ah the internet!

Hey all,

So we've finally got the internet running at the house. Once telecom got around to putting us on their database and then having one of their service crews come out this morning to fix the wires leading to our place (hope nobody tried to call the last couple days as our phone's been dead) then we were in business. I'm going to try and throw in a few pics that show some of the things we've tried to describe.

Andrea's brother Mark made the very apt observation that our previous video showing the chicken capture reminded him of Rocky 2,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEDwm0Xu9Q

See any resemblance? Apollo Creed watchout! I'm training hard down here.

Last night turned out to be Dave's company Christmas party. It was held at the Glenfalloch Gardens out on the peninsula. It's strange having a Christmas party where it's light out until 10. We did a fair amount of wandering around the gardens before dinner. They were beautiful with lots of cute little paths winding all over the place. There was a band playing all your favorite 70's hits and a pretty decent buffet that both of us ate too much of. I don't think either of us has the right mentality for buffet style eating. We forgot to bring the camera with us so there aren't any pictures of Andrea's fancy dress but hopefully someone at work got one and I can post it here later. She looked fantastic (take my word for it, this is Dave typing in case you were curious)

Today we woke up late since we were waiting around for the technician to arrive. Once he fixed everything up for us we got up, made pancakes and then heading into town. Today turned out to be a big shopping day. We went to the farmers market and bought some veggies and a pie (pies are the quintissential new zealand dish here and we've heard that a lot of people have pie every day, after eating our pie this evening we will not be that type of person). We ran a couple errands and then went to the art store. Dave has really enjoyed the art class that we've been going to and wanted to buy himself some paint and brushes and things so he could continue with it. Drea had to talk him down from buying a couple hundred dollars worth of art supplies. So after much deliberation we walked out with $70 worth of stuff and felt pretty good about it. Here is a picture of the two of us with our work. All you art critics out there be kind, it's our first work since third grade.

And in case you were worried that we weren't going to talk about birds in this entry, don't worry. We had a minor scare last night as our beloved (back to beloved status) Coco somehow got out of the coop and dissappeared. After a restless night of worry we were all set to go door to door around the neighborhood and post fliers, but she turned up in the morning looking for food.
Also in chicken news, after a short getting to know (and peck) you period, our two chickens have now totally bonded. They are rarely seen apart and have started doing choreographed dance together. See the following series: