Correction

The correct spelling is: kassler. thanks

What I have been reading

I have read, or am in the process of reading: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami - a strange but generally fantastic story, including a man who talks with cats; Mutant Message From Forever, Marlo Morgan - very interesting portraits of some aboriginies in Australia; The Girl With The Drago Tattoo - writing that to me is so good I don't want to read it because then I will be finished and won't have more - kind of like eating a wonderful icecream, or thanks to Dr. Hsu's daughter Emmie, who recently visited one evening at the end of her tour of parts of Australia and New Zealand, Haigh's chocolates from Australia. Things we have eaten lately of note, from a shop that sells South African goods and local cuts of meat - baby back ribs and kasser, I think it is - a cured pork chop - will get back to you on the spelling; and from our own efforts, fresh spinach and a few strawberries from our garden; and from our own kitchen, waffles with a recently acquired waffle iron that makes heart shaped ones; and some good cheese from local cheese makers. When we can find one we plan to plant a Japanese maple in the front of the house bed. Many of the blooms I saw last week are gone, but new ones keep coming, including lots of roses in other yards and some in our front of the house bed. The lawn is not so good, weedy and patchy so I may call in some help. Emily is having a small party on Haloween. Joseph is visiting with friends and seeming to enjoy school and has a couple, well at least one, project(s) going. Mom is busy at work. I have finally had all the amalgam out of my mouth, and all my crowns are now procelain, with non-amalgam fillings under them. We are healthy, even if not wealthy and wise, and hope all of you who read this are all three. Sincerely, Manford

Here I sit . . .

Hello, good readers. Here I sit, in the dining room, listening to a sudden, pounding (but intermittent) rain as it splatters against our metal roof (this is the most common roofing material in New Zealand, as far as I can tell). Well, all of a sudden, quiet. The afternoon was characterized by immense, powerful, largely white clouds in the West and South, and by even more coverage of the East and North by big grey swatches, so I am not surprised to have the rain - and we can use it. No wonder NZ is so green in most places. The big news of the week is that I have had my last amalgam filling replaced, and no longer have a mouth full of metal crowns, all replaced by porcelain. I struggle to keep still in the dentist chair, and am rewarded by his telling his nurse that I am his best patient - true or not is flattering, and he may have been obliquely referring to the payments I have made which might help him send his kids to the Uni! So far so good. Next week a visit with the doctor in Tauranga who started the whole thing, so I can learn a detox regimen that theoretically will remove mercury remaining in my body. Even if it is not the whole case, I do feel better, more alert and less tinnitus and word finding problems, and better more confident driving, and just happier in general. I have a question: what do the following words have in common? Grand, Hyatt, Sheraton, Oscar, George, Fat Hippo (Fat Hippo???) and Frank. If you guessed they are the name of tents shown in a recent advertisement by a sporting goods store here in Hamilton you win a prize. Many of the ads we see on tv here are funny or clever, and we enjoy that. Emily is back in drama class once a week where she is honing her already prodigous talents, preparing at eight for teenager hood, I suppose, with big ups and downs. Joseph seems to be getting invested more in some of his school projects. I do the odd VNG, and wish I had more because I always feel a little rusty, and doing several in a pretty close row at least shakes some of the cobwebs out! Carrie is working really hard. I am hardly working. Har, har, har - see. Some trees are still blooming, but many are now leafed out as we head toward summer. We will go to the South Island in late December, early January for a Quaker gathering, then have about a week to tour around before coming back. I am sure we will have lots of pictures and we are trying to figure out a way to get more of them into the blog - anybody used the Google Picasa program for this? I am still not very good with it, but then they don't seem to be able to spell, or they are sort of creative with their name? I am trying to take pictures of flowers and tree blossoms, and sometimes, using the autofocus program of the camera get really clear pictures of leaves below the blossom. Oh, well, har, har, har. I am very happy that we get the New Yorker - always something interesting in each issue. Anyone know about the painter Elizabeth Peyton? I weigh in around 180 these days, and at least to me seem to be walking better due to instructions I have received from a lady who is versed in the Alexander Technique. I don't think I have yet completely found my place in this small nation of around 4,000,000 (human) inhabitants (lots more sheep) but am gradually working my way out into the public and maybe for the next year will be more of a tourist, if gasoline prices don't get much higher. I am very sorry about the rough financial times so many seem to be going through recently, and look with some dismay at the latest news from the companies we have invested in, but am hopeful that in the long run things will get better. Last note - Joseph and I watched Breaking Bad, a new tv show for NZ - interesting and will be interesting to see what happens next. Thank you for reading this, and our best wishes to all who do. Manford

A Quiet Week

It has been a quiet week for us - Joseph off to Quaker youth camp in a town pretty far away and Emily in a ymca camp 8:30 - 4:30 Mon - Thurs. Friday the three of us went to a home and garden exposition that had well over 100 booths and displays - I particularly enjoyed watching some of the artists working on stone and wood sculptures, and Emily found a fairy costume for Haloween. The weather has not been delightful, with frequent cloud overlay - big dark ones. Joseph came home yesterday evening. Earlier in the day Emily and I went to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua and enjoyed it. The theatre is in a mall, so she enjoyed a tub of chocolate gelato afterwards from one of the many options in the food court. A daughter of a friend of ours who was in Topeka and moved to California is visiting Australia and New Zealand and we hope to have a chance to meet her sometime this month. I have one more crown to go before all the amalgam is gone. Will bring a bottle of champagne to celebrate! Carrie has been grading papers all weekend. Our latest acquisitions - a waffle iron (somewhat hard to find) and a GPS - fun to listen to it recalculating as I take streets not in its original route! Pretty amazing technology, huh. The kids have one more week of schoobreak - Emily to continue camp, Joseph to continue downloading stuff - his favorite word - stuff. We can get 20 gigs of data a month without penalty - should be enough and more. Cleverest business name we have seen recently - Pasta la Vista - per their brochure - "Traditional Argentinian pasta made fresh . . . every day" and they now deliver in Auckland and are coming to Hamilton. Yesterday we went to a pond on Carrie's Uni campus and fed the ducks stale bread - at one point a mama and four babies came up on land very close to Emily's foot and I tried to get closer and away they went somewhat to the dismay of an oma who pulled out her (previously hidden) bread to feed them while I scared them back into the water not realizing until they were off land that she had bread - ooops. Oh, well. We are heading for warmer weather, with current temps in the 50's, while those in North America, where temperatures are in the 50's, are heading in the opposite direction. We had a time change last weekend so now North America west coast is six hours later, instead of seven. My head spins. Take care, and our best to all who read this.