(no subject)
I rode the shuttle into town today. There is a bus that picks up faculty every couple of hours and takes them into town. I can ride it since I'm the spouse of a faculty. The bus was full, so I had to sit on a fold down seat in the center aisle. I have no idea if buses in American cities have these extra seats, but I'm thinking not. It's a fold down seat so instead of 4 seats in each row, with the aisle in the middle, there are five seats with no aisle. When someone needs to walk past, everyone sitting in the fold down seats has to get up. I was just thankful to have a seat, as it is quite common for people to have to stand on buses. I'm not complaining.
The kids stayed with Nanny Zou. Have I mentioned how awesome Zou is? She rocks. Last week, while we were gone, we told her she could take off the days that we were out of town. When we came home, we discovered that she came in while we were gone and washed all the bedding, did some mending and ironed all Chris' work clothes. She just does what needs to be done without asking. She also shops everyday before she comes in for lunch ingredients. She cooks lunch, too. Speaking of that, today when Chris came home for lunch he went in the fridge and reached for some left over take out. Zou stopped him and said "Leave that for Petey. He really likes it. There is plenty of other things for you to eat." I love that she did that!
This afternoon I took the kids for a walk. It has turned quite cool here rather suddenly but Zack still doesn't want to give up his shorts. He's still an Arizona/Florida boy at heart. However, whenever we are out and about and he is in shorts, women always ask us if he is too cold. I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain some ladies were yelling at me today about the fact that he was in shorts. Well, they were yelling at me and I just have to assume that's why. I couldn't figure out any other reason. I think I'm going to have to hide his shorts away somewhere so he has to wear long pants.
After the walk, as we were walking back towards the house, a dog terrorized Petey. Let me preface this story by reiterating how much Petey loves dogs. He really wants a dog. REALLY BADLY!! He talks about it almost every single day. Have you ever watched "That 70's Show" and seen how Kelso plays with dogs? That's Petey. He just loves dogs. Our neighbors have these dogs that just run free around the campus. We've seen them all over and they aren't really very friendly dogs, either. They aren't the kind of dogs that wag and smile at you. They are more the type that look at you with suspicion. We'd walked past the dogs several times today and they just laid there everytime. I thought they were used to us by now. As we were heading home, Petey started running down the street towards our building. One of the dogs decided to chase Petey. The dog was barking and snapping at Petey's heels. Of course Petey freaked out, started screaming and fell down. The dog didn't bite him, but he was right up on him barking and scaring him half to death. The owner came running out when he heard Petey screaming. By that time I had Petey in my arms and was trying to calm him down. I'm not sure, but I think the owner kicked the dog. Another neighbor lady (she's very friendly, always wearing the same bright red sweater) came up and tried to calm down Petey. She also yelled at the owner of the dog. Once we got home, Petey thought about it for a while and decided that we need to feed that dog so he will be our friend. Poor Petey. He always seems to land himself in this type of situation.
Another story before I go: when we were in Shanghai we went to the foreign language bookstore and found some educational dvd's for the kids. One of them was a Discovery Channel Dinosaur Planet episode. It's really well done and the kids love it. I didn't sit down and watch it with them, but now I'm thinking I should have. Tonight Zack said "Mom, the male dinosaur wanted to make love to the female. He had all the right moves but she wasn't interested." What? What type of documentary is this? I don't like hearing the words "make love" come out of my 7 year old's mouth! I just replied "Oh, really? Interesting" and tried to act like he hadn't just shocked me :)
The kids stayed with Nanny Zou. Have I mentioned how awesome Zou is? She rocks. Last week, while we were gone, we told her she could take off the days that we were out of town. When we came home, we discovered that she came in while we were gone and washed all the bedding, did some mending and ironed all Chris' work clothes. She just does what needs to be done without asking. She also shops everyday before she comes in for lunch ingredients. She cooks lunch, too. Speaking of that, today when Chris came home for lunch he went in the fridge and reached for some left over take out. Zou stopped him and said "Leave that for Petey. He really likes it. There is plenty of other things for you to eat." I love that she did that!
This afternoon I took the kids for a walk. It has turned quite cool here rather suddenly but Zack still doesn't want to give up his shorts. He's still an Arizona/Florida boy at heart. However, whenever we are out and about and he is in shorts, women always ask us if he is too cold. I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain some ladies were yelling at me today about the fact that he was in shorts. Well, they were yelling at me and I just have to assume that's why. I couldn't figure out any other reason. I think I'm going to have to hide his shorts away somewhere so he has to wear long pants.
After the walk, as we were walking back towards the house, a dog terrorized Petey. Let me preface this story by reiterating how much Petey loves dogs. He really wants a dog. REALLY BADLY!! He talks about it almost every single day. Have you ever watched "That 70's Show" and seen how Kelso plays with dogs? That's Petey. He just loves dogs. Our neighbors have these dogs that just run free around the campus. We've seen them all over and they aren't really very friendly dogs, either. They aren't the kind of dogs that wag and smile at you. They are more the type that look at you with suspicion. We'd walked past the dogs several times today and they just laid there everytime. I thought they were used to us by now. As we were heading home, Petey started running down the street towards our building. One of the dogs decided to chase Petey. The dog was barking and snapping at Petey's heels. Of course Petey freaked out, started screaming and fell down. The dog didn't bite him, but he was right up on him barking and scaring him half to death. The owner came running out when he heard Petey screaming. By that time I had Petey in my arms and was trying to calm him down. I'm not sure, but I think the owner kicked the dog. Another neighbor lady (she's very friendly, always wearing the same bright red sweater) came up and tried to calm down Petey. She also yelled at the owner of the dog. Once we got home, Petey thought about it for a while and decided that we need to feed that dog so he will be our friend. Poor Petey. He always seems to land himself in this type of situation.
Another story before I go: when we were in Shanghai we went to the foreign language bookstore and found some educational dvd's for the kids. One of them was a Discovery Channel Dinosaur Planet episode. It's really well done and the kids love it. I didn't sit down and watch it with them, but now I'm thinking I should have. Tonight Zack said "Mom, the male dinosaur wanted to make love to the female. He had all the right moves but she wasn't interested." What? What type of documentary is this? I don't like hearing the words "make love" come out of my 7 year old's mouth! I just replied "Oh, really? Interesting" and tried to act like he hadn't just shocked me :)