HKG045 : Magic Carpet

livie's new area rug. the placement is odd b/c i wanted it to be right under the ladder for her bed so her little toes land on the rug.

this is a bad pic of our new living room rug with a very tired baby laying on it.

random, but this is our sandwhich bread from our grocery delivery today. we get the crustless bread b/c neither kid will eat crust (and it's the same price as regular bread). most loaves come with only 6 slices in them, so we buy many loaves at one time.

bug on the playground

i was trying to get a pic of quinn hiding one of his trains inside a traffic cone, but he caught me and was on his way over to inspect what i was doing.

today, we went one step closer to making this house (apartment) a home...we got two area rugs delivered from IKEA. the reaction was immediate...both kids laid down and rolled around on the rugs. it was rather cute.

in other news, we toured a school today...that was a little hectic. it turns out, kids were not supposed to be on the tour with the parent. ooops. we've been to this school twice now, and i love everything i've seen in it. the problem is that it's EXTREMELY expensive. it is not in the EFS system, but it is an international school. english is the main language, but the kids also learn mandarin a couple hours a day.

other than the school tour, we mostly chilled out at home. today was another no-nap day AND it was a day of oh-hey-let's-wake-up-VERY-early. surprisingly, behavior and attitudes were better than expected...maybe even better than a normal day! for the kids. i can't say that i was the happiest or most compliant camper today. i don't do morning. i especially don't do the part of the morning that comes before 7 a.m.

our special event today was a nutella milk shake. this thing was darn good. you take one banana, 8 oz of milk, 2 cups of ice, and a few tablespoons of nutella and blend until smooth. and then you make that sound your dog makes when you scratch just the right spot on his head or neck. it was gooooooooooooooood! and, it wasn't too terribly unhealthful.

HKG044: Monkey Monday

demonstrating her mad monkey bar skills

today's self portrait

this is my notice to collect my mail. notice that it is addressed to "lovi" rather than to "lori!"

today was relatively low key. the morning was taken up with relaxing stuff like lounging around in our jammies and talking to friends and family on skype. just before lunch, we headed off to the post office. this was somewhat of an adventure simply because of the language barrier and also because i did not have proper ID with me (either hong kong ID or passport). the clerk who helped me took pity on me and let me pick up my package without ID.

the afternoon was tumultuous due to a nap strike, but rounding out the day with a couple hours of playtime on the playground with new friends made everything better!

for dinner tonight, we went texas style! i made chicken fried pork chops with home-made cream gravy. we paired this with sauteed green beans and bacon and a nice crusty loaf of bread we got from the italian deli the other day. yum!

HKG043 : Social Sunday

today was a great day. i got out for brunch with a friend, and josh took the kids to IKEA and to victoria park. we later met up and took the kids down to the apartment building playground where we met another nice family, and then we had a pretty yummy dinner of made-by-me thai-style peanut chicken and noodles.

the highlight of the day is that livie has mastered the monkey bars!!! she's been working on this skill for a while, and while she has plenty of strength for it, she lacked the confidence to just DO IT. today, she threw caution to the wind and did it. we are all proud of her, but no one is more proud than she is.

HKW06 : Top Randoms

1. i have been working on my conservation awareness and habits for years now, but for some reason, i've stepped it up here. maybe it's because you get charged 5 HKD for a plastic bag in most grocery stores, bottled water is a necessity b/c the tap water is not drinkable, and recycle containers are EVERYWHERE. we have yet to figure out how to recycle glass, but there are containers for everything else including a wider array of plastics than in austin.
2. my missing of my fur babies is increasing instead of decreasing. i have developed the habit of going into random pet stores to buy some trinket or other to send back home...and to pet whatever dog/cat is in the store and will allow it. this morning, i made friends with a pekinese, a yorkie, and a pomeranian that were being boarded in a pet facility near our apartment.
3. i did not realize how many things i was not seeing around me when i am out and about on errands with the kids. i had the opportunity to meet up with a friend sans kids today, and i swear i saw at least a dozen things i had not noticed in the 14 days we've lived in this area. i saw many things that i want to go back and investigate with the kids including a pizzeria, a bakery called vanilla, and that pet facility.
4. we met more people this week than we have in the 43 days we have been here. this has been a very nice turn of events.
5. two weeks ago, we froze our backsides off at night, and in the last four days, the temps have risen so quickly and so high that we now have 3 out of the four a/c units in our apartment on. quinn was up for an hour last night tossing and turning and generally fussing...i think he was hot. when i went into his room to comfort him, i found it very muggy. i had no idea how to turn on/adjust his a/c. josh got it set up today, and i think q will be much more comfortable tonight.
6. our upcoming week is quite full with SOCIAL events. the only chore-related things we have to do this week are go to the post office and receive a delivery from IKEA.
7. i love IKEA...even more than i did in austin. IKEA is crucial to outfitting a home for not-too-much money. and their ice cream cones are delish. and they cost less than 50 cents u.s.
8. even though it pissed me off to no end at the time, i now find myself laughing every time i think about quinn throwing all of his stuffed animals out of his window. what i neglected to mention the other day is that there was a family on the playground when this was all going on. they were looking up in awe as animals fell from the sky, and when we went down to the playground to get those animals, the kids that were down there had piled them all up for us. it was embarrassing yet funny.
9. in less than 24 hours, i have gone from being pissed off at my nook to falling completely in love with it. after a few hours and a lot of head banging, josh found a work-around for downloading ebooks for the nook. he got me janet evanovich novel yesterday. i finished it in less than 24 hours. it helps that i was up until 2 a.m. with an on-and-off fussy baby...gave me lots of time to read...and i could read it with the bedroom light off. i foresee less sleep in my future ;-p
10. after coming home to find thor throwing error codes the other day, i was sure that our brief and stormy romance was off. josh fixed thor the other night...after perusing the online user manual, josh determined that there was a clogged hose and got busy de-clogging it. i have never been so happy to do 8 loads of laundry (this would have been no more than 3 loads in a standard u.s. washing machine/dryer).

HKG042: Spankopita

i am a lousy photographer. my lack of skill is further complicated by the fact that i'm using a crappy cell phone camera. trust me. it tasted WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than it looks here.

today was a nice, slow day. we literally did nothing (except try to figure out how to download books for my nook) until late in the afternoon. both kids woke up earlier than usual this morning, and the combination of that and our crazy day yesterday made for some tired, cranky kids. we just hung out at home and had some delicious italian takeaway. the il bel paese deli we fell in love with in happy valley is a chain, and there's one just down the hill from us. i ran out to get us some grub for lunch, and man was it goooooooooooood.

this afternoon, we headed to toys r us to get a scooter for quinn and to look around. of course, we walked out with more than just the scooter. it was fun. i have to say that the toys r us is the biggest store i've been in here in hong kong. it was pretty much just like the ones in austin, but smaller. quinn loves his scooter as we knew he would since he always is trying to use livie's scooter.

the big event of the day was dinner. my favorite recipe board's weekly recipe review included a recipe for spankopita meatballs and yogurt sauce. i made those this evening along with some grilled onions and home-made french fries. i had picked up some pitas at the italian deli. it was delicious. this is another recipe that is going on our regular rotations. i cannot find dill here and had forgotten to get lemon juice, so the yogurt sauce wasn't quite what it should have been, but it was still delicious. i put it on my pita, dipped my fries in it, and dunked some fresh tomatoe in it, too. i thought about drinking it out of a cup, but i refrained.

HKG041: Meet Dirk

today was insane. purely insane. completely insane. i left the camera at the apartment this morning, so there are no pictures of the insanity. instead of regaling you with all the mundane details, how about a top 15? even as insane as it was, it was a pretty awesome day.

1. we were four hours late for a school tour today.
2. for the second time since we moved here, i got lost in a taxi. typically, this is impossible b/c the drivers know how to get around. it just so happens that both of the school tours i have done in the last week have been in locations that these drivers are not familiar with. it is a truly powerless feeling to not be able to tell someone where you want to go and have them understand you...and to not be able to talk with them about possible ways to figure out how to get to the destination. i need to start carrying print outs with the addresses in chinese characters...first we have to get a printer :-)
3. getting incredibly lost gave us the opportunity to go to hong kong park today. the kids had an absolute ball covering themselves in sand and sliding on this really cool slide that goes from one level of the park to another lower level. while at this park, i had a great time connecting with an american expat who was very kind and incredibly helpful to me. we will be linking up with that family for a playdate next week, and i am really looking forward to that.
4. we couldn't get any taxis to pay attention to us when we tried to leave hong kong park, so we had to take a detour...a GIANT detour. while on that detour, i took us into a major bank building to find an ATM so i would have cash for another taxi ride (i had used my cash to get a snack and drinks for the kids. you see, i had not planned on getting so incredibly lost and while i had water for them, i had no snacks...they drank all of their water at the park). i approached an information desk in the bank building to ask where an ATM was...i got no more than "excuse me" out before the person working the desk growl-shouted at me and pointed behind me. i just stood there with my mouth hanging open...i had no idea what to do with that for a few seconds...i finally got my wits about me and turned around to go in the direction she pointed in.
5. after finding a circle k where we could get cash, we headed out to a taxi stand. the taxi driver that picked us up from that taxi stand did not know how to get where we wanted to go...didn't know the street.
6. after consulting with his dispatcher, the taxi got us to the area/road we wanted to be on. once we were out of the taxi, we stopped to play at the belcher bay park for a bit before we headed over to the school. the park was AWESOME. it's a beautiful park with plenty of shade trees and all-abilities play equipment. despite being super tired, hot, and sweaty, the kids had a ball there.
7. we finally found the school we were supposed to tour, and even though we were four hours late, they took us on an informal tour, were wonderful to the kids, and were perfectly happy to reschedule us for another official tour next week. one of the people helping us gave quinn a tiny little transformer dude. it was instant love. quinn has named his tiny transformer dude "dirk." discovering this was two parts funny and one part painful; it took several tries for us to understand what he was calling his new toy, and in the process, we made him pretty mad with our not understanding him.
8. google told me there was an indian grocery very near the school we were touring, and while the store is still there, it is now closed. i got some great help from someone at a nearby indian restaurant, and i think i now know how to get the spices i so dearly want.
9. while trying to find the indian grocery, we met a very nice woman with a very sweet welsh corgi. the corgi thought the kids were the best thing ever and was climbing into their laps to kiss them and cuddle with them. this gave about 8 chinese ladies a good laugh, and lord knows we all enjoyed it.
10. we made it home in one piece and while there was no nap, we did settle in for some snacks and a movie for a while.
11. shortly after we got home, i realized that thor is broken. he has stopped working and is throwing error code f-18. my googling has turned up information that indicates this error code is caused by a blockage of sorts....we're still trying to figure this out. i am sad. thor and i have made peace, and i have finally figured out how to actually get laundry done. now we will have to find another laundry solution while we wait for thor to be fixed (it took almost 8 days to get a new bulb in one of our toilets, so i'm not holding out a lot of hope for a speedy recovery for thor. while many things about living in this type of apartment building are really easy and efficient, it seems that household repairs are not).
12. i took the kids down to our playground tonight to blow some bubbles i got for them last night. it was a busy night at the playground, and after playing with the bubbles for a bit, livie ran off to play with some bigger kids.
13. while livie was playing with the bigger kids, quinn was chasing bubbles and was super happy to do so until he got a wild hair and decided to lap up bubble solution from the dish. he looked at me with his cheshire cat grin for about a minute before he started coughing and sticking his tongue out and generally looking unhappy. don't worry...he's okay. hopefully that will be the last time he tries to drink bubble solution.
14. after i got quinn away from the bubbles, i ended up meeting a couple moms that were at the playground...quinn was trying to take their kids' toy, so i was checking with them first. this turned out to be a great thing...both women were very friendly and helpful, and it was great to chat with them while livie was playing with their kids and quinn was stealing their kids' toys (with permission). a couple of the older girls that livie was playing with were super sweet to quinn, telling him how cute he is. his response? "yeah, i cute." he's such a charmer ;-)
15. one of the women i met tonight is from mexico. the other woman is from india. they have each given me great advice on how to find the spices and foods i love sooo much from each of these cultures. wooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo!

HKG040: A Reduction in Force (Quinn's Stuffed Animal Army)

while she was torturing her brother, livie also was dressing up herself...she's such a cutie...even when she makes me want to tear my hair out.

this afternoon between lunch and nap, livie decided to play dressup. with quinn. i heard a lot of protests, and later found this...looks a little like a straight jacket, eh? that could have come in handy later in the day ;-p

quinn arranged this blanket and pillow for himself

if you click this picture, you will see two very tired kiddos curled up on the sofa.

today was crap. well, okay, it was not total crap. the morning started out nice...got to talk to a friend and to my dad on skype, and then took the kids out for some play time before heading back in for an early lunch and nap. i knew there wasn't going to be any big adventures when they were both cuddled up on the couch looking only semi-conscious at 10 in the morning. so, we took it slow.

and then the fun started. quinn actually took his nap (hoooorayyyy for nap) and was easy/pleasant to wake up. we tried to make the 3:30 shuttle into central to go to the bank, but my diva of a daughter couldn't decide on an outfit fast enough (wailing "but i won't look cute!" while i "encouraged" her to get dressed), and we missed the shuttle by a minute. we were lucky to catch a cab quickly, and we got down to central with a minimum of fuss. everything was going fine at the bank...for about 10 minutes...and then the mutiny began. see, no matter where you go here, there are always long lines and crowds and a wait. i guess this is part of the deal when you live with 7 million other people. when they just couldn't take the waiting any longer, the kids began acting up horribly in the bank, but regrouped and did great while we waited for the shuttle and on the way home. they made it through most of two more errands being little angels.

and then the horror struck...there was spitting, hitting, yelling (none of this from me, mind you), and then the clincher...an escape. as we were leaving the two-story grocery store, livie went up the stairs as i requested, but instead of waiting for me like i asked, got on the escalator to the street without me. i lost my doo-doo. this was around 5 in the afternoon...an extremely busy and crowded time of day...the escalators dump into a very busy sidewalk that is beside a very, very busy road. folks are on a mission here...if you stop, they will plow you over. i was NOT happy.

as if it wasn't bad enough, it actually went downhill from there. once we got home, there was a major issue with q that landed him in timeout in his room. what did he do while he was in timeout in his room (this was in less than 3 minutes, mind you)? climbed into his window and threw all of his stuffed animals out the window. this is the reduction in force...quinn is now being guarded by a much smaller stuffed animal army. i, on the other hand, have many more soft decorations near my side of the bed. poor josh.

if you hadn't guessed it yet, cooking is one of my favorite things to do, and it is something that relaxes me. so, once josh got home, i holed up in the kitchen with josh standing guard so that i could hear about his day and he could keep the kids out of my hair. my favorite recipe board's weekly recipe review included salisbury steaks where you make the gravy yourself. i was able to find all the ingredients i need here, so i went for it. it turned out SCRUMPTIOUS and the recipe will now go on our regular rotations.

random notes:

• the austrailian minced beef i got came with fake grass on the edge of the package...inside...i think this was supposed to symbolize the beef eating the grass...not sure.
• some of my favorite inexpensive go-to meals in texas actually cost a small fortune here. i find this kinda funny and a lot frustrating.
• i am finding it almost impossible to find some of my favorite spices here...even at the international market. my plan for my foodcase when we left texas was a big FAIL simply because we didn't have the room for the spices...i am deeply regretting that now. this evening, i will go on a hunt for ground coriander. i know i have seen it at the happy valley location of my favorite international market, but the one here in the mid-levels doesn't have it. i'm off to scour the shelves at two different wellcome locations...i want to make chicken korma, and i need the coriander!