Happy New Year!

Best wishes to all for 2009!

Told ya so

I told you June is a busy month.
Happy anniversary to Kelli & Chad! Fourteen, I say, fourteen years.
Happy birthday to Mike D, my only China visitor from the US :p I hope your new car is as comfortable, and durable, as the last two.

There are a couple more, important birthdays coming later in the month, but I'll wait to congragulate them later. In case there's nothing else to post about :)
*****

It's Friday morning here in Suzhou and I am at work as usual. Yesterday was a long day; I woke at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep. I went to work, stayed in for lunch, but then went out for dinner (mmm, tasty beef and sauerkraut sandwich; too bad it had mustard on it :P). Back to work for some writing and a 9pm conference call. Today seems like a good day to coast, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm becoming a little more enthusiastic at work as I have a new project. It'll probably let me extend my contract by one more month, through September, so that'll be handy. Then it'll be 3 months of baby, baby, and more baby until returning to the US. Well, that and job hunting.

I admit, it's tempting to stay in Suzhou if I can find a good, well paying expat job again. When I think of all the things here and the improvements going on (Coldstone Creamery, Subway!, and I hear there is a Blue Frog coming), it feels like a possibility. Though we won't trust the local stuff *too* much. GP bought a baby magazine and found "US Baby" brand bottles and other baby stuff. She said "see, it's good, from US". I said "No, it's called US Baby so Chinese will buy it, but it's a Chinese company and the stuff is made in Shanghai". Sneaky, aren't they? We'll probably make a trip to Hong Kong in July to get a bunch of baby stuff.

*****

To answer John's astute (i.e., drunken) questions:

1) GP has a large, green condom on to keep the rain off. For $0.50, she wasn't concerned about how it looked. Besides, she looks good in almost anything. At least as good as you in Frogg Toggs ;)

2) To say "Denise has my money": wo de lao po you wo de qian. Lao is pronounced with "ow" like you hurt something. Qian is pronounced like chen. The sentence actually says "my wife has my money", but I assumed you meant your wife when you said Denise :) If Denise has *my* money, we'd say "wo de peng you de lao po you wo de qian". and then I'd have to explain quickly why your wife has my money.

See ya

June is a busy month

Big, happy, June 12th wishes to:
Trev & Erin for their wedding anniversary
Mike & Rachel for their wedding anniversary (9 years?! - wow!)
and especially to my Dad who celebrates his birthday. I ran out of gift ideas long ago, so I'll just say I love you.

*****

July will also be busy with birthdays and a trip to Guangzhou for Very Important business. I'll give you 2 guesses :)

My girl is so smart

GP came home from school tonight (she is working on a degree in International Import/Export) to report that she is at the top of her class of 100 people. It was scholarship day and she was one of two to get a second level scholarship, and she was the only one to get a scholarship both semesters in a row. Let's hear it for GP!

Happy New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

GP and I took the fast train to Nanjing on Wednesday - only 1.5 hours at a top speed of about 130mph - to visit her family. We had family dinner that night, plates of cold meat (duck, chicken, beef, chicken, fish, etc), mostly salted in traditional style. Then we played mahjongg for about 4 hours and I won 7 kwai! That's about $1US, so it almost paid for the trip ;)

We stayed at the Jinling resort about 5 minutes from her brother's house. Nice place, though it probably looks better in the spring and summertime. It was clean and comfy and cheap - the most important 3c's. It was also warm (cozy?) which was nice as her brother's house doesn't actually have heat. We could see our breath as we played mahjongg.

Thursday we ate breakfast and got ready for the big lunch. We treated her extended family (about 30 people) to a nice lunch, even I liked most of the food. I could have done without the rice wine, though, and luckily only had a little. It is about 90 proof and tastes like lacquer. Hours later you can still taste it :p

Thursday night was left overs in hotpot dinner and more mahjongg. Then I got a splitting headache and we headed to the hotel early. A Nyquil and a bath later, I was asleep for about 12 hours. Friday on the fast train again back to Suzhou. A nice little trip and I was glad to meet more of her family and revisit the ones I already knew. Her 3 year old nephew is a typical little boy and I assured her they make them the same in the US. Even his recent injury was typical little boy: he was eating watermelon seeds while sitting on the toilet, dropped one, reached for it and swung right around to fall on his head.

Saturday morning I go to Shanghai to pick up Mike and we'll show him all the best places to buy me drinks ;^)

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has some exciting plans for Thanksgiving. The US office gets Thursday and Friday off, but, of course, I have to work :( Oh, well, we're having the Thanksgiving buffet at the Renaissance (Marriott) tonight. A group of 12 of which 8 have never had turkey. I hope it's good.