Una actualización general

Again, it's been over a month since we updated the blog, so I thought I'd catch you all up.

Things are going well here. However, Perin and I are just about done with the rain here. Although we're heading into spring (I know, crazy hemispheres) it rains like nothing either of us have ever lived through before. No charge for drinking water though.

In my rafting course, we got all of our drinking water from waterfalls and drank straight from most of the rivers which was really weird for me. I know that it used to be like that for most fresh water around the world, but humans and livestock introduce a lot of bacteria and that changes everything.

It's still weird to me that there are more people in the Denver metro area (7M) than this whole country (4M). I recently learned that because NZ and Australia have close relations and similar world views there were plans for several years to join the two countries into one. But then they would have lost a vote in the UN, so they decided to stay separate...

Halloween is kind of a new holiday here. It is seen as American cultural imperialism by many of the older Kiwis, although the kids love it. People who have kids are like, "I have to buy a costume for my kid? And then buy candy for the kid and all the kids coming over to my house? And then have them all hyped-up on sugar for the rest of the night? Sounds like a waste of my money and a terrible night. Damn Americans and their damn holidays!"

Work is going well, but they want me to go to work every day. And work the whole day. It's BS! Mostly they want me to do project management and that's the worst job ever. A business wants to do a project. So they hire a project manager. But the project manager has no carrots and no sticks. The PM has to ask workers who have other jobs and tasks they're rated upon to do extra stuff. But the PM has no power to reward people for doing what the PM wants them to do, and no power to punish them for not doing anything.

The only people I've ever met who truly enjoy being project manager are small, vindictive people. They relish politically backstabbing anyone who doesn't do what they want them to do. Regardless, I'm working to have no one assign me any PM work after this project is done at the end of the month:)

Last week was pretty stressful, and since Halloween isn't too big a deal here, I had a beer and went to bed early. Plus I had three soccer games on Sunday so I didn't party too hard. I had two outdoor games, then came home and took a nap, then went and played an indoor game. Good exercise, but I'm sore all over today. And because last week was so stressful (I had to work through the night one night), I got Monday off. I had big plans to drop Perin off at work, finish my timesheets for work, go to the gym, stop by the library, do some grocery shopping, make lunches for the rest of the week, and do the dishes all before noon so I could lay back and watch NFL all day.

But guess what? No football because the Yankees and Phillies were playing. So I didn't do anything on my list. I walked into town to buy some beers then came home and took a three-hour nap. Speaking of naps, when I was sleeping between my soccer games, I told Perin to wake me up and I was like "C'mere. Give me a kiss," and she's like, "Well... okay. But only on the forehead, because that huge patch of drool down the side of your face makes it hard to kiss you on the lips."

Perin is doing well. She's got it all figured out by assigning all work to underlings (of which she has many). Sometimes it takes a lot of work to get a subordinate to do things she wants them to do, and she knows it would be faster and easier to do everything herself. But Perin is wise and understands that if she can train them to do what she wants how she wants, she can get out of lots of work. She's a real genius!

I'm taking an improv comedy class on Monday nights (like the TV show Who's Line is it Anyway) which is a lot of fun. I have a performance December 5th, and then after that there is a possibility I could join the Wellington Improvisation Troupe (yes, with all those weird British spellings) on Wednesday nights next year. I enjoy doing it because there is no real preparation ahead of time. We spend a lot of time learning about how stories are told. There needs to be a platform for the story to begin (which is very important), then some conflict, and then some resolution.

It's hard to keep that in mind without a script or plan. So the art of improv is working with other people without a plan to tell a story. And what makes everyone laugh is during failure. So embracing failure is another skill that we work on. Embacing failure and not hesitating are the two biggest skills we work on. In case you were wondering, I'm the best in the class:) And the most modest:)

Perin is back in a sewing class this session. She's working on a dress to wear to Hawaii this holiday season. Although not the most experienced seamstress, I think she enjoys being more experienced than most of her classmates and sharing her knowledge with them. She's had this tutor before (they're not called teachers here) and she really likes this one.

We've both been playing heaps of soccer. I'm on four indoor soccer teams, and just joined and outdoor team. Perin's been playing on two teams and started seeing a personal trainer at the gym. I think I might get a personal trainer too.

We both decided that when we're super rich and retired that we'll start every day off with a personal yoga instructor, then a personal trainer at the gym, and then have a flotation tank. Perin and I tried using sensory deprivation tanks (now called a flotation tanks) in San Francisco and they were really cool.

Although popularized by hippies, it's basically a bathtub in the dark with much epsom salt diluted in the water. All the espom salt increased the water's density which means you float easily. The water is warm, there is no light, and it's sound proof. Most people don't realize how much brain power they spend just to keep themselves upright in a chair or listening to ambient sounds. So by freeing your brain from "having" to do anything or process any information, it can do whatever it wants. Without any drugs, chemicals, or other stimulus the brain goes straight to relaxation and healing.

Anyway, whether or not you believe in anything like that, Perin and I are working and investing. With the US dollar sinking, our NZ dollars are becoming more valuable and we've been doing some dollar-cost-averaging transitioning of our savings back to US dollars. We're saving for a house down payment, our retirement, and a baby (or babies).

Oooooohhhhhh! Babies!!!!! I don't really have any more details for you right now. Babies are for later, but we're planning for them. The tentative plan is to quit our jobs when our work visas expire, see some more of NZ, then take a world trip back to the States over a couple a months, then come back and have some babies. Oooooooh! Babies!!!!