Guess What I Saw Today?

Here in NZ we have a celebrity chef who has become famous for hosting a show about NZ cooking. It's a great show and I love watching it. He also does advertising for a supermarket chain. I see his cardboard cutout visage every time I visit the local supermarket.

He also happens to work for the University.

I work in an old house on the edge of the campus. We have our own parking lot out the back (parking, much like Universities in the U.S., is a scarce resource here). There is a garage behind the house that is used to store various items from around campus, so from time to time trucks arrive to drop off or pick up said various items. It can be amusing due to the wide variety of stuff they drop off. Because we have so many people on the team at the moment, I often park in front of the garage. And also because I'm the boss so I get the closest not really a parking space. R.H.I.P.

Today I had to move my car so that Celebrity Chef could offload a giant (we're talking big assed) chandelier into the garage. He was accompanied by what was probably a grad student with an old dog. We had a pleasant and meaningful conversation about how many chandeliers he intended to move and that he wouldn't be going back and forth all day.

I just found the whole exchange oddly amusing. And I guess that's what I love about NZ - our Celebrity Chefs move their own chandeliers.

Even Here We Are

So yes, it's been a long time since I created any sort of meaningful post. Heck, any sort of post at all. My excuse?

I've been busy.

As my faithful readers will know, I am managing my first major project. It is, at times, challenging for me. On many levels. Not the least of which is my inability to suffer fools gladly, as it were. That's probably the most difficult part for me. I just want to scream "they will do it because IT IS THEIR JOB!!!". I'm having to work lots of hours and weekends to keep up with everything, and my stress levels are at DEFCON 4 much of the time. So, there's that keeping me busy.

I recently attended a week's worth of PRINCE2 training. PRINCE2 is the British Government's version of Project Management. It's much more popular on this end of the world than it is in the U.S. The broader concepts are essentially the same as PMI's, but they use entirely different terminology for everything. Did I mention that you sit two exams in the five days? The first exam (Foundation) is a multiple choice question exam on their terminology and themes. You have to pass this to do the second half of the class, which is preparation for a Practitioner Exam. This is where they give you scenarios and ask questions, and you have to pick the best answer out of several multiple choice options. So, when you receive your pre-reading for the course, they say "if you have 2 or more years of project experience, spend 1-2 hours reading our overview document". If you are new to PM, read ... you get the idea.

What they really should tell you is "If you have never been exposed to PRINCE2 methodology, you should do a LOT MORE READING. I swear it was like trying to learn French in three days. Sure, I knew it was an apple, but I had to know the name of the apple AND the process of juicing it in a particular manner. In French. It was bloody hard! I was up every morning at 5 and awake until Midnight studying for the gosh darn exams. Any way, I passed the first exam and found out yesterday that I passed the second (much harder) exam too. Woo hoo! Now I have a PM certification. Which will help me in applying for the job that I'm already doing.

What else? Our Granddaughter (and parents and Uncles) will be joining us for next week. I now have a car seat in my car. The car smells kind of like baby already. Not in a bad way. Just like ... baby. We are looking forward to the week even if our little house will be full to the rafters.

Going to see Crowded House in Auckland in early April. They're doing one NZ show. Looking forward to it.

Kind of disjointed, but there you go. What I've been doing over the last few months.

Did we make a pact?

To stop blogging for 2010?

Going to See La Nieta

I'm going to see La Nieta this weekend. I'm spending a quick overnight visit in Canberra so I can see the little dickens, and then it's back home. I will provide photographic evidence.

I should point out that my Mother, upon finding out that her newest Great Grandaughter was a girl (and yes, I realise that is slightly redundant) immediately went out to buy clothing in shades of pink. In fact, a few weeks before the wee one was born, my mother said "Tell her I WANT TO BUY DRESSES!!"

My poor, long suffering Mother had one girl (me - and you know how I turned out), three boys, one Grandaughter and then FIVE GRANDSONS IN A ROW. Not that she's bitter, but she loves nothing more than buying stuff with frills on it. And I am not exactly frilly.

As you know.

Anyway, should be fun. I shall update in due course.

The World Series Is Over

I'm a little bit bummed about that. I've actually almost followed baseball this year and I admit that I have really enjoyed it. On ESPN International we get pretty much a game per day, and although it is HEAVILY based on East Coast teams (undoubtedly because of the time zone) I ended up enjoying it more than I have in years (Spring Training notwithstanding as that is always fun).

I actually bet on the Yankees a couple of times over the last few days as I thought they would clinch in Game 5 (and the odds were super great in that way because the game was half over with a big Philly lead when I placed my bet) but they didn't, so I put a bit of money on the Yanquis in Game Seex. I won a whole $6 dollars. I've been studiously avoiding reading any news reports so I didn't know who won, but when Matsui drove in six runs you knew it was inevitable.

Since the Kiwi has been away, I have been watching many American type sports. I am fully into football season now (College and NFL). In fact, I am planning to take Super Bowl Sunday (Monday here) off so I can watch the entire spectacle complete with beer and bad food. I don't care if I watch it alone, although a couple of years ago I watched it with my American boss and we had a great day (the Kiwi made us lots of nice food and we sat there and drank and ate and yelled at the TV).

Have I mentioned how much I love cable TV with recording capabilities? I rarely ever watch live TV now - I record everything and watch at my leisure. They are just now introducing TIVO here but I predict they are a few years late and more than a dollar short on that one - after all, there are only about 6 free to air tv stations in the whole country, and why would you buy a TIVO set, and a FREEVIEW set (to see more than four) just to record a few crappy stations? I digress.

However, we do have new seasons (for us) of Top Chef (love that Padma) and Hell's Kitchen. Still waiting to see all of season five of Entourage (guilty pleasure). And with the 70th Anniversary of WWII, I am ALL OVER the History Channel and all those great docos.

Wow - you know way more about my viewing habits than should be spoken about in polite company.

Las Abuelas

We became Grandmothers tonight.

The Kiwi's daughter had a girl. I started to write baby girl but to have a full grown one would require our own National Geographic Special. Actually, when "I" had her she was already 12 so I kinda did, in my own, inimitable way.

Details? We ain't got none at the moment other than "Mother and daughter are well". The Kiwi (as we speak) is probably arriving at the hospital to find out all of the details. She flew to Canberra to see the new 'un. We're going over again in November - this trip was a last minute thing since the whole pregnancy went over by nine days. I only hope they don't complain she was over cooked at Judge's Table.

In some ways, I think text messages are the telegrams of the New Millenium.

Granddaughter born (stop) All well (stop) More to follow (stop).

What About Bob?

My oldest, dearest friend's Dad died last week. He rocked. He said such funny stuff when we were in High School and Beyond. Here's a laundry list of things he used to say:

Whore's Ovaries - Hours' dourves (I still call them that)
When he liked a drink, he would say "Necatarine of the Gods" with a huge smile on his face.

He thought everyone on TV looked like Laverne from "Laverne and Shirley". He would say "Hey! Doesn't that look like Laverne?" About EVERYONE.

He used to make me drink Coors Light and give me food (mostly salami) every time I showed up at his house (which was often, come to think about it). "Hey Lea, have something to eat!" He was so Italian. In the best way. I think it was because I was the only one of his son's friends that actually drank.

He played golf. I would have loved to have played golf with him, but I took it up too late. He drove like the flaming demons of hell. In a totally good way, but he was a two-footed driver, back from his days in Michigan. You know, the snow and all.

He claims to have received a Purple Heart during WWII, for being hit by a peach can while loading a truck. As far as I can tell, he would have been about 14. But that was how he was, totally funny and always ready to make you laugh. Maybe he just aged gracefully, I can't tell.

When he went to bed, he would say "I'm going to bed to rest my eyes" which meant he was going to watch the Playboy Channel in bed. But I don't actually believe he subscribed, I think that was his way of leaving us kids to make stupid faux Olivia Newton John videos in his living room.

He showed me how to play bocce ball in his in-laws back yard.

Mostly, I never remember him being grumpy or angry, just a good time guy who loved his family. Vaya con Dios, Roberto.