On Valentine's Day and Mom....
The above video Valentine greetings are about the extent of things here...although I did get some heart shaped candy tins for everybody today. Helen's friend Lawrence wanted to see her in a video, so here she is...
Valentine's Day was always a big deal in my family because its my Mom's birthday...so Happy Birthday to Mom....a number of folks have asked for an update on her health. She is continuing to hold her own with radiation treatments, some weakness and other nuisances, but OK. We are optimistic that she will be cancer free when they are done, but for now we just wait and see -- this round of treatments will be done next week. Thanks so much for all the prayers.
On Carrefour...
I finally made it to the Carrefour today, because I took the girls to a play group at the home of an American woman who happened to live a few blocks away. For the uninitiated, Carrefour is a European chain store, kind of like a Walmart. For many years, before Walmart and Metro came to China, they were THE place to find western foods in China. And today I found ground coffee, cheddar cheese, hot chocolate and curry sauce packets with directions in English -- all in about 10 minutes..plus an HSBC ATM machine. It was very satisfying -- kind of like the first time I shopped at Wegman's (Western New York reference). Its a lot closer than Metro, the coffee was cheaper, and the whole place was more efficient and pleasing than a Walmart. Can't believe it took me 6 months to get here (it is still not exactly around the corner, but a 20 minute, $2 cab ride away).
On "Bad Kitty" by Nick Bruel
Do you know "Bad Kitty"? We have been reading it since last summer -- it has the offbeat sense of humor that Helen loves best, and she now reads it to Sophia all the time. It is an alphabet book with lots of foods for the kitty. We have been pleased that the food for X was xigua (the Chinese word for watermelon), and while on vacation we discovered the food for Y --yak yogurt-- in Lijiang. So we emailed the author and to our great delight he replied the next day. (and while he has been to China, he denies having any idea that yak yogurt was real:) So for his quick and friendly reply he gets a free plug for this very funny book on the blog...
On a family with too much free time..
While we are on a product endorsement kick...we would like to tell you that tonight's blog is brought to you by POCKY, the family treat that gets you revved up on chocolate goodness enough to design a commercial...here I am being force fed one by Sophia...imagine crunchy pretzel-ish sticks dipped in chocolate. We were having a boring night in a hotel room in Longyuan in central Fujian -- not exactly a happening town -- when I returned from a snack forage with them, and we were transformed immediately into a POCKY party. And tonight we had them again -- complete with knock -knock jokes and interviews with POCKY microphones. We are a silly, simple people over here....and small things please us! Like the fact the sun shone today for a few hours...can't you tell!?!?
1 comment:
We get Pocky at the Walmart in Kansas. My daughter from China now has her entire gymnastics team eating them. Her favorite flavor is strawberry. She calls them pocky sticks and uses them much as your family does - what a fun snack!
Vonna in Kansas
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