1 Month to Go!

I guess the countdown officially begins now … one month from now we will be on a plane to Thailand.  I suppose the countdown really began when we made the decision to make this trip back in November, but a one-month “official” countdown sounds better, I guess.  With so many things happening at work now as the semester is winding down, I am not sure I want this deadline approaching too quickly, however.

We spent much of the day in Atlanta on Saturday, Aussie Rules in the morning for me and a bit of eating and shopping in the afternoon for us all.  The weather was unexpectedly in the 80’s during the morning, but when the rain hit after my game was over, the temperatures dipped into the 60’s.  Brrrr.  Temperatures only reached the 50’s yesterday (Sunday), so we stayed in for the day and invited our Wisconsin neighbors over for a wonderful Thai lunch (pud see-ew, volcano chicken, Jet’s home-made dessert) and some heated battles of rummycube.  We had such a good time, it really brought back memories of home.  Well, almost.

While Jet was working on Friday, she served a woman who lives in the area that is married to a Thai, her son who is just a few months older than Ben, and her Thai mother-in-law.  After talking with them, Jet found out that there are apparently 6 or 7 Thai families living in the area.  Jet has invited the family she served on Friday over to the house today, so we’ll see what happens there.

Carnival

We took Ben to his first carnival on Wednesday evening.  Sure, it was no Wisconsin State Fair, but it was quaint, had a few rides, as well as lots of excitement … all in the JC Penny parking lot.  When we first arrived, Jet took Ben on the ‘big slide’.  I think Jet had a good time, but Ben screamed his head off all the way down.  We strolled around a few minutes more to check out all of the other rides – none of which Ben could ride on until we got to the circling race cars.  Ben seemed fine once he was strapped in, but every time he would make a loop around passing us, he would reach out his arms and give a loud ‘uugh’ as if to say “get me out of here!”

I think Ben has finally turned the corner on his latest teething binge.  When I arrived home yesterday evening from work Ben was just a joy to be around.  Running around.  Laughing.  Eating.  Hiding toys in drawers and cabinets, which happens to be Ben’s new kick.  What’s up with that?  Ben has also been found to be hiding his sippy cups from time to time as well.  Regardless, I am just glad that he appears to be out of all the pain he has been suffering over the past two weeks or so.

Another Tom Cruise Sighting

… and further embarrassment followed.  While at the Easter egg hunt on Saturday, a couple of the older kids approached me and asked if I knew that I looked like Tom Cruise.  What is this?  Am I reaching out to a younger demographic now?  Like I said before, I don’t think I look anything like him, but I have never been compared to any other celebrity before.  Ever.  What gives?

Ben had a rough night sleeping for the second night in a row.  It’s almost as if he had nightmares and couldn’t or didn’t want to go back to sleep.  Lately Ben has wanted to be held more often too.  I wish he could tell us what the problem is.  I just figure that he is in a bit of pain as new teeth are coming in.  It’s just a guess, though.  Ben has also been a goofy kid at times lately.  While watching Ben as Jet worked on Sunday, he would trot around the living room with a silly grin and chuckle while I just kept an eye on him.  What a silly boy.  Ben also left a ‘floater’ in the tub last night for the first time as Jet was giving him a bath.  Kristin ought to appreciate that one.

We are currently under a ‘freeze warning’ because the temperatures have dipped to under 32 degrees.  That has gotten a lot of people crazy down here as a few have already started planting their gardens and most folks generally don’t like the cold weather down here.  Someone had left their jacket behind at Lodge last night and as I was leaving, I was asked if it was mine.  Since it was 40 degrees at the time, I replied “It has to be cold to wear a jacket.”  I was the only one without a jacket or coat on last night, though.  I am not really surprised by the “cold” weather because the Blackberry Winter has yet to arrive.  I am also not that concerned about the “cold” since we don’t plan on planting much of anything this year and also because we are supposed to reach nearly 80 degrees for the next 10 days.  Don’t feel bad for us.

Happy Easter!

I am just about all jelly-beaned out!  I so look forward to those sweet little buggers every year.  Ben went on his first Easter egg hunt yesterday and it was a blast.  Ben actually did a good job finding the eggs and stashing them away in his basket.  He ran into problems when another kid would follow Ben around searching for eggs as everything he found Ben would place in their baskets!  How unselfish.  I just wonder how long that kind of behavior will last.

We invited out fellow Wisconsinite neighbors over for breakfast for what we hope will be the start of a new tradition.  I threw in some Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits in the oven (I don’t think I could have gotten away with that if there were any Alabamians at the table with us), fried some sausage links and bacon (incidentally, one of the first times that I have ever ‘made’ bacon), boiled a kielbasa, and made about a dozen scrambled eggs while our neighbors brought over some danish (can’t get Kringle down here) and a hash brown casserole.  We all had a good time and I really hope that this is a tradition that will stick.  No ham and potato salad for dinner, however, as our Wisconsin neighbors will have us over for lasagna and cheesecake for dinner.  Here’s to starting new traditions, I guess.

Spring break is almost over and I will be sad to leave for work tomorrow morning.  I am really glad that I had the chance to spend much more time with Ben and Jet since our trip to Virgina last week.  Ben was a bit feverish over the past few days and I think it was because he was teething.  He rarely wanted to eat and was very picky about the stuff he did eat, mainly fruits (grapes, cantaloupe, melon) and not too many of his favorite snacks (crackers, cookies, etc.).  It still hasn’t stopped Ben from going to the bathroom, which I take as a sign that he is still pretty healthy.  I’m sure that this is a phase or transition that he is going through.  Jet and I have joked that he has become a vegetarian as he has recently shunned away all meats in favor of his favorite fruits and vegetables.  I am not sure there are many vegetarian babies, though.  Right?

Spring …. Break

Well, the change of pace has been dramatic since coming back home from Virginia.  I have been able to complete all of my grading and a few other various tasks for school, but I have not been working nearly as hard as I had before the break.  I guess this is what a break is all about.  We haven’t gone out and done much, nor do we have much planned in the next few days, so I guess we’ll see where the week takes us.

I spend much of the day on Monday doing some spring cleaning inside and outside of the house.  I mopped our hardwood floor and scrubbed a bit of it by hand to catch a lot of the drink spills and food drops that we missed or didn’t get that well over the past few months.  We cleaned out the refrigerator, which we are now working on clearing out so that there will not be much left inside by the time we leave for Thailand.  We had one of Jet’s good friend from her mother’s group over on Sunday evening with her husband and daughter for brats.  In fact, this was the first pack of brats we ate from the shipment Lou and Kristin sent over as a birthday present.  We chose the ‘Packer’ brats … and they were wonderful!  They were so good that Jet even liked them!  It is getting pretty funny for me as over the past few months Jet has started to take a liking and even gotten a craving for some American food, like hamburgers and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  After nine years in the US, she has started to like those foods.  Strange.

We are supposed to be getting some strong storms in a few hours (that pattern of every 4-5 days), so lets hope that it is nothing too severe.  This weekend I do not have an Aussie Rules football match, but we still may go to Atlanta to get some shopping in and shore up some gifts to bring back to Thailand with us.  Sunday is Easter (already?) and we pulled out Ben’s basket from last year and bought a little candy but lots of his snacks (crackers, etc.) to stuff inside it.  It really brings me back to Easter last year and the company we had before (Janette and family) and the company we had after (Dad, Kristin and family).  And who can forget the cheese tort delivered in person by Dad directly from Aunt Sue’s house?  Gosh, I really will miss that this year Renee’.   I truly can’t believe how much Renee’s cheese tort tastes just like Grandma’s.  One of these days when I acquire all of the supplies (double boiler, etc.) and ingredients, I will give it a try.  Maybe it is better that I not, though, if I want to keep my weight down.

Back Home

We were a bit delayed from our arrival back home by a little more than two hours, but we are back home and are resting up just fine after a busy few days.  We did board our airplane on time and were ready to leave, but we were informed just then that the Atlanta airport was closed so we would have to wait.  After a little more than an hour, an hour that we were able to get Ben to sleep, we were off into the air and to Atlanta.  We must have taken a round-a-bout way back there as we were in the air for almost two hours when it was only a one hour flight on the way there.  Ben was awake the whole time, but he was a good boy and didn’t cause any hassles for us and everyone around us.  After a pretty uneventful drive home, we arrived at our house at 9:00pm and went straight to bed.

Greetings From Virginia

Well, I guess it’s not really greetings as we are waiting at the airport for our plane to arrive so that we can leave at 4:15pm.  It still says that our plane is ‘on time’, so lets hope that stays so.  The flight before us (departs at 2:25pm) is still here and says that it’s ‘delayed’.  As much as I love Ben, I hope to not spend any more time than necessary on the plane with him.  The flight to Richmond went well as Ben was rather playful.  That was a big surprise to us as he was up at 5:30am with us all the way until we boarded the plane at 9:50am.  Of course Ben was awake the whole flight until (and I am not making this up) about 30 seconds until the plan landed.  At least he got 10 good minutes of sleep until we had to de-board the plane.

We were pretty hungry once we picked up our rental SUV that was given to us (Jeep Liberty) so we stopped at a Subway for a quick bite before our first sight-seeing destination on Thursday.  After eating in the Subway parking lot, we headed off to the Botanical Gardens, about 15-20 minutes away.  When we arrived, Jet was about to step out of the car when she realized that she only had one shoe!  What to do!  Jet figured that it fell off when she was getting back into the car at Subway, so off we went back there to check it out.  Whew … shoe still sitting in our parking spot about 40 minutes after we ate there.  What a story to tell.  We then did take a visit around the Botanical Gardens and we got some nice pictures as a result that we will share in the coming days.  We then took a quick stop at the Capital building there and the Confederate ‘White House’.  By then we were nearly pictured out so we went to check in at our hotel, the Jefferson Hotel.  What a place!  A 5-star hotel, one of the few in the United States.  That sure did set a good tone for the trip.  Once we dropped off our bags in our room, we were off to eat dinner.  There are about 10 Thai restaurants in Richmond and 2 were nearby the hotel, so we decided to stop off at the ‘Thai room’ – about two blocks away.  We both thought that the food was OK, but nothing spectacular.  I guess we are getting picky about our food.  After no Thai food options in Oxford, we really shouldn’t complain.  I checked into the conference at the new VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) school of business, which just opened this January.  What a building!  I have never seen such a high tech, modern, and fancy building in my life.  And it is a school!  I guess they were in such a rush to open the building, that there were still quite a few kinks still being worked out during our time there (fixing computer labs, putting together final touches, fire alarm going off twice, etc.), but nonetheless, the facility was both spectacular and amazing.

I spent most of the day at the conference on Friday and Jet took Ben out shopping.  I think she had a good time as I heard no major complaints.  While at the conference, I was able to meet several nice faculty members and doctoral students, one that I became fast friends with.  That particular student is currently going to school in Atlanta (Georgia State University) and also had his wife and daughter (almost 4 years old) attending with him.  By the time we made it back to the hotel for dinner, Jet had already met the wife and daughter of the Atlanta student and got along great for the rest of our time here in Richmond.  After dinner, both us and our new Atlanta friends decided to take a dip in the pool to catch a bit of relaxation.  What a nice help that was.  This morning (Saturday) my presentation was in the first session at 9:30am and it went well.  I would have liked more people to have attended, but what can you do when it is the first presentation on the last day of the conference.  After that, we checked out of the hotel, had lunch to close the conference, and headed back to the airport.  Just before we left, however, we stopped at another Thai restaurant to take some food on-the-go with us to eat while waiting for our plane.  Jet has informed me that the food also was not that good and that they had forgotten to give her rice with her meal.  She was disappointed.  Again, I guess that we have high expectations.

So we are now just waiting for our plane to arrive.  From my last look at the weather a couple hours ago, it appeared that all of the rain would have passed us and we should have a clear drive home.  Let’s hope that is the case.  The weather the entire time here in Virginia was fantastic.  70’s and sunny.  No hint of rain despite that it was forecasted a few days back.  What a pleasant surprise.  Well, back home soon enough and back to our spring break.  I doubt that it will be a break for me as I have to catch-up on grading, finalizing the semester for my classes, and continue getting ready for Thailand.  I guess that is what I will have that to look forward to instead of Easter with the family.  What a bad deal that is!

Happy Birthday, Jet!

The birthday party we hosted on Sunday was a blast!  Jet and I made homemade pizza together and all of the guests loved Jet’s ‘Thai’ and ‘Alfredo’ pizzas.  Jet ordered a huge cake at Just Desserts (the same place where I picked up the chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentines Day) and I tried out a new cheesecake recipe.  Strange enough, the guests seemed to like my cheesecake over the fancy cake.  We think it was because the cake was just too rich.  Jet’s friends at her mother’s group surprised her with a Coach wallet and Ben just had a great time running around with the other kids.  What a great day and I am glad it was a birthday party that Jet really enjoyed.  Today is officially Jet’s birthday, so I might have to talk her into going out to eat tonight.  Perhaps at the Outback steakhouse as we have only eaten there once before (Christmas 2006) and Jet has heard that one of the managers there is Thai.  I have already called in Jet’s birthday to the radio station … we’ll see if she gets lucky today and has her named picked!

As you can see, there is visual evidence of the snow we got on Saturday morning.  Those were pictures that I took just before I left for my 5K run in Oxford.  When I arrived at the run, it was a nearly a whiteout with all of the snow in the air and strong winds.  I am sad to report that I had likely one of my worst performances in a 5K ever, a 27:23 (compared to a 26:30 in the same run last year).  I would like to chalk that up to the weather conditions that made running miserable, but everyone in the neighborhood figured that I would have done much better given how many times I had run in the snow and cold before in Milwaukee (remember the Blarney run in 2005 Sandy?).  I guess I could have done better, but how do you train for running in snow and 30 degree weather after training in much better conditions over the past two years?  I almost feel like I let everyone down.  Oh, well.  Hopefully I can do better in the next run, whenever that will be.

Spring break, which begins next week, is fast approaching.  The only significant plans that we have is attending a conference in Virgina from this Thursday until Saturday.  I am sure that I will still be busy grading, preparing for the final few weeks in the semester, and preparing for our trip to Thailand.  I have tried to learn a new Thai phrase each day from some old CD’s that Jet bought me a few years back (e.g., ”How are you?” , “I’m pleased to meet you.”, ”My name is …”, etc.), but I find myself having a difficult time replicating the exact phrasing as said on the CD, and when I practice with Jet, she gives me a crazy look like, “What did you just try to say?”, before correcting me.  I guess any extra bit of Thai that I can learn will hopefully help.

Now that we got that snow past us on Saturday, we have been having temperatures back in the 70’s and perhaps 80’s forecasted through next week.  I hear that the temperatures are also rising in Milwaukee, too.  That’s good news.  Jet will take advantage of the good weather today by going with some of the gals from the mother’s group to the Birmingham zoo for the first time with Ben.  Hopefully that will be a lot of fun for him.  Ben has been a pretty good boy for the past few days – he hasn’t been sick, so I can’t complain.  Ben has gotten much more picky eating food now.  All of his favorites that he would eat all of the time he now just outright refuses to eat.  There has been times where the only thing I could get him to eat is crackers, snacks, and a little fruit.  I feel like an awful parent giving him that junk food, but since he would refuse everything else I would give him, if he didn’t eat that junk, he would starve.  Jet told me yesterday that Ben said “uh oh” for the first time.  I guess I will have to hear that to believe it.  Ben will be turning 14 months on Sunday so I wonder how much longer it will be until his vocabulary increases from the limited “ba”, “da”, “ma”, and other noises he makes.

Brett Favre

I guess I’ll always have a memorable story about how I first found out that Brett Favre had retired from the Green Bay Packers.  My morning class on Tuesdays is an introduction to e-commerce class, and on this past Tuesday, we were covering e-commerce marketing techniques.  As I prepared for class over the weekend, I had planned to visit a series of different Websites to show the different ways that they used online advertisements.  One that I had planned to show was jsonline.com.  Just before class began at 9:00am, I quickly checked each of those sites out that I planned to visit to make sure they worked.  No problem.  A few minutes into class, at about 9:30am, I went out to my first Website example to show, jsonline.com.  After about 30 seconds of pointing out the different types of advertisements on the Website, my eyes tracked to the breaking news that literally took-up over half the page – “Brett Favre to Retire”.  What a sock in the gut that was.  Here I was, rambling on about online advertisements, then an awkward pause of about 15-20 seconds of me trying to process what I had just seen with no words coming out of my mouth.  That pause ended when I said perhaps the most obvious thing, “I didn’t expect to see that.”  I know, genius.

The weather is supposed to be pretty decent today (70’s), but rain will be coming tomorrow, and cold temperatures afterwards.  They are even saying we could get snow flurries Saturday morning.  Incidentally, I have my first 5K of the year on Saturday in Oxford at 8:00am.  If I wanted to run in the snow, I could just take a trip back up to Milwaukee!  There are a few other items coming up in the near-term as well.  We are planning to have some guests over on Sunday, perhaps for some pizza, to celebrate Jet’s birthday party.  Spring break starts at the end of next week and we will be traveling to Virginia for a conference next weekend.  We will be busy!

Jet Ciganek – U.S. Citizen

After all the years of waiting, after all the paperwork, and yes, after all of the money spent in fees, Jet took the oath of citizenship yesterday afternoon in Atlanta and became a U.S. citizen.  Hooray!  If you can say anything about the whole process, I certainly have a different perspective on being a U.S. citizen than I had before I knew Jet.  We forgot to bring our camera to Atlanta with us, so we stopped at a nearby Target and bought a disposable camera to capture the moment.  Hopefully those pictures will turn out.  We’ll share them with you once we get them developed.

We had a few big storms pass through this morning at around 3:00am – the most dangerous kind when it is in the middle of the night.  As it turned out, the punch was lost from the storms after they passed through Birmingham, so all we got was a few inches of rain.  Not bad since I see that we are still in the extreme drought conditions.

Glad to hear that Sandy doesn’t mind the way Ben now smiles.  Jet even started calling him ‘chipmunk’ yesterday a few times.  We’ll see what comes of that.  I’ll try and get a picture of that smile up on the blog.

We have also booked our tickets for Thailand.  We will be leaving on April 30 and returning August 25.  What a trip this will be.  I also know that I will be teaching 1 MBA class and 1 executive MBA class.  I will start preparing for that in the coming weeks.