The Dog and Baby

Props to Joe for bringing this to my attention while Ace and I were in the back of the cab. They are fantastic. I intend to purchase these for everyone i know. At least, everyone who has either Baby on road or The Dog in car. But let's take a closer look, shall we?

THE DOG IN CAR

Simply put: awesome. Boundless levels of awesome. For starters, The Dog is green ? Really? The Dog naturally occurs in many colors, but green is never one of them. (well... sure, but that can hardly be called natural.)

Although, it is possible the same freak who put the stupid red bowtie on The Dog also dyed Him green.

Plus, The Dog really looks more like a teddy bear. And given the opulent den of stuffed animals in the window, i'm guessing this is the work of an evil child. Is it possible The Green Dog is related to the other warning...?

BABY ON ROAD
My hypothesis: Baby is being punished for It's treatment of The Dog. The story checks out. It certainly explains why The Dog is in car and Baby is on road. It's similar to a time out, only a little more severe.

One might still pose the question, "Why is Baby so evil?". To this i reply, "Clearly, Baby is totally batshit insane." Seriously, when have you seen a baby drinking a bottle of urine that wasn't crazy?

And really, would it have been THAT difficult for them to reverse the white and yellow in the bottle?

~Kev

P.S. After laying low for a few weeks, i'm now back to my regular posting frequency. Take that, Responsibility!

Ace and the First Week

This week has been good, but i've been too busy to really sit down and recap it. Between having Therese here (or "Ace", as she was nicknamed by Jeff) and a particularly intense week of work, it's been full tilt. The short version is, i'm really happy. It's great having her here and exploring the city all over again. A fresh set of eyes notices things mine usually miss. I have a renewed sense of adventure as well. We've tried new restaurants and shops near our house, ones that i was intimidated to attempt without a partner in crime. There is strength in numbers. I am much more adventurous with practicing Chinese as well, and she picked up the survival phrases quickly. It's been pretty cool living together so far. Having never actually lived with a girlfriend before, i have nothing to compare to. But this feels good. Really good.

Saturday was wonderful and we took advantage of the pleasant weather. We met Joe and Amy for breakfast at Chef Too, which is very expensive by Beijing standards (about $10 per person). However, the quality of the food is exceptional by American standards. The Huevos Rancheros, French Toast, and Pancakes are all amazing. Free coffee and attentive, friendly service round it off to earn my vote for Best Breakfast in Beijing.

We spent the rest of the day shopping for random things around town, things we cannot easily acquire on our side of town. We found an Indian grocery and stocked up on curry and spices to expand our culinary options at home. We also found fresh mint, which we purchased for Mojito's that evening. Four of us finished a bottle of rum in about an hour, leaving us primed for a good night out. Jeff and I had a late night practice session with the band and we all met up for some live music before calling it a great end to an awesome day.

Ace foldin some clothes.


~Kev

Beijing welcomes Therese

So there you have it. The countdown is over, Therese has arrived. It was kinda surreal for the first evening. We got home, unpacked, ate dinner, and got drunk. We both just couldn't wrap our heads around the fact the waiting was over. I distinctly remember about 4 weeks ago saying to myself, "Self, that day seems so close, yet almost unimaginably far away." And i was right; when you think about something everyday, time drags on. A watched date never comes. Eventually, you learn to welcome the distractions and then BAM! Therese arrives! And all is right in the world.

Saturday we woke up lazily and attended to grocery needs. This resulted in a breakfast of strawberry, banana, pineapple, mango, kiwi, yogurt, and assorted juices (can rum be a juice?) smoothies.

Later we met Tao for lunch at a fantastic small restaurant near his apartment. We took the long way and explored some beautiful hutongs near the forbidden city. Lunch was relaxed and delicious, a good introduction to real Chinese food.


That night i had called for a welcome BCD (remember: this is expat-ese for Boozy Chinese Dinner). Twelve strong showed up for dinner and a handful of stranglers for more drinking.


The night was a rousing success with about 45 tall Yanjings polished off by the 10 of us that were drinking. This was no doubt helped by the invention of a fantastic new drinking game... Battle Caps (tm).

Rules:
Teams are divided by sides of table. Each player has glass of beer in front of them. The object is to throw a beer cap into your enemies glasses. They must then drink it. If you get two caps in one glass before they finish the glass (yes, you can attempt to bounce it off their face while drinking!), they have to finish a whole bottle! One interesting thing about the game: as you drink more beers, the ammunition increases!

Team Them (courtesy of T's camera)


Team Us (courtesy of T's camera)

It got pretty intense. Joe broke some bottles. Here's Joe being scolded by Jeff after the first (!!!) broken bottle.

Here's Joe preparing to break the second one, willfully, against the radiator. Joe has no recollection of this. We love him.

I ended up coming home with a boxed set of Californication and 8 more movies. It's always interesting when you go DVD shopping while drunk. I've started bringing a list. It's a good way to ensure you don't accidentally end up with Adam's Family Values or the complete series of Full House.

Although, if you ever catch me attempting to buy Danger Mouse or Fraggle Rock, please stand back. I know what i'm doing.

~Kev

Postscript: More on this evening plus some VIDEOS! here from Tao on the always insightful Beijing Ultimate blog.