Moments from life

One great thing about Taiwan is of course the food, and going out with good friends. Here's a feast at a local restaurant with my close friends and neighbors Steve and Rhonda


Yummm!!!

Here's Steve doing his Paul Newman impression:

Sexier than Paul Newman?

And Rhonda with their son Josh.

Rhonda's warmth and energy grace any table.

And just to make your mouth water...

Spring onions with beef in a garlic-flavored sauce. Heaven.

It's the rainy season, and the kids insisted on going outside in the rain to play in the mud.

What's childhood without mud and colds?

One good thing about the rainy season, in addition to the cool weather, is clear skies for photography. Here is a shot of eastern Taichung from Chaoyang University.


At my daughter's school, the hunt for Face continues:

SCHOOL OFFICIAL: So, how come your daughter didn't participate in the speech contest last week?
WIFE: (extemporizing desperately) Well, my husband was a judge.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL: So? There's no rule that says a judge's child can't participate!

Our school PTA meetings are a blast. The PTA chair has bucks, and brought 50 (count'em) cases of beer to the last meeting. No one can now recall what was said. A butcher, he is a perpetual drunk who keeps a water cooler full of hooch under the counter of his butcher shop, and offers cupfuls to anyone who walks in. Last year he and the previous principal, and a couple of teachers, came to our house to visit my wife after she was voted to the PTA (because the locals thought she was rich and expected her to donate money). They were pretty well lit up when they arrived one evening. The best part was when our dogs hid their shoes that they had left outside when they came in the house. There's nothing like having four drunken Taiwanese school officials search your yard in complete darkness, employing their best colorful local expressions.

Congratulations to my students Robbie and Queenie, who got married yesterday.