[Crab]apples

[Crab]apples
Originally uploaded by -The Kids

I set a time limit when I am at the computer. I, like most would find it much to easy to kill a beautiful day off by lately looking up house selling tips, relocating tips, news in aisa, ebay, etsy, music downloads, song lyrics, news bits, working on day off and reading all the blogs i have bookmarked. before you know it, 3 hours of your life....gone.*poof*

I have to set a time limit when writing too. I don't write offline as much as I once did. Which maybe someday I will again have a moments breath or desire for. I imagine sitting under a banana tree in the shade of day too hot to do anything with from 11-2 and my coffee and my moleskin. OK. Maybe that wont ever happen either. My moleskin is ready tho. : D

Here however, I've vowed to A.) keep to the subject and B.) always stay positive.

This week has tested my staying positive in varying degrees. But everything has a bright side. It all began last Wed. Well, last Tuesday PM actually. We got a phone call that finally there is the BT book in Lao. We had been jokingly saying it was coming out this summer. (We didn't know) But we figured...test and see... so we all joked every week...our life is gonna get so much easier because that book will come out this summer. (Easier because we had been using Thai. Tri-lingual studies are known to cause brain erosion. ) Well, test and see... it finally came out. Overjoyed is an understatement.

After the Wed. meeting Kh.. asked us to come over for dinner. (The older man J brings) So, ok...we go. This is after already waiting for J and one of those "brief meetings". My eyes needed lettuce rolls to hold them open. Dinner wasn't actually made yet so we waited for the rice to cook. We made Jaeow Paddek. (Fermented Fish and hot peppers smashed together with garlic) I was really just looking forward to carb loading on pasta and homemade pesto that night, but that was not to be. But then...then... the million dollar question.. Jao gin gaeng nguu bo? (You eat snake soup right?) Eh. eehh... (Trying not to think about the pet snakes my friend L and I used to have) J and look and each other and laugh that nervous what do we do laugh. This is old school Lao. Lao tee (true lao). Might as well get used to it. J is one good guy. He pulled the skin off some pieces and let me just eat the meat part. (You didn't really want to see the whole soup bowl) Fast forward and two days later I was still walking around poking my belly in disbelief.. (You are what you eat..) Let me just say, for the record, Andrew Zimmerman I am not.

But, that night will go down in the memory bank for what it was. We gave our letter to the committee again to see about Asia. (we had done one before but this is the official one) Jumping the gun perhaps with the house not sold yet.. but then again... you have to work with it.

It's a given that once you make a positive step forward you'll get hit by a mack truck. Honestly, same thing happened last year when I went back on the list. You really almost just have to expect it and laugh when it does happen.

The new year starts next week. Such timing. It was to be quick two day run to NY. Be back Sat. PM. But no, the dearly beloved Saturn had to go on the fritz and need (*gasp*) special order dealer parts while in NY. (This is the first time ever anything went with this car) So, $1800 and two dealerships later we are now minus the funding for a second car as planned for the new year. But all in all it was good to spend extra time with the family.

The last day I picked crabapples at my family's place. They used to have all sorts of fruit trees when my grandfather was alive..pears, plums, apples.. but the crabapple tree is still there. (I get nostalgic about odd things)

A few moments of quiet normal was welcome. To be lost in thinking nothing but trying to get the ones not too bruised up or eaten by bugs or which side had the best ones. (Near the barn, more sun)

The crabapples are going to Kh... Lao traditionally eat them dipped in Jaeow Paddek. It's one big circle I tell ya.

OK. My time is up for today. : D It's gooooorrrrgeous outside!