Is That a WLF in our Backyard??? How did that get there???

If you read my blog a little regularly, you might have read about the humongo snail that Loca found by our front door. Huge snail. Snail on steroids. The snail that ate Saigon. Big.

Well the other morning, Loca was doing a quiet, informative bark. I thought it was her, "I really want to be out in the sunshine" bark, but when I came downstairs, she was at the back door. Hmmm. That's unusual.

I looked out the door and saw...what is that? Could it be? It kind of looks like one, but how did it get in our backyard?

I opened the back door and yes, it was, a weird looking fish! I'm not talking a goldfish from some kid's tank. I'm talking 6 inches long, lots of fins, prehistoric looking thing that is probably served in local restaurants. I immediately looked up to the sky! Why?!? Did I think it was raining fish? Did I think that fish were falling from trees? Not sure, but that was my first reaction. Honest to God.



My second reaction was to see if Weird Little Fish was alive. A little kick and it wiggled its tail. Hmmm. A live fish near my back door and we live far from a water source. There was no water trail, so he didn't squirm his way from the Mekong River. Was it going to be someone's breakfast and it made a run for it? So many questions for 7am on a Sunday.


Our teeny tiny backyard area is walled off on all sides. There's no way Weird Little Fish could have gotten there on his own volition. I think one of our neighbors threw Weird Little Fish by our back door! Ha! Maybe it's a Vietnamese custom for long life and prosperity. I hope it doesn't mean "This fish is rotten! We can't eat it for breakfast. Throw it near the round eye's back door. She'll think it's a symbol of long life and prosperity. Silly round eye!"

So what do you do with a live, orphan fish? I pondered the humane thing to do. I considered a rescue mission, but we don't have a fish tank. Even if I was able to keep it alive, where would I eventually put it? I decided to let nature take its course. Had I came down 15 minutes later, the fish would have been dead. Who am I to mess with his fate?

Sorry, Weird Little Fish.

Christmas '09

This year we were HOME for Christmas. By home, I mean our townhouse in Saigon. This is the first time in 8 or 9 years that we weren't somewhere else on Christmas Day. I can't complain because "somewhere else" usually means a beautiful beach like Pukhet or Koh Samui, but it was terrific to be home for the holidays! I'm heading to the airport in about an hour, but I wanted to post some Christmas pix. (We're going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Sooooo excited!)

Happy holidays from our fam to yours!

Mike went to Bali in November for a school trip (tough life!) and brought this awesome guitar mirror for Aidan.

Brenna really, really, really wanted a camera. Santa heard her!

We are lucky to have Mike's brother Dan and his daughter Hannah with us during the holidays. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Andrei sent Brenna and Hannah a fun karaoke gizmo for their iPods!

Aunt Lisa and Uncle Andrei sent Aidan a strobe light, some fun drum stick pencils and these awesome things you stick on your walls and then you can write on them. If he doesn't put them up within the week, I'm totally stealing them! He really wanted a strobe light! Who knew? Apparently Aunt Lisa! We tested it out several times - very cool and very seizure inducing!!!

Grandpa relocated to Sun City, Arizona this summer and sent Arizona State t-shirts for all 3 grandkids. They're styling!

Hannah loves CSI New York and CSI Miami, so we're sending her home with both series for her viewing pleasure. (Que The Who theme music...)

Santa brought Aid Skullcandy headphones. Trendy, but great sound. Those big, Princess Leah headphones are sooooo back in style.

What do you give a teenager who's growing up in Asia? American junk food, of course! Brenna gave Aidan Doritos, Pop Tarts and an AW Root Beer for Christmas. Uncle Dan and Hannah added to the collection. He was a happy boy!!!

Vacation: Part 1. So Far, So Good!

Our 3 week winter break officially began at 12:30 on Friday! Woo-hoo! Mike and I started our vacation with lunch at a local pub with a bunch of other teachers. Then Mike went to get a haircut which includes 45 minutes (or more!) of an incredible head massage/shampoo.  I went downtown with 3 friends and got a foot, head, arm, back massage at Royal Foot Massage. It ended with an awesome back massage that looked painful, but felt great. Ahhh!

Left: Long row of massage gals giving foot massages. 70 minutes of bliss for $7. Nice!

On Sunday night, my friend Laura from SAS came to spend the night. It was so fantastic to spend time with her! Luckily she enjoys playing card games. Brenna is a card game addict and she taught Laura a couple new games. Laura then beat us at most of the games. Geez! We played A LOT of games!
Left: Brenna teaching Laura how to play Rat-a-Tat Cat on our rooftop terrace.

Left: Laura heading back to the airport. She loooooves Vietnam, so hopefully this wasn't her only stay at Chateau Williams!

Last night (Monday night) Mike's brother Dan and his daughter Hannah arrived close to midnight. I thought they would be zombies today, but they were amazing! We went to The Gourmet Shop for breakfast (left).

After a leisurely breakfast and of course a stop at the smoothie stand, I took Brenna and Hannah to get our nails painted. The girls had a lot of choices to make. What color?? What designs??

They watched TV while being pampered. Not a bad life for an 11 & 13 year old!!!

The final result! Christmas trees, snowmen, wreaths, snowflakes. Soooo cute and festive!  :o)  I got french tips with a Christmas tree on each thumb!

In the afternoon we went downtown. We walked around the backpacker area, shopped at Ben Thanh market and went to an early dinner at Quan An Ngon, a delicious restaurant with very local food. The owner took the best street stall cooks and created a restaurant. They all work in their own area. The menu is extensive with both food and drink and it's very cheap. Mike and I love the vermicelli with friend spring rolls and it's less than $2.00.

The Snail That Ate Saigon

Yes, Loca is a territorial, yappy dog. But since we've gotten here she's grown accustomed to our little front yard and all the happenings in the hood. She generally doesn't bark when she's out there. She barks when someone right at our gate. This morning she was barking and barking and barking. I looked out the window and she wasn't by the gate. I started to think that maybe someone was IN our yard so I went downstairs to take a look. She was barking at a snail. Ha! What a whimp! Barking at a snail! But this was no ordinary snail, this was a snail on steroids! This was Super Snail! It was huge. Vietnamese people are the smallest people I've ever seen, but damn, they grow BIG snails! I took a picture and held my sunglasses to give it some perspective. I'm not sure it does it justice. From the tip of its head to the tip of its tail, it was about the length of my sunglasses. I've never seen a snail the width of my face!

Terry Fox Run 2009

This morning we did the Terry Fox 5K Walk. Terry Fox was an amazing young guy from Canada who lost his leg to cancer and then ran a marathon, EVERYDAY for 143 days across Canada to raise awareness for cancer research. He wanted to run from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but after 143 days he had to stop because the cancer was in his lungs. What an incredible person! There are Terry Fox runs every year around the world. We've participated in them in Venezuela, China and now Vietnam.




Mike, Brenna, Loca and I did the walk. Aidan wouldn't get out of bed. Geez. Below are pix from the day. Big crowds!

Hot dog! Loca walked for most of it, but petered out about 5 minutes from the end, so Mike helped out. Poor little thing!

Foxy Family!

We went out to breakfast at The Gourmet Shop cafe after the walk.

Expats in the Hood!

I really like our neighborhood. We live in a townhouse less than a mile from school. It's a straight shot to school - we go out of our complex and go down the street until we hit the school, no turns, no bends in the road. But the street we go down is my favorite part of this whole area. There are cafes, restaurants, smoothie stands, massage places and more. It just has a cozy, fun, vacationy feel.

The other night Mike and I were having a little date night. While walking home from the smoothie stand we stopped in to The Tavern to listen to some live acoustic music. A female singer and 2 guys on guitar playing Aerosmith, The Beatles, etc. I love having all this right outside our door.

Below are some pix from our hood. Our little corner of the world that we call home right now.

Mike talking to the smoothie stand folks. We're regular customers!

The friendliest smoothie stand lady. I think she smiles at us so much because she wouldn't have a job without all our smoothie purchases!

One of the many cafes on our street. They hang lights in the trees. It looks festive every night!

Another cafe.

This is one of our favorite restaurants. It's called Vegas and has good food and an awesome salt water fish tank. I'll have to take pix of the tank the next time we go.

Just so you know we really live in Vietnam - here are some grilled chicken feet! Yum! They're a favorite in Vietnam, China and probably other Asian countries. I think I'll pass, thanks!

Saigon Snapshots

The bike repair guys on the corner, one of the many conveniences of living in Saigon. They're always on the major intersection between home and school. Today I needed air in my tires. 25 cents well spent!

They haul anything on their motorbikes! In this case it's 14 tires! This was taken last weekend in downtown Saigon.