Ears

Suzy was reading Faith the book she got for Easter (Candy Shop war 2) and she was also playing a game on the iPad (that had sound to it). Suzy asked her, "How can you listen to that and me reading at the same time?"
Faith responded, "Mom (slightly exasperated), I have 2 ears you know."

Kate and Faith are headed to see a musical Beauty and the Beast Performance with Suzy today.  I was helping Faith get a dress down.  She was having trouble deciding, and then all of a sudden had a flash of inspiration, "Dad, I know which one I want, I haven't worn it in DAYS!"

It's probably been more like weeks, to be honest, but you never know with Faith since she changes clothes on average at least 4 times a day. She is also partial to skirts and leggings. By partial I mean she is adamantly against pants. Those new liberal Mormon ladies would not approve (the ones that think women should wear pants to show equality.  I personally think us guys should now start wearing skirts to show our equality).

On that note, we went to Comedy Sports last night. There was a troupe from Portland and they had a battle. I must admit, they were great! Both sides were good, but Portland had two fellows (out of 3 per team) who were especially hilarious.  They ended up winning, I believe the score was 34 to 32 or something like that.

No longer in Singapore.

I got the girls (and Jace) these fans. I got Jace one so he wouldn't play with Kate's or Faiths. Jace broke his before 24hrs was up. Kate quickly figured out how to "throw" the fan open. She's willing to teach this technique, or a price.

Birds of Prey

 We went to the Birds of Prey refuge when Emily and Cliff came to visit.  We'd never been, the kids really enjoyed it.

 I thought these two condors look like the two birds that keep saying "so watcha wanna do?" from Jungle Book http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MGTWmrnPdgk

 Apparently these condors have a freakishly long wingspan. Even more freakishly long than mine.

Easter Bunny Kevin

If you recall, Kate firmly believes that the Kevin (her Uncle) is literally the Easter Bunny. This is because the first time she was old enough, Kevin dressed up as the Easter Bunny for a Church activity she attended. She has led her brother and sister into this as well. Which works well, since they don't scream in fear when they see this giant somewhat creepy looking bunny.

Brighton did pretty well.

At first they were all worried since this would be Kevin's last Easter in Boise for a while. He's moving on to Nebraska to continue Dental School. But then Kate was able to comfort all the young ones as they realized that the Easter Bunny visits everyone, so he'll be able to stop by Boise as well.  Faith kept saying "we won't be able to have Easter" and we had to keep reminding her that Easter was not about the Easter bunny but about Jesus. I think she finally accepted it.

'Tis March 17th!

If you remember, every year on St. Patrick's Day, Kate makes a Leprechaun trap. I think this is her 3rd year in a row.  This one was especially tricky. In previous years, the Leprechaun escaped by chewing through the walls of the trap. This time, she lined the trap with wax paper.  The Leprechaun is enticed up the ramp by careful placement of real coins. Once inside, the unsuspecting little guy would walk across the center trying to get the coins, and WHAMMO, fall into the carefully concealed trap in the middle of the floor. 

With such a fool proof trap, I bet you're wondering how the Leprechaun escaped.  Luckily for him he had a paper clip and some string he had used as a belt. He was able to make a grappling hook out of the paper clip, and a used the string as a rope to climb out.  

I can only imagine how distraught Kate would have been if he hadn't rewarded her ingenuity with some "gold" (foil covered Chocolate Coins). 

Singapore part II

I don't know how well you can see what this is all about. This is a mall, inside mall were three areas that were for kids to play in. In the hall in this picture is a pile of kids shoes.  Apparently Singaporeans live in very   small apartments. When I mentioned that a small home in Boise was about 1500 SF, I got amazed looks. Most Singaporeans live in small but expensive condos. The government sponsors about 60% of the housing. I heard and estimate that each room in a government house is about $100,000 (Singaporean, or about $83,000 US). so a 2 bedroom condo with a combined living/kitchen area would be about $250,000 US Dollars. Thus, parents pay for kid play areas (you have to be a member or something).

This was my hotel (the Park Regis)

If you walk in Clarke Quay, it's covered but open air. It rains most days for at least a little bit, so this was very welcome.

 I thought this was a cool restaurant. Lined with ancient looking Chinese warrior statues.

These are some yummy dinner selections (this was outside another restaurant).  I bet you bet that I didn't eat there. You bet correctly. 

Who the heck wants to eat something like this? 

Or This? 

Or this. Hello, throw these weird fish back! Seriously.

Here's the Mall, it was about 5 or 6 stories high. Everything is built up, since Singapore as a whole is about 25x40 miles or so.

I thought this was a really cool looking hotel. It has outdoor garden areas on various levels. 

 Here's another picture of it.

A random picture of a building in Singapore. No significance.

Singapore - March 2013

Well, I went to Singapore the first two weeks in March and got off the blogging bandwagon.  I'm about to get back on in a big way.

So, Singapore was interesting as always.  I actually walked around a few times for once.  I figured out that the hotel I was at was close to an area with really good restaurants! I went to "The Steakhouse" 3 times. Mostly I went to Chili's the rest of the time.  I did eat local a few times as well, which luckily wasn't as gross as usual since they asked me my preferences first (at least at one of the places).

 These are pictures of Clarke Quay, which was right in back of the hotel (the place with all the shops).

This was the park I went walking in on Sunday morning

 Isn't this a fun bench. not really that comfortable though.

Here's a bit of Singaporean history. I was surprised that it had been unoccupied until the 1800's! 

There were a bunch of these Cow sculptures in the park. Apparently made from scrap metal. I thought they were interesting.

This is a little blurb about the cow sculpture guy.  Maybe you can read it if you enlarge the picture.  As a side note, my favorite animal is Beef.  I think me and this guy would get along (unless of course he likes his beef in living form). 

There were a lot of these cool Tarzan trees around. I was not really tempted to swing from the vines.

 Singapore's natural environment is a rain forrest. It's right off the equator, and is always between about 75°F (at night) and 85-90°F (during the day). And very Humid.

This park was a series of switchbacks leading up the hill. I was massively sweaty when I got back. I saw one of the guys I work with on my way back (lucky coincidence since I had been there for a week already, he had just arrived about 8 hrs earlier).  He asked if I had been running. I informed him I just sweat a lot. 

China Town (Monday Night)

One night, I went out with 3 of my team members (one from Boise and two from Singapore).  The two local members took us to China town for some shopping (I got the girls some dresses).

You can see the start of China town in the distance. Apparently it's the year of the snake, the large red-orange thing in the distance is a snake. I'll get some close ups in a minute.

Here's the same picture, but now I'm smiling bigger. Suzy always tells me I need to smile in pictures and not look like a terrorist thug. As I was showing this to Faith, she pointed out that I still have on my badge from work. Luckily it was facing backwards so while I look like a geek, at least I don't look like a geek who's name is showing for all to see.

Here are some close ups of the snake you could see in the distance in the pictures above. I thought it was cool, the Singaporians told me that the year of the dragon was way better and they probably ran out of money doing that one so this one was sort of tame in comparison. 

 China town starts with a big ol' TV Screen. Here are some hotels as well. You can see the main part of the City off in the distance.