Lets Go Kiddo

When I was a teen I had two goldfish.  Angelfish, more specifically.  Calvin and Hobbes.  Calvin was orange with white fins tipped in orange.  Hobbes was a charcoal black with grey/white fins tipped in orange and black.  They were beautiful fish and I had then for about 3 years.   It should also be noted that I lived in a room with two outside walls and a third wall that was only the garage (so not well insulated) and not a lot of insulation.  It got cold.  I mean, cold , in the winters.  There were times that I’d sleep on the sofa as my room was too dang cold.  Sadly, during one of these cold snaps that is common in a WI winter, my room just wouldn’t get warm and it got below freezing.  Enough so that when I went into the room in the morning there was a scrum of ice along the walls and top of my aquarium.  Angel Fish, I found, don’t do well in sub freezing water.  I wish I had a picture to share, but that was the 90s an...

Learning language, as a child, is a multifaceted thing; it’s repetition, but also seeing, hearing, reading, and using the language.  Kids “say the darnedest things” because they heard or misheard something and are attempting to use that language.  We’ve got a lot of examples of this with Kiddo— Taflingos, cucas and cuncumbers, Pasragus, pharmaseat, etc etc. Last night, we got another one.   To set it up, we’ve dropped Netflix and currently have AppleTV+. We’re digging it so far.  Ted Lasso was so good and fun to watch.  Tiny World was super well done and cool and something we could sit around and watch with Kiddo.  We’re now onto Big Beasts with Kiddo and it’s super fun.  It’s about 30 min and all about large animals - gorillas, hippos, polar bears (which Poley also really liked), and the like.   Last night, as we were talking about which episode to watch and the run of the night, J and I agreed that Kiddo could have a treat with the show, b...

A year ago, we partied until 2am and got to see our last New Year in Bangkok in style.  This year, we were all in bed before midnight.  Part of that is that we don’t know many people in Shanghai yet, but also the schedule.  The ladies had Xmas day and New Year day off, but otherwise, it’s school as usual.  NYE was a work day/school day, so getting up at  05:15 (J), 05:40 (Kiddo) and my 06:00 alarm, come 22-2300 we are all just done. It’s not all bad.  Chinese New Year is a thing here and next week is half days and then 5 weeks off.  J and I are looking at things we can do around Shanghai to keep it fun and not just be homebodies the entire break.  We talked of travel, but again, we are new here and can save all that for next year.  Wade in slowly and not just jump in full bore.   For being uneventful, we did have some fun.  I made a few nice meals for us.  NYE I did spaghetti with pork loin, fresh mushrooms, and roasted gar...