Nothing to read here

I am still sick. I had a fever last night. Consequently, I don't feel much like blogging today.

Fortunately, my latest post is up at Inspired Bliss - so you still have something to read today.

Hopefully I'll be feeling better by Monday. Have a good weekend!

Same Kind of Different as Me

Cover via Amazon
I just finished reading Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, and I was blown away. From the first page, the story captivated me. Both stories. You see, Ron and Denver started out in two very different places in their lives. And when their stories come together, truly amazing things start to happen.

This true story is a book that will challenge you to see people in a new way. It is both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. And it will make you believe in miracles. I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks one person can't make a difference, to anyone whose life hasn't gone exactly the way they wanted it to, and to anyone who needs a faith lift. I promise you, you'll never be the same.

Movie Monday

This Movie Monday I want to talk about some really BAD movies I watched this weekend. We spent the whole weekend sick in bed, so we had plenty of movie-watching time. I highly recommend that you SKIP the following films.

The City of Ember - While very family-friendly, nothing much really happened in this movie. Right about the time I thought they were finally going to a have a good, rollicking adventure, the movie ended. It takes so much time setting up the background and introducing the characters that there's no time left for the interesting stuff. Also, a lot of things go totally unexplained. One character asks how the bugs and moles got so large, and then they just never tell you. Overall, I was bored.

The Invisible - This is supposed to be a suspense/action movie, a race-against-the-clock sort of a deal. A teenager is going to die if they don't find him quickly enough. So why do they waste so much time doing almost nothing? Time drags on and on, and you just know in real life the kid would be dead. And then there's a sort of weird love story angle that never really pans out. I just kept yelling, "Come on!" Very hard to watch.

The Messengers - Who exactly are the messengers? They never tell you. This scary movie has its share of startle-you-out-of-your-seat moments, but other than that it's pretty lame. They never really explain how the bad guy doesn't happen to know he's the bad guy (until it's convenient to the plot for him to "remember"). The teenage girl is just stupid. I mean, I'd move into a tent in the back yard rather than go back into that house again. And if the ghosts were after the bad guy, why did they keep attacking the innocent family? Totally dumb movie.

The Game Plan - Another movie about a tough guy man's man who finds out he has a little daughter and by the end of the movie he's a cute, squishy, ballet-dancing, fingernail-painting fool. One or two cute scenes surrounded by hours of boredom.

Photo tag

Karmyn has tagged me with a photo meme. Here are the rules:
1.Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.

2.Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.

3.Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.

4.Tag 6 other peoples that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

When I went to my sixth folder, I found nothing but more folders (yes, I am obsessive about organizing my photos). So I went to the sixth folder and then found the sixth picture there. Here it is:This is a picture of my oldest son looking out the open doorway on the end of our house. We have since installed a deck outside that door. Interesting side note: our neighbors' cat used to climb up that ladder to get into the house.

Now, since Karmyn thought this would be a good chance for me to share more China photos, I hate to disappoint, so here's a China pic for you:
We saw this on the sides of all the public trash cans on Mt. Tai. If anyone knows what the Chinese actually says, I'd love to know. I'm relatively sure it's not an invitation to live in the garbage can. But then, when you've got such a huge population, maybe this is free public housing.

LOST returns!

I have to say, in five years of LOST season premieres, last night's was my favorite. I think what I really liked about it was that for the first time we're really starting to get answers about the island and what's happening on it. I feel like we just got to the top of the first giant hill on a roller coaster, crested the top, and went speeding down into the part where all the fun happens.

Which is not to say there haven't been many important and memorable events so far. But I think by the time season six ends and we pull into the station, we will look back and say that the last two seasons are what really made the show great.

I really want to go into more detail, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Just know that it's not too late: you can still go rent or buy the first four seasons. I'm telling you, this is one of the greatest shows that has ever been or is likely to be.

A picture's worth a thousand words

Does this freak anyone else out???

This is very taxing

Yesterday morning, we sold one of our four rental units. And we sold it for about 50% more than we paid for it. Not bad.

Unfortunately, most of that will go to pay capital gains taxes. We don't know for sure how much the federal tax will be. The new administration promised to raise it to at least 20%. Yes, we who make WAY WAY less than $250,000 a year (even with this sale) will have a tax increase. At least that's what we've been promised.

The good news is we won't have to pay that for a year. So we can stick it in an interest-bearing account. And then, of course, pay tax on the interest as well.

I'm sorry. This time of year we get our copy of Tax Cut and start working on our tax return. And every year I get more and more annoyed. The only thing worse than having to pay all these taxes is having to put in so much WORK to do it. And now I have to do this year's taxes at the same time so I can estimate how much money to put aside.

I'm probably going to be in a very bad mood come April 15.

Extreme Makeover: Tax Edition

Last night's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition took place in Quincy Township, PA, which is only five minutes up the road from us. I actually saw a friend of ours from church on there. The company he works for was hired to haul away the trash from the demolition.

Normally I don't watch that show, but it was kind of cool to hear all those central PA accents. The bad part was that I started thinking about this poor family's financial situation and I just got scared for them.

See, in PA we have taxes - lots of them. There are the state taxes, the local taxes, and the township taxes. And some of those are based on property value. I started to wonder how these people, who clearly have almost no money, are going to afford the taxes for their amazing new house. And will they have to pay federal income tax on the value of all the stuff they were given? Like that new car?

And then there are the utility bills. These people had no heat or air conditioning before. Now they have both, which is wonderful, but I don't know if they've thought about the utility bills. Last month at our rental house, which is vacant, we left a little portable heater running in the basement to keep the pipes from freezing. Nothing else in the house was on. The electric bill was $90.

I've heard before of people who got these makeovers losing their house because they couldn't afford the taxes. Does anyone know if ABC cares? I mean, if they got the crowd of 4000 people to each give one dollar to the family, that would cover at least some of the taxes. Do they bother? Do they even check the family's finances to see if they can afford the bills they'll have?

I hope I don't see this family in the local paper a year from now. Or an ad announcing a tax sale on their lovely new house.

Why I will one day be a good grandmother

Last week it was too much water, this week it was too little. Our other tenant called last evening and said they had no water. So we spent the evening running to the store and then sitting at her house while Hubby fixed the water.

This couple has a new baby, only two months old, and what a doll he is! I held him for the longest time and he just grinned and gurgled at me. My favorite thing was that I could hand him back to his mom when he got fussy. Yeah, I don't miss the infant days. A lot of women might have gotten baby fever from being that close to a sweet little bundle like him, but not me! I just kept thinking better her than me!

Somebody asked the other day if we were going to try for a girl (one of the most annoying questions in the world, by the way). My standard answer is that if someone else wants to be pregnant this time, I'll be happy to try for a girl. I'm going to add to that. She also has to arrive sometime after her fifth birthday. I'm not exactly fond of the toddler years, either.

I think one day I'll make a really good grandmother. When I can cuddle and love on the babies and then hand them back to their mothers. That sounds good to me.

Book review - Field of Blood

I just finished reading Field of Blood by Eric Wilson, and let me tell you, the worst thing about it is that it ENDS and I have to wait until next summer to read the second book in the series!

Having always been partial to vampire stories, I eagerly dove into Wilson's tale of a group of undead who arise from the Akeldama, the very place where Judas hung himself. These are not the "good" vampires of most recent literature, but evil monsters, terrifying in their calculated treachery. I didn't know when I started how a vampire novel could also be a Christian novel, but Wilson creates a world where everything that happens is logical, reasonable - and horrifying.

Not only is the story engaging, but Wilson's writing is beautiful, the descriptions and dialog bringing you so completely into the world he's created that you almost feel like you've been there. The character of Gina is wonderfully complex and totally believable. And there are certain events in the novel that will literally make you gasp out loud.

If you like ghost stories and horror tales, or epic battles between good and evil, I highly recommend Field of Blood. I can't wait to sink my teeth into the second volume in this series.

You named your baby WHAT?

I saw a flurry of talk on Twitter yesterday about strange baby names given by celebrities to their poor unsuspecting offspring. I don't think Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell's names for their twin daughters are all that odd - Dolly and Charlie. At least those are real names that other people have named their children in the past. But some of these others...

As someone who grew up with a strange name (yes, in the '70s and '80s it was nearly impossible to find another Jana), let me tell you what these poor children are in for. First, if they have one of those names with thirty letters, they will have to learn to spell it. For me, that wasn't so much an issue. Then, for the rest of their lives they will have to spell it for other people. Can you imagine?

I knew someone (not a celebrity) who gave her daughter the first name Sarajane. For the rest of this little girl's life, she's going to have to say this: "It's Sarajane, all one word, no H." Why would you do this to your child?

Then there are the laugh-invoking names. "Hi, my name is Pilot." Say what? This kid is going to grow up with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. Don't think Dweezil and Moon Unit didn't hold a long grudge against their parents, either.

I've really grown to love my name since becoming an adult. It's still relatively unique, and even though I go through the spelling thing every time, at least it's short.

So, what's the wackiest name you've ever heard someone give their child?

Water everywhere

As I was making dinner last night, I got a call from our tenant who lives an hour away. Her basement was flooded. So we packed up the kids and headed out, stopping for subs on the way.

Sure enough, she had about an inch of water, as did the adjoining house. That's right, the adjoining house which is now under contract, to be closed on in two weeks. We just found out Monday that the sump pump there was broken. But the buyer didn't want us to fix it. Guess what? We had to. There's now a new sump pump, and we have a fan running to dry out the basement.

On the way home, we dropped off an eviction warning at another tenant's house. Rent is due before the 5th and we don't have it yet. Normally, I'd call and find out why not, but these people have a bad record with us and I've had it. They can pay up or get out.

We got home at 12:30 a.m. Just another fun day in the life of a landlord!

Good to be home

Yes, we made it back home. The day after we got here, we went to my grandmother's for Christmas and didn't get home until Saturday night. And I've been trying to recover from the whole trip ever since. Do you realize I was away from home more than a month?

We had an interesting last week in China. First Hubby got sick, then I got it. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say I spent a lot of time in the bathroom. We went to the pharmacy, where I was given a Chinese herbal remedy. It actually worked really well, but I still didn't feel totally better until after we got home.

Our final day in Beijing just happened to be the coldest day they've had in 57 years - only 14 during the day, and the wind was blowing about 40-50 mph. To say it was cold would be like saying the surface of the sun is a little warm. I couldn't feel my fingers after a while. But, loyal readers, I will brave any extremity for a chance to see new things, and here is what I saw that day:This is the Temple of Heaven, the place where the emperors came to offer sacrifices for a good harvest. This is some of the interior. It's hard to get a good picture because you can't go inside. You can see all the brilliant colors, though. The whole place had been refurbished in 2005, so it was very vibrant.
Then, after warming up inside for the most of the afternoon, we ventured out to see the Olympic park area. And if I had thought it was cold that afternoon, it was like a sauna compared to after the sun went down. It was worth it though, to see everything lit up at night.
Pretty cool, huh? They had hundreds of Christmas trees lining the plaza between the two buildings, which really made for a spectacular sight.

And so, we are home once again. It was the trip of a lifetime and even though I missed home terribly, I'm so very glad I went!

Confucius say, "Wise man stay at sea level."

After walking around the highest point of Mt. Tai and admiring the view, we began our descent back to the cable car station. We went down a different way than we came up. One of the temples we passed on the way down was called the Confucius Temple. Confucius wrote about this mountain and apparently climbed it more than once, long before there were buses or cable cars. And I thought Confucius was supposed to be wise!The guys coming down those steps were Indonesian tourists with a Chinese friend of theirs, who were all speaking English to each other. We chatted with them a bit on the way down the many, many steps. We went through several gates on the way down. Each of them has an interesting name, but you pretty much have to know Chinese to read them. Here is one of them.You can also see some of the many shops over on the right. They sold everything from souvenirs to hot tea and noodles. The hot souvenir seemed to be rocks. Rocks of all sizes, engraved with Chinese characters.

Now, you might remember that I said Hubby climbed this mountain at a previous time. He started at a little after midnight and got to the top in time to see the sunrise, which is a big deal. Most Chinese people aspire to one day watch the sunrise from Mt. Tai, or so the literature tells me. Anyway, here's just a small portion of what he climbed to accomplish this task:You can see why I was all for the bus and cable car idea! So, at long last, our day on the mountain was complete. We headed back to the cable cars, just in time to be treated to a spectacular sunset.And so concludes my day on Mt. Tai, chief among the five sacred mountains of China.

This afternoon, we're leaving Tai'an to go back to Beijing, where I will catch my flight home on Monday. We plan to do more sightseeing over the weekend, and hopefully I can get online at our new hotel and share some more pics!

Tai'm and Tai'm again

So, to continue the story of Mt. Tai...

You would think that once you had ridden a bus and a cable car, you would actually be at the top of the mountain. And while it's true that you are, this particular mountain has many small peaks, and each peak has a structure on it. And between these peaks, there are more steps. So many more steps. Do you see how happy I look in this picture? That is because I did not yet know about the steps.We went up these steps:And we came to an area with many large engraved stones, where emperors carved messages into the mountain and offered sacrifices to it.Then we went up more steps, through one of the temples. Many of the small structures on the mountain are temples, each of which has a fire burning so that people can light large incense sticks and leave them there to burn. Ironically, there are also "No Smoking" signs everywhere.

Finally, we arrived at the highest point of the mountain, and also the highest temple. The 1545 on the sign is meters, so that's over 4600 feet. It was a little chilly up there, too.
Hubby said when he was here before, the temple was really crowded. On the day we were there, only a few people were there. This is a picture of the altar with the incense burning. Notice all the padlocks on the fence behind it. Chinese couples have their names engraved on these, and then leave them here as a symbol of their eternal love. Or something like that.The view wasn't bad from up there, either, although it would have been better on a clear day.
And because I have so many more pictures to share, I will save the story of the trek downward for another day!

Fit to be Tai'ed

Sunday, the weather was supposed to be clear, so we made plans to go to the top of Mt. Tai. The hotel we're staying in sits right at the base of the foothills of this mountain. Now, if you'd like more information about the mountain and its importance in Chinese culture, you can go here. Go ahead, I'll wait......

Okay, so we set out about 9 a.m. to climb the bottom part of the mountain. We planned to climb as far as the cable car, and then take that to the top. Unfortunately, out of all the ways up the mountain, we seem to have chosen the wrong one, because we never got to the cable cars along the path we took. On the bright side, I'm pretty sure we saw parts of the mountain that most tourists never see.This place, for instance, seemed to be all new buildings. People were still working on finishing the interiors of them. We climbed a little higher than this before finding some very nice people who, while they didn't speak English, were nevertheless able to communicate to us that we were in the totally wrong place.

So back down the mountain we climbed. We took a cab back to the hotel so we could get the ATM card, so we could get more money, so we could take a bus to the cable cars. We also ate lunch because by then it was past noon. So, greatly refreshed, we headed out again.

This time, we took the bus to the mid-point of the mountain. Here is a view out of the bus window:The ride to the cable car took about 15 minutes. We got off in a little area with lots of shops and walked up the path (more climbing!) to the cable car station. The ride up the side of the mountain took another 10 minutes or so, and we emerged on the summit of Mt. Tai!
And now this post is already too long, so I shall continue my tale of adventure tomorrow!

Shopping in the city

Yesterday was so much fun! I went with Robin, the wife of a guy Hubby works with, to the city of Jinan, which is the capital of this province (I think I got that right). It's a much bigger city than Taian. We met up with a couple of other ladies, Ella and Shirley. Shirley speaks Chinese, so she was able to help us when we got to the market.

The market (I think it was called New World Market) is a giant building filled top to bottom with little stalls selling everything from cheap toys and loose tea leaves to candy and clothing. In fact, the entire second floor is a maze of clothing stalls. Many of them were pre-made, off-the-rack clothes, but many more were stalls selling fabric. When you find a fabric you like, you show it to the tailor. Then you choose the style of garment you want, either from one of the displayed items or by bringing a picture to show him. Then they measure you and give you a time to pick up your custom-made garment.

Shirley told me a friend of hers got an entire suit custom-made for about $75! And these fabrics - you wouldn't believe how gorgeous! They had everything from silk to wool, with the most beautiful patterns and designs. I would have loved to have a skirt made from several of the different materials I saw, but I didn't have that much money with me and in a place like that, there's no such thing as credit cards.

I did find a beautiful off-the-rack skirt that just screamed "Take me home!". The lady wanted 120 Rmb for it, but that would have been all my money. She even told Shirley they don't bargain there. But when I started to walk away, she gave it to me for 100. That's about $15. You could never find a skirt that nice for $15 at home.

After lunch, we went to another market, which was more like a giant flea market. It had a roof, but was open to the outside. This place was so huge, we only saw a tiny fraction of it in the hour we were there. They had every type of clothing you can imagine. Some of it looked to be of very good quality, but much of it looked about as cheap as the prices. I didn't buy anything, but I did see a couple of things that looked nice. After a while, we were pretty tired and headed back to Taian.

I had a lot of fun and actually wouldn't mind doing it again next week, armed with more money this time. Of course, I haven't shopped around here yet, so maybe there are equally great deals waiting for me in the local shops. I'll let you know!

Chillin' in China

The past two days, I have just been relaxing. Really, the whole reason I came on this trip was to relax. Obviously I want to see stuff while I'm here, but there's not much to see while Hubby's at work. Tomorrow I'm going to the city of Jinan with the wife of a guy Hubby works with. She has a friend who speaks Chinese and is going to take us shopping.

Now, I promised I'd talk about the train. We left from the new Beijing South train station. Here's a picture of it:Doesn't it look like a giant spaceship that landed in the middle of the city? It's really nice inside, too. And the train was very comfortable. We had first class tickets, which meant more space and seats that leaned back - you can kind of see them in the picture above. Starting out from Beijing, we were traveling at something like 270 km/hr. I'll let you do that math, but that's pretty fast. The speed varied, though. It seemed like most of the trip we were going somewhere around 160 km/hr, slower when we got near towns. It took 3 1/2 hours to get to Taian from Beijing.

I also promised I'd talk about toilets. Feel free to stop reading here. Hubby had warned me, but when you gotta go, you gotta go. Most public toilets here are odd. (By the way, I've never seen so many public toilet signs in a city. Almost every block, there's a sign.) Imagine a toilet bowl mounted in the floor, with treads on either side to keep your feet from slipping. You just squat down over it. There is usually no paper, and if there is, you put it in a little trash can after using it, not in the bowl. Even on a moving train, this is the type of toilet I had to use. It's... different.

In the hotel, of course, we have a normal toilet, with paper and everything. Some restaurants also have normal toilets. But in general, if we're out and about I try to avoid going. I guess tomorrow in the city I won't have a choice. Wish me luck!

More details

Let me tell you about my trip so far. We flew from Newark, NJ for about 13 hours, up over the North Pole and across Siberia and Mongolia to Beijing. I didn't see any sign of civilization until we were over China. Everything up until then had a layer of snow and ice. It was very beautiful, though. I think I got some good video, but here is a picture of a frozen river in the distance.I didn't get any shots of the mountains coming in over Beijing because we were supposed to put away all electronic devices, but I think I'll try to get some on the way home.

The first thing I noticed in the airport was the smell of cigarette smoke. You don't usually smell that in US airports. Well, I've found that people here smoke a lot. I had to leave breakfast just now because someone came in and started smoking. Outside it's not so bad, though. Amusingly enough, there were No Smoking signs on the Great Wall. And even in non-smoking rooms and "non-smoking" sections of restaurants, ashtrays and matches are still provided.

Beijing is a huge city. Not just big, but huge. Usually I can get a feel for a place if I have a map and a couple of day, but I was totally lost there the whole time. We just put ourselves at the mercy of the cab drivers. I think we only got ripped off once. I think. Someone Hubby knew from work had a friend in Beijing who was nice enough to show us around Friday night and Saturday morning. He bought our tickets to the Forbidden City, rented the audio tour guides for us, and found us the bus to the Great Wall. His name was Henry. It seems like most people we've met (maybe all) have an English name that they use, kind of like I was Juana in Spanish class. I guess they find it easier.

Friday night we tried to go to two different bar/restaurants for dinner, but they were both full - no tables at all. So we walked down the street and saw "Peppe's Pizza" up on the second floor of a building. We went there. The menu told the story of the restaurant: an American couple from Connecticut moved to Norway and started a pizza shop, and somehow now there's a branch in Beijing. So we ate American-inspired Italian food from a Norwegian restaurant in China. Now that's what I call multicultural! Incidentally, the pizza here doesn't have tomato sauce, just cheese and toppings. It was really good.

Saturday I already told you about, briefly. I will add that I have rarely seen so many people in one place in my life. Maybe at Disney World, but that's about it. Everywhere we went in the Forbidden City, you had to push and shove to get up where you could see inside the buildings. And then you had about three seconds before someone shoved you out of the way.

I think tomorrow I will tell you about the train and the toilets. You won't want to miss this.