Apartment Living... An Update...

Many of you found my last post re: apartment living and the middle of the night 'construction' noises amusing... Not sure if I closed that story with you all.

It turns out the guy living in 402 is pissed at the people living in 302. When the people in 302 put their ceiling fans on, the noise it makes in 402 bothers him greatly... And in a very open and direct way of dealing with the problem, the guy decided the most appropriate response was to bounce a bowling ball on the ceiling. It seems that after my late night pounding session on his door, he switched over to a basketball... seems it's just as annoying for the people below, but less so for people in other apartments!

The nice Aussies in 302 are pulling their hair out... They have involved the management company here at the complex, but since the guy in 402 owns the apartment, and is not renting from the management company, there is nothing they can do... And there is no such thing as a home owners association here. They are now to the point of involving the local government, going to arbitration and scheduling a government official to come into the apartment and measure the sound created by the fans below... I am sure that now that the government is involved, it will get settled in a speedy manner! :)

So, now onto our newest apartment living story... The family upstairs has a number of kids - three I think. They are generally very quiet.... but, they practice the piano an amazing amount. On the weekends the piano is being played quite literally from 8:30am - 7:30pm non-stop with the exception of what I assume is meals...

Of all the things to hear from your neighbors (including, evidently, bowling balls being bounced on the floor) this is not that bad!

Unfortunately, tonight things changed... for about an hour tonight, one of the kids started to practice a new instrument... it was what I believe was a trumpet, trombone, or french horn... I know it's unlikely that those 3 instruments sound anything alike, but I'm not a brass instrument expert... All I know, is that as much as they have improved the piano skills in the last 15 months, they would need to out pace that progress to get anywhere near bearable on the brass instrument!

Steph is in Beijing this weekend with her cousin Gina, Gina's husband Ben and Ben's mom. They'll be back here on Tuesday to spend the week touring Shanghai before heading back to San Fransisco on Sunday. This will have our medium sized apartment stressed on sleeping spots, but we wouldn't have it any other way! We have been so excited about them coming and are glad they are finally here!

Then in December we have our friend's Mike and Karmen coming with their kids Sydney and Sam for Christmas. Everyone is looking forward to the visit!

I hope this finds you all well and looking forward to the holiday season!

Cheers,
Joe

Sometimes I am simply not very smart...

I am going to blame it on jet lag. If it weren't for jet lag, I'd be as smart as everyone else... perhaps.

I just returned to PRC after 3 weeks in the US. Couple weeks for my hunting trip and then a couple days of meetings in Oregon. Jet lag was much stronger and harder to overcome after being gone that long.

Saturday morning after having played basketball at the local international school, I decided to cut my hair. Anyone who has seen me recently, knows that I have embraced by developing baldness, and refused to go the way of the comb-over.

I started my 'bald friendly haircut' by asking the barber/stylist to shave my head with the clippers using a #2 guard. Then I progressed to the #1. During the warm summer, even going down to a #1/2. Cutting my hair with the clippers, guard in place, became so easy that Steph does it many times, and sometimes I manage it myself.

Well I had been gone nearly a month (week in Thailand for work, followed by the US for vacation and meetings). So it was time for a trim.

Saturday morning following basketball, I head into the bathroom to trim up my 'mop'. I start shaving, and am surprised at the amount of hair on the floor thinking to myself 'wow, that's a lot of hair for 1 month growth'.

Then I glance into the mirror and see my head - 1/2 shaved. Then I look at the clippers, and see NO GUARD. I had just started shaving away. So no #2, #1, not even a #1/2 - you could say I shaved my head using #0.

So now, when my kids tease me and call me 'Baldy Daddy' they are a little closer to the truth... I'll be wearing a hat as often as possible the next couple weeks! :(