Liz's New Zealand Adventurings

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Winter in Idaho

I just can't be bothered with blogging here at home. I only mean in my home, of course, which boasts a 31.2 Kbps dial-up connection to the internet. However, I was just offered a job working for a broadband provider in the area. If I accept the position, we will acquire a more pleasing method of access to the world wide web. It sounds nice. Real nice.

Anyway! What I've been meaning to mention is that Idaho (and other areas of the States) is experiencing the coldest winter in 5 years! Hooray for me! Not only is this my THIRD winter in a row, it's the coldest of them all...colder, even, than Dunedin. Protest if you must, but the wind chill on the 7th of December, at 8:44am MST was -30 C/-22 F. Now that's cold.
At 8:13am MST on the 8th of December, the standing-air temp "skyrocketed" to a chilly -14.8 C/5.4 F.
And tonight we went carolling. It wasn't bad, though, as we spent time inside buildings (we deliver fruit and biscuit plates to some of the elderly of our congregation) and raced between being indoors and the warm vehicles.

On a rather exciting note, I've begun meeting people, again, for the first time. By this I mean people that I casually knew, or attended the same congregation I do, but I was too comfortable in my control zone to get to know them.
Kristi is 25 and is passionate about the Word; preaching the Word, reading the Word, submitting to and relying on the Word. She's leading a women's Bible study and I'm enjoying it entirely. She's also wondrously friendly, outgoing and talented as a musician. We're currenly working on lyrics for a gorgeous piece of piano music she's written.
Adam and Heidi are newcomers to my congregation. They have one son, Nathan, who is 19 mos old. He's adorable and is fluent in baby sign language. [It's a great frustration and stress reliever for all involved as there is no longer much need for grunting and screaming.] Adam and Heidi were immensely friendly when we first met and I instantly became comfortable around them, cracking jokes and poking fun back and forth with them.

I was able to spend Thursday catching up with Heather, finishing off the day with herself and her hubby David over dinner. Of course I feigned Kiwi-ness and played the tourist, "What's good at this restaurant? I want something American." I find I'm terribly confident faking the accent as I'm pretty sure I'd be able to answer the questions I hope I'd attract. There were none that night, but I hope there will be some sooon.

Went and saw the new Narnia movie last night. Excellent film! I just about flew out of my seat when "Aslan's Camp" scene began. On my last day on the South Island, Jon (who was an extra in the movie), took Dom and I to where that scene had been shot. I took heaps of pictures and shared them with my friends David and MaryBeth at the after-movie-party. There was authentic Turkish Delight there AND trivia questions about the book/movie. Sounds hardout, ay?
Well, it should. Because David has designed the wildly successful "World's #1 Non-Official Website" for the film:
NarniaWeb.com. Producers, actors and other highly-involved-and-special people have kept up with the information on the site, and many have been in contact with David. I recommend checking it out. It's neat. Support it if you get the chance - David's a Christian AND he was homeschooled. How much more dorkycool can you get?! ;o)

4 Comments:

  • hehehe...glad i'm here in warmer Dunedin, now on a current high of 13.6 C/54.5 F! ahh, pathetic, yet comparatively warm. Remind only to visit in summer :) (mmm, and get bonus summers too)

    I had mince the other night, it brought back interesting memories.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12 December, 2005 15:17  

  • well, summers here are glorious. As you, apparently, have read through my past blogs (haha, how long did it take you?!) you might've stumbled across the account of Heather's wedding. We typically have 2-3 weeks of 35-40 C weather in the summer. And it's oh-so-dry (as living in a desert should be, naturally).

    People here think I'm weird when I refer to "hamburger" as mince. Where in the world did "hamburger" come from, anyway??
    It's not even ham.

    You'll have to teach me how to dehydrate mince so I can relive all the mince memories. When you come to visit, of course.

    By Blogger liz, at 14 December, 2005 12:55  

  • sorry, i didn't actually read them all, only got through around half of them, and most f those were skim read (to count the number of times I was mentioned), yes I am pathetic I know. It really is amazing what you can spend your time doing when you have nothing else to do! isn't hamburger the patty? mince is lumpy and fragmented? or s it diffent on the upside down side of the world?
    p.s. I am sunburnt today

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 15 December, 2005 02:53  

  • ok, hamburger is the catchall phrase we use for ground beef, or mince. Don't ask me why. You also order a hamburger from fast food joints, the meat portion being a "hamburger patty."

    oh the complications.

    ps How is your sunburn?
    pss There's 12.5cm of snow on the ground right now. I went for a run in it. Glorious. No sun, though.

    By Blogger liz, at 19 December, 2005 12:21  

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