we'll miss you Ginger!

no, Ginger is not coming back with us... sigh... but we found her a great home with the youth workers at a local church -- she'll have a huge yard & lots of visitors to meet & play with.

still waiting...

we are still down south waiting to see if the improvement in air quality over the last couple of days will last... particulate count (amount of bad stuff in the air) has already risen since a sharp dip that followed unseasonal rain 2 days ago. authorities say burning (and the bad air it brings) could begin again at any time. we just spoke to a pollution-sensitive friend in CM who said it was great yesterday, but woke up this morning with a sore throat & runny nose again.

we continue to hear interesting reports of how they are trying to clean the air... the latest & greatest was to load a fire truck (in its entirety) onto a large military airplane from which it sprayed water onto the city.

in the meantime, we are working from a WI-FIed beach near Hua Hin, catching up on Veggie Tales (Sumos of the Opera gets 2 enthusiastic thumbs up), eating lots of good food, reading, & feeling baby B poke around a bit... very fun!

some people have enquired as to how Ginger is getting on without us... our friends, the Haleys (well mostly their son, Gabe, pictured), have stepped in to care for her in our absence... Mike was a little sad to see this pic -- whenever he tries to lay on Ginger this way, she looks very sad & makes a strange noise.
by the way, one of her puppies, Cebu, just had 9 puppies (3 months after running away from her owner & finding a home among the strays of a Thai park for a week or so)... maybe we'll have pictures later.

thoughts on crutches

When I was a little girl, I remember finding a pair of crutches (left over from some family member's unfortunate incedent) and being completely entertained the rest of the day leaping across the house with them. a few thoughts on this:
1. when you are not injured, crutches are great.
2. if you lose your balance while on said crutches, you have two good feet to land on.
3. when you get tired or your armpits hurt or the crutches are no longer convenient, you can lean them against a wall and continue regular mobility.

last weekend in bangkok, mike & i were walking back to the guesthouse from the hospital (we had our annual check ups & we are very healthy!), when i stepped onto an uneven section of sidewalk (these are plentiful throughout the kingdom)... my foot rolled outward, and i heard a loud snap. i was able to walk for a bit until the pain got too bad & mike got us a taxi for the the last 1/2 mile or so (a very well-spent dollar). i got out of the taxi & hopped into the guesthouse... then i hopped up the stairs and down the hall to our room. The next day, I hopped some more getting ready for the airport, where mike wheeled me on the luggage cart (fun!) to the airport "hospital" where a well-dressed staff person told us they did not have crutches, but could order some from a nearby hospital. After a smiling doctor examined my foot & said it was probably ligaments (only "10% chance" it's broken), my crutches arrived 30 minutes later in a flashing ambulence. Even though I gave my height in cm (165, if anyone is curious) to the hospital, and 6 well-dressed staff people attempted to make adjustments (mike ended up having to do it), as hard as everyone tried, the crutches were still too short for this giant farang (the thais call all foreigners that... it literally means "french.".. mike LOVES it). so they ordered some more crutches in a bigger size which arrived another half-hour later... they would have to do as is, because we needed to proceed to the gate. I was then escorted to my plane in a wheel chair, which was a very nice experience until i had to get out of the chair & make it down to my seat on the crutches (which were still too short). a few more thoughts on this:
1. it's hard to get around on crutches when your "good leg" is extremely sore because you've spent the last 24 hours hopping around on it.
2. it's harder to get around on crutches when one foot hurts so badly that you can't touch your toes to the ground.
3. the aisle of an airplane is not the best place to test-drive crutches, in general.
so, now i am home... resting and trying to perform the basic functions of life one must do even while "resting". it's amazing how we take for granted that our feet work & our hands don't have to contribute to the process of "getting around". more thoughts:
1. crutches are hard to get around on, and easy to lose your balance with.
2. crutches make a bad substitute for legs, but a good substitute for hands in limited situations (ex. they are good for pushing things around on the floor, but bad for carrying bowls of soup).
3. ginger seems confused, but happy in a strange way, that i now, too, have 4 legs.

happy dog

an inside look at when ginger got her bone & was very happy.

blue vivaldi

meet the puppy formerly known as "blue" & "our favorite".

you met annette, his new owner, on a previous post... well, she came by today with "vivaldi" (his new name -- we mentioned she's a flautist, i believe), happy to report that he is doing quite well in obedience classes. the teacher even suggested that she enter him into new dog shows they are starting for mixed breeds.
we couldn't be prouder.

the last puppy

...went to our friends Bet(pictured),Ben, and their son, Andrew.
His name is "puppy".

We thought Ginger had been feeling a bit lonely, so yesterday we took her down to see Rita who has 2 of the pups. Caryn enjoyed it, because she met Rita's housemates -- 2 girls around her age from the States who are teaching English here. The puppies almost immediately reverted to their puppyhood and started chasing Ginger around, trying to nurse. A good time was had by all, though Ginger was ready to go by the time we left.

the great puppy giveaway

last family pic... at the vet getting their vaccinations.










"tiger girl" is going to a man we met at the vet.










our friend, catherine, from the uk is taking this little girl she named "cebu", after an island she recently visited.










annette, the american flautist, is taking "blue".










"o", kassem, and namtan (friends from work) are taking these cuties.










rita is taking "tipper" & her brother, "red"... we're excited because she lives in our neighborhood!











we have one more little boy at home after today... he goes to our friend, ben, & her family....

we're a little sad.. no more puppies to trip us & bite us & eat our shoes & stink up our yard.... seriously though, it was a lot of fun & we got more than a little attached!