In Lieu of Wit and Wisdom

Happy May Day!

It's a big holiday in China and my friends there get a 3-day weekend. Enjoy, my friends!

We recently drove from Philly to Omaha to visit the US family, with a stop in Pittsburgh for a job interview. It was a good trip, highlights being four nights without the baby (thanks, Grandma!) and the baby being weaned to a bottle. Well, best part was actually getting to spend time with the family. I'm not doing that drive again, though, because my increasingly strained knee turned out to be DVT - blood clot in the leg. Oy!

So, after one night in the hospital, I am now laid up for a few days taking my medicine and trying to dissolve some, but not all, parts of my body. Weird when you think of it that way.

Trip photos, mostly of the pretty Mouse, will be coming as soon as I can spend time at my desk. I don't like doing a lot of work on the laptop while it is on my lap - get's too damn hot.

Labels: family, Travel

"China Family Arrives Philadelphia"

After 23 hours of travel, the family has arrived in PA. Everything went smoothly - flights, immigration, customs, etc - only problem was Matt's ears locked up during the landing at San Fran and he's only heard 50% since then :(

The Mouse didn't wonderfully, only cried when landing in Philly (probably she saw NJ out the window). She was a super good baby and everyone we met loved her.

To top off all the goodness, they gave us a RAV4 for the rental car. It is one of the cars we're considering buying, so it's nice we get to check it out.

More updates after Nyquil-induced sleep.

Labels: Travel

Back from a great trip (China->US->China)

Hello, friends and followers. I did not check in during my travels for which I apologize and blame a combination of laziness (you are all used to that excuse from me) and business (i.e., the stuff I do in between the lazy).

In a nut shell, the travel to US was uneventful and fairly comfortable. No pretty girls next to me on the airplanes (per usual), but the flights were ok. No problems with hotels, flights or rental cars anywhere during the trip, for which I am very thankful.

Shopping was done and many good things were purchased. Even more than I remember as I review my Mastercard online this morning :^o (Walmart? when did I go to Walmart?) I think I came out ahead at casinos (Council Bluffs, Reno, and CB again), though it was close. I ate a lot of good food, but not too much. I never did get cottage cheese which was on my short list, but at least I had a good steak.

The best part, of course, was seeing family. The little ones are getting bigger and the big ones are just the same as always. I had much fun shopping and gambling with Mom and doing some manual labor around the house. I don't know how long it's been since I climbed on a roof and did wiring. Since it took two tries to do the wiring correctly, I'm sure Dad will recommend I do some more often :)

The Mouse made a haul of new clothes and books. Yikes! I'd complain about having to bring it all back to China, but everything is perfect - so many cute outfits. GP and I spent time yesterday watching the "taking your baby home" DVDs I'd bought and we feel like we are now ready to bath and swaddle a baby. It'll take both of us the first few times, but we'll get lots of practice.

I don't have time to go into all the great detail about the trip, but I'll try to put some photos up later. If I can get the video figured out, I might even have a few short movies.

Labels: family, Travel

Happy Birthday and trip planning

Happy Birthday to Breanna! She celebrates August 14th and we send her happy wishes from China :)

I've got many things lined up for my trip in 10 days. I'm still waiting for feedback from the family (hint, hint) about Sunday brunch, but I'm sure they are up for it.

I ordered gift cards, Amazon goodies, and made hotel and car reservations. Adjusted my airplane seats (exit aisle the whole way!) and I am making a shopping list of goodies to bring back to Suzhou. GP and I are shopping this Saturday in Shanghai and I hope to get some goodies to take to the US. It's always hard to decide what someone might like.

We've been watching the Olympics and the parts I've seen have been pretty exciting. It's fun to have two teams to root for and we have yet to come to blows when it's China vs. US. When all is said and done, it doesn't matter to us who wins, we enjoy watching the athletes do their best.

Labels: Birthday, Travel

Feeling a little . . weird

I think the coffee machine at work was reprogrammed. I had two cups of "coffee" (using the coffee button), but my racing heard and lack of concentration suggests I had 2 double espressos instead. It would be a fun ride if it wasn't 9:30 in the morning and I didn't have work to do :p

Or it could be I'm loopy because I have a head cold and woke up at five o'clock this morning. GP has the same head cold and it seems to be a little worse for her, poor girl. I made some hot soup last night and she skipped school; hopefully the rest does her good.

I'm all booked for my east coast visit in April. Two days in Florida to see a vendor and 4 days in Philadelphia. All the work days are filled with appointments including an eye exam and I hope to see some friends each night, assuming jet lag doesn't get in the way. I'll also do a little shopping for some new clothes and other items that are difficult to find in Suzhou. I expect a five pound minimum weight gain once I'm back in the land of tasty, fatty, American food :)

Labels: Travel

Thailand

200+ photos of Thailand at the photo link above ^^

GP and I decided long ago to have a nice, relaxing, warm beach vacation. Last April we tried Sydney and it was too cold. We replanned for Thailand and January was just right.

I'm too lazy to write a full report like I used to, so here's the summary.

Saturday 19th
Woke at 4:30am to get to the airport for our 7:30am flight. That get's us to the Holiday Inn Silom (Bangkok) just after lunch. The flight is good and we check into a very nice hotel. Next door is a restaurant with a good selection and we have a late lunch. A short walk, then a "nap". After our nap, it was 6:30am and we decide that is a good way to start a vacation :)

Bangkok was interesting, though not stupendous for those of us not looking to visit a lot of wats or historical sites. We did a little shopping, tried various food and bought some nicer rings (matching white gold with saphires and small diamonds) to replace our Australian silver rings. We're hoping it was as good of a bargain as the jewelry people said.

Tuesday 22nd
Our afternoon flight to Phuket was also uneventful and pretty quick, though delayed 1.5 hours. We taxied to the Holiday Inn Resort (Patong Beach) and found another fabulous hotel. I suppose it should be that nice for the price, but we were glad to have a fairly quiet, comfortable room for four nights.

To get all the details, you'll have to sit with us for all the photos over a beer :) Every morning, we had breakfast near the pool, rested by the pool and watched the Germans, Australians and Japanese play. One day on the beach (and some sunburn), one night to see the lady-boy show, one night to Phuket FantaSea for another great show. Lots of good food and, of course, one night to the seedier end of Patong Beach to see why all the single men travel there.

The food was great, the t-shirt and other souvenir shopping was cheap and the people were pretty friendly. We found a great tour operator named Honey and she proved to be helpful and honest. Look her up if you go to Patong Beach, Phuket.