thursday 15th/saturday 17th... long day of flying -- left on the 15th from seattle to LA... slept 10 hours straight on flight to auckland, with aid of sleepign pills! landed in nz on the 17th... in auckland, then christchurch and finally dunedin... wow! to our homestay 'nesbit cottage' and then downtown to explore a bit... dunedin university, botanic gardens... drinks on the octagon (center of town)... started reading cryptonomicon...

sunday the 18th... up at 4am... to see yellow penguins at sand fly beach... some sea lions and seals as well.. pretty cool stuff... then later hiked up the steepest street in the world in dunedin... saw some very rare albatross... dinner on Georges St in Dunedin... home later...

monday the 19th... got rental car and drove 370km to christchurch... walked around town... over the avon river... saw christchurch museum... dinner at indian restaurant... met up with ignacio and laura (friend's of sebastien badault's) at internet cafe on cathedral square in christchurch...

last few days have been admittedly somewhat frantic preparing for the trip... trying to get final confirmations for hotels in Bali (Ubud), Krabi/Ao Nang Beach and Bangkok... we're almost done now... is incredible how stressful it can be for type-A personalities... worrying that we may not be getting the absolute most incredible best rate a person on planet earth could get... funny when you think about how other people just bop thru these trips...

we decided to splurge on our last night... in Bangkok at the Shangri-La... I'm pretty sure this hotel has been referenced in books I've read before...

also just tying up lots of loose ends... finished reading the Da Vinci Code... was fun to read... another semi-factual fiction... in the tradition of grisham/clancy... was a quick one...

bought karen a new Canon Rebel slr digital camera... is sweet... combines the control of 'real' photography with the realities of 6.3MP digital photography...

first 3 days of sabbatical are over... quick recap... am i fit out for retirement?

yes... it suits me... day 1, thurs jan 8 '04, had a # of chores... cleaning up office, having lunch with bruce moore downtown... chowed down on wings at tatonka with friends (holiday excursion to fox sports grill... plus, spent some time in the evil empire today, and tried out their $2.99 for 24 hours of internet access... seemed like a pretty good deal for me...

day 2, fri jan 9 '04... already slipping from memory a bit... started reading the da vinci code... enjoying so far... wondering though how many of the truths mentioned in the book are really true... was da vinci gay? was mona lisa really a female version of himself and are the words mona lisa really referring to 'man woman' which is another play on the androgynousness of it all, and what she's really knowlingly smirking about? fun stuff... also got in a workout... pretty sure my metabolism has officially slowed down... i've been pretty good with cutting back on eating and exercising a lot more... but, the weight has remained pretty steadfast... uh oh...

day 3, fri jan 10 '04... up at 6:30 or so... took zach over to orvidas/demage house... then we hit the road to portland to Aunt Jeanine and Uncle Hal's house... visiting were Aunt Connie and Uncle Jim with adorable cousin Katya from Chile... her father (Jason) wasn't along for the trip, but she was perfectly at home with us all... then cousin Lynn and Ed Valenter stopped over with Connor, Nolan, Luke and Renee... we had a few raucous snowball fights, gorged ourselves on some all day grazing... then turned around again... listened to a book on cd called the last american man ... very interesting to think about how far we all are from really being able to 'live off the land'... this guy, Eustace Conway, is doing it, right now at turtle island...