liberachi

i feel my 16 years of lessons have been leading up to this piano...

avant gaurd or vandalism

i have the darndest time telling avant guard furniture stores from vandalism

first kiwi helicopter

needless to say, the first kiwi helicopter was not as successful as everyone had hoped...

how many sheets?

how many sheets are on your toilet paper roll?

NZ has 190.

it feels like i'm ALWAYS changing the roll.

sickness

two things i have learned from suffering a cold this week:

1. watching a die hard each day of a cold is an excellent way to pass time (and dream about things blowing up)

2. chips sound crunchier when you're filled with sn*t.

disappearing car door

i wonder how long before my bus gets a disappearing door?

antipodes wedding

today i made my list of people i want to fly to the opposite side of the globe so they don't cause problems at the wedding.

the good news for new zealand trouble-makers: they go to spain.

americans, however, will be sent to the indian ocean.

black barbie

cnn says: "The new black Barbies released by Mattel have fuller lips, curlier hair and other features that the company says more accurately represent African-Americans."

... because the one thing Barbie is known for is "accurately representing" Americans

outliers

i've been reading the outliers and learned that there are no rags-to-riches geniuses who magically rocket to a successful life through some super-human intelligence or ability.

they all (bill gates, the beatles, etc) put in 10,000 hours of "practice" before their lucky break launched them into a phenomenal career.

i've got quite a few more hours to log before i hit my 10,000.

(although i do have 80,000 hours of sleep under my belt!)

so what have you been up to?

so what you been up to lately?

oh, not much. just grocery shopping with bret. that's right, i even got to see his baby.

(not jemaine. his offspring.)

so math isnt a job requirement??

shopping for thermals, half were labeled "50% off" and the other half were labeled "3 for 1"

i asked the clerk which sale price was correct: "they're normally 3 for 1, but we're currently running a sale so they're only 50% off!!! better get some before they go back to their normal price!!"

?????

important lessons about nature

important lessons about nature: how to serve a banana shaped like a penguin

urban fishing

wellington streets.

fly fishing.

literally.

tragedy: lost chocolate

i dropped the chocolate banana bread on the floor last night and nearly cried.

tasha thought the look on my face was worth losing the bread... but nothing is worth losing chocolate.

while cleaning up, tasha noticed giant smears of chocolate on my face. we're still not sure if it was flung up there during the fall or while i was shoveling any bit that looked salvageable into my mouth.

fried butter

last time i went to welly, i didn't think i would find any food fattier than fried cheesecake.

today i did: fried butter balls.

seriously, what has the world come to?

earthquake: 4.8

yesterday i felt my second "big-to-me" earthquake in wellington. i was doing dishes (as good fiances do) and the whole room started shaking. the mirror on the wall hanging laundry shook, but nothing tipped over.

on the colorful earthquake depth map: i don't know what it means, but i think deeper earthquakes tend to be more severe?? this earthquake was just deep enough to put on the map.

sadly, the earthquake was not severe enough to get me out of doing the dishes.

colossal squid

today at the national new zealand museum, we saw the world's largest squid.

tomorrow we go to the world's largest calamari feast.

wellington library

i can't ride the long escalators up the wellington library without wondering how far i could throw a paper air plane. i reckon 6 stacks away.