Thursday, September 27, 2007

darryl's it

Since Darryl hasn't had a chance to post on the blog in ages, I tagged his entries so it's easy to read all of his rare posts in one place.

He's fine. He's working on a project as usual and lately he's cooking some of the best meals I've had in my life (clearly I married the right man) with possibly the intention of making sure he continues to look more fit than I do. That's ok. It's more than worth it.

Here he is standing on the rocks at the pull off by Centennial Highway. Behind him is, yep... Kapiti Island - the most photographed thing on this blog.

Posted by Jessica at 8:40 PM

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

ruapehu

That's the pic we took of Mt Ruapehu about 3 hours from the house on our trip up to Lake Taupo several months ago. Ruapehu erupted last night spewing boulders and mud, seriously injuring a climber, and sending two lahars down the mountain sides. I don't actually know what a lahar is, but something tells me if I'm going to stay in NZ (with its 3 active volcanoes) I should probably look that up. Here's the news story, which also has some gorgeous shots of Ruapehu.

Ah... have looked up lahar. A mud flow with the consistency of concrete that solidifies when it stops. Oh joy.

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Posted by Jessica at 9:55 AM

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

1 B 4 U 2 C

Finished the company logo in oamaru. Had to put a wash on the background to intensify the contrast, because they want to use it in photos. Although the light caused the raised edges to really stand out, it would have washed out in every picture taken with a flash...

I had guidance on how to start this one from the teacher before class ended (and then drug my feet waiting for nice weather to finish it) but this was the easiest of the 4 sculptures I've done. Maybe because for the first time I didn't have a 3-d sculpture I was copying in front of me. (I tended to obsess about minor differences.) For this project I only had a black and white logo on paper.

I guess the next step is for me to do something of my own design with the big block of oamaru left in my laundry closet.

Downright warm now - hot in the afternoons. Hope it will last. It can get quite chilly in the spring before December sometimes. Right now it's gorgeous. And we made it through the entire winter on the one load of firewood with some left for any remaining cold nights.

I read the extremely suspenseful novel The Raw Shark Texts recently. Wow. I couldn't put that down, although at one point I wanted to be like Joey on Friends and stick it in the freezer. It's not horror; it was just too much suspense for me. Reminds me of Paul Auster (whom it references more than once) and perhaps a little bit of House of Leaves. Not the sort of thing you read to fall asleep at night. (check out the book's website)

Got the Cafe Flora Cookbook from Amazon - modern vegetarian gourmet. I've been cooking a lot here. Missing all the cooking contraptions that I left in the states because I hadn't been at the stove much. Now I could use them. The only pasta roller I can find anywhere is $143! Need to check on TradeMe (the NZ eBay).

On my aunt T.'s excellent title recommendation, I picked up a dvd of Jane Fonda aerobics with big hair and belted leotards. All eighties nostalgia aside, it's a great straight forward workout. So now after work I'm lifting weights (not that it shows much) , doing aerobics (which has actually started to show right away) and meditating every day. Shortens the free time a bit, but is terrific. NZ seems to be doing my health a world of good. By the way if anyone's interested in fitness dvds check out collagevideo.com where you can watch footage to see if you like them before you buy.

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Posted by Jessica at 3:49 PM

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