Happy 7th Riley!

Saturday was Riley's big day!  Rebecca had asked him what type of party he want and he said "make it a mystery".  So, Rebecca pulled together a "Secret Agent Party" where the revelers were trained in becoming a secret agent.  She is now getting quite the reputation on the children's party circuit...

First the agents made name badges, with code names, finger prints and a "cover story".  In one of his crueler moments, Dave suggested "Blue Steel" for Riley (which he thought was extremely cool) and somehow managed to get him to do the pose from Zoolander.

Powers of observation are critical for the aspiring agent.  In this excercise, the agents in training tried to memorize a tray of items then guess which ones had been removed.

Code work.  The kids picked up the rudiments of Morse Code and Braille...

On the scavenger hunt, the kids assembled pieces of their disguise kits.

Also while on their first training mission, physical fitness was stressed as a critical item for their survival.

Not sure who this kid is.

Everyone in their disguises.

When we returned, we discovered that the cake was stolen!  This led us on another mission.  Unfortunately, since we have 4 floors there are no pictures to speak of as Dave got too lazy to chase the kids.  The cake has bombs on it in case you're wondering.

Love this picture.  One of Riley's buddies also has a few teeth missing at the same time.

Men's Dinner - Mexican

As I've mentioned, our church has a monthly men's dinner where we feature a country.  We share food, a cultural talk and then pray specifically for that countries needs as expressed by it's expats.  It's such a great experience because we get a chance to really fellowship in a truly cross cultural setting.  Anyway, we have one couple from Mexico in our church who thankfully stepped up.  I told them I we love Tex-Mex (I know, I know) so we'd love to help.

Well, I now know what a labor of love Mexican food is.  EVERYTHING was made from scratch:  tortillas, refried beans, salsas, chicked legs and thighs deboned, etc.  A group of three people made tortillas for 5 hours Saturday!  Anyway, it was a great weekend of cooking and hanging out and the food was outstanding!

A Brazillian manning the grill is always going to be good.  We deboned 140 chicken legs and thighs, marinating them in a concoction of spices and lemon juice.  The tupperware box in the picture was full when we started.  Mmmmmm.

Finally got to use a massive wok (for tortilla reheating).  This is going on my list for the outdoor kitchen!  Those tortillas are burrito sized (10 to 12 inches in diameter).

Two gallons of salsa.  There was also similar amounts of a mild version and pico de gallo.

Pastel de Flan, seven of them made in total.  Chocolate cake on the bottom, Flan on top.  Yes, it's as good as it sounds.

Valentines Day

Wishing to show my lovely bride my deep and eternal devotion, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up some flowers on the way home.  After picking out a dozen roses, I was standing in front of the wrapping station.  Not wanting to crowd the man who was elaborately wrapping them, I left about a foot or so of space between me and the counter.  I was surprised (only a little) when someone jumped in front of me, money in hand, dancing up and down like he had to pee, and directly cutting me off!

Well, as you may recall from the "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" blog, I no longer put up with this behavior.  So I reached up and gently pulled on his shoulder at an angle that would twist him and move him out of my way at the same time.  Firm enough though to be startling.  At the same time I said "excuse me!" in Chinese loud enough for everyone around to hear me.  The individual was clearly stunned as he stammered his apologies in English.  I then did my best to puff up like a toad to discourage any other line cutters.  That's how I roll.  Anyway, below is a shot of the package, I think there's more wrapping than flowers.


Friday night I then bit the bullet and went to see the ballet, Romeo and Juliet.  I see now why some people (I'm too PC to say women) don't like football.  I just don't get it and I'm not wired to get it.  I asked someone in our group if it was good and she said that Romeo was VERY good, but the others not so much.  I asked what made him good and one of the things she noted was the height of his jumps.  Really!?!?!?  Yep, still don't get it.

The ballet itself was interesting and the music was great; there was kind of a fusion of East meets West that was appealing.  The ballerinas and ballerinos (I don't know the word for the men, nor do I care to bother looking it up) were dressed in traditional Chinese costumes and there were several hand gestures and postures that I recognized from traditional Chinese dance.  These were blended in with standing on toes, which is popular for the dancers I gathered.  Finally, there was a scene at the wedding when (clearly drunk), one of the ballerinos went off and pretended to pee on stage.  Yep, that just happened on stage in the cultural arts center.  High society.

Tooth Fairy

In a span of a week, Riley lost his two front teeth.  He now speaks with a slight lisp that you wouldn't notice if you didn't know him.

Realizing there was money to be had, he asked about if the tooth fairy is really real or not.  We've always teased about it and not given him a straight answer, but then paid up regardless.  Anyway, we were getting the kids ready for bed the day he lost the first one when I noticed him peeking out his bedroom window.  Figuring it was all related, but not wanting to embarrass him, I told Reid to ask him discreetly what he was looking at.  Reid later told me that he just smiled really big and pointed at his tooth.

The good news is that he can now slurp food directly from his plate.  The other day I told him not to hunch over and hoover his food.  He just looked at me and began smacking his lips loudly, which is the other habit we're trying to break him of.  I get no respect at all.

And the winner is...

I'm getting a barrage of emails from one grandparent in particular on taking my sweet time with sharing the results.  So, without further ado:

Saturday was a great (albeit long) day of racing.  Four packs showed up at the school and there were over 275 cars total!  The Suzhou pack has historically not done well, so this year there was a sense of teamwork in helping the boys develop the fastest cars.  This is different from the U.S. in that most dads hold information tightly to their chests hoping to seek out every little advantage over their peers.  I am, of course, one of those dads. 

Where this made the biggest difference was at the weigh in where the pack had a box of thumb tacks to be handed out to ensure EVERYONE's car was up to the absolute maximum allowable weight.  Note that this is the single biggest differentiator in the U.S.  In my short time on the racing circuit I have found that nearly half of the cars entered aren't up to the max weight.  Anyway, this took away the biggest advantage we had in the last derby!

So, the day began with Riley's group (Tigers) combined with the next grade up.  Riley won first place!  He advanced to the pack finals, where he finished 6th overall.  Reid was next and was disappointed when he finished in the middle of his den.  It's interesting because he has typically finished high in the space and pine wood derbys.  I'm pretty sure he had laid down a bed of trash talking that he had to go lie in, so he wasn't happy.  Maybe this will motivate him to put more effort in next year (Riley spent about twice as much time as Reid "breaking in" his car).

Rowan "blew away" the open class with his entry.  The fastest track time until his car ran was 3.08 seconds.  The fan car averaged 2.43!!!  We were all laughing at how fast it went compared to the other grossly overweight cars, crossing the finish line while the other cars were about halfway down the flat section of the track.  Rowan got a certificate and really wanted a medal like his brothers both got (for participation).  Instead, our Scout Master had an extra misspelled trophy that he let Rowan have.  Rowan carried it around all weekend in the box.  He would then carefully remove it from the box, show people, then put it immediately back in.

Overall, even though we were a little disappointed in the results, we had a great time!  We also took back some learnings for next year, the main one being that most people out here are type "A"s and so we will need to bear down and reevaluate how we do the cars.  It's a good opportunity to introduce such concepts as "reflective dialogue", which I've been itching to try!

Girls love a man in uniform.  Especially when that uniform has beads on it!

Riley waiting patiently for the first race of the day, which featured his car.  He won it by a car length!

The Tiger and Wolves accepting their trophies.

Rowan showing off his trophy.

I don't know why Rebecca took this picture prior to the open competition:  these boy scouts (mostly older brothers of the cub scouts, also know as "lambs for the fan car slaughter") were so full of hope and life before the first heat.  Looking back, it just seems cruel now...

Everyone eagerly anticipating the results.

Last Impressions of Korea

Overall, Korea was nice.  The food was outstanding, it was beautiful and the people were nice.  Main negative was that the service was consistently terrible in hotels, restaurants and with some others we encountered in business.  That's OK though because I have become more impatient and pushy over the last year, so I was able to get around just fine!

It's been awhile since I posted a toilet picture.  Someone told me I never had to again, imagine that!  So instead, above is a picture of the control panel for my hotel toilet.  Yes, that picture over the word "DRY" is a rear end...

Nice artwork in the hotel, nothing special, just very odd.

Close up of the above art.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a riceteria!

OK, now start your engines

We're ready!  The McLains have completed our 3 offerings for the greater Shanghai area pinewood derby.  Tomorrow is the big day, races start for us at noon and depending on how deep the boys go, we may leave after 5:00pm.

Front of the cars is to the left.  Reids is the red, white, and blue one.  Riley went with black and a "Born in the USA" decal.  Rowan and I are entering the open class with a fan car...

Korea (South)!

This week I am in Korea for a few days with several colleagues from the U.S.  We've been able to sneak out for an hour or two at a time to see a bit of Seoul and Yeosu.  Below are a few impressions:

First, we begin with street food!  This was a waffle like batter pumped onto a hot griddle.  He dropped a peanut and a bit of some sort of butter in the middle.  Excellent!

It was cold!!!  After Thailand and it's 85 degrees, this was a bit of a harsh trip.  It was around freezing (today supposedly in the 20's).  It didn't deter a ton of people from hitting the ice rink in the city center though.

This has everything I love in a good picture of Asia:  The old (palace in the back ground), the new (building on the left) and the respectful statue.  It didn't hurt that there was a kid with Minnie Mouse ears in it either!

What is that?!?!?!

Oh it's a shrub where each branch is individually wrapped in straw so it will survive the winter, duh!

An e-bike with a sissy bar.  Part of me was tempted to hang around to see what sort of rebel would tool around on this.  Definitely someone to hang out with, I think.

Just a random shot down a side street.  The number of signs is overwhelming!

Dave posing with one of the Korea Expo 2012 mascots.  The World Expo in Shanghai was the same way a few years ago.  I don't get the fascination with the kids mascots (other than souvenirs to take back to your children while you're here).  Oh, I guess I just figured it out, never mind.

This is me taking a picture of Bill taking a picture of a ton of cameras.  Yeah, that just happened.

AAAAHHHH, there's two of them!

Remember the "pants" building that we have going up in Suzhou?  I just found the zipper for it!

Yeosu beach.

This is proof that a car in Asia CAN yield to pedestrians while they have the right of way.  Not evident from the photo is that the car has come to a complete stop and the driver wasn't honking.  So, it's not something to do with this hemisphere in general...