continuing the communication theme from yesterday – there is no saying ‘your welcome’ here. the typical response to ‘thank you’ is ‘no worries’.

i wonder where the conversation would go if i responded ‘i wasn’t worried, but thanks anyway’.

there must be a secret method of communicating here that doesn’t involve words because no matter how many different ways i phrase a question the answer is never forthcoming…

at our first house in new zealand we thought we had normal transparent glass windows. but coming with the condensation of morning or a steamy shower was this wonderful company logo.

i always thought we were subjected to the most subtle and not so subtle advertising living in the states but apparently theres a thing or two an enterprising advertiser could learn here…

i mentioned a few weeks ago i smashed up a molar. a week ago i had my consultation. there was only patient medical history paperwork to fill out and when i left they didn’t ask me for anything. in fact, it was me looking for a co-pay or some insurance hassle to bring the appointment to closure.

three days later i went in and had “posterior composite restoration” on the tooth. again they looked at me odd when i went to the desk on the way out. they said simply “we’ll put a bill in the post.”

now i knew it was going to be bad. it was going to be one of those if you had to ask you can’t afford it deals but what was i going to do, you can’t walk around chewing with only half your mouth because the other side has fallen apart.

the bill came yesterday. $150 total. that’s not my deductible or the insurance company’s “usual and customary” nonsense, that was the total.

this isn’t helping my cause in convincing natalie its a good idea for me to visit antartica while we’re down here…

ethan, who is seldom nice to anyone, especially his younger sister, did a questionably thoughtful thing today.

i say questionably because his solution to the problem put him in the center of attention which is by far his favorite place to be. but there was gain for everyone so we\’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

apparently there is a young girl at the ymca toddler tumble who is keen on ethan and not too keen on competition. when it came time for dancing and logi took up her usual position beside her older brother this new fling tried to rub logi out.

in a rare moment of chivalry ethan picked logi up and suggested he could dance in the middle with a girl on each side. and there was much rejoicing…

it was thanksgiving yesterday in new zealand. or rather, yesterday was the fourth thursday in november in new zealand.

they weren’t as successful in annihilating their indigenous population as we were in the states so i guess there isn’t anything to celebrate…

i would disagree its a case of less is more or any kind of marketing genius for the premium graphics editing package to have a first grade icon…

while i’m marveling at the social services here did i mention we send ethan to preschool for free? and there wasn’t a three year waiting list to get him in…

at the end of our “relaxing” weekend ethan woke up from his nap in the car with a tremendous headache. a few minutes later the rainbow of skittles he had at the end of our last hike was coming back up. a week ago, ethan spent a day and a half spewing and we couldn’t get him to keep a thing down during that time.

by the time we got home he had developed a fever and we couldn’t find the thermometer we thought we brought from the states so we were loaded him back up in the car and headed to hospital to make sure he hadn’t contracted meningitis.

the care in the emergency department was different than we would have expected in the states but at its conclusion we were very satisfied with ethan’s treatment. the great news is, ethan is fine and had a virus.

the surprise was, we walked right out of hospital, no paperwork, no insurance forms, and no future bills to worry about…

try that in the united states.

i remember when i was about seven or eight years old my father lined up three chess boards on a coffee table and boasted he could beat me and my two brothers simultaneously on all three boards.

it wasn’t like i was any kind of chess prodigy at that age but i knew losing to someone playing three games simultaneously sucked for me.

in the last couple of years we have taken to playing chess via email. the scorecard has remained quite lopsided but after more than thirty some odd years i finally chalked up a win in my column. it wasn’t pretty but a win is a win.

adding to the drama, the game took more than six months to play and by the time it ended we were both living in different countries than when it started. here’s the log for posterity (i was white)…