The slow death of my PJs

I vaguely remember the day I was standing in JCrew weighing the want vs. need columns for a pair of lightweight cotton, bright green, PJ pants. The want column won and must have been almost been a tie to the need because since then I've practically worn the pants everyday for the past four years.

They even survived a Clorox attack where they lost half of their brightness and assumed another color identity. This incident also probably weakened the fabric. Then came the fateful day that they made the cut to join the small list of clothing items brought on our around the world trip. Due to their comfy-ness and packability it was an easy choice even though they were 1 of the 2 items I brought that were 100% cotton. Day in and day out they've hung in there providing great comfort after a long day of sightseeing. Each hand washing cycle they would emerge fresh and crisp, drying in record time right along with all of the technical fabric. By the time we arrived back in a developed country, they were no match for that wonderful invention, the automatic laundry washer.

Now they are hanging in there by a thread, no pun intended. First, a hole emerged along the tip of the back pocket (don't even know why there was a pocket there to begin with) and then another one popped through on the back seem. It's almost an insult to me since it alludes to the fact that maybe I've gained too much weight during our time wandering the world without exercising. Anyhow, at this point I'm too attached to the PJs to give up on them and I'm pulling for them to make it through the whole trip with us. I may have to resort to patching but I'm hoping for a policy of "nothing left behind" when we leave New Zealand. We've done really well with our belongings we brought with us. We lost my travel journal on an Emirates flight from Dubai, one Nalgene bottle in Egypt, and a necklace in Thailand. That's pretty darn good if you ask me so my RIP blog for my PJs may have to wait until we are back on US soil.

I really don't have a moral to the story of my clothing tragedy other than the fact that wearing a small selection of clothes over and over again wears them out dramatically quicker than spreading out the use over a variety of outfits. So the next time you think about adding an item to your wardrobe maybe you should go for it therefore extending the life or your most favorite items.

As for other updates in the life of Jesse, there's not much more than the daily routine of working again. I love the daily commute back and forth to work on my bike. It's wonderful in the morning to feel the wind on your face and in the evening there's nothing better than cruising past the long lines of people stuck in traffic. The burbs of Auckland suit me. The views are fantastic due to the dramatic steepness of the hills allowing you to catch glimpses of the beautiful blue bay water. Not to bring up the dull topic of weather but even that has been quite pleasant since we've been here. And on that topic, we've been stationary for two months now and I'm starting to get the itch of travel again. We'll be moving on soon enough though since work ends here in two weeks and we'll begin the migration South to our vineyard positions. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the North Island and hopefully volunteering for the 2008 New Zealand Ironman around Lake Taupo, March 1st.

Until next time....
~J

The mosquito problem

So a vast majority voted in the last poll that we should purchase a quite expensive mosquito net to keep the mosquitoes from feasting on us while we slept. Nature had it's own ideas as to how to beat the mossies...

Because there's no central air or heating here, we leave the windows open quite a bit, which lets in a fair amount of mosquitoes. However it also let's in a fair amount of spiders. By letting the spiders do their thing in the corners between the ceiling and the walls or behind the toilet and sink, they've been catching the mosquitoes for us. As I'm cleaning today, I'm selectively leaving the spider webs up so that they continue to trap and kill the bloodthirsty bugs. Thanks nature!

Keep up the voting! We really enjoy it.

Cheers,
~S