All The Stuffz You Done Missed

This is us. The one showing lots of shoulder (in her Chengdu, China Marine Ball ball gown!) is the EFM who writes this blog. The one wearing a tux (James) is the employee who moves her (and their two sons) around all over the world. The red link, below, is how you can get in touch with me...

The time in Chengdu, China

Chengdu: city of fabulous food and beautiful Buddhist monasteries!

In Our Same Boat (with State)

Beyond the Cornfields
Brand-new State Department family in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Love their two little girls (she just recently had a baby while being posted in Dhaka), horticulture, traveling and adventure!
Email From The Embassy
State Department family formerly in Beijing, China, and recently posted to Amman, Jordan. A trailing spouse, she's also a writer, and frequently publishes articles with major news sources. A very experienced State family, this new post is something like overseas post number six or seven for them.
Just US
A beautiful family of seven - they have arrived at their new post: Jerusalem! They just finished off an unaccompanied tour to Iraq and are very much looking forward to sightseeing around the middle east.
Our Life
State Department family on their second post...Tijuana, Mexico. It's their first overseas assignment and they have two little boys. They love Tijuana so far and post pictures frequently! They also get to enjoy the best of both worlds for they can sneak over the border into San Diego when they want to!
The Dinoia Family
State Department family formerly in California, now in DC for a DC tour. Next, the husband will do a one year unaccompanied tour. A very experienced State family (formerly in Iceland and Caracas) with a blog that has been around quite a while and has great archives. Jen has a sweet heart and a lot to give!
The Perlman Update
State Department family formerly in Chennai, India, who then did a year-long unaccompanied tour in Iraq. They are now on a DC tour and after that will do another unaccompanied tour (Afghanistan). She totally tells it like it is and doesn't sugar-coat what life is really like. Witty, snarky, funny and down-to-earth. Look elsewhere if you want fake. Read if you want REAL.
Where in the World Am I?
State Department family formerly in Bujumbura, Burundi and now in Hyderabad, India. They just had their first baby this summer - a beautiful little girl- (there's a separate blog about this) and she also eats gluten-free (with a separate blog, also).

One of the most intriguing things about Chengdu is that it is a seamless blend of ancient and modern... all together, side by side.

Can't Live Without (non-State)

Crass-Pollination: An ER blog
The best ER nurse blog EVER!
Doctor Grumpy in the House
The best doctor blog EVER!
In Which...
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of seven. Her darling daughters are, goshdarnit, probably too young to be hoped for as my future daughters-in-law.
The Crib Chick
My IRL friend, a stay-at-home, homeschooling Mama of five. Hopefully two (Any two! I'm not picky!) of which are my future daughters-in-law.
the underwear drawer
An anesthesiologist who is possibly the most talented & entertaining writer ever. I've read her blog ever since she started medical school. No, don't know her in real life. Wish I did.
The Bloggess
This blog is both hysterically funny and hilariously irreverent. I actually let my 17 year old son read it (who loves it as much as I do!), but wouldn't even CONSIDER letting my 12 year old son read it. Which is about all the description it needs!

The grounds of Chengdu monasteries can be very, very peaceful...even though they are smack dab in the heart of a city of millions of people.

Specifics

Blog powered by Typepad

« (James Isn't) Going Postal | Main | A Fabulous Reminder »

03/08/2012

All The Stuffz You Done Missed

Elsewhere on the interwebz, people are being all-interesting-n-stoof and I just wanted you to know so you didn't miss it.

For example, Diplopundit had a nice, long conversation with herself about State blogs and the murderers thereof.** (You know, when *I* talk to myself, I sound like a moron, but when *she* talks to herself, she's crazy brilliant.)

[**Note to my Dad: You may see a quote or two that you recognize on Diplopundit's blog post.]

Also, did you catch Jill's latest FS BRU (Foreign Service Blog RoundUp)? There are tons of happy Foreign Service folks represented there this week! It's fun to see where everyone is and what they're doing. :)

And what have you missed here? With me and my family? Well...

Let's see. I didn't buy this lingerie:

But I did stand and stare at it.

Probably because it was, like, EYE LEVEL AND GLOWING AT ME. All radiant-like and all bright and beaming-y. That's not camera flash, my friends... that's some sort of mannequin that GLOWS. BRIGHTLY. FROM THE INSIDE.

It was actually night time and I had been briskly walking past that store, heading toward other things. But then the GLOWING caught my eye (it was right in the store's front window) and I stopped and stared. I couldn't help it. And Matthew, my 18-year-old son, was with me. And then I realized he was standing there too, so I reached my hands over and covered his youthful, impressionable eyes to shield them from the glowing advertisement of pure sex** (something akin to the leg lamp in that awesome movie The Christmas Story).

[**Hello, creepy Google searchers! WRONG BLOG!]

And I tried to figure out what the glowing lingerie was advertising. If I bought that lingerie, was it promising me that when I put it on I would then GLOW WITH BEAMS OF BRIGHT INTENSITY, knocking James clear onto the floor several feet away just by my raw, glowing, incandescent power? And would I want that?

(Probably not. So we kept walking.)

You also missed my helping some of my native-Chinese-speaking girlfriends study for their college English exams. Poor souls.

Can I just say that it is quite obvious to me that these English textbooks here in China aren't written by native English speakers? I mean - I ask you, my friends - if YOU came across a (college!) textbook with the sorts of questions like this fill-in-the-blank:

"___________________ who had been prisoned for seven years."

what would YOU say or think?

I mean, it's really not helpful when my grammar-loving self starts going off about how THERE'S NO SUCH WORD AS "PRISONED" FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHO WRITES THESE THINGS, because if one starts arguing with the textbook writers then where do we go from there?

What else.

Oh, I also may have stood thoughfully in front of another store, gazing at Mickey in his Chinese finery:

And Minnie in *her* Chinese finery:

And I did my best to try to estimate, off the top of my head, the potential likelihood that the Disney Corporation got even one single iota of monetary compensation for not only those cheery representations of cartoon-y glee but also all of the others (backpacks, shirts) I see every day around here.

(If it's anything like the Apple Store That Isn't A Real Apple Store, probably not too high.)

Whatever. Disney ain't hurting for dough, right?

Posted on 03/08/2012 at 03:11 AM in Chengdu, China, Great Blog Deletion of 2012, Kill Me Now, People Are Insane, Tigers & State Blogging Issues | Permalink

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

We should all glow brightly from the inside! :) Unless it is the result of radiation, in which case, that would be bad.

And "[**Hello, creepy Google searchers! WRONG BLOG!]" still cracks me up!

Posted by: Digger | 03/08/2012 at 04:22 AM

Is that why this Chinese Mickey Mouse looks angry? Coz he aint gettin him's royalties N who carez coz dem English speakin round eyes aint got no good grammar skillz to teach dem? (Not you Kolbi- I mean da White Man)

Posted by: Sam | 03/08/2012 at 05:11 AM

Sorry - I got carried away. Homeschooling my 8 yr old in grammar and reading and I might as well be hitting myself in the head with a hammer! Lil Miss thinks she already KNOWS everything and that this is too boring. One more cartoon of Curious George and I am going to stuff that MONKEY or poison his banana!!!
I'm in the weeds Girlfriend!

Posted by: Sam | 03/08/2012 at 05:16 AM

Oh, Kolbi! Love the blog! Maybe Mickey looks pissed because he wanted to glow from the inside out too. :)

Posted by: Melissa | 03/08/2012 at 05:25 AM

Hi! I'm Mel from Brand New Day. Tried to email you but it failed. (no BND does not exist anymore!) ANYway, wanted to talk to you about the homeschool biz. Drop me a line if you can. I'm entering my contact below on your comment board. thanks much! Melissa

Posted by: Melissa Vaillancourt | 03/08/2012 at 10:38 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

James loves me. And our sons. And his job. But not having his picture taken. In 2011 he finished up over a year and half of training, and in the fall of 2011 we got to our first overseas post - Chengdu, China!