I put this together/made in about a half hour

Don't you think Captain Kirk had airplanes on his shoes?

Thai bits

- We live in a place where the waterfall comes on each day at 0745.

- The other day I forgot to make the conversion in my head and only after I got home did I realize I'd just spent $10 for a box of Golden Grahams.

- One day I said to Chris, "That's a lovely bunch of coconuts."  And he thought I was kidding, because, you know, a lovely bunch of coconuts.  But I wasn't.

- Theo just asked me if he could trade his CTR ring for a Ninjago Lego set.  I'm not sure what to make of that, but I don't think it's good.

- Hopefully a man is coming today to drill holes in the concrete walls so I can hang pictures.  It costs 100 baht (3 dollars) per hole.

- We went on a jungle hike up the side of a mountain in a rainstorm and found this amazing cave with a little pagoda inside of it.  It was really beautiful, and the kids were really tough and covered with mud at the end.  Fun.

- Theo is a mosquito's personal brand of heroin.  The other day we watched a movie in a little room at the beach hotel and I stood over him the entire time with the  mosquito-zapper racquet clutched in my hands like a samurai warrior, making big sweeps over his head and killing two or three at a time.  It was extremely satisfying, in a mother bear sort of way.

- My computer is not electrically grounded, so the keyboard buzzes my hands when I type.  I have ordered a grounded transformer, but until it arrives I have wrapped the keyboard in saran wrap in a weak attempt at insulation.  I have typed this entire post with my feet off of the ground.

Kitty on My Cake and I Want to Touch It.

Brought to you by the 'Asians are a little crazy' category comes the 'Cat Cafe,'  a place a few streets over from us where you can order snacks and eat at little tables while you play with the restaurant's cats, which roam freely around the room.  Apparently if Thailand has a Health Department, they are occupied with bigger concerns, because this all seems very much on the up and up.  We did have to wash our hands, change out of our shoes, and wait in line for 20 min before being allowed into the restaurant, however.

Cat-themed hot chocolate.

No doubt about it- kittens are cute.

Theo fishing for cats.

A perfect quote

"For though I’ve often lost faith in myself, I’ve never lost it in my family . . . Ours is the only club I’d ever wanted to be a member of." - David Sedaris

Immortalized in Epic Verse

Last spring I invited my friend Katie to come to the Banff Mountain Film Festival with me and Carrie, but at the last minute she had to cancel. I told her that due to such a terrible betrayal, her friend status was in serious jeopardy. She begged to get back into my good graces, and suggested that a poem lauding my praises might raise her in my estimation. I agreed that that might help, and just yesterday I finally received said poem. I thought I would share:

Rachel, the Brave
A Poem by Katie

Dear friends of old, lendest me your ears
For a story of bravery-- a girl with no fear.
She arrives in our story from a faraway coast
With an impressive record of 96 milkshakes to boast.

Our heroine began to cast her new aura.
You see, on a sunny Saturday she drove into the flora.
Soon discovered was fame on a place called the web
A fair Princess with buns, why, she’s a celeb!
And next, there she stood, with a bow and taut wire
Our brave heroine became the girl on fire.

Across great waters she ventured on
The advice of a fortune cookie was her new dawn.
Through castles and churches our heroine strolled
And paid homage to that blessed saint who cast off slithering foes.

The Isle was not to be her last hurrah
For the Far East (and her mother) beckoned from afah…
Through mountain and Plateau her sights did not lack.
Why, she was found even on back of a yak.

A debt to be paid this prose finally speaks
(Tragic it has taken one-too-many weeks.)
In short, dear friends, our heroine has a name not flashy.
She is known by no other than Rachel freakin’ Ashby.

Home at Last

To paraphrase Vivian quoting Lisa Simpson: Home is has its grandeur and its follies, but mostly it's the place where all our stuff is.

After 9 weeks in a luxury hotel with the breakfast buffets, daily maid service and dinner brought to the door on silver trays, we couldn't get out of there fast enough.  In the end, we wanted a place where all of our stuff was.  A few updates from our new home, at the Natural Park apartments.

- Ms Moo has moved into the small room off of the back patio and works like crazy. I think she would be happier if I would tell her specifically what to do but I just can't do it.  Partly because I can't order her around, but also because I'm just not that organized.  When I told her recently that the kids and I would be gone for a few days, so it would just be her and Chris, she said, "I prefer he stay out there (meaning the main part of the house) and not talk too much.  I stay in here (meaning the maid's area) and not talk too much either." Chris thought that sounded good too.

 - We bought a water cooler.  I was very resistant, seeing it as an unnecessary expense and maybe a bit silly.  I was wrong.  The whole family LOVES the water cooler.  I told Lucy to think of a good Greek name for it, so she and Theo christened it 'Atlanta the Water Queen'. 

Lucy, so happy to have her things.

Theo's room.

View from living room. So unique for Bangkok, to have any green.

Atlanta, the font of all things cold.

Kitchen- You can see Khun Moo's door through the window.

I think we're going to be quite happy here. 

and there was light and the light was good.

look what i learned how to do!