Catching Up

Since it is the Chinese New Year, I am off from work and the kids are out of school (and Tammy is being driven crazy). This gives me a lot of time to get the Blog updated with the most recent activities that are happening. I want to write the blog at least once per week (something my friend Lon has challenged himself to do on his blog so I can’t take credit for the idea) but sometimes I get distracted by other things and don’t find the time to get the post written. Other times, I start the post but never get it completed so it sits in a folder waiting for me to finish the job (which may or may not get done). So I will attempt to catchy everyone up to date in a long post (which is no surprise to anyone).

First, let’s talk about the Chinese and their fireworks. The evening of Feb. 2nd is New Years Eve. Starting about dusk, fireworks started to go off all around us. I’m not talking about the bottle rockets, roman candles or those little sparkle fountains (although these were done as well). I’m talking about the 70+ shot mortar boxes and strings of 5,000 firecrackers. Seriously, it started around 7:00pm and didn’t really finish up until about 12:30am and when it was midnight….forget about it. From our view on the 9th floor in the middle of our apartment complex we could see many fireworks going off in all directions. The best were the ones between buildings where the fireworks were exploding and bouncing off from the apartments. These ones you could feel in your chest every time one exploded in a shower of green and red sparkles. I can’t adequately describe the experience except to say that it probably resembles (just by the sounds) what a war zone would be like during a mortar barrage. It’s fun to watch for about the first hour or so and then it becomes like a constant background noise. Then it ramps up to “these people are crazy” when the midnight battery of fireworks starts exploding all around you. We could see at least 8 different large fireworks displays going off just from standing in one spot. We knew this was coming but it is always a little more than you would expect. We have earplugs so we could sleep but after 12:30, it calmed down enough for us to sleep without them (until the fireworks started again about 7:00am).

Second, since we have returned from Thailand, Tammy has taken it upon herself to learn how to cook Thai food. We (Tammy and I) already really enjoyed Thai cuisine before we went to Thailand but now the family seems to be hooked. We found that one of the hotels held cooking classes on Saturdays and she went to learn (and to escape the madness). She first learned Ribs with Red Curry, Seafood Salad and Spring Rolls. She brought home the food from the class and it was exactly what we tasted in Thailand. So, she decided to go the next week where she would learn Pad Thai, Papaya Salad and Green Curry Chicken. Once again, delicious!!! Since then, we’ve had Red Curry, Masaman Curry, Spring Rolls, Pad Thai and Tom Yang Soup for dinner or lunch. Now, she’ll tell you that maybe we aren’t telling her the truth about the taste of the food but I’ll tell you one secret (and now it’s not a secret). If the food is bad, I’ll tell you. There’s nothing worse than eating a bad meal and saying “This is delicious.” Shouldn’t I tell a little white lie? The answer is simple. If I tell her that something is good, she’s going to cook it again (and again, and again). If it was terrible, that means I’ve got to stomach it again and again (till death do us part) until I finally admit the truth and she gets mad because I lied. It is better with food to be honest up front (just another of Scott’s rules for a good marriage). In this case, it’s no lie. The curry dishes are great (you can make the Tony the Tiger “grrrr-eat” here if you want), the spring rolls taste just like Flavors of Thailand (a restaurant in Jonesboro). She has a little work to perfect the Pad Thai but that’s about getting the right ingredients more than anything else. Once those ingredients are found (if we can find them in China, keep in mind shopping for ingredients is tougher here since we can’t read the labels), I think we’re on the way to Thai delights. She is also scheduled to learn how to make Indian curry and Samosas in the coming month so if I come back to the US a few pounds heavier, you’ll know why.

Third, I found out that my oldest brother now has a blog (you’ll find the link under the links section). Two of the Dudley clan have now decided to take on the blogosphere. Now that I know he’s out there, the gauntlet has been thrown down to keep posting on a more regular basis in order to maintain interest in my blog. There’s a lot of competition out there and now it’s all in the family. I shouldn’t neglect to mention that my niece also has her own blog but I’ll warn you ahead of time, she’s young and in love (insert sound of vomiting here). Her blog relates mainly to her preparations to get married in late June. It’s interesting reading from afar since we don’t have access to hear about the wedding on a regular basis. [In case you didn’t know, Tammy and I eloped to Gatlinburg, TN (the East Coast Vegas) we had very little wedding planning to do. We just scheduled to date and time and headed out.] Anyhow, it is interesting to read how things are going for her and fiancé Doug. I’m sure as the date continues to approach, the stress levels will rise but I think they can handle it. After all, it’s not getting married that creates stress; it’s staying married that creates stress. Sounds like a t-shirt doesn’t it?

Fourth (and speaking of t-shirts), the t-shirts you see here are funny. I am never certain if the people really know what the shirts say or the meaning of the words. Some examples;
* Think Liberation (really, in China?)
* Time’s up, take it if you want it. (worn by a young lady in Shanghai and no, I don’t think she was a working girl)
* Make Love, Not Babies
* Keep the Faith
* F___ my Life (with little hearts around it….and the F-word was spelled out, correctly I might add)
* I love BJ (unfortunately, the shirt is supposed to be I love Beijing but they use an abbreviation for Beijing that has other connotations in English…and I don’t mean Bob Jones. How do I know BJ is Beijing, because in Shanghai they sell the same type of shirt with “I love SH”, not so sure I like that one either.)
* Kiss me, I’m Irish (okay, I made that one up just because it’s funny. The others are real.)
It happens all of the time, we see these shirts and wonder a) where they got them and b) do they realize what they say. I mean, when you buy a shirt, typically you know what it says right? I mean, I don’t buy shirts with Chinese characters without knowing what they say (remember the ObamaMao shirt, I bought it and found out what it said before I ever put it on). Oh, and just so you know this isn’t just a China thing. In Thailand we saw a t-shirt that said “Sleep with me…free breakfast”.

This last note is about a story Tammy found online about an incident in Suzhou. This is a true story folks so enjoy it.
Car hits pet dog, owner forces driver to kneel for an hour
By

Tiffany Ap on Jan 14, 2011
This is a story that will make it so much easier for you to hate on pet owners who dress up their toy dogs in stupid clothing. In nearby Suzhou, a pet dog was accidentally crushed by a passing minivan. How is this news? Just stay with me.

The loss of a pet can be upsetting yes, but at the same time (please pardon my French), shit happens. There's no sense in attacking people over it or forcing people to kneel over your dead pet as an apology, but unfortunately for the driver and passenger of the car in this story, that's a memo the dog owner never received.

An eyewitness who requested to remain anonymous says he was watching from his building when around 12 noon, he saw a green postal minivan hit a dog that'd come out into the street suddenly. When the driver and passenger got out to check, the life had been well snuffed out of the pooch. The owner, a 20-something male, was furious over his dog, demanded 5,000 RMB in compensation, and even started getting physical with the men. When the two men from the minivan didn't have the money to pay up, he forced them to kneel in front of his dead dog's body for one hour.

An older woman who saw the commotion decided to call the police but neither side allowed the police to intervene when they arrived. After their hour of kneeling in the wind and cold was up, the dog owner took the body away and the two men who'd been forced to kneel got up and left without saying a word.