Friday June 27, 2008

I welcome the upcoming weekend, this past week just seemed to fly by and I didn't even do anything special. Jim did his thing: wake up at 5:30, get dressed, get online for a little bit and then leave for work around 7 am. Go to work, sit in meetings, meet with clients, wonder how DHL has stayed in business so long. Drive home, sit in traffic, curse out some motorbikes ( I found out this is the proper term for scooters, they don't like it when you call them scooters ), get home, eat dinner, watch a lil tv, walk the dog and then read a book until he falls asleep. Me, a couple of times this week I strayed away from Oprah and Ellen. I think the urge to get out and do things is taking hold.

Sim came and picked me up one day because I mentioned to her that we were looking for a brother for Oso and her friend Pri, her mother had rescued 2 puppies and was looking for homes for them. The house was absolutely gorgeous!! It was situated at the top of a hill but the front was covered with tall palm trees and other tropical flowers. Once you got past the gate and walked past the carport there was a 2 story house that looked like something out of a travel guide. It was Balinese style so lots of dark wood and a pool that ran the entire length of the house, big exposed walls from the living room and dining room so you could just jump right in the pool from the living room. It was awesome! The dogs were cute, but I couldn't take them because they were both girls and Pri's mom did not want to separate them so I'd have to take both, plus I wasn't sure about how big they would get. We had a tough enough time finding a house that would allow Oso, imagine if we move somewhere else and we had 3 dogs. So I'm still on the search for one, boy, toy-sized dog that Oso can manipulate. Sim was disappointed that we didn't take them because she was excited about dog sitting when we go out of town.

Speaking of going out of town, Jim just asked me this week if I wanted to go to Hong Kong with him on a business trip next month- like I'd say no! So I have that to look forward to plus I'm still planning our trip to Penang and Langkawi for August. I've been straying a little bit from Oprah because most of the shows I've already seen, so I've been watching the Asian Food Channel. Similar to Food Network but with shows I've not heard of. My doctor tells me that I have to cut back on eating meat because my protein levels are elevated and I'm like "Do you know who I live with? Me put a plate of pasta and veggies in front of Jim? That ain't gonna happen!! So I've been watching this show called the Veggie Table which is produced here and it is hilarious!! Not only do I get to learn new vegetarian dishes that I can cook for myself for lunch, but I get a good laugh out of it because of the 2 hosts. One is the host and one is the chef and they couldn't be more different. Basically the host stands there and talks nonsense about cooking and stirs something every once in a while, while the chef who is Indian tells you how to cook the dish. Most of the time she skips how to do something because of the time limits but I have found the recipes easy enough that I can handle. I have also been experimenting with my favorite ramen noodles. Most hawker stalls here either sell rice or noodles so I've been paying attention to what they serve it with. I usually cook the noodles and drain them, then in a skillet I saute whatever vegetables I have on hand, maybe some leftover chicken or tuna, scramble an egg, then I throw in the noodles with the flavor packet, some other spices and sprinkle either some green or fried onions on top YUMMM!! When I come home I will gladly make it for anyone.

Once again this weekend we were invited to Harald's and Susan's for pizza and beer and once again they have cancelled. Not sure why this time, I know before it was because they were arguing which seems to happen often. It could be that Susan also works full time and just doesn't feel like entertaining anyone on the weekends. It's ok with us, sometimes I'm the same way, I just don't want to be bothered by anybody. I did go shopping in the Village this week, I had some other things to do too. 3 people have sent me packages and I only received 1 from Jayson in Chicago. The other 2 were sent even before he mailed his so I had to go down to the post office to register a complaint. The reponse I got was the mailman came by the house to ask me some questions and I have to admit that I wasn't all that nice. I wanted him to know that I meant business, it's not cheap to send anything here, ask my brother Chris who has vowed to only send me stuff that he can order online with free shipping. Anyone have the email address for the makers of Kool-Aid?

As you can see I have posted some new photos. I still haven't figured out why my camera won't download to my computer anymore but I bought a memory card reader so that seems to be working for now. I'll also see if I can send out the movie of our neighborhood fumigation which just recently happened again, of course I had clothes out on the clothesline drying so I had to wash them all again. There is a break in my case of the stolen wallet, someone last week tried to cash the check I had in my purse from our Malaysian bank account for 5000 Ringitt ($1587 U.S.) so the bank called Jim to verify that it was legit. Now I'm waiting for the bank to send us a photocopy of the check so I can forward it on to the Inspector whom I haven't heard from since I filed my report. I just want my driver's license back!!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll try to post again soon. See ya!!