i mount my osx time machine external hard drive as “HDWells” and every time i see it in the finder i smile a little…

two things about the home provided to us in new zealand have really bummed me out.

first is the couches. its not healthy for my sanity to talk about all the things that made me sad about the couches so i’ll move on.

second is the blunted knives. it takes effort to cut even butter with these knives.

so tonight i’m torn between increased ire and gratitude after the largest blade we have slid off the husk of a pineapple (because rounded edges can’t cut) and only nicked my finger and tore up my nail (because rounded edges can’t cut)…

if you count george herbert walker’s time as vice president there will have been a bush or clinton in the u.s. white house for twenty seven straight years.

how is it possible in a country so diverse and allegedly upwardly mobile that only two families can hold the highest office?

still don’t think our election process is broken beyond repair. look at the field of candidates and count in milliseconds how long it takes you to think of at least one person you would prefer elect president over all the options available.

in the time it took to type that i came up with six…

when my children get older and i start coaching their little league and soccer teams i wonder how the other parents will respond to me introducing this pre-game ritual.

for the most part, my urge to acquire is greatly reduced by a fifty pound baggage limit and the 13,000 kilometers between my current home and my home in the states.

but the ipod touch is a mere 110 by 62 millimeters and almost imperceptible at 120 grams. an obvious exception to my otherwise suppressed cravings…

about a block away from our apartment a garage band gets together to practice most nights of the week starting around 8pm.

you might be thinking to yourself here comes a old man’s rant about a bunch of young kids playing their loud rock and roll music late at night but you would be mistaken.

i mostly enjoy listening to them play, my complaint is the inclusion of led zeppelin’s immigrant song on their play list.

who are they kidding? robert plant could barely sing that song outside the studio…

something wicked this way came. we’ve had wind before, in fact its unusual if the wind isn’t blowing.

but yesterday the wind was full of grit and dust. every thirty minutes or so i would wipe my hand across my desk and clear a fairly substantial layer of debris away.

i don’t know where all the flak is coming from but if it continues i’ll be getting some of those wrap around blue hair sunglasses just to walk the streets…

my least favorite player in the nfl is terrell owens and ever so slightly behind him is eli manning.

i’ve hated the dallas cowboys since i was a child, but as an adult i’ve had much more animosity for the new england patriots.

so for me this “super” bowl, “super” blows and in some twisted fashion portends the “super” lousy choice i’ll be stuck with on election day between hilary or mccain…

somehow, somewhere our four year old decided he wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up. i think he’s missing a lot of the details about what an astronaut does, but its a lofty goal so we haven’t discouraged it.

today, the department of conservation had their tree service out cutting back trees along the city streets.

from our window he sat mesmerized by the chainsaw and chipper shredder. ethan has now decided he wants to cut trees when he grows up.

and there is evidence he may have been more hip to the whole astronaut gig than we thought because later he asked how much college you needed for trimming trees.

once your out of the city there aren’t a lot of cars on the road. and if you get off a main highway there really aren’t a lot of cars on the road.

i think the absence of cars encourages the typical new zealander to drive like they are the only person on the road.

statistically they may be mostly correct, but given the number of times i’ve almost been clipped by someone driving over the center line its time for a math review.

one fatal car crash = game over.

we were waiting in the lobby of a restaurant for our take-a-way to be ready when a huge asian man came in wearing the weirdest glasses i’ve ever seen. the lenses were shaped like giant, capital letter D’s with the arching side of each stitched together between the man’s eyes. that bridge had to be at least an inch and a half long and in violation of no less than three laws of physics to cling to the man’s nose.

of course as soon as my four year old son saw the spectacled man he started pointing and laughing hysterically. of course i’m not blind and saw the funny looking man too so my chuckling admonishes of ‘don’t laugh at other people’ had to come off pretty empty.

another episode in the why i’m not qualified for parenting series…

sometimes the daily post and trying to get an idea out there before the new day begins suffers at the hands of real time events.

such as expressing my joy that fifty percent of the worse superbowl imaginable (new england patriots vs. dallas cowboys) is now impossible. oh, but any success for eli manning is a large price to pay…