HKG268: Homebodies

the kids and i ran into these two boys and their auntie at the zoo park. livie takes gymnastics with the bigger boy while q and the smaller boy play together in the lobby (while we wait for sissy). the four of them had a BALL getting into all sorts of mischief at the park, and when it was time to leave, they walked four-wide holding hands.

my two goofballs...q dog piled sissy in the egg chair, but i was not fast enough with the camera...just caught them as q was finally getting off of his poor sister.

for the last couple of days, q and i have been keeping a very low profile while the bug is at school. we are enjoying being back in our own space, playing with our toys, and catching up on stuff around the house. it has taken me two days to catch up on laundry...really. the washer has been running non-stop since sunday night, and both bathrooms have looked like clothing stores with all the clothes hanging up to dry. i am finally done with all of the vacation laundry AND regular laundry build up, and i just have to say AGAIN how much i cannot wait to get back to my super-capacity third-hand whirlpool washer back home. i live for the opportunity to wash more than 3 bath towels at a time ;-p

our household goods will begin their journey back to texas next wednesday, so when i am not tackling piles of laundry, i am purging and packing. it's not exciting work, but the reason for it sure is!!

i think that tomorrow we will force ourselves out of the house. we need to head down to the american store to get some t-day provisions. it's going to be a sad and lonely t-day, but our consolation is that we will be home just in time for christmas!!!

HKG257 thru HKG267 : Vietnam and Singapore

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our cruise to vietnam and singapore was a bit of a disappointment due to extreme illness for q (strep and scarlet fever) and the fact that the excursions to the main attractions included 2 to 3 hours in a car...one way. we have definitely learned that cruising as a family is not a simple thing, and it is something we are not likely to do again. that's code for not only no, but HELL no :-)

the highlights are these : beautiful tropical weather, really delicious food in vietnam street cafes, AMAZING coffee, and truly stunning sights in singapore. in vietnam, we enjoyed exploring a small town near hanoi as well as vung tau...we did a lot of people watching, some shopping, and some eating. my favorite part of the trip, though, was singapore. i could easily have spent the entire nine days exploring singapore. we were there less than two days, but while we were there, we checked out the singapore botanical garden, little india, and china town on a cruise excursion, and then we also checked out the singapore flyer and the night safari on our own. on day two in singapore, we just walked around the orchard center area and then went to the airport. i cannot say enough good things about tiger air...super cheap way to get around asia (less than 100 USD for the four of us to fly from singapore to hong kong), and the accomodations were awesome to boot.

we are glad to be back in hong kong, and we are especially glad to be ramping up for our move back to texas. we have a TODO list of things we want to see and do before we leave, but most of all, we are excited to return to our family and friends back home.

HKG256: Dodging Bullets

today, livie was feeling really well...just about back to her normal spunky self. we had a follow-up appointment with her doctor this afternoon, and we discussed her further symptoms (peeling on the palms of her hands and soles of her feet as well as a very pink tongue). he has confirmed that she's had scarlet fever, but that the progression of it has been halted by her having been on antibiotics. i am relieved, but of course have spent enough time doing the "what if" dance that i'm a little wigged out. if i hadn't taken her to the doc on tuesday, she could be very seriously ill right now with possible heart and/or kidney complications. thank god this is not the case, but it does make me nervous that we are about to travel out of the country for nine days. we are taking a cruise to three different cities in vietnam and ending in singapore, so it's not like we're hiking the back country with no access to modern medicine for nine days, but the what ifs are ringing through my head regarding quinn. i am still hopeful that quinn has dodged this bullet, and i know that not every kid who gets strep also gets scarlet fever, but i worry nonetheless. it's my job....i'm the mom :-)

so other than the minor mental meltdown, the day was pretty terrific. quinn enjoyed his lego class, the kids and i had a great morning and afternoon, we survived the doctor's office without undue drama (i refuse to let the kids play with the toys there, and that causes some drama), and we had a nice evening with dinner at home and then a trip to our favorite frozen yogurt place. we are all super excited about our cruise. we leave early tomorrow afternoon and will not have access to the interwebz while we are floating around, so there will be a texpat hiatus until next weekend.

livie serenades waffle after she traps him inside her IKEA egg chair with her. i especially enjoyed the part about his cute orange butt :0

HKG255: Anti Social

while i have not yet written out all of my thoughts about the more difficult aspects of our move to hong kong, i have to give you a sneak peak...social life. i have none (and quinn has none). i am a SUPER social person. i love people. i know no strangers. if you are standing still and you are within five feet of me, i am going to try to talk to you. unless you live in hong kong. my outgoing personality does not work here. this, coupled with other drastic differences in social culture, has led to me having no social life. at all. i realized, today, that i have gone almost 30 days without having an in-person conversation longer than 3 minutes with another adult other than josh. i have not had any in-person social interaction since jeanette went home.

tonight, i got out to meet up with a friend of a friend who has lived in hong kong for several years and is planning to relocate to austin soon. this person was super friendly and outgoing, and i had a great time getting to know her and telling her all about austin. she in turn, gave me lots of insights about hong kong and took me to a fabulous restaurant for some ABSOLUTELY delicious local food. it was a nice change of pace!

other than my brief foray into some sort of existence outside the house and kids, the day was pretty normal. scratch that...it was rather awesome...the bug is finally turning a corner and feeling better. she has begun to show some scary symptoms, though...it seems that she has had scarlet fever, which is related to strep throat and has a scary list of possible complications that can come with it. we will be headed back to the doc tomorrow to request more antibiotics and advice for what to look for in the event that she develops any other complications. knock wood....so far, the rest of us are still in the clear. we are actually starting to get excited about our trip again and REALLY hoping that none of us get sick while we are traveling.

crazy kitty trying to get one of the kids' sticky toys off the ceiling with a boost from josh. he was successful :-)

video proof that the bug is feeling better (and that the kids have been locked in the house for too long. quinn ran around the park like a chicken with his head cut off...or like a ping pong ball...or like a squirrel who drank redbull (hammy in over the hedge)...it was comical but tiring as i had to remind quinn to not do x crazy thing or y crazy thing or z crazy thing over and over and over again ;-p.

HKG254: Lather, Rinse, Repeat Plus a Spoodle

comfort food designed to make my bug feel better...chicken and dumplings

family nap, day two. okay, we're missing q, but livie and i snuggled up together, and a few minutes later, waffle burrowed under the covers and joined us. he purred so loudly and enthusiastically that the comforter was shaking.

happy cat revealed. i have never had a cat who liked to get under the covers and snuggle up with me. i love that waffle is such a cuddle bug.

today dawned miserably for my poor bug. she woke up scream-crying from pain early this morning. i feel helpless to help her. i can dose her with tylenol or motrin to control her fever and give her some relief, but neither med really does a whole lot to ease the ice-pick-in-your-throat sensation. livie did a little better with eating today, but she still took a nap, and even after 1.5 days on her antibiotics, there is no improvement in the way her throat looks.

so far, q is okay as are josh and i. we are scheduled to go on a cruise to vietnam and singapore starting on saturday. i am reasonably sure olivia will be okay by then...if not 100%, at least no longer contagious and miserable. i am very worried, though, that q will be coming down with this shortly. i looked into the cancellation policy...oh, there is none. basically, because it is so close to cruise time, we cannot get any money back. so, we are making the choice to cruise with germs. it's not a choice i would ordinarily make, but we cannot justify losing the amount of money it cost for this trip. oh, and yes, josh looked into trip insurance but found that it did not cover illness, so he did not purchase it.

this morning, after some soft/cold foods, we slapped a mask on livie and headed out for some fresh air and errands. the first stop was at our favorite pet store to get stuff for waffle. while we were there, we met the world's most adorable daschund. omigod...if i could have, would have scooped him up and tucked him into my bag. he was ADORABLE and super sweet...he is a mini with long fur. just before we left, we met a spoodle. what's a spoodle, you ask? it's a poodle crossed with a cocker spaniel, and it is ridiculously cute.

after our pet store adventures, we went in search of fresh fruit for smoothies, potatoes for a special stew, and ice cream bars. we found all of the above.

tonight, i made olivia one of my all-time favorite comfort foods...chicken and dumplings. she liked it okay. q hated it. sometimes i wonder if my children were beamed down from another planet and, in fact, did not come from me at all ;-p

HKG253: Super Sick Day

two of my three babies napping...both feeling really crappy: livie with a throat infection and waffle after getting a rabies vax

super cute bug showing off the bows her grammie gave her. you can tell she's not 100%, but she's still beautiful :-)

well, i was correct that livie was coming down with something, but it's not a cold, it's a nasty throat infection. my poor baby girl has been so very sick today.

this morning was all about quiet activities, lots of juice, attempts at eating, a smoothie, and some tylenol for livie. q woke up a little early and was a little groggy, so he was okay with the quiet. we had to get waffle to the vet for his rabies vax in the late morning, and before that we needed to get livie a mask. it's common here for people to wear masks when ill, and considering livie's fascination with the mask AND the fact that she's pretty miserably ill, we got her a mask. poor waffle had to accompany us to the pharmacy, but he did great. i don't think anyone knew i had a feline stow away with me in the store...probably thought i just had a very large and ugly purse.

it turns out that livie doesn't like the mask so much...it's uncomfortable. both kids and waffle did super well at the vet, and our appointment was blissfully short. waffle is feeling pretty miserable now, but he handled the vaccination and handling while barely batting any pretty little kitty eyelashes. he's such a charmer...he kissed the vet smack on the lips (waffle loves to shove his nose into your face for kisses...particularly into your nose/mouth). he got lots of compliments on how good he is. i also asked the vet to confirm, for me, that he has the biggest teeth she's ever seen on a cat :-) waffle's teeth are comparable in size to those i have seen on some small dogs...they are thick and long and HUGE. she did say he's designed for fighting, which is just kinda funny considering what a lover he is.

after our vet excursion, it was time for lunch and nap. livie actually fell asleep, which is always a sure sign that she feels really rotten. after a quick nap, we headed out to take livie to the doc. she got a quick exam and a prescription for antibiotics. this evening, she's perked up a little bit and actually ate her dinner very well. i am hopeful that she will feel better tomorrow. she will be out of school for at least tomorrow and possibly also for thursday depending on how her throat looks (think swollen, red, and full of pus).

HKG252: Windows Vista Feature Revealed by My Cat

it was a monday. monday oozed all over everything until it was spilling out the cracks. i am glad tomorrow is tuesday, though it probably won't be a simple tuesday simply because waffle has a vet appointment AND livie is coming down with a cold...nothing like at least one cranky kid and one scared-shitless cat to make the day interesting.

back to monday. it really wasn't that bad...the kids each had gymnastics today and enjoyed their classes. livie had a good day at school. q was in a foul mood this afternoon and whined and tantrumed himself into a couple of time-outs. it was waffle, though, that provided the BIGGEST evidence of monday. i was working in the kitchen preparing livie's lunch for tomorrow and our dinner for tonight when i decided to take a break to do something with the bug. i walk by my computer on my way to do said activity with bug and notice that the display is sideways. i tried restoring windows settings from backup...nope...still sideways. so, i had to google "windows vista display orientation" and read it sideways. fortunately, the instructions were short and simple.

in case you were wondering. all you have to do is press ctrl + alt + up/down arrow key to rotate your monitor display 90 degrees. hmmm. i guess i can see how this might be handy if you want to show your display to someone who is sitting across from you or hanging from the ceiling. maybe. what i am REALLY hung up on, though, is exactly how waffle managed to step or sit on exactly the right key combination to use this feature.

this is my computer sitting exactly as it should, but my display sitting sideways. good times.

this is the reason my display was sideways. he looks comfy (and innocent), doesn't he? little turkey!