Secret weapon

Despite my fears, the day with no electricity was a cake walk - thanks, in large part, to my unbelievably thick corduroy pants. These babies are lined with fleece and keep me toasty. I wish I had a shirt made out of the same material!



I think that between now and our Middle East vacation in February, I will rotate between my 2 pairs of fleece-lined pants and 1 pair of flannel-lined pants. It's a limited season when I can wear them, so I should take advantage - right?

Yesterday was Rachel's birthday. I had a meeting for most of the afternoon, so we left school a little late. We had dinner at our regular Chinese restaurant - Cashew chicken and garlic shoots with pork. Very American-friendly, as far as Chinese food goes around here. After that, we had cake and played Princess Uno with some friends. So, we had as much fun as can be reasonably expected on a school night!

I was thinking today about traffic on the way home. There is relatively less traffic here, for sure. And the speed of travel is much slower - so I am not too worried about accidents, because most happen at speeds that prevent serious injury. However, the variety of vehicles seen on our street astounds me. In the past week, I have seen a Corvette, a Porche, loads of BMWs...mid-sized Jettas, VWs, and Toyotas...taxis, electric scooters, motorcycles, and 3-wheeled pedicabs...cement trucks, dump trucks, and flat bed trucks. Even more, I like seeing the cargo being carried. One motorcycle today had a big TV and 2 computer monitors (the old kind) strapped to it. Then, a truck loaded with 20+ giant logs rumbled past. We have a Pepsi distributor down the street, so we see trucks loaded with thousands of bottles of Pepsi roll by. It is quite a sight!

-alan