No Sleep Till Bangkok

That must be Ben’s plan.  Yesterday he woke up at 5:00am and today he woke up at 2:00am.  Ben is not making it easy on us.  We are about 90% packed now and are in real good shape to leave on-time and (hopefully) worry-free tomorrow.

The fish fry at the lodge last night was very good as there was plenty of fish, hush puppies, slaw, potatoes, and desserts for everyone.  Jet is going out to eat with her friends for lunch today and tonight we are taking Donald and Linda out to eat at the Cracker Barrel.  It is the least that we can do for them as they will be the primary ones keeping an eye out on our house.  Our Wisconsin neighbors will be cutting our grass for us while Donald and Linda will be collecting our mail, watering our yard, and doing various odd-jobs (e.g., flushing the toilets periodically, turning on the faucets, driving our cars once a month, etc.) so our house should be in good shape.  We had the cable TV and Internet taken away this morning, so this will likely be our last post in the US for a while.

Well, off to finish packing and cleaning the house.  Here’s a video Jet put together for you to enjoy.  Hope to keep hearing from you and getting updates while we are overseas!

All The Details

So here are the (early) details about our trip.  Our Wisconsin neighbor (Dan) will drive us to the Atlanta airport on Wednesday (April 30) at around 1:00pm.  We should arrive in Atlanta by around 4:00pm (3:00pm Central Time) and have a little time for a bite to eat at a Thai restaurant before we reach the airport.  Our flight leaves at 6:45pm (5:45pm Central Time) for Los Angeles, arriving at 8:37pm (10:37pm Central Time).  Our flight leaves there at 11:45pm (1:45am Central Time) and arrives in Hong Kong at 5:25am (4:25pm Central Time on May 1).  Our flight leaves Hong Kong at 8:55am (7:55pm Central Time) and arrives in Bangkok at 10:35am (10:35pm Central Time).  It is exactly 12 hours difference between Central Time and Thailand Time.

Once we arrive in Bangkok (the first time I will have arrived in the morning there instead of at midnight), Assumption University (ABAC) will have a van ready to take us to the Hua Mak (downtown) campus where I will have a chance to drop off my luggage and get oriented to the school (told of the class schedule, given course materials, etc.) and schedule meetings with the Dean of the Graduate School and with the MBA Program Director.  I have been arranged studio-type accomodations at the Queen’s Tower (“Q” Building), which may actually be the same building that I will teach classes in.  I guess I will find out quite a bit more once I am actually there. 

After that, who knows?  My first class is on May 10, so Jet’s Mom may be there at the airport to greet us, travel to ABAC with us, then take us to Phitsanulok (Jet’s hometown) – about a 5 hour drive north.  As long as I have everything I need and I am prepared for class, I think I would really like a chance to spend some time in Phitsanulok to relax, eat some good food, and just enjoy being in Thailand.  We return home on August 25, so there should be a good bit of time to do some travel and sightseeing along with the work.

4 More Days!

Jeez, only 4 more days!  I have finished things at JSU, now I just have to pack for the trip.  Jet has been getting on my case about packing for the last two days, so I think I better get it done tomorrow.  As the hours continue to tick on by, the stress level just might be rising as well.  Speaking of the trip, I have started a new blog where I will post updates for the work I am doing in Thailand.  I will still update this blog about life in general in Thailand, that is, things that are not work related.

This has been a pretty busy weekend around here with the spring Talladega races happening.  Jet was very busy at the Olive Garden last night and Ben and I stopped by today just to say hello, but she didn’t have much time to talk with all of the tables she was serving.  Tonight might be her last day working at the Olive Garden so I wanted to stop by with Ben and hopefully give her a good evening.  I spoke to Dad earlier in the week and he did say that he was interested in coming back down here for the fall Talladega races (October 5th, I believe).  So if there is anyone looking for an excuse to travel down here in the future, you could have a travel companion to fly with.  I’ll keep an eye out for flight specials while in Thailand.

Payback?

So the reason why we haven’t had any comments in a while?  Payback for taking a break from posting or is it that everyone has been too busy to comment?  I hope it’s the latter!

We had a ton of great food to eat yesterday.  There was a big pot-luck lunch farewell party for one of my colleagues at JSU where there were about a dozen different types of soup as well as other snacks and desserts.  Then for dinner, there were burgers, brats, chicken, beans, potato salad, and corn to go along with the banana pudding, strawberry parfait, and a variety of other goods for a farewell party for us and our Michigan neighbors.  I don’t think I lost any weight yesterday.  Tonight (Wednesday) we are planning on going out to the ‘top of the river’ to eat.  With as much left-overs that we were able to bring home, I almost feel guilty eating out.  Maybe not.  So on Saturday we still have the wedding to go to, on Sunday, the farewell party that Jet’s friends will be having for us, on Monday, the lodge will be having a fish fry that some have dubbed as a farewell party for me, but is likely just an excuse to use the new deep fryer the lodge just purchased.  It doesn’t look like we’ll be going hungry anytime soon!

Ben is just one crazy cat.  Some additional things that we have noticed is that he still seems to like vegetables and fruit over meats.  Another interesting tidbit is that Ben often likes to put food in his mouth to eat, chew on it for about a minute as if to get it’s flavor, then spit it out.  Is that normal?  For another oddity, Ben almost always insists on walking up and down stairs instead of crawling up and down them.  That gets me pretty nervous because is not that steady doing that yet.  As another example of Ben wanting to be like us, Ben tries his best to jump.  He really does.  He will even crouch down and stand up really quick as if that will get him in the air.  He will also try bouncing up to his tippy toes, but he still can’t get off the ground.  I think it will be just a matter of time until he puts it all together.

Here is a little slideshow that I put together for Ben’s 15 month birthday.  Enjoy!

Burning

Hey ya’ll.  With just over a week to go until the big trip, my thoughts are just starting to turn towards packing.  How much clothes to bring?  What to bring?  Will I forget anything?  I’m sure there will be something that I will leave behind, but hopefully with a weeks worth of planning I should fare fine.

Our game on Saturday against Nashville wasn’t close and we won 95-31, so it was a pretty good day for us.  Jet had her hands full with Ben wanting to run everywhere and anywhere for the several hours we were at the field.  With all of the fire-ant holes around the area, we were a little nervous about Ben getting away from us.  The best part of the day for me was every time I passed by Ben on the sidelines and he would recognize me, he immediately started to wave and jumped out of his umbrella stroller to run out to me and give me a hug.  I guess it was a good thing I played defense on Saturday and was on the far end of the field away from the sidelines as Ben only saw me pass by during the quarter breaks.

So what’s the ‘burning’ about?  I’ll tell ya.  With the temperatures in the 80’s the last few days, it has been very comfortable outside.  I took Ben out for a walk yesterday afternoon while Jet was working and after I came back, it felt like I was stung by something on the back of my neck.  It turns out I got sunburned after being outside for a little more than an hour.  I guess not putting on any sunscreen and wearing a black shirt contributed to that.  I don’t recall my skin ever turning that deep of a shade of red before.  Needless to say, I have been applying lotion liberally since to keep the burning down, but go figure.  That sun was mean yesterday.

A busy week planned for us kicks off today.  Jet will be taking Ben to Birmingham to the botanical gardens and perhaps the zoo (last trip to the zoo was cancelled due to cold weather).  Tomorrow Jet and Ben will be coming to JSU for lunch for a farewell party for one of my colleagues.  Some of the fellow faculty members should be bringing their young children with them to the party, so it should be a fun time.  Tomorrow night we will be having a farewell party at our Michigan neighbor’s house along with several others from the neighborhood.  On Wednesday we don’t have anything planned … yet.  We might just go out to eat at the ‘top of the river’, the best seafood restaurant in the county.  Come Thursday and Friday Jet will be working.  On Saturday we were just invited to the wedding of one of the Thai couples in the area which will be held at JSU while on Sunday we are planning on something with one of Jet’s friends.  With so little time left before we leave, I guess we’re trying to get in as much as we can.

 

We’re Still Here

Sorry about the delay in posts, but as you can imagine, we have been terribly busy.  For the past two weeks, I have been leaving for JSU at around 3:00am-4:00am every morning and not returning home until late.  There has just been so many things going on and so many things to do!  Last weekend was the state of Alabama chess tournament that I organized and hosted at JSU.  It was a big success, but sapped all of my time and energy that weekend.  Then this week started out with the last exams in each of my classes and has now ended with final presentations and reports due.  There was a lot of stuff to be graded for sure.  Then I am taking care of all of my other tasks at JSU while getting my end-of-year report ready for my evaluation – coming early this year because I won’t be here mid-May.  And then there has been getting all my class materials ready for the classes that I will be teaching in Thailand.  I hesitate to say it (knock-on-wood), but I think I am finally caught up.  Whew!

Ben had his 15-month check-up earlier in the week and Jet reported back that he was still just under 23 pounds but had grown an inch since his last check-up.  Ben has been just as wild as ever.  He is talking more and more now, with his new favorite saying, “uh oh” anytime he falls or drops something, which is often.  Other things he loves to say are ‘ball’ and ’truck’.  What can you say, he’s a boy.  Ben has been off the bottle now for almost a month and has been doing well.  The only problem we have now is that when we give him a sippy-cup to drink from, we gatta keep an eye on him because he likes to stash things away on us.  You never know what you can find on a shelf or in a cabinet when you open it now.  According to Jet, Ben also likes to cuddle a bit, which is something that I am sure she loves.  The only time I really notice it is right after he wakes up when he likes to lay his head on my shoulder and wants to be held for a few minutes.  I have also just stopped carrying Ben around in the Baby Bjorn baby carrier, partly because he is just to big for it now and partly because of an incident that happened yesterday while I was taking him for an evening stroll through the neighborhood.  During the walk, I passed by a couple of boys about Josh’s age and after I got a few steps past them, one shouted out asking if I was the pregnant man that was just on Oprah.  It will be tough to leave the Baby Bjorn aside as today when I took him using the wagon, he started getting restless about halfway through and wanted to get out.  That would never happen with the Baby Bjorn. 

As busy as I have been and I suppose also due to the stress of getting things done, I have actually lost a lot of weight.  All of this activity began the day after we went to celebrate our 5-year anniversary at the Vegas-style Sunday brunch in Anniston.  Since then, I have averaged losing a pound a day to the point where I am finally now back at my pre-holiday weight of 180 pounds.  I wonder if I will be able to keep the weight down while in Thailand?  The last time I was there (4 years ago) I weighed 215 pounds.  I guess I shouldn’t worry about it if I am able to get some jogging in during the week.  There is also an Aussie Rules team in Thailand that I might try to link up with, that is, if I have the time.

Speaking of Aussie Rules, tomorrow we will be in Atlanta for a game against the Nashville Kangaroos, the top-rival of the Atlanta club.  Also looking ahead, it appears that there will be a ‘farewell’ party of sorts for us and our Michigan neighbors just down the block from us on Tuesday.  Our Michigan neighbors (Paul and Judy) will be heading back north on Thursday to their home there now that the weather appears to have finally taken a turn for the better.  I noticed the temperatures were in the 70’s yesterday in Milwaukee – that must have been a welcome sign for you that spring might actually be here.  We have been in the 80’s, although we had another round of strong severe storms pass through last week Friday and we are supposed to get some more strong storms passing through late tonight.  That’s three Fridays in a row!  Well, that only leaves about a handful of days left before we go on the big trip.  Let’s hope things settle down a bit.

 

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 5-year anniversary. With me being at school working today and Jet working tonight, we will not have any formal celebration – that is what we had on Sunday when we went out for brunch. I did get a chance to have our name read on the radio this morning … and finally recorded it! Every radio station has a birthday and anniversary segment during their morning shows, and I am always surprised by how many people call in. You would think that we live in New York City with all of the birthdays and anniversaries each day around here.

Jet tried something new with her friends on Tuesday night and traveled to Birmingham for an art and wine event. I guess you paint and drink wine the whole evening – Jet was the designated driver. It sounded like Jet had a great time and she brought back another fabulous painting.

I am almost finished with classes this semester at JSU and I have been busy with my preparations for my semester teaching in Thailand. Gosh, it’s less than 3 weeks until we leave! It’s a good thing that I am almost finished with that work. I will be at JSU for the entire weekend as I am hosting the state of Alabama chess tournament. Hopefully it won’t be too stressful. It has been in the 80’s the last few days and should be again today and tomorrow, but tomorrow there is another chance for strong storms just like last week. Hopefully it will all pass us by.

Pleasant Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday) we ended up going out for brunch at Classic on Noble to celebrate our 5-year anniversary.  What a buffet they had … with the exception of it’s size, it rivaled the best buffets I had ever eaten at, including those in Vegas.  All of the food was fresh.  There were omlets, waffles, and french toast available made-to-order.  And they had over two dozen of the most unbelievable looking cakes.  Jet’s favorite foods were the salmon (and it’s presentation was something else) and the huge running chocolate fountain where Jet dipped about 6 strawberries, pretzels, and marshmellows into.  What a memorable morning that was. 

We stopped by the Oxford exchange after brunch so that we could return an item at Best Buy, when we noticed that the parking lot at Kohl’s was full!  We stopped by there to see what all of the comotion was and it turned out that they just opened their doors that day as opposed to opening on this coming Wednesday as was reported in the paper.  Needless to say, we stopped inside to walk around and it was almost like a time warp back to Milwaukee.  Finally, we now have a true piece of home down here.  It’s just too bad they don’t have any Packer gear.  I guess word spread quickly that Kohl’s was open because we ran into some of Jet’s friends there and our Wisconsin neighbors visited there twice yesterday.  Our Wisconsin neighbors also mentioned how it ‘felt like home’ shopping there.

Yesterday evening, we headed off to one of Jet’s friends house to celebrate the birthday party for some children.  The house we visited was very nice and everyone spent the majority of the time outside yesterday enjoying the beautiful sunny 80 degree weather.  I really couldn’t relax while we were outside because the house had a fancy in-ground pool (with a waterfall) and I just did not want to take my eyes off Ben for a moment.  Once it got dark outside, we went inside for some Maggie Moo’s cake, which really just made our day wonderful, but we have regrets for eating all of the food that we did yesterday.  I had lost 3 pounds last week and I’m sure that I put that all back on (and then some) after yesterday’s binge.

Looking back a little further, I ended up driving alone to Atlanta on Saturday morning to play Aussie Rules because it was still raining outside.  I’m glad that Jet and Ben didn’t make the trip with me because it rained the whole time while I played and the field was literally halfway under water.  Needless to say, it would have been a long drive home for Jet with the way that I smelled.  It was actually pretty fun running around in the mud and diving for the ball in the massive pools of water.  It sure did make the game interesting.

Wild Day

What started off as a pretty cool (50’s-60’s) morning quickly shifted after about 10:00am.  By that time I was picking weeds and getting ready to mow the lawn when the temperatures quickly shot up to the 70’s and 80’s when the sun broke through the clouds, making the air pretty unstable.  I should have known that we were in for a strange day when I almost ran over a 2 foot snake (a harmless one) in our backyard.  By 12:00pm noon, there were Tornado warning sirens going off and have been going off ever since.  By 1:00pm, the TV weather reports were indicating a possible tornado passing by the Talladega speedway on course for Anniston, just to the north of us.  Although it appears that no tornado did touch down, from our front yard I could see the clouds rotating and starting to dip up and down from a pretty large cloud wall.  That was pretty concerning to see.  Since then, we have had pockets of strong storm cells pass through the area that showed circulation on the weather radar, but ended up just bringing rain and hail.  In about an hour or so a large squall line of storms will be passing through, no danger of tornados there it appears, but strong straight-line winds with it.  Once that line of storms pass through, it appears that we will be in the clear for just rain the rest of the evening.  What a day!

We were planning on going to Atlanta tomorrow (Saturday) for my Aussie Rules match and shopping, but since it still looks like it will be raining tomorrow morning, it may just be me heading off to Atlanta.  If that is the case, Jet will try to work tomorrow night and get off on Sunday morning so that we can celebrate our “official unofficial” wedding anniversary.  I call it our “official unofficial” because on April 10, 2003 Jet and I were married in the Milwaukee county courthouse so that Jet would be able to get back into the country after our “official official” wedding in Thailand on June 29, 2003.

Speaking of weddings, congratulations Kristin!  You said it best, an unconventional wedding on a Wednesday for an unconventional couple.  We wish that we could have been there, but hey, you pulled it off similar to how we let everyone know about our Milwaukee courthouse wedding.  I liked hearing your stories about how the kids reacted (and acted) to the ceremony.

There are a few things that we have been noticing about Ben lately.  It seems like he is able to say things like “ball” now, or at least “baa” “baa”, which is getting close.  He can also understand things that we say pretty good now.  If we ask Ben to get us some object (e.g., a ball, elmo slippers, a specific toy, etc.) he can actually go away and come back with that specific object!  If we ask Ben to put his toys away, he can also do that now.  He is really starting to become a big boy now.