Great Weekend

I had such an amazing weekend after a hard and productive work week. Friday night was low key, spending time with my two daughters and watching a DVD. A perfect mood setter for the rest of the weekend while my wife had a well deserved girls night out.

Saturday came and I was grateful to have the kids all to myself, during the week sometimes I only see them at the day’s bookends. Making them breakfast, taking them to starbucks which is right downstairs, listening to their stories. Played some games with my boy on the Wii and then it was Quesadilla time! Down to the tex-mex restaurant also right down stairs for a hearty lunch. Best thing after a big lunch on the weekend – family nap time! And man, was I out. Sunk deep into that couch. Barely woke up when my little girl came over to show me her latest masterpiece – a drawing of a dog and his food.

My wife knows i like to exercise, so she took all the kids out to a shopping center for a couple of hours. in a flash i had on my sweats and hoddie and was running the streets of beijing. i had to really work it on this saturday, my body was telling me to slow down but I willed myself forward and finished with a blaze. and the best part was i got home with my kids just as they did, so i was able to spend more quality time with them. We all got dressed up for a dinner party and drove to the burbs. What a nice neighborhood these people lived in, but you know, i wouldn’t trade our city life and our flat for anything. i held our infant in my arms as i we entered and i could not be more proud of my family. the hosts were warm and friendly, quickly getting us drinks and finding activities to entertain our kids. i noticed they were baseball fans, albeit red sox fans, and we talked ball for a while. for a moment if felt like i had never left the bay area. more and more couples, some with kids, most without came. must have been 30 or 40 total. and what a great mix of people. from bankers, to school teachers, to diplomats, to little old me, and engineers. there where the various subgroups you find at this parties – those play tennis together, those who play music, the relatives, the simply old friends. and the feast, my goodness. a thanksgiving for the ages. turkey, stuffing, cranberry sause, the works. all made by a chinese chef trained to make american food. we left stuff and warm.

today we had the privilege of having lunch with a very famous profession from a top US college, originally from Japan. Again the food – a champagne brunch at a five star hotel – was amazing. But better than the food was the multi-cultural conversation. i learned what type of paintings the appreciated – the wife is an impressive watercolorist –, i learned how their daughter married an an american born irishman who was once a chef but now works in construction. how construction and cooking are similar. after not being able to eat anymore, we dropped them off and was able to spend the rest of the day with our kids.

but there was a mild interruption. our flat had a small flood from some type of pipe backlash. i was wondering how the heck i was going to deal with this, when my wife called the property management and they send not one, not two, but six workers up to help us cleanup. the vacuumed and scooped and mopped up buckets of water. while they worked we took out kids out to play and then dinner.

i finished this wonderful weekend by buying some DVDs and noting for posterity sake how lucky we are. Indeed.