it seems a bit tricky to update a blog when things appear to be the same, and they are, but different in teeny tiny ways.

one: sodokus have entered my life. i recognize that i'm a bit late getting on the sodoku train, but i have only recently started ripping them out of the daily wellington newspaper during my lunch hour and working on them for the rest of the afternoon. yesterday's puzzle was marked as "medium," and i spent from 2 until 6 working on it. at the end of the work-day, 49 of the 81 sqaures were correctly filled in. this makes me a) probably an undiagnosed moron and b) DEFINITELY in the running for employee of the month.

two: i am such a commuter girl! this past thursday i left Marocka in the afternoon to catch a 30 minute flight from wellington to nelson on the south island to spend the weekend with robin and carolyn's family! as soon as robin decided she needed to leave wellington, i started conspiring with carolyn to make a surprise visit. and it worked like a charm. it's amazing how much carolyn's feels like home because after about five minutes of screaming-surprised fun, it was back to normal: making hot drinks and feeding the pigs. i'm pleased that after a month of working in a high-end downtown boutique, i still know how to seemlessly slide back into farming life. friday morning robin and i cleaned out the chicken house, which is a pleasant enough undertaking if only because it feels sort of funny to have 30 chickens pecking at your boots. and on sunday afternoon while robin and i were having a fifth(teenth?) hot drink of the day, the pigs escaped their paddock and ran up to the house where they were digging up potatoes and uprooting baby broccolis. thomas and carolyn miraculously herded them back to the paddock and installed a, uhm, more effective electric fence. after that perfect weekend of life at the gorge, i hopped back on a 30 minute flight monday morning to get to work with time to spare by 10:00. seriously, if you have no other reason to visit new zealand, you should come just to check out the lax air travel. in two flights this weekend, i never once had to show any form of ID, no one asked me to take off my shoes, and no machine saw the inside of my purse. further proof that new zealand is not only heavenly but also insane.

three: RUGBY. IS. SO. . . AHHHH! incredible? rugby season is seriously heating up in new zealand and everyone here is born being an All Blacks fan, the national rugby team. on saturday, robin, carolyn, and i went to another of thomas' rugby games which only made me like it even more. if a bunch of skinny 16 year olds can make it look hard core, you can't imagine how intense watching professionals play can be. well, you can imagine. and if you can't, you should youtube the All Blacks doing the Haka, a traditional Maori war chant. it makes football with all the foam pads and all the breathers and all the rules just seem so girly. no, that's not it. sure, girls could play rugby, maybe. compared to rugby, american football should be played by ladybugs. or premies.

four: daylight. hopefully. soon(ish). yesterday was the winter solstice THANK THE SWEET JELLY JOP JESUS. i am seriously looking forward to longer days again. in january, robin and i would watch the last bits of the sunset at 10 pm as we climbed into our beds. nowadays, it's good news if the sun fights past afternoon tea. it's hard to know how much of a sunshine person one is until it is sucked out of one's life.

one big hug to new zealand, which still has me enchanted. one big hug to the US, which still has everyone i love.

love,
maggie