Pictures of our view...

Mae has requested pictures of our view and I have had numerous reasons for delaying this, as I have previously explained. I thought this would be a good time to post the pics I have, in hopes of lifting Mae's spirits.

So, here goes...these are not really good pictures, but it tends to be very hazy so this is the best I can do...

Even Francois enjoys the view...Ahhh, it is a cat's life.

This storm cam through this week and brought a "Black Rain Warning" with it, but it didn't last very long. This pic overlooks the Kowloon peninsula in the distance.

This pic shows the Disney Castle across the harbor from our flat.(bottom left)

Disney fireworks as seen on Sunday, 29 April 2007.

Same as above. Notice the little blue Mickey heads on the building? They are difficult to distinguish in my photo...so sorry.

I hope that this satisfies the request. If I actually do get any really good pictures on a clear day, then I will post them, too.

Sorry it took me so long!

Q3 - What foods have you been pleasantly surprised after trying?

I loves me some kimchee. This is odd because I hate cabbage and that is all kimchee is, but it is so freakin' good!

Red bean paste. Sounds odd, looks gross, tastes excellent. I have only eaten it in pastries and haven't been brave enough to try it in a beverage, since it looks a bit like vomit when it's in a glass.

Tofu Fa, or soy milk curd. Served cold looks like tofu snot, but tastes delicious. I could have eaten two. It also comes served hot, but that looks even more disgusting.

Sweet potato paste, also served in a pastry, and I wish I had gotten more.

I had this local treat and I have no idea what it is called, but it was sooooo good. This little old man stands on the street with a cart and takes these little crispy, wafer-y looking things and sprinkles them with what appears to be a cinnamon/sugar mixture and wraps it in a tortilla-like thing. Mmmmm...whatever it was, it was delicious.

I am really not a picky person and will usually try anything once. Anytime I hesitate to try something, it usually has more to do with texture and I will at least try something once. I even ate deep fried shrimp heads once. See, not at all picky. There are only a few exceptions, but that is a whole other post.

thanks for the question, Yoshi!

Picture Day!!! Oooh...pretty...

A Tale of Two Cities...er, and one really small town.

So, let me tell you about our visit to the US...

It began with being awake for approximately 30 hours in an attempt at avoiding jet lag, which did in fact help. We were welcomed to the US by having two out of three pieces of luggage lost in transit and wasting a LOT of time at the airport trying to get that worked out. From there, we went to dinner with Cybr's mom and step-dad and had a yummy adult beverage to add to our state of tired confusion.

We spent the first several days at Cybr's moms house, during which we went to WalMart and oohed and aahed at the ginormous selection and one stop shopping that we so greatly miss. We also had dinner with a close friend and met his girlfriend for the first time. We had sushi at a really great place I had never been before and the company was great, too.

By this time, as I have failed to mention, I have been coughing up a lung since first disembarking from our final aircraft. It was only getting worse, not better. I had no fever and didn't feel bad, but there was definitely respiratory congestion involved and we had NUMEROUS babies to visit, so we went to the Urgent Care and had me checked out before heading to Cybr's dads house to stay for a few days.

Not much more than seven months ago, there were no babies...then we leave and when we return there are now two babies in Cybr's family. His step-brother and his step-sister have added on to the family (separately, of course, this isn't Jerry Springer!). One is a boy about 7 months old that they had right before I left for HK and the other is a girl and was only four days old upon our arrival at his dads house. We all visited and had dinner and I got my baby squishing fix. Good times.

During this first week we also visited another close friend and his children, one of which missed me VERY much (and I missed her, too). She is three and is such a character. I love spending time with her. We played with her My Little Pony's and Barbies and she entertained me very much. Our playtime was only interrupted twice...once by going out for pizza and another time by an unexpected bowel movement. But that is a story for another time...

From there, we went to Marquand, Missouri to visit with my family. We had a big Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter dinner with my parents, grandmother, aunt, cousin, second cousin, close family friends, etc... It was great. I had a great time. I also spent some time with another cousin and his children, who I consider as nieces, and my other grandma.

This time of the visit was tough. It was great to see everyone, but it was also a time of closure, finality, and loss while I had to visit my Grandpa at his grave. I also visited my deceased cat's grave.

Yes, we have a pet cemetery. And no, it doesn't lead to a place that brings things back from the dead.

After that, Cybr and I made our final visits. We were able to visit with Mae and see Boo and Boo2. It was a good visit and I got even more of a baby fix.

We then stayed a night each at Cybr's dads and then his moms before we headed out to the airport together and parted ways.

This brings me to my second city, Chicago. I made it in time to enjoy a birthday bash for 4 year-old twins and had a great time. My dearest friend and I hung out together and with her two sets of twins. We went to the zoo. We made pancakes together. We shopped. We worked out. We got waxed....seriously, I still am not sure why I agreed to that. Again, story for another post.

Anyway, this is getting to be too long of a post. I may go into more details and I may not. It all depends on if I get my photos sorted out and if I get my groove back (see previous post to make sense of that)...

Tryin' to get my groove on.

I am not yet in my groove.

It took me a very long time to create a comfortable groove once we moved to Hong Kong. Now that I have been away for three weeks, not only is my groove service interrupted but I had WAY too much time to think and now I am having a career crisis and baby crisis on top of that.

I had been a designer for almost eight years when we packed up and moved to HK. I have looked into doing that sort of thing over here and it really has no appeal. It is different. I am not interested. I would definitely consider going back to that once we are back in the States, but not here. It isn't worth explaining. I am just not interested.

What in the hell is a girl to do? Should I go back to school? Maybe. Should I self-learn something new? Maybe. The question is 'what?!?'. I have no idea. I am in a rut. Any suggestions are welcome. I am open to considering anything within reason and anything else would simply be entertaining...

As far as babies, we want some. The big question is when. And the more complicated questions are where, how, etc...
My brain is on baby overload. I think we should just get drunk and see how it plays out. Hehe.

I have been very preoccupied with thinking of these things and thinking them to death, which is just my way. All the while, I am trying to re-adjust to walking the dogs, shopping for groceries daily, laundry and lots of it, trying to find a home for all the crap laying around our flat from unpacking and hoping my legs don't take as long to adjust to walking so much.

I will get there and when I do then I will get back into my blogging groove, too.

Home is where my fuzzy kids are...

I am back in Hong Kong.

I made it. I survived the worst flight ever. No air blowing in the whole plane and the entire intercom system shorted out and chirped, crackled and other annoying noises very loudly for more than 11 hours. It was great. Not even ear plugs could drown out the noise. Add to that sweating so bad my underpants were soaked and flying doesn't get much better!

Anyway, I have been unpacking and doing laundry non stop since my return. And it isn't done yet!

I have loved on all my babies and they are so happy to have their mom home.

So is Cybr. He now has clean spoons.