Starring
GnomeGrrl: A perpetually 21 year old from the bottom of New Zealand, whose real name is Tracey, she now lives in Las Vegas with her whanau. She’s an avid fan of rugby, animals and reading.
Also Starring
Kiwi #2: J2 (#1, Jesse) is 21 years of age, and definitely not in denial about his geekdom. He enjoys art, computer gaming and anything technical and nerdy. He’s also learning to play guitar.
Kiwi #3:TJ (#2, Tyler) is 20 years old. He’s our resident ladies man and social butterfly.
Token American: Tracey’s husband J (Jeremy) is 30-odd (however old she is, he’s 5 years younger) and is definitely the token American. Born in Minnesota and raised in San Diego, he’s currently working IT in Las Vegas.
Special Appearances
Ellie: Ellie is our baby. She’s an affenpinscher who looks like a monkey, has a pet tiger, uses her front legs like arms, destroys J’s things, and is never far from her human mum’s side.
Romeo: A young man of dubious lineage (though he obviously has some form of bull terrier, most likely American Staffordshire, making him a “pit bull” by American standards), we adopted him from the SPCA when he was 3-4 months of age. He was a parvo survivor, though you would never guess he was so close to death’s door. He’s a holy terror who will eat anything that gets left lying around - usually pens, socks, hats. He also likes to destroy the toilet paper. At least, that’s what he does when Miss Eliie isn’t bossing him around.
Spike: Spike is a true mutt, we think he’s a wirehaired daschund crossed with some sort of terrier or possibly a chihuahua. He’s a regular character and not even a little bit photogenic.
Maru & Maia: The cats we said we’d never have after an ill-fated “Crazy Cat Lady” episode. These two were abandoned in an apartment.
The Fish: Tracey has several fish tanks. A 55 gallon, 29 gallon, 14 gallon and 4 smaller beta tanks. J isn’t impressed, but Tracey always wins 
Family History
Tracey and Jeremy have been married since November 30, 1998, after meeting in a Yahoo! chat room (ironically called Love Stinks).
Jeremy moved to New Zealand in July of 1999, where they lived happily until circumstances forced a rethink, and he moved back to the US in December of 2006.
Tracey and the kids finally joined him as legal permanent residents on August 10th, 2008. Their visa journey is chronicled here.
Once An Alien ...
Alien: It’s what we are. The US Government said so. Oh, we know the dictionary definition of the world isn’t just about little green men from outer space, but seriously ... ALIENS? It makes you feel like a freak before you’ve even arrived.
Errata
A note on dates and times: the logic behind the non-US spelling and date/time format is explained in one short paragraph (well, one and a bit ...).
