#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.