Today, Saturday, August 22nd, 2009, our dear friends Liz and Chris will be wed in holy matrimony.
A toast to the happy couple and a wish that their days and years be filled with joy, absent of tears and that they find in each other exactly what they need.
Even if you don't know Liz and Chris, raise a glass today in their honor...they deserve it.
We're 10.5 hours ahead, so I can say the future looks bright for them.
Delhi...OUT!!!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
The Things that Make you Go "Hmmmm...?"
In preparation for the 2010 Goodwill Games, hosted by India and held in Delhi, the government has begun an expansive beautification and un-F-ification of New Delhi project, which includes:
- The addition and construction of roadways, overpasses and cloverleafs (pedestrians, bicycles, tuck-tucks, hand-bikes and wheelbarrows will still be permitted to run tandem to fast-moving cars, trucks and decorated dump trucks)
- The beautification of city streets and medians (to include the addition of shrubbery, the removal of standing pools of "stink-water" that attract malaria-laden mosquitoes, and the insistence that citizens quit being run over by large buses b/c carcasses always stain and carcass removal is very expensive)
- the addition of street signs (b/c up until now, Delhi's citizens were required to arrive at any destination only after hours of trial and error)
Julie and I, after seconds of discussion, also propose the following "improvements" before the Goodwill Games commence:
- All citizens must refrain from urinating and defecating on the roadside of major thoroughfares and travel ways (side streets and alleyways will now be used for this purpose, or at least more so) (this law applies to males and females equally, if only to avoid a charge of sexism)
- All citizens must refrain from exposing their "junk" on the roadside of major thoroughfares and travel ways (while this problem will likely be addressed with the elimination of urination and defecation (see above), we think it important to address it separately - we'd hate to think a citizen were able to find a loophole when it comes to something like this)
- Perhaps finally (at least for now), we suggest that police officers quit holding hands (while male-male hand-holding is nothing unusual in India - and we're certainly not judging - we just think that two grown men, sworn to uphold the law and protect the citizenry, should carry themselves with a certain amount of gravitas and professionalism...they can hold hands all they like "off the clock")
Delhi...OUT!!!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Same, Same...
A real buzz-kill for any "blogger" is routine. Life here is now as life was in D.C...usual. This is nice, but it doesn't make for an interesting blog, does it? Rhetorical, but in case you actually didn't know the answer...it's NO. It does not make for an interesting blog.
I suppose though, just as you'll never step twice into the same river (thanks, Heraclitus), even the usual life is never truly the same as it was a moment before. We've been busy...I, with work and more work and official visits and looking cool, and Julie/the kids with a recent trip back to the U.S.of.A.
India is now, for all intents and purposes, home. This fact is only occasionally depressing. We do enjoy India, except when we don't. It was the same in D.C., though, and I imagine it's the same for everyone, everywhere (except for John Henderson in Cleveland, Ohio...I hear he just loves it, all the time!) We're settled and comfortable (except when we're not - 120 Degrees, 120 % Humidity... this combination may actually only be possible here in Delhi). We've stumbled across routine...have identified our favorite restaurants, have identified which restaurants we'll never go to again (having once been a 'favorite'), have identified, for the most part, what activities to do when based on the kids' moods, our moods, the traffic, the heat and the typical small aggravations that come with doing most anything here in Delhi.
We're planning a vacation for October...a secretive, awesome vacation somewhere secretive and awesome. Frankly, I need to get out of Delhi. In the meantime, we'll try to hop down to Agra, snap a picture in front of the Taj Mahal...check that box. Word is, that's what the Taj visit is, a photo op, nothing more. A very important photo op, however, so we'll make the journey and strike a pose in front of one of the seven wonders of the world (assuming they haven't revised the list...replaced the Taj with something a tad more "wondrous"...after all, the Taj is just one really big coffin). Anywho, when the trip is said and done, we'll be sure to post pictures.
Olivia and Eli are back to school and they're both very excited. Olivia has started 1st grade. 1st...fricking...grade. She's losing teeth left and right (and not b/c of Eli). She's growing and learning and everyday she's more beautiful (takes after Julie, thankfully...or not, we'll see when she's in high school). Eli is, essentially, The Man. Not the oppressive "Man," mind you, but THE Man. He's developing quite the personality, has been for some time...so maybe it's better said he's honing it to a fine point.
Alise has sprouted two full-on, honest-to-goodness, bottom teeth, and one tooth has popped along the top. She crawls around the house drooling, like a miniature Saint Bernard. She's pretty quick now and knows just where to go, just what to do, to scare us shitless, when an opportunity presents itself. Like her siblings, Alise too is a mischievous sprite...we're pretty certain she knows exactly what she's doing and will often flash us a wicked grin as we bound toward her, yelling "Alise, get down...Alise, get that out of your mouth...Alise, please quit trying to re-wire that socket." She can stand now, balance all by herself...but she's not walking. She'll stand for a moment and then return to a kimchee squat, a genetic gift.
Proud Parent diatribe has concluded.
Well...completely unsatisfied, huh? Like you just ate Tofu? Waiting all this time for an update and this is what I write? Really? Really?!?!
Yep. Afraid so.
Delhi...OUT!!!
I suppose though, just as you'll never step twice into the same river (thanks, Heraclitus), even the usual life is never truly the same as it was a moment before. We've been busy...I, with work and more work and official visits and looking cool, and Julie/the kids with a recent trip back to the U.S.of.A.
India is now, for all intents and purposes, home. This fact is only occasionally depressing. We do enjoy India, except when we don't. It was the same in D.C., though, and I imagine it's the same for everyone, everywhere (except for John Henderson in Cleveland, Ohio...I hear he just loves it, all the time!) We're settled and comfortable (except when we're not - 120 Degrees, 120 % Humidity... this combination may actually only be possible here in Delhi). We've stumbled across routine...have identified our favorite restaurants, have identified which restaurants we'll never go to again (having once been a 'favorite'), have identified, for the most part, what activities to do when based on the kids' moods, our moods, the traffic, the heat and the typical small aggravations that come with doing most anything here in Delhi.
We're planning a vacation for October...a secretive, awesome vacation somewhere secretive and awesome. Frankly, I need to get out of Delhi. In the meantime, we'll try to hop down to Agra, snap a picture in front of the Taj Mahal...check that box. Word is, that's what the Taj visit is, a photo op, nothing more. A very important photo op, however, so we'll make the journey and strike a pose in front of one of the seven wonders of the world (assuming they haven't revised the list...replaced the Taj with something a tad more "wondrous"...after all, the Taj is just one really big coffin). Anywho, when the trip is said and done, we'll be sure to post pictures.
Olivia and Eli are back to school and they're both very excited. Olivia has started 1st grade. 1st...fricking...grade. She's losing teeth left and right (and not b/c of Eli). She's growing and learning and everyday she's more beautiful (takes after Julie, thankfully...or not, we'll see when she's in high school). Eli is, essentially, The Man. Not the oppressive "Man," mind you, but THE Man. He's developing quite the personality, has been for some time...so maybe it's better said he's honing it to a fine point.
Alise has sprouted two full-on, honest-to-goodness, bottom teeth, and one tooth has popped along the top. She crawls around the house drooling, like a miniature Saint Bernard. She's pretty quick now and knows just where to go, just what to do, to scare us shitless, when an opportunity presents itself. Like her siblings, Alise too is a mischievous sprite...we're pretty certain she knows exactly what she's doing and will often flash us a wicked grin as we bound toward her, yelling "Alise, get down...Alise, get that out of your mouth...Alise, please quit trying to re-wire that socket." She can stand now, balance all by herself...but she's not walking. She'll stand for a moment and then return to a kimchee squat, a genetic gift.
Proud Parent diatribe has concluded.
Well...completely unsatisfied, huh? Like you just ate Tofu? Waiting all this time for an update and this is what I write? Really? Really?!?!
Yep. Afraid so.
Delhi...OUT!!!
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