Reporting from Home

Dear Reader, I haven’t shared much lately on what’s happening here at home.  Frankly, I haven’t had much new information to share with you.  My wife and I still work full time and return home each evening, spending weekends off with our son.  Our son is spending more time lately outside because it’s summer and the monsoon season has been relatively mild (thus far–fingers crossed).  Our new family members, three tetrafish–a blue one named “daddy,” a pink one named “mommy,” and a smaller, translucent one with a yellowish tinge named “baby”–are still adjusting to life at our home.  They’ve been in a bit of a funk since they were separated from their owner over the last three years.  I found out last week that a long-time family member, one of my parents’ dogs, a black lab named “Shadow,” died at the old age of 13.  He was a good dog. 
We’ve entertained ourselves with outings, like our anniversary visit to Seoul Tower for dinner, and with BBQs, like the preemptive one with Bob of Tortmaster fame I used to outmanuever him.  It’s been a time filled with trips to the store, which lately seem to be one of the more lively activities.  My son enjoys the children’s book and toy aisles, my wife hovers around the clothing and grocery sections, and I sneak off to the media and technology areas.  I’ve also managed to break away twice for a couple of movies in between a steady stream of chores ranging from mowing to filing an insurance claim for our broken car window. 
This weekend will be a bit more lively.  On Friday evening I will travel with colleagues to the southern coast of Korea to greet and incoming sea vessel, and the following evening my wife and I will join a big group of friends for a noraebang reprisal.  We’ll also take our son to his first feature-length film, Pixar’s CGI-animated “Cars.”  He’s really looking forward to it.  After our long respite in China and the U.S., we really haven’t minded laying low at home.  We’ve had a chance to recuperate and are now ready to get out and explore more of Korea before we leave this fascinating land.

North Korea photos

Dear Reader, below are links to a treasure trove of photos of North Korea.  These are the best batch of photos capturing life in the North that I have ever seen.  These photos were taken by a Russian visitor who visited the country in 2006.  The photos speak for themselves.  Click on the links below to view the various photo pages.  Page 1 also has links to all these photo pages.
Note to Tortmaster:  I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where we don’t have lightning bugs.  Man, talk about cultural insensitivity!  Remind me to take you to the Cascades some time for some snipe hunting.   As for sucking up–when your poor boss asks for your help moving a child’s swing set in the morning, and he laments that his wife is going to a wedding that evening and will be alone with his young child, and you know that the guest of honor has two young children about your boss’ child’s age, and you know that your boss shares a tangentially-related sense of humor with your guest of honor, you come to the logical conclusion that maybe it’s a good idea to invite him to a preplanned BBQ.  Sucking up, yeah, I know.  It’s absolutely shameless inviting your boss over for dinner–and your office too.

Featured Blog: The Truffle Shuffle Weakly

This month’s featured blog is an expose of one man’s life and worldview.  The Truffle Shuffle Weakly belongs to my good friend and Seoulmate, Bob, a.k.a. Tortmaster.  He’s sarcastic and extremely sharp witted, but he has a heart as big as Texas and is a very good natured guy.  He told me today that he’s planning to write about me (laced with sarcastic overtones, no doubt), so I thought I would beat him to the punch and appease him with soothing, kind words.  I hope that the conciliatory and laudatory tone of this blog entry will entice Bob to write something nice about me on his blog.  Will he?  Oh, probably not.  Considering that he just came over to our house tonight, and I served him homemade BBQ that he consumed vociferously as if he hadn’t eaten in days, I’m waiting and wondering whether the shoe will drop.  Nevertheless, I find it humorous even when his writing is merciless.  It’s just Bob. 
 
Bob has been living in Korea for about a year and will be here long after we’ve moved on to Paraguay.  (Yes, Bob, I’m aware that Paraguay is the only "guay" in the World Cup tournament, but I have a feeling that the Americans will also be making a quick exit tonight after Italy beats them.  The U.S. can’t even say it’s the only "United States" in the tournament.  After all, the United Mexican States, a.k.a. Mexico, advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals.)  Bob lives in Seoul, Korea with his wife Mzia and two beautiful children, Marian and Givi.  Bob and Mzia met when Bob worked in the Republic of Georgia, a former Soviet republic.  Mzia is from Tbilisi, Georgia, and she makes absolutely wonderful Georgian food.  Bob makes mean Tex-Mex food and offers a great respite from Taco Bell.  Meals at their home feature some of the best we’ve eaten in Korea (they also provide a much needed break from Korean food). 
 
Bob recently had an unexpected illness that put him in the hospital for a few days, but fortunately he recovered and is doing well now.  He looked good when I saw him tonight.  You can read more about it on his blog.  Now that he’s well rested, he’s starting to dive into some deep political issues in his blog that go far beyond anything I write about here.  For example, I have never blogged about assertions that eating kimchi combats SARS and avian flu.  Bob’s blogging is not for the political feint of heart.  He asks challenging questions and offers keen observations, seasoned with a complexity and aggressiveness derived from a successful legal background.  Stop by, have a read, and post a comment.  Bob’s dying to have someone other than me post comments on his blog.  Ask him what "The Truffle Shuffle Weakly" means–he’ll be glad you did.  Post-script:  The U.S. tied Italy 1-1 in the World Cup.  So, congratulations Team USA!  You scored your first point in European against a European major.  Please beat Ghana 3-0 so you can advance to the quarterfinals and hope the Italians beat or tie the Czechs.