Spring!!!!

When I returned from Shanghai on Saturday I was greeted by Spring. Wooo wooo, wippee, praise the heavens and God above.



It's outside time for us! The dogs and Reyde helped James work on the garage. Might go a little
quicker with a more mature and... ummmm... human workforce.

China Trip- Be Kind to Frogs

Quick buzz across the big pond last week. Watched 6 movies on the plane. Now let's see if I can remember them all...

Elizabeth- The Age

Michael Clayton

Eastern Promises

The Things We Lost in the Fire

Gone Baby Gone

The Assisination of Jesse James by Robert Ford

Good timing. So many of these had Oscar nominated performances. Fresh in my mind for the Oscars on Sunday.

Got to experience the Lantern Festival. It's the last day of the Chinese New Year, where families have dinner together and spend the eveing together. My co-worker Lily, was kind enough to take me to dinner with her family. We went to a temple in Shanghai where massive amounts of people gathered to celebrate and wave sparklers all over. I think I only have 6 or 10 burn marks in my clothes! (just kidding.)

Lily's husband and her friend that joined us were quite impressed with my chopstick skills; even more so because I am left handed. Cheers to that! Had wonderful spicy food. Even tried beef tongue...on accident. I asked what the food was and they said beef....so as I am putting it in my mouth, they tell me beef tongue! I now know to delay my bite until I am sure of the translation and that my friends have found the right English word!

Had a very odd, never would have thought, moment with my boss. We were walking to the mall to get some dinner. There is a pretty good size frog trying to cross the sidewalk in front of us. First time I've seen a frog in Shanghai, no less in winter. It was moving slowly. Boss says that he better get going quick, someone is liable to come grab him and eat him for dinner.

Then the boss grabs a piece of paper off the street, (he is an addictive instant hand sanitizer guy so this catches my attention,) and scoops the frog up and places him in the shrubs.

"I think he's hurt Wendy." A whole new side of a person I've known for almost 10 years.

Can you guess what this is....

Went to a microfiber towel factory in Shijiazhuang China. (a few hours drive east of Beijing.)

This dish was served at lunch. And you know it's disrespectful to not partake of food offered...so I did ask. It was black mushrooms.

Quite tasty indeed.

Sometimes I think I take really good photos...

Not that reptiles are my favorite subject...but it's a bit artsy fartsy don't you agree?

Really, is that what is holding you back?

I mean really. Wendy, can you think of a better LAME ASS excuse for not writing your novel? How many more hints must be dropped before you write?

2 of my classmates from highschool have followed their creative dreams.

http://www.frayedthemovie.com/

http://www.magicboxmusic.com/

2008 is your year.

All things Chinese....

The things you see in China. Hmmm...let's just keep building up the road. No worries if we build completely over the top of the fire hydrant. Love the resolve. Let's just put a sand pit in front of the hose fitting. The fireman can dig it out if there is a need to use the hydrant.

Got Reyde some "training chopsticks." Started practicing with potato chips when I got home on Saturday. Headed out to dinner with family at Bucca di Beppo's Italian that evening. Reyde wanted to bring his new sticks to practice. I had to tell him that we don't use our chopsticks at Italian. We can practice at home, at the Vietnamese Pho Noodle restaurants and of course Chinese.....

Seattle

My bad. Oh so bad. Took my camera to China and found a ton of photos I haven't saved nor printed.

Went to Seattle a couple different times. Always take my camera. Got some good "touristy" shots of Reyde.

And gotta love the one on the bottom. Woops. Shot too wide and you can see how I got the photo of Reyde in the orange tube.

A new level to friendship...

Got a friend who's been through hell and is coming out of the coals. We have little contact but I check her blog regularly to see if she's posted. It's a whole new side of friendship, to just check in anonymously. Love the technology age.

Quite the writer she is....I love this excerpt. So had to copy and paste. Enjoy. Raise your cup to the heavens, close your eyes, and bring life to those hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

....I also like this quote from John Nash she uses in her book. John Nash is the main character in the movie Beautiful Mind. Later in his life he was asked if he still saw the people who were not there. His reply, "See them? Oh yes, I see them, but I choose not to acknowledge them. Because like all of our dreams and all of our nightmares, you have to feed them for them to live."

So here's to feeding our dreams and starving our nightmares. Stilling the voices who keep us from being who we were created to be. And celebrating the voices which us lead us to the place where our dreams come true.

I want my hair like this...

Reyde clasps his hands together on the top of his head.

"Go ask your Dad," I tell him. I'm okay with it, but let's see what James say.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, like this," Reyde again puts his hands together over his head.

"Wendy, if that's what he wants..." (Notice a re-occurring theme here?)

I thought long nose hairs were just for old men!

From time to time I'll stop in to Mom's shop and she'll be trimming an older man's hair. When finished, she'll buzz the neck line, and trim up long hair growing out of their ears and nose.

NEVER THOUGHT about long nose hairs (why is the plural hairs instead of hi?) and me.

So we went to the beach last weekend with Amy and Katie. Amy and I are in the bathroom and we revert back to the teenage years vying for mirror space.

"Let me get closer. Time to check out the pimple situation." I say to Amy as I shoulder my way into the vanity area.

"Yeah, the lighting is really good at the beach for that."

Raising my chin, I achieve the optimum angle for analysis, only to find I have long dark brown nose hairs inching there way past the flesh of my nose. Hmmm...do I have scissors and home to take care of this? I'M GETTING OLD.

As we drove home on Sunday afternoon, I am still bothered by this fact. Then I chuckle, remembering when I found my tear ducts in highschool.

Sitting in the cafeteria with a little lipstick mirror, I find an enormous black head in the corner of my eye. I spent the entire lunch period trying to get rid of it. I spent all afternoon worrying it away. My eye was so red. Mom got home and I showed her.

"Wendy, that's your tear duct."

Prime Numbers

As most of you know, I am quick to point out prime numbers in daily life. More than anything, I like to tell people, "you're in your PRIME," when their age is a prime number.

So hat's off to my sissy la-la (AKA Amy,) for finding this excerpt for me. I can't wait to read the book.

Excerpt from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Mr. Haddon used to work with autistic young people and the main character of this novel is a 15 year old boy with autism name John Francis Boone. Chapter 19 is about prime numbers.

"Chapters in books are usually given the cardinal numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 and so on But I have decided to give my chapters prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and so on because I like prime numbers.

This is how you work out what prime numbers are. First you write down all the positive whole number in the world. Then take away all the numbers that are multiple of 2. Then you take away all the number that are multiples of 3. Then you take away all the that are multiples of 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and so on. The numbers that are left are the prime numbers.

The rule for working out prime numbers is really simple, but no one has ever worked out a simple formula for telling you whether a very big number is a prime number or what the next one will be. If a number is really, really big, it can take a computer years to work out whether it is a prime number.

Prime numbers are useful for writing codes and in America they are classed as Military Material and if you find one over 100 digits long you have to tell the CIA and they buy it off you for $10, 000. But it would not be a very good way of making a living.

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."

What Reyde Wants, Reyde Gets...

ORANGE
James asked Reyde in February what color he wanted to paint his room...orange. So while most Moms would steer a young child to a more appealing color on the paint swatch...not James.

"It's what he wanted Wendy."

Those Special "Firsts" in a Child's Life

I wonder what Reyde will think when he is a grown man, and we go through those special "first" moments in life...I wrote down the date of his first ice cream headache...and now this...his first experience with a whoopy cushion. Oh the adventure of being my offspring.

Now that was impulsive

Are you kidding me? Nope. Had an impulsive moment and went with it. It all started with Uncle Rex offering up, yet another, 70s Chevy truck. I stomped my foot and said, "the next vehicle that comes onto our property is going to be a sports car for me!"

Had no idea the Pontiac Solstice was in existence until we drove to the Mazda dealership to test drive a Miata. James casually mentions as we drive by it, "What about that one?" I figured it was out of my price range. (When did I acquire a price range?)




What more can I say? VROOM VROOM.

Yes, what they say is true...about...

20 year highschool class reunions.

Stand up comedians crack jokes about walking up to people and staring at their chests before talking to them. Yup, I did it and people did it to me. Ugh.

Cliques still around. Yup.

Odd memories come flashing back? Oh yeah. And knowing that I probably wouldn't see these people again, I shared the memories with them.

James and I went to my 20 year class reunion last night. We ran late and arrived after dinner had been served. More people showed up than expected and we dined standing up. $90 buffet of pasta with red or white sauce, a roast beef station, salad, and appetizer veggies. Had I known we could just show up and drink, I would definitely have done that.

Words can't describe what I witnessed. 16 Candles Revisited.

The girls who didn't fit in still didn't fit in and painfully stood out in the crowd.

We stood around and stared much longer than anyone should stare at one another attempting to figure out who you are/were. And then if you couldn't figure it out, you walk up really close to see the name tag and the picture from 1987. Reunion etiquette (never spoken mind you,) is such that if you realize you don't know this person you are intimately acquiring close up knowledge of their chest with, you simply walk away. Or you can start a conversation and talk about nothing until you move on to the next person. But know that you have to immediately begin looking for that next person if you start the conversation.

So while I am glad I went because I reconnected with a guy that I was very curious about, I tend to think I won't attend again. The $2000 question I have now is if I fly across the world to attend a reunion if it gets organized in Australia or do I pass?

Highlights of the evening?

• Seeing Billy who I went to school with since kindergarten. I say hello to him and he goes to his wife, "this is the girl I was telling you about, who had a ghost...SEYMOUR DELPHI DARIUM!" I can't recall Billy being at our house. Makes you wonder what other memories people have of you that you haven't a clue about.
  
• Telling another guy that I was so afraid of dropping one of my really long fingernails for fear that he'd make a voodoo doll with it. His wife laughed. He commented that he probably did make voodoo dolls. And when James and I excused ourselves from the table, he said "now don't leave any of you here." I wiped the table. Hopefully no hair or saliva remained behind.
  
• Seeing Ronnie from kindergarten as well. Wow, 4 children and 20 years of marriage.
  
• Seeing Kim and reminiscing about 2nd grade and showing her how to use the water fountain. Oh, and telling James that this was the sleepover that I had the panic attack at and left at 6pm instead of 6am. Kim remembered that.
  
• Catching up with Kevin. The only classmate that I gave my business card to. I flew out of the office on Friday without grabbing more. I told him that I only had one and he was the one I wanted to give it to. James and I will have he and his wife over for dinner. So while the event was not as I had hoped it would be, I am thankful to have reconnected with Kevin. An intelligent, nice guy, who genuinely seemed interested.
  

Those silly directions on product packaging...

It went something like this...

"Wendy, are you afraid of spiders?" And before I really have a chance to answer, "Because there is a spider in the lunchroom and it's holding my popcorn hostage!"

So Amber and I walk into the lunchroom. We are temporarily distracted by the smell of burning popcorn. I open the microwave door and a poof of yellow smoke billows out of the door.

"OH MY GOD. It's on fire!"

I replied to Amber, "No, I don't think so, but maybe you should get the fire extinguisher," and I close the door of the microwave to contain the yellow smoke.

Amber runs back in the lunchroom with the extinguisher and Michelle, our safety committee person.

"YOU cannot use that extinguisher, you haven't been trained." Michelle emphatically states.

I walk past the spider, who caused the incident, get a paper cup and TRAP him!

We are fanning the sprinkler heads to make sure they don't go off. Hmmm. I decide we must take the popcorn out of the building to get it doused with water and get the smell removed.

So I open the door again. The yellow smoke is gone. Walking gingerly through the warehouse I begin to giggle. The popcorn producers do say to stand by the microwave, do not leave popcorn unattended.

I'd tend to agree.

I douse the popcorn with water, leave it out on the loading dock and head back to the lunch room.

Grabbing a pseudo fan, a laminated warning card about the lunchroom being for AMMEX employees, I slip it under the cup, and take the criminal outside.

I fling him with gusto out into the shrubbery.

"Oh, Wendy, you are so nice."

"There's nothing nice about it. I just don't like to hear the spider body go CRUNCH when you step on them."

Okay, so let's resume working. But alas, I have my camera. So I head back out to the loading dock to take a picture of...."WHEN POPCORN GOES BAD...."

While it looks like black beans on corn tortilla chips...it's popcorn.

"I feel like calling the company, I am so upset right now." Amber rambles on in the sales pit.

"Uh, calling them because you didn't follow their directions about not leaving popcorn unattend?"

"But there was a spider!"

"Yes, you should tell them to address aracniphobia (or however you spell it, I'm gonna be late for work, I'm not spell checking) on their packaging for sure."

Today's lunch is all raw foods, or ones that don't need re-heating.

Pics from the weekend

Can you believe it? I finally sit down to upload my photos onto Flickr and I get the message, "Flickr is having a massage." Huh? From 8-10pm tonight, Flickr is down for updates.

So here's a snapshot of some of the fun in Westport Washington. COLD COLD COLD. It was sooo cooooold, as Vanessa in the Philippines said, "your mouth is smoking." Uhhh, no we say that you can see your breath! Very cold and windy and rainy. The typical Westport Memorial Day Weekend.

Highlight of the event? Would have to be all the grilling we did. Thanks James!


My attempt at being artsy fartsy with the marina in the background and crab pot in front.
Wesport harbor
Trying to capture a picture of Turbo jumping in the air.
So James thought Reyde would enjoy sleeping in the tent. Hmmm, looks like Nitro and Turbo enjoyed it more.
Reyde on his battery powered ATV. So cool.
Helping Dad clean up the trailor.
Cousins.
Gotta take a picture of look at that an ORANGE truck.
Seagulls for Mom.
"Dad drive your tractor and we'll be a train!"

Isn't he cute?

Just had to share some of my favorite photos of Reyde.

A word that should be eradicated from every language

WORK-AROUND.

I just want to work.

How'd I miss posting this?

Cleaning up my email inbox...how'd I forget to post this? Conversations on the floor from February 23, 2007

We are having some fun at work. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m going to miss working in the environment in the Philippines. We all have fun, the individuals support and encourage other’s success, and yet the competitive atmosphere still exists. The camaraderie is something else.

Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been joking around about the differences in Filipino and American pronunciation. The banter back and forth yesterday left us all “busting a gut.” The whole floor laughed so hard we had to take a minute to compose ourselves.

I know it’s a “you had to be there moment,” but nonetheless it went something like this.

“We should have a crazy hat day here. What do you think Drew,” Loree says. Drew is ignoring her and she says to the team, “He’s ignoring me.”

“I’ll wear my purple tutu,” comments Ryan.

“He didn’t just say purple tutu did he,” I ask. So I pipe up over our half cube walls, “I double dog dare your Ryan to wear your purple tutu to work. I’ll bring my camera and put your picture on my blog.”

The giggling on the floor starts up. Kristian sits to my right, a very quiet guy who I love to joke around with. It’s so hard to get him to lose his professional composure. So I ask, “Kristian, what color is your tutu?”

Loree pipes up, “It’s PHINK!” (Yes, PHINK, not PINK. Filipinos have a hard time pronouncing the Puh sound in pink.)

And at that point we are all laughing so hard we can’t help it.