elvis has left the building.

i’m referring to ethan no longer haunting victoria ave.

huge thanks to everyone who called, came by or brought farewell gifts to our little celebrity.

provided we clear customs the next time i post we’ll be back in the united states.

i’ll be taking a few days off to cope with the culture shock of the returning to the states and to clear the tears that began yesterday when i started packing for the return…

i am afraid of the recycling troll

behind the walls, through the chutes and past the bins lives the recycling troll.

i have never caught more than a glimpse of the troll as he dips from bin to bin.

but if i accidentally put the wrong item down the chute the troll will screech. “aluminum soda cans and soup tins don’t belong together!”

i can see the pictures on the wall describing which items belong where, but they aren’t always clear and not every item i have is shown.

the recycling troll doesn’t care for my confusion and is intolerant of any errors.

so i dance between the chutes, sneaking my items in each bins, afraid of making a mistake and angering the troll.

i am afraid of the recycling troll.

every day when ethan walks to kindy, he visits with all his friends. he knows most the folks up and down victoria avenue and has progressed to hugging terms with many. this is a signed picture from the local courier post man. a local flier captured his van in front of the sarjeant art gallery and he wanted ethan to have something to remember him by.



it won’t be easy for any of us to leave wanganui…

the first spam i ever received that actually tempted me to visit their
site.

darkstone mu online is a mmorpg that takes the player, into a fantasy world full of excitement, adventure and monsters. with several ways to train a character, multiple character classes, and a vast continent to explore, gmo is a sure way to a unique adventure. join thousands of players from all over the world and help defend the continent of legend, clearing it from the clenches of kundun and his forces forever… with new content and features being introduced regularly, this game is perfect for those looking for an exciting mmo experience.

you start off as a dark wizard, a dark knight, dark lord, magic gladiator, a summoner or a fairy elf, with accordant strengths and weaknesses. you can save different base characters, a fun feature that allows you to begin play as a wizard, and later, restart and switch to a knight–but not both at the same time. the look of your character changes to reflect any new accoutrements you get, including wings and spells. there’s also a coordinate system on display, so it’s easier to move around the elaborate mu world. items can be combined in many different ways, but more game experience gets you better gear. you can even fight other players, but be warned: if you kill too many innocents, you’ll be branded a murderer.

i’m such a dork and so love earning the brand murderer…

i was telling a new friend about all the attention our blonde, curly haired daughter got from young, female, asian tourists while we’ve been on holiday in new zealand. it was like our daughter was the latest, greatest hello kitty product and all these young girls had to have their picture taken with her.

my friend responded by telling me he would like to see one of these asian girls photo albums because when he was in auckland he saw a bunch of them posing all around a coke machine.

his story certainly seems to diminish the shine of my daughter’s celebrity.

the possessions we left behind in north carolina for our tenants to use were dramatically nicer than those we were given when we arrived in new zealand.

our family is very conscientious but there have still been accidents. a broken dish here and child vomit launching there so i can’t say the property we were given here doesn’t show some signs of additional wear.

based on some of the reports i’ve gotten on our tenants in north carolina i suspect i may miss the possessions here…

a sure sign of the end of the empire.

along with everyone else, the wanganui chronicle in new zealand is kicking sand in the face of the u.s.

after months of refusing potty training and running off to hide where she could soil her diaper in private our youngest has finally accepted the toilet and has reinforced my suspicion that women make a much bigger mess of the loo than men ever could.

i have read opinions that state computers and mobile devices are reducing the quality of expression in written text as punctuation is gets dropped in favor of reducing key strokes or because the punctuation keys can’t be found easily.

in similar fashion, i don’t waste the extra ’shift’ keystroke necessary to type capital letters and am routinely criticized (ok, mostly by my father) that my writing is incomprehensible without capitalization.

reading through some of my recent email i see that i’ve devolved even further by eliminating segues. a blank line is all i provide to move from commenting on language to

guess the chinese took lip sync lessons from milli vanilli.

there is a paradox to the daily idea.

if i didn’t think anyone ever read the site i would give up the cause.

but, the more i know people are reading, the more inclined i am to moderate and censor the content making it overall much less enjoyable (i assure you!) to read.

i was talking to the sweetest lady at the [redacted] shop yesterday and she asked if i was aware of the u.s. association. apparently wanganui has a club of folks that get together once a month to talk about u.s. stuff.

she took me to the window where she had hung their flier with pictures celebrating u.s. holidays like the 4th of july, thanksgiving and halloween. i told her the best thing the u.s. association could do for new zealand is teach them how to properly conduct halloween.

in a gasp she told me “halloween should be banned. it does terrible harm to all the fairies and good elementals.”

it took a second, but i suggested folks could dress up as fairies, eat candies and what good elemental wouldn’t be pleased with that. but i could tell, my membership in the u.s. association had already been jeopardized.