We do actually do other things out here besides obsess over rats. Seriously, we do. OK, for me it probably breaks down like this: 90% = Time spent obsessing over rats10% = Time spent doing more meaningful stuff (like eating, sleeping, blogging, etc.) But please don’t judge my family based on my OCD behavior.  That…

I don’t know when it happened, when it all got so serious, but lately my prayers have all turned into implicatory psalms.  Here’s an example of one that I hijacked from King David (italics mine): Psalm 59 (Abbreviated and Remixed) Rescue me from my enemies–the rats, O God.Protect me from those who have come to…

The best way to tell if you are dealing with the hyper-intelligent rats of NIMH (as opposed to the slow-witted garden variety) is to find out what they like to eat.  The rats I have been dealing with here in J-town, those still living that is, prefer biscuits with a nice smudge of strawberry jam…

As the temperatures drop and I find myself stoking the coal four or five times a day, I am thankful for friends who give fleece*.  Our friends, the Carnes, sent us an early Christmas package in August with many REI goodies that I have recently come to appreciate more fully.   Layers upon layers have kept…

I hate losing stuff.  I just realized that I have misplaced the cord that connects our digital camera to the computer.  There are many good reasons why this cord happens to be missing like the fact that we are living out of two homes in two different cities (in a foreign country) and just made…

We’re heading south again on Sunday.  It seems like every time we turn around we are heading back to Thailand for a conference.  By the time we return to the States in June we will have been to Thailand five different times in 3 years!  It’s pretty ridiculous, but what are you gonna do?  The…

I finally decided I needed to climb this one.   It’s always staring at me from our back yard so I hiked it a few days ago. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it looks from down below.  It took about 45 minutes to reach the top.  Probably more of a "hill" out here than a…

I am embarrassed to admit this a little bit, but here goes.  This past week Jianzha hosted a really big archery competition in which I think 6 different provinces (and quite a few minority nationalities, e.g. Tibetan) were represented.  The event was a 3-4 day competition that had some impact on how they choose their…

We just spent four days back in our Xining apartment.  This was a planned retreat back into the city.  It was amazing how clean and tidy our luxurious city apartment felt after spending only three weeks in the country.  It’s really pathetic how "city-slicker" we really are. It’s nice to have a home away from…

The rain stopped and the sun came out.  Beautiful blue sky, a few large white clouds, and cool temperatures greeted us today.  The mountains were so majestically green.  Things started to dry up. I used a bar code scanner to check in/out books at the library.  Of all the things I could have predicted or…