Oh Just Us

Continuing....

2010-09-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to resurrect this blog.. but I'm going to do it privately. If you would like the password send me (or A) an email and ask for it.

I'll introduce it at the beginning of October... maybe a little time is needed since most people have probably given up hope that there would ever be another post :)

Vacations

2010-02-24T14:33:00.001-08:00

We are off today to visit our new niece. SO excited! It's been a long time since either of us have been around a newborn so I'm hoping that Claire will be super excited to see two new sets of arms that are willing to give lots and lots of cuddles :)

I've got a new project too on the go. I've started knitting again!

It seems like there is lots of babies around us at the moment... I hope that there is a few months before someone else tells us because this project is going to take the next few months! Maybe I will have to set my sights on something a little less time consuming to make.

Here's a pic of my progress so far. And for the person whom this is going to, I do hope that it arrives in time!

A day to love

2010-02-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I've been thinking a wee bit about happiness lately. There are many things in life that can make one happy, and on the flip side there are many things that can make one sad. Our perspective on these determines if we are happy or not, as truly happiness is determined by our inner heart.

Sometimes I think that we feel happy when things go how we would like them to without realising that others may not share our same outlook, or just simply, things can't happen how we would like them to. Something that I've come to realise recently, through situations that would seem insignificant if others looked on but unfortunately mean so much to me.

But I have so much to be thankful for.
- a dear husband
- health
- family
- lovely friends
- an apartment to keep us warm and store all our treasured belongings
- a job that keeps me interested and challenged
- a telephone
- a computer + internet!!
- a passing smile

The list can and does go on. Isn't it so silly that we sometimes focus on such minute factors in life that aren't worth changing, even if we could, that cause us to lose sight of all the good aspects?

A New Baby

2010-01-18T17:12:00.001-08:00

Makes me an Aunty!!!

We welcome Claire Louisa to our family. She arrived early on Sunday morning after waiting patiently for the perfect time to make her grand entrance. :)

I think the new Mommy and Daddy are doing well. Glad to have their little girl safely in their arms. Can't wait to meet her guys. She is lucky to have such a great Mum and Dad.

xxx

2010

2010-01-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A and I went to visit family in Tokyo for the holidays... what a wonderful trip :) The day after we arrived we caught the train to Nosawa Onsen for three days of fabulous skiing. The new ski boots were a little interesting, but held up to expectation. I was glad of a little one so I could have an excuse to take it easy :) She did so well, we were so proud! She is learning how to do some "big turns" so she can go down the steep trails with Poppy next year :)

The little village that we stayed in was quite the Japanese experience. There aren't too many people that speak English there so we were glad of J&R who are speaking a little Japanese now. They impressed us anyhow with how well they are getting by after 9 months. :)

The village at Nosawa Onsen also has about 15 Onsens, which are public bath houses, for those who are like me and don't have a clue what they are! The water comes from one source and is transported to the 15 bath houses. The Japanese are very conservative people so the houses are separated into *mans* and *lady's*... I was glad to hear this after learning that it is a Japanese tradition to bathe *nacked* (naked - you have to love the English over there!). The water was sooo hot though I only managed to get in once, and even then it was only for a minute or so. Great after a day of skiing!

We made it back to Tokyo after that, only to come down with the 'flu on Christmas day... which put a damper on activities for a wee while. There were some nasty bugs floating round Tokyo so I guess it's not surprising that we came down with something.

We also went on a Shinkansen tour (bullet train) down to Kyoto and Hiroshima. Totally the way to travel. The Shinkansens stop at a station for approximately one minute (the conductors come out onto the platform with their stop watches!) and you are expected to disembark the train and then the new passengers are to board during this stop. No sooner are the doors closed, the train speeds off to the next destination, getting up to speeds of 250km/hr! There is soo much room on the train, the chairs fully recline and there are carts that come round selling all sorts of nibbles at the normal retail price!

Kyoto is the old capital of Japan. So much history there. We visited a lot of shrines and temples. A lot. It's so hard to imagine that NZ was not even sighted when half of these buildings were first constructed. I say first constructed because a lot of them have burnt down 4 or 5 times! The Emperor had his first residence here (they are now located in Tokyo) which dates back to 870 sometime. I don't think I can comprehend that.

Hiroshima, by most standards, is a very modern city. We just made it to the Peace Museum before it closed for the new year (our train arrived at 4pm and they closed at 4:30!) so we spent half an hour looking round. Absolutely fascinating. The A-bomb was detonated 600m in the air and about 200m off target (due to winds). There are two buildings which did not collapse due to the fact that the would have been almost directly underneath the explosion, and hence the pressure of impact for them would have been vertical rather than horizontal. Everything else was pretty much flattened, which gave city planners the chance to rebuild the city basically from scratch. It was truly amazing to be in a city where history is still so fresh in everyone's mind and most people know someone who has either died as a result of the bomb or associated health conditions. I wont bore you with all the details... lets just say it was definitely a major highlight.

The next day we took a trip to a neighbouring island. We were greeted as we got off the ferry by wild deer, who were on the lookout for food and knew exactly where to get it. :) We bought some puffed rice and fed them half a packet in exchange for a pat and a few photos!! We did a gondola ride across the mountain and got some excellent views of the bay surrounding Hiroshima. There was a nature trail on the other side which was pretty spectacular. I think the highlight of that was when we spied a wild monkey! A remembered the rest of the puffed rice I had in my bag so suggested feeding some of it to the monkey so we could get some decent shots of it sitting still. Well, this monkey obviously told all his mates and the WHOLE colony decided to come along. By this time I was getting a little scared being surrounded by monkeys throwing out puffed rice to try and get them to go away, only to have them come closer. I was rescued (thankfully?) by some cheeky monkey creeping up behind me and snatching the rest of the packet out of my hands!! he promptly took off up into the trees so he could eat in peace, that lasted all of 10 seconds before getting chased by those who could be bothered! It was clear who the alpha male of the colony was, the big old guy that let out grunts and groans, attacked all the younger males and was staring at me and A intently. I tell you I didn't find this guy all too pleasing and I certainly wasn't hanging around for photos to prove it!!

We caught the Shinkansen back to Tokyo that night. We went down the the ocean one day (about 1.5 hrs and three trains) for lunch at an Australian cafe... hmmm good food!!! Saw wonderful views of Mt Fuji from the beach. Another day we went down to the fish market... got there about 3 hrs after closing and there was probably close on 1 million people there. Thankfully the average height is about 2 inches shorter than me so I could see over heads! The only other time I have been in such crowds was leaving New Year celebrations in Sydney and Times Square... just to give you an idea of how many people were there - on a typical day!!!

So we are back home now. Over jet lag. We left on the afternoon of New Years day... and arrived back New Years morning! A got about 30 hrs of birthday! Happy Birthday to the best guy in the world :)

Angel Island

2009-12-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday was THE big day for us little runners! Despite the weather forecast to be for thunder showers, and despite our drive to the race being in torrential down pour, the weather decided to clear up and we were off!!! They did cancel the 25km run because the weather didn't look like it was going to hold though.

So while on the ferry across to Angel Island we found out that since only the 12km (7.2 miles) run was going on, they were only planning on bringing back one ferry at 12.20pm. The race started at 10:30 - so we all thought we would make it back by then... which was a good thing since I, for one, didn't fancy spending the night on the island in bad weather!

So come 10:30 we were off!!! Up the hill, like little mountain goats :) Round the corner, up a bit more..... then onto Fire Road with an AWESOME view of the city and the golden gate bridge. Made it all worth while!

A made it back in an amazing 1:04 hrs. Didn't I tell you he was FAST :) So proud of him. I think he even gets a *ribbon* since he came 3rd in his age category. Well done you!

My race time was 1:40... but I guess there were no prizes for getting lost and running an extra 2 miles :( In my defense I was running without glasses since they got all fogged up and I couldn't see anything. Anyway, I got lost with three other girls and we had a blast running home, even after being told by an event co-ordinator, who was collecting the course markers that we were on the wrong side of the island and we probably wouldn't make it back for the ferry! Oh dear. It started down pouring in the last 20 mins of our run so that was a bit of a bummer, still the company was good so it was enjoyable! By this time the track was very muddy and gross but we made it back JUST in time!!

Now we are all inspired for March. :)

Thanksgiving weekend at Big Sur

2009-12-04T00:18:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving weekend we spent at Big Sur, which is SOO beautiful.

Packing up ready to go!

Our campsite, by day and by night!

Adrian taught me how to roast the best marshmallows . I can't believe I have got this far through life and only just learned why people rave about roasting marshmallows.... :)

Went for a walk down at Pfeiffer Beach. This beach had the most amazing rock formations, obviously right on the fault line... who said science isn't fun?! We climbed to the top of these rocks to get some pictures of the beach.

Our lunch spot... hard to beat eh?

Only the organisers could have done with an upgrade! Both of us forgot to pack a pot ... so a tin can did the job instead!

The amazing waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

The drive back up the coast

Beautiful sunset

Christmas time

2009-12-03T23:23:00.000-08:00

How do you like our green Christmas tree!!??!!

Hehe this little stunner is a rosemary bush! The new growth goes onto our roast veges :)

The lights also went up tonight.. now we are really getting festive!

The weather is really cooling off now. I don't think that we are quite in for a white Christmas though.

Running update

2009-11-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Officially our running is on schedule for March. Currently we are up to 5 miles (in a little before and after 50 mins depending on the runner) and feeling good! I run with a little speedy Gonzales so that may be helping! Anyway, we are both enjoying the challenge - although half of it at the moment is actually finding enough time in the week to go out and explore the pavement :)

Keep your fingers crossed that we both wont come down with the flu in March :)

Fisss n chips

2009-11-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

... one thing that I have (regrettably/thankfully) given up on. I'm not sure of the right adjective for emotion here because I'm totally of two minds... whether to keep persevering in actually trying to find some fish and chips that are even somewhat nice, or just to quit graciously and remember them with fond memories! I guess if I do remove them from my diet my heart will be happier in years to come!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I think I had my last experience with them in the US. On Saturday A and I sat down with a menu and of course my eyes lit up when I saw them on the menu. :) A questioned if it was a good idea, but being optimistic (really?) I was hopeful that this was the place. I wish I had my camera when they came out. My reaction would have been somewhat amusing!

There were three pieces of battered fish about the size of an old 50c coin.... each piece positioned elegantly on top of A SINGLE potato chip!

Noot impressed! I hate to think how much that fish was a pound - but on a good note it was probably the best fish we have tasted over here!!!! Can't win eh?

Chicago

2009-11-10T23:54:00.001-08:00

Millennium Park, not so bright but definitely early one morning.

View of the downtown skyline from the Field Museum

Grant Park

Clock Tower

Chicago River

They had all these cool street displays since it was almost Halloween

The Water Tower Building. This and the Pump House across the road are some of the few buildings that remained after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

The Pump House

I would just love to live in a house with these kind of stairs! It's a real East Coast thing.

Beautiful Fall colors.

Downtown

A couple more of that fantastic structure

Inside

Fall in Chicago

NZ photos

2009-11-10T22:34:00.000-08:00

Photo overload.. sorry about the wait folks :)

Family... bet you will never guess which ones are related!

Auckland Motorway - seems lonely without all the cars around :)

Auckland Harbour Bridge. Once upon a time this was SOOO big!

Downtown Auckland and the Marina

High tide at Orewa, just north of Auckland

We made a trip up to Whangarei to visit a special friend from University. These photos are from the city centre... who wouldn't want to live here?

Hehe... a "fish and chip" shop!

Here they come!

And in the wrappings.. hmmm I can smell the goodness from here

Especially for Aimee

On the way back down we had an afternoon at Martin's Bay. A is right at home!

Only too soon were we on our way to the south island. This is a picture of the Air New Zealand tail

The next lot of pictures are from the area where I grew up. Just posting them makes me feel homesick. I was lucky to fully appreciate the beauty of the landscape! It surely has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

15 minutes out of the city.. complete with telephone poles!

About an hour away, by Lake Lyndon and Porter Heights ski field. Was a windy day!

Cass

Almost at Arthurs Pass - Bealey Spur

Arthur's Pass only has about 3 building and this the community centre, where we used to go for school camps when I was at primary school.

Finally the Franz Josef Glacier

My good friend

On the way back home I stopped actually on the Arthur's Pass to take some photos. Just as soon as I got out of the car I realised why you NEVER stop the car! Kea's. A national bird of NZ and a total PEST! For those of you who don't know what they do.. they attack anything plastic or shiny... not a good idea on a rental car!

Coming back across the coast

A's trip to Queenstown

At the airport, somewhat smaller than SFO

Coming into land in Christchurch... a great view of the plains and the Waimakariri River. (this is a braided river)

Back in Auckland on a much nicer day.

What a lovely bunch of people

Real bakery food... yummmm!

Life...

2009-11-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

I really will publish some photos soon! My goodness I am slack :)

We life has just been plodding on for us two. I have been convinced to do a half marathon in March so am training for that. I tell you the best part of going for a run is lying down on the gym floor afterwards :) A is going round telling everyone that I'm doing one, probably because he reckons I'm going to chicken out! He's going to do it with me but hasn't started training yet :) My aim is to finish in 1.3x his time!

So between going for runs and the never ending cooking/cleaning routine life seems to be whizzing by. We managed a weekend out in DC recently. Never thought we would get home since when the plane was coming into land a goose made the unwise choice to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and hence its life was cut short. When we were boarding the plane A noticed they were *drying* the wing. We found out later that they were actually wiping up the remnants of the poor goose only to discover that it had made a rather impressive dent in the wing! So out came the epoxy filler, lights to dry and 4 hrs later we were off! Lets just say we didn't have too much sleep that night.

I'm off for a girls weekend in Tahoe soon, while the boys are going to be hanging out here doing all sorts of boy stuff. I know who will have the better weekend!

The only other news is that I think we have decided to hang round here for a few more years. Life is really not that interesting when you have visa's to consider all the time!

Chicago

2009-10-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

This last weekend A and I went to Chicago!! Admittedly it was for a neuroscience conference but still it was rather fun to have an excuse to go traveling... not that I think either of us needs one. The conference was huge, about 30,000 people. I went to it one afternoon to have a look around and heard the most interesting of lectures about how children learn abstract concepts and what the number 7 means! I think that coming from education I found it more interesting than A did as she didn't actually talk too much about how the brain processes this information as it's still totally unclear.

It was so wonderful to see fall too. To see the beautiful deciduous trees, to feel the crisp air and to rug up really warm!! It was somewhat like walking through the wardrobe into Narnia when we first arrived. :) Though it didn't take long to warm up, until it was almost like SF weather when A left.

Here's some pics of our trip.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2009-10-13T16:50:00.001-07:00

I'm finding today really really interesting.

There is a *storm* coming through SF today and tomorrow, bringing a ton of rain and it's been really interesting observing others and their reactions to this rain.

To give you an idea, the sand bags that the local council were offering to households have run out. People are hoping that their power doesn't get cut tonight. All the shuttle drivers can talk about is accidents. And apparently, the local news station was out interviewing people on the street yesterday afternoon to ask them how they are preparing for the rain!!! Yes, it's raining, but seriously it's just like a prolonged Auckland shower!! Life still continues, although it is somewhat novel when you very rarely get rain.

My Frist Paper

2009-09-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's official... I am now a *real* scientist. If having your name on a paper (not just in the acknowledgments) is the requirement.

And, for the geeks amongst us, it's in PNAS no less!! :)

Actually it was quite amusing to get correspondence from PNAS over this paper as they addressed it to Dr Kells! When I told A this he just laughed saying, obviously they were addressing it to him!! I guess they don't often have people in my situation being mentioned as authors on papers at this level.

On a more down-to-earth note, we are heading inland this weekend to visit some NZ friends and to see some sun. California has had a heat wave to end the summer. Hence, its over 100 inland and FREEZING here. I was actually going to get my camera out this morning and take a picture because you would hardly believe the amount of fog we are in. It seriously looks like winter and we haven't seen the sun for about 6 days now!

Excellent News

2009-09-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

We are back home. It sure was nice to come home and see all our own stuff :) I did tidy up before we left, but once we were back home it lasted all of two minutes. Unfortunately when we picked up our bags in LA, we realised that one of our bags had ripped open - the one that we had crammed all sorts of clothes into the top of, of course! I stressed the whole way back to SF wondering what I had lost (was so sure it was the new tops I had bought in NZ!) so once we got home all the clothes got taken out of every bag... only to discover that we had lost nothing despite the gaping hole in the bag!! We were so lucky, and I have promised to myself that I wont stress about anything (in)significant again... hmmm.

Anyhow, the rest of the trip home was excellent. We upgraded our flight to LAX. It was so lovely to be traveling in (comparative) style. We did have a rather hopeless air host, who tried to convince us that since we had ordered a special meal thats what we had to have as they were *tight on food*. Neither of us was impressed to say the least. He got himself sorted in the end and we got a lovely meal complete with a lamington. Haven't had one of those in years.

So, I digress from our excellent news too. Saturday morning we had a knock on the door from some people asking to borrow a can opener. Thats fine. A asked them which apartment they were in... NEXT DOOR!!! You can't imagine how happy I was when A told me this!! You see, we had some interesting neighbors living on the other side of our wall. An older couple with a 2 year old baby.... who would bang on our wall if we spoke too loudly, or in one case, had visitors over and were playing cards. Seems like they moved out while we were back in NZ!

It's raining here at the moment. The first rain of Fall. Apparently there was thunder and lightning on Saturday morning - we never heard any of it - hardly surprising after going to bed in the early hours of the morning after watching a SHOCKING first half of rugby. We decided to go to bed as they were no where near capable of winning after not even winning one line out and having a superstar kicker on the SA team.

No more news. Just back to work for the two of us. Seems like we have never left but thats good thing!

Will post some pics of NZ soon. ie: check in three months time. Can't post them now mainly because I've just done some baking from my Edmonds cookbook! Going back to NZ inspired me to do baking since its impossible to get a nice slice in the US!!!

We are off on a JET PLANE

2009-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

So the day has arrived. I can hardly believe it!!! It still doesn't feel real as I still have so much work to do (but having a little break at home to catch up on blog photos so you can all have a break at work or household duties!!)

We leave for NZ tonight for two weeks. Man it's going to be absolutely awesome to catch up with friends and family. See new babies, new houses, new photos. The old stuff is equally important.... especially the food. I'm going to eat as much as I can of chocolate biscuits (Americans so do not know what chocolate biscuits are), chocolate slabs, peanut slabs, white bread (that actually goes mouldy after a week if you haven't eaten it), Fish and Chips, Freshly caught Snapper (lets hope its a good days fishing Steve!) Burger Fuel burgers, L&P, Bluff Mussels, Cream buns... hopefully I'll eat enough that I wont feel cravings for the next 18 months!! I'll have such the best diet!

Am so looking forward seeing you all! This time tomorrow we will be home, with arms open wide for hugs!!

See you soon, us two xxxx

Rob's visit

2009-08-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Back at the end of July Rob came to visit us! What a lovely time we had with him!! Thanks for coming and we look forward to your next holiday! Think we will still be here. Hopefully we can put on some better weather than you had! (Rob was not impressed that it was 10 degrees celcius and FOGGY to extreme. Welcome to the SF summer)

We took Rob out to Donner Lake (the most beautiful lake!)

In the camping spot

The lake

The man himself

A and Krys getting started

Where there is water you MUST swim in it!

Rob on our bike ride around the lake

Us two at the beach

We went into Tahoe one afternoon. So this is Lake Tahoe. Looks similar but a lot bigger, deeper and colder

I thought this was pretty funny. Only in California can a car be pulled up by a cop on a bike!

The only outlet for Lake Tahoe. The water stays in the lake for approximately 400 years.

Yep this is where we live!

Learning to cook Argentinian style... with the wine!

Donner Lake at night

Back to SF. Rob is off on his travels. See you soon!!

Winchester Mystery House

2009-07-31T16:49:00.000-07:00

The other weekend A and I went down to San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House. It's a place I have always wanted to go and visit since I used to read about this house in a book that we had when I was a kid.

Story goes that Sarah Winchester went to see a physic after her baby daughter (6 weeks old) and her husband died. This charming lady told her that the spirits of the Indians who had died at the hands of the Winchester rifles had come to haunt her and the only way that she could reprieve this curse was to build 24/7. So that's what she did for the next 37 years until she died!!!

Sarah went into a section of the house, a room with one entrance and three exits (one of which was a door that had a drop of 10m on the other side) every day to talk to the spirits to get their *plans* for the next 24 hrs of building.

As you can imagine the house resembles a rabbit warren. The front of the house is actually really nice and was designed by an architect. The back of the house is just bits and pieces... designed really without much planning or forward thought. Obviously Sarah was quite talented in design, and its such a shame that a little mental illness took over. On her husbands death she received 20 million and also some shares in the company, of which the interest gave her approximately $1000 a day. Money was not in shortage and you can tell from her building. In one bedroom she wanted the wallpaper to be sparkly, so had the builders crush up diamonds and paint it on!

Other interesting aspects of the house are the stairs leading into the ceiling. Easy rider staircases. The huge orchard of fruit. Cupboards in the kitchen that either have 1 inch of storage or there is no cupboard behind the doors! Her fascination with *13* displayed in windows, stained glass designs.

Here's some pics of our adventure....

The family tree

Sarah was just under 5 feet tall, so had doors that fit her... and no one else!

Stairs that lead up

And stairs that lead up REALLY slowly. Sarah had arthritis so had these easy riders installed.

Some hand made wallpaper

She was very conscious of the water shortage in California so in her conservatory she had a slanted floor installed, complete with drains that emptied out onto the garden below. The brown tiles lifted up to a zinc floor below, for when she wanted to water.

Stairs that went down and up, down and down, up and up, up and down!!!

Roof tops

A chimney. Sarah didn't want it to go through the roof as spirits may access the house. Hope no one ever used the fire!!

The downstairs part that she started remodeling first was actually quite tasteful.

A in the garden .. I could do with one of these!

The front of the house

A side room.

BABY TIME!!!

2009-07-31T16:45:00.001-07:00

It's official... there's going to be a new baby in our family... my big bro and his wife are having a baby in mid January! Tis so exciting as this is our first baby.

They aren't finding out the gender of the new little one so we can have bets on what it's going to be. And, probably bets on what the name isn't going to be!

Congrats guys! If the little one arrives early it may just be on Adrian's bday and if it's late it could be on mine!!!

Visit from the Townsend Clan

2009-07-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely, albeit short, visit from the Townsend's yesterday as they flew through SFO airport! Thanks so much for coming guys, it was lovely to catch up again! Good to see nothing has changed!!!

Except for Dolly's age. She turned ONE!!! (even had to blow out an imaginary candle... man things are strange over here in the US)

Yes, they really made it....

Our dear friend...

G&J in San Francisco

2009-07-13T00:01:00.001-07:00

G&J came to spend a few days with us in SF and it was extra extra lovely to have them to visit!

I don't really have any photos to add as they mostly hung out while we worked (sad for some eh?). But I just wanted to record the event. Our turn to visit next, thanks for coming guys!

4th July 2009

2009-07-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

This 4th July weekend we were up at Crater Lake, OR with G&J and H&L! H&L are also from SF so we traveled up together after work on the Thursday and meet up with G&J the next day. Managed to get a tent site that we all shared, had awesome food, camp fires and conversations! If we could have only got rid of the mossies and the Bollywood music we would have had a five star weekend. :)

Here's some pictures of our trip.

The campsite and the cooking crew

Beautiful Crater Lake from the visitors centre. Wizard Island is the island you can see in the lake. It's the last vent to come from this volcano.

Phantom Ship. This is meant to be 16 storeys high! The left overs (what hasn't already eroded) from a volcanic vent.

Us two. Not sure where the red hair came from but I wont complain!!

Pumice Castle.

Our Lookout Walk.
J: "G where are we going?"
G: "See up there... up the top of that mountain"
J: "No... we cant be going up there. I don't believe you"
G: "A, point to where we are going"

So this is why I'm pointing UP THERE!!! J you did SOOO well! We are extra extra proud of you!

We climbed all the way to the top (you can hardly see the lookout). And on the way down my dear husband, who has yet to grow up, decided the most exciting way down was to sit on our bums and slide down the snow that you see in the right hand side of this photo!!! Man that was FUN! (guess I have yet to grow up too)

Some of the thousands of butterflies that we saw on the way up

Beautiful Crater Lake from the top

Thoughts

2009-07-09T14:19:00.001-07:00

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.

June is almost gone...

2009-06-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

... and I still haven't written anything!! And it's not for lack of things happening.

This month we had the arrival (and departure sadly) of J&A for a week! Was SOO fun to have you guys around. Here are some pics of our activities..

Oh some news too... I'm officially a Grammy! My baby orchid has had a baby!! I re-potted it yesterday into a new pot. Hopefully it doesn't decide to die on me because I'm quite enjoying a little green thumbed success. I am beginning to think that my main plant is a lost cause but A assures me that I stop pestering and prodding things will be just fine. I bought some orchid food so maybe that will help things along.

We have caught up with some visitors from NZ this past weekend. Now its onwards to July 4 weekend - a 7 hr drive to our camping spot with a couple from SF and G&J! Can't wait ... for the packing of course!!

May Vacations

2009-06-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

May saw us head into the central valley for convention. It was such a lovely and helpful time, and made even better by catching up with all our friends. I never took any pictures despite taking our camera! Maybe next year.

We got back home on the Sunday and then Monday 5am we were on our way to the airport for our vacation/conference (for Adrian) down in San Diego!! And what a lovely time we had there too! San Diego has about 3 weeks of clouds per year - and we hit the middle of it. Monday was Memorial day over here, so like everyone else in the general area we hit the beach. Got about an hours worth of sun. Discovered much later in the day that the sunblock we purchased didn't work :( Much to my displeasure. But it was lovely to hang out at the beach. Made it feel like we were back home. We had a hotel right on the beach front so it was an awesome atmosphere.

Pretty much all we did for the rest of our time down there was hang out at the pool, beach or walk around town. It was SO relaxing and definitely what was needed. We did go to a body works show which I have wanted to go to for ages. I found it totally fascinating and would definitely recommend going. I also spent an afternoon on the USS Midway, learning about how it operated and the life of the pilots.

Now we are back home, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the AirNZ plane on Saturday!!

Things other than skiing

2009-05-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have been looking back through my blog and realizing that the only things I have been posting recently have been skiing trips!

Let me tell you about some other things:

I have started to put together some photo books of our trips around the states since we moved here. The main purpose of these, other than to get some order into our photos, are to show others back home what we have been up to - AM SOOOO looking forward to being back home!

Saturday we went down to the Delores Park festival. It was drizzling so there wasn't as much activity as there could have been. We took some photos, mainly it was just a mexican get together to promote health and exercise... and eating, purchasing trinkets and other such *useful* items!!

In the afternoon I took Adrian down to a fabric store and made him wander around until he was ABSOLUTELY over it!!! I was on the look out for some curtain fabric to make some curtains for our bedroom. The window there has a blind on it but it starts about 20cm from the top as there is a fire sprinkler awkwardly positioned. Found some, eventually, to match in with all our colours and spent the afternoon and evening sewing for the first time since making my wedding dress!!!

I've been baking too. Our oven (as previously reported) has been fixed. They ended up replacing the circuit board which controls temp etc, but its still not wonderful. At least its cooking on the top now, but is still taking forever. I tried a carrot cake the other day and it ended up being "very moist"... after it looked cooked - so I took it out - but it really wasn't. The cream cheese icing certainly helped it to be gobbled up.

We are planning for the next three months of huge activity too!! We are looking forward to it. We have convention and a trip to San Diego in 2 weeks, Jimmy & Alita coming a week later, Gerard and Janelle coming 2 weeks after that, Rob arrives 2 weeks later, and then a month after he leaves we are on our way to NZ!!! It will be Christmas before we realise and where has our year gone??

Last ski weekend

2009-04-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

The ski season if finally over. Rather sad, but we have had a fantastic season.

First weekend was at Kirkwood with Jess and Matt. Housework will always wait eh Jess? You did SO well!!

Just so I can't be labeled a chicken... the drop off I went over. Quite proud of myself since there would have been no way that I would have gone over it last year.

but you see there were incentives for going over them this year... if I wanted to get pics of Adrian doing crazy things then I had to go first :) Having a competitive nature really is a problem sometimes. I always missed him doing the cool stuff but you will get the idea.

Second weekend (and the last one) was at Heavenly.

Getting ready to go in the morning after a 4am start. (and no its not straight Lianna since I dont know how to upload such photos from picassa)

It was seriously beautiful

Plains on one side of the ski field...

and a lake on the other!

I also got some new boots too. Did I ever complain to you about my old ones? Well we talked to a boot fitter and he said they were an inch too big for me... no wonder I was having problems!

So these are the new ones. I just love the colors! Check out one description we found online about them: When the Instinct takes over these high performance racing ski boots slay the downhill dragon.

Hehe.. watch out anyone that wants to race me now!!! Adrian still gives me headstarts but they may just end up going... especially when I find those ten pounds I have recently lost. :(

Was the bike hot?

2009-04-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

To continue the story about the bike....

When we went back to the car last night it completely stank of cigarette smoke. As we had left the bike in there during the day we just assumed it was coming from the bike, or more specifically, the pouch that was attached to the seat.

So we open it up.

And there is a camera and tripod! OH DEAR. The guy that sold it to us hasn't written back to us and I would really like for him to write to us asking if he left it in the pouch because then I will know that he knew it was there.

ARGH, the situations that we get ourselves in!!! We had a look at the police list of stolen bikes but since it's not that comprehensive we didn't see it on there. Suggestions as to what to do now? I really wonder if the bike was hot.

Oh and an update too: video footage showed 2 guys jumping the fence into our courtyard at 4am Saturday... guess it's not such a secure courtyard after all. :(

Morning dramas

2009-04-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

This morning was worth writing about.

History: A's bike was stolen on Friday night in the secured courtyard outside our apartment complex. Bit of a bummer. The cable lock was snipped by bolt cutters and left over the frame. My bike was locked to the same frame but left (how nice!!) Another bike got pinched the same night - only because the front wheel was locked to the frame with a D bolt they had to swipe a front wheel off another bike to make it complete.

Anyway, Saturday was spent visiting the housing office and the UCSF police to tell them that the bike got stolen. Not that they could do much about it but they at least needed to look at security footage to determine who it was. Posting photos would be a huge deterrent.

So, last night when I came home A saw a posting on craigslist (like trademe) that looked JUST like his bike. It was a darkish photo, the description really undescriptive, and no phone number. So I write them an email to see if we can come have a look.

So to cut a long story short, he rings at 8:45 to set up a 9:15 meeting - on a street corner. I get all worried about what we are going to do if in fact it is his bike. So we call the officer that we met on Saturday. He sets up a meeting with two under cover cops (and I sure wouldn't have recognised them!!) and we meet this guy on the street corner at 9:30 after a short delay.

And its not his bike! It's EXACTLY the same make, model, features, add on's - but not his bike! I feel really stink that we wasted the police's time - although they were extremely helpful and really good about it. That after all is their job. We wouldn't have asked for their help if we weren't certain that it could have been his bike - there were too many coincidences.

Anyway, A bought the bike. He needed to replace the one that got pinched and I think that the guy was serious. He got a massive fright though.

Drama's. Now I've got to get back to work!!!

Honeymoon adventure

2009-04-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you about the day we come back from the Honeymoon....

H&L may not have told us much about the day they come back from Honeymoon (yet) simply because I think they are still trying to figure out who did it!!! We are all playing dumb, but everyone was in on it so they are going to have fun guessing. I don't think that Heidi knows about this blog so this is a sure way of finding out if she does.

Let me give you a run down on what we did to help them make the wedding memorable.

Hehe we are in care of a lovely lady who lent us keys

Our supplies

The koolaid heart

cups

Pranksters calling card

Bathroom full of balloons

Almost finished

Their arrival notice

:) We also put gelatin in the loo and down the drains, Honey on the toilet seat and Koolaid in the shower head. What are friends for eh?

The Truman Wedding

2009-03-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Not sure what we are going to do next weekend after two weddings in a row!!!

Here's so photos of the latest gorgeous bride.

They got married in the Tulip Garden at Golden Gate Park. I just love this windmill.

The happy couple

And with us two (man I need some sun - it's a crime to look this white in MARCH!!!)

Helping P open up the tulips! Actually I was teaching him to flick the water while he was opening the tulips!! :)

Never EVER invite us to your wedding!!! Logan very generously gave up his car keys to us!! So trusting. hehe. It's amazing what 2 tubes of red lipstick and 460m of clingwrap can do!!!

We wish you both a long happy marriage too. It's so lovely to have good friends so close.. we hope we aren't former friends!!!

Brady Wedding

2009-03-22T20:42:00.001-07:00

The beautiful wedding

My friend Bonita and I. The beach was lovely and everyone went barefoot! How nice!!!

A favourite photo. The couple framed by Jess's parents.

All married off and extremely happy. All the best guys.

Smoke Alarms and Kevin's visit

2009-03-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

Need I say more.....

Ours is way too sensitive!!! We are sitting in the freezing cold (both windows and the door are wide open) while I try and cook something in my oven.

Guess cooking is not my thing... and never likely to be at the rate I'm going :)

We have just had our friend Kevin come and stay with us for the weekend on his trip over to see his family! What a blast we have had! Thanks to his family back home for organising for him to come!! We took off on Saturday morning at 5:30 to drive across to Yosemite. Again, unfortunately, it rained while we were there but we had an absolute blast. Never believe the term "sunny california" - it's a tourism gimmick!

We went for a walk to the Mirror Lake and up to the Vernal Falls. We saw the Nevada Falls in the distance. Didn't venture to them because at the time it was hailing pretty seriously so found a cave in some rocks to hide out and have our lunch! A lot of the trails were closed for winter and there is a serious amount of snow covering the trails. Looking forward to spending some time there when it is actually fine as I hear from reliable sources that its a spectacular place :)

Spring is here

2009-03-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

To celebrate spring I got some garden tulips. They are so super cute! The rocks in my vase are some that I have collected from Lake Tahoe.

Girly weekends...

2009-03-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

We have been lucky enough to be invited to two weddings next week!! What fantastic friends that we have! So while we have been preparing for the weddings... along come all the parties associated with them! For my friend Jess we spent a very relaxing (ie no one did any cooking!) weekend in Tahoe. Saturday we all hung out at the spa at the Hyatt and just felt absolutely pampered! What fun spending ALL afternoon in a spa, with lovely smells, way too many facial and beautifying products, girly magazines (sorry A - Newsweeks don't really cut it) and yummy salads to feast upon. :) Then we were up until 2:30am on Sunday morning singing and talking!!! I'm getting too old for all these late nights but the spa got rid of all the wrinkles so who cares :)

On the way up to Tahoe. We decided that we were hungry and found this awesome place called Islands. The waiter was hugely kind. Firstly for serving us at closing time, then answering all our stupid questions, then even holding the door open for us as we left!

A weekend full of laughter

Breakfast

The special drinks. Forgot what was in them but they sure tasted good.

The bride relaxing... or pretending to maybe!

Heidi's party was last weekend - a TEA party!!! The boys all thought we were nuts - which we probably are. I don't think any one is denying it! Man it was so much fun!!! The party was designed so that Heidi could get all ready for her wedding - she got engaged 4 weeks ago. So much work goes into getting ready and it was fun helping her along. Plus how can you seriously go wrong combining tea with an ice cream buffet, wonderful friends and a new baby? :) And just to keep Heidi young, Aimee brought out the Rockband late in the night! Unfortunately we couldn't get it set up without the help of husbands so we had to invite the boys back!! 2am probably isn't the best of times to learn that I really have no hand-eye co-ordination to speak of but I was shocked at who I married. A is a little superstar :) Maybe he really does have a past that I dont know about where he played lead guitarist!

So the first wedding starts this Friday. I'll be sure to post some photos of the beautiful brides!

Donner Lake

2009-03-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

A huge update is needed!

Valentines weekend we went up to Donner Lake which is near Lake Tahoe for the weekend with A's boss and another colleague. We had some FANTASTIC skiing! Finally I'm getting this whole powder deal sorted and actually starting to look like I know what I'm doing! I only ended up skiing one of the days (it was a long weekend for us) so that I could spend the rest of the time doing photo books so we actually have something to show people when we finally go home for a visit in August.

So here are some pics from the weekend.

Blowing snow

It was cold...

The road that we snow shoe-ed down to get to the lake

The beautiful Lake Donner - before we messed it up with snow angels!

You aren't a true American until you have made a snow angel

It was jolly DEEP! Fun to fall into but impossible to get out of!

A's snow angel

My favorite photo. A's hands disappeared until he needed help getting up.

Why women can't read maps

2009-02-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

The University of California (not my lab because we do proper work!) has just had a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on why women can't read maps!!! Now to give you a little background for those of you who aren't up with publishing papers... PNAS is a highly ranked journal (A has just had a paper published in there last month and was pleased as punch when he told me). So the thought of such a topic for a highly ranked journal brought a bit of a giggle! I wonder sometimes if I'm doing the wrong thing because with my imagination I could have come up with a dozen different explanations for them!!!

So anyway, apparently when women are showed a "beautiful" landscape scene, both sides of their brains become active, whereas with men, only the right side becomes active. Therefore they are deducing that the left side deals with closer-range objects while the right is better at co-ordinates.

hmmm... and a clip from their journal

"Women tend to be more aware than men of objects around them, including those that seem irrelevant to the current task, whereas men outperform women in navigation. Men tend to solve navigation tasks by using orientation-based strategies involving distance concepts and cardinal directions, whereas women tend to base their activities on remembering the location of landmarks and relative directions, such as 'left from', or 'to the right of'."

Ha.. this is SOO me! I am continually telling A while we drive that is on my side, your side, on the street with the big billboard, behind the yellow car! :) Just as well my A has more developed navigational skills than me because I sure wouldn't be able to find my way home most of the time :)

Oh and an oven update for those of you interested: the top element is not meant to be functioning while on "bake".. hmmmm. So without a fan force I'm not quite sure how you are meant to be able to cook anything. The drama continues.

Costco

2009-02-22T21:51:00.000-08:00

The land of wholesale meets the land of consumers.....

MY GOODNESS

A and I have just discovered the enormity of Costco. I would just love for some of you to come over so I can take you through, or alternatively, to go in there with a camera and take lots and lots of photos. I don't think security would appreciate the last option so it may not happen.

So let me describe the place to you. It's gigantic in extreme. It's the place where you can buy enough garlic powder for $3 and it will last you 2 years. Where the smallest amount of toothpaste you can buy is a 5 pack. Toilet tissue comes in a 48 pack. Yoghurt's come in a tinsy 24 pack. Pizza's are 50cm in diameter. A large jar of gherkins contains gherkins the size of my wrist! (How on earth are you meant to eat those?) And probably the best part of the whole store, Corn chips (my total weakness) come in a pack 4 times the size of the largest packet of chips you can buy back home. Maybe if I eat them all at once I will be totally over my cravings for them, forever :)

Oven Dramas

2009-02-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

CAN YOU GATHER I'M NOT THAT IMPRESSED??

I am having drama's with my oven... and have done since we moved into this apartment. So I'm telling you about it in case someone can shed some light on the situation.

My darling oven seems to be heating. Whether its up to temperature or not is out of the question. The maintanance people assure me its working since the bottom element is officially on and red when you turn the bake option on.

HOWEVER, there is a distinct line in my cooking. Following a recipe, setting temperature and time for what it states, you can take out whatever I've cooked (and seriously it doesnt matter what) and the bottom half is cooked and top half is raw. Examples from late - chicken breasts, chocolate self sauce pudding, muffins....

It seems implausable for me that there is a fault with the temperature gradient because seriously muffins aren't that tall (like 5cm at the most?). Muffins are actually cooked on the bottom half and the top half looks like you have just spooned raw mixture on top of them.

Well today, my nose has been put out, as since I requested an electrician come check my oven the housing people sent round another maintance guy who insinuated that I couldn't cook. He actually asked where I put things in the oven and how did I know what temperature to cook certain items at from the top of my head???? HELLO.... I have been cooking most of my life and this isn't the first oven I have experienced!!!!!

AARRRGGGGHHH is all I can say.

My boss had a bit of a giggle and told me that I'm probably the only one who is cooking/baking in my oven because everyone else is spending 12 hours a day at uni!!! Oh the joys of growing up loving to make things from scratch eh? It's a bit hard to change now.

If anyone has suggestions to fix my problem I'll listen with both ears. :)

Monterey

2009-02-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

On Friday we took off down to Monterey with Steve to do something different for his last weekend here. We didn't get in early as I still had to do some work on Friday and the day was really disgusting - like it actually rained!

(see I did work on the way down)

Monterey... The land of fishing..

I think these two have internal compasses set towards the ocean :)

Saturday was the most beautiful day though! Lovely and sunny! Drove around 17 Mile Drive which is a private drive (costs $9.25 to get into) surrounding the coast line, Pebble Beach and the fabulous golf courses. Was absolutely spectacular! Were able to see the rock that firstly the birds took over, and then the seals decided that it was the place to hang out also. Birds on one side and seals on the other. I don't know how high it was but must have been over 10m... and the seals made their way all the way to the top! Quite an effort.

Beautiful coastline

There was also an inspirational golf course! The golf tee on one little jut from the coastline and separating this from the rest of the course was about 20m of ocean!!!! Not for people like me who cant whack a ball to save themselves. The guys decided that they would pass on a round of golf too when they saw that it was $495 per game with extra charges for a cart, guy and clubs.... if I was going to pay that much I would want someone to play for me so that at least I would be able to get the ball in the hole at some stage during the afternoon! :)

The first tee

The other side of the tee

And the rest of the course

Pebble beach golf course

The Lone Pine - is coming up 160 years old

My artsy photos

The 18th hole at Pebble Beach

Came back up via Santa Cruz which was neat to see again. Spent some time hanging out (or just walking through) the amusement park. Still amazes me that there is a culture to support amusement parks, seems so pointless when there is a fabulous beach 20m away.

First in gets the best spot... Seals on the pier scaffolding at Santa Cruz

So that was our weekend. We are now awaiting the next visitor! Our little place seems so large with one less body in it! We will come back to NZ and wont know what to do with ourselves and all the space!!!! Was really neat to have you Steve and thanks for helping eat my baking! Much appreciated. See you next time.

Park City, Utah

2009-02-09T18:06:00.001-08:00

The next weekend we were off to Park City, Utah! OH WHAT SNOW!!!! It was absolutely gorgeous! I think we all found it slightly challenging. Some more than others (no names but I'm sure you can guess who) at certain times of the day. The off-trail stuff was typically no less than knee-high deep. Not good to loose your ski in I can assure you! Though just absolutely delightful to fall over in! I tried to make a snow angel one afternoon and the powder was simply too deep to crawl out of elegantly. I have never seen so much powdery snow - and snow you can't make snowballs out of because the moisture content is so low. Makes for good snow fights though!!

The first day we got there Steve had managed to find a website through which if you flew in from out of state, that day's boarding pass could be exchanged for a free lift ticket with a printed out voucher. This scored us three lift passes to Deer Valley. One of the most expensive ski areas. All lifts had feet rests on them and the lodge was something. The weather was a little wet so we didn't spend a full day skiing - we were out just long enough to get absolutely drowned and no more! I'm not sure I would spend $83 on a lift ticket either.

For the rest of the week we were at the Canyons; Alta (a ski only area that was our favourite so we went back again), Snowbird and Solitude. Also we spent a day up at Powder Mountain that had 14" of snow the night before we went! I think that this was my least favourite probably because although I like powder, I don't think I like it that much. The day we went to Powder Mountain we met up with two guys we met at the meeting so the boys got someone else to ski with for the day while I pottered off by myself to learn how to weave in and out of trees!

We only had one wee accident during our week. A & I had traversed across and were waiting for Steve to catch up when all of a sudden we turned around to see Steve heading back first over some rocks on his shoulder, plonking down into some snow and then rolly-pollying 50m or so down a valley - arms and legs flying! A ski patrol guy was waiting at the top with us and raced down to where he stopped to check him out. He was ever so surprised that there was nothing wrong, broken or damaged! Just a few scrapes in the jacket and that was all. We had one very lucky Steve on our hands.

We went down one night down to Provo to meet up with C&Y who stayed with us when I was back home in Christchurch. Was lovely to have a visit with them and see that they are both still alive and happy. Hope both of your exams went well - hopefully we weren't too much of a distraction from studying! We will look forward to your visit to SF :)

Snowy Utah

A model of Jerusalem that I found interesting at the Mormon Temple. I always find models like this so cool as I think we really forget what life was like in the olden days.

Driving, not very fast, and with a foggy windshield on a very snowy road... boys eh?

The driveway to our house in Utah. Steve and I pushed our little red car up this driveway a few times!

Who would know it's those two? Skiing in Utah.

Not every day was like this, but a few. It was RATHER cold.

One lone skier in Black.

Taking pictures of snowflakes. I had never seen a proper snowflake until we moved to the US.

Oh this is why we came here for a visit!! Isn't it just glorious?

An "action" shot of Steve. Glad that A doesn't take after his dad!!

This is where I came from.. (the picture doesn't justify it but certainly off trail)

And this is where we were going to :)

On the way down

The salt refinery in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake

Not the best guys but one where everyone was looking semi decent. These are my "half" siblings.. C&Y stayed with us at home while they went to high school.

Hard to imagine that we actually have been. I'm even impressed with the photos! Steve glad you could come and be with us. We so enjoyed your company.

Busy times

2009-02-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Oh what a busy life we lead! I certainly have plenty of things to write about but no time to do it!

Since my last post Steve has been and gone. He came to stay with us for three weeks. We had such a lovely time having him - hopefully he did too. I guess most of the blogging I have to do involves our trips away with him so its going to be divided into the activities.

The other really good news is that my EAD (work authorisation) was finally approved and just in time for my previous one expiring. So I'm good to work for another two years over here! Hopefully the economy holds out for that long since things really aren't looking that flash at the moment. Nearly 600,000 jobs were laid off last month. It's been around 500,000 per month for a wee while now. I guess we haven't really seen the last, or the worst, of it yet. I do feel sorry for all the people that are struggling but on the other side I'm really enjoying my job!

So the start of our recent activities...

The weekend Steve flew in we went up to lake Tahoe to spend the long weekend with our friends, B&K at their condo. No rest for the wicked! Steve unfortunately had just had a rather nasty bug before he left to come over and luckily managed to dredge up enough energy to keep up with us! The snow was typical Tahoe snow, a little hard and really good to go fast on! I may have even won a race or two although my two witnesses may be somewhat unreliable!!

Was super fun and good times were had by all.

A little out of order but some cute photos... P on his b'day present!

Lunch in Golden Gate Park after the meeting

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

2009-01-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

Maybe we sung this too heartily back in February 2008! Be careful what you wish for eh? :) I'm sure most of you are well aware of our huge interest in how much it rains in SF. Well, winter is as much of a surprise to us! Yesterday was a balmy 70 degrees in the city (21C). For what would be comparatively the coldest month in the winter in NZ I was walking round in a t-shirt and almost in despair that I put on thick tights in the morning!! Brilliant blue skies today as well! We weren't too far from the highest temperature on record for the city in January of 76!

From July 4 2008 until yesterday, SF had had 56% of its average rainfall with no more rain on the horizon for January either. It is sooo bad especially since the rest of the country has been having storm after storm! January this year has had a grand total of 0.24 inches of rain!! I'm not sure how you actually measure that :) The lowest rainfall on record is 0.26 so unless we get even a little drizzle I think that one is out of the window. A was joking this morning that you get more rain in an Auckland summer than you do in a Californian winter.... Actually you probably get more rain in an average Auckland week than in the whole year here.

Hope you all are enjoying your green grass, swimming pools and washing your cars with a hose!

New York

2009-01-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

A and I have just come home with some lovely memories of our 10 days New York! The place is just enormously HUGE and we have really learned to appreciate the comparatively few people that live in SF!! I totally fell in love with the food. If I could take a few things back to SF it would be their fresh sesame bagels with lox spread (cream cheese with small bits of smoked salmon mixed in - how can you go wrong with my two favourite things?) and the Italian pizza's - especially the tomato base. Oh and the Italian eggplant dishes... Steve be warned, I have discovered eggplant. I can't cook it but I'm learning :)

NY has a serious amount of people. I'm not kidding. Boxing day we ventured into Macy's so A could do some shopping. I would have done shopping too but I prefer to actually see the clothes that I would purchase. I swear that we could hardly walk down the isles in the store for the people, browsing the racks was out of the question. I know understand why families, like more than 3 or 4 people, actually hold hands while walking round in stores. It wasn't uncommon.

American's love to queue too! We luckily purchased city passes which allowed us to by pass all the ticket queues. To give you an idea... the queue to buy tickets to the Statue of Liberty was 2 hours long and then once you had the tickets the queue to get the ferry was about an hour. Most of the museums had an hour long queue to buy tickets. We unfortunately lucked out going up the Empire State Building and had to go round in circles for TWO HOURS!!! The view from the top was good but never thought we would get there! We met up with some people too for dessert one night. The restaurant that they thought of first had a five hour waiting time... who on earth would seriously even consider waiting five hours for dessert? honestly.

NY also is seriously cold. I had been told by multiple people that it would be cold. I just didn't think that it was going to be THAT cold. The first day that we got there was cold. Like cold enough to wear a scarf over my head all day. Then it warmed up significantly until the Sunday when it was about 65F (18C). Really pleasant and just needed a wind jacket. Then it went downhill fast. New Years eve we woke up to snow. You can read about New Years eve in the previous post... BTW 14F is -10C and the wind chill brought the temp down to 0F, which is a balmy -18C. The weather never got nicer after that for us and it was snowing again on and off the day we left. It was quite amusing walking round SF again today seeing people wearing scarves for decoration and wearing no tights on their bare legs! No wonder we have a huge homeless population. I will never again complain that this place is cold!

Shopping in NY is great too. They have so much more selection than SF and no sales tax adds to the joy. A, my star shopper, enjoyed it! I had fun with the scarves sold by the street people and enjoyed bargaining with the china town sellers of all things copied! Of course labels are huge in America so I think they considered us a little strange when no, I didn't want to buy the coach bag because I didn't like it! I also found it slightly amusing while walking down the streets of china town, some oldish lady would walk past me saying quietly, but persistently, "Handbags. Coach, Louie Vuitton, Prada bags. Handbags. Waaannnn one?" :)

So here are just a few photos of our trip. You have to come visit us if you want to see the full version as there are too many!!

View from the hostel of streets

First view of Central Park. It really was such a lovely awesome park.

View of downtown Manhattan across one of the lakes in Central Park at sunrise.

Ice skating in Central Park. We were going to go but decided 27F (-3C) was too cold and the temptation of seeing an off broadway play where it was guaranteed to be warm was too great!

The Rockefeller Christmas Tree was a let down. I think the one here in SF is much nicer, but still we had to see it.

This one is for Dad

The M&M store. This store was 3 floors high and just full of everything you can imagine. Cups, pencils, jerseys, socks, binoculars, pillows, shoes, dispensers, M&M's (of course) in any colour you can imagine, and this AWFUL $3000 jacket!!

Wall Street.

Part of Ground Zero. I would loved to have seen the twin towers. They must simply have been enormous and from looking at pictures of the sky line they were at least twice as tall as any of the other sky scrapers in downtown Manhattan. Ground Zero is large in itself. I think 6 or 7 buildings came down when they toppled.

We went to one museum where America had gained ancient buildings mainly from Europe and reconstructed them to their original state. As you can imagine there was a bit of everything here. This one building really caught my attention. It is part of an old monastery. The meeting place where they used to gather to discuss the days happenings. Since then it has been used as a stable! I thought it was so pretty.

Anther gift to America. This came from Egypt as they were not able to look after it. America gave them a gift of several million dollars to help preserve their historical buildings and in return was gifted this. The furtherest away building is a tomb and the closest is the entrance. In Egypt it was built by a river and consequently half of the year it was underwater!! Catholics at one stage had taken over the tomb as a church.

Yep we made it. NY in the background. Twin Towers would have been above my head.

Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island.

This picture is to give you an idea of the size. You can just see the people in the background. The statue was constructed on a pedestal on top of a 11 stared fort. The guy that constructed the Eiffel Tower worked on this about 2 years before he did that. So the inside is pretty much that of a vertical bridge!

NY wouldn't be without King Kong!

Maybe Hana was right being scared of the ocean! A turtle specimen that we found at one of the museums.

A's B'day candy! You know you are getting old when it takes you a little while to fill up HALF a bag of lollies!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!!

2008-12-31T23:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone has a lovely 2009 and that all your dreams for the year will come true.

A and I have just come home from our Times Square experience. My New Year wish is never to celebrate New Year again outside in the northern hemisphere... ever!!! We got to Times Square at just before 3pm so that we could get into the square... or intersection as it may be. They pen off a block and you enter that after going through security (why is security everywhere?). Eventually as the night goes on the police open up one pen at a time and the people in it are allowed to fill up the square. To give you a picture of our night... had little snow for about an hour when we first got there. Was kinda cool to see the snow flakes as they really are flakes with intricate details. Then we slowly lost feeling throughout our bodies even though we had on as many clothes as we could... plus the dorky hats and scarves they gave out as freebies. It was about 14 F and very windy... a sub zero F wind chill. I don't think that either of us has been in temperatures that cold before! The hot coffee, even filtered as it was, was just fantastic when we got back to the hotel!

BUT, it was well worth the experience! The square was beautifully lit up with balloons, confetti and wish notes that were let down from the tops of the buildings. As there was so much wind the bits and pieces floated round in between the buildings for ages and made it look really gorgeous.
They let down a crystal ball as is the tradition for New York's New Year celebrations. I cant remember how many lights it said it had in it but it was 11000 lbs! The first one they let down was 700 lbs. Was four times the size of last years one. Was very gorgeous. They don't let it come down fast if you were wondering! It comes down just as slowly as it is raised.... obviously they don't want any accidents occurring. During the night they had lots of different patterns displayed on it including one of a spinning earth. A did tell me something interesting tonight too - they (the superior ones who measure and decide time) added one leap second to last year.... not sure where he gets all this information from.

So that was our night. Exciting and wonderful. I hope that this year is as fantastic as the start for each of you.

And happy birthday to my sweetheart, I hope this new year is as good as the last. xx

The countdown clock when we arrived

Us with the clock in the background... and a lot less clothes and a bit of snow!

The crystal ball going up with fireworks. The ball is the blue glow.

Times Square

My sweetheart all rugged up!

The crystal ball

The New Year sky

HAPPY NEW YEAR XX

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-25T10:39:00.001-08:00

Christmas has arrived.... MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Christmas in SF is not quite like NZ! It's a little chilly today. According to the newspaper the first time its rained on Christmas day in years - but honestly, where's the surprise there considering it's rained only a handful of times since we arrived here?! It was quite nice waking up this morning and listening to the rain pounding onto the window. We are having Heidi and Logan over for a brunch this morning so will make the day a little special before we leave for New York. Flights around America look like they are all back on schedule since yesterday's upheaval with all the weather/snow/ice that slowed everything right down. Maybe we wont be camping out at SFO (SF International Airport) just yet!

Santa never arrived at our place either... charming. All we have under our tree is a half dead leaf and a Christmas card of Santa surfboarding! What kind of joke is that! :)

This last week, and in particular yesterday has been a bit of a surprise for us both at work. We heard a lady at the gym yesterday while we were waiting for it to open (take note of that as its unlikely to happen again) say "Honestly, who works between Thanksgiving and January"... thought it summed up the last week pretty well as most Americans take this to heart. I was the only one at work yesterday!... so I left too!! Bit different to NZ where its a mad rush the week before Christmas getting everything done.

Hope you are all well, recovered from eating too much food and not too sunburnt! We both miss you all and wish we were there. Heaps of love xxxx

oh just had to show you a pic of my orchid too - picked it up at a market about 3 months ago and its still got the last few flowers on it. If anyone wants to give me advice on how to get it reflowering please do!

PS: added photos to the last entry

December Happenings

2008-12-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

Lots has gone on it our neck of the woods lately...

We had an "inside edition" of Heidi's supper club last night at Dosa on Filmore - an Indian restaurant that obviously accepts bribes!!! Was an awesome place and everyone really enjoyed their meals... even me really! Problem was that I got given a HOT HOT chilli dish by accident. The dimmed lighting didn't really make me question the redness of my crepe - or in fact make me notice the green chilli's inside of the crepe.... To cut a long story short I just about died. :) And so did everyone else (except Mike who ate his Hot chilli crepe with glee) that tried it after my experience. Eventually I got the correct meal only to find half a red chilli in my yogurt sauce too late as well!!!!

We have just had Mike and John come and stay with us which has been awesome. Really enjoyed their company and can come back any time! Maybe next time we will actually cook for you! :)

Adrian has some new eyes! I'll put some photos up of his new look soon. For one that doesn't like change too much I have got used to his new look quickly. On the first morning after his surgery he took glee in reading the clock on the stove from our bed! To me its just a green blob - but thats all OK with me... if I cant tell the time then I have an excuse to roll over and have a bit more sleep eh?

One of the last photos with glasses...

Had a walk around Union Square last night. Last time we were down there they were setting up the Xmas tree. Looks very pretty now. Plus they have a ice skating area too - kinda strange in SF where its only just cold now! The first day we were there it was 80 degrees outside and people were skating! Very fun though. Gets you right into the Xmas spirit. We should get rugged up again and go down for some pictures to post.

Union Square

Ice Skating in the Square

A side street

Ice skating pad looking towards Macy's

Not long until we off for Xmas! We are traveling to NY which should be extra fun. Can't wait to experience a white christmas! Hopefully it will remove all homesickness for the sun, sand, water and fresh scallops of you know where!!! I still can't get my head around all these seasons - it just does not feel like christmas at all for me.

Hope everyone reading this has a lovely Christmas. Take care and be truly thankful for all the blessings in your life.

Love from us two xxxx

Christmas time

2008-12-07T17:33:00.001-08:00

We had an ever so exciting afternoon yesterday purchasing our first REAL Christmas tree!!!

Don't you think it looks amazing?

And I just had to add this one on - the reason why SF doesn't look too colourful in the Fall - the leaves don't turn colour properly!!! They turn half brown like this one and then fall off!

Weekend in Seattle

2008-12-07T17:32:00.001-08:00

Had a lovely weekend for our Thanksgiving up in Seattle. Honestly we didn't do our usual walking around the city for all daylight hours and then a bit - mostly hung out with G&J and saw a few sights.

We decided to fly up in the end as we would have been rushed driving - and done most of it in the dark since it goes dark so early now! We became all legal for the Californian roads in the process though so that was a good thing. Was a *long* ten days - apparently after which you should have your new state licence after moving here.

N&D Hanks came and picked us up from the airport and we spent the night with their family way out in the *wilderness*. Was great to catch up with them again. Spent Friday with their kids and went to look at the Chiluly Glass Museum.

We went on the underground tour - all the others had done it but went again for me. So kind eh? I would do it again though as actors were your guides. We had an old fella who was still rather sharp with the quick comments!

Hanks Kids - and me and Scott

Seattle Sky Needle

We found the Kells Irish Pub, and A also found 5 30-something girls looking for a pub at 10am in the morning that thought he was rather cute! I think so too!

Throwing fish market. I discovered that the grey fish hanging off the side is attached to a string after G got me to have my picture with it.... oh DEAR

A walking on the old sidewalk of Seattle. For those who don't know Seattle was surveyed at low tide... so they had a slight problem with water during half the day. Eventually they raised the street by one storey - and left the sidewalk down at the old "street" level. Found this quite amusing as people would literally kill themselves by stepping off the street! A few years later they raised the sidewalk too to be in line with the street. Shop owners were the hold up in this as they felt they would lose business when customers came into the second storey.

An old Tellers Cage at the Bank... so helpfully pointed out by our guide to the kids that this is an ATM operated by a person!

G&J

Seattle is also sinking. This shop first floor (no longer in use in the majority of buildings when they raised street level) used to be in line with the fourth rung of the ladder.

I was impressed also with the creativity of the street people!

To finish the weekend we went down to Madison Park and listened to the carolers who came by on the boat!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Guess we aren't doing the traditional thanksgiving... no turkey, no extended family, and no lunch on Thursday!!

Still we are off to Seattle for the weekend which will be so much more fun that me, or Adrian as it would probably end up, trying to roast a turkey when I think that neither of us have even tried roasting a chicken before :) I so love the precooked chickens at the supermarket :) Looking forward to the weekend especially when I feel like I have already worked a full week. Seems like ages since our last holiday and as a bonus we get to meet up with G&J and sightsee all weekend! What fun!!!

Summer

2008-11-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

.... and now Summer has decided to visit us yet again! No complaints there. Just so long as it's snowing in the mountains and its sunny here life will be all good.

Maybe we should have purchased an umbrella (or umberanda as I used to call them) a long time ago.

Last weekend I went with a group of girls that we know from church to Kristin's family's condo in Tahoe. Was such a lovely weekend away, just chatting about life and important issues that male's somehow don't consider to be even worth talking about!! We got very little sleep and lots to eat! The boys all got together to play rockband... Adrian had HUGE smiles when I asked him about it. I'll be a little concerned if I see a guitar turn up in our little apartment! I did miss my sweetheart just a little so it's good to be back doing our usual relaxing this weekend.

Here are some photos from the trip. (when I get how to put them on!)

Winter

2008-10-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Winter has really arrived... :)

It's amusing to note that the day Adrian and I get up early to wash our car, and the only day I park in the outside car park is the day that it decides to become winter and RAIN!!!!

I am willing to forgive the sky up above for this simply so that I can sit by the window in the lab and watch all the cars come off the freeway with their lights on, and watch the golden leaves fly around the court yard while feeling toasty warm in the aircon which I have been cursing for months for being too cold.. all of a sudden it feels mighty cosy :)

I'll enjoy it at least until I have to venture out into the freezing cold to go and pick Adrian up from work!!!

Icer Air

2008-10-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

There was a ski show at the AT&T car park which is just across from our apartment two Saturdays ago... was SUCH a let down.

Ben Kristin and Parker came to our place beforehand. Parker thought that our ski bag made a good sleeping spot!

Blue Angels

2008-10-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot that we had the Blue Angel's performance about three Saturdays ago. The Blue Angels are the US Navy's jets.... VERY fast and VERY noisy!!! Was a really awesome show, Canadian snow birds, some little tin pot twin winged plane who had a pilot with a death wish, a virgin american commercial plane, and of course the blue angels.

Here's some photos from our prime spot on the beach! Wont be able to tell you which ones are which planes but you will get the general idea.

And so you can tell what the above plane is... I thought it looked cool with the Golden Gate in the back ground.

Crystals

2008-10-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

And for Aimee, who wanted to see some more pictures of crystals.. this is the same protein.. the crystals change shape depending on what substrate is bound in the active site of the protein. Its a good indication at least that you are looking in the right direction.

Pumpkin Carving

2008-10-28T12:45:00.001-07:00

And tonight we are going round to Ben and Kristin's house for our first experience of pumpkin carving!!! WOO HOO!! That should be fun!!

And it lived up to expectations... here's some pics of the mess we made!

Cleaning out the insides... not the most pleasant smell!

Parker having a go to.

Adrian and Ben

Progress...

Ben and Kristin's Pumpkins

Heidi's pumpkins! Rather cute dont you think.

Thanks Ben and Kristin. We so enjoyed our first experience. Photo of our attempts when we purchase a candle :)

San Francisco to Tiburon and more...

2008-10-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

Since I'm dreadfully bad at updating this blog I will write now and add photos when I get home!

Saturday was a lovely day here! Surprising as Fall is really setting in and sometimes it can be just freezing. Our friend Heidi had organised a biking trip. Originally it was going to be on Angel Island, a biggish island in our harbour which served as an immigration point for a while, but that had a fire on it about 2 weeks ago that burnt most of the top of the island... so we decided to go there once the hiking trails open up again.

Instead, we rode 20 miles from our place in San Francisco, over the Golden Gate bridge and around to Tiburon!! Was a most lovely ride... pushed along by the very energetic Paul who served as our tour guide!

Here are some pictures of the trip. We caught the ferry back as I for one wasn't feeling too much like getting back on my bike after our lunch in the sun!

Once we got back into town, we went shopping for some sunglasses for Adrian. I have always admired Anne and Alita's ability to pick up bargains in shops since I'm not much of a shopper... I think Adrian inherited some of his Mum's shopping abilities... his new Oakley glasses cost $12! Anne you would be proud!! The shop assistant even said that she felt like we were swindling her our of a pair of glasses and didn't know if she could sell them that cheaply to us!!!! I think they look stunning on my lovely husband anyway!

The only other news we have to share is that we had our first worker come and stay. Laura came down from Chico to stay with us for a night as its Special meetings time now in California. She's so awesome and we had a lovely time with her...

BOO!!

2008-10-13T15:19:00.001-07:00

I just got sent this on an email...

Halloween is in full swing over here. It totally amazes me how much STUFF you can buy for it. I really think that the chocolate ghosts, spider cakes, LARGE OOORR-ange pumpkins and the associated traffic jams that go with the appropriate off-ramps to the pumpkin fields, spiders, glowing pumpkin lollies, princess dresses, fake alien hands, gooey eyeball lollies, Frankenstein shortbread with hard sugar frosting and spicy pumpkin icecream (which actually is really good) may be just a little over the top! It's all fun though. We have a stock of candy in the cupboard now that Adrian and I are resisting in case we get some little ones come trick or treating to our place. Looking forward to the next 3 weeks of magic as the states gets transformed!

Washington DC

2008-10-01T22:12:00.001-07:00

The other weekend Adrian had a conference in Washington DC... so here are some photos.

Highlight of the trip - seeing John McCain in person - I was totally surprised about how short he is!! Don't believe everything that you see in the media. :)

My first picture. I fell in love with the buildings! We climbed up this tower later in the trip. This is the post office and one of the first buildings to be completed. Just after starting this the towns people decided that they didnt want this style of architecture as it was too similar to European stuff so its the odd one out.

Capitol Hill where its been all go this week! I saw John McCain in here working hard - actually he was talking on his phone as he walked past but that counts right?

Back in 1830 sometime the decided that the original top to the Capitol Hill made out of wood and coated in bronze was leaking too much so they would replace it. So its now what you see. The picture below is at the top of the dome - 18 storeys high! A picture of George Washington is in the centre of this painting looking down to the centre of the rotunda. They originally wanted him buried here but ended up with this compromise.

The walls in the rotunda. The paintings were done in three stages. Mostly by one guy. He fell off the scaffolding at some stage so never went back up. He continued to draw the images of US history until he died and someone else painted them here on the walls. Senate is on one side of the rotunda and the House of Representatives is to the other.

In the House side. This is where they have the presidential lunch after being sworn in. Back in the days the guys in the House decided it was a little chilly in this room so they installed the fire place you can see. Didnt quite work as well as they hoped - which is why all the statues in the room are wearing coats!

Another building

Air and Space Museum. This is the jets on a rocket... absolutely enormous.

A model of the Wright brothers plane.

The Washington Monument. Took a few years to build hence the stone colour change.

And we found our guy! What was he doing outside a cheap tacky souvenir store?

The back of the White House

And the front... Georgie had visitors so most of the streets were blocked off and there were guards hiding in the bushes that you would see every now and again.

Heaps of monuments like this.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Looks directly at the Washington Monument and then to the White House.

Thomas Jefferson himself. Quite a forward thinking guy.

Holding up the Washington Monument.

With Franklin Roosevelt - the only president to be elected 4 times. Interestingly enough he contracted Polio at 37 and from that time lost use of his legs and was in a wheelchair. Didnt stop him much.

The Korean Memorial

At the reflection lake looking towards the Lincoln Memorial.

And the other side... looking towards the Washington Monument. Behind this is Capitol Hill.

And last but not least.... dogs must be smarter in the states because I dont know of ONE that could use a bin back home!!

Apartment photos

2008-10-01T21:59:00.001-07:00

Here's some photos of our place for those who are impatient! Looks much better in real life.....

The front entrance. We picked up these drawers and another larger identical one from Craigslist - very happy with our find!

The bathroom. This is a really large room. Its just off the side of the front entrance - can see the doorway in the photo above.

The kitchen - opposite the bathroom.

The lounge... next to the kitchen. A bit darker than our last place but makes for nice Saturday mornings :)

Happy Birthday

2008-10-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mum,

We both hope that you had a wonderful day!

Love Adrian & Petrea xxxx

All my boys

2008-09-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

"No Adrian STOP THEM"

"I can't take this suspense... I'm not watching"

"Yay, look at that amazing defense" - 30cm from our try line

"Dan Carter is the superstar of rugby"

"How could they lose possession of the ball 30 seconds before the end of the game???? That's not ALLOWED"

"YYAYYYYYYYYY"

The general consensus (in my mind at least) is that I now *have* 23 boys.... Adrian and 22 FANTASIC WONDERFUL All Blacks!!!!

Our New Place

2008-09-08T22:06:00.001-07:00

Welcome to 525 Nelson Rising Lane...... Let me show you around.

All these photos are taken out in the courtyard. There are 4 buildings.. North, South, East and West. We are in the North.

The building on the right is ours and the one in the distance is West.

North again. Our apartment is in the corner on the right hand side of the photo. Three windows up and directly above the grey door. To the left is those jutty out box windows. The big long window is our lounge window and the bedroom one is in the shade so you might not see it too well. PS: if you cant find us don't worry - there is a doorbell. :)

Looking to the West building and on the left the South. The University where I work is SW of here - just across the road!

The view that we get from our apartment - but on the ground. Its a car parking building in the distance!

And then out on the road. On the left is the East building and a road runs down between these buildings. The one on the right is going to be more labs when it's completed. The photo looking towards AT&T park and the bay bridge in the previous entry is looking down this road.

There are going to be 4 hospitals (Medical, Womens, Childrens and Cancer) built around this area so at the moment there is a lot of construction going on!! To the left of the labs above is going to be one of the main hospitals that should be finished mid next year. Going to be a busy little place when they are all done.

AT&T Park

2008-09-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

This is near where we live. On a bike ride on Saturday we came across this street fair and celebration to unveil a statue of some famous pitcher... Was a bit lost on us simple Rugby followers.

Anyway I thought you might like to have a look around where we live.

and the statue to be.

And a really bad picture of AT&T clock with the Giants Flag. The Giants are the SF baseball team.

The ball park from outside the university where we are living. If you carry straight up this road you will run into it. The bay bridge is to the right and the big tall buildings are part of the CBD.

Woodward Reservoir

2008-09-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

Labor weekend took us out to Woodward Reservoir - mainly because we could swim there!!

Anthony Chabot Park

2008-09-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

We have also spent a weekend at Anthony Chabot Park, which is in the nearby Oakland Hills. Was nice just to get away and feel like we were a million miles away when realistically it only took 30 mins to drive there.... although it took us 4 hours as we ended up with a very expensive puncture! woops.

The view from near our campsite.

Adrian fighting temptation in the WRONG place. I wish I had taken a picture of the signs by the lake. They read "No body contact allowed with water"... obviously it's a reservoir for drinking water but still....

Adrian had a good giggle with this image, and I couldn't understand why until I saw it too. It reminded me of Hana's "books are precious Aunty Lita" sentence.... exactly why you shouldn't use a magazine as a shade cloth while lying on the beach!!

Being creative

Our campsite.

Overlooking the SF bay area. Directly behind me is the airport.

Love you all from us two!!

Sausalito Moonlight Paddle

2008-09-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ages ago, we went on a UCSF organised trip kayaking north from Sausalito at dusk for 3 hours. Was totally awesome - even just to be out on the fabulous waters of the Bay. Was a bit windy so we didn't end up doing anything that was too adventurous but we were able to check out the house boats and the local sea lions - and the massive jelly fish (which of course we never got a picture of)!!

I love you

2008-08-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

This is to keep all the special people in my life feeling like they are loved. xx

The beauty of a woman is not the clothes she wears,
the figure that she carries
or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,
because that is the doorway to her heart,
the place where love resides.

Audry Hepburn

Life is love. And if you miss love, you miss life.

Leo Buscaglia

I love being married. It's so great to find that special person
you want to annoy
for the rest of your life.

Rita Rudner

Dream as if you will live forever.
Live as if you will die today.

James Dean

Crystal pictures

2008-08-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

Well everyone, here they are. The results of the last month! How pretty!!!

So it rains...

2008-08-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought it possible - it DOES rain in San Francisco! Coming home from the meeting the other night we got enough rain on our windscreen to actually use our windscreen wipers. (it wasn't very much)

Now I know that all you NZers are probably either cracking your sides or rolling your eyes in disgust, but this is totally amazing!! This is the VERY first time we have had to use the additions to our windscreen in SF since buying our car in February!

And people wonder why there are water restrictions?

Happy B'day Gerard

2008-08-04T23:27:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm all caught up with the photos of our trip...

Happy B'day big bro!
Hope you had a fantastic day.

Canadian Wildlife

2008-08-04T22:59:00.000-07:00

At every available stop, and some forced by the other tourists holding up the road, we took pictures of the wildlife. Some was new, others not, but they all count don't they? :)

Mountain Goats

Black Bears

Elk

Deer

Coyotes

Birds

Cows

Big fat Billy Goats with a corn trick.

Raccoons

Turtles

and how can we forget the dancing bear??!!

Rockies trip

2008-07-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

We are back also from a 10 day trip to Calgary and then across the Rockies to Vancouver. I'll try and describe a little of what we did! In Elise's words: Slept, ate, drove, ate, drove, took some pictures, drove, slept... :)

Was awesome though. Flew into Calgary on the Friday night and then we were off to the Calgary Stampede in the morning for the day. Was totally worth going to as those rodeo riders were absolutely amazing. My goodness! One guy was even riding with a foot that he broke 10 days previously... still hobbled around and did an amazing performance.

After this show we had a wee look around the grounds.. mostly it was blatant gambling. Had a wee look at some BMX riders... MY goodness too! Far out. Puts me to shame when I freak out going over the tiniest little bump on the ski field and dont even get any air! ARGH... I was so scared they were going to hurt themselves, but of course they didnt.

There were also shows of breakdancers which was pretty awesome. They were black americans from NY - so funny and great dancers. The MC was about 200kg and amazingly enough didn't mind mocking his weight! Kept us all giggling. One of the guys did a trick where he managed somehow to push his intestines out so his tummy stuck out. The MC told him to do something that he couldnt do so the guy sucked his intestines in and up somehow and so all you could see in his abdomen cavity was two vertical muscles that he wriggled round... hope that makes sense... was TOTALLY gross!

Then we went to the night show back where the rodeo was. This consisted of wagon rides and then a massive aerobatics and fireworks show that went on for about 2 hours!! That was pretty amazing.

So after that we picked up the car and started driving towards Vancouver. Pictures will explain most of this story. We went from Calgary to Banff (Be Aware - Nothing For Free)

to Johnston's Canyon

to Emerald Lake,

to Ten Peaks,

to Lake Louise. There was two glaciers here. Upper Victoria (the second lowest snow pack - you can just make out a shelf) and Lower Victoria (the lowest snow pack). Upper Victoria was 80 m thick!
to Crow's foot Glacier,

and more glaciers on the road side

Columbia Icefields,
(Adrian walking on water....)

Jasper (Just Another Silly Place Extracting Revenue), (and this is how)

the highest point in the Rockies just out of Jasper,

Magic Lake that completely drains over the summer,

Kelowna then our second to last stop at EC Manning Regional Park (a landslide created this lake. There are tree stumps in it as it was actually a forest several hundreds of years ago)

then Vancouver.

Was an awesome trip... Queen Becky was in full swing with her Lady in Waiting (Elise). Was great to spend some time with them again.
Whew... glad we are home again!

Happy Birthday Anne!

2008-07-23T15:20:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to you.....

We both hope that you had a lovely day. We are both thinking of you and wish that we were there to give you a birthday hug and share the day with you.

Here's some more flowers, and heaps of love from us both xxx

Off we go!

2008-07-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try a new blogging technique since I got mocked badly tonight by my lovely husband who said that I probably put you all to sleep with my last couple of blogs!

Thought these pictures describe life well!

CONGRATULATIONS

2008-07-09T11:51:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!

AND

CONGRATULATIONS TO CHANTE ON YOUR NEW BABY (JESSE)! HE LOOKS WAY TOO CUTE :)

First crystal :)

2008-07-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well I've now been at work for two days! The first day I learned about using a robot called Mosquito - this robot does large scale screening in very small quantities (about 1.2uL of the protein over the 96 wells) . Anyway for those interested I did 4 screens using different solvents and I got ONE crystal when I checked yesterday!!! WOO HOO. :)

Then with the help of my boss I did a more selective screening for a new protein that another group found. From that one crystal grew over night too! This one is a bit more fancy.. is clear and colourless and was only detected by a fluorescent microscope. Looks way pretty!

Promise I wont bore you with everything I do during my day! Feels so awesome to be busy and back at work. I went to a group meeting today and understood nothing that they talked about... obviously I'm still at the "I got a crystal - everyone look" stage!! Novelty will wear off soon enough :)

the exciting news not really expanded...

2008-07-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

For all those who have been leaving messages/emails about my new job... I'm still not that sure!

I'm going to be working in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry department at UCSF with a Crystallography group. They do research on proteins, mainly Cytochrome P450... if that means anything to anyone! I'll get back to you later about what I'm actually doing when I have more of an idea. I think after a few lab meetings I will be getting into the swing of things. The lady I'm going to be working under seems really sweet and lovely so I think it will be a pleasant change from my last job!

July 4th weekend coming right up too. We are going up to Tahoe to stay with Ben and Kristin and a few other friends that live nearby. Its Kristin's grandma's condo that we are going to stay in. I've made some of Jenny's muffins and one of those lovely baked cheesecakes to take with us! Yummmmm......

I was thinking about buying an American flag T-shirt the other day but I couldn't decide which one looked the geekiest! Not sure what really happens on July 4th. I know that there are no fireworks allowed in most places as California is getting rather dry. Still only 3 days of rain since we arrived. Really lives up to its name of sunny California. :)

My exciting news!!

2008-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

It's now official and I can tell everyone.. I have a job and I am starting Monday (just in time for our trip to Canada!!)

Will be great to be back working. Will tell you more about it when I understand more as its going to be a steep learning curve for me. Adrian and I are at different campuses but we are only about 10 minutes on the shuttle.

So now you all know, and no Jan I'm not pregnant, but they baby clothes we brought last weekend are super cute!

Oh how times have changed...

2008-07-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm failing miserably as a wife!

Chef's in disguise

2008-06-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

The other weekend when Steve, Becky and Elise were over we went down to Pacifica for the day. Wasn't much there but we got chatting to a fisherman on the pier about crabs... to cut a long story short he gave us a recipe for cooking and eating crab... so we tried it out on the weekend.

We were glad that we didn't get a bigger crab as this one was dancing big time!!

Adrian eventually (and gratefully on my part) got him into the pot without getting bitten

Nice and orange..

Perfect!!

And the recipe if anyone wants to try it.

Place the crab in boiling water and boil for 15 minutes.
Then run under cold water for a minute.
Remove the top of the crab and gut.
Take off the legs and crack open, cut the abdomen into four like a plus sign.
Place on a tray and drain for 45 minutes.
Make up a marinade of olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper and minced garlic. Pour over the crab (either still in shells or with just the meat) in a tupperware container and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Stir and refrigerate for another 20 mintues.

Haigh-Ashbury Street Fair

2008-06-23T17:28:00.001-07:00

Seems like a long time ago that we went to this street fair. The Haight (pronounced hate) Ashbury area is pretty much were the hippy movement got started in the 1960's. The place is full of wanna-be hippy's now and is a really awesome place to visit for all its history. Here are some memories.

Mountain Play photo update

2008-06-23T17:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some more photos that our friend Jess took. Photo's are always good to look through

On the bus - it was a proper yellow school bus!

Pat and Clarice Drew

Adrian explaining NZ tramps.. complete with the T-shirt

Jess, Bonita and me

Gary and Natalie Meyring... not the best photo but the only one there.

What a charming photo... hmmm xxxxxxx

Mountain Play - Saturday

2008-06-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went up with some friends to the top of Mount Tam to see an annual play. This years one was about the Wizard of Oz.

Here's some photos...
The we walked down with Jess and Bonita, was a 2.5 hour walk and 6 miles long. Was a really clear day with no fog (unusual) so you could see for miles.

We live on the far bit of land

You can just see the city peeking up here

Surprise visitor

2008-06-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well, Adrian and I both had a rather big surprise today... Steve arrived at about 1pm!! We were both in at the University, me doing internet stuff in the lunchroom and Adrian in his office. He got called away (without me knowing) because there was someone down in the lobby to see him! So he got to know first and had this MASSIVE smile on when this very familiar face entered the lunch room. I could hardly believe it!!! Such a shock. I think the first thing I said was "What are YOU doing here??"

Proof that Steve arrived and is now rather tired from his adventures to the other side of the world!

Thanks so much Alita for the lovely surprise, to Becky for being so vague on your plans on what you wanted to do so I didn't book anything, and a big thank you to Hana who gave up half her trip to see Poppy in Auckland!

We will have a lovely visit... baked cheesecake on the way if anyone else wants to turn up for a bit.

A&Pxx

Adrian reckons I'm bored... but lovely all the same

2008-06-10T19:43:00.001-07:00

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

The New Husband Store

2008-06-06T10:59:00.001-07:00

A store that sells new husbands opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates: You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs.

She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

"That's nice", she thinks, "but I want more." So she continues upward.

The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking.

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With

Housework.

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.

Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

PLEASE NOTE: To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth floors have never been visited.

Happenings around town

2008-06-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Still no sign of a job.. BUT recruitment people are finally talking to me so thats a good sign. Still smiling... especially when I have found out that once I start working I will get 1.3 weeks holiday a year! OH DEAR

Just so you all know too it was Hana's 4th b'day the other day and we had a lovely conversation with her... only it was a little hard to understand her as she was so busy with everything she wasnt doing such a great job of actually talking into the phone and we only got bits and pieces of what she was saying! She's off to spend a couple of nights with Poppy in Auckland next week... video talking on skype is so great!

The new Thai cookbook is still going fabulously! The other day we tried a fish dish that included a red curry and was wrapped in banana leaves... the picture makes it look better than it was.. or maybe not. Was quite a creation :) and one thats not going to be repeated.

Last Saturday we finally got a coffee maker. Coffee smells so good in the mornings, in the afternoon and late at night. It's totally wonderful having coffee that doesn't need sugar and also, more importantly, doesn't need to cool down for half an hour after making before you can drink it. We are so loving it. It's a European model, but still wont work in NZ, that has single pods of coffee. We are slowly working our way though the samplers deciding on the ones that we are going to order for ourselves.

Then last Saturday we discovered a hair dresser that we will NOT be going back to. Adrian's haircut took 1.5 hours to complete!!! I was not that impressed after waiting round thinking it would take all of 20 minutes. I got a good pasta recipe from the magazines so I guess it wasn't all that bad.

Not much else.
Hope you guys are all good. Would love some visitors some time.....
P & A xxxxx

News update

2008-05-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Well, there are several lots of good news... we have been married now for 4 and a half months... and still with smiles from ear to ear! Can hardly believe it. Where has the time gone to?

My work authorisation has finally been accepted. Haven't, as of now, received the letter in the mail but thats not surprising with the American postal system. The USCIS website told us all the good news we needed to hear regarding that.

NOW, all I've got to do is get a job! I'm not having much luck. Would actually prefer to have rejections. That would mean that someone is at least looking at my CV and not just ignoring me... the silence is getting awful. Wish me luck on that one.

What other good news can I tell you about... :) My friend Eva is planning a trip down from Vancouver to see us once she arrives over here. Can't wait to see her again and take her around SF. Becky and Elise arrive in about 2 weeks so we are looking forward to that too. I have a new Thai cookbook that I'm experimenting with and now Adrian gets all sorts of yummy things to try! Becky and Elise most likely will want to go out to eat just when I get all enthused about cooking!

Thats about all our news. Adrian really busy now with his work. Good for him but the days are getting longer for me. It's really neat to see him enjoying it so much.

Thinking of you all back home and miss you lots. Keep the emails coming!
xxx

Memorial Weekend

2008-05-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

This past weekend has been Memorial weekend in the States. I can't really tell you that much about it because we both took of to Yosemite National Park. Was such a great weekend away as you can see from the pictures below. Traveling there on Friday night it started to rain and since we have encountered rain 3 times since arriving in San Francisco I (I will take blame for it) wound down the window so we could both sniff deeply and enjoy the scent of fresh rain. :)

We hadn't planned any accommodation as every camp site gets booked out months in advance and we aren't that organised! So we arrived at Camp 4 at 6:30 Saturday morning and waited our time in the line to see if we could get into the walk in camp. The rangers arrived at 8:30 by which time it had started to rain the in park. By 9:30 it was getting somewhat heavy and the novelty of rain had started to wear somewhat thin and we still hadn't found out if we had a place in the camp. Adrian strolled up to the front of the queue and discovered that some CHARMING people that had actually set up camp (but removed evidence of it before the rangers arrived) had taken 22 out of the 28 available sites for that day! When we arrived in the morning there were definitely not 28 people ahead of us in the queue but as time when on tag-alongers arrived and the possibility of us getting in was next to nothing.

SO, we decided that we would go wilderness camping instead. Adrian and I are getting good at adventures! So we camped on night in the backpackers campsite and took off up Yosemite falls in the morning. Took about 3 hours of STRAIGHT up hill with packs loaded up with the absolute necessities and nothing more! Got to the top.. couldn't see the falls very well for the cloud :) Found a campsite, put up the tent, went looking for firewood, lit the fire (Adrian got a really impressive one going) AND then the rain started... and didn't stop until morning!! It was SO cold that we were wrapped in sleeping bags trying to keep warm for the night before 7pm! We didn't have bedrolls so we had to sleep on the wet ground thru our tent floor! Was the longest night ever and we were both glad to get up with the sun. Thankfully the bears obviously decided to go back to sleep that night too!

So here are the pictures of one very memorable weekend....

In the campground

Yosemite background

Not much else to do except have hot chocolates a zzzzz......

On the way up the trail overlooking the Yosemite valley

And looking towards the falls... we camped up beside these.

My favourite photo. Not really much relevance but you get to see the most loveliest guy ever so thats a bonus for you!

And then the rest of them was our camp up on top.... I'll put them all on because they are worth a look. The black cyclinder is a bear canister that you put your food in and about 50 feet away from your tent so the bears dont come hassling you!

Couldn't think who to send this to

2008-05-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

... so I thought I would post it here....

Guess I really need a job so I can do something constructive with my time other than have a good laugh at some jokes :)

I was out walking with my 3 year old daughter. She picked something up off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that. "Why?" my daughter asked, "because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs" I replied. At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, "Mummy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart." I was thinking quickly. "All mums know this stuff. It's on the Mummy Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mummy." We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information. "OH...I get it!" she beamed, "so if you don't pass the test you have to be the daddy." "Exactly" I replied back with a big smile on my face.

Joke time....

2008-05-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.

"One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence. Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me." He just knew what it was, so he jumped back on his bike and rode off.

Now just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along. "Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."

The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk." When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled to the cemetery. Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me..." The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord."

Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord. At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done."

They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the boy on the bike!

I'm FAMOUS

2008-05-19T13:08:00.001-07:00

As you all know I have fabulous good looks and a personality to match... well I've got another badge on my chest now... I'm in this months NZ Bride and Groom!

Actually this is all hear-say from my cousin Verity - but our photographer (David Kerr) told us when we picked up our photos after the wedding that he was going to submit three photos. You should go have a look and tell me if they are any good! :) haha

We both are back from convention now. It was a lovely convention, very helpful but man it was hot! Over a hundred degrees every day and it only cooled off to a bearable temperature between 3am and about 7:30am!!! I dont think either of us could live out there (Mountain Ranch, CA if you want to google it) by any stretch of the imagination. I had an out-of-body experience when I got a glimpse at how my legs are going to look when I'm 80.... they responded to the heat by taking on the appearance of tree trunks! :( I'm finally getting wrinkles back in them now.

It was funny too... about 103 degrees when we left at about 5:30pm. Adrian turned on the AC to the lowest it goes which is 66 degrees. As we traveled back to SF we watched the temperature fall further and further! By the time we got to Emeryville it was 62 outside! We turned off the AC about half an hour away because we thought we would enjoy the heat for just little longer. SF would have been much cooler than that - probably around 50 as it was totally covered in fog... you really have to see it to believe it as its SO interesting.

Ok thats all from us. Still looking for that job... let me know if you hear anything!

Adrian's request

2008-05-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

......Please only one activity per day!!!!.......

Sorry we don't have any photos of the weekend. It all started Friday night when we had Kami and David (who live in the next apartment complex) and Hayden, my friend from uni, over for supper/tea. We had great fun with them and it was so nice to hear another kiwi accent again!

Hayden stayed with us Friday night and Saturday we went on a 5 hour bike ride - it included lunch and a snooze in the park so I'm not totally mean - before venturing into town to watch the KBOOM! fireworks.

Sunday after the meeting we went on a 3 hour hike with two guys from the meeting - and this one had 20 minutes stop on the beach for lunch - before going out for supper/tea again!

Now we both have sniffles which will be great for convention this weekend!

All set though to go and looking forward to it.
xx

Golden Gate Sunset

2008-05-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might like to see a canvas we brought from a local photographer. It's on our wall in the lounge.

The bikes

2008-05-05T10:31:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we ventured out to buy some bikes off Craigslist.. you never quite know what you will find on that site! Anyway we got some bikes that feel really great and didnt cost the earth. So of course, when you have something new, you have to try it out straight away! We spent Saturday afternoon riding up the coast. We found an old dumping ground for building waste that they stopped using in 1984 and are now letting the reclaimed land go back to nature. Some homeless people had built some really neat shelters with the concrete out there.

We also found Cesar E Chavez Park where these kites are flying. A really good place to fly kites as its so windy just on this ridge. We even saw a couple of pros cutting down another kite like in "The Kite Runner"!!

These bikes are really going to take us places! :)

Oh Just Us

Continuing....

Vacations

A day to love

A New Baby

2010

Angel Island

Thanksgiving weekend at Big Sur

Christmas time

Running update

Fisss n chips

Chicago

NZ photos

Life...

Chicago

Rain, Rain, Rain

My Frist Paper

Excellent News

We are off on a JET PLANE

Rob's visit

Winchester Mystery House

BABY TIME!!!

Visit from the Townsend Clan

G&J in San Francisco

4th July 2009

Thoughts

June is almost gone...

May Vacations

Things other than skiing

Last ski weekend

Was the bike *hot*?

Morning dramas

Honeymoon adventure

The Truman Wedding

Brady Wedding

Smoke Alarms and Kevin's visit

Spring is here

Girly weekends...

Donner Lake

Why women can't read maps

Costco

Oven Dramas

Monterey

Park City, Utah

Busy times

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

New York

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!!

Merry Christmas!!

December Happenings

Christmas time

Weekend in Seattle

Happy Thanksgiving

Summer

Winter

Icer Air

Blue Angels

Crystals

Pumpkin Carving

San Francisco to Tiburon and more...

BOO!!

Washington DC

Apartment photos

Happy Birthday

All my boys

Our New Place

AT&T Park

Woodward Reservoir

Anthony Chabot Park

Sausalito Moonlight Paddle

I love you

Crystal pictures

So it rains...

Happy B'day Gerard

Canadian Wildlife

Rockies trip

Happy Birthday Anne!

Off we go!

CONGRATULATIONS

First crystal :)

Was the bike hot?