Sports Day

A couple of weeks ago, Hudson had his sports day through his school. It was basically a field day but included a bunch of the schools from the area. It started at 9am but was still sweltering!!

This is actually before they started playing their games. Hudson is the kid in the center, notice how sweaty he is already!
I used to love field day as a kid ... as a parent, not so much.
The main sporting event--PSP. If you are young enough, its a spectator sport. The kid on the right is enjoying some chicken nuggets on a stick. Its a delicacy here.
Hudson and his on-again-off-again buddy. Some days they are good, some days they are no longer friends. Oh to be five again! I like how Hudson is smiling like he is with the President.

Pre-School Spelling

Don't get us wrong.  We are all about academics.  But we keep finding ourselves shocked at Hudson's preschool spelling test words.

Actually his Dad finds the concept of spelling tests in preschool to be a bit off the charts at all.

So here is a look at this week's words including pencil and teacher.  I miss the days when preschoolers ate glue not spelled it...

Ouch! You Know Me Too Well...

Folks around here have this thing about being out late.  One night last week after everyone except me had gone to sleep Angie heard an odd sound.  I was awake, reading, but paid it no attention.  A couple of things have been well-documented about us: 1)  we like to go to bed early and 2) Craig doesn't get up to check out odd/scary noises.

So ... anyway ... Angie was sleeping and Craig was reading when the noise happened.  Angie says, "Is that someone at the gate?"  (**important note, we have a metal gate but no bell, so when people come by they will tap on the gate with a coin or the padlock hanging on it**)

"No, it's some kind of bird," Craig responds.

Tap, tap, tap.  Ouch!  Its a tapping at the gate and Craig is wrong again.

So I jump up to look out, switching off the light first.  It IS the gate and outside is a guy we met recently.  At this point its REALLY late (i.e. 9:40pm) and so I stand there debating with myself when Angie says, "He saw the light go out.  You have to go to the gate."  I did and immediately accepted an invitation to go out and drank tea, staying out until almost 11:30.  

A few days later we ran into the same guy who said something along the lines of, "Blahblahblahblaheatsomethingblahblahblahtonight."  Now I have this bad habit when I don't know what someone is talking about.  I just say the last word they say and then they go on talking.  So I say, "Tonight." And then he kind of says, "OK, see you tonight."

Zoinks!  To what did I just agree?!?  Turns out nothing since he never showed up.

Sunday morning, we see him again.  He asked about getting together tonight and drinking some tea.  Since I'm trying to break bad habits, I didn't say "Tea," and wait for him.  Instead I said, "Oh OK, call me."  Then he goes on talking and I say that he should send me a text message and maybe we could meet.  Again trying to be noncommittal.  That was when he got me.

He says, "No way because if I call you you'll say you can't go but if I just show up at the gate, you'll go with me."  We all just burst out laughing since he is absolutely right!!  

Now the plan is to go out and drink tea some time long after nightfall.  Its funny what a little shame can do for you!!

Angie's New Watch

We got Angie a new watch last week that came in a bag with this awesome quote:

Time Like Career,

Time Like Love

Have truer words ever been misspoken??

Exhibit A

ESPN has a column that talks about making some mascots look meaner. One of the ones they re-do is Big Red from WKU.

This proves my point that the blob is one of the stupidest mascots going. Add teeth to it and its still stupid-looking with teeth. Maybe if your goal is having a logo no one will copy, you could consider Big red a success. Who models their mascot after a towel ... I mean ... seriously???

He is a total waste. Big Red is a drink. Its just that plain and simple.

Medical Care and Body Work

After a few days fighting an oncoming sinus infection, we finally went to the pharmacy for Craig today. We went in and explained the symptoms to the lady who then gave us some medicine. Its the perfect setup for people who just love antibiotics. You say, "I want an antibiotic," and they give it to you.

Upon leaving the pharmacy Craig then backed up and bumped into a motorcycle. So we waited for the rider to come out of the pharmacy, apologized for the bent license plate and opened the negotiations for the repair.

"Can we pay to get it fixed?" he asked.

"Hmmm. Yeah. How much do you think?" the rider responded.

"I dunno, its your motorcycle. What about X?" Craig asked.

"Yeah, that will be fine," the rider responded.

Of course as with any type of negotiations if they take your first offer you offered TOO MUCH.

The final tally is as follows:

--Antibiotics for five days $1.92

--Motorcycle repair $2.74

Wonder if Obama can do something about healthcare costs in the US to get them below auto body repair...

Party Scenes

This is a pretty normal scene. Take your shoes off at the door. We actually go to one book store and it has a sign I keep meaning to get a picture of: Please DO NOT remove your shoes. I try to envision that one at Barnes and Noble.

These kids asked to have their picture taken. They don't want a copy, just want to have it done.
These guys showed up while I was photographing the kids above. Sometimes you think someone is going to ask why, exactly, you are taking pictures. These guys just said, "Is it too late to have ours taken?"

For Emergency Use Only

The sign on this propped-open door (and the one behind it that you can barely see) says something like, "Fire Door Needs to Always be Closed".

But they are obviously only half-hearted in their sentiment.

Otherwise they would do like this fire door at a mall near our house. This fire door has a PADLOCK. If you want it to always remain closed, make it to always remain closed. That is my policy.

Great Ideas...

Isn't this one of the best ideas ever? You take a urinal and fill it with mothballs. Apparently it works best if you can somehow decrease the ventilation and never flush the thing.

I'm not sure who came up with it but its very popular. Right up there with taking a handful of mothballs and putting them in the corner of the stalls. Its all about the ambience.

Easter--the Up part

Easter saw us doing some of the normal stuff Americans do for holidays. We had some gifts including a new jersey for Caleb. Its hard to find a Liverpool jersey without Carslberg on the front. Which we will just leave as a total inside joke for all you people who don't even know what the EPL is and when I say "Liverpool" you say "Beatles".

What would Eater be without chocolate? Well, good but not as tasty. Some chocolate bunnies and chicks made the scene. Sadly some succumbed to the heat and melted a bit. It reminded me of one time the Easter bunny hid a basket at our house too near a heat vent and someone's chocolate got all melted and they cried. That particular sibling shall remain nameless but you know who you are...
We had Easter worship at home which turned out to be good since John was sick the entire time. This is a later photo of "worship reenactment" which explains Caleb's face.
Also a reenactment. We got the cords to hook the Macbook to the TV which is cool and makes us feel like we have a big screen like the big churches downtown.
The Brady Bunch reenactment. Most of these reenactments are not part of normal American Easter celebrations but we like them.
The biggest gift of the day. Amanda found some actual cornmeal at a store here and gave it to Craig so we can attempt some cornbread. Pretty nice.
After a lunch at Pizza Hut it was time for John, Cheri, and the kids to load up and leave us. That was really hard on the kids and made them think about how much they missed family and friends from home.

So there you have it. How was YOUR Easter?

Easter Eve

On Saturday, we got down and dirty with some egg coloring. Now this was made a bit more difficult because our eggs are brown but no worries, we got 'er done.

Hudson and Mercee have had the best time together. They have worked puzzles and played games I forgot we even owned. We've tried to balance the TV between Discovery Channel for the older kids and Playhouse Disney for the younger set.
Uncle John did a great job telling the Passion Week stories while the kids worked away. Today he is felling sick, possibly owing to one of these eggs...YUCK!
The artistry ready for the kiln.
In the evening the kids hid the eggs for the adults to find. Cheri and Angie were battling it out, John and Craig didn't fare so well. They tied for last place.
Ultimately there had to be a winner crowned and it was ANGIE! When she was reminded that eggs are a symbol of fertility, she was not nearly as interested in winning and started trying to give away eggs...
Thanks to Aunt Maria for sending along the egg coloring kits!! And the Sweet Tarts, Robins Eggs, jelly beans, Peeps, M&Ms, suckers...

Food and Fun

We've been celebrating with our buddies. They left the end of winter and plunged deep into summer around here. Friday saw us at TGIF ... how very fitting, eh?

Smiles are all around when the big burgers roll out and kids eat free.
After lunch we went to our local zoo. We'd never been before and with a great low price, I can honestly say its the best 55 cent zoos I have ever visited (adult price, kids were just 28 cents ... oddly enough a bottle of water cost more than a kid's admission).
The zoo was heavy on tigers which are indigenous here. Primates are also heavily represented. I am sparing you the photos of 20 different kinds of monkey-type creatures. This little dude was there and a guy was holding him. He put him down for me to take a picture. But he let another person actually hold the critter. I felt ripped off. He is kind of crazy looking, though, isn't he? I think he is a local, too.
There was a great collection of exotic animals, too, like raccoons, ponies, porcupines, cows, and house cats*. This poor dude was pacing like a tiger. Except he is just a old trash eater. When you come we'll hook you up with the zoo, too. But will pray for some cloud cover..
*We guess the house cats were there as crocodile food but that is just a guess.

Fun With Friends!

Some of our friends from another part of Asia rolled in last night to spend a couple of days with us. We tried to ease them into our town by showing them the wild monkeys and having a bit of pulled tea and sate (grilled meat on a stick) but haven't yet let them try any of our awesome breads!!

At the grilled meat restaurant Craig tried a new concoction. You can get this drink here that has a thing called rose syrup, milk, and maybe some other stuff. Then you take another drink that is basically like tonic water and some ice and mix them.

But when the drinks were ordered they had no canned drinks. How sad. So he just got the pink milk drink and an ice water. But then decided to go to a nearby store and buy the canned drink. Then he needed to bum some ice, too. In the end, he ended up with four drinks. Which everyone thought was a bit extreme. The verdict on the drink? Not worth all the effort...

OK, Marshell you win!

For those of us who needed a reason to start hating Tubby, I guess we have it now. That stinking old North Carolina wins another national championship.

Po Folks

Tonight we fired down cooking some chicken and dumplins. Just like Po Folks used to have except no mason jars.

Hudson was part of the rolling of the dough. Believe it or not, he liked that quite a bit.

Free Food and Lots of People May Be Better (than just free food)

On Saturday night our neighborhood had a big party with a guest speaker, tents, and the whole nine yards. Around here "the whole nine yards" means that people spring for some fancy imported rice, kill a few goats, and eat together. This is one of the pots of rice. They planned for about 1,000 people but felt like they came in more like 700-800. Its hard to count people in Asia since people sit much closer together--you can't go by the number of chairs you have!

The food was served up on these big trays. A bunch of rice, some curry with vegetables, and some fresh goat meat. Turns out these particular goats made the ultimate sacrifice right on the grounds some time Saturday afternoon. For them I am thankful ... and just normal full, too.
This is not very normal around here but to encourage fellowship, they took the trays and put them on some mats, then you circle up and dig in. A certain person learned today that some people were given silverware while others did the right thing and ate with their hands like everyone else. You can see the spread here: rice with meat cooked inside, some meaty/vegetably sauce, some pineapple, and some watermelon. This is seriously good food. How good? Given the choice between this and The Lighthouse in Sulphur Well, Craig would eat this, with his hands, on the ground. But the biscuits make it a close call. I have a feeling that is a day-to-day call, though.
Some friends who are actually skilled at this type of thing.
Some seriously skilled friends, notice their tray is about empty.
Finally, two funny things. One, it seems for some reason that we stick out. Our section of the neighborhood has about 300 households. Plus we have three other sections so its quite big. That means we met some new folks last night. We'd chit chat about a number of things and eventually ask, "So where do you live?" After they'd explain we'd say, "Oh we live on so-and-so street." Then they'd reply, "I know." This happened over and over. It seems everyone knows where we live.

The second was that our friends have this greeting that is basically, "Have you already eaten?" (Jaeetyet? in the South) So we got to hang around all night at this feast listening to people ask one another if they had already eaten like there was anyone there who hadn't!

Free Food is the Best!

Last week we got a call from a restaurant that is opening up a new outlet here in town.  They asked if we wanted to come and be part of their training day and have a free meal.

"Of course not!" I screamed and slammed down the phone.  OK, not really.  We'll generally move heaven and earth and even eat junk we don't like if its free.

So we made our way to the new restaurant and went through the entire process.  The meal was already picked for us but they still got to practice giving the menus, taking our order, repeating our order, etc.  They even gave us an envelope with some play money to "pay" with when we were finished.

The best part was that the food wasn't fake.  The worst part was that I was sharing the meal (they assigned us the "family meal") so I couldn't get the HOT, HOT but had to settle for Lemon and Herb.  I think that is restaurant code for 'Lowest Common Denominator'.  

The mall that houses the restaurant has a play place, which can only be used for about 15 minutes during the afternoon heat.  This week the high has been in the low 90s every day with almost no rain. We fear the rainy time has passed already.

Gimme a Break

OK, I'll be the first to admit I've been out of the UK Basketball loop the last couple of years. I admit I scanned the brackets a few times thinking I was missing something when I didn't see the Cats (obviously I missed the whole season).

I admit I decided I didn't like Billy G just from his photo (then my Dad said Billy wasn't a very nice guy with the players). And I'm not too sure I will like Coach Cal any better.

But one thing I have been reminded of while reading a bit of the coverage the past few days. Tubby was better than people gave him credit for being. Most reasonable people should be able to see Tubby eclipsed Billy.

Folks should finally get off the T-man's back. He was a much better guy to have on campus and on the court than where UK seems to be heading since he left. Its like they are constantly trying to date Rick Pitino's little sister. Hey, maybe they could convince Denny Crum to come out of retirement if Cal doesn't work out...