Weird things and other stuff...

Okay, so my week started off pretty cool. Hong comes to clean on Monday's during the summer, and I had asked her to cook for me. So, she makes me enough food to last through Thursday! The best part was my sandwich. How many of you have had a Triple-decker (of course, no crust on the bread) bacon, lettuce, mayonnaise, and fried-egg sandwich? I didn't think so. Anyway she left a note asking if I would like food for the following Monday as well. I replied yes. I got home on Friday, and things weren't right with the apartment. I walked through the door and my flip-flops I left out the night before were no longer there. Hong had come to wash windows and clean on her day off! And, the best part, she made me another sandwich. So, being extremely hungry, I decide to eat it right away. I pulled it out of the fridge, peaked at it and assumed it was the same sandwich as Monday. I took the first bite and immediately knew it was different. For Friday's rendition, I got peanut butter on it also! Try it, you might like it!....

Things I have seen this week (worked in Shanghai all week, no ZJG):

• a giant (4 meter tall) can of Raid bug spray. SC Johnson has a factory here and the can is mounted in their entry way. It's probably a little harder to take than the Big Boy is at home. Something about the armed guards at the gate kind of keep you away!


• Remember the "Baby on Board" signs posted in every minivan across America in the late '80's and early '90's? While China has their own version, except it says, "Baby on Road". Yes, Karen, apparently they tell their children to go play in the road here in China also....


• Went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market and visited the Pippenger's on Saturday. First, Jane at the market had only seen me once. She remembered who I was, who Natalie and Elise were, what their face shapes and hair lengths were, and what they had purchased in the past! It makes gift buying much easier when all you have to do is say what you want matched up or ask what would accent their face and hair. If only it was that easy in the States! I may have started buying jewelry much earlier in my marriage....After the Market, it was on to Pippenger's and out to dinner at Johnny Moo's (again, thinking of Roger the milkmaid and Karen the cow). I felt like I was walking into some diner in cow country. The place is painted in big white and black polka dots, and the waitresses wear white uniforms. They kind of look like nurses, but it works. Anyways, they had the best Strawberry Shake I have had since moving here. It will definitely be another reason to go and visit the Pippenger's


• Sunday I went to YuYuan Gardens to shop for more gifts. I ended up with an ox bone Xian warrior chess set. The pieces are about 7 cm tall, and it is in a nice box. It was interesting to teach the salesgirl what the pieces were called in English, and then show her how they can move on the board. Although she sells the boards to mostly English-speaking people, she had no idea how to play, nor what the pieces were. After a fifteen minute lesson, she had it down. I received another discount off the agreed upon price for the lesson. I will probably stop by the shop again the next time I am at the Gardens and see if she remembers anything.


• at the Gardens, I saw a little boy sitting on a mythical creature that looked like a lion. He had been watching me take pictures and when he saw me take his, he continued to watch me walk by. So, here is the best picture I have of him riding the creature (the people in front were getting their pictures taken by someone else). Do you remember when you thought you had the bull (animal, creature, whatever?) by the horns and nothing was going to stop you?
• Rode my bike to Carrefour tonight for a quick grocery run. I didn't lock it up and thought on the way there that I probably should have brought one of the kids' locks. Anyway, I put it in the row of 1000 bicycles and tried to hide it to the best of my ability. After shopping for 15 minutes, I walk outside, and lo and behold, no bicycle where I had left it. So, being tired and wondering if I was hallucinating, I decided to walk the whole row of bicycles to see if it moved itself (in four months in Shanghai, I have yet to see another Sidewinder like mine). When I got all the way to the end of the alley in front of the store and was getting ready to follow a path out to the main road, I found my bike (or it found me, I'm not quite sure which?)! There is a little hut at the end of the alley with three people standing around it. My bike was leaning against it with a bar lock on the tire. I point to the bike and tell them it is mine, they laugh, we play charades, I am told to sit down, one of the guys takes off. Here I sit wondering how much it's going to cost me to get their lock off my bike so I can get it back! Five minutes later the guy returns with a key, takes the lock off, hands me my bike, I think he tells me I should really lock up my bike?, and then waves me away. After a quick, "Xie xie (thank you)!", I am back on the road. I stopped to ask our DVD lady why this would happen and she had no idea. Anyone else have any ideas?

Anyway, my family will be back tomorrow night, so I had better finish unpacking all my stuff from three weeks ago. I am sure they will have things to post when the come back. Take care for now, Mark