Questions you might be asking

Q. Are you guys still in Taupo?

A. Yes. The race is the day after tomorrow (Friday morning for those of you Stateside), then Ariel gets to run a victory lap the following day, and then the day after that, we'll be flying to Christchurch (south island) to start the second leg of our vacation.

Q. How the heck do you pronounce "Taupo"?

A. It's two syllables. We've heard the first syllable pronounced like "how", but also like "hoe", and occasionally like "haw". The second syllable is usually like "hoe", but very occasionally like "hoo". And New Zealanders as a rule pronounce every single vowel sound differently than Americans. So really we have no idea how to pronounce anything here. We really dig this.

Q. Have you picked up any local slang?

A. Dave learned that plain-old coffee is called "filter coffee", or more more simply, "filter." If you order "filter", you get asked "white or black?", which means do you want milk or no? So if you want plain old black coffee you ask for a "filter black".

Q. What has Dave been up to?

A. Dave has been doing a little running and a lot of reading. He just finished Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and is about to pick up another book. He'll be out there cheering on race day. Also he got a special arm bracelet for friends of participants. This entitles him to discounts at local merchants, access to backstage areas, etc.

Q. Is Ariel ever going to post anything to the blog?

A. Yes. Very, very soon. We promise.

-Dave