Shopping Adventures

For those of you who have asked, Frannie is in 9 months to 12 months size and her shoe size was way off. Not one of the shoes we brought with us fit her (the shoes were too big by about 2 or 3 sizes). She was just sitting here with me at the computer, but I had to put her down, she saw me typing and wanted to try. She's a fast learner. Kevin taught her the word BOOK (one of her favorite things) and she has said it now about 10 times.

Frannie a/k/a Frances a/k/a Emma a/k/a Rui Zhen a/k/a Mer Mer (?) and sometimes Brini is such a little trooper. She has been put into such unknown situations with these two weird-looking, weird-sounding people and yet she'll toddle right over to Kevin when he's on the floor, makes a 180 and plop right in his lap. She'll stretch her arms up to us to be picked up and she started to touch our arms and hands and hold us around the neck. Other than Gotcha Day, she has not cried once -- only a whimper -- and she's sleeping 9-10 hours solid every night. Yesterday at lunch the restaurant had a high chair for her (a first) so I put her next to me, scooted it close and started to get a bib when her lower lip started to quiver and her eyes got red, but she didn't make a sound. I took her out and fed her on my lap as usual and she was happy as a clam.

The other day we bought a facial cleanser/exfoliating gel product from a market. That night I used it and noticed the clear gel wasn't really exfoliating per se, it was more like sticking, akin to super glue on all my facial parts that have tiny little hairs like around my jaw-line. I scrubbed and scrubbed with a face cloth and I finally had to pluck the glue balls from my face with a tweezer. Red and blotchy-faced I went to bed thinking of the trip to Italy with Nicole and the "Ben Gay" incident. We had walked all over Rome for days and then around Florence and by the end of Day 4 or so my feet were swollen and sore. We stopped into a Farmacia to find something like Ben Gay for some sort of relief. The barely-English-speaking pharmacist said "Ah si!" and brought out a tube of something that looked like a prescription cream and before bed that night I applied this foreign cream liberally all over my feet. Within about 10 minutes my entire face had broken out in a sweat and I was hopping around the room like there were hot coals in the room. I washed and scrubbed and washed again, but it did no good! After about 30 minutes of agony I tried baby powder, which gave me some relief. Even a day or two later, whenever my hiking boot-clad feet would get warm, I continued to feel this warming sensation. I seriously considered taking that tube back to the U.S. to have it chemically analyzed. I was sure it was sulfuric acid or nitric acid (or paint remover) or.... Moral of the story, I guess.... don't forget your American crap which is better than unknown foreign crap.

An international incident broke out yesterday at the Muslim Market in Xi'an due to an argument over a cheap suitcase. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. We were all walking down a narrow lane in the market with cheap goods on all sides. A row of suitcases lined one side of the "alley." When Kevin passed a Chinese woman, right next to the suitcases, one of them knocked over a suitcase. The Chinese lady kept walking fast in the other direction. The saleslady started to yell at Kevin to pick it up and she pointed out a scratch which could not have happened from just falling over. She screamed and Kevin screamed back and next thing you know, we were surrounded by other salespeople yelling and the saleslady started to push Kevin! They threatened to call the Police and we said OK, sure. Poor Sally -- she was so upset. Kevin offered to buy her cheap luggage for 40 yuan and she yelled that she paid 60 for it. We finally gave her the money and Kevin then put his fist through the front of the suitcase (easily) because it was thin plastic and he placed the luggage where it had fallen and left the area as quickly as possible! Sally was pretty shaken up! But we got some good bargains from the Muslims while we were there! We are banned from the market for life!

Kevin's Two Cents' Worth
In Beijing, the Hory (Holy) Cow! Institute is investigating a cheeseburger sighting that is leaving researchers baffled. Room service in the Shangri La Golden Flower Hotel in the Shaanxi Province delivered this 18 lb. slab to the Fay room late on Wednesday night. Exclaimed young Frannie Fay (F squared) "that thing is bigger than Barry Bonds' head!" Balco officials declined to comment.