Happy Thanksgiving

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That would be our turkey in our kitchen center stage surrounded by Patt, sister-in-law Kay and sister Betty, left to right.  We actually hosted Thanksgiving in our house.  A real nice activity.  Let me recommend it to you.  That turkey had spent the night and most of the day before being cooked on Thursday in a bucket of special recipe brine  -- an organic turkey it was - and it was real real good.

 the desert table in the foreground and the beginnings of dinner on the counter

and of course at the dinner table.  

I think I have mentioned how beautiful and extraordinarily warm our fall has been -

- looking up the driveway

and back down -- 

How 'bout them apples !

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Actually they are pumpkins, pumpkin pies, but why quibble over a great line.  Yep, Patt's cook prepared two -count 'em -two pumpkin pies.  

 The crust crinkling needs a little help, but the cook is somewhat of  a novice.  And Patt was pleased.  Surprised you got that right !   Tastes great - and filling.

 Today is a bit overcast and windy and if you look carefully you can see some  of the "rain" of leaves we are having today.

 Earlier in the week you would not believe how pretty it has been.  We are talking mid to upper 70s and a blue shy that goes on forever.

 and the top has been down -- absolutely a lovely lovely fall here in N C.

big doings at church

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Sunday we celebrated 200 years of being a church at Edenton Street.   http://www.esumc.org/   Patt and I got to church early for the one and a half hour (scheduled) service - but were late for our normal area of seating as the place was really full for the special service.  All our living former pastors, Walace Kirby, baptized Stephen, Vernon Tyson, Bill Simpson, Roger Elliot (married Laura and Matt) were there and had a part of the service.  Picture taken with iPhone as I was among the last to sit down.  Those are about a hundred or so little kid choir members all along the front behind the alter.  Also the liturgical dancers were in the aisle- so little kids were all over the place.

 After church at numerous locations around the facility cake was available.  (The Gathering service went on as scheduled).  Here is Patt on the steps of the Poindexter Education Building

Out front of the front of the church courtyard was one of the busier places of cup-cakes and meet and greet.

And of course some kids were playing on the steps - the purple is the liturgical dancer outfit.

 As we were walking to our car, I turned around and took one last photo to have of just the church 0 forgetting to remove the lens screen that is part of my phone case - hence the gray look -- it really was a pretty day.

big doin's at Wake

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Saturday was beautiful, the sky clear and blue, and leaves pretty and a crowd of us joined friends in the parking lot for a pre-game tailgate picnic.  

 Had some good stories to tell, and optimisim was high as Notre Dame - yes, that Notre Dame was in town to play the Deacons on the grid-iron.

 Yes that is them versus us in our stadium.  Something none of us ever thought we would see.

 and goodness but those in the gold helmets were big - and at this moment in trouble.  Unfortunately that period of being in trouble did not last long enough.

 one of the things we all noticed in addition to their size was how shiny their helmets were.

after leading by a touchdown at the half, we ended up losing but it sure was a fun and exciting evening.

got home

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As indicated below, I had good help taking luggage to the airport.  We did discuss who and when bags got to be pulled and Isaac did indeed pull one too.  

Goodness but it was hard to leave.  I surely had a wonderfully blessed time with the kids - all of them, Matt, Laura, Julianna, Lydia and Isaac.  

travel home was the easiest and smoothest ever.  Connections on time, hikes to departure gates short, wait in immigration exit, entrance, customs exit entrance, security clearances, all amazingly short, meals - well I was on an airplane-meals, delightful people to talk with available, absence of annoying people, (on that later point, I maintain a  rather large category- so this indeed was nice), and no weather issue, and the about anything else you can think of went well.  

I was of course extremely happy to be home and see Patt -- much catching up to do, and errands to run, but that is what I get paid for so -- I am off to it.  Also the Wake Notre Dame game Saturday.

yeah, I know how very very fortunate I am

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Tomorrow I start my 24-hour trip home and I am looking forward to getting there very much.  However I know it is inconsistent, but I am really not looking forward to leaving either.

The last full day here started with me going over to Matt and Laura’s a little early (they were going downtown on errands and I was baby sitting till about lunch time).  The kids and I skyped with Patt for a long time.  The sound and video at our end was excellent (wish that were true for the USA end), and Julianna especially liked to talk to her Grandmama this morning.  

 Here is that same photo from the other side of the room.  Julianna is very intense about watching people and studies them very diligently.

After we disconnected from our visiting with Patt, I did some serious reading, first a “struction” book to Isaac (yes I have princess sticker on my forehead—Lydia puts one on early in the morning and pretty much keeps it on her forehead till bedtime- and this morning Lydia felt as if I too needed a sticker on my forehead.  Later I read "chapter books" to Julianna and Lydia.  Today was several sections from We Were There on the Oregon Trail and when we hit exciting parts, Isaac would join us.  We like "chapter books"

In the afternoon, among other activities we played cards, including a couple of serious games of Old Maid – I would not let them put the Old Maid card aside and said we had to play with that card too.   In the first game, I palmed the Old Maid and ended up holding it.    In the second game, early on I positioned the Old Maid card high in my hand for Lydia to draw.—oh such fun watching her anguish over drawing and holding the Old Maid and then watching Julianna’s careful drawing of a card from her.  Lydia’s face during the draw of the card by Julianna told anyone all you needed to know about where the Old Maid card was.  If you have not played serious Old Maid with small children, let me recommend it to you.  Using the Old Maid adds a real degree of excitement for the kids - and me too.

 For dinner we went out to a formal Korean restaurant and had a seriously good meal and good time cooking our food over the coal fire.  The kids were super as we stayed a long time -- they enjoyed the meat and vegetables cooked over the fire too.

 And then home late and I was of course the center of attention, as well as providing a chance to stay up a few more minutes past bedtime.  


See what I mean about being so very very fortunate. 

Such a wonderful time here –just wish Patt could have been here longer – skyping is good, but not as good….

more of an adventure -Shuangliu

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A little more about my adventure Friday – I rode the electric motorcycle to a nearby town on the west side of the airport, 6-8 miles away.  In the town as I was looking for the park I rode up and down some pretty streets.

 The streets were of course full of the little shops so very typical of commercial street life here.

 And the main business square had its share of – for this town - large buildings, this one complete with video board.

 And on the way I was on on a huge multilane highway that went under part of the airport runway access ramps.—This large red truck is the most common freight carrier I think -- at least I have seen a lot of trucks that look like this and are either red or blue.  and speaking of blue, -- check out that sky - it was a rare beautiful day.

 I passed and pulled into this place where huge statutes were being “carved”, made, or what ever - This was on the side of the rode in a large lot.  There was no sales office or whatever, just a little dormitory type building and these guys working.  It looked interesting --  These large resolute looking warriors of the past are 10-12 feet high.  They are made I think from the same material that bricks are made of and low heat treated so they are not as hard (often wrong, never …)-- 

 At any rate they are not solid – or at least this one was not.

And this one was being carved with an electric grinder and a hammer like tool.  The small piece of material I picked up looked like marble. 

  

  Now this looked like marble, probably was not but this particular Buddha was  being rinsed in something to make him glossy.

I also saw this temple on a hill top, stopped and went in.  There were many saffron wearing monks about, as well as various vendors of incense, fire crackers and red paper things.  This was the largest Buddha there and in the center you can see a monk tapping a drum and reading and chanting from a book.

 Of course in one of the associated buildings were the “guards”  or famous generals or something.—probably the later.

such nice people - and adventure too

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Today I must have been wearing a sign saying “be nice to this guy”  because I can not remember when I consistently ran across people who were so very very nice to me.

It started early when I entered this park in a nearby town (more later on getting there etc).  The park is built around a lake with many little waterways is quite beautiful.  There is a lot of old China type of construction in the park

 This guy enjoyed me watching him take money from the rest of the table (the woman in the foreground is taking money from under the cloth to pass to the smiling man.)

 They continued their Mah Jong game and thanked me for taking their photo.

 These guys tried to get me to play table tennis – not a chance of that happening after watching them play for a few minutes.  The guy at the far end was beating one after another opponent with wicked spin shots.

 I climbed this pagoda and I am out of Malaysian-mountain-climbing shape quickly too as I was puffing when I got to the top.

 And here is the park form up top – the park is in the middle of this small town ---remember small town here means something very different from in the USA.—try basically it would be one of the largest towns in most states.

 At the top I met this nice couple who, when I asked them if they would take a photo of me, – had me pose about half-a-dozen times- I liked it too.

  Note the posed photo at the top of the pagoda.

Down below on one of the pathways, this man playing an ancient “fiddle” and the woman singing in accompaniment could serenade you.

  

 And I had tea at this lakeside tea shop – (there were many tea shops around the lake).  When I tried to order some food like what was on the table near me, I was invited to join the people for whom the table was set.  Really it was excellent food too and I am afraid my conversation was a bit limited but they now know I have a wife, son, daughter and three grandchildren – oh and that I am retired and my name is Paul. 

We are talking a pretty good day here and it was far from over.

and a delightful dinner date too

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In case I have not mentioned it, I consider myself one very blessed guy.  A Prime example is yesterday when I had two wonderful dates. 

As detailed in the previous post, Lydia and I had a lunch date.  Then later Julianna and I went for a dinner date -- yesterday evening.  She dressed formally – over a sweater jacket as it is getting cold here -- and her Mom loaned me their car (change of subject – but that is one for the ages isn’t it?) and I drove down to the commercial area of this part of town.  

 We walked along the street where vendors where setting up their offerings for the evening – from clothing, to food stuffs, household items, and of course CDs, to most anything you would need—think street fair minus the balloon twisting guy  -I should add that such a location provides much to discuss in such a stroll and we did discuss much, -- and with a small world moment on our stroll Julianna was greeted by a classmate of Lydia’s, though I should add we were very near the school, so perhaps it was not a small world moment after all.

 We chose a restaurant that offered outside seating – as do nearly all the restaurants in this part of town.  These outside seating arangements are no minor undertakings with tents, lighting, and such.  Julianna took this picture of me.

 And of course I took this one.  We went for gidan chowfan – egg fried rice – and it was quite good too.  Once again, the ordering and finding the restaurant was up to me.  Soon enough the kids will be doing the taking out but for now….  And  I can say ZaiNar - (where?) - good enough to find a restaurant that has what we were looking for.

 And our after dinner entertainment included cake and juice from a nearby by bakery and a little play time on one of the corner pieces of art – (really it is quite something in this part of town – the corner art)  

At first I was using the above photo as a locational - atmosphere photo, but after looking at Julianna's pose -- well it is just to precious for a Granddad not to share -

 Yes it really is a computer and Julianna using her feet typed her name.  That is the "mouse" in the foreground, though the computer has a track pad.  and oh such a grand evening.  

Little truth in advertising here -- on both "dates" I spoke a bit of Chinese - ordering, finding which restaurant served what and so on.  During the course of my various Chinese conversations (that word is loosely used here)   at some time or another I had occasion to ask Lydia and Julianna what the Chinese person said to me.  I of course got a translation and that was fine -- and both girls at one time or another said "She (the Chinese person) said "she can not understand you"  -- and knowing that makes things much more clear to me as I frequently could not understand them either.