Monthly Update

"What does a bachelor do in HK when his wife is away?" asks my sister-in-law Lisa. Find one reason after another not to update the blog is the apparent answer. I fell behind again when we were in the States for the holidays, and blogging eventually became one of those big tasks that seemed overwhelming. Therefore, my new year's resolution is to not get so freaking far behind in blogging again.

So, a brief recap of the last month: The U.S. was really, really cold.

We had a good trip home, with stops on both coasts, the midwest and the mountains. I spent a few days in Washington and Maryland taking care of some personal business and visiting our house, which we have been renting out since moving to the Philippines. Our tenants are a Christian ministry that cares for people with disabilities. While I don't know the details, we apparently have two or three men with mild disabilities living in the house, along with a 24-hour attendant. Since it's a Christian group, I don't know why I was surprised to see that our living room had been turned into a church sanctuary, so families can come worship with the residents. If you look closely, you'll see that there is an offering plate in the back corner and, for some reason, microphones. The tenants have kept the house in good shape and put down rugs over almost all of the hardwood floors, and we were happy to see that.

Small-town Iowa seemed really, really small after a year of living in Manila followed by a couple of months in Hong Kong. Shelly's flight to Des Moines was delayed several times, and finally arrived at something like 12:45 Christmas Eve morning, three or four hours later than scheduled. I left Mom and Jer's around 11:30 p.m. to pick her up and -- although I spent close to 20 years living in this town of 6,000 people -- I was somehow shocked when I couldn't find an open convenience store to buy a bottle of soda on my way out of town. Christmas was great, with Brad and Laura also being there. Of course, that just led to us causing Mom all sorts of "problems," including a session the four of us spent making crazy photos on Mom and Jer's computer, then setting the computer up to cycle through about 20 of them one after another.

Colorado was crazy cold, and the close to three feet of snow on the ground when I arrived was definitely the most snow I've seen in years. (Fortunately, one of the things I did in Maryland was retrieve a few cold weather clothes from a box I had stored at our neighbor's house. Thanks, Vivian!) We had a great time in Colorado playing with our niece and nephews, were honored to be present at John's baptism. Thanks to Lisa and Jim and Tracy and Charles for making sure the kids know us, since we're around so infrequently.

After a couple of weeks in the States, our suitcases were quite literally bulging at the seams. The new limit of 50 pounds per bag really isn't a problem most of the time, but I knew I was pushing that limit when I checked in in Denver. I couldn't have been much closer to the limit: one bag weighed 49.5 pounds, the other weighed 45 pounds, for a total of 94.5 pounds. Shelly did even better than I did, clocking in at a total of 99.5 pounds. I bow to the master.

Since returning to Hong Kong, I have been easing back into life in the city. And -- and this should be no surprise, given our recent past -- I've been to the vet more than once in the 11 or 12 days I've been back. Fat Choy was "desexed" a week ago, only to have her body reject the stitches, which took us back to the vet on Saturday and then again today for more surgery, with different sutures this time around. Needless to say, we are well known at the SPCA...

And that's the update. I resolve to keep my new year's resolution, and will do my best to update daily (or at least almost daily) throughout 2007.