I’m in denial!

Here’s another one – I’m not sure where this one fits in the mix – I haven’t watched them all yet:

Thao and I had a nice day.  We went to my favorite Indian restaurant for lunch – she doesn’t really like Indian but she tried the Tandoori chicken and liked it okay – at least she said she did.  After that, we went and bought some DVDs – 8 of them – for under $6.  Then we went to a computer store.  Her brother wants to buy one for his children – but we didn’t buy one today.  Thao will go back with a friend of hers from work who is familiar with the Vietnamese brands, etc.  I had no idea.  Then we stopped by my friend Tim’s office and talked to him for a while.  After that, we were on our way home when it started pouring rain so we stopped at Gloria Jean’s coffee and had some coffee.  (Please don’t ask me wasn’t I supposed to quit drinking coffee.  I am weak.)  The rain lightened up for a while so we made a dash for home but the skies opened up on us again and we got soaked on the way home.  We watched a movie – The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and some dude.  Not really my kind of film but actually kind of entertaining and Thao liked it. Then I went for my run and got back a few minutes ago.

Everything’s good here – I’m settled into my routine for the semester and enjoying it.  I’ve got two commercial law classes and one negotiating transnational agreements class.  The negotiations class is really fun – we do a lot of role-playing exercises where the students actually negotiate real scenarios and they really get into it and argue them out very thoroughly.  I’m impressed.

Thao is doing well.  She’s sitting here watching a Vietnamese soap opera of some sort while I surf the internet and realize that it’s time for us to get moving – just before 11am on Saturday morning.

I slept for about 11 hours last night.  Went out for beers on Thursday night with a friend and was tired all day yesteday.  Last night we went to dinner, went to the Master’s Cup cafe for Thao to practice her English, then came home and watched Silence of the Lambs.  Damn I didn’t realize how long ago that movie came out – Jodie Foster looked like a child!  We are all getting old.

Anyway, nothing at all on the agenda today.  Not sure what we will do.  Tomorrow I will have to work a little bit – the negotiations class does take some preparing for, and I usually knock that out on Sunday so I won’t be so pressed on Monday and Tuesday.

I have a cool trip coming up in a couple of weeks – my buddy Anton is getting married on August 1st, and on the weekend of July 24 – 27th, a bunch of us are going away for his bachelor party weekend.  We fly from Saigon to Dalat, then spend all day rafting and biking from Dalat (which is in the highlands) down to Nha Trang on the coast.  Then spend the weekend in Nha Trang.  I went to Nha Trang in 2001 when I was backpacking around, but haven’t been back since.  Should be a fun weekend.

What else?  Let’s see.  I woke up last week to find out that Michael Jackson had died.  Have any of you heard about that?  I’m sure it did not get much media play in the U.S.  Good lord.  Anyway, today I woke up to the news that Sarah Palin had resigned as the governor of Alaska.  Weird.  Makes no sense to me.  If she wants to run for president in 2012, it seems like remaining governor and having that public platform until at least the end of 2010 would have been a better move.  Oh well, I am sure that many Alaskans are breathing a sign of relief.  McCain’s pick of her as VP looks worse and worse as time goes on.  Not that there was anyone he could have picked that would have allowed him to beat Obama – but I don’t think she helped.

I also noticed the following little jewel earlier this morning – if you ever had any doubt that the airlines don’t give a damn about their customers, this should dispel it immediately:

It’s like they’ve decided to conduct an experiment to see how shitty an experience they can make flying while still staying in business.  They will probably be the next industry nationalized by the government.

I played a little COD4 with my buddy James last night.  He and his wife Erin are off to Peru and Argentina for two weeks effective today.  Sounds like a great trip they have planned.  I hope their dog has not gotten to James’ passport recently!  Ha!

Okay, I’m out.  Happy 4th of July to everyone!  And on that note:

I’m also off of the coffee.  (Talk about the story of my life.)  I haven’t had any for two days now – although I’m filling the gap nicely with tea and diet coke.  (At least it’s diet and not regular.)

Had a nice weekend.  Not up to much yesterday.  We went out for breakfast, then to the grocery store – which we were in dire need of doing.  Then we came home and straightened up the apartment because our old maid from our last apartment – chi Mao – was coming to check it out and see if she wanted to continue working for us.  She will start next Wednesday – which is nice.  Thao and I have been doing a pretty good job keeping it straight and clean, but the ironing has taken a hit.

Last night was interesting.  Thao has been going to this cafe called Master’s Cup to practice her English.  It’s a cafe owned by some foreigners and it is known to be a place for foreigners and Vietnamese to meet to talk in English.  My Vietnamese teacher, co Phuc, told me about it, and I told Thao about it.  I had not been there yet, so last night we went there together.  It was fun.  There were about 12 or 15 Vietnamese in the room we were in, and we sat a a big table and talked about various things.  A few other foreigners were in and out during the two or so hours we were there.  I think it’s a good place for Thao to go and practice her English.  And I actually enjoyed talking with the Vietnamese people there.  I’m encouraging Thao to go there at least a couple of times a week – and I’ll try to swing by there with her from time to time myself.

Today Thao got up and went to church and I went to work and worked most of the day – home around 4pm.  I am teaching this new Negotiating Transnational Agreements class, and it requires some work to prepare for.  My ComLaw classes basically take care of themselves now, which is very nice.