Happy Birthday to...uh...me

It's Friday evening, October 27th, at 10PM. We're now on board the ms Statendam, en route from Auckland to Tauranga. We just got back from dinner, and I'm a little drunk. I know, I know, "Hey kids! Don't drink and blog!" But this is a special occasion; today is my 50th birthday. After all of the medical problems I've had in my life, I'm faintly surprised that I've made it this far. But it's a pleasant surprise.

Before we boarded the ship today, Dori bought herself a new camera, the Canon SD40. It's so tiny and cool. She used it to shoot the birthday cake the ship had ready for me. I also got nice gifts from our travel agent and our friends Marc and Stormy. I'm blogging using the ship's ridiculously expensive satellite Net connection, so I'm outta here.

Hello from Auckland

It's the morning of October 26 in Auckland. We've been here a bit more than a day. Our travel from the US was uneventful, though it was a very long day. After being dropped off by our friend Care (thanks, Care!) we took the Airport Express bus from Santa Rosa to San Francisco airport. Got there in plenty of time, and it was smooth at the airport except that I got the full wand-and-patdown treatment at security. I must look suspicious.

The flight itself was fine. Air New Zealand is, like the country itself, very pleasant and civilized. We were in Economy, but dinner still included good NZ wine (I had a Sauvignon Blanc; Dori had a Pinot Noir). Each seat has its own entertainment screen which allows you on-demand movies, TV shows, and even games. I got in a few rounds of Shanghai and finally saw An Inconvenient Truth. Al, please run for President again. And due to the good graces of our doctor and Mr. Ambien, we slept a good six hours or so on the plane. We arrived at the Crowne Plaza Auckland around 8 AM, and hurrah! they had a room ready for us. Total travel time, from leaving home to the hotel room, was around 21 hours.

I took a shower and napped for a couple of hours. Dori can't take naps, so she puttered around unpacking. Then we walked a block to the Sky Tower, one of Auckland's big tourist attractions. It's the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, with terrific views of Auckland and the Auckland Harbour. It also has glass panels set into the floor of the observation deck; you can stand on them and look directly down to the ground, 186 meters (or around 610 feet) below. You know you're safe, but it's still scary. Much scarier is the Sky Jump, where people lots braver than us strap into a harness and leap off the building. They're stabilized by cables, so there's no bouncing around or hanging upside down, and then they have arresting gear that slows them down at the bottom. But it's still a 192 meter fall.

We spent the rest of the day in the Skycity complex. They have a casino here, so we went in and did our now-traditional tribute to my late grandmother: we blew $5 on slot machines. We've done the same thing in Monte Carlo and at Indian casinos. Grandma loved her slots.

We're off to do more touristy things today in Auckland, then tomorrow we board the ms Statendam for the beginning of our cruise. More to come. And I'll have tons of pictures to upload to Flickr when we get back. Before we left, I bought a Canon SD700 IS (since replaced by the Canon SD800 IS), and I just love it. It's small and responsive, and the pictures are sweet. The main limitation to the camera is the operator; I know I'll get even better images once I learn how to really use it. The image stabilization is a great feature that works very well, and I even have some movies from the Sky Tower.

On holiday

As I write this, I'm sitting in the Air New Zealand lounge at SFO, waiting to board our flight to Auckland, NZ.

We're not exactly roughing it; we'll be spending two of our three weeks away on a cruise ship that departs from Auckland this Friday and ends up in Sydney two weeks later.

There won't be all the comforts of home, though. We've both agreed to give up some of the 24/7 connectivity we're used to. Tom's bringing his MacBook, which will only have occa$ional 'net acce$$ via the $hip'$ wi-fi, and I'm going computerless for the first time in years. Don't feel too sorry for me though, as I've got the BlackBerry Unlimited International Email plan (such a deal!). Now, I just hope it works in NZ and Oz.

Because of this, we may or may not be able to post in a timely fashion about Tom's birthday, Good Bear Day, Halloween, or Election Day. Watch this space for pictures and trip highlights.

Or Maybe Midgets?

Many years ago, Tom co-wrote a late, unlamented book for Dummies Press. One of the several ways that he and they didn't see eye to eye was when he tried to give that triangle-headed Dummies guy a name, but they wouldn't let him.

Years later, he's moved up to a better class of publisher (or at least one that's more flexible). The result: not only does he get a chance to name the QuickStart Bunny, so do you. As it says in this blog post:

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Visual QuickStart Guide, the series that has sold more than 11 million books, we're launching our "Name the Visual QuickStart Guide Bunny Campaign." Go here and tell us what this little dude's name should be, and why. Remember, he/she/it has gone nameless for 15 years, so you've got your work cut out for you. If the judges pick your entry, you'll win an 80 GB iPod and a 20-book Visual QuickStart Guide series library and you can name a local public library that we'll donate another 20-book Visual QuickStart Guide library to.

That last bit is what I think is so cool. There are a lot of libraries out there that could really use up-to-date tech books, and this is a good way to help them get current.

There's only one entry allowed per person, but the deadline isn't until December 15, so you've got some time to think about it. And so do we—I've looked at the fine print and it doesn't appear to rule authors out as entrants.

Hmmmm… Now, if I can just get the sound of Anya singing out of my head…