25 Random Things

One part of being on facebook is that people will do annoying things like poking you, sending you e-gifts (that don't actually do anything) and then send things like "write 25 random things about you." Well I got a couple of them and finally wrote the 25 random things so that I could say that I did it. Here is the list that I posted (by the way the Chuck Norris picture was just a random picture I thought would be appropriate):

1. I love that my kids make me laugh everyday, Jacob and the new things that he says, and Maddie…well she is like me, her thoughts are all over the place.


2. I hope that one day I will able to take a year off of work, pull the kids out of school and travel the world (although living in China isn't a bad start)


3. I love saying, "Renee and I have been married for 6 ½ years (or however many years at the time I'm saying it)…it's been the best 2 years of my life." It hardly ever gets a laugh, but I'm cheesy like that. NOTE: I secretly have loved all the years that my wife and I have been married…wait…secrets out.


4. I wish that more people would understand how awesome the message of the Gospel is.


5. I am obsessed with the NFL Draft; I literally plan my year around the last weekend in April so that I can sit around on Saturday and Sunday and watch close to 20 hours worth of pure football enjoyment. Note that I already have my plans for the 2010 Draft; all I got to say is Damon Hall had better be ready.


6. I am extremely cheap and my favorite gift to give others is a gift certificate to watch my kids for a night.


7. I am happy that I go with the flow; otherwise this whole thing about not knowing what is going to happen when I move back to the US would probably be stressing me out.


8. I have begun to love watching Rugby over here in China. I hate to say that it is getting closer to being my number one sport to watch. Sorry NFL, the flow of Rugby with no commercial breaks, no timeouts, just all out running around and hitting is so much more appealing then watching a 3.5 hour NFL Broadcast that contains less then 30 minutes of action.


9. I still believe that ice cream fills in the cracks after eating…so even if you are full, enjoy, it won't fill you up any more, right?


10. I have no idea where I will be in 5 years or 10 years…my wife keeps asking and I am always able to somehow defer my answer.


11. I would rather watch Ravens' games by myself, mostly because I sometimes secretly try to coach the team through the TV…too bad it never works


12. I think that Buffalo chicken sandwiches are like manna from Heaven.


13. I would love to be able to make MTO runs every night at 1am, but I would probably then be dead after about 1 year.


14. I have really begun to enjoy hiking outside and up mountains, first Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), then Old Rag, then Evere…wait…okay maybe I will stick to mountains less then 10,000ft.


15. I really hope that I can go to New Zealand in 2011 to watch the Rugby World Cup, and oh yeah, seeing New Zealand wouldn't be half bad either.


16. I would love to open a diner that just sells sandwiches made from left over comfort food meals, Thanksgiving Day Sandwich, Pot Roast Hoagie, Chicken and Mashed Potatoes on Pumpernickel, etc. My experiments in this field have slowed during my time in China…still trying to figure out if the Chicken Feet, Pig's Ear, Lotus Root and Fried Noodle Sandwich would be a hit under the "Asian" section of my menu.


17. I love playing basketball in China, I tend to be one of the better players when I'm on the court…in the US I am usually the scrub no one wants.


18. I have what medical professionals refer to as Poop Fright, defined as the inability to go #2 in public or around other people.


19. When I cook something I don't trust other people's opinions, I have to taste it on my own to determine if it is good or not, usually I don't think it tastes great…I get that from my grandmother.


20. I don't know how to accept praise from people; I try to downplay important stuff in my life so that I don't have to receive praise over it.


21. I like to secretly give my kids candy…oops…secrets out. I understand this is very wrong on many levels, but it brings a smile to my kids and my face.


22. I am a little bit of a movie snob, I may sit down to watch almost any movie, but I usually like very few movies and they mostly do not appeal to the masses.


23. When I plan vacations, I try to plan them around the meals. Most of my favorite experiences from vacations past deal with food.


24. I basically had never lived outside of a 70 mile radius of where I grew up, until I moved to China…so that was kind of big.


25. I used to be embarrassed to say that my favorite tea to drink is Lady Grey Tea, but I have come to accept that, "I Love Lady Grey Tea!" (but please imagine me saying this in a grunting manly voice, not a spritsy schoolgirl voice)

I think I may be a part of a cartel....

Last year there were some milk scandals over here in China and many people stopped drinking the milk here locally for a good amount of time. Prior to this scandal, Renee and I had been looking for the best milk available for our kids as we always thought the local milk had a weird taste. After talking with friends, we found a brand of milk named NGF that I believe is produced out of Ningbo. It is the same milk that is used by Starbucks and that Starbucks continued to use throughout the whole scandal last year. This is what solidified it for me that this was the only local milk that I wanted to buy for my kids, if Starbucks is willing to serve it to millions of customers, then my two kids should be okay.

Anyway, there are only two ways to buy the milk, either buy it in the foreign grocery store or from someone (like a coffee shop owner) who already purchases the milk. The price in the grocery store is twice that of what the actual retail price to shop owners is, so luckily we had a connection with a shop owner and were able to order the milk via this owner. So it started with getting milk for my kids and then people started trying the milk at our house and hearing about our arrangement, so they asked us to get them milk and now I think we are getting it for 4 or 5 different families. In fact we take orders for the milk from friends and call it in to our point person and then once we get the milk we call our friends, they come by, we exchange money and they take their milk. I think the basic makeup of this arrangement mirrors that of a formal cartel, if not at least an informal drug dealer on the street corner. I feel like I should get extra inventory of the milk and start selling it for a profit to try to make my business legit, but I haven't taken it that far yet. I also might be under this impression because I have been watching a lot of The Wire lately…this is most likely why I feel like I need to hire some young'ens and hoppers.

Happy Lunar New Year

Happy belated Lunar New Year everyone. I know that it was last week, but I thought I could add it in. I had last week off of work with the Lunar New Year Holiday and I was able to get some good relaxation in with family and friends. I'm back to work now and will try to keep this thing updated a lot more often. Yes I missed blogging about the Superbowl and about the Ravens and their run. I did open a facebook account so that has been taking up some of my time, but I will try to keep up with regular entries about what is going on over here.

Wait my kids are???

Many of you know that Jacob was born here in China, so when he goes to the US, it is typically just for a visit, so he really does see the US as being a place to go for a vacation. While Maddie was born in the US, she also really only associates the USA with being a place that we go visit and China being our home. But both took this attitude to the next level while we were back in the US. When someone asked them if they were American or Chinese, Maddie first replied by saying, "I am Chinese!" Jacob then followed by proclaiming the same thing.

First, they are some of the whitest Chinese kids I have ever seen. Second, I think these statements make it so that it will be quite a job convincing the kids that the USA is our home when we get back. Oh well, it should be interesting.