Labor Day in Myrtle Beach

This Labor day we took Lex and his family to N. Myrtle Beach. Sun and surf for 3 days...wooo hoo!!!

For lunch we decided to go to Hooters and have some hot wings. What could he be looking at???

Just looking at the scenery!!!

Goodbye to an Old Soldier

Tai Ke Chou, Sindy's stepfather died yesterday at age 86 from pneumonia. He was a retired colonel in the Taiwanese army and he served as an assistant to Chiang Kai-Shek during the late 1960's. He was a very powerful man and even at age 86 he never lost that fierce determination.

This picture was taken in 2006 on his birthday.

More kids

Last week we had 5 kids at our house. I have no idea how daycare staff manage day after day, it absolutely wore us out. From the left, Jack, Johnny, Larry, Olivia, Bei Bei and Lex. Each brought their blankets, toys, food, and bags full of extra diapers!!!

Xin Nian Hao (Happy New Year)

Chinese New Year started this weekend. In Chinese-speaking countries this is their major holiday, 9 or 10 days without work and most of this time is spent partying. I read that 100 million people travel on the trains to their hometowns during this period and that train seats are booked a year in advance. In fact there are so many people taking the trains vendors have set up stalls in the train stations to sell disposable adult diapers because no one can get to the bathroom on the trains. It is also the tradition for the adults to give red envelopes filled with money to all of the children in your family, one reason we are here and they are in Taiwan!!!!

The local Chinese Association had their festival on Saturday. We went with Elizabeth and her family. There were many different types of music and dancing.

We ate so many wonderful foods like spicy shrimp, sticky rice filled with pork and my favorite, beef/noodle soup.

On Sunday we went to an all-day party hosted by the parents of the little boy we take care of, here is Bei Bei, Lex and his mom Lusia.

Dumplings are the traditional food prepared and eaten on the first day of Chinese New Year. These are prepared using store-bought "skins" or the traditional way of preparing the dough, rolling it into a long cylinder, cutting it into squares and rolling it into thin, flat pancakes the size of baseballs. There were several people involved in this production. One person made the filling which consisted of ground pork, mushrooms and cilantro and 3 or 4 others filled the dumpling skins with this mixture and carefully sealed them.

Our friend Maria and her son dressed in the traditional red clothing eating Chinese steamed buns filled with port and dumplings

Red is a good color for the Chinese, red means go, go, go. If you are ever driving in China and you have a green light, remember this!!!

Jack and Liv and Lex

Jack and his sister Liv and Lex on their first tri-athlete daycare day.

Jack shows Lex how well he performs the goldfish toss. Whew, what a day that was for Ai Yi and Bei Bei!!!

The Valley of the Sun and a Wonderful 60th

We travelled to the Valley of the sun in early December to look at some of the over 80,000 foreclosures in that area and tour the Grand Canyon, Sedona and several Indian ruins. We left the NC cold behind on December 5 and emerged in Phoenix later that afternoon in 75 degree weather.

The next day we drove around the western part of the valley looking at cacti, palm trees, brown front "yards", foreclosed homes and getting our bearings. The traffic is worse than anyplace I have ever seeen except New York.


Then we drove up to Flagstaff where it was a lot colder, I mean really cold, snowing and windy.


We drove to the Wupatki indian ruins and spent the day hiking Sunset Crater and walking through adobe homes. At least it was a lot warmer in the desert.



Here is an Indian ball court where they threw baseball-sized rocks at one another...ouch!!!


When we got back to NC we had our friends over for my 60th BD party. Here Elizabeth and Katrina are giving me the balloons. 60???? Who is that balloon for?


Next post, our new arrival... Lex.

A new species of bird is discovered

This Thanksgiving we invited my sister and her family over to our humble abode.

The preparations started early in the week. We searched for an appropriate turkey recipe that would incorporate some Asian flavor. I thought if a duck could be cooked Peking style why not a turkey!! Well, there are some good reasons. First of all a duck has a lot more fat under the skin than a turkey and if a turkey was cooked like Peking duck at 400 degrees it would arrive at the table looking and tasting like an old leather shoe. So we arrived at a happy medium by soaking the turkey in brine for 24 hours. The brine had broth, ginger, brown sugar, coarse salt, fresh rosemary and peppercorns.

On Thanksgiving morning at 9 we removed the bird from its sleeping bag and roasted it for 15 minutes on its hou mien (back side) and 15 minutes on its chien mien (breast-side). Then we covered it in foil and cooked it for 2 more hours at 350.

When we carved the bird it was very juicy with just a hint of ginger and rosemary. Yum Yum Yum.

Pat, Bob and Kim are asking for the 10th time "When do we eat."

The squash casserole was also the hit of the party.

Later in the day, Elizabeth and her mom came over for desert. Pumpkin cupcakes and apple pie.

The next day we drove to Myrtle Beach. Here we are sitting next to the lazy river at the Wyndham eating turkey and drinking beer until the security guard had to spoil our fun.

You can't drink beer here, Can't you read the sign!!!

We had a pretty good view of the ocean and the weather was great.

Later that afternoon I got into the hot tub with a large marguerita. Unfortunately that picture has been censored!!