of the same room.

We moved on from the admin area and down some stairs into the workshop area. There are props from Narnia and LOTR everywhere! Really cool to see stuff from movies close-up, although I was too scared to touch anything. I met a lot of Darren's co-workers and checked out the rooms he works in the most. The atmosphere is quite casual, as you can imagine, with CD players or radios in each workroom.

After the extensive tour, we were headed back up to the Admin area to leave, when we ran into Richard Taylor himself!! Darren introduced me, and Richard shook my hand and said something like "It's about time Darren got you in here for a tour - it's good to finally meet you."

Me?

Finally meet me?

Before I could say anything witty (I may have just grunted while smiling..truly can't remember) he was off down the stairs to the workshop.

And that was that! The tour was much more exciting that the times Darren has been to my office ("this is my desk, where I work my tax magic....").

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Happy Halloween!

Yes, I know that Halloween was earlier this week, but I haven't had a chance to post these pictures until now. As you'll notice, we tood a bunch of pictures of our decorations, and not so many of the people at the party. In fact, almost all of the pictures of people came from our friend's cameras!

Enjoy -

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And for Some of the Costumes...

Mike as a "Punk Fairy"

Loren and Heather bucking the system

Mike and Darrel as Dracula

Francois as a Frenchman (not too much of a stretch!) and Emily as a Palm Reader

Mike (#2) as a pun - "Death Takes a Holiday"

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