March!

Yea! It's March! We leave for America this month!

End of Second Month

After two months on Atkins, I have lost a total of 23.4 pounds. I thought you'd like to know.

Home Again

After 10 days in Thailand, we are back safely at home in Hong Kong. We had a delightfully uneventful trip, despite our bus being 30 minutes late to pick us up. But we made it in plenty of time to the empty warehouse that is the new Bangkok airport.

Something fun that happened while we were there was I got measured for a new suit. I haven't had a new suit since Sally and I got married, so we figured it was about time. I got a new black suit, a blue sports coat, 3 new shirts and 3 new silk ties. Pretty snazzy. I'll take a picture when I have it on later.

This is also the first year that I have been in Pattaya without a vehicle. I didn't like it at all. Thankfully, my colleagues who had a vehicle were generous and we were able to borrow a car every now and again, mostly because I still have a Thai driver's license. There were many times, however, when we had to use local transportation called a song taew. I'm not real sure of how to spell it, but I think that is close. In any case, the kids like it because basically, it is a pick up truck with a camper shell on the back, open on the sides with two benches to sit on. They used to ride one to school each day when we lived in Thailand, but I hate to bargain with the driver as a tourist.

At the very least, I brought my new coffee press cup with me and had Starbuck's House Blend to carry me through.

I'm glad to be home, but that means we have to start packing again tomorrow.

Fireworks

Here is a short video of the fireworks at our shindig last night.
(18 mb)

Funny Pic

Here we are: all dressed up and no place to go.

Room with a view

Here is the view from our hotel room in Thailand.

Hurriedly Packing

Here's Sally in what she calls her "natural habitat".

Family Pic

Here is a current family picture taken Feb 16, 2007.

Things are different

This is the first year in four that I have simply been able to attend the big meeting instead of working it. Well, I still have a few responsibilities, but nothing like in years past. To be honest, I feel like a fish out of water. I feel like I need to be helping, instead of watching other people do what I used to do. It is kind of a funky feeling.

I know Sally is a bit happier because of it, but I still feel like I need to be "in there".

It is so good to see all of my friends from all of these years. Many people have been asking me questions, like they have done in the past, when I was responsible to know the answers, but this year, I am simply telling people, "I don't know; I'm sure the info is in the guide book". That is weird, but it seems to be working.

This morning was the very first time in the 4 year history of my being at this meeting that I ate an entire breakfast without a phone call, a radio call, or somebody just stopping by to ask me a question. That was pretty neat.

Still Here

I have arrived in Thailand for a meeing for about 10 days. The family is with me. We are doing fine. I'll post more when I can get away for a while.

What happened to 'winter'?

Here is the Yahoo! weather forecast for Kowloon for the next week. What happened to the 'winter' we were supposed to have? Everyone around here is commenting on how warm it has been this winter. While it got very cool, it never got cold. We never even turned on our space heaters. We've had the windows opened for the past week. I WANT WINTER!

Git er done

Sally's workin' hard to 'git er done'! She's emptied out the knick knack shelves now and has packed 6 boxes. We are having a problem getting the boxes we need and have run out. When we lived in Thailand, all we had to do was call a company and they'd deliver boxes to us. Here in HK, we are supposed to get an estimate from a moving company and the winner will bring us boxes. A company was supposed to come by this evening, but they never showed up. Quite perturbing.

At the very beginning

Here is Sally as she sat down and began to move things from the China cabinet. It is the first moments of packing again. Let's see if she still has this enthusiasm on the last box!

Perpetual Cycle

The circle goes on and on. Once again, we are packing up our house. We found out yesterday, after talking with the folks at my office, that we will need to move out of our apartment since we will be gone for 9 months and the apartment will be rented out. We will need to find a new place to live when we return. We weighed this out and decided it was in the best interest of our family to do this, even though we lose our 'huge' apartment.

So, we brought some boxes home yesterday and this morning, we packed all of our China and crystal. We have all culled our clothes closets and Audrey and Emily are going through their toys. For only the first day of work, we have gotten off to a great start. We moved the hide-a-bed into the living room, behind our other couch to give us a "storage" room to stack our boxes in. I'll post some pictures when there is something to look at.

Sally says it seems like all she ever does is either pack or unpack!

Big Day, Big Changes

This is to let you know that we have changed our departure to the USA to March 16, instead of June 2! Grandparents have been notified and are standing by with Gem Donuts and trips to Wal-Mart.

You can keep track of how long to departure in the little blue box in the upper right hand column.





Yeehaa!!! Time for the "Happy Dance!"

18.6 pounds and counting

I've lost just over 18 and a half pounds in 5 weeks.

Ask me how!

Less than 4 months to go

We have less than 4 months to go before we arrive in Oklahoma for a 7 month stay. We'll be staying in the home shown above which is right next door to my Mom and Dad in Ft. Gibson, OK. It is right on Ft. Gibson Lake. Dad has a couple of docks and boats and hopefully, we'll get our fill of fishing.

We will be arriving in TUL on June 2 at about 9:45 pm. We all can't wait to see our family and friends!

Disney Pic

Here is a copy of a picture we had taken at Hong Kong Disneyland last year. I've intended to post it, but thought that now was as good as time as any to post it.

Sick Kid

Poor little Emily. I got a call from the school yesterday to come and pick her up as she was running a fever and had a bad headache. I did. She came home and went to bed. I knew she was sick when she went to bed without asking.

She crawled in bed with us this morning, just burning up. So, she stayed home again today. She slept most of the day. Sally took her to the doctor and he said she has the flu! She was running 104 F this afternoon. It didn't respond to the Tylenol. The fever finally came down, but never really "broke".

Hopefully, she'll feel better tomorrow.