Our latest cultural immersion project

To our dear friends Cindy, Jeff, Aaron and Jami... please accept the following as an advance entry in your Halloween party costume contest this year.

Yes, I know we're still eight months away, but we keep hearing that no one dresses up for it here, and it breaks our hearts. Our excuse for this foolishness was the the biggest party of the year in Wellington, the New Zealand International Sevens, which happened to be this weekend. The Sevens is a two-day rugby tournament in which each team has seven players who play for two seven-minute halves. I think...? I'm not sure because apparently no one really pays much attention to the matches. It's more important to get dressed up like idiots and drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol. (For the record, I participated in the first, not so much the second.) In any case, I read later that while NZ was up 17-0 at one point in the final, England came back and won the top spot. Ouch.

Some of our new friends include, from left, Ati, Brett, Officer Swearingen, Matt as the Steve Irwin "Crocodile Hunter," and another Matt as a life guard.

And we were lucky enough to tag along with the entire USA women's volleyball team. This is Stephanie from KPMG and one of her "teammates."

The stadium packed in thousands of doctors, angels, hippies, action figures, priests, legos, medieval warriors, Rainbow Brights (above, right -- remember those?) and lots of indistinguishable characters (above, center). 

Apparently this type of foolishness is most effective in group format.  

As the day progressed, we'd find Jake's facial hair in new positions. And when one of his sideburns went missing, he became understandably agitated. I suppose a cop with only one sideburn isn't much of a cop. 

But no worries, mates. I had it all under control.