Gigante

The garden is GIANT. Seriously. I am overwhelmed by how quickly things are growing, and by the quantity of food that is coming out of it. Aye carumba! Back when it was mostly dirt, it looked so modest. Just a few seeds thrown in, then little sprouts, and I thought, sure, what's one more tomato plant, or a few more lettuce seeds, throw 'em in there.
Well, we now have a lot of food. And, most of the kids have been at summer camp for a couple weeks, so they haven't been around to help with the eating of stuff.

Garden6-15-07

In other news, Amy and I had an anniversary yesterday. No, not the date we met, not the day we hatched our greatest scheme or anything like that. It was the 5th (is it 5th??) anniversary of the day we got ridiculously horribly obscenely publicly drunk by drinking alarmingly cheap bai jiu in a plastic squirt top bottle, a.k.a. "The infamous bai jiu incident." We meandered through the sleepy little town of Kangding, drinking our portable stash (it's what squirt top bottles are made for, baby!) and yucking it up in two languages. I remember skipping, I remember song and dance, I remember talking to random people, I even remember stopping to use the bathroom - one of those terrible stinky pit toilets where you have squat and suspend yourself over the chasm...in the dark...and somehow, our drunken selves did not fall in. It was a rather amazing night, right up until Amy got sick (ahem) and sorta passed out. From there on out, it was scary. It's a kind of horrible, but also kind of wonderful anniversary. Why do we remember such a painful day with such glee? Maybe we are so ridiculously squirt-top-bottle-half-full about life, we still appreciate the joy of that night, even though it ended so terribly. Or maybe we're secretly giant lushes.

Bottoms up, love!

PS: I miss Wu Bangfu, Amy. Among the many hilarious Mr. Wu stories I have, there is one from the morning after the infamous bai jiu incident, when he got called in to "handle" the situation (at 9 freakin' AM the next morning!!). After we'd had the formal meeting with the assistant headmaster and English department chairs to express the school's concern for our safety given our (admittedly ridiculous) behavior of the night before, Mr. Wu and I were left in the office alone. He said to me: "you must not be feeling so well." And I: "uh, no." He: "Well, me neither. I drank a lot last night, too, and they woke me up very early to come down here!" Me: cracking up. Mr. Wu: "One time, I got so drunk, I was sick for two days. But really, I'm a very good drinker. Next time you want to drink, you should be sure to invite me." Then, he bought me breakfast and laughed at me all the while, as it became apparent to both of us that I was not in fact hung over, but rather still somewhat drunk. Ah, Mr. Wu. I love that guy.



Wu Bangfu plays a little ditty on a tin whistle, drunk from the bottles of beer which he uncapped with his teeth. Don't ask me how - the man was just a little bit bionic. He also walked very fast.