Night Markets

One of the best things about living around here are the night food markets during Ramadan. You can go and buy a bunch of great local food for breaking your fast (or just for supper if you're not fasting). This was what Craig picked up: some fried tofu, rice, awesome salad (cucumbers, peppers, pineapple, onions), and some spicy sauce. Yum!

These are pretty popular. Its a grilled bread with egg and ground beef inside, this one served on a banana leaf. Yeah, that is a Jonas Brothers cup there--good spotting!
You can get tasty fresh juice drinks. Here we have pineapple, lychee, and watermelon. Ann's favorite thing is that you can order these fresh juices and its like eating fruit. Drinking watermelon juice tastes just like taking a bite out of one. Wonderful!
Whatever you buy at the market should be flooded with curry. That is how you make it delicious. Curry is the gravy of Asia. So the food is a lot like KY, "Fry it and then cover it in gravy."
There you go, one happy customer!
The final verdict? She didn't like it very much but she's been quite brave and tried a lot of new stuff. Including something she calls "atomic chicken" but I guess that is a story for her to tell.

Bagels!

One thing I really love is a good, soft, fresh bagel. It seems about 20 years ago but me and some young folks and I used to get together on Monday mornings and eat and pray before school. I always tried to apply an appropriate amount of pressure to get us to Main Street Bread and Bagel where I could tear into some strawberry bagels. AWESOME (at least as awesome as bagels get in Glasgow).

So there was a bit of excitement when we saw this new place had opened up. It advertises itself as the first bagel place in town. Very exciting. So after a few weeks of being open, we finally went in.

When we got in we saw what we see at every bakery around here. If you ever go to Chinese buffets, you can imagine what I mean. Delicious-looking treats that somehow when eaten are void of any taste....especially anything remotely sweet tasting.

So when we got inside we looked around and seeing no bagels, we asked a staff member. "Do you have bagels?" "What?" she asked.

"Bagels." I repeated. She repeated, too, "What?"

"Bagels. Baaayyyygguuhheeellssss." She left to get another staff member who came and asked what we wanted.

"Bagels," I replied. "Oh, we don't have bagels," was the answer. "They're all gone."

**Interesting cultural note "all gone" can mean:

1. We are currently out of stock

2. We do no carry those at all ... have never carried and will never carry

3. I wish you'd leave me alone and stop asking questions and making me feel bad**

"Oh," I say. "You only have them in the mornings and now (after lunch) they are all gone. So you'll have some tomorrow morning?"

"Maybe," she replies "if you'd like to leave me your phone number I can call you when we have bagels." That was not a reply that struck me as very affirmative.

It sort of struck me as a "Leave me your phone number and I'll promise to call you when we have some bagels but really I'll throw your number away as soon as you leave," kind of response.

Maybe the place is just a front for drugs or prostitution. One thing is for sure. It is not a front for a bagel-making place.

Krispy!

Last week we went to the capital city and finally found the Krispy Kreme outlet we had been longing to see. Pretty pumped to see the sign lit up, we got inside. Angie asked if they were giving a free one since the sign was on and they said, "Yes!"

But the manager was trying to sell us a half-dozen. We refused politely and explained we wanted an whole dozen! Don't we look awesome with the red glow on our faces?
We couldn't get Caleb into the hat but the others enjoyed theirs. After downing some doughnuts, we took Hudson straight to the dentist for a second opinion on his cavity. While he was getting checked out he still had glaze on his face and we didn't mind at all, because we are awesome parents like that!

He Never Saw It Coming!

This is a pretty normal sight where we live. A traffic jam. What was not normal was that we chose to enter into this traffic simply to get these photos.
We had been on the other side but there was no way for Angie to take pictures while we were zooming by. So rolling slowly, we worked to get ourselves into position...
To see this awesome boat ... I mean its big ... maybe its a ship. Anyway we saw this big vessel wedged under the sign that was pointing the driver to the port! Ouch, don't miss the trees for the forest, right?
Crunch! We talked about good ole Dave Cash telling Judy she had plenty of room to get the Calvary bus into the Louisville airport parking garage (which there wasn't)!!
Believe it or not there were lots of guys just hanging around rubbing their chins and trying to figure out what to do. Had I been there I would've told them they could let the air out of the tires and gain some room. At least that is what Judy had to do...

Trouble?

As a Dad sometimes I wonder what I am in for in a few years... Special thanks to the Randall family for the package, Caleb's hat is a big hit!

The Universal Language

Its so comforting to know that wherever you go in the world, people speak English. Well, I guess sometimes they are technically speaking English words strung together with no meaning. But its better than nothing.

(Apologies if "framtiden" is some kind of German cuss word, I tried to check that but could always miss something.)

Happy Birthday Uncle Todd

Selamat Hari Jadi kepada Pakcik Todd! Today he turns 37. We're not sure how we passed him up, we just know we somehow got older than him! He makes this kissing face whenever he gets a break from studying...

Our Little Princess

This beautiful princess has a touch of Hollywood since she carries a little dog with her all the time! It blends in a bit but its there.

Hmmm...

When I saw this I wondered if I had only recently been missing something or if I have been missing something for the last 40ish years. I must admit I have no idea what it means exactly.

Also, I am sure "waterless" urinals are better for the environment but they tend to smell like an outhouse. An interesting choice (powerfully smelly bathrooms) for an upscale mall or hotel.

Cooking Class

We enlisted the help of a neighborhood friend to have a little teaching class. We choose soup which happens to be something Craig loves!

You know people here love you when they feel comfortable enough to make fun of you. They kept saying things like, "Look how Angie washes noodles." But never said how exactly it should be done. (Look Abby, the knife rack is hanging up ... but its holding a spatula in this picture.)
The soup has some ingredients you recognize like carrots, celery, chili peppers, and chicken. But we also added fish cakes, fish balls, oyster sauce and some other delicious treats made from soy beans.
its coming together! You can see lots of cut fish balls and cakes in there... plus some greens.
The final tasty product. Carla got the recipe and I'm sure will be happy to share it upon her return. If you want it posted here, just let us know.

Awesome!

Hudson got this beauty for his birthday. Its a marvel made in plastic. Art in its highest form. What six-year-old boy wouldn't love it?

Waterfall

We took a few minutes and drove to a nearby town to check out their famous waterfall. It was pretty good as little waterfalls go and our friends got to see what locals here like to do on their day off (i.e. swim in a waterfall and grill out). Plus there were a lot of monkeys hanging around and swiping people's paper plates and the like.

You just can't beat monkeys...

Ladies and Food

When people are coming to see us, one worry they generally have is the food. Can I eat? What will I eat? and the like. Never fear around here, though, as it seems people are always eating! One thing we were excited about during our Glasgow ladies time here is the chance to take them to some parties to meet some new friends.
Tonight we actually had two places to go and eat. The invitation for the first one said it started at 9. So about 9:20 we went and then we waited for 30 more minutes in the street since there was a problem with the printer maybe and it should've said, "Come at 9:50." It was good and we got to meet some new folks.
Carla and Carole Ann were getting the royal treatment and sitting on the sofa. How nice is that? You can see from this photo that Carole Ann is able to eat here.After we ate and hung out a while at this party, we headed around the corner for another. A little more food around 11pm never hurt anyone, I don't guess. Although the girls seemed to put a little less on their plates this time.
This Burger King shot is just to let you know that we don't feed people only rice. Just to make sure people are getting enough to eat we round out meals with some USA food whenever necessary!

Some Random Beach Pix

Oh, This Ole Thing?!?

In the capital city the other day we came out of a restaurant and saw this. All the guys said, "That is a Lamborghini!" But the girls were not impressed just thinking it looked like a Hot Wheels car.

It was indeed a Lamborghini Superleggera, which I only know because it was written on the side. Now, I've seen a Ferrari or two in my day but I think this was a first for me. All that stands between me and a car like this is $250,000 and some common sense.

Bleary Eyed

Our charges made it through their first daytime. We drug them around a bit to keep them from falling over asleep.

So far they are eating and seem to be doing OK. At least we haven't seen anyone crying yet!! That may be because we told them to leave the squid out of the fried noodles. Squid can bother some folks.

Now they are off for some much needed rest. They'll need it as we have a full day in the hot sun planned for tomorrow!

Don't Try This At Home

Maybe you need to click on this photo to see it well. Its the guy who comes and "trims" our yard. I say "trims" because he actually just mows it down to the dirt each time--no grass actually remains.

Anyway, this picture is interesting because the guy is filling up his weedeater with a gas/oil mixture from a 2 liter bottle and he is doing it while SMOKING! I was waiting for him to blow up right outside our front door. But he didn't...

Some Party Shots

Our day got started early with setting up tables and getting things ready.

We don't have much of a yard but I think we used it all! This was before the second tent arrived and was set up.

These neighbor ladies were helping with food prep.

I thought this was great--a gas tank hooked to something like a stove burner and a huge pot of chicken on top of some bricks.
Some friends arrived and help with setting up and making drinks.
Mom was (and has been) a trooper trying new foods. She doesn't like most of them but that is just because she don't know what tastes good ;-)
About half-way through it was time for some birthday cake. You may know Hudson doesn't like attention, especially from a lot of people at once. Like on a birthday or something.

We told the folks he didn't want anyone to sing Happy Birthday so they asked if they could just once and he answered NO. Some wrangling ensued then they asked if they could sing it to Bethany they finally asked and he agreed. But when they sang it they accidentally put Hudson's name in it. A Trick!

He didn't really even want to do the candles but relented and blew them out.
When it was all over I realized we never got a picture of both tents up and people hanging out. This is the best we got.
We did have twice as much food as necessary--also known as only the half the people you planned for showing up. So friends hung around to help wrap up all the leftovers and deliver them to neighbors.
Here is a look at Hudson's gifts. He really liked the fact that lots of people were giving him little cash handshakes as they left!
So that was kind of how the day went. Busy. We're pretty well exhausted. Maybe I can think of something creative to write tomorrow...