A Wee Bit O' Gardening

For the past few weeks I've been doing a bit of gardening around Chez Werst. Here are some before pictures from around December the the "back area". Note, there is not a lot going on, just two patches of dirt.

 

 However, after a few trips to the gardening store, Mitre 10, I was able to do a bit of a transformation. I planted "cinnamon basil", "chicken thyme", and cilantro in the bottom patch.

And strawberries and jalapenos in the top patch.

It has been two months since I took these pictures. I am sorry to say the cilantro is no longer with us. It never really took off. However, both the basil and the thyme are thriving and we use them a lot in our cooking.

We were able to eat about 3 strawberries from our plant, it is still growing, just not blooming. The real excitement these days is the development of the 3 jalapenos  on the enormous plant (look closely).

This is especially exciting because they do not sell fresh jalapenos in stores here. Only the pickled ones in jars. I'm so thrilled about these 3 peppers that they will probably end up going bad as I keep throwing out recipes as not being good enough for them.

I also planted a whole bunch of really pretty flowers in the front "yard".

However, do to massive winds, they are no longer standing upright. Although, they have not died, in fact, they are starting to grow sideways, which is somewhat curious.

That's ok. I'll take it.

Century Game

Flashback: January 29, 2011.

A while ago I got an intriguing email from a teammate about a frisbee tournament game going on in Wellington. Normally I don't pay much attention to these things. I like throwing a disc as much as the next bearded hippie, but I'm much more interested in grabbing a pint after the game with good people than I am winning, practicing, or playing in tournaments. But this...this was different. It was a hat tournament called the Century Game.

Two teams. Game to 100 points.

Ok. That sounds intense. BUT, each team has about 30 players (only 7 play at a time), and there's a BBQ and beer on the sideline. This I can get on board with.

We divided into two teams: Good vs. Evil. I was Good.

It was a great day, despite a couple rain showers. Things got started early, which was tough for me, especially given that the previous night was Sanjoy's last night in town. We started at 9. We held off on the beer 'til noon. The game sloppily ended around 6:30. Basically, it was a summer party with a frisbee game going on in the background, and you could play if and when you wanted. My body hated me the following few days, but the day was as fun as advertised and didn't disappoint.

To the Races

Flashback:  January 22, 2011.

Tremtham Horse Races!!!!

A few weeks back, the Barbs and I were invited to go to the horse races. Well, more like Barbs was invited and I was allowed to tag along and get a heavy dose of estrogen. I was pretty excited about this. The races, not the estrogen. I've always wanted to go to some races, but have never really had the opportunity. What's not to like?

Dressing up...

Hydrating...

Gambling...

Let's do this.

http://www.trentham.co.nz/

It was sweet. We got into our best duds and took the train out there. In between the many bottles of pink 'pagne, my highlight was winning $40 on a horse. For most of the day my strategy was to place a $1 bet on the sexiest horse named out there to place (eg. "He's Remarkable"). This strategy kept me interested (see photo above) and nickel and dimed me into a net $1.30 loss. But at one point my friend Anya took $2 out of my hand and asked me to pick a number. 4! It turns out 4 was "Mufasa", and he was a baller. Against the odds, he won the race and lined my pocket with $20 (Anya got the other $20).

Oh, and because Barbs will comment on her own blog about this anyway...I got kissed by a cougar...Twice.

Room Makeover

Regular followers of this blog might recall we have a room called "The Office" or "The Craft Room" (it depends on who you ask). In the beginning it looked much like this:

Dreary? Yep. Dark? Yep. No one wanted to spend any time there. It was a bit sad. We decided to revamp it. I felt just like Ty Pennington (except not crazy). Here are the afters.

We painted it a peachy color. By "we" I mean Aaron and I picked out the color and I painted it (he is bringing home the bacon after all).

What is that in the lower left hand corner? You ask.

Um, my sewing corner! (I clearly needed a new hobby).

If you like what you see,  I'm currently available for consulting work immediately. I charge reasonable rates.

A Few Familiar Faces

We have been lucky to have been graced by the presence of a couple of friendly faces in the past few weeks. First, Dr. Dan Morgan, of Vanderbilt fame, stopped by for a short visit on January 11-13. Dr. Morgan was on his way back from doing field research in Antarctica, and was going to fly into Christchurch on his way back. And if any of our friends are ever in Christchurch, it makes no sense for them not to drop in for a quick hello. (Yes, we have friends who do research in Antarctica. At this point it doesn't even faze me).

January 17, Dr. Sanjoy Som, arrived. Since Aaron was in full-blown work mode, I had the opportunity to play tour guide. We visited a few museums (they are all free here, it's amazing), Te Papa (which as a giant squid) and the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. I was excited to go to this one, because it gave me an opportunity to learn more about this new home of ours. We also look out along the Queens Wharf, which is gorgeous and much less busy than the Seattle pier. Currently, Sanjoy is touring the Southern Island, but we will be reunited for a couple more days before he heads back to the States.

We both love seeing our old friends in our new land. It's a winning combination.

There were some good moments too

The last post was getting so lengthy that I didn't want to tax you with having too scroll down to these too. Besides, there was a theme there and these pics would've gotten us less sympathy. Setbacks aside, this was some beautiful stuff. Enjoy.

 The word "special" comes to mind

Mt. Ruapehu

 

Fail

Sorry this is so long, but there's a story we have to get off our chests. And you'll probably enjoy it.

I've got some time off between Christmas and the New Year. Idea! Why not go on a little trip and see this country we now live in? Perfect. We haven't had too many opportunities to explore beyond Wellington.

The only problem is, neither of us are really into it for some reason. Getting old perhaps. I don't know. It's odd that we feel this way, but we recognize the window of opportunity, force ourselves to put together some outline itinerary and hope that inspiration will come as we go along. This is half successful. We've got a plan, but still limited enthusiasm. Oh well. First stop, a couple nights backpacking in Tongariro National Park. This should be fun. Nature rarely disappoints. Then continue on with a multi-day road trip loop of the North Island.

Let us count the ways this trip was doomed.

1. We're going to Mt. Doom.
2. Wech has a bum ankle from frisbee (which I got by actually trying not to hurt myself by staying up instead of going to the concrete-hard ground for a disc). This delayed our departure for a couple days, hoping to heal it up enough for hiking shape.
3. Ready. Set. Wait. There's a big ass storm coming tomorrow. 120 - 160 km/hr winds and up to 200mm of rain in < 24 hours. Even with their inflated metric numbers, that's some significant weather.
4. Start hiking. All good. Trail is....washed out and terrible. No bigs. We're scrappy. Smiles. Fun. OH GOD MY ANKLE!!!
5. Hobble hobble.
6. 3 hours into our scheduled 8 hour hike in. Lunch break...Rest. Hydration. MOLDY BAGELS?!?! What the #$#%? We just bought this yesterday!
7. Limping on, Wech starts feeling light headed, dizzy and anomalously weak. Go ahead. I'm throwing you a softball. Many many hours later, we reach our campsite. Defeated. Drained. Ankle is pissed!
8. Dinner. A couple meals in a bag. Usually my favorite part of the day. 1 of the 2 we got, terrible. It didn't really cook properly. Everything was al-dente and gross. Yeah I'm whining here, but it's been that kind of day (see 1-7).
9. Fall asleep with the sun still up. I think Barbs stayed up playing cards by herself. In the middle of the night, I start shivering. No bigs, cover up. Done. Still shivering. Ok, get some little spoon action. Done. Still shivering, getting more violent. OK. Put on more clothes. Done. At this point I am in my thermal underwear top and bottoms, pants, thick socks, down jacket, and down sleeping bag getting spooned by Barbs but and STILL shivering like the death coming. It's so violent it's starting to upset my stomach. For reference, Barbs isn't even in thermal underwear. It isn't cold.
10. Wake up after our long night with two days of hiking in front of us. My ankle can't take any more, I feel like crap, and Barbs is done with this hiking thing. We decide to pull the plug and make it out while we're close. We're 1.5 hours walk from a parking lot on this side of the park where we can grab a shuttle to our car on the other side.
11. 3 hours later, we reach the parking lot with 2 bad ankles. Barbie pulled up lame about a half mile before the finish line. Now where's that shuttle? Wait. Do you have any money? No, do you? No. Crap. That's OK, we'll just head to the road and hitchhike.
12. One sunburned hour later, we've seen about 7 cars. No luck. We did get a lot of thumbs up back at us though. Um, thanks? Who does that? Or maybe it was our technique. Perhaps the thumb isn't the way to do it in Kiwiland?
13. Back to the parking lot. We waited around for a few hours. Wech has the chills and body aches. Finally a shuttle came by that was heading our desired direction. The driver was suspicious, but some fast talking convinced him that we did have money and would pay when we got there. Phew.
14. 4:00 and we're back at the car, paid for the shuttle. All is good. Let's go get some food and decide if we want to salvage the rest of the trip or not.
15. Yay. Restaurant. Recovery. Eating. Talking. Laughing at the early 90's music videos on the TV. AND WECH SPRINTS* FOR THE BATHROOM!!!!
    *not exactly given my ankle and the added fight and strain my glutes were under. And picture me stepping on Barbs' bad ankle in the process.
    (Side note: Kiwi milkshakes are not like US milkshakes. No thick icecreamy goodness. Still good if you know what you're getting into, but disappointing otherwise) 
16. 20 minutes later. A shaken shell of his former self emerges. OK. Trip-time is over. All the signs are there. Let's cut our losses.
17. Gimping back to the car. OH GOD. Back to the restaurant. "Don't mind me. I just forgot my...." AND WECH SPRINTS* FOR THE BATHROOM!!!!
18. OK. Even more hallowed. Back to the car. Let's get the *$#@ out of here. We've got a projected 4 to 4.5 hours back to Wellington. But this number doesn't account for 3 additional stops at public restrooms. Can we please just get home?
19. Final stretch. But wait! There's a cop in the road wearing a yellow vest making some casual arm motion to us. What does that mean? Stop? No. That's not what he's saying. Slow down and go through? That seems more appropriate given the vague gesture. Maybe we're supposed to give a thumbs up back at him? OK. Slow down and pass through. Cut to 30 seconds later. Lights. Sirens. Barbie being breathalized. I'm in the passenger seat with my fever producing a fierce don't-ask-me-about-the-herion level of inhuman sweat pouring down my face. Apparently that wishy-washy dance move meant stop. No harm. No foul.
20. Home. I spent the next 24+ hours which included New Year's Eve with a fever and an uphill gastrointestinal battle.

That pretty much sums it up. It's surprising that we can laugh about it already. Back to the drawing board. Where did we go wrong?