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poor Alice

Today is my brother's birthday. I don't think I can wish him a Happy Birthday because I am in Laos and he is in Spain. But I did celebrate someone else's birthday last night, so maybe that kind of counts.
Nick has been home from the hospital a little over a week now and seems to be feeling back to normal. He is planning on playing golf tommorrow *insert eye rolling here*.
My babysitter gave me a scare this morning when she told me she had a headache and a fever (those were Nick's first symptoms when he had dengue). She went to the hospital and had a blood test and it turned out to be just a normal fever, but she was sent home with an IV of medicine. She lives with us so I'm kind of trying to take care of her but I don't really know what to do. She got up for a bit and I carried her IV bag for her. And I told one of my friends to go buy her some Khao Piak, which is a kind of noodle soup that someone told me that Lao people like to eat when they are sick. I don't think she ate it though. She looks so puny and helpless. She only weighs about 80 pounds, on a good day. She is our 23-year-old Lao version of the brady bunch's "Alice". Except she is married and not so very dyke-ish. And she doesn't cook. But the love is there.
I forgot to announce in my last entry that while Nick was gone in the hospital I had to stretch myself to do new things that I used to depend on him to do. I mastered the skills of: going to the gas station by myself to fill up the Vespa (it's harder than it sounds...the gas isn't self-serve and there is the language barrier and all...), and, for the first time ever...I LIT A MATCH.
One might wonder how I have lived 26 years without ever having to light a match; I'll just say that I was quite the lighter afficionado. But since the day I lit my first match, I have lit one every day since.
To further prove my awesomeness, I would like to share that I have killed 2 mosquitos with my bare hands as I sit here typing this entry that you are now reading.
Jonas demonstrated a new skill today too. He puts his head on the ground and does a bunch of donkey-like kicks until it results in a forward roll. He is amazing, I tell you. I can't believe he will be two years old only one month from now.
Today was playgroup and someone brought up the question of when I plan to have another baby. I said that I would like to have another boy for my next child, which led into someone saying that they have a book on how to choose which child you are conceiving. One of the mom's present (with 2 girls and a newborn boy) said that it worked for he when she had her son. I'm not really sold on the method but I am curious to see what the book has to say. Apparently the author (a man) had 2 boys and 2 girls in the order he wanted.
In other news, we are attempting, for the 4th time since we have moved to Laos, to buy a car. Our first car we bought we actually still own, but it has been in the shop for 2 years without having gone anywhere. Let's just say it was a bargain price. Our 2nd car we drove for about 2 months before finding out that it was stolen property, after which we returned it. The 3rd time we tried to buy a car, we had a brand new Honda City (I think it is an Asia-only model) ordered from Japan. After it already arrived in the country, we found that as foreigners working for a Non Government Organization, we don't have the ability to import cars. So we couldn't buy that one. *sigh*
But..finally...fate might be smiling upon us, as we are trying to buy a 1998 Volvo imported to Laos by the Ambassador of Sweden and in very good condition. It will probably take us 4 years to pay off the loan, but the actual blue book value is higher than the price it is being sold for, so it feels like we are getting a deal. And used cars are just more expensive here than they are in the U.S. I have had to come to terms with this, as a life-long cheapskate.
I have been looking for some Colorforms to buy for Jonas to play with because I heard they were a good travel toy (they can stick on car/airplane windows). When I was in the U.S. I went to one toy store and the sales girl had no idea what I was talking about. It made me feel old.
And? For those of you who asked, the crickets tasted like greasy beef jerky. I ate 2 of them.




Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006 at 6:57 PM



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