Sunday Shopping!

As you probably guessed from my last post, Saturday was a bit of a write off.  Ryan and I had a nap in the afternoon and although he didn't throw up anymore, he had a fever when we woke up.  When Tim and Nick got home we watched Tangled then Ryan asked if Nick and I would play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii.  Since he wasn't feeling well I thought we had better oblige him and try to finish the game by beating Bowser and World 8.  The funny thing is, there are a couple parts that scare him so he had to keep running back and forth to the bedroom so he wouldn't have to see it.  It took some time but we finally made it through the last castle, defeated the evil Bowser and saved Princess Peach.  How exciting!  We sat and watched as the credits rolled through, thoroughly pleased with ourselves, until the map showed up revealing that there is a secret World 9.  Ah, crap!  It looks like we have some more work ahead of us.

In the middle of the playing, Jessica sent me a lovely text requesting my company for lunch and shopping on Sunday.  My response, "Yes!  Please!".  We finally got the kids to bed around 10:30 and I spent the next two and a half hours downloading and creating ringtones for my iPhone - a great use of my time!  I am really enjoying my new bit of technology and figured that since I could, I should assign any person that calls or texts me on a regular basis, their very own tone or song.  I'm such a dork.

Today I got to sleep in for a while and finally dragged my butt out of bed just before ten so I could get ready to go with Jessica.  When she picked me up we headed for "Itch ee a" (IKEA - here I thought they were pronouncing it Icky A).  It was really busy there today and I was lucky enough to be present while Jessica experienced a first.  She finally got the chance to watch a woman hold her daughter over a garbage can, right in the middle of the IKEA showroom, so she could pee in it.  Luckily for everyone this woman was more experienced than the man I watched do this in a food court.  Almost all the pee made it into the can instead of sprinkling on the top and sides or all over the floor.  Another first, I think, was me making it through IKEA without buying anything - including chocolate bars.  I also got to see how to go about getting things delivered from the store as Jessica has done it before and did it again today.  I may never do this but it's nice to know how in case I want to.  The amazing thing is, for about $22 they will deliver your purchases and assemble them in record time.  Awesome!

Our IKEA shopping made us hungry so from here we crossed town to the Thai restaurant that Tim and I really enjoy.  Jessica had never been there but had been wanting to go since she loves Thai food.  As usual the place did not disappoint, especially with the bottle of red wine we shared!  Neither of us drink very often or very much so by the time we finished we were feeling pretty tipsy.  We got into her van and Jo Yo, her driver, wasn't quite sure what to think of our giggling.  I looked up "wine" on my translator and showed it to him so he would understand.  He just nodded and laughed.  (You were surprised that I didn't already know Chinese word for wine, weren't you?  I did once, I just forgot it.)

Our plan had been to go to the furniture market that we took Mom to when she was here visiting but when we asked Jo Yo to go there, he said it would be closed.  Bu hao!  I guess we spent too much time on lunch and wine.  Since we couldn't shop there we asked him to take us to Zhong Jie so we could roam around the streets.  He drove for a bit and as he did we came to the conclusion that we didn't have time to go there as well as get take out for supper from the Chinese restaurant beside Michelin (for all the boys of course!).  So, we altered our plans and Jo Yo had to make a u-turn then call Tian Ye to find out where the restaurant we wanted to go to was located.  When I told him to go to Michelin for food he just looked confused, especially since we had just eaten and there must be about a thousand restaurants between where we were and our homes.  But, when you find a place that's tasty and the people know you enough to understand your limited Chinese, you go the extra mile to get their food.  I explained who the food was for and he understood  but I'm pretty sure he thinks we're a little crazy.  That's okay.  It was fun day and just what I needed to keep me sane for another week.  We got our take out with very little fuss and headed home.

Tonight we have seen lots of fireworks from our windows.  The holidays for the Chinese New Year are almost over (I believe tomorrow is the last day) and people are doing lots of final celebrations.  It has been quite enjoyable and next year we should get to experience even more of it.

As of yet we have no plans for the week, aside from cleaning up our dumping ground office.  After that, the week is our oyster.  We'll see what we can come up with!