I have won the war!

For the past six months I have been at war with the scummy tiles in our bathroom. I have tried scotch pads, Ajax, steel wool pads, and all sorts of tile cleaners...none of them even dented the grayish film that adhered itself to the tiles. A friend suggested using acid...the only problem with that suggestion is that the bathroom floor is marble and although the acid would have removed the film it would have also pitted the marble. So two months ago I threw my hands up and tried to ignore the tiles...until today, I got back in the battle and this time I was the victor! I used toilet bowl cleaner...3 bottles of toilet bowl cleaner to be exact. I poured one bottle all over the bathroom, let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes, then I scrubbed it off with a scotch pad, rinsed and then repeated these same steps two more times. It was long, tedious, and I breathed in lots of strange fumes. But the whole time I kept singing 'We shall overcome.'

Brain Clog

I have diagnosed myself with Brain Clog. The symptoms are as follows:

• Lack of focus resulting in clumsiness.
• Watching peoples lips move but not understanding the words coming out of their mouths...and not just because they are speaking another language.
• Strong caffeine dependency
• Feeling deprived of steady streams of coherent thoughts
• Distracting oneself with mindless Internet surfing to avoid thinking altogether.
• High irritability...especially while doing activities that require thought such as talking, cooking, studying and listening...so basically I stay irritable all day unless I am Internet surfing...poor Z.

I was shopping one day...

...and I saw this fabric with this strange little creature stamped on it. To me it looks like a hybrid elephant / teenage mutant ninja turtle.

Just so ya know...

...if you buy flash cards in curryland... they might not have the proper spelling.

Who can blame them, English is far from phonetic.

B-day Partaay!

On Saturday I shared my birthday with this little girl...isn't she cute!!! She made my birthday cake...

and I made hers...

When it was time to blow out candles she quickly blew out my one candle and then blew out her candles...I should have known the four year old would be greedy with the birthday wishes.

What were we thinking!!!

Ok Mom do not read this post...
seriously it will give you a heart attack...
Z and I needed to make a quick trip to the capital city... Since we spent a lot of money on vacation (which was so worth it) we decided to make this trip really cheap. On usual runs to the capital we procure a taxi, this time around we decided to drive our own motorcycle. We contemplated the risks, logistics, and savings...but mostly our decision was made based on the thrill of doing something adventurous (or crazy). I have to confess that the night before our trip I couldn't sleep very well...I was giddy with anticipation of what the trip would be like, I would compare my feelings to a kindergartner the night before the first day of school.
This is the trip in a nutshell:
Left the house at 6 am with the song "Born to be wild" playing in my head...6:05 realized we forgot the map and had to turn around...6:08 map in tow replaying "Born to be wild" much more anticlimactic the second go around...6:20 got outside our city, no more street lights, really dark and LOTS of fog...6:21 panic went through my brain - we could not see 4ft in front of us because of the fog...6:37 my nose started running because it was cold - runny noses are so annoying...6:54 with fog there is condensation so after riding close to an hour in the fog our clothes were wet...7:06 darkness was breaking into day, the sky was a beautiful dark blue...7:30 with wet clothes and cold winds I started shivering...7:09 my nose is still runny so I am thinking of creative ways to keep snot off of my visor...7:12 I resort to licking my snot off my upper lip like a 3 year old...7:58 we take a wrong turn, luckily we have our map and we find our way...8:35 arrive in the capital city...8:42 the capital city's streets are not marked very well so we take a series of wrong turns...
9:17 we finally arrive to our destination, when I got of the bike I couldn't straighten my legs for 6 minutes...I was definitely walking with a 'hitch in my get up'. Z and I warmed ourselves by the electric heater, dried our clothes with my hair dryer and drank a warm cup of chai...we were as good as new.

it takes a village...

One of our friends is on the search for a wife...actually his parents are the ones searching and arranging and he just gives input to his likes and dislikes. When he visited us two nights ago he described what kind of wife he was looking for...Z likes to be very helpful to his single friends and so proceeded with his opinions. Z told him he should marry a woman from a village because they work harder than city women...he then backed up his opinion by saying 'my wife is from a village, see village women are better.' I did not know whether Z was complimenting me or patronizing me ~ village people are not spoken highly of here ~ so I started my rebuttal...'I am from a small city in America where there is a lot of open land, even though livestock outnumber people it is a city...' I then stopped describing my small city in the mountains because I realized that many of our friends here would consider it a village. So now when people ask me where I am from I am simply going to tell them I come from a village in America no need living in denial any longer.

The end of vacations are so sad

...no regrets though, we definitely made the most of 9 days!

• Saw the largest aquarium in South Asia
• Got a facial and foot massage
• Toured the Grand Palace
• Wanted to move into the Grand Palace
• Climbed up then down the 'steepest steps ever'! If you ever visit the Wat Arun temple you will know what I am talking about.
• Almost threw up on the 'steepest stairs ever'.
• Enjoyed Starbucks coffee - we do not have Starbucks in the country we live.
• Went shopping 7 days out of the 9
• Gave both my nieces hundreds of hugs and kisses!

The most fulfilling vacations are the ones spent building memories with ones family.

How lucky can a girl get!

Romantic dinner cruise in the evening...


Sightseeing and adventures by day...

...and semi precious gemstones for gifts...
I mean really how lucky am I...Z is wonderful!

AMAZING!

Being on Vacation means...
Taking leisurely strolls and stopping to smell the flowers...

Ingesting 5000 calories in one meal...

Never knowing where you are going :)

{ Trip to another curryland }

Our vacation destination is to a close by country that also has curry!...which fortunately maintains continuity for my blogging purposes. We leave early tomorrow morning for the airport. Here is a rundown of all the tasks that we have busied ourselves with in order to have everything squared away before we leave. Let me know if this list resembles any of your travel preparation lists.

• Went to the pharmacy and picked up meds for stomach viruses (just in case), congestion (Z has head and chest junk) and deworming medicine - we are ridding tummies of our current curryland friends.
• Z bought new pad locks, chains and door locks for all exterior and interior doors. If by chance someone gets through the three locks on one of exterior doors they still have to get through the locks on the bedroom, kitchen, closet, and bathroom doors to get to our belongings. Our most valuable belongings (which is not much at all!) will be with us...so if some one decides to break into our home they will be going through a lot trouble for clothes, sheets, and towels :)
• We made an itemized list for insurance purposes of furniture and belongings in our home...so the clothes, sheets and towels are insured - woohoo!
• We have to move our washing machine inside the house - I do not have laundry room, the washer machine has been outside this whole time.
• We gave a trusted friend keys to our gate so he can check on the house and pick up our mail, we also gave him money to pay our bills.
• Finally we have to take a language test...mainly for our own reassurance that actually have learned something.

Hopefully in the midst of all these preparations we will not forget important stuff like packing underwear!

Z almost lost his left big toe!

Yup, he did almost lose his toe...I saw the whole thing. I have to give you background info first before expounding on the toe incident.
A couple of months ago we were walking to the store which we regularly do and we stopped and talked with this elderly man because he looked a little lonely. In the middle of our conversation with the cute old man who had hairy ears a passerby on a motorcycle stopped because he was curious about us. This guy was in his early twenties and talked in a really low pitched muscle man voice...it was really obnoxious...Z remained cordial and we ended both conversations and went on our way.
Ever since that chance meeting we kept 'running into' the young guy...in fact I started calling him Z's stalker because every other day he would end up at the same place as us and strike up conversations with Z. We think this stalker kid is on some sort of dope that body builders take...not only does he act weird, but his voice sounds weird and his upper body is weirdly disproportionate with the rest of his frame. So I can understand his fascination with Z, because lets face it Z is a hunk!
A couple of weeks ago we ran into him for like the 15th time in 5 weeks...Z, in the nicest way possible broke the news that it would not be a good idea for them to hang out. Since then we have not seen stalker kid until today...Actually he saw us, before we saw him and headed our way on his motorcycle at a very high speed...We saw him when the front wheel of his motorcycle was on the top of Z's left big toe. Nothing happened to Z's toe, and stalker kid felt horrible...I showed my annoyance with stalker kid and left to do my errands while they talked...I am very happy I left the situation, Z later told me that the guy has started modeling and had pictures of himself to show Z ~ It seems like I am not the only weirdo magnet in this town :)