Apparently, the gowns have more coverage in the rear, which as we all know is a major issue for hospital-gown wearers!  As I tell my patients, “There are no free shows here”, and then hand them another gown to cover up when they have to walk to the bathroom {yeah, bad joke – but hospital humor’s pretty lame, anyway!}.  Any gown that leaves patients feeling more comfortable and less worried about their rear-view is a plus in my book, whether it’s created by a famous designer or not.  Because when you’re in a hospital, the last thing you need is another thing to worry about!

Overall, feedback regarding the gowns has been good.  The only issue?  Guys complain that they’re a bit too girly, so they’re investigating a more masculine line for the men.  Looking at the guy in the picture, I’d say that’s a good idea!

Just to put things in perspective – the earthquake in Haiti was 7.0, whereas the one in New Zealand was 7.1.  One of the reasons why this earthquake did not result in any loss of life or many serious injuries is because of building codes and the types of buildings in New Zealand.  That’s a blessing, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

There has been an estimated NZ$2 billion worth of damage {~US$1.45 billion}, and something like 5 out of every 8 homes are currently uninhabitable.  There are many, many people who are still struggling and suffering – employees who cannot go to work, families who are displaced, students who have been forced to leave off their classes, elderly who are unable to move quickly and get to safety, etc.  It’s a very stressful time for a lot of people.

As at any time when there’s stress, people are losing their tempers and have short fuses.  There’s been a big jump in the reports of domestic violence, and many of the police officers in the area are feeling overwhelmed with both personal and professional duties {some 20 police officers have lost their homes}.

Please keep New Zealand, specifically the Christchurch and Canterbury areas, in your prayers.  Here are a few blogs written by people living in the area, if you’d like more information.

Don and Angela in New Zealand

Veuve and Varsity

If nothing else, just stop by to give them words of encouragement :-)

Images via and via

So far, I’d managed to avoid falling into carrot temptation.  That all disappeared when I went to my new employee’s welcome day.  There on the sideboard were 5 huge trays of carrot cake.

Oh, snap.

I avoided it the first go-round and held strong during morning tea break.  But my willpower evaporated during the fire-extinguisher demonstration, and by lunch time, that carrot cake was yelling my name!  I snagged a piece and savored it, then promptly thought, “I should make this some time.”

Normally when I eat a scrumptious dessert and think, “I should make this some time”, the thought both enters and leaves my head in a period of about .3 seconds.  This one stuck around.  I went home, pulled out my cookbooks, scoured the various recipes, and finally decided on one from my hometown church cookbook.  I made a few modifications, but stuck to the basic outline.  I defy anyone who says that church-women don’t know how to cook!  If you find a church cookbook, preferably one with a few stains and ragged edges, you hold onto that sucker!

Now that I had my recipe, I set about making the dessert.  I decided to wait till we were having a dinner and serve it to our guests.  I don’t know why I do this to myself.  Everyone knows that you should never try out a new recipe on guests!  About halfway through the cake prep, I thought, “Hmmm… I hope this turns out alright… maybe I should’ve done a test run…”.  Once I pulled it out of the oven I thought, “It looks OK, but what if it tastes horrible?  Maybe I should cut a thin slice off the edge, just to be sure!  I could cover it with frosting…”  Chris had the same idea about cutting a thin slice and hiding it with frosting, only his reasons had nothing whatsoever to do with taste-testing – he just wanted cake!

I figured that if it looked OK and smelled OK, then it probably was OK.  I iced it with absolutely delicious cream cheese frosting, sprinkled chopped pecans on top, and nodded my approval.

Later that night when dinner was over and coffee and tea had been served, I brought out the carrot cake.  I cut up some pieces, put them on plates, and then took a closer look.  What was that?  Were those nuts?  Something didn’t look right…

Excuse the poor photo quality – this is a cropped close-up of another shot!

There were green flecks in my carrot cake!  Carrot cake that I was about to serve to my guests!  Some of whom I’d never met before!  I wondered if they would think that I had made the carrot cake using spinach, or if the carrot cake had mold in it.

It was too late by that point – they had seen the cake.  I had to serve it.  I passed the plates around and hoped that no one would notice {or that if they did notice, they wouldn’t say anything!}.  Thankfully, not a word was spoken about the green flecks, but several words were spoken about how good it tasted.  Whew!  And overall, it did look pretty delectable…

Apparently, the coloring of carrots is very sensitive to changes in pH balance, which in a cake is controlled by baking soda.  If you don’t properly distribute the baking soda in the cake batter, you’ll have large sections of carrot in the cake that have a green color.  Or – and I think that this was the case with this particular recipe – if you have too much baking soda, it will turn a lot of the carrot a dark green color.  The reason why I think that the latter applied to this recipe is because the green flecks were equally distributed {which would indicate that the baking soda was properly mixed}, as opposed to being concentrated in certain areas of the cake.

I think that the next time I bake this I’ll use just a smidge less baking soda and see how that affects the color.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

If you’d like to make your own scrumptious carrot cake, then just follow the recipe below.  But you’ve been warned – you may have green flecks in your dessert!  If that happens, just tell your guests “It’s the baking soda, stupid!”, and hand them a fork :-)

Carrot Cake

Cake Ingredients…

• 2 C flour
• 2 C sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 C cooking oil
• 4 C raw carrots, grated
• 1/2 C pecans, chopped

Frosting Ingredients…

• 1 package (3 oz) cream cheese + 1/3 of another package
• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 4 C powdered sugar
• 1/2 C pecans, chopped
• 1 tsp lemon juice, optional {I didn’t use this}

In medium size mixing bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  In larger mixing bowl, beat eggs till fluffy; slowly beat in oil, then gradually add in flour mixture {1/2 C at a time}, beating till smooth.  Mix in carrots and nuts.  Pour into either a greased 9 x 13 inch pan or three 8 inch cake pans.  Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool.

For frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter.  Add powdered sugar gradually and lemon juice {if using}.  Beat until frosting is a spreadable consistency.  Ice cake and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 C of pecans.

Note: I made this cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan, which made things a lot easier.  You’ll have extra frosting if you make it using this method, but that never hurt anyone ;-)

You never know what you’ll see when you look out your window!

Please keep the city of Christchurch in your prayers.  Christchurch is the 2nd largest city in New Zealand, so as you can imagine, this has affected a lot of people and businesses.  They are currently reporting no casualties and few major injuries, but there has been a lot of damage.  One newspaper reported that the central business area looked like “a war zone” with buildings flattened, cars crushed, small fires, etc.  This will take awhile to rebuild and repair, and in the meantime residents are being told to conserve water and avoid travel because of damage to the roads.  So if you think of it, please lift up the city in your prayers – pray for no or minimal damage to the city’s water and sewage system, patience for those who are waiting to hear from loved ones, pray for the hospital {especially the ER!} as they are dealing with a large influx of patients, and for city leaders as they are making a lot of decisions right now.

Image via

Here is a news article with more information.

We started out by walking to the Auckland Ferry Building.  We purchased our tickets and waited for the ferry to arrive.

We got on board and headed out on the quick, 35 minute trip to the island, with a quick stop-over at Devonport {an Auckland suburb}…

We headed back out into the harbor.  The views were amazing:

The ferry ride left at 11am, so we decided to pack a lunch and bring it with us to eat on the way.  Chris made the sandwiches.  He never learned the secret to making a non-soggy PB&J…

{The secret: a thin layer of peanut butter on both pieces of bread with jelly in-between}

Needless to say, I decided to pass my sandwich over to Chris, who ate both it and his own sandwich.  He didn’t mind the sogginess :-)

After a short trip, we pulled into the Matiatia Wharf at Waiheke Island…

Olive trees on the hillside

Our tour guide from Waiheke Island Adventures met us at the ferry.  It’s still the slow season on Waiheke, so as it turns out, we were the only 2 people on the wine tour.  It was pretty nice!  She drove us around the island and pointed out various interesting areas.  Here’s a glimpse of our view from the vehicle…

Our first stop was the Saratoga Estate Winery, but I didn’t take any photos.  Of the 3 wineries we visited, this was my favorite.  I’d recommend it for those of you who prefer sweeter wines.  Our tour guide told us that most wineries on the island don’t make many sweet wines, so if you’re like me, you’ll want to put this one on your list.

The next stop was Cable Bay Vineyards.  Can you imagine having a view like this when you came to work each day?

Cable Bay was my 2nd favorite of the 3 wineries we visited.  The staff were quite nice and accommodating, and the view of the harbor and CBD were spectacular.  It also afforded me my first view of sheep in New Zealand!

Our 3rd and final winery was Mudbrick Vineyards.  I’d had enough wine by that point, so I decided to forgo this tasting and just enjoy the scenery.  Chris did a tasting and really appreciated how the guy at Mudbrick was willing to work with his choices…

The scenery at Mudbrick was by far some of the best.  They host a lot of weddings here – our tour guide told us they did over 200 last year – and you can see why…

Once we were done with the wineries, we decided to head back into Oneroa Village for lunch.  Oneroa means “Long Sand” or “Long Beach” in Maori…

The tour driver was so great.  They’re always very flexible and will drop people off to have lunch wherever you choose.  I much prefer to make my own dining selection rather than being told where to go and where to stop.  As it was, all I wanted was a sandwich – something portable so that I could eat and walk on the beach at the same time…

Once Chris was done wading, he decided to go for a swing.  He had a pretty good time…

Then he realized that there was a giant tree behind him…

And since he’s Chris, he had to climb it {one of these days I’ll do a post with all of the Chris-in-a-tree photos – if there is a tree nearby, Chris will either climb it, think about climbing it, talk about climbing it, or all three!}…

We had a lot of fun.  If you visit Waiheke Island, I recommend Waiheke Island Adventure tours.  They’re reasonably priced, friendly, flexible, and the owners have lived on the island for 30+ years.  They have great recommendations and know the ins and outs of the area {plus they don’t charge the standard 65 cents per km on their rental cars that that the other agencies tack on}.  I also recommend stopping by Saratoga Estate Winery to try their sweet wines!  We will definitely be visiting Waiheke again :-)

I am so happy that it’s Spring over here!  I know that many of my friends back in the States are lamenting the end of summer {or rejoicing in the upcoming coolness of Fall}, but I cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to walk to work and see the sun coming up.  Or to have the windows open in our home for more than an hour at a time.  I am very, very ready for some warmer weather :-)

In other news, I finally went to a salon in New Zealand.  I kept putting it off and putting it off.  First, I put it off because I was settling in.  Then, I put it off because I was lazy.  And then I put it off because I saw some of the price lists for salon services in Auckland and nearly choked.  The average price was about NZ$300 for a haircut + a full set of highlights.  I like my hair, but not that much.  There’s no such thing as a MasterCuts in New Zealand, although there is something similar.  Unfortunately, it would have taken a 45 minute bus-ride one way for me to get there, and I wasn’t interested in doing that.  I finally found a place within walking distance and went there today.  He did a really good job and the overall cost wasn’t much more than what I’d been paying in South Bend {FYI: I typically get my hair cut about once every 2 months with a full set of highlights every 3rd visit and touch-ups on the visits in-between}.  It was also a quick trip.  My hair is pretty long – about halfway down my back – and to do all of that took him an hour and a half.  I’m used to spending about 2 1/2 hours in the salon, so that made me pretty happy.

The only thing I wasn’t crazy about?  He was very proud of himself and told me repeatedly how I had come to the best place, how he was the best, how no one was better than him, how much money he made, how his girlfriend would never have to work unless she wanted to, etc.  He also shared a great deal about his personal life and the lives of his clients.  I thought to myself, “Wow -I’d better not tell him anything because everyone in the Greater Auckland area who walks by this salon will hear about it!”  He told me about people’s divorces, sex life, their children, deaths in the family, break-ups… I felt like I was having my hair done by Perez Hilton!

Still, the fact of the matter is that he did a good job, he did it quickly, and he did it for a good price.  Plus, I hate looking for hair stylists.  So as long as I keep my mouth shut and don’t share any personal secrets with Mr. Stylist, I think everything will work out just fine :-)

I got home that afternoon and everything smelled great.  Chris had been very productive and had cooked the dish, but he mentioned that he thought he’d put it in too big of a pan and was worried that it might burn because it was “spread out pretty thin”.  I didn’t look at it {it was in the oven by this point} and said, “Oh, I’m sure it’ll turn out just fine”.

The timer dinged and Chris dished me up a bowl.  I ate it while doing other stuff so I wasn’t paying much attention.  I walked into the kitchen and looked at the pan.  I said, “Wasn’t this supposed to have pasta in it?”

Let me show you the title of the recipe, which Chris had in front of him the whole time:

Do you see that?  It says “pasta” in 2 places on the title section alone.  Somehow, Chris managed to overlook that little part and just made the sauce, then poured that into a pan and baked it!

To his credit, it tasted really good and it’s a quick fix – just boil some penne and scoop this on top.  Still, I was dying laughing and had to tease Chris about it.  Here he is, laughing when I explained what he’d done {I was laughing so hard that the camera was shaking, and the image is a bit fuzzy}…

And here’s another photo of him where he’s explaining how this was a very understandable mistake {he’s feeling a bit under the weather, hence the plaid PJ pants, and he said he hasn’t cooked or followed a recipe in 6 months}.

And to top it all off, while he was eating this he thought to himself, “You know what?  This would go really well with some pasta.”

He swears he only does stuff like this so that I’ll have something to blog about.  I think he does it because his brain is in la-la-land.  Either way, it’ll be a long time before he lives down his absent-minded professor reputation :-)

Monday

Southwest Pasta Bake

Image via

Tuesday

Leftover casserole

Wednesday

Paula Deen’s Broccoli Casserole.  Chris loved this the last time I made it.  I thought it tasted like broccoli with the special sauce they put on Big Mac’s.  But, since he likes it so much, I’ll make it again!

I was unable to take a “before” photo of this the last time because Chris wolfed it down

Thursday

Breakfast for dinner :-)

Friday

Dinner with friends!

My week is looking to be a good one: I’m working Monday and Tuesday, and then I have 9 days off, which just happens to coincide with Chris’ mid-semester break.  I’ve got plans to finally get my hair done {nothing’s been done to it for 4 months}, to see friends, and to explore a bit more of the area.  I’m also really looking forward to being able to spend some more time with Chris. I hope that you all have a fun week planned, too :-)  See ya!

We do like to watch movies and some TV series on DVD, though!  We loved our Netflix membership back in the States.  First of all, the free 1 month trial was fabulous, and having the option to watch movies instantly online was great.  We could access the site through Chris’ PS3, so that we were actually watching them online on our TV.  This was really nice for me to have when I was working the night shift.  On my nights off, Chris would go to bed and I’d have a big selection of movies at my fingertips.  Or, I could watch a little bit of something to help me decompress after a crazy night.

They don’t have Netflix in New Zealand {nor do they have access to Hulu or most major network online TV episodes}.  The closest that they do have is a service called… I hate this name… called Fatso.  Why the founders of the company chose this name, I have no clue.  Still, it’s the only mail-based movie rental option in the country.  There’s SkyTV, which as far as I can tell is the only cable service in New Zealand, but to get a movie option it would cost $75 – $85 per month.  No thanks.

At first, we were doing just fine.  There was a corner movie store nearby that had $1 week-long rentals on Tuesdays.  Yay!  Then they closed up shop and moved to the North Shore.  Boo!  There’s also the library, but at $5 per movie rental, it didn’t appeal to us that much.  There’s the theater, but tickets are $15 per person with assigned seating, and I like to watch most movies from the comfort of my own pajamas.  So, we revisited the movie service who’s name I hate.

First off, I had a bit of a shock when I looked at the prices.  I wonder how long it’ll take living in New Zealand before I get over that?  Anyway, here’s what their membership options cost…

{Keep in mind that Fatso doesn’t have an online access option and they only do a 2 week trial as opposed to Netflix’s 1 month trial, though I’ve recently discovered a voucher for a 1 month trial to Fatso}

Now, compare this with Netflix {which has unlimited online movies and TV shows}…

Excuse me for a minute while I go cry into my handkerchief.

Ignoring how much more expensive Fatso is, it’s still more economical than the $5 movie option at the library.  Or taking the bus to the closest video store.  Or wearing out my shoes from all that walking.  We decided to give the trial a shot and signed up for it.

We signed up for it on Saturday, 14 August.  We received our first set of 3 movies on Monday, 16 August.  We watched a movie that night, put it in the mail on the 17th, and it was received 2 days later on the 19th.  The next movie was shipped out that same day, and we got it on the 20th.  We finished watching the 2nd movie, and that was when I noticed something: they’d sent us 3 DVDs, but only 2 return envelopes.  Hmm.

I emailed the company and was told that I could mail the 3rd DVD back separately on my own, but that the return envelopes can hold more than 1 DVD and it was their policy to only send 2 envelopes with 3 or more movies.  This is annoying.  If you’re like us, it may take you awhile to watch more than 1 movie and in the meantime, you’d like to have your other selections sent out.  To their credit, they were nice enough to send us a couple of extra return envelopes to have on hand, but it still bugs me.

It also seems that, unlike Netflix, they don’t have a weekend return service.  With Netflix, if we mailed a DVD on Thursday, they would have it by Friday and we’d have our next selection on Saturday.  So pretty much no matter what, there was a 3 day turnaround time at all times with Netflix.  Here, if you mail a DVD on Thursday, they may get it on Friday, but you most likely won’t get your next one till Monday.  This means that it may be 3, 4, or even 5 days until you get your next selection.

Also, many of the movies that we wanted to watch weren’t readily available.  There were some “Get It Now” selections, but they recommend keeping at least 15 DVDs in your queue.  We’re glad we did this because some of the selections that were shipped out were down at the very bottom of our list.  If we hadn’t had a long queue, there would’ve been nothing to send.

I suppose that since they’re the only service of their kind on the island, there isn’t much impetus for them to change.  There’s no competition, like with Netflix and Blockbuster.  Who cares if one blogger is annoyed over their envelopes?  Who cares if people don’t like their prices – they’re the only game in town, so if you want it, you’ve got to pay for it.

For us, I don’t think we want it that badly.  I may change my mind at a later date if they consider lowering their prices {or adding in that extra envelope}, or if we end up going stir-crazy.  After all, this option is still more economical than SkyTV.  In the meantime, we’ll just keep things status quo and hope that another movie rental shop opens up nearby or hope that Netflix makes the move to New Zealand :-)

*When I say that Chris and I aren’t big TV watchers, I’m comparing this to the statistic that most Americans watch over 4 hours of TV per day, and most New Zealanders watch nearly 3 hours of TV per day.  We watch far less than that.

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