Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Neighborhood, fear not. Our new fence is on the way.

Overheard

Lately Sophie and I have been watching the "Elmo goes to the potty" video on youtube to encourage her to kick the diaper habit once and for all. The video has a song that the dad sings to baby Elmo. Yesterday Sophie and I were walking by Ethan and Emma in the hallway and I sang the song but changed the words slightly to "It's Potty time! You can do it Ethan!" (Instead of "You can do it Elmo!")

When Ethan and Emma walked about 10 feet past me Ethan turned to Emma and said "THAT was awkward."

Overheard

ME: Hey Sophie let's go to the ice cream store.

SOPHIE: I don't want to sit in my seat on the way there. I'll just hold on to the door.

Overheard

ETHAN: Are Eskimos and hobos enemies?

(Apparently he and his friends have been playing a game at recess where some boys are Eskimos and some are hobos, and they attack each other. We are just as confused about this as you are.)

My recent trip to China

I never gave a full report. But I am A BLOGGING MACHINE tonight so here you go:

My first night in Shanghai I went to the Yu Yuan Garden area:

At Yu Yuan I stocked up on souvenirs for the kids and passed on multiple offers to buy DVDs or watches. "Hi Hallo! DVD? Watch?" (I learned how to say "that's enough" in Chinese during this trip.) There are a few restaurants in Yu Yuan that are famous for their dumplings. I went to one that had a photo of Queen Elizabeth and Ronald Reagan eating there and took my chances on a variety plate of dumplings. Most were pretty good! After a few days in China, however, I resorted to this:

China: the one country where a Big Mac actually sounds appealing.

I stayed at a hotel called the Hongqiao State Guest Hotel. With a name like that, you'd think the hotel's motto would be something like: "Our hotel is slightly better than what you would have found in East Germany." Actually, the hotel was incredibly nice. It's laid out in several different buildings with gardens between each. For a long time it was only open to government officials, but now people like me and the Renault F1 team stay there. Check out the lobby of my building, which had an Art Deco painting of Shanghai that I wish I could replicate:


I did lots of wandering/exploring on this trip, since last time I was in Shanghai we didn't have time for any touristy things. The weather was beautiful, in the low seventies with blue (blue!) skies. Here's a photo of Nanjing Lu, which is kind of like Shanghai's Champs Elysee:

Shanghai is a fun city to walk around. One of my friends there asked me what is different about Shanghai compared to cities in the US, and I told him that in Shanghai you see everything in the city: old people, school kids, people selling things, people eating, people sleeping, businessmen, tourists, people doing laundry, people cooking, etc. etc. You see action. Like women doing organized aerobics on the sidewalk at 10PM:



I rode the subway in Shanghai for the first time on this trip, which was fun. You start to get to know a city when you ride the subway. I had a free afternoon where I tried to get lost and then find my way back to the hotel, and the subway was perfect. At many of the stops there are underground malls selling all sorts of interesting things.

They have these statues all over Shanghai, just like the ones we have in Carmel, Indiana. They're a disease I tell you! At least the ones in Shanghai aren't painted.

Here's a photo of Dong Tai Lu, which is a street in Shanghai that's a permanent flea market (mostly for tourists):

Here's a video I took at Shanghai's Bird and Insect market, where you can buy crickets for cricket fighting or other little creatures to keep as pets:

There were thousands and thousands of crickets for sale. I had hoped to see an actual cricket fight, but did not. I did, however, see a tray of moving cocoons:

You can't tell in the photo, but these are wiggling.

I caught up with many friends in Shanghai. Here's a photo of my friend Fu and me enjoying a foot massage on my last night in Shanghai. We did not eat any of the cherry tomatoes, although we did flip through a few of the Chinese soap operas on the TV:

Is it weird that I know more people living in Shanghai these days than in NYC?

On this trip, I went golfing at a course outside of Shanghai, which was a lot of fun. Up until five years ago, it was supposedly illegal for government officials in China to golf, because golf was seen as a symbol of western decadence. My friends told me that nothing was better for the growth of golf in China than that law because everyone wanted to know what the fuss was about.

On Sunday I went to church in Shanghai, where everyone was excited about the government recently granting the Shanghai branch permission to get their own building to meet in. That's a big deal.

Shanghai is an amazing place. It's hard to comprehend the scale and the energy until you're there. People are so optimistic about the future. At the same time, visiting China makes me grateful for the freedom we have in the USA. The wife of one of my colleagues asked me how many kids Ginger and I have. When I told her four, she said in English, "That's wonderful." They are thinking about having a second child, but the fines the government imposes are enormous and unaffordable for them at this point in their lives.

Overall, this was a fun and productive trip. The business meetings went well, and it was great to see so many friends. Here's one more photo of the view from the top of the Hyatt, where we went to celebrate after the launch of our partners' new venture fund.

It took over an hour to drive back to my hotel that night because of all the construction on the highways.

Hey Sophie what happened to that cake?

I for one welcome our new robot overlords.

Ginger got a Roomba for Mother's Day. When she opened it, she had a look on her face that said "I am supposed to be excited about getting a vacuum cleaner for Mother's Day?"

Now she's a fan. But that's not the purpose of this blog post. The purpose is this:

When we pulled the Roomba out of the box and put it on the floor, Emma crouched down next to it, and in her baby talk voice said, "Hello, robot, my name is Emma. What's your name?"

I am sure she was disappointed when Roomba didn't respond, although she held it in well. She naturally assumed the Roomba could talk. Robots always talk in the movies.

Catching up.

We've been busy the last few weeks:

Ethan turned eight years old!

And he got baptized! He was STOKED about all of the attention, as you can see. He really doesn't like to have his picture taken. But he did like to have four grandparents and an aunt come visit!

I told him it's a rule when you turn eight that you have to let your parents take pictures of you, so he gave in and smiled for one or two.

Poor Pa. Whenever he falls asleep with a grandkid someone takes a picture. The only way this photo would have been better is if he had been sucking on his fingers too.

Sophie had her hair done on several occasions. Today she and Emma wore flowers in their hair to church.

Oh yeah. We had our CHOCOLATE PARTY last night. (This is just one table's worth of goodies.) We still have leftovers and we feel sick--come on by!

Interesting article about happiness

You need to read this article about the Grant study, a longitudinal study of the lives of a group of men over 70 years. A quote to think about:

In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”

Here's another one:

In contrast to the Grant data, the Glueck study data suggested that industriousness in childhood—as indicated by such things as whether the boys had part-time jobs, took on chores, or joined school clubs or sports teams—predicted adult mental health better than any other factor, including family cohesion and warm maternal relationships. “What we do,” Vaillant concluded, “affects how we feel just as much as how we feel affects what we do.”

Overheard

SOPHIE: Dad, what are you doing?
ME: Shaving.
SOPHIE: When I'm a dad I will shave too.

Overheard

GINGER: Sophie, we don't say the word "stupid" in our house.
SOPHIE: Only in the car?

Ethan's rules for getting girls to like you*

Rule #1: Pretend to not be smart.
Rule #2: Do funny tricks.

*Our apologies to Charles K., to whom Ethan dispensed these "pearls of wisdom" this afternoon.

Here's Ethan with one of his most devoted female fans, employing Rule #2.