I've been pricked!

After two finger pricks I was allowed to give blood last night. I guess my right hand has more iron in it than my left. Perhaps my left hand is using all of its iron to heal the finger I burned the other night. (see separate story below) After work, A and I walked pretty far into the industrial parts of South Boston to get to the Red Cross blood drive at the Boston Athletic Club. We thought we'd never get there...but we eventually did. I had to break into the juice bottles prior to giving blood. We answered all the questions and got our fingers pricked. Once up on the bed, the lady did a great job putting in the needle, but then she did some adjustments! She wiggled it around until it was in the right place. YIKES!  I made it through the whole donation, ate my oreos, and filled out my entry to win Red Sox tix. Phew, we were done.

 

I was in desperate need of a cheeseburger. We headed over to Atlantic Grill (a new place that opened up on the water). The place is FULL of flat screen TVs. Everywhere we turned our head we could see the Red Sox beating the Yankees. We enjoyed some great cheeseburgers, great baseball, and then headed home. HOORAY for Youkilis and Lowell's 10th home runs of the season! 

 

At home, when I took my jacket off, I found my gauze pads on my elbow were all red. I had been bleeding during the burger fest, I guess. I washed out my jacket sleeve, peeled the tape off my arm (OUCH!) and examined my needle hole. It's more like I've been sliced than poked. It doesn't hurt and it's not bleeding anymore, so I guess I'll be ok.  And, I'll probably donate again. 

 

 

my burned finger

I try to be a good wife by cooking dinner and doing the dishes, and what do I get? a burnt finger!  Dinner was successful. I went to the kitchen to make hot chocolate after dinner and decided to wash some dishes while the kettle warmed up. I was jammin' through dish duty and grabbed a pot lid from the stove. As I was washing it and spinning it in my hands, a hot part reached my finger. OUCH! It was hot. That lid was sitting next to the kettle...silly me.  It wasn't a bad burn, but I did go to bed with an ice cube.

My apologies. I left out a few things from my SWG. 1. My sis and I had one of our best conversations. We talked China (she loved the journal I kept for her), Twilight, weddings, and more. We had great fun.
2. I talked with my Pops. He's as perky as ever.
And....
3. I watched our garden grow.

SGW

This post is documenting my Super Great Weekend! I went on many dates with my husband, who I don't get to see much since we've gotten back from vacation. He goes to work and I go to work, and we only hang out in the evenings now. (sad face). BUT, this weekend, we had lots of fun. On Saturday morning, A hopped up and went for a run. Go A! I worked on the china pics (some are posted to our picasa website now). When he came back we made breakfast burritos and watched the movie Twilight. Such a great way to start the weekend! (I'm reading the fourth book of the Twilight series now, so it was great fun to bring A into the vampire world that I have been enjoying). Saturday afternoon was filled with dishes, laundry, vacuuming, an oil change, etc. Somewhere around 4:30pm we looked at each other and said, "oh, I have to get ready for a date with my honey!"

 

I showered and put on my Red Sox shirt and cap and joined my honey in the hallway for departure. We strolled in the beautiful sunny afternoon air to the T. We disembarked at St. Mary's and enjoyed a fabulous dinner at the Beacon Street Tavern (the name of the place is something like that). My lamb kabobs and cous cous were delicious and A's oyster po'boy was the fanciest most fun po'boy I'd ever seen. We dined on the patio and watched the Red Sox fans walk by heading to the game. With full tummies we joined them and walked over to Fenway. A bought me a program so I could practice my baseball scoring skills (we had to run into 7-eleven to buy pencils).

 

Our seats were near the Pesky pole for the second game in a three game series with the Texas Rangers. It was a GREAT game and we had a blast. We also managed to eat peanuts, fenway franks, and drink lemonade before the game was over. Our eating fenway franks, I'm convinced, gave Big Papi the luck he needed to hit a home run. It bounced off the Pesky pole... It was his second HR of the season and we were there. The crowd was so proud of him. Lester pitched the entire game. Ellsbury (my fave) made several outs in center field. The Red Sox won 8 - 1.  Waaaa Whoooo! A great game for us to be at.  (I love dates with my honey)

 

We walked all the way home in the beautiful warm night.  Sunday morning, A took a spin on his motorcycle, I went to Costco, and we met A's cousin Ashley for brunch at 11 (well, I was a little late).  We hit the S&S in Inman Square. It had been a long time since I'd been there. My eggs benedict with smoked salmon were great. A enjoyed the corned beef hash and Ashley loved her quiche lorraine. We chatted about her upcoming graduate school adventures, told stories about China, etc.

 

In the afternoon, A and I went on another date! We are so spoiled. We went to the Star Trek movie at the Boston Common theater. LOVED IT! My upbringing in a family of trekkies was very beneficial to my appreciation of the movie. I laughed and very much enjoyed the adventure. My favorite line in the movie goes something like this: "Since my traditional farewell seems somewhat self-serving I will just say 'Good Luck'."

 

After the movie we strolled through the Boston Common (because I always love to walk through the park) and ran into Koolaid and Chris! We're invited to a swap party at their place next weekend. We took some time to catch up and chat in the park before parting ways. A and I continued through the public garden. The palm trees and summer plantings are very tropical! We went to the Beacon Hill Hotel and Bistro for a divine dinner. (so spoiled). We used a restaurant.com coupon...and enjoyed duck (me) and pork shoulder (him) followed by beautiful lemon tart (us).  Then, as an extra special bonus, we walked through the public garden again!  (I love dates with my honey).

 

Sunday night we relaxed (sort of) with a scary movie while I put wedding pics (picked up at Costco) into an album. We watched The Happening. I don't recommend watching it before bed. Luckily, I didn't have any nightmares.  We went to bed very happy with our weekend and reminiscing on the fun we had. 

America the Beautiful

Welcome Back you say? Why Thanks!!! (There were more postings from China...but they didn't get emailed to the blog...so if you didn't get the emails, I guess you were left hanging after the Yangtze River cruise. Let me know if you need to be filled in...the pics are still a work in progress but will be shared on our Picasa site soon.)

We arrived happily back in the U.S. in mid May. Our five week adventure was fabulous and grand, but we were ready to come home and enjoy the conveniences of this country. We spend a full day at home recuperating before going to "the office". I went for a run around the Charles River and had an experience which I felt was a message from the world that it was my Lucky Day. As I was running along, some bird doo doo landed splat right next to me. NOT on me! What a Lucky Day!

A few days later, I had an even Luckier Day. I was lucky enough to go to Newport, RI on two of the most beautiful weather days for a conference and found a $5 bill in the parking lot. What a Luckier Day!

This country is made for me. We are having fun reminiscing the trip and enjoying the routine of summer life in Boston.

We've planted some flowers and vegetables on the porch. We go to A's softball games twice a week and enjoy the beautiful evening air.... Life is great.

our cruise is coming to an end...

Today is our last day on the Victoria Princess (insert sad face here). We went through the 5 stage ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam the day before yesterday. It took nearly 4 hours to get through them all. We had previously had a 2 hour tour looking around the dam site, we drove on a bus to the top of the dam and had some great overlooks of the locks. So..by bus we went over and past the dam in about 10 minutes, but by boat, through the locks it took all evening.

 

We are getting much better at bartering. The class didn't teach us much technique, but we learned the phrase for "that's too expensive". We're finding the best technique is to just walk out. If they really want to sell it to us for our price they chase us outside the store with the calculator (to continue bartering) and the item we were looking at all wrapped up and bagged.

 

We learned to play Mahjong the other night. I think they taught us the most simple version (we didn't get to use the North, South, East, West, Flowers, Dragons tiles). The version we learned was similar to Rummy 500. We get to play again this afternoon after we learn how to make dumplings. They crew have a very difficult job of serving our meals, cleaning our rooms, and entertaining us. They have put on several fashion and talent shows (based on the chinese culture) throughout the trip.

 

Sailing through the Three Gorges was magnificent. It was rather foggy, but that made the area mystical. We got on a smaller boat (glass top) and explored a lesser gorge so we were able to be a little more up close and personal with the steep jagged mountains that line the now flooded gorge. The water level is almost at the max the dam can hold. It can hold water up to 175 meters above sea level and we are traveling on water at 165 meters above sea level. So, we're essentially seeing the completed effect of the Three Gorges Dam. The guides joke that they will have submarine tours in the future to see the old Three Gorges area before it was flooded.

 

When we disembark for shore excursions our local guides all tell us about the new home the government gave them since their town was flooded. They talk about how much bigger and better their new home and their new town is.

 

Well, I'm going to sign off before I lose the connection.  Happy Easter!

 

(tomorrow we visit some Pandas in Chongqing and fly to Xi'an where we'll see the Terracotta Soldiers...more updates when we can!)

 

 

 

 

Greetings from Shanghai!

We weren't Shanghai'd, we came willingly and are having a blast!  Adrian and I arrived in Shanghai two days ago and have enjoyed the assistance of a private tour guide for most of our stay thus far. We did adventure for a full day on our own and felt pretty proud of ourselves.

 

Our tour guide, Cindy, picked us up at the airport and showed us around the city a bit then got us squared away at our hotel. Yesterday, we successfully navigated the Metro system and ran a few "errands" which included booking a hotel room for later in our trip near the ferry terminal (where we'll take the ferry to Japan). We found a hotel with a very nice man who spoke no english at all. With a combination of sign language (hands together by our ears for 'sleeping'), pointing to "I'd like to make a reservation" in the phrasebook, and a calendar, we got a tour of the rooms, picked the one we want and made a reservation. We paid $22 for a very nice room with a TV and computer. Yesterday we ate lunch for less than a dollar. We are lovin' the cost of living around here. Our four star hotel stay downtown for the past two nights cost $70/night and included breakfast.

 

(The breakfast buffet certainly provided a lot of interesting options...this morning I had some green glop! Literally. It tasted like green tea and had the consistency of mochi which is a very glutinous (super sticky) rice. It looked like something from a Dr. Seuss book.)

 

Today, our tour guide (who goes by Cindy) picked us up at 9am and took us around the Yu Yuan Garden, a fresh water pearls wholesale shop where they cracked open an oyster and showed us 17 pearls inside, a silk museum (on how silk is made) and then to the Shanghai Museum. It worked out well to have her book our tix for the Yu Yuan Garden and the Shanghai museum in advance. There were long lines at both and we slid right in. The other two stops were lures for tourists to get us to buy Shanghai products, but it was fun to see how silk is made! I did purchase some pearls. They were such a deal! The Yu Yuan Garden is a 400 year old (after being re-built several times) home and garden built by a rich retired man. He was a treasurer in Chongqing and took his big money to Shanghai when he retired to built a little world he could be ruler in. It was a fun place to tour traditional chinese buildings and gardens. 

 

We did a one hour speed tour with head sets in the Shanghai Museum. Adrian is really good at speed museum visiting. We covered a lot of it. There were bronze cast cooking items, bowls, wine goblets, etc from 1100 B.C. I can't even comprehend how long ago that was.  It's a really good museum. I recommend it to those of you heading to Shanghai in the future.

 

Right now, we have boarded our Yangtze River Boat cruise. We're about to pull away from Shanghai for 9 days of the river life. We've got a great room with a little balcony. We plan to do a lot of sightseeing and relaxing. Tomorrow morning there are tai chi lessons before breakfast and chinese bartering lessons after breakfast. We've had one very unsuccessful attempt at bartering so far. We can use the lessons.

 

All in all, we are doing great in China and looking forward to more adventures.

Spring is in the ground!

People say Spring is in the air, but I disagree. It's still pretty chilly here. I do are Spring in the ground. There are many fun green things sprouting up from the dingy, brown, tired ground. Pretty soon Boston will be covered in beautiful blossoms!