Feb 6 afternoon

(Chunlin's photo above)

Lazy day in Taupo. Nice big clear lake. Still can see Mts Ruahepu & Tongariro across the water. Walked down to the lake, now at a pub for fish & chips and lamb. Thai food lost out. Don't really feel like sightseeing. ... Two swimmers in wetsuits parallel to the shore, about 200' off, going with the wind. Chunlin is eating sugar from the packet. ... The fish and chips was five times the price of that on the ferry but only half as good.

We walked around a bit more, then back to the hostel for games of pool, Connect Four, Scrabble; a couple cups of tea; and Fletch Lives. The Sixth Sense was missing. Also missing was a good chance to see the sunset. It went down as we watched the film. Only a few tinges when we stepped out. Bummer. It'd've been good, across the lake.

Golf

Friday afternoon golf. It takes a lot longer than I remembered.

Pow!


Almost cheating:


Putt!


Whiff!


But don't worry. He was better than I was. If only I could take my driving-range shots onto the course. And if I could have golfballs that don't sink when they land in the water. . .

My dance card is full.

Between my dad's birthday Saturday, a golf tournament (through work) Friday afternoon, my weekly writing critique group Monday, hopefully a date Friday night, and now a backpacking trip Saturday-Sunday (which I may be able to merge with the date), my dance card for the next week is terribly full.

And here I thought I'd have a quiet, relaxing weekend at home. I'd catch up on my photo album (two months behind), get most of a chapter out of my head and into the computer, and--who knows?--maybe vacuum my condo. But no. I guess that stuff will have to wait till September.

Golf

My mini-golf team (which used to be the bowling team) started play last night. On the 18-hole course at Interbay, I scored a 50. One hole-in-one and one six, but a lot of twos and some threes and fours. I was the best on my team, by two points.

The league has now posted the results. My team, Carpe Cervisia (Crap Cervesa), is ranked 13th out of 15!! Yay! Um. . .

If everybody on my team (or at least four of us, since they only took the best 4 scores) did as well as I did, we'd've placed fifth. The best team averaged a 41. I guess I need to work on my putting!

Nike

Yesterday, I was in Portland (well, Beaverton actually) for a full-day seminar on LEED Green Building certification. It was at the Nike world headquarters (like Microsoft, but with more shoes). We had a short tour before lunch and I snapped a few pictures.



All the buildings are named for athletes, and I'm pretty sure they only picked Nike spokespersons. Our seminar was in the Tiger Woods building. Michael Jordan is over on the older side of campus. Mia Hamm got the biggest building on campus:

Maybe this is because she's the only woman they have?

Here's the Lance Armstrong Center (swimming pool, climbing rock, etc.):

That's the group I'm supposed to be listening with. I think the guide is talking about the great renovated creek this bridge is going over. Or maybe the big windows that allow all daylighting inside the building.


Along one part of the shore of Lake Nike (six acres) is a Japanese garden. A jogging path goes over that bridge.

I have a few other pictures on Flickr, too, if you care to see them.