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.

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.