Finally got off of the couch and rode my bike 30km tonight. I have been so slack on the exercise, and have had two sets of friends in town so eating a ton and drinking a lot of beer. Felt good to get moving – although I didn’t push myself very hard. It started raining [...]

This morning Thao and I went and looked at the new house I mentioned yesterday.  Thao didn’t like the landlord – he was very stingy and wouldn’t agree to do anything that she asked him to do – like buy a gas stove (about $60) for the kitchen, put in an additional air conditioner, etc.  [...]

Is there anything in the world happier than a freshly-bathed dog? You be the judge: That’s Spartacus, my friends Aaron and Mirjam’s dog. Hilarious! Thanks guys! You made Thao and me laugh!

Wow, that was fast. My current lease expires on May 31st, and Thao and I have been thinking about moving in together after that. We need a bigger place if we’re going to live together. Anyway, this morning my Vietnamese teacher co Phuc told me that one of her students had looked at a house [...]

That’s the awesome chocolate cake Thao bought me for my birthday back on the 17th. It was seriously the best cake I’ve ever tasted – chocolate cake with a layer of chocolate mousse and covered in chocolate frosting. I literally ate the whole thing – by myself – in 3 days. Is it bad to [...]

My nephew, Big O, is running in a fun run and I am sponsoring him to the tune of $1 per lap. There is a prize for the kid who gets a sponsorship from the most distant location – we figure O has this one locked up! I printed up a fake check so he [...]

This was the first time Thao had ever been to a beach with big waves. We borrowed a life preserver for her from the jetski company and she went at it in the surf while the old man rested: She really enjoyed herself.

Last week a former colleague of mine from Atlanta was in town with his two sons, and they had the chance to visit a coffee factory near Saigon and invited me along. It was a big factory – turned out to be the largest privately-owned coffee exporter in Vietnam, and the second largest coffee exporter [...]

If it isn’t clear what happens at the end, I sneak up behind Thao and push her down in the surf. Was almost a bad move because as she was going down she knocked the camera out of my hand and I barely caught it in one hand before it hit the water.

Thao and I in front of our hotel, the Hoi An Pacific, which was very nice and had a great pool: Chillin’ at a wine bar in downtown Hoi An: Thao and her bike, waiting out the rain under a tarp: The jetskis – one of which we rented: Thao on the beach: Looking out [...]