We started our day early with breakfast at East West and then a meeting with Abi's school counselor. Tis the season for Juniors to start getting their ducks in a row for college applications...OH Boy!!! I for one would like to stay in denial for a while longer on this whole subject! I would like to put my fingers in my ears and say La La La La instead of hearing about the long paper trail of the application process. Very mature don't you think?

Our craft group met today which is always fun. We had a few good laughs about China things including the most resent "lost in translation" sign. One of our ladies is from England and she said "bumf" is actually a word. It means "rubbish". Well there you go!!! Who knew? No one in our group has ever heard of clothestool however. This one is still a mystery!

Last week was Spirit week at Abi's school. Each day the theme was a salad dressing. Here is Abi on French Dressing Day. She is standing in the art room at her school.

Happy Birthday to Doctor Sister!!!!

Hope you have a great one.....

I will always be older but you will always be the baby...ha ha!!

Quilts from the Festival in Tokyo.....

Here is a small sample of the quilts that were on display in Japan....

Another "lost in translation" sign. I found this one today in the ladies bathroom at the Community Center. What exactly is a Bumf and a Closestool???

Oops!! Long time no blog! I bet you are wondering what is happening in China. Well....it has been snowing this week and today it stuck to the ground. Tomorrow Abi has an official "snow day" because they are expecting freezing weather tonight and all that slush is going to get slippery.

The short story...

I have been to Japan and back, Tucker celebrated his 21st birthday, Abi had a basketball tournament, and Tim is in "end of quarter keep all the balls in the air" mode.

The weather

A friend told me that her driver said this is the first time in 17 years that snow has stuck to the ground in Shanghai. The whole country is experiencing bad weather and it has caused a drain on the power supplies. They are creating rolling blackouts through out the country to save power. Some of the blackouts are announce and some are not. This is causing problems with the factories as they do not know from day to day if they will have power. And....this includes HP's suppliers factories which is causing Tim a bit of stress. Abi is thrilled with the snow because she is forced to stay home from school tomorrow. The weather is causing more stress on the subway system so Tucker is experiencing even a bigger "crush" as he commutes to work. Our driver is very cautious and wanted us to leave 2 hours early for a 2o minute drive on Saturday. I convinced her this was not necessary, we left 30 minutes ahead of time and still arrived very early. I think the snow is great because it is covering all the dirt and makes the city look much cleaner. Today we had big fluffy flakes fall during my quilting class. It was beautiful.

Abi's Basketball tournament

Abi's team was seated number 2 going into the tournament. Their first game was a heart breaker as the other team scored at the buzzer which gave them a one point lead. The basket was called "no score" and our team cheered thinking they had won the game. Then the ref changed his mind and said the basket counted and then the other team cheered. Then....the refs talked about this for 30 minutes and finally decided in favor of the other team. This put Abi's team in the bottom bracket with the best possible outcome.....5th place. They played two more games and took 5th.

Abi's basketball team

Abi's number is 1

There she is again!

Tuckers 21st Birthday

Turning 21 in China is not as exciting as in the States....there is no drinking age here so "what is the big deal?" Tucker wanted Japanese food for his birthday dinner...sushi to be exact...so we went to a Japanese restaurant. I found this to be a bit funny because I just came back from Japan and was a little over done on the whole raw fish thing! Abi and I ate noodles.

Trip to Japan

I had a great time in Japan. It is so clean and organized compared to China. I like the sound of Japanese better than Chinese also. It is much more soothing than the tones in the Chinese language. The quilt festival was wonderful!!! Very inspirational. I bought a few Japanese fabrics.....some for quilts and some for a wall hanging. It was interesting to see the color trends in Japan. The fabrics were very muted and dull in color. This was very surprising. It reminded me of the 80's country colors. Yuk!!! This might have been a good thing because I was not tempted to buy any of these muted fabrics. I did manage to find a few notions and other fun things that I could not resist. :)

The promenade at the Tokyo Dome....The Christmas lights were still up and looked beautiful at night

Evelyn and Angeles

The Quilt Festival was held in The Tokyo Dome.....Outside the Dome were two security check points. All handbags were searched...we are not sure what they were looking for because they did not search very thoroughly.
People pouring into the show....it was very crowded....
It snowed!!

The Tokyo Dome
Japanese Food!!!
Vernie, Bettina, and Guess who?

Dividing the bill as only women can do!!! Angeles whipped out a full size calculator and became our accountant. We all had a good laugh about this!
On the streets of Tokyo
Subway to the wholesale shopping area



Not very crowded....we all got seats. It is good to go after rush hour!!!

The gang outside of the craft/sewing wholesale store
More shopping!!!
Lunch!!! We ate at a curry noodle shop. It was delicious !!! The bibs were very necessary....I had noodle soup all over me.

Jeanette, Hannie, and Bettina

The woman on the right was our tour guide and quilting teacher.

Red Curry Noodles.....Some like it hot!!!! Yellow curry noodles....some like it cool!!!

After a full day of shopping we learned how to applique. Our teacher was from Tokyo and our fellow traveler and my roomy, Minako, translated for us.

I had an extra Chinese lesson today because my teacher is going to be gone for Chinese New Year soon. I asked lots of questions so we did not have time for my "report". Oh Darn!!! After the lesson I came home to up-date my web site.....Yikes! I have been sitting in front of the computer all day with nothing to show for all the time. Bummer!!!

Abi has a basketball tournament this weekend and Tucker and I have a date to browse Fuzhou Lu (the art supply street) between basketball games.

Another picture from our "Adventures on the Subway"!! Tucker took this picture over the top of the heads of other commuters....I bet you can not guess which head is mine!! Ha Ha! There is actually a person standing between Tucker and Tim...

Tucker's first day at work was challenging....and he likes the people he is working with and came home with a smile last night.. He seems to think it is fun being crammed into a tiny space with a whole lot of short people ....it is very helpful to be tall....as Abi says...he can actually breath while he is on the subway. I think he likens it to getting on an amusement ride at the fair. Good attitude!!!

Tucker survived his first day at work....the subway at rush hour....and jet lag. Well done I'd say...

I am almost finished with a blog from yesterday but I need to study for my Chinese class....and I will be back later today!!!

Tuesday

Yesterdays adventure.......Riding the subway at rush hour!!!! Oh my Gosh!!!!

Tucker started work yesterday and I needed to show him how to get to his office....so....we took the subway to Hongqiao.....during rush hour!!! Tim finished a conference call just as we were walking out the door so he came along to see where Tucker will be working. The commute is actually very easy.....get on subway line 2 and ride it to the end. Get off and walk two blocks to the office. The hardest part.....getting on the subway! It was very crowded and we could not fit on the first train. The second train came right away and after observing the previous riders we pushed our way onto the train. I thought we were full at that point.....but...no....two more layers of people got on the train after us!!! No need to hang onto the hand rails....with that many people everyone holds their neighbor in place.

I wish this picture was a little better.....this is the train we missed because it was too crowded...

Tucker on the subway....and me squished in behind...

Tuckers office area.....

Mom and Dad dropping their baby at work.....it was very cold and rainy!!! It felt a little like taking him to kindergarten the first day.....not for him...but for me...I actually got a little bubbly....oh my!!