Celebration

We tried to do a decent job of celebrating our third anniversary in Asia and so we'll have a few posts over the next few days about that.

The first one features our first visit to Papa Johns in Asia! It been a while since we got to enjoy any peperoncinis. Its nice to be in a family where you compliment one another (i.e. some only eat the delicious peppers and some only eat that nasty dipping stuff).

This dude was not really much of a model. Seriously he couldn't hit his marks. We had to do this "serving the first piece" shot over and over but he finally got it right.
Happiness all around as we wait out the pizza.
This sort of reminded me of being a kid myself and watching the pizza being made at Bonnie and Clyde's on Greenwood Road in Louisville.
Hard to lose when its pepperoni pizza. Even when you have to choose between beef and chicken pepperoni. (We're certainly looking forward to some real pepperoni).
See, now, that is a model. A real one-shot wonder! No retakes for Bethany!

Tomorrow we'll show you where we headed after the pizza. It wasn't the best idea in hindsight...

You Get What You Pay For

The other day I was supposed to bring home some ice cream and desiring to go the extra mile, I got some cones as well. Now these cones are obviously advertised as "Mini Cones" and so perhaps I should have been prepared.

But when I busted these guys out to fill them with ice cream there was little filing to be done. VERY LITTLE filing to be done.
You could fill these tiny cups with a tea spoon. I wanted to get a picture of one with a scoop of ice cream on top but it was literally too small to hold a scoop up. I thought it would look like a baby or something. You know small body and a huge wobbly bulb on top but the cone couldn't even manage that. I suppose they been good for weight loss if nothing else.

Humango Slide

Earlier this week we spent a day celebrating the fact that we have officially lived in Asia for three years. For Bethany and Hudson this included riding on this huge slide that had lots of modifiers. It's a huge slide and it's indoor and it's a tube slide, etc. When you put enough conditions, we're all special (i.e. The World's Best Dad Currently Wearing a Blue Shirt and No Shoes and Sweating Alot).
It was a long way down and so Caleb waited t the bottom 4 floors away.
Hudson is much more excited about going than he lets on. They paid for their own tickets since Dad thought $4 was a bit steep (pun intended).
And the action shots!! Rocketing down its Hudson above and Bethany below. Breath-taking, if only for a minute.

Still no internet!

We waited all day and now it is 9:15pm and we still have no internet, but here we are sitting in another restaurant enjoying free wi-fi, ice lemon tea and kaya toast. What could be better? Oh yea, internet at home. :-) You may be wondering where the kids are. Caleb and Hudson stayed at home to play Wii and Bethany is at ballet. Maybe tomorrow we can get a photo of them.

Soaking it up

Here we are soaking up the free wi-fi at an Indian joint. If you've ever been to see us, you've been here. If you're coming soon, you will be here, too!!

Internet Tak Ada

So we scheduled for our internet to be cut off on Oct 31st before we move but they got on the ball and cut it for us on Oct 11th.

After talking to 10 people on the phone it was determined the local boss would call me. When she didn't I determined it was time for me to go in and wait them out. After I arrived the lady at the desk said something closely related to, "Oh, its you. Wait for a while." ("Wait for a while" is the local equivalent of "hang on a sec.")

So the boss met me and explained it was totally their fault, they ignored my application for cancellation and cut the service too soon. Then she explained that I could have my internet reconnected but now the policy is that internet connection requires a one-year contract.

I tried around 15 times to convince her that I didn't need a new contract but only wanted to have my old contract back. She was unmoved and explained that "in America" you can probably do something like that but here "there is a process."

Isn't that awesome? A process. It is nice to see how things like utilities are the same world-wide. Pay your deposit immediately--get your refund "in up to three months." Apply for service wait a week. Cancellation? "Today also can do!"

So, its a nice cultural learning time and gets me out of the house more. But I look like these other dorks who sit for hours playing Farmville on Facebook. Not too proud of that.

Anniversary

Saturday is the third anniversary of the day we hit the ground in Asia. Pretty amazing its gone so fast (Or is it...?).

The boxes arrived

Then soon after they arrived they were transformed into a living room fort.
Which was a lot of fun and thankfully was disassembled quickly!

Moving

We're moving across town at the end of October and have finally started throwing some stuff in boxes. Its already a bit overwhelming!!

The movers are delivering 50 more today, so I suppose the whole stress level may be on the rise!!

Ah, October

October in the tropics is just about like every other month. Sometimes we still try to convince ourselves that its fall, though. And you know what that means: someone has to say, "Don't know how many more days like this we're gonna get."

Then you do a bunch of stuff like:

Stop the Pakistani on his motorcycle and buy some ice cream (I still miss the ice cream trucks as a kid where you climbed up on the side, I'm sure we have lawsuits to thank for those disappearing).

Hang out on the stoop and down those popsicles.
Grill some chicken.
Grab your gloves and a ball...
And play a little HotBox, that is always a blast.
Then just as the sun heads down, get inside and savor it all. Who knows how many days like this we'll get, right??

Happy Anniversary

16 years ago I was blessed to marry the best wife in the whole world! This year she said she would accept as an anniversary gift ... a grill and so I was able to make it happen. (I know it does sound a bit like a Father's Day gift, right?)

It does look like the grill I was coveting a few posts back but in reality it is different. We found one much like the grill in the previous post but it was twice the cost of this one. We also found another, a cheaper one, but when you picked up the lid you felt like you could fold it in half.
So we ended up with the middle one. Now sometime when it drops below 90 outside, we'll get out there and try 'er out!

Happy Anniversary to the best wife ever and the nicest person I know!!

Caleb Witch Project

I thought this was really funny when I found it on the camera. Reminds me of the Blair Witch Project but maybe even better. The end is a real cliffhanger.

Mutant

Recently I was buying some eggs from our egg guy (yeah, we have an egg guy at the market where we buy them buy the 30-pack). And the egg guy recommends the Triple-A eggs. "Two yellows," he says with a smile.

And they did, all 30 of them had two yellows! A month of twins with which to celebrate the opening of every day. At some point it reminded me of the fish on The Simpson's and I wondered if these mutant eggs came from some kind of nuclear power plant area. People worry about genetically-modified food but I think if we can start getting double-yolk eggs, what is all the fuss about?!?

The only dilemma I have now is the internal debate between my doctor's voice saying to watch my cholesterol and to avoid eggs and Tom Tank eating six eggs every morning while poo-pooing the idea that eggs are bad for you. Right now Tom is winning since the doctor is standing between me and french toast.

Quality Control

I have always loved this sign. Its like no one is able to look at a delivery guy and say, "That ain't right and I ain't paying for it. Don't hang it up, it makes me look stupid. Just take it back and forget the whole thing."

Portraying the correct emotion (in the correct amount) is important. If locals here say, "Nevermind." It just means 'Don't worry about it.' Like if you're about to hand someone something with your left hand and you try to shift it and they say, "Nevermind." It means its OK, you can hand it over with your left hand.

Think about it, though, if you were fumbling with some one dollar bills and the pizza guy said, "Nevermind." what would you do? Well, you'd just turn around and shut the door, right?

So what do you say when the guy shows up with a sign like this? You can't just say, "Nevermind" and turn around and walk away cause if you do he'll hang it up! And what about blowing out a big breath and rolling your eyes. What do those mean?

I assume that kind of miscommunication is how signs like this one get hung up. That and the fact that you can't return anything around here. Probably just easier to change your business name.

We're that family

I remember how I used to wag my head at families I would see at Cracker Barrel where each family member eats and reads, never speaking to one another. "Never, will I be like that," I thought haughtily.

Now that is exactly what we do. And now I think back on those Cracker Barrel families and realize that could be the only way they had to make it through those road trips--ignoring each other. The older I get the more I see the wisdom in the slogan "Whatever it takes."

First I Was Like, "WUH?"

Then I was like, "Ummm..."

Then I knew I had no choice but to go. How can I resist this advertising? Sorry its tiny and you had to click it.

Big Holiday

The big holiday that comes with finishing Ramadan has big traditions around here. Most having to do with going and eating. So on Friday that is just what we did. We went to a friend's house and ate.

The we took some pictures.
Then we rushed off to another house and ate again. Of course while you do all that eating you talk and talk ... mostly about how good the food is.
Then you take some more photos.
Camera swap, more pix.
Back in the car and rushing to the next house for some more eating.
And some more pictures.
And some more pictures, and some more. I think before we got home most of the pictures were already on Facebook*.
There is some other stuff thrown in there, too. Like this year torrential rain that threatened to trap us in one village. And after all that traveling and eating and photo snapping, what do the kids ask on the way home?

Right! "What's for lunch?" Same all over the world.

*Different story, recently we were at the movies and I took Hudson to the restroom at the most interesting part of the film. In the restroom (at the sink) a guy asked me where I was from, to which I answered the USA. So he asks the obvious question, "Are you on Facebook?" And he gets the unexpected answer, "Nope. I use Twitter, I'm not on Facebook." Crushing! A chance for another white friend on FB slips away as we head back in time for the movie credits.

Cheesecake

This week, we celebrated the fact that we were not fasting with some pretty passable cheesecake at a place in our town. While Dad was trying to find batteries for a camera, Mom just took phone snaps since it seems at least one person was NOT into waiting...

A couple of us went in for dark/white chocolate version.
The Snicker kind, which to Angie's chagrin had too much peanut butter (for Angie too much = basically any at all).
And finally the caramel kind which Angie had before and wished she had ordered again.
Not a bad way to spend the dreadful time between the end of school and start of supper. Even if you can't tell that by Hudson's face here.
It was no Cheesecake Warehouse but at least everyone kept their shirt on.

**Yeah, that is an awesome nod to you iCarly fans. Did you know iCarly has its own wiki and you can learn things like the Cheesecake Warehouse "is possibly a parody of the restaurant franchise Cheesecake Factory." Way to go internet for having to hit us over the head. Can't you just assume we get the joke??**

Little Chef

Here is Hudson learning the fine art of making chicken and dumplings. A KY favorite! If you come see us sometime, maybe you can get him to make you some.