Birthday

Thanks to everyone for thinking of me on my birthday and sending emails and cards. John took me out to see Vicki Christina Barcelona and to an Italian restaurant last night. Jackie, Liz and Beth would have fought over the waiters. We might have to stop by when you are down for a visit.......

Not a lot new going on here. For the last couple weeks it has been rainy on Thur, Fri and Sat and then clears up on Sunday. It looks like we are going to have that pattern again this weekend. Last weekend, there were stern weather warnings put out for heavy rain and high winds--- bring in the animals, bolt down the lawn furniture, stay off the ocean. We had a tropical depression go through and the wind howled all night. On Sunday it cleared up and we were able to go for a bike ride.

I have been in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) training for work the last 3 days. It has been rather interesting and has been much more science based then what I am used to. I have learned all about New Zealand Transverse Mercator coordinates which deals with how best to get a round world accurately represented on a flat piece of paper. I have also learned about how you can add geographic information (roads, rivers, trees, etc) to the software and how everything in the software is represented as either a point, a line or a polygon. I really don't have to know about how to use the software but it helps to understand it when running projects.

The Auckland Boat Show starts this weekend so John is all excited about that. If we win the lottery between now and Saturday we can buy one of the $1 million+ launches that will be on display. Along with the fancy boats I believe there are also going to be some informational classes you can attend.

Only 18 more days until Spring in Iowa and Fall in Auckland! By 8:00 pm it is dark here now and it is dark when we get up in the morning as well. The Fall fashions are out in the stores. Kind of depressing that summer is coming to an end.