A Quickie

Not too much new to report in this neck of the woods. Baby is good. Jenny is good. I am good. Life is good. We were thinking we wouldn't have any presents under the tree this year and then a massive box showed up from my dad and Sue stuffed with gifts. So now the tree looks awesome.
I have been recruited to be Santa Claus at our school's Christmas party this year. Jonathon usually does it but he is flying home for Christmas. I think about 150 kids have signed up to come and they always bring their little brothers and sisters. So I probably won't be able to walk by Christmas day. December 20th is going to kill me. I will play Santa from 9:00 am to 12:00 and then drive across the city and teach from 12:30 to 8:30. Santa will need a lotta whiskey come 9pm.

We had an ultrasound two weeks ago and everything looks great. The baby is gaining weight at a perfect rate and his heart beat is really strong. His estimated weight was about 6.2 pounds. The damn doctor keeps expressing how big our baby's head is. So much for bedside manners. Poor Jenny has enough to worry about without a doctor telling her that her son has a huge melon every visit. Accordingly, we have decided to name him, "Head." Jenny can't think of any good Chinese names for him. It is tradition in Taiwan that fortune-tellers name the baby. They look at his time of birth, his weight, the astrological alignment, what the turtle shell says and a bunch of other ridiculous things and then give the baby a name which will bring him the best luck throughout his life. It seems more like how an Ewok would name a baby. I am dead set against this as Taiwanese fortune tellers are just a bunch of jokers that can't get a real job and spend half their time terrifying their customers with tales of hauntings, coming misfortune and impending doom. All of which result in them burning more ghost money to appease the spiteful spirits. So I have told my students that if one of them can find us the name we will use- I will buy them a cool present. Alas, I have taught them for quite some time and they have picked up on my sense of humor. Thus, most of the names so far are quite odd and/or twisted.

I have begun teaching my students a lot more about global warming and moral responsibility in regards to saving the Earth. It is quite depressing to see the kids outside their homes burning toxic ghost money weekly. Last week was so bad that I could not even see their school from 4 blocks away. (Which was actually the worst I have ever seen it in six years.) This is partly due to the winds bringing over all the smoke from China.

In one class, a student said, "Most people don't actually believe that the ghost money goes to ghosts but we do it just in case." So I told him that it was maybe time the Taiwanese tell the ghosts to go get a job. They thought that was pretty funny and then one student said, "But not all the money we burn is for ghosts- some goes to the Gods." To which I exclaimed, "Why would a God need money? They are a God!" They thought about this for a few seconds and started laughing hysterically. Maybe there is hope for them yet.

Anyways, that is all for now but I will post some pics of the Christmas party tomorrow.