wonder what a health inspector would have to say about this

with the car out of service i’m having to improvise. which, this morning, meant that instead of heading back to bed for an extra 45 minutes of sleep after the kids were out the door i had to be ready to leave when the kids did. which is bright and early. fortunately, there are interesting things to see early in the morning. like the guy who delivers the meat delivering the meat.

i wasn’t fast enough to get a better picture

in the bed of his probably not sanitized truck. all exposed to the elements: the 80 degree weather, the air, the bugs, the whatever else might be blowing around. and people wonder why i don’t buy my meat at the open air market.

and speaking of the car. the radiator can’t be repaired so the search is on for a replacement. i’m thinking that doesn’t sound good. or cheap.

acid rain

today, while michael and i were out running some errands, it acid rained all over our windshield. kind of freaky, huh? michael was quick to point out it wasn’t acid rain. it was antifreeze. which it seems isn’t supposed to spray all over your windshield. so we called the mechanic. who sent out his speak thai only mechanic helpers. he let michael know they were on their way and might be calling us if they get lost. which he realized might be a problem - seeing as how we don’t speak thai all that well. they made it all on their own and popped the hood and sure enough, no suprise, the radiators all wonky. well, really worse than wonky. it’s broke. busted. sick. i expected them to try to get the car to their shop, somehow, in some special thai way. i was even looking forward to that. but, instead, they did a different special thai thing. they removed our radiator - right there in our driveway.

the busted radiator

our radiator’s better side

and they took it with them. leaving us with a promise to return tomorrow with a repaired, or new, or some kind of alternate radiator. so in our driveway sits our car.

with a radiator size hole under the hood.

and being the pet lover that i am, i washed down the driveway. doing my best to get rid of any and all signs of deadly radiator fluid.

hello wordpress

welcome back. i’ve missed having you at home the past few days.  let’s try not to get seperated like that again.

this time last year

michael was interviewing at compassion. and we were in a state of giddy, scared what-ifness. when he’d applied for the job, i’d a feeling that it would involve a move. moving wasn’t mentioned in the job description or requirements, but there was a listing for the exact same position in africa that listed the location as africa. i did a little assuming - knowing moving might be a risk - and encouraged him to apply. and then he got called for an interview with the confirmation that, yes, the job would mean moving. what to do, what to do.

we talked, we prayed. we were excited and fearful. and it was our secret. during that time - the call for the interview and the actual job offer - we lived in a place that was a little bit like the 60 seconds or so after you’ve taken a pregnancy test and the waiting for the line to show up or not. in those 60 seconds it seems like anything could happen, your world might be getting ready to turn upside down. but our 60 seconds were stretched over a week and a half or so. and it was a sweet time. we whispered our what ifs to each other, we tried to not get too excited or too scared. we tried not to get ahead of ourselves in our planning.

looking back at that time from today, it seems the thing we were most illequipped to deal with, what we didn’t take into account, was what we would be giving up and what we would be gaining. and i’m not sure that we can measure those. they become apparent a little at a time.

i want to thumb wrestle an orangutan

i’m not exactly sure what my internet issues are - i’m afraid they are more computer related than internet. yesterday at wawee i was on their computer and today i’m on a computer at the mall and having no issues. but on my own computer i can’t access much from wordpress. i can see my own blog because i don’t have wordpress in my url. and i can log into wordpress because there is nothing in front of the wordpress in the url, but my computer or internet (probably computer) doesn’t seem to like to combine the two. so not only can i not log into my admin page - i cannot access any of the wordpress blogs i normally read. i can read them in my feeder, but i can’t comment on them. so here i sit, at the mall, hangin with the cool kids and internetin’.

it’s actually very entertaining. there is some sort of talent show going on, a star search type thing. and a pretty large, loud, screaming crowd has gathered and every once in a while they squeal en mass. very shrilly. i’m wishing i had my camera because there is also a very large blue fuzzy tv mascot walking around.

so, not much exciting going on here. s8, a11 and i are hanging out waiting for c14. he’s gone to see wall-e with a friend. the other two want to see it, too, but i’m making them wait so they can see it with their dad. and speaking of michael, he’s in indonesia thumb wrestling orangutans. he gets to travel the world and have all the fun. i’ve been doing my math and in the next month he will only be home 4 days. and the airport calculations - he’ll be in and out of 9 different airports 21 different times in 6 different countries. like i said, he has all the fun. that airport calculation includes the trip he’s currently on.

issues

we seem to be having internet issues and for some reason i haven’t been able to get onto my blog for days.  so i’ve been forced to go back to my thai roots and blog from wawee.

times are tough.

three days into the school year and we’ve only had one break down of the “i wish we’d never moved here” variety.  pretty good, i think.  i was looking at the school calendar yesterday and was suprised to see that there is no school break for thanksgiving day.  i don’t know why that took me by suprise - it won’t be thanksgiving here.  i guess because it’s an american school i just assumed.  it’s just as well, i’ve never cooked a turkey, and don’t think i could get one anyway.  but we could have a duck with it’s head on, sort of like the one in the christmas story.

out the door

the kids are out the door and on their way to school. and they’ve taken their first day jitters with them. but they seem to have left a few behind for me.

and i’ve figured out why i wasn’t able to watch the youtube videos of the olympics. and now i can watch them. that’s not really true. i have no idea why i can watch them today when i couldn’t yesterday. but i can. i do think some moments might be missing. the opening ceremony video is 13 min long - that doesn’t include the parade of countries. now we know how i will be spending the kids first day of school and that it might not include all the cookie makin’ stuff i’ve got in the kitchen.

a cry for help

i am desperate. the desperatest of desperate. and i need help.

i have an olympic size hole in my life and i am unable to fill it. i have visions of friends and family and even strangers sitting around their televisions watching swimmers swim, weigth lifters weight, volleyball teams volley, divers dive and pretty soon gymnasts will be gymning and i have seen none of it. i haven’t even seen one stroke of any of that phelps guy on his way to any of the nine (it is nine, right?) medals. well, i did see a little bitty bit of some little bitty ladies lifting some not so little bitty weights. but just minutes of - while i waited at the dentist.

you wanna know how you can help? feed me info. tell me the highlights. what exciting moments are worthy of me spending my precious time scouring the internet for video of?? come on - help a gal out.

and those of you who are watching say a “yay” for me when something yay worthy happens.

happy mother’s day

today is the birthday of the queen of thailand, h.m. the queen sirikit. because the queen is so loved and revered in thailand it is also mother’s day - wan mâe. celebration in our house will look a lot like me getting to do the types of things mother’s get to do everyday. but c14 has gone out of his way to pepper my morning with “happy mother’s day” messages at random intervals.

the day after tomorrow

is the first day of school and i have a hankering to go school supply shopping - but we haven’t any lists. so we’ve had to make do with shoe shopping. where i learned that my eight year old son wears a size seven shoe. men’s size seven. that is about one size smaller than i wear. and it seems like it might be freakishly abnormal.