No house for now...off to the beach

We didn't get the house...the owners didn't get the house they were bidding on, and decided not to sell after all. So we're still looking. Looked at another one on the same street, just a block farther from school, that seems promising--also four bedrooms (small ones), two living areas, nice patio, and a pool--small, but that's good--but it is being put up for auction August 15. Not sure whether we want to have that much uncertainty. No one else has registered interest on the other one we liked, so we have that as a possibility. We are taking the weekend off from thinking about it and going to the beach.

It is a beautiful, clear and crisp (frost this morning) day, and we're going east a couple of hours to Mount Maunganui, known as "the mount," where there are hot salt water pools and supposedly lots of things to do. I think the mount itself is a dormant volcano, but don't tell Emily. You can walk around or up it. or to the beach. or to the hot pools.

I finished a week of classes feeling good about it--actually I just have one class to teach, but sat in on a couple of other "papers" and a visiting lecture from a guy from New Mexico that was very interesting. And some meetings, and meeting people, and trying to figure out the department structure and politics. That may take a while. People remain very friendly and helpful.

And we finally had pizza from Hell. Check out their website: www.hell.co.nz They even delivered. Joseph had Gluttony (double pineapple, double ham, double cheese), Manford and I had Limbo (vegetarian, but with bacon and blue cheese...) and Emily had 333 (kids one-topping). They have some quite bizarre sounding combinations. But what do you expect? I somehow doubt this chain would go over without controversy in the US. The box says "we are hell bent on providing the best damn pizza and service around..." It also says "dispose of the evidence." It was pretty good. By the way, even pizza hut has pizzas like Chicken, cranberry and brie.

Stay cool! we will take pictures of The Mount--
Carrie