December 11th, Caspian's birthday. Days like this always tend to be a mixed bag of emotions for me, so if I swing back and forth during the course of this update bear with me. Life is good but incredibly busy and so I blame me updating delinquency on that. This coming Saturday is our Christmas Open House and there's a lot of pressure on us teachers to put together a good show for the parents. My two science classes need to present the content we've been doing in class, so I'm spending most of my evenings preparing with the kids in the attempt to put together interesting and engaging presentations. (It wouldn't be so bad if I could present with them, but the kids are supposed to do it themselves and that means LOTS of prep time!) I'm also getting ready for a Christmas piano recital with my piano students. That's going to be next Wednesday, so anytime I have free I spend practicing my songs. After the Open House a bunch of teachers are coming over to my place for a Christmas party. We're doing a gift exchange, secret santa, Christmas dinner, the whole bit, it should be a really good time! I guess it's been a long time since I wrote and I'm trying to think of all the things I haven't recounted. I mean like the interesting stuff. I'm finding my memory isn't as good as it used to be, or maybe I've never realized before that when I try and think back about the highlights from the past two weeks, I draw a complete blank! That's scares me! The weather is hot and sunny (surprise, surprise!). I'm having body temperature issues big time right now! The past week, I haven't been able to regulate my body heat properly. I think my system is used to producing extra body heat at this time of the year to combat the balmy -30 (I miss that SO much! Seriously!) and so my body is just naturally heating up, regardless of the fact that it's 22 above and sunny. I'm having hot flashes and the cold sweats and it's all just terrible! If this is what menopause is like, count me out! There's been an epidemic of stomach bugs going around and I'm proud to say I've come out unscathed. China is really agreeing with me. I STILL haven't gotten sick once from the food, and I've eaten some crazy stuff! Here's a short list: crocodile, chicken feet, shark, hundred year old eggs, raw salmon, and all make and manner of sushi. Most of the stuff I've enjoyed, with a few exceptions. The chicken feet were terrible! All bone and skin and I really couldn't figure out why anyone would like it. I've become very comfortable getting my live chicken and fish at the wet market and having the butchers there kill them for me. I cooked 4 chickens this weekend for our Christmas party next weekend. I got an oven! That's exciting! Anyways, I'm going to update more now, or at least after Saturday. I have tons of pictures to upload and stuff so give me one more week and the website will be back in shape!