Kites (the Ending Part)

So after all the excitement of seeing other people fly kites, we got down to business of flying our own. Caleb went in for the camo-bomber which is pretty cool.

Bethany chose the lady bug which was missing a black tail and has a tendency to favor one side but its still manageable.
Hudson's is Spider-Man and his legs hang off the end acting as a tail of sorts. After we got all the knots tied we were ready to roll!
This part of this particular park is normally filled with people flying kites on late weekend afternoons. No exception this day with a good crowd around when we arrived about 5:30. By just after 6 it was packed. At 7 sharp, the place empties like a kitchen sink with the stopper pulled out.
The wind was really good and so we had none of the issues we experienced when we went out again on Sunday afternoon with the kite going up, swirling, then crashing. On Saturday, they'd stay up as long as you wanted to fly them.
Notice I didn't say, "As long as you wanted to stand up and fly them." You can chill and fly at the same time.
But all good days must come to an end, right? As the sun gets ready to set and the park prepares to close we had to say, "Goodnight!" to the park and head home. Surely a day full of memories we won't soon forget.

Kite Festival '10

Today we attended a kite festival in our town. Since its the first Saturday in February we lathered up with sunscreen and headed out.

The weather can be like this sometimes. Blazing hot and then in a few minutes black cloud cover everything. This is great news and does not necessarily mean it will rain. It does mean it will cool off, though.
When the weather changes rapidly we get to see cool things like this rainbowish thing. Which was much cooler in person I assure you.

One nice thing they did was raise some kind of an object filled with candy on little parachutes and let it all fly. A big hit with the kiddos.
Bethany was plenty excited to get her share even though she reported some kids were tripping her to keep her from getting the sweets. What punks, right?
This is a traditional kite way up in the sky. This photo was cropped and zoomed so you can see the shape. Stuck on the top is something that looks like a cello bow and it will make this great noise as it cuts through the air. We couldn't believe how loud it was even from a long distance.
A close-up of a similar kite.
And finally some other traditional kites. We went to a museum last year and learned all about the complicated process of making these kites. Most areas around here have specific designs as you can see from the picture (well, maybe if its the first time you've seen them you can't tell any difference but you can trust me there is a difference). These kites take months and months to make and they are definitely not child's play; these are serious!
What to do after seeing all the fun?? Well, buy our own kites and get in on the action ourselves. But that, dear reader, is another post.

Homecoming

After five days away Angie and the kids are at airport and about to head back this way in another hour or so. So I'll be headed to pick them up ... meaning drive a couple of hours and sit at the airport in those great airport chairs for an undetermined amount of time.

Why, you ask, am I posting this? Simply because Angie told me I need to put something on the blog today!!

More Thaipusam

Did we tell you there were lots of people at this festival on Saturday? I mean lots of people!
Of course like any cool festival there was lots of food. This is a great way to eat! Normally just called "banana leaf" because they take a section of banana leaf to use as a plate, load it up with rice, then spoon on some other vegetarian dishes. Advanced people just dig in with their hands. It is seriously tasty ... we'll be planning some for Todd and Maria next week. We want to see Re eat with her hands!!
A number of folks at the festival had this look which we didn't really understand. But thankfully a guy explained.
Festivals must have vendors, too. Its crazy that the more things change the more they stay the same.
So here is the deal with the orange heads. There is a sort of a barbershop set up and folks come by. The difference at this barbershop is they only use old-style straight razors. If you look closely you can see the woman on the right in the photo below with all her hair gone.
This is a friend I met who explained some of the reasoning behind their clean-shaven heads. He said that during the year people will pray for something: health, good test results, children, marriage, work, for example. If they get the thing they asked for then they will offer up their hair. Now that made me curious about why a deity would desire their hair.
But its not really about offering the hair he explained. Instead what they are offering is really their ego since, he says, its pretty humbling to have your head shaved. In a way they are confessing their neediness by cleaning their head.

Turns out the orange color is sandalwood which soothes the scalp after the cut. Most people were leaving it all on the floor, even their facial hair. I asked if he would be shaving his mustache and he said no. After finishing his hair, the barber went for his mustache and he told the guy he didn't want it shaved then looked at me and said, "Still too much ego."

Thaipusam

Saturday we made our way back to a local observance of the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. The holiday celebrates both the birth of a Hindu god named Murugan and the time that god was given a spear to defeat a demon.

To show their devotion to this god people perform all sorts of offerings from carrying a milk bowl on their heads during a march of a few miles to some pretty extreme stuff. This year our pictures were a bit more of the close-up variety until ... well, we'll get to that later!

This particular guy has some stuff piercing his face and tongue. Ouch! But it gets better.
This fellow was carrying a thing twice as tall as he is all while being pierced more times than I can count (look at his tongue and forehead). Maybe I got this picture when he was mid-blink or super tired and maybe a bit more is going on. He does not look OK.
Same dude from the back. Unbelievable.
But maybe not as unbelievable as this guy with this huge skewer through both cheeks.
This guy totally freaked me out (I thought ... until the next guy) with his whole Charles Manson like presentation. The red paint? Too much. Mickey Mouse is the only thing that saves me on this one.
The last guy I saw. He carried this huge contraption for miles from one temple to another in the hopes of securing a blessing for his family in the coming year.

Turns out I know the guy in the white shirt and yellow skirt on the left. So I was asking him about the huge thing that was being carried and everything. Since I knew his family member, I was getting a little too "red carpet" with him and going all supermodel photographer when I took the picture below ...
Then the guy let out the crazy-sounding growl which was either him trying to say, "Someone tell him to STOP taking my picture" even though his tongue and cheeks were skewered. But it sounded a bit more darkly spiritual and I took it as a sign that it was not only a fine time to stop taking pictures but to head on home as well.

The lengths that people go to obtain forgiveness or favor or whatever is sadly in-your-face in a place where so few people have heard about how easy it is to be forgiven. Easy for us anyway. I am so glad Jesus was pierced for our transgressions so I won't be.

Ann THIS is my sandwich

One thing I tried to teach Ann during our time with us was how to eat a sandwich. She had some odd sandwich habits like cutting them crossways instead of top to bottom and she refused to eat the "ends" (which we explained were called "heels"). But her biggest sandwich flaw was that she would make these huge Dagwood-style things that were nearly impossible to eat.

Repeatedly I tried to tell her if she was to ever get married, she needed to eat smaller sandwiches. I mean, seriously, what man wants to marry a girl who eats bigger sandwiches than he does?

Now, of course, as a teenager she knows better than old people and she would consistently say my sandwiches were a bit girlie and cut like someone would be eating them at a Mary Kay party. But as a married person, I know what it takes to find a spouse and a bunch of mustard in the corner of your mouth is usually not high on the list.

So that is how this particular undressed hamburger got to be quartered and then devoured with some chili sauce (which did not end up all over my face). And how I thought of Ann and was reminded again how short a time we have with our little people. Now she's off at college and she is probably in the cafeteria eating humongous sandwiches with a table full of girls and wondering why there aren't any guys joining them.

So, Ann, one last piece of advice. Take a butter knife with you to the table. It could just change everything...

Swimming in January

One great thing about living in the tropics is that you don't have lots of seasons*. That means you can swim year round. So dealing with the hot, hot sun in January is tempered by swimming in January. Its a decent trade-off.

While Angie handled guard duty, Craig used the treadmill inside. The scary thing is that when its all over Craig may have been wetter than the swimmers.
If you swim, you gotta have snacks, right? One tip from us: marshmallows do not hold up so well in the January heat. Hudson does not mind, though.
Ready to head home. A pretty nice way to spend a Sunday in January!
*We actually have two seasons here: hot and hot and wet but we cannot actually tell them apart. Recently someone asked Angie about something that we had done and she said we had done it "In the Spring" (meaning approximately May). The man was so confused-looking she had to clarify!!

Kool-Aid + High Humidity

Admittedly we've had this Kool-Aid for a while.Still its a bit surprising to open the packet and find this.
Its just one more thing to hate about Tropical Punch. YUCK! We still drank it, though...

UPDATE: Angie thought it was just too nasty when it wouldn't dissolve so she refused to give it to the kids!

Ballerina Bethany

Our budding ballerina got a chance to preform on Christmas Day. Hope you all enjoy!

Science Fair

Caleb has been working on a science project for what seems like six months. It finally culminated in his Dad saying, "Would you please get this thing out of the floor? Its been laying around here forever."

The big project presentation drew the entire school here. The good news was Caleb was first in the science fair. The bad news was that he was also last. He took that well, though, and so he was also named Mr. Science Fair Congeniality! That is one great thing about homeschool ... you get to experience so much...
Here is his project. If you want to know what organic vegetables rot faster than, you'll have to do your own project!!

Mixed Messages!

Or maybe its just a bit of both: You're welcome ... if you knock first! I'm not judging, I have siblings, too!!

Third Down Conversion

On Tuesday Dad got the idea of having chocolate chip pancakes for supper. Unfortunately no one else was in love with the idea. So first down was a no go. Even after we bought extra milk for the occasion!

So Wednesday we are ready to roll. Except when we get the mix out its full of BUGS! Man that is the kind of thing that will really get your goat. Second down a loser and we're off to the store.

30 minutes later we're home with our new mix and ready to cook! Only to go to the cabinet and find we have no chocolate chips!! WHAT?!?
Its third down with the defense pressing. But Mom calls an audible and we start chopping bananas and open some dried blueberries. We're back on!
Bethany even goes all special teams and uses the Hershey's syrup and not the maple stuff. We thought it didn't sound good but it is after all syrup. How can you fight against logic like that? Some strawberries just to top it all off!
In the end it all turned out great and it was still quick enough for us to eat and get cleaned up in time for the premier of American Idol. We were not too impressed with Posh's eye makeup but what do we know? Otherwise it was nice to have it back.

We Know You're Only Jealous in January

We've been keep up a bit with the wintery weather where you are. Now normally we can't make a sweeping statement since we have readers all over the world but right now it seems that the comments fits for everywhere ... except HERE!

Its COLD in Kentucky. Its COLD in Florida. Its COLD in England. Its COLD in Washington. But it is not cold in SE Asia. We have been having our normal near-90-degree days and upper 70s at night.

Maybe it just seems so much warmer knowing that so many of you are living through single digit temperatures. As we sit with sweat running down our backs we are still stubborn in thinking how happy we are that we are NOT freezing. In fact, today Craig went to a neighbor's house and he was sweating so much just sitting there that they ran an extension cord and got a fan just to blow directly on him.

Sometimes when we do want to feel cool we put this picture we got from Tim H on our desktop.

That doesn't happen too, too often ... but it does sometimes. And then we get over it pretty quick. Here's hoping you get warm temperatures back soon where you are, especially in Birmingham so that Aston Villa can get back on the pitch!

FYI

Just so you know, Angie said I was not my witty best but only sarcastic in the cat post. I told her to edit the bad out but she wouldn't do it. She is making me stand on my own on that one ;-)

Cat Mania

Will you look at that?!? Its a hole that has finally been clawed into our couch by our lovely cats. We thought about having the cats declawed but people here (even vets) think its pretty cruel and we still think that later in the year when we return to the US we may need to turn them out on the street* and so we need to give them a chance to survive when/if that happens. Their trip to the street could be greatly accelerated if they keep ruining my furniture.

So, "Why?" you ask. Why do we keep them? Why are they not out on their little ears? because of this. Hudson loves those cats. He is the only thing standing between them and a lifestyle of hunting our back alley.
*Special note to people who want to write a long comment and/or email about my turning the cats out on the street.

First, there is no such thing as an animal shelter here.

Second, turning them out onto the street would in all likelihood be more like "giving them to the neighborhood" since lots of people have cats but we are the ONLY people around here who keep their cats indoors. Everyone else thinks we're kind of nuts for having them inside and they often ask "What do you do with the poop?" Sometimes they ask each other, "Doesn't it stink with cats pooping in their house?" To which the obvious answer inevitably follows, "Its cat poop. Of course it stinks."

Third, people here feed cats. They are under your table at restaurants and hanging around your house. When we cook chicken, we throw the skin out the back door so that cats (and birds!) can eat it.

Fourth, we will look for someone to actually care for the cats in the manner to which they have become accustomed but we cannot board them with the vet as part of their retirement plan.

So, in conclusion, we'll be trying to do the right thing but as we do not live in the USA, we do not have all the USA options available. You are still welcome to write a long, mad comment. Just know that my response will be, "You're quite a powerful speaker, sir. I wonder you don't go into Parliament."

Croco-Gators

About an hour from our house there is a crocodile farm with over 1,000 crocs. We went on Saturday and got there just at feeding time. It was pretty cool. Guess what, it turns out crocodiles really like chicken.

This picture is a bit blurry but we decided to use it anyway since it shows the action and ferocity present when the chickens entered the arena. One cool thing about the crocs on land was that sometimes they would rush up to grab a chicken that had apparently been quite close to laying an egg when it died because when the croc chomped down, raw egg came shooting out of the hen. Nice. And graphic.
Never before had we seen a wheelbarrow full of dead chickens. Check that off the bucket list.
Its not easy to see here so I uploaded this image full size. It taught me crocs have no gag reflex. This guy down front laid there with a chicken in his throat and its feet still hanging out in his mouth for a long time. You may need to click the picture to really appreciate it.
At the end you could hold a little guy. Caleb decided to even give him a kiss.
Hudson with the index-finger-only touch.
Bethany took some cajoling but eventually got up the courage to pet him.
Dad with the double-croc hold. Very tricky. A regular Steve Irwin he is!

The First Post of 2010!

It won't really say anything but we did finally get some new Flickr pix up and finally got the Twitter thingie fixed!!!