jungle trekking...sorta...not really

Some friends invited us to go to a national reserve park just outside of Kuala Lumpur to celebrate Hari Raya, which signifies the end of Ramadan...OK, we weren't exactly celebrating it because we're Christian and it's a Muslim holiday, but we were still celebrating the fact that it was a national holiday and most of the stores were closed and the roads were deserted and it was just a good excuse to get away for an afternoon. The park is located in the area of Selangor but neither Michael or I had the wherewithall to actually ask the official name of the place, we were just along for the ride to spend an afternoon getting in touch with nature.

Here we are on our way, following Eric, our host for the day.


This picture is blurry (sorry) but I was waiting in the car with the kids and wanted to get a shot of Michael buying some Lemang. It is a HUGE comfort food for the locals at this time of year (think pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving) so we wanted to give it a try. It is a coconut-flavored sticky rice that is wrapped in a banana leave and placed in a hollowed out stick of bamboo, then placed over a fire to cook. You can find these vendors along the side of the road EVERYWHERE and they make things quite smokey (hence, the picture). It was also funny because all of these guys were crazy excited about Michael. They never get white people coming around there because it's not a big tourist spot, just a major get-away for the locals, so he became an instant celebrity. And honestly, we never saw any other white people all day.


Again, major blur...sorry. (You can tell how rain-spattered our windows were at one point) but we had to get a picture of the "butcher" selling his wares. We've seen these more & more recently (maybe just another Hari Raya holiday tradition?) where a cart is set up on the side of the road and big slabs of unidentified meat is hanging proudly and prominently for patrons to come scrutinize. How do they decide? Is it the piece that looks the least sweltering from the heat? The one with the least amount of flies? Just something about seeing it on a hook like that makes me a little queasy.


It was only about a 45 minute drive from our house, along a road that we wistfully compared to an Asian jungle-themed version of Highway 89 through rural Utah (have you driven it? you should spend a day doing that, you won't regret it) and we arrived at our site. The reserve has several campsites as well as A-frame units for rent (anywhere from $10-$50/night, depending on how many people you want to house) and there is a pleasant river running right through the middle of it all. We were in 2 cars and upon first arrival to the site, cute little Tu (sp? she's Vietnamese), who absolutely adores John, pounced on him for hugs and mothering. He used to run away shouting "no!" to her (she liked to pinch his cheeks and he wasn't a huge fan of that) but she has stopped the pinching so he tolerates her pretty well.


All the kids were in their swimsuits before the adults could get out of the cars and were gleefully splashing in the river. Some things I noticed about differences from camping at home? You could walk around barefoot pretty easily because most things were cushioned in a nice fuzzy covering of mold. Also the ants were about as big as my thumb.


The view up the river was gorgeous, with spots of sun escaping through the canopy of trees and strategically placing themselves on various bits of ground below. As you can see, we found ourselves a little sunspot to play in...sort of makes my son look like radioactive boy.


We took a break from swimming to enjoy the lemang we had bought earlier on the road. A popular dish to serve this with is beef rendang, which is basically a freaky-spicy curry. You can see the 2 halves of the bamboo stick at the top of the picture and the rice wrapped in the banana leaf on the lower right side of the big blue plate. Obviously it was a hit because I could barely get my camera out before half the table was devoured in the frenzy.


No meal would be complete unless it was topped off with a healthy dose of watermelon. Emily loves her some melon.


Father & son off to enjoy nature. That makes my heart go all soft.


For some reason I was fascinated by these yellow butterflies. They were seriously everywhere. If you were still for a while they would calm down and sit, statuesque, like innocent little yellow leaves...until some 2-year old Godzilla would run screaming through the middle of them and ruin every shot I tried to take. This was the best I got.


Phew! What a long, hot day. I think I need me a drink.

catching up

So we've done a bunch of stuff this month that I have put off posting about and now it's time to play catch-up, so in a nutshell here are some of the highlights...
First, a birthday party, this guy was born not too long after we arrived in Malaysia and now he's one year old! Time flies, don't it? His mom is one of my best friends and totally gorgeous to boot.


Emily was fascinated by this boy, Suria, and wanted to grab his face. She has a thing for grabbing faces. (This kid is enormous...we gave him John's old 18-month clothes when he outgrew them and Suria was wearing them before he was even a year old.)


The 2 Musketeers...these boys are inseperable and I cannot mention the name of anyone in the family without John whining at me for days about going to visit them.


Some of the gals at the birthday party (this was also a new house so it became a housewarming/birthday party.) Our friends are just beautiful. By the way, the 2nd woman from the left is MiowLin and she is the most amazing woman ever. I repeat, most amazing. Ever. She is single and we need to find a super-man for her to marry. If you know one, call me and we'll arrange it. She's going to kill me when she sees this.


This is Dolly...she is our current Relief Society president and one of my most favorite people ever.


Me holding Emily & Kareen (daughter of new family we just met that night)...these girls are the same age. And I thought Emily was big!


My beautiful, blue-eyed boy. We had a really rough weekend with him and were at out wits end about the tantrum throwing (are we done with that phase yet? and how can such hell-raising, earth-shattering noises eminate from such a little person?) but after letting me cry on the couch for a while and tell him that I couldn't do this anymore, Michael decided we need to try out some "Love & Logic" strategies (thanks anj!!!) and this week has been miraculously more pleasant. Not that John is more obedient, but we are better able to handle outbursts and stay in control of the situation. We have so much to learn. But after a screaming, weepy, out-of-control couple of days, suddenly it was all washed away when we were sitting on the couch and I was patiently explaining to John how happy it made me when he would talk to me about things and he turned to me with those heart-breaking eyse and said, "Mommy, can I make you happy?" and put his head on my shoulder. Life doesn't get much better than that.


John had an "oh" face when he was 18 months that was adorable and made everyone laugh. Emily has one at 8 months that is to die for. It's actually more of an "AH" face, like when you go to the dentist and have to make your mouth as big as possible. She does this when she gets really excited (which happens a lot...when she is about to eat, when she sees John or Michael or me, when she sees herself in the mirror...) and the "ah" face is combined with her hands rapidly slapping up and down and her feet kicking wildly. Something about her look always says "I WANT TO EAT YOUR FACE! COME HERE SO I CAN SLIME YOU!" Try making this face yourself and I dare you not to laugh.


For Family Home Evening recently we started putting together our 72-hour kits (or "bug-out bags" as Michael taught John to say) and we all got in the action. John even has a Snoopy backpack to carry his own diapers and granola bars.


These 2 kids are best friends and it warms our hearts more than anything on the planet. John always wants to climb into Emily's crib with her and they'll snuggle and he'll laugh and pretend to be mad when she grabs his face. If Emily's cranky because she wants to be picked up, she'll stop immediately when John pops into the room to play with her. If they are both in good moods, they giggle to each other in the back seat of the car while Michael & I grin at each other in the front seat. I hope this lasts...


I have a ton of more pictures to post, things we did during Hari Raya (end of Ramadan) this week: lunch with friends, a trip to a national reserve park, an awesome Diana Krall concert(for michael's birthday!!!), but it's 1:00am and my pillow is calling to me.

btw...

somehow i forgot to mention that miss-em is now crawling. yes, i'm a horrible mother who doesn't document things properly. i'm sure it will cause her to develop some major psychosis because her older brother has 375 pictures for every 2-week interval for the first year of his life and she gets one snapped every few days when i happen to think about it. i'll start saving for her therapy bills now. however, in my defense her crawling is somewhat ambiguous and almost imperceptible. one minute she's sitting up chewing on her bouncy ball and the next she's prone on the floor, facing the other direction, approximately 1.5 feet away from where she began. if you watch her closely you can sometimes see some knee action but mostly she just does this "swimmer's crawl" where she pulls herself along by her arms while her legs hang limp behind her. that's right, my baby girl has got some mad guns and she will totally kick all the boy's butts on the playground. don't mess with ern jr.

(wha? ok, just re-read my post and i'm not sure this made any sense as it is after 10:00 and that is what we tired, old ladies like to call "way past bedtime" although i may be tempted to stay awake anyway and watch old episodes of "pushing daisies". thank you, laural, for putting me onto this show! in another life, when i'm done being spit-up on all the time, i will be chuck. not that i will be killed on a cruise ship and then brought back to life by a boyishly-handsome pie maker named ned...just that i want her hair and clothes, that's all. over & out.)

coming out

On this blog I try to mostly highlight our day-to-day living, what life and travel are like around Asia, and how adorable our children are (for the most part) as they've grown over the last year. But today I found myself annoyed as I opened my Yahoo! page and found, for the SECOND time in less than 24 hours, a "NEWS" story highlighting the sexual orientation of a Hollywood celebrity.

Now, a few things I know:

1- These people make more money than I'll probably ever see in a lifetime.
2- They have a ridiculously more proportionate chance of running into people who know who they are (their name, occupation, favorite bubble gum flavors) in any random public place outside of their home town than, say, someone like me.
3- Nearly every choice they make on a day-to-day basis is overly-scrutinized to the point that, if most of us were in their shoes, we would be terrified to leave the house.
4- Just because someone is famous doesn't mean their life, their choices, their opinions, their views, or their friends are more important than, say, mine. Or yours.

OK, that being said, I would like to express my distaste for "news-worthy" items that appear on computer screens across the globe. (Unfortunately, the US is not the only place where distasteful, sensationalized gossip passes as news.) I am entirely aware of the fact that my views are considered by most today to be old-fashioned and prudish, but I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH THE DISTASTE I HAVE AGAINST KNOWING WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING IN THEIR BEDROOMS. Side note: I love that you can shout things in writing.

I used to laugh with all my friends about the separate-bed policy on shows like "I Love Lucy" and how ridiculous that seemed because they were married, after all, and c'mon that's not how real couples sleep. But that doesn't mean I actually wanted to SEE them sleeping together, either. I know how babies are made. I have a couple myself. My friends and family have 'em too. But I don't make it a general topic of conversation over dinner with guests. What happens in a bedroom should stay in a bedroom. I firmly believe in physical intimacy being reserved for husbands & wives, but I also firmly believe in people being able to make their own choices. I will admit, I greatly dislike seeing homosexual relationships portrayed in the media when physical intimacy is displayed, and maybe I'd be called homophobic (or a lot of worse names, I'm sure) for saying so, but...well, see #4 on the above list. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

But it doesn't change the fact that someone's sexual orientation should not be considered a news item! Period. I don't know if it's my dislike for the whole celebrity/paprazzi/stalking/obsessing trends in the media or if it's just sadness that morality has become so individualized, immorality even sensationalized, to the point that no one seems to have any sexual morality because they never had anyone teach them correct principles...intimacy reserved for husband and wife, children raised in the bonds of marriage, young people keeping themselves morally clean and virtuous. Even as a young girl, in places outside of church, I understood that "virgin" was a derogatory word, as if no one in their right mind, and certainly not by CHOICE would be one. So now we've been reduced to taking our sexual morality cues from Hollywood stars that we don't even know, instead of turning to trusted friends, spiritual advisers, even (gasp!) parents. Actually, as I've been writing this, I'm reminded of a book Michael is reading (and I'm waiting impatiently for him to finish so I can start) called "Microtrends" that talks about how seemingly-small events are actually transforming our societies, our world as we know it. So maybe this is one of those things. Maybe a Hollywood star's sexual preference, simply because of their star power, will be the force behind changing politics and societal reform. Heaven help us.

Wow, not sure how I made that circle, being annoyed at my "Most Viewed Stories" tab on my homepage to ranting about morality in the world today, but writing makes me feel a little better. Which is why I have a blog. And a journal. Or three.

branching out

Every once in a while I get a little crazy and decide to eat something OTHER than mangoes, and one of those somethings is often a papaya. Now I must explain why this is such a big deal...I despise papaya. Fiercely. More than once I have compared the smell to wet dog. Probably the taste, too. Seriously, despise it. Or, at least, I did before I moved to Malaysia and had the best papapya I've ever eaten in my life, hands down. Even right before we moved here and we were at a gorgeous resort with amazing food in Cabo, Mexico... what did I eat that made me gag and want to go drink sea water to remove the taste? Papaya. But somehow that has all changed and now I can eat a whole one by myself, which is saying something because the ones here can be as big as your head. Here's a picture of one I bought recently.

I slice them open with a big ol' butcher knife, but I could use a butter knife because they are SOOOooo soft it really is like slicing into butter.

For some reason I love the seeds. I love how they look and smell. I read somewhere that they taste sort of peppery and can be used ground up in dressings. May have to try that someday. They also may have some sort of medicinal property. What a marvelous little fruit.

I just scrape the seeds out and then scoop the flesh out with a spoon. Seriously, it's so soft. Then I try not to eat it all as I'm scooping it out so there will actually be some for later.

Emily is trying papaya for the first time and I think she agrees with her momma that this is some pretty awesome stuff. Better than that nasty oat cereal, anyway.

get the picture

I admit to knowing next-to-NOTHING about photography (Exhibit A...ummm, check out basically any picture on this website) but through blog surfing I found a sort of game played with flickr which led me to discover THIS lady's photographs. Wow. I suddenly wanted to travel to each of these marvelous places and just sit in each scenic vista and write in my journal while I chewed on the end of my pen. I think that just about sounds to being as close to heaven as anything. Although I found something else that was close today. We hired a lovely woman named Shirley to come help around the house a few times a week and one of the marvelous ways she helps is by watching the kids so I can run errands. See how marvelous that is?

But instead of errands today I went and got my hair cut. But getting your hair cut in Asia is not just a haircut experience. It's not even a hair salon experience. It's like going to a hair spa. I sat reading a magazine in my chair while a stylist washed my hair (that's right, just sitting there upright in my swivel chair while a girl with remarkable fingers massaged shampoo around my head and neck for about 15 minutes) and another girl sat to my side giving me a manicure. I felt like Paris Hilton getting ready for the red carpet. (And that is the last time in my life I hope I will ever compare myself to Paris Hilton.) But it was beyond fabulous. I had my hair rinsed out twice (once after the shampoo and once after the haircut...that's right to remove all the nasty little hairs-es!), my head massaged several times, my hands massaged & painted...and at the end of it all I had a cute little bob haircut and felt like a million bucks. I even got checked out a few times as I left the mall. Nothing like a little ogling to make a girl feel special.

But I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed. Maybe I should make this a regular thing, seeing as how I usually haul myself to the salon for a haircut about 3 times a year (a fact Sandy- my awesome punk-grandma stylist in Utah- would scold me for every time I showed up for an appointment). I wasn't going to put a picture of my hair on here, but I had to make up for the horrendous accident that was the Mooncake Fiasco so I can paste my self-esteem back together. Also my mom wanted to see it and we can't seem to connect on Skype while I'm in Asia and she's in Africa. Stupid Skype. (ha-ha, ok, after i posted this i actually connected with mom on skype so it is now forgiven. i'm sorry i called you stupid, skype. what would i do without you?)


Also, some things we are doing to entertain ourselves while Michael is in China this week (he gets back tomorrow - HOORAY!!!):
Practicing for Halloween...surprisingly John's favorite part wasn't candy, it was dressing like "Super John" and learning to jump out and yell "TRICK OR TREAT!" Go figure. (Also, it wasn't until I had cut it out that I realized the "J" emblem looked like the CTR shield. Not sure why I did that. Next time I'll use his Superman jammies for a template.)


I had to post this other pic because it shows the energy level of my 2-year old squirt, who basically never stops jumping up and down, not even for a 2 second photo shoot.


And Emily turned 8 months old!!! To celebrate the special day John helped me bake brownies and we made Emily a purple paper hat that made her look like an adorable little Napoleon.


And here is what she thought of that.

just some stuff

emily just being cute, as usual.


So what does a little boy decide to do when he doesn't want to take a nap? Does he sit quietly in his room and play with his toys? Noooo...he sneaks into mom's room and dumps baby powder all over the room and himself. Oh, and this is what he looks like when mom walks into the room and surprises him with an "OH MY GOSH!" and makes him help clean it up.


hooray for engrish. John got a new bunk bed (yay!) and this is on the mattress--in case you can't blow up the picture, here is what it says:

BLUE NIGHT AMINI
Blie night
the star down
Iwant you to be happy
this night is
delightful to me
Idreaming.

this is what we do for entertainment around here.



Also, there are these freaky creatures on the mattress. I'm not sure what they're supposed to be...and those things that stick out on the bottom of the head, are those teeth? Really not sure. Plus I can't figure out what's going on with the body...is the head on backwards, because that looks like its bum to me. Or are those stubby little arms? If anyone can figure this out, please let me know.



And finally some more of John's photographic handywork. We've gotta' get this kid his own camera pretty soon.

food withdrawls

Since we've lived in Malaysia I've realized there are certain things that I'm just not willing to live without.  Food, mostly, that I am willing to spend any amount of money to make certain it stays in our kitchen.  One that is obvious to anyone who knows me is cereal.  And not what the locals call cereal...when you walk down the cereal aisle you can't see anything that doesn't have chocolate as the main ingredient.  yech.  At least not until you get to the imported cereals that I buy, things like Raisin Bran and Quaker Oatmeal Squares and Life and Granola.  Ahh, there's the good stuff.  So of course I spend more than I would in Utah on cereal, but still try to stay modest in my spending.  It's only a rare treat when I'll splurge for Cheerios (about $7) or Crispix (about $8). 

So anyway, that's my cereal issues.  There are other things that I wouldn't dream about buying when we first arrived here that have now become somewhat regular purchases.  There is a to-DIE-for yogurt that comes from Australia that costs me about $8 that I only bought to spoil myself every so often when I was pregnant, but that now is in our fridge on a regular basis.  I also lived without berries for the most part during our first year here and would only buy them very rarely to make a certain dish.  They usually cost anywhere from $5-10 for one of those little 1/2cup clam shells.  But now if I'm craving raspberries, by crackey, I won't even think twice as I place them in my cart.  The same thing goes for cheese, or pretty much any dairy item you can think of.  (Last week I spent almost $10 for a bag of pizza-blend shredded cheese).  Basically I can't live without cereal, berries & dairy of any kind.
So it made me wonder, what are the things other people couldn't live without?  If you were moving to another country and found that you couldn't get things you wanted there, what would you be stockpiling in your suitcases to make it through a year?  Twizzlers?  Butterfingers?  Popcorn?  Wheat germ?  Craisins?  (That was one thing we had to bring back here with us--a giant Costco-size back of Craisins--and those extra pounds were totally worth it.)  Or maybe you couldn't do without your Mac makeup or Carter brand baby clothes?  I'm curious what items YOU would be willing to pay three times more than usual for after months of deprivation.  And I'm not even going to mention how much I spend on Ben & Jerry's when I need to indulge.  (Ok, I'll tell you.  Once in Singapore I paid $13...and yes, that was on a pint.  I was 7 months pregnant, so sue me). 

Or maybe you've lived in other countries and have stories of how much you paid for certain things you couldn't live without? I'm anxious to hear them so bring it on.

check this out

My friend Anne sent me the link to her friend's cake design website. Her name is Peachy Juban and she runs a cake shop in the Philippines. I am, once again, totally in awe and only mostly completely and totally jealous of another person's visually artistic abilities. The cake lanterns are to DIE for.

Also, a belated HAPPY MOONCAKE FESTIVAL to everyone. The Chinese celebrated Mooncake day this weekend and I actually made myself a pretty little mooncake but, of course, forgot my camera and was forced to take pictures with my cell phone instead. They are crummy pictures but I was going to post them anyway, but my comptuer decided to be ridiculous and won't load the driver software so I can move them from my phone. Stupid Windows Vista. So you'll have to trust me, it was cool. There was red bean paste and green, pandan lotus paste and melon seeds and it was basically just a good time. Just imagine an entire holiday dedicated to fruitcake, add a few legends about the sun and immortality, and you've got the basic idea of Mooncake Day. John kept hearing me talk about "cake" and of course wanted to try some but after just a touch on the tongue was disgusted and wouldn't even look at it anymore. We Americans are such snobs about sweets. I enjoyed it immensely. Here are the pictures I took with my normal camera when I got home.




(note to self: do NOT take pictures of myself without makeup ever again.)
(also, note to everyone: see how the last picture shows it cut into small pieces? this is the ONLY way to eat a mooncake. remember my comparison to fruitcake? imagine what would happen to your body if you ate a whole fruitcake at once. i rest my case.)

Other exciting developments that I will possibly post pictures of later: John wearing big-boy-underpants for the first time and Emily trying both mango & papaya. It's been an adventurous week in the Weist casa.

happy day you got birthed

It's my hubby's birthday today, although, as he likes to point out he was born in the States so technically tomorrow is his birthday too, so he should get to do whatever he wants both days... but that's fine with me because it gives me another day to spoil him. Really I want to do it all the time but he doesn't give me as many opportunities as I'd like. That's what I get for marrying an "old" bachelor set in his ways. heh-heh. He'll probably be so embarrassed and slightly ticked that I'm writing this but that's too bad because I'm an adult and it's my blog and I'll write what I want. So neener, neener. Anyway...I've been thinking a lot lately about paths in life, small & not-so-small decisions that we make every day that set the course we'll take in the future. Which college you go to, what apartment you live in, the job you take, all influence the people you'll meet and the places you'll go and the things that will influence your future choices. In one case it was my parent's move up north, away from their best friends and their favorite neighborhood, not entirely knowing why but feeling it was important. After a while my mom was still confused why they moved and so had determined it must be because I was going to meet my husband there. Huh. Right mom, sure. I'll get right on that. But, as is usually the case, my mom was right. Not that they moved there so I could meet my husband, but it certainly turned out to be a perk.

My mom always said, "Your father tells me all the time to follow my passion...and so I just follow him everywhere he goes." I have to admit that even after 4 short years, Michael has become my life and I follow him wherever he goes. Literally. I mean, why else would I be living in Malaysia, for crying out loud. Seriously. But I will follow him to the end of the earth and back as long as it means I will be with him, always. He has given me two of the most beautiful children in the history of the world, he has given us the adventure of a lifetime, and he has given us himself. I knew before we were ever engaged that Michael would be the most dedicated father and that no one would have a dad who loved them more than my own kids and that alone could have sealed the deal for me. Then add to that package someone who totally makes my day when he laughs, who makes me swoon when he kisses me, who finds ways to make me happy just because he can, who is, quite frankly, dreamy to look at, and to top it all off is crazy about me. Go figure. So here's to random as well as guided choices, here's to adventure, here's to true love, here's to working your butt off to make it work, and here's to being "on the downward slope to forty." (wink) I love you sweetheart. You better live until you're 100 or I'll be so mad at you I'll be climbing the drapes. Happy day you were birthed.

big girl

We finally got new couches! Hallelujah.

Our big girl! She stood holding herself up like this for about 5 minutes. I couldn't be more proud.

just desserts

OK, I've officially lived in Malaysia long enough to be acclimated and not so much like a fish out of water. I took John to one of our favorite bakeries and grabbed what I thought were three mini sugar donuts, only to get one home and take a giant bite into what is pictured below. Red bean paste is a common ingredient used in desserts--from ice cream to cakes to pastries. Actually this weekend is the Chinese Mooncake festival and for Relief Society Enrichment we're learning how to make mooncake with red bean & lotus paste (I'll try to post pics and instruction on that later). Anyway, the point is, when I took this bite and discovered my error, instead of depositing my mouthful in the nearest trash recepticle as I would have a year ago, I actually finished chewing, swallowed and then ate the rest of the entire red bean donut! That's right, and I believe the words 'hmm, that's pretty good' even crossed my mind at one time. I must admit that I'm pretty darn proud of myself.

abstract art?

One morning when Michael was in the Philippines John woke up early and got his hands on the camera. When I came out and found it on the table I discovered that he had busied himself that morning by taking 46 pictures...of himself, the couch, the computer, the floor, etc. I deleted most of them, but kept the ones that were actually discernible. What do you think? A budding photographer on our hands? Hey, if it buys me a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning while he occupies himself he can take 100 pictures every day. Ah, the blessing of digital photography.

What do you do at the park?

I thought about some things that I find funny whenever we visit the water park at KLCC. There are huge gardens outside the KLCC mall with walking paths, a large kids park and a water park, a shallow pool for kids with fountains, waterfalls, the works. I took John & Emily there this morning and let John have a ball jumping, splashing and falling down to his heart's content while I held Emily and followed him around in water up to my calves. The first funny thing is the presence of policewomen/guards of some kind at this water park. No, they're not there to act as lifeguard in case a child is in danger. They're not even there to watch that there's no purse-snatching going on. Their purpose is to eye the perimeter of the pool area where the cement turns into tiny blue tiles and vehemently blow their whistles at anyone who walks on said tile with shoes. No shoes. No flip-flops. Not even a toe...in fact if you come within 5 inches of those tiles and you are wearing footwear of any kind I will tweet at you anyway, just so you know I'm watching. Take those shoes off, mister, I'm warning you. I've got a whistle and I know how to use it.

Of course these woman (never men, always women) have another purpose, something demonstrated to us last time we visited the water park. There are absolutely NO diapers allowed in this pool. None. But unfortunately they have never heard of Lil' Swimmers (standard for any parent in the U.S. taking their kids to the pool) which means that the kids all swim with just suits on...at EVERY age. In fact, some don't even make any pretenses about swimming suits and are just wandering around in their underwear. No joke. Cotton, see-through, flimsy underwear. So aside from the fact that this idea makes me cringe, I push the idea of communicable diseases out of my mind and let the kids have fun. However, MY child will be wearing a Lil' Swimmer. Oh yes, he will. (Thankfully we can find them at the foreign supermarkets). But that did not stop me from almost getting into a fist-fight with whistle-blowing lady when we went there for John's birthday in February and she tried to tell me my son couldn't get into this petri dish pool and splash around because HE had a diaper on. It doesn't work to explain to someone who doesn't speak English that IT'S NOT A DIAPER so finally I just shrugged, told her "no Bahasa" and ignored her for the rest of the afternoon. Then of course she tried the same thing on Michael (he was already in the water with John) and he ended up wanting to throttle her too, but I guess something in our tones made her realize we were serious because she eventually moved on.

The funny thing about today, though, was during one of her obscene whistling episodes, after frantically waving and tweeting at a man on the opposite side of the pool who was wandering around the sacred blue tile with his sandals on, instead of taking 30 seconds and walking AROUND the pool and accosting the criminal on the other side, she walked onto the tile with her shoes on!, crossing the raised platform that goes through the middle of the pool so she could wave at him from a better vantage point. The nerve of some people. So I have little patience with whistle-lady at the pool, but as long as I stay clear of the tile with my sandals on, and as long as I dress John inconspicuously with his Lil' Swimmer underneath his swimsuit, we can pleasantly ignore each other.

I always find things that strike me as bizarre when we go to KLCC park (not the least of which is the creepy phenomenon of groups of men who are apparently all there on dates and come take pictures of each other in front of this pool...where kids are playing...not their own kids...call me crazy but if I saw guys doing that in the States I would call the cops immediately...too bad that isn't part of whistle-lady's job description) so I'm sure I'll be ruminating on those next time we go. Maybe next time I'll just put John in a bio-hazard suit and call it good.

what do you do when it rains?

Today I was driving in what can only be described as a torrential downpour, reservoirs filling up the road on either side that caused drivers to slow to crawl-speed, when I saw a man driving a scooter coming up behind me in my rear-view mirror. I couldn't imagine what kind of masochist would be out driving in this weather, taking what our friend described as a 40 mile-an-hour-bath, and how he could manage in this rain (not to mention even see where he was going). I was stopped at a red light so when he passed me to get up to the front of the line I took a good look and he was pretty covered head-to-toe in rain gear but I happened to glance at his feet and noticed he wasn't wearing any shoes. Now, I imagine that's a pretty good way to keep your shoes dry and would save you the hassle of walking around all day in wet shoes, but I think I'd rather stand a few hours of discomfort because of wet shoes than a lifetime of being CRIPPLED because you have NO FEET, which is what would surely happen if he were to get in a wreck (something that would be FAR more likely to happen while driving a scooter in the rain in the first place, I might add). So far the scooter drivers here have shown their intelligence and/or survival instinct to be about equal to a mosquito. Only one reason why we lovingly refer to them as locusts.

In case you can't tell, we don't like the scooters on the road. I could spent days ranting about their suicidal and accident-inducing behavior (like the boy on the busy road in front of our house looking DOWN while driving so he could write a text message...or how I once saw a family of FIVE driving a scooter: mom, dad and - count 'em - THREE kids, with only the adults wearing helmets...ho, boy...) so I won't even get started. But don't be too surprised if an angry or bewildered or frustrated or unbelievable post about scooter drivers crops up here once in a while. Welcome to Malaysia.

rockin

Michael & I have run away from home. You didn't know it, but we aren't living in Malaysia. That's just a cover story. We are really international rock stars, on a global tour with the internationally acclaimed "Rock Band". That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
OK, so coming from this lady who always said she'd never have video games in her home...I want Rock Band. And Guitar Hero. And a bunch of other wii games. Not for my kids. For ME.

We played with our friends Nichole & Mike (thx Nichole!!!) while we were in the states and I got totally hooked. Needless to say I totally rock. At Level 1, of course. But I'm thinking maybe I missed my calling in life and really I should have been a drummer because it is cool. And rockin. After playing that game, I feel the need to say "rock" a lot. Parents, do yourself a favor and go buy yourself one. Not your kids. Yourself. Lock it up in your room and only let them play it on special occasions, like their birthday. Or graduation. So don't be surprised if you never hear from us again because we will be livin' it up around the world, or, more accurately, our living room. Leave us a message and we may get back to you someday.

home again, home again, jiggity-jig

i was going to post some pictures from our glorious 3 week vacation in california/utah but then i realized that would require digging through our 5 enormous suitcases to find my camera and my body just isn't ready for that yet. we arrived around noon (or 10pm, if you were asking our bodies) and were greeted with sweltering heat, a strange overwhelming smell, and piles & piles of dead ants in every corner of our home. so after attacking the carcases and showering the plane grime off of us, we promptly all crashed for a short 8 hour nap. heh-heh, not the brightest thing, i know, but we have nothing to do here for a while so there's no reason to rush into getting our bodies back on to local time.

so, we made it, we're alive (mostly) and we'll post pictures just as soon as i unpack... which will probably be sometime next week.