Learning to Speak Kiwish

Hello reader!

For those of you who are unaware, we are in New Zealand. Despite the fact that it is winter, and quite chilly, we are having a wonderful time. Jeremy and I are both attending the Evolution 2007 meetings. Only one of us understands (and attends) any of the presentations but the other member of this duo understands how to procure a free lunch and wireless internet. :) Jeremy's talk took place this morning and was outstanding. He is a natural speaker and presented some data that is fairly significant to folks in his field. I had never seen him deliver an academic talk before and was most impressed.

It was great to celebrate Father's Day with my dad yesterday since Mom and Dad are with us. We send our love across the Pacific to Jeremy's dad and look forward to celebrating with a phone call at an appropriate time. We also celebrated Jeremy's birthday - but only for a moment - on the flight over here. His birthday got lost when we crossed the International Date Line. Before returning to the U.S. we will also celebrate our anniversary and my birthday. Basically, we are one nonstop party.

Prior to arriving in NZ we got to hang out in San Francisco for a few days. It was great! We actually stayed in the rectory of an old cathedral with our friend. He used to be the Associate Pastor at our home parish but has since moved out to CA. We had a great visit and only spent a grand total of $186 for lodging, food, transportation, and toursity stuff for all three days in the city. How awesome is that??

A few quick highlights of our NZ adventure include the plethora of women walking the street adjacent to our accomodations (that "feature" was not included in the rental property's online description), the beautiful scenery, and the copious amounts of high quality tea served WITH MILK. Whoo!!!!!! I love these people. For the milk in the tea, that is.

For those of you expecting souvenirs, be forewarned: possum fur is all the rage down here. Who wants a possum toothbrush?? what about a beach towel? pillowcase, anyone???