November...two months later

Let's take a step back in the time machine to mid-November 2009. That's where our story begins. It all started with the 27th celebration of my birth.

Katie devised a brilliant in-house version of Project Runway complete with dongxi bags (translation big light weight plastic mesh bags that hold lots of dongxi which is Chinese for stuff). Baby Grady even came to the party, incognito! During the game, KT had extra materials that each team could win if they got to her first and answered a question about moi correctly. The best moment was when an 8-ish month prego Sarah booked it to the kitchen to answer the question. Boy, could that lady with a baby run.Here are our models. Work it ladies. Show some attitude, especially you with the toilet seat cover on your head. Although it was close, the winner went to team on Lo (right).

The birthday girl with the girls.

A few days after that (I think it was after)...I had just made dinner and gone back to my room when I heard a crash. I thought all the freshly washed dishes had somehow hit the floor, but no, the wall had hit the freshly washed dishes. Four large tiles spontaneously detached from the rest of the wall and landed on dishes. Only two things broke as a result (tiles not included).

This is what happens when you try to stick tiles to concrete.

Next was my roommate Pidge's birthday so we all gathered together & prepared her favorite foods--all of which (most of which) could be found at your local county fair. For my first trick (only trick) I made deep fried oreos. Yes. Deep fried. I'd never fried anything before. It's surprisingly easy.

That's my hand dipping the oreos into the batter, which is basically really wet pancake batter.

Here is Pidge's reaction when I brought them out. Has anyone in the history of deep fried oreos in Asia ever been so excited?

We finished off the meal with a delish yellow cake with chocolate frosting a la Lo served just the way Pidge's family eats them---dissolved in a bowl of milk. I doused milk on mine, but didn't do full immersion. I have to say, not bad at all.

Then one day I looked at the mint plant on the window sill in my bathroom and found this little character. If anyone has an explanation for how a snail climbed 32 floors plus a short stoop and got to my window sill where my mint plant reclined then I will be very impressed. I won't give you money or anything, but I will be impressed.

I gingerly knocked the little guy off my mint plant and into this here class. I watered him a little and then put him on a piece of paper and took him outside to a bush (via the elevator, people, not the window.)

Then it was time for Sarah's baby shower! Woot woot! KT and I hosted. I made these little papoose sized profiteroles. Oh was I scared they weren't going to come out.

But they did. Phwew and I dolloped them with some dark chocolate ganache.

Lots o' friends came to lavish gifts on our dearest prego and then I we did a little post-party photo shoot in our living room.

The next day I flew to Hong Kong to get my work visa. I was there for a few days and after two birthdays, a wall caving in, and a Baby Shower, I could have thought of better things to do early early on the a Sunday morning than fly to HK. I was there a few days and thank God everything went swimmingly with getting my visa. One never knows and both the people I stood in line with had trouble. Ai yo! The thing about traveling by yourself is that anything that goes wrong simply sucks because no one else really cares and that is always my fear. I felt really people deprived for those 2 1/2 days although I did get to chat with a few people and I went to the most amazing cafe my last day there. Saving grace. Also, I saw this picture (above) my first afternoon in HK. It's about JC. Amazing. One day that's going to be on top of a building here.

I thought this was cool. Rainbows filtering down from the glass overhang of a high rise.

I got back the day before Thanksgiving...woo wee. Here you see a photo from the annual Thanksgiving day football game, starting of course with the Powderpuff. I am happy to say that under Kev's coaching our team won. Hoping to get more women out for the next game. No one believes me when I say it takes no talent and it's a lot of fun...that is until I wriggle them into playing at which point they see the error of their ways. Naysayers, take note.

Then I hit a bit of a lull, hum drums, mean reds. Luckily I had some awesome earrings from my artsy friend Chelsea to get me through the tough times. Luckily.The week after Thanksgiving was KT's (and our) first marathon. It was cold. Cooooolllllddddd. We met KT about 6 or so miles into it and cheered on a bunch of other people. If you ever need a pick me up, go to a marathon and cheer. It seemed to be the most encouraging thing for the people running, which in turn made it a lot of fun to cheer. Runners would look at us if we stopped and wait for us to cheer. Several runners stopped & took our picture. Of note, besides KT, of course, was the runner in a green Obama mask (he made it to the finish line too) and several people with clown wigs.

See, we were really into the cheering.

And last, but not least, I discovered that I am not the only one in Asia with big eyes (photo here with my friend and fellow writer Whit.) Thank goodness the Muppets aren't recruiting.
Pictures and narrative from Christmas coming up...

Just Finished: The Blind Assassin

Oh my am I behind. I will blame the fact that my pictures are splayed across two different computers. I may have to do some retroactive posts circa mid-November, but not today. Today I shall tell you about The Blind Assassin. Catchy title, no?

I don't remember where I first heard about this book, I think I just saw it on the shelf and as with all books that have a good cover and a decent sounding summary on the back, I wanted to read it. I picked up a copy in Hong Kong and started reading. At over 500 pages, it took me a while.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood is a tale within a tale about a book with a tale. Sounds confusing, but it isn't really. The novel opens with a the elderly narrator, Iris Chase, telling us about the day her younger sister Laura committed suicide by driving off a bridge. She then goes back and forth between her present existence and the troubled history of her family, primarily in regards to herself and her sister . Interwoven through the novel is a book called The Blind Assassin, written by Laura and published posthumously by Iris. This is the most interesting part of the novel--a story of two nameless clandestine lovers. During each rendezvous, the man tells the woman pieces of a science fiction story that takes place on a far away planet.

As the novel progresses, the stories increasingly come together as the lives of everyone in them deteriorates. Atwood creates detailed and distinct characters and the novel is full of well-researched (sometimes seemingly too well-researched) facts as the story covers two world wars. Despite the details, the books is not too flowery or poetic, in fact it is almost matter of fact--no easy task with 500 words. The events of the novel never caused me to hold my breath, but I was intensely interested throughout and the story kept me turning the pages. When I got to the end, however, I admit to feeling a little empty. While it was a good story, I felt that it had no real, defined meaning. It was just a story. The impact wasn't there. I am not left dwelling on the characters, perhaps Atwood answered too many of the questions.