Rockets red glare and all that

American Flag, Carl's Jr. Flag
Originally uploaded by taminsea1.

You know, technically, this is the correct way to display the American flag. See how it is flying *above* the Carls jr. banner. It would be disrespectful to fly it beneath the other flag.

It is clear that we need more laws to preserve the dignity of this symbol of American freedom. The one on top I mean.

A Lego Camera?

Adrian Hanft is the creator of this nifty gadget. With a couple of custom mods, he has essentially created a pinhole camera out of Legos. Check his blog for instructions and samples from his gallery. I have to hand it to him, it really looks like fun. Well, my idea of fun anyway.

zongzi

zongzi
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

This is a picture I took of the dish that Linda made last weekend. As I understand it, these are really time consuming. I was fascinated by the leaves and how they were tied around the ball of rice inside.

I thought they were really good.

Future pup

Future pup
Originally uploaded by norikoism.

The most patient dog in the universe.

Television is back

arroyo TV
Originally uploaded by reddirtrose.

I might have left it for dead. Perhaps I should have just let it go, but the TV is back. My sunny window in through which flows all the popular culture I can consume.

Having lost the television for several months, we decided not to stop the cable or anything like that. We also continued to rent one of those digital video recorder (DVR) devices from our cable company and so, while the tube was blank, the DVR stayed vigilant. It blinked on and off periodically so that it could enjoy our favorite programs even though we couldn't.

Now I have three months worth of television I have to catch up on. This being the case you might not hear from me for a while.

Sensible and attractive

Heel
Originally uploaded by brixtonboy.

I'm not sure what the next step in fashion will be, but this is a shade too close to foot binding. Sure, the girls look great as they teeter along with their butts sticking out and their spines arched in order to stay somewhat upright, but c'mon guys, this is barbaric.

Mr. Typhoid

Mr. T
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

This guy is the creepy mascot for my typhoid vaccination. I guess he is supposed to be a happy capsule filled with a *live typhoid vaccine* which I need to eat once every other day for the next several days.

The upside is that this is one step closer to my China trip. Once I finish this stuff, I will have had most of my shots. I ought to be good to go for a few years after that.

Zongzi and Birthday

Tonight I went to a portion of two different celebrations. First the kids and I went to a Chinese party at Portland State University. They described the experience as extremely awkward, and I have to admit that it was, even for me.

We got there early to see my friend Linda who is working on a PhD. Her proposal was just accepted and I wanted to say congratulations. I also wanted to see her husband Ian who is a really nice guy.

They had been making a sticky rice dish called "zongzi" all day for the party. I was looking forward to trying them. The party started at 6:00 and we could only stay until 6:30, so I was hoping to keep sort of a low profile. This was not to be.

The party started off and the master of ceremonies (the chair of the international student group) took the mic and thanked my friend Linda for all her hard work and also took a second to welcome her "very special guests." Part of this was in Chinese and part in English. I said hi and she asked me to come and introduce myself. I felt that I had no choice but to say hello and say my name and begin to introduce my kids Ian and Jillian. Then I heard Linda say something like "ni yingai jiang zhong wen" or something like that which meant to tell it in Chinese.

OMG

I choked out a couple of words "erzi" (son) "nuer" (daughter) and said their names, which was entirely unsatisfactory. I didn't actually feel as nervous as I should have, but I didn't have any idea what was expected of me. I fell far short, but at least I didn't pee my pants. And I learned an important lesson. I need to have a story ready to tell about myself in Chinese. That is my next project.

We left about 5 minutes after our introduction as the honored guests and I felt horrible, but I had to get to Ben's birthday party.

Our next event was another semi-awkward affair. It is a side of my family that the kids almost never see so they didn't know many people. There were no major gaffes, but I had to leave early from that party as well so by the end of the night I was feeling a little out of sorts.

Hey, brain... wake up

Espresso
Originally uploaded by Tygh.

This ought to do the trick.