Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Sesame Street!
I've mentioned that our cable TV system is a bit odd. Most of it appears to be pirated from a Thai cable company. There was one channel that was for a while giving us the channel UBC Series, which had semi-recent American prime time shows. Needless to say, I was disappointed when it all of a sudden became the Hallmark channel. I mean, come on! How many made for TV movies does Cambodia need? Well, it turns out that in Asia, the Hallmark channel carries Sesame Street seven days a week. So I'll take the loss of several versions of Law and Order. We don't watch all the time, since I still try to limit Ellie to an hour and a half, or maybe two hours, of TV each week. But when I need a break... oh my is it good to put on Elmo for a bit. If any of you are working on tapes of episodes, please feel free to send them, as she loves it, and I can use all the help I can get. But if you have found it to be a pain, or were just about to start taping shows, no need to feel bad. The Elmo fix has been provided by the pirates who run our cable company. Should that make me feel guilty?
Astronomical observations
Somany has some free time today, which gives me a bit of time to do some blogging. I'm pretty wiped, because Jen's been travelling for work again. She was gone last night, and will be gone again tomorrow night, but at the moment I have a bit of quiet time. Ah... I can listen to music other than Raffi! I can think! Wonderous quiet time.
A few nights ago, we had a clear sky at night. My reputation is already somewhat well established here, since the way I learned this was a phone call asking me what the two extremely bright planets setting in the west were. My thoughts went something like this: "What?!?! Not only is the sky clear, but it is steady enough that the planets aren't twinkling? I must go see!" Turns out there was only one planet (Jupiter) and a very bright star (Spica). At least that was my guess. Venus had probably already dipped below visible. In any event, the night was remarkable. I spent an hour or so on our roof with my big binoculars just enjoying the view. Fantastic. Of course, the telescope hadn't been delivered yet, nor had my books with star charts, or the printer from which I could print one, but that didn't cause me any problems. I could see the Milky Way, faintly, and there were more stars in my view than I've seen in a LONG time.
Sadly, this was an extremely uncommon night. This being the rainy season, almost every afternoon brings rain clouds. If it doesn't, there is almost always a thin cirrus layer that obscures all but the brightest objects, and makes even the planets twinkle a bit. And the bloody heat! It is like looking through water. Actually, I guess, it is looking through water. Those who have been here longer than we have tell me the dry season is much better, which is no surprise. I'm anticipating those nights with great glee. My scope is finally here, so I just need to make sure the bumping around and the ocean air haven't done too much damage.
A few nights ago, we had a clear sky at night. My reputation is already somewhat well established here, since the way I learned this was a phone call asking me what the two extremely bright planets setting in the west were. My thoughts went something like this: "What?!?! Not only is the sky clear, but it is steady enough that the planets aren't twinkling? I must go see!" Turns out there was only one planet (Jupiter) and a very bright star (Spica). At least that was my guess. Venus had probably already dipped below visible. In any event, the night was remarkable. I spent an hour or so on our roof with my big binoculars just enjoying the view. Fantastic. Of course, the telescope hadn't been delivered yet, nor had my books with star charts, or the printer from which I could print one, but that didn't cause me any problems. I could see the Milky Way, faintly, and there were more stars in my view than I've seen in a LONG time.
Sadly, this was an extremely uncommon night. This being the rainy season, almost every afternoon brings rain clouds. If it doesn't, there is almost always a thin cirrus layer that obscures all but the brightest objects, and makes even the planets twinkle a bit. And the bloody heat! It is like looking through water. Actually, I guess, it is looking through water. Those who have been here longer than we have tell me the dry season is much better, which is no surprise. I'm anticipating those nights with great glee. My scope is finally here, so I just need to make sure the bumping around and the ocean air haven't done too much damage.
Subscribing to Immingpool
This is a drastic rewrite, since Jen informs me that almost nobody out there reading this actually cares about how this works. Fair point. So, let me tell you what I mean by "subscribing" to the blog. You may be annoyed that you don't know when there is new stuff up on the blog, and you almost certainly don't want to check every day just to see if we have something new up. And we don't want you to lose interest, because this is the best way for us to put stuff up, and not worry about whether it makes a good e-mail. The recent "Dinnertime Conversation" post is a perfect example. That wouldn't be a good e-mail. But you might want to read it along with seeing some new photos. Subscribing just means that you can find out when something new is up, and you can even read some or all of the content without going to the site. If you'd like to do that, read on.
Subscriptions to Immingpool! are available through the magic of something called Atom. This is a more recent version of a technology called RSS. There’s a lot of technical stuff going on inside RSS and Atom, but the long and the short of it is that if you want to just magically know when we have updated the site, our Atom feed is the way to go.
There are two really good programs for getting the feed. The first is Thunderbird, the e-mail program that the Mozilla project puts out. You can find out more and download it at Mozilla.org. You can also use the new Google Desktop 2.0. It has a plugin called Web Clips. This plugin looks at all of the sites you visit, and if there is an RSS or Atom feed, it can automatically show you new items from the feed. This is a really useful feature. I also enjoy the other features of the Google Desktop sidebar – well worth a visit to the Google Desktop site. If you want a list of other programs that do similar things, check out this list at Wiki.
I don't expect that you will want to change from Outlook Express or whatever other program you use to read e-mail, but there's a chance you are already using Thunderbird, or are looking for an alternative already. If so, here’s the way to subscribe in Thunderbird. Simply go to the File menu, go to New, and choose Account. On the dialog that pops up, select “RSS News & Blogs”. Give it a name (remember that this will be not just for immingpool, but for any feeds you have). Click Finish on the next screen, and you are almost there. You should see a new account in your account list. Click on it, and you’ll get a screen with options. Choose Manage Subscriptions, then click Add. Paste this URL into it: http://immingpool.blogspot.com/atom.xml. You should then be all set. Say OK, and you’ll soon be getting updates in something close to real time.
The Google Desktop will probably just automatically add Immingpool! to the Web Clips plugin the first time you visit the site while the sidebar is running. If it doesn't, you can always contact me for help.
Subscriptions to Immingpool! are available through the magic of something called Atom. This is a more recent version of a technology called RSS. There’s a lot of technical stuff going on inside RSS and Atom, but the long and the short of it is that if you want to just magically know when we have updated the site, our Atom feed is the way to go.
There are two really good programs for getting the feed. The first is Thunderbird, the e-mail program that the Mozilla project puts out. You can find out more and download it at Mozilla.org. You can also use the new Google Desktop 2.0. It has a plugin called Web Clips. This plugin looks at all of the sites you visit, and if there is an RSS or Atom feed, it can automatically show you new items from the feed. This is a really useful feature. I also enjoy the other features of the Google Desktop sidebar – well worth a visit to the Google Desktop site. If you want a list of other programs that do similar things, check out this list at Wiki.
I don't expect that you will want to change from Outlook Express or whatever other program you use to read e-mail, but there's a chance you are already using Thunderbird, or are looking for an alternative already. If so, here’s the way to subscribe in Thunderbird. Simply go to the File menu, go to New, and choose Account. On the dialog that pops up, select “RSS News & Blogs”. Give it a name (remember that this will be not just for immingpool, but for any feeds you have). Click Finish on the next screen, and you are almost there. You should see a new account in your account list. Click on it, and you’ll get a screen with options. Choose Manage Subscriptions, then click Add. Paste this URL into it: http://immingpool.blogspot.com/atom.xml. You should then be all set. Say OK, and you’ll soon be getting updates in something close to real time.
The Google Desktop will probably just automatically add Immingpool! to the Web Clips plugin the first time you visit the site while the sidebar is running. If it doesn't, you can always contact me for help.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Dinnertime Conversation
Daddy (to Ellie): Who is in Ellie's family?
Ellie: Mommy...and Daddy...and Ben
Daddy: That's right! And who is in my family?
--Big pause--
Mommy: Who are daddy's kids?
Ellie: Ellie and Ben
Mommy: That's right. And who is daddy married to?
Ellie: Mommy!
Daddy: That's right. And who is mommy married to?
Ellie: Aunt Jess!
Ellie: Mommy...and Daddy...and Ben
Daddy: That's right! And who is in my family?
--Big pause--
Mommy: Who are daddy's kids?
Ellie: Ellie and Ben
Mommy: That's right. And who is daddy married to?
Ellie: Mommy!
Daddy: That's right. And who is mommy married to?
Ellie: Aunt Jess!
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
Life as Ben
1. My nickname is "Tutto Bene". Ellie particularly likes to say that one, but she's a bit disappointed that Mommy can't fit the whole nickname into the "Ben, Ben, Bo-Ben, Banana Fama Fo-Fen, Me, My, Mo-Men, Ben" song.
2. I just started sitting up on my own! (I can't get in to that position on my own...someone needs to sit me up, but I'm starting to do OK at maintaining my balance.)
3. Somany gives me a bath every night and it puts me in a great mood. (Plus she rubs baby lotion on me so I smell good too.)
4. We seem to be maintaining a stasis of one lactose intolerant child in our house. Ellie no longer has problems digesting milk, so now it's my turn. Now I drink soy formula, and mommy tries not to drink milk (except for the occassional bubble tea, which is too good to pass up).
5. I spend lots of time with Daddy every day. I particularly like to play with Daddy and Ellie. Watching them is fascinating. Sometimes I play with my toys--like my plastic cups--while they play with theirs.
6. I don't see Mommy a whole lot, and when I do, I'm usually breastfeeding. When Mommy is home, Ellie is more demanding of her time, though recently I've started fussing if I see her and she doesn't pick me up.
7. All the books say I should be sleeping through the night by now...but I'm not. I still wake up twice a night most nights, much to my parents' chagrin. (Mommy has convinced Daddy to take over one of the feedings now.) Last night I only woke up once...let's hope that's part of a trend!
8. I just started eating solids. It's really a whole body experience at this point. When mommy or daddy tries to feed me, my arms and legs are all over. "What does this mean?" mommy wonders. "Is he flailing his arms and legs because he's excited about eating? When he knocks my hand away (and sends rice cereal flying) is that because he doesn't want to eat? Or because he's trying to grab the spoon?" And whenever I do get some food in my mouth, I like to push around with my tongue, let it dribble out the side of my mouth, push it back in with my fingers, then smear it in mommy's hair...
9. My big sis seems to be a bit smaller than average, but I'm right at about the 50th percentile for my age!
10. I give terrific smiles! But no teeth yet.
11. I take a morning and an afternoon nap, and I go to bed at 7 pm.
12. If I sit on Mommy's lap at dinner, I love to pull on her placemat. So far she's been too quick for me, but I'm hoping to knock over a glass soon.
13. If you stand me up and hang on to my hands for balance, I can support my own weight standing (well, at least for a minute or so).
2. I just started sitting up on my own! (I can't get in to that position on my own...someone needs to sit me up, but I'm starting to do OK at maintaining my balance.)
3. Somany gives me a bath every night and it puts me in a great mood. (Plus she rubs baby lotion on me so I smell good too.)
4. We seem to be maintaining a stasis of one lactose intolerant child in our house. Ellie no longer has problems digesting milk, so now it's my turn. Now I drink soy formula, and mommy tries not to drink milk (except for the occassional bubble tea, which is too good to pass up).
5. I spend lots of time with Daddy every day. I particularly like to play with Daddy and Ellie. Watching them is fascinating. Sometimes I play with my toys--like my plastic cups--while they play with theirs.
6. I don't see Mommy a whole lot, and when I do, I'm usually breastfeeding. When Mommy is home, Ellie is more demanding of her time, though recently I've started fussing if I see her and she doesn't pick me up.
7. All the books say I should be sleeping through the night by now...but I'm not. I still wake up twice a night most nights, much to my parents' chagrin. (Mommy has convinced Daddy to take over one of the feedings now.) Last night I only woke up once...let's hope that's part of a trend!
8. I just started eating solids. It's really a whole body experience at this point. When mommy or daddy tries to feed me, my arms and legs are all over. "What does this mean?" mommy wonders. "Is he flailing his arms and legs because he's excited about eating? When he knocks my hand away (and sends rice cereal flying) is that because he doesn't want to eat? Or because he's trying to grab the spoon?" And whenever I do get some food in my mouth, I like to push around with my tongue, let it dribble out the side of my mouth, push it back in with my fingers, then smear it in mommy's hair...
9. My big sis seems to be a bit smaller than average, but I'm right at about the 50th percentile for my age!
10. I give terrific smiles! But no teeth yet.
11. I take a morning and an afternoon nap, and I go to bed at 7 pm.
12. If I sit on Mommy's lap at dinner, I love to pull on her placemat. So far she's been too quick for me, but I'm hoping to knock over a glass soon.
13. If you stand me up and hang on to my hands for balance, I can support my own weight standing (well, at least for a minute or so).
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Life as Ellie
Ellie is at such a fun age. OK, it's a great age when she's not being a difficult, ornery two year old. She had a bad month, which made all of us miserable. But that seems to have lifted about a week or so ago, and she's really been a lot of fun since then. (Or maybe that's just the non-stay-at-home parent talking.) Here's a glimpse of life as an Ellie:
1. Running in circles in the foyer is great!
2. Classifying everyone you know is very important, but whatever criteria you can think of. Typical questions in our house: "Grandpa John--guy?" "Ben--baby?" "Julia--potty?" "Baby Zoe--diaper?" "Ben--penis?" I'll stop there.
3. "You" and "me" are such confusing concepts. I was chasing Ellie in circles in the foyer (yes, I mean that literally) and when I grabbed her, I would say "I caught you!" So she started saying it back to me--I would grab her, and she would say "I caught you!" My attempts to correct her now mean that she says "I caught me!"
4. Hide and seek is fun. But Ellie is only good at seeking. She won't stay in one place long enough to hide. But she loves looking for people who are hiding, and when she finds you, she says "Boo!"
5. Food is terrific. All the sudden, she's become an adventurous eater! Since moving to Cambodia, she has started to eat cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, ply mien (tropical fruit-- maybe longan or longsat in English?), fish, chicken, and even pumpkin custard.
6. Sharing is tough. Ellie doesn't want Ben to play with many things, and of course as soon as Ben starts to playing with something Ellie was ignoring, she wants it.
7. We miss other kids. And playgrounds! The swimming pool provides fun outdoors (thanks, Jess!) but we wish we had more options. And it's been really tough to find other kids for Ellie to play with. Nathan spent an hour looking for a playgroup today and never found it.
8. She can count! Just tonight she counted to five for us. Then she counted to four. Then she counted to five but skipped four. She has it down mostly.
9. She speaks in full sentences...sort of. They're complete thoughts, just without all those extraneous verbs, pronouns, and prepositions. "Mommy...crawling...baby...also?" translates into "Hey, Mom, I'm crawling on the floor pretending to be a baby. Would you care to join me?"
1. Running in circles in the foyer is great!
2. Classifying everyone you know is very important, but whatever criteria you can think of. Typical questions in our house: "Grandpa John--guy?" "Ben--baby?" "Julia--potty?" "Baby Zoe--diaper?" "Ben--penis?" I'll stop there.
3. "You" and "me" are such confusing concepts. I was chasing Ellie in circles in the foyer (yes, I mean that literally) and when I grabbed her, I would say "I caught you!" So she started saying it back to me--I would grab her, and she would say "I caught you!" My attempts to correct her now mean that she says "I caught me!"
4. Hide and seek is fun. But Ellie is only good at seeking. She won't stay in one place long enough to hide. But she loves looking for people who are hiding, and when she finds you, she says "Boo!"
5. Food is terrific. All the sudden, she's become an adventurous eater! Since moving to Cambodia, she has started to eat cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, ply mien (tropical fruit-- maybe longan or longsat in English?), fish, chicken, and even pumpkin custard.
6. Sharing is tough. Ellie doesn't want Ben to play with many things, and of course as soon as Ben starts to playing with something Ellie was ignoring, she wants it.
7. We miss other kids. And playgrounds! The swimming pool provides fun outdoors (thanks, Jess!) but we wish we had more options. And it's been really tough to find other kids for Ellie to play with. Nathan spent an hour looking for a playgroup today and never found it.
8. She can count! Just tonight she counted to five for us. Then she counted to four. Then she counted to five but skipped four. She has it down mostly.
9. She speaks in full sentences...sort of. They're complete thoughts, just without all those extraneous verbs, pronouns, and prepositions. "Mommy...crawling...baby...also?" translates into "Hey, Mom, I'm crawling on the floor pretending to be a baby. Would you care to join me?"
Kids Books We Own
We finally got all our books, so this is a more-or-less complete list. Actually, as it turns out, every time I edit it, it becomes unavailable. This will be getting more and more complete as I get time, but there is nothing here we don't own. Specific questions can be directed to us in e-mail. You should be able to make sure you're not buying the kids something they already own by looking at this list. In the meantime, if you want to make a tape of reading books to the kids, don't feel like you have to buy new books--you could check one of these out from the library and make a tape reading one of these books they already own. (I included the author only when I thought there might be more than one book with the same title.)
Inside Noah's Ark
Thomas the Tank Engine's Big Lift and Look Book
Elmo's Big Lift and Look Book
Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears
Giggle, Giggle, Quack
For Every Child
It's Okay to be Different
Things that Go
Moonbeam Bear
Welcome to the Big Blue House
Luna's Night
The New Baby (Mercer Mayer)
One, Two, Three! (Sandra Boynton)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
Pajama Time!
My Many Colored Days
There's a Wocket in my Pocket
Who is the Beast?
Baby Faces (DK)
The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog
Click, Clack, Moo
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Debbie Trafton O'Neal)
The Story of Daniel (Patricia Pingry)
The Story of the Ten Commandments (Patricia Pingry)
The Story of David (Patricia Pingry)
Blue Hat, Green Hat
Time for Bed (Mem Fox)
First Book of Sushi (Amy Wilson Sanger)
Going to Bed Book
The Story of Joshua (Patricia Pingry)
The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Patricia Pingry)
Noodles
My First Animal Book
Cathy the Calf
Patch the Puppy
Bobby the Bunny Rabbit
Danny the Duckling
Katy the Kitten
Penny the Pony
Yum Yum Dim Sum
The Feelings Book (Todd Parr)
Halloween (Chuck Murphy)
Opposites (Sandra Boynton)
Doggies (Sandra Boynton)
Give Me Grace
Hippos Go Berserk
Moo, Baa, La La La
Arthur on the Farm
Bear’s Scrunch and Shake Book
Where is Caterpillar?
My First Animals – Pets
Happy Baby ABC
Rub-A-Dub Bunny (Pat the Bunny)
Thank You for This Day
The Alphabet Book (P.D.Eastman)
Ladybug Counts
Counting (Active Minds)
plus two terrific handmade photo books from Jess
Inside Noah's Ark
Thomas the Tank Engine's Big Lift and Look Book
Elmo's Big Lift and Look Book
Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears
Giggle, Giggle, Quack
For Every Child
It's Okay to be Different
Things that Go
Moonbeam Bear
Welcome to the Big Blue House
Luna's Night
The New Baby (Mercer Mayer)
One, Two, Three! (Sandra Boynton)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
Pajama Time!
My Many Colored Days
There's a Wocket in my Pocket
Who is the Beast?
Baby Faces (DK)
The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog
Click, Clack, Moo
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Debbie Trafton O'Neal)
The Story of Daniel (Patricia Pingry)
The Story of the Ten Commandments (Patricia Pingry)
The Story of David (Patricia Pingry)
Blue Hat, Green Hat
Time for Bed (Mem Fox)
First Book of Sushi (Amy Wilson Sanger)
Going to Bed Book
The Story of Joshua (Patricia Pingry)
The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Patricia Pingry)
Noodles
My First Animal Book
Cathy the Calf
Patch the Puppy
Bobby the Bunny Rabbit
Danny the Duckling
Katy the Kitten
Penny the Pony
Yum Yum Dim Sum
The Feelings Book (Todd Parr)
Halloween (Chuck Murphy)
Opposites (Sandra Boynton)
Doggies (Sandra Boynton)
Give Me Grace
Hippos Go Berserk
Moo, Baa, La La La
Arthur on the Farm
Bear’s Scrunch and Shake Book
Where is Caterpillar?
My First Animals – Pets
Happy Baby ABC
Rub-A-Dub Bunny (Pat the Bunny)
Thank You for This Day
The Alphabet Book (P.D.Eastman)
Ladybug Counts
Counting (Active Minds)
plus two terrific handmade photo books from Jess
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Imming!
We went swimming (again) this morning. Here's Ellie absorbed by her cups, and Ben absorbing everything.
The nanny trap
I love our kids. I really do. But having one almost two year old and a six month old is, um, challenging. When we came here, we had already hired two women to work for us. We told them that although we have two kids, we wanted one of them to be a cook, and the other to be in charge of cleaning. Both would have occasional duties of watching the kids, so that I could do some work/study/something. Neither of them was to be a nanny. We were very clear. No nannies in our house. I'm an at home dad, and intend to stay that way.
But man is it turning out to be more difficult than I ever expected. Ellie is great, she has some really fun moments. But she's two. She wants to read the same (annoying) books over and over and over and over and... well, you get the idea. You stop reading, she starts throwing a fit. She wants to walk down the stairs, it takes 10 minutes because she stops on EVERY step and wants to play. She has learned to throw. She likes to draw on herself with markers more than on paper. She's not bad, she's just two. And when there's a six month old who wants attention, pretty much the entire time he's awake, that can cause problems.
At the moment I'm thinking the three of us who are home during the day can just about handle them. But the temptation to get the nanny is there. I don't think I'll succumb, but perhaps not for noble reasons. I've been annoyed in the past by guys who call themselves at home dads, but hire a nanny and then don't actually take care of the kids. They also don't work. That's not an at home dad, that's an unemployed guy. I don't want to be that guy. Right now I feel guilty enough about the care the kids are getting, since we are living in Cambodia, and all the things we are used to doing, and Ellie loves doing, are not available. I know we aren't neglecting them because there are no parks and AFN doesn't have Sesame Street, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad for not having them. Ben doesn't care, at least. He is just happy to play with me sometimes.
For the record, I think I prefer the term at home dad. The alternative, full-time father, I think has the problem of implying that dads who work somehow are part-time dads. Just because Jen goes to work every day doesn't mean she stops being a mom. I'm not more father than she is mother. Of course, I do agree with the rest of the AHD/FTF community - Mr. Mom, Daddy Daycare, and the others are just stupid. People sometimes ask me if I'm babysitting the kids. Babysitting? They're MY KIDS. Sinen and Somany babysit my kids sometimes. If I take the kids, I'm just taking the kids. Give me a break.
Ok, this is wandering. I'm not wanting to turn into one of those self-obsessed bloggers who writes about every little detail of life, down to the average quality tuna sandwich they almost got for lunch but at the last minute opted for the chicken salad.
But man is it turning out to be more difficult than I ever expected. Ellie is great, she has some really fun moments. But she's two. She wants to read the same (annoying) books over and over and over and over and... well, you get the idea. You stop reading, she starts throwing a fit. She wants to walk down the stairs, it takes 10 minutes because she stops on EVERY step and wants to play. She has learned to throw. She likes to draw on herself with markers more than on paper. She's not bad, she's just two. And when there's a six month old who wants attention, pretty much the entire time he's awake, that can cause problems.
At the moment I'm thinking the three of us who are home during the day can just about handle them. But the temptation to get the nanny is there. I don't think I'll succumb, but perhaps not for noble reasons. I've been annoyed in the past by guys who call themselves at home dads, but hire a nanny and then don't actually take care of the kids. They also don't work. That's not an at home dad, that's an unemployed guy. I don't want to be that guy. Right now I feel guilty enough about the care the kids are getting, since we are living in Cambodia, and all the things we are used to doing, and Ellie loves doing, are not available. I know we aren't neglecting them because there are no parks and AFN doesn't have Sesame Street, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad for not having them. Ben doesn't care, at least. He is just happy to play with me sometimes.
For the record, I think I prefer the term at home dad. The alternative, full-time father, I think has the problem of implying that dads who work somehow are part-time dads. Just because Jen goes to work every day doesn't mean she stops being a mom. I'm not more father than she is mother. Of course, I do agree with the rest of the AHD/FTF community - Mr. Mom, Daddy Daycare, and the others are just stupid. People sometimes ask me if I'm babysitting the kids. Babysitting? They're MY KIDS. Sinen and Somany babysit my kids sometimes. If I take the kids, I'm just taking the kids. Give me a break.
Ok, this is wandering. I'm not wanting to turn into one of those self-obsessed bloggers who writes about every little detail of life, down to the average quality tuna sandwich they almost got for lunch but at the last minute opted for the chicken salad.
Monday, August 08, 2005
We're famous!
We haven't even revealed our existence to family yet, let alone the outside world, but somebody at Harvard has already picked us up. GlobalVoices lists us as "another family blog". I feel all warm and fuzzy. Seriously, though, this is somewhat scary. We were thinking of using this as a friends-n-family sort of site, but I suppose it is good to remember that the world is watching.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Random interesting (?) things about our life here
- We get The Daily Show three times a week. The current episode, or at least as current as anybody. At 9pm local time. On AFN. That's the Armed Forces Network. Yes. The US Military beams it via satellite not only to people stationed at military bases around the world, but also to EVERY SINGLE SHIP THE NAVY HAS ON THE OCEAN. We are sort of remote here, so we get the "Direct to Sailor" version of AFN. As Jen points out, this is why we love the US. Oh, and AFN doesn't have commercials, they just have public service announcements aimed at soldiers. They can be great fun.
- Cost of living is low, sort of, but in strange ways. You expect things like food to be cheap, which it is, if you get it at local open air markets. Labor is also cheap, which is why we employ three people, two full time, and all of them earn well above your average Cambodian salary. Non-intuitively, cable TV is cheap. $100 a year. That's US dollars, but still. And we get HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, and a channel where they just play DVDs all day long. Full movies, with either English, Chinese, or Thai subtitles. And we strongly suspect that at least some of the channels are pirated from the Thai cable company. But Internet. We pay $109 per month for 128kbps DSL, and anything more than 800MB of traffic in a month we pay extra for. Like I say, sort of cheap, but some things really will knock your socks off.
- Most streets here aren't paved. Our street, for example, is not. We've heard that it will be paved soon, which is a mixed blessing, because it will mean an increase in traffic. It will also mean less mud, particularly during the rainy season, which is right now. Unpaved roads make walking with a stroller difficult, as do sidewalks that are not able to be walked along by even pedestrians larger than toddlers.
- There are no Western fast food restaurants. There are, however, fast food joints. The biggest one is Lucky Burger. I'm not joking.
- You can buy tortillas here, for something like $4 for an 8 pack. We haven't tried it yet, but eventually we may find ourselves needing a tortilla fix.
- Jen actually saw an elephant walking down one of the largest streets in town.
- Ellie now has a new food - Thai red curry. She ate three servings of rice with the curry for lunch today. She even tried fish because it had curry on it. She stopped short of the little round eggplant things, but still, I was impressed. "More curry! More curry!"
The family
Here's a photo of the family. It was taken by Liz, and I think we were in front of either Education or Agriculture in DC. Small, I know, but if you'd like a bigger version, shoot us an e-mail and we'd be happy to send it.
The beginning
Back in the Good Old Days, we had a website. I don't even remember anymore what the URL was, but it was one of those freebie hosting places. The site looked awful, but it really was just a place to put a few pictures of our travels, and we didn't have any money to pay for a real website. We still don't have any money, but when Jen told me to get us a new site that we could really use for our now much more important pictures and notes to family and friends, I started looking. Then I found out that my big brother had a blog. Not a weenie little one like this, but a real blog, on a site for folks who do more than blog. (Check it out at TechRepublic). So I thought, well, golly. That's exactly what we need! Five years down the road, trends are catching up with us. And boy is this much easier than crafting HTML by hand.
A few more bits of explanation. Tonight is when I am starting this because Jen is off in Koh Kong, doing some sort of trip for work. Something to do with elephants and prisons, although I don't think those two things are actually connected. In any event, the TV has nothing on, and I felt like writing a bit. The name for the blog, incidentally, comes from Ellie. She just got an early birthday present - a swimming pool. I'd post photos from the day, but Jen has the camera. Let's just say the pool saved the day, and she went swimming twice. Or, in Ellie, "imming". That initial "s" gives her loads of trouble.
We are all doing well, I heard that Jen managed the 7+ hour trip just fine. I am just praying that she makes it back tommorrow, as scheduled. I'm paying overtime to get help for all day tomorrow, but Sunday I'm on my own. I have a few tricks available, but Phnom Penh isn't exactly loaded with great places to take your toddler who misses her mommy. Wish me luck.
Nathan
A few more bits of explanation. Tonight is when I am starting this because Jen is off in Koh Kong, doing some sort of trip for work. Something to do with elephants and prisons, although I don't think those two things are actually connected. In any event, the TV has nothing on, and I felt like writing a bit. The name for the blog, incidentally, comes from Ellie. She just got an early birthday present - a swimming pool. I'd post photos from the day, but Jen has the camera. Let's just say the pool saved the day, and she went swimming twice. Or, in Ellie, "imming". That initial "s" gives her loads of trouble.
We are all doing well, I heard that Jen managed the 7+ hour trip just fine. I am just praying that she makes it back tommorrow, as scheduled. I'm paying overtime to get help for all day tomorrow, but Sunday I'm on my own. I have a few tricks available, but Phnom Penh isn't exactly loaded with great places to take your toddler who misses her mommy. Wish me luck.
Nathan
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