#349 Christmas

The biggest Christmas present of course is the dog. A total surprise that made for a very exciting Christmas morning - maybe even the best Christmas ever. Additionally, Maria got a new pink bicycle, Joseph a guitar, Marco a Nintendo DS handheld videogame, and Juliana a custom tailored wool coat.

#348 New Dog

We got a new puppy for Christmas. The kids have been asking for a dog for a long time. Kathleen joined the chorus last month when a neighbor was looking for a home for a rescued puppy. That puppy got adopted though before Kathleen could convince me to adopt. However, after reading Maria's letter to Santa, I also was convinced that it was time for a Christmas surprise.

Nash, our driver, was my local contact to find a dog. I wanted a good family dog with short hair and large enough to take running with me. I downloaded a collection of pictures of breeds in which I was interested and showed Nash. He said that the labrador was the only breed that he thought we could find in Suzhou. He made a call and located a source. On Christmas eve, Nash and I picked up the dog and stashed him for the night with our new neighbors, Leon and Autumn.

Christmas morning, Autumn brought the dog to our house at 8 AM and surprised the kids. It took a moment for them to realize that the dog was theirs, then there was an outbreak of major excitement. The name Patrick was proposed by Joseph and quickly endorsed by the rest of the kids and Kathleen. Patrick is the Chinese Yellow Lab with the Irish name.

#347 Sanya Vacation

We spent the week before Christmas in the city of Sanya on Hainan Island in southern China. Hainan is supposed to be the Hawaii of China and was pretty enough to live up to that name. We had wonderful weather and stayed at a waterfront resort on a very nice beach on the South China Sea. The ocean was not terribly warm, but it did not stop the kids from swimming eight or more hours every day. Kathleen and I logged less than a couple hours all week because of the initial chill of getting in the water.

We stayed at the Aegean Conifer Resort on Yalong Bay and while it was a beautiful location at an attractive 5 star resort, the level of service was quite bad. For example, each day we had to ask the cleaning staff to stay out of the room until we left. One day, one of the maids kept asking me what we did with the fourth washcloth that was left for us in the bathroom. We had not removed any washcloths from the room and even if we did, for $600 per night, I think they could afford to let it slide if we did. We did have a nice two bedroom suite with a view of the ocean, but would not recommend the hotel to others.

Activities for the week were primarily sitting on the beach, watching the kids swim, reading books, and taking walks. The kids took a whirl one day in the inflatable cylinders pictured above. All through the week, our kids drew the attention of many curious onlookers. They will play prominently in the vacation pictures of dozens of Chinese tourists.

#346 Ducks Xmas Assy

Maria's pre-school presented the Duck's musical rendition of the nativity story. Maria had a lead role as the innkeeper and narrator. She had many lines to memorize and a solo to sing. You can see she was the only kid to wear a headset microphone.

The show was very well done and Maria was terrific. We were very proud of Maria and very impressed with the caliber of the performance of this young group - only first graders.

#344 Thanksgiving

We had a big group of people to our house for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday after Thanksgiving. Invited were three Caterpillar families, three "bachelor" collegues, and one neighbor family. Kathleen did a terrific job of cooking for 12 adults and 10 children. Pulling off a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in China is no simple task. In fact, a turkey has to be special ordered from an import grocery store and cost about $4/lb !

#345 Shanghai Half

This weekend I ran the Shanghai half marathon along with two of my co-workers and three neighbors. You can see me posing above with the three neighbors - Mike, Anthony, and Anthony. The race had an enormous number of people - over 20,000. You can see the picture above of the crammed starting line area. In fact, the crowd of runners remained dense throughout the 13 mile course.

I ran much of the way with my friend and co-worker, Paul - you can see him and I above standing on The Bund along the historic riverfront financial district of old Shanghai. The course was quite nice and we had wonderful weather for the entire race. The course starting on the west side of the river (Puxi) and proceeding through one of the tunnels to the east side of the river (Pudong). The tunnel was probably the worst part of the run. We were underground for at least 10 minutes. It was extremely hot and filled with the smell of thousands of sweaty runners. It was a glorious relief to emerge from the tunnel into the fresh (?) air and sunshine.

One highlight, as I neared the end of the half marathon, I was passed by the leader of the full marathon - a Kenyan running a two hour marathon pace. He ran more than twice as fast as I did for twice the distance ! Nonetheless, I met my goal of finishing in less than two hours. My final time was 1:58.

#343 Bauma Shanghai

I spent Thanksgiving Day this year at the International construction equipment show in Shanghai called "Bauma". Thanksgiving, of course, in China is not a holiday and thus is a normal workday. It was, though, that this year it was a bit of a field trip to this equipment trade show. I don't know where the name Bauma comes from, but it is certainly a major event in the world of Chinese, Asian, and other equipment makers. We took a busload of engineers from Wuxi and Suzhou to Bauma to spend the day studying competitor products.

Since I am the Asia Motor Grader guy, I spent the day looking at Chinese-made Motor Graders. There are a remarkable number of competitive machines. In all world outside of China, there are about five motor grader manufacturers. China alone has about 10 companies that make motor graders - some of them manufacture less than a hundred motor graders per year.

#342 Cowboy Birthday

Saturday marked a return to the Taihu Lake Cowboy Club, this time for Joseph's birthday party. Joseph invited four classmates to spend the day at the club. We had a barbecue and birthday cake followed by horseback riding, go karts, and paddleboats.

Maria has talked for ages about wanting to ride a horse and she was very happy when she got her chance. You can see her huge smile above. Unfortunately, some of the activities were off limits to children such as rock climbing, zip lines, and kayaking. For this we felt a little ripped off because we paid full price of $24 entrance fee per kid. It seemed they should have offered half price for the children. Nonetheless, everyone had a good time, and Joseph was a happy birthday boy.

#341 Joseph's B-day

Fall is the birthday season in our house and Joseph celebrated his 10th birthday today. I remember my own tenth birthday over 30 years ago. It seemed very important to me to be crossing into the double digits of age.

Joseph got three good gifts from Mom and Dad - The 2011 Guiness Book of Records, a fishing pole and net, and the biggest gift of all, the newest vintage iPod Touch. He could barely contain his excitement and got to stay up late loading it up with music, apps, and games. The grandparents added to the excitement with an iTunes gift card from Grandma and cash money from Nonna.

It was a very good day for Joseph. Stay tuned for a report on Saturday when we return to the Chinese cowboy ranch for Joseph's birthday party.

#340 China Halloween

Tonight was Halloween and the most happening trick-or-treat locale in all of greater Suzhou is in our neighhorhood, Jin Shui Wan (a.k.a Golden Lough). There must have been more than 300 panhandling kids in the neighborhood tonight, our four among them.

All six of us had costumes custom tailored in downtown Suzhou. Juliana went as an M&M, Joseph as some kind of Ninja, Marco was Darth Maul from Star Wars, and Maria is Madeline from the children's books.

Kathlen and I were the duo of Superman and Wonder Woman. As you can imagine, we got lots of attention with our authentic superhero duds. As I walked around with the kids, I had more than 10 people ask to pose with me for photos. Despite the somewhat lame "S" on the chest, the costume was a hit. Kathleen also got many kudos for her elaborate get-up. She won best costume at "Halloween Bunco Night" on Friday.

My favorite neighbor costume though was our friend Keith who dressed as a man taking a shower. Very creative.

#339 Dude Ranch

I spent the day Saturday with my workgroup on a teambuilding outing. We set out at 9:00 AM with a busload of Cat employees for the 90 minute drive to the "Cowboy Style Country Club" near Taihu Lake. This place was a lot of fun with horseback riding, dragon boat racing, go-karting, laser tag, rock climbing, and other teambuilding games.

We had a full agenda of activities and like every Chinese tour group you see, we had a a leader a megaphone. Daniel (pictured above) was our megaphone-wielding colleague and team leader. The day started out with a very good barbecue lunch and birthday cake for the people with birthdays in October. Next we split into four teams for dragonboat racing. Next was a half hour of free time which I used to take a horseback ride. It was hilarious that the dude ranch required a personal flotation device as safety gear to ride a horse. I liked the horseback riding, though it was a pretty short ride. The next group activity was lasergun combat.

At 4:00 we left the Cowboy Club and went to a nearby orange grove where we got to sample delcious oranges right off the trees, then had dinner in the grove's own restaurant. Among the local favorites are the "three whites" - white shrimp, whitefish, and silverfish. I asked why the third white is silver, but no one knew the answer. The final dish was the famoush hairy crab, which in my judgement requires more work than the small yield of crab meat is worth. But this hairy crab is a tradition and an autumn obsession in the Suzhou and Wuxi area.