Babies Babies Babies...

...Babies everywhere. Well it's official, we're surrounded on every side with friends having babies within months to less than a year on either side of Rayluk.

The latest is my cousin Lesley and her husband Kevin. They've just discovered that they'll quickly be dethroning Rayluk as cutest baby in the family. And probably right after we get back too. Ray had better enjoy the crown while he has it. Alas, Baby Universe™ is a short lived affair. Something, something, something, and whirled peas.

For now this cute little baby simply resembles a grain of rice. But if you squint a little it looks like the tongue in the mouth of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy planet. I think it's going to be a silly baby indeed.

Congrats Lesley & Kevin!

Happy Birthday Elliot!

My good friend Mark Edwards' (aka Frump) little boy Elliot (aka Frump Jr.) turned 1 last week. I got the dates mixed up since the party was saturday. I'd hoped we could all have been there, but I guess Ray's gonna have to wait a while longer to meet him. In the meantime this is one loved kid. He got so many gifts for his first Christmas they couldn't fit them all in the car for the ride back home. I'm half expecting Ray to see some spillage from this latest shin-dig! Thanks Elliot! And have a Happy Happy Birthday!

Kung Hey Fat Choi, Gung Ho Fat Choy,Gong Xi Fa Cai, ...or Happy Chow Yun Fat Day!

That's Happy Chinese New Year, to you and me. There's a pretty large Chinese population in Thailand. In fact the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra is thai born chinese.

Yesterday we saw a lot of festivities as we rode past the market near the Ping River. A group of guys under a dragon costume running in and out of each shop to bring good luck in the new year. Across the street I noticed a group of thai monks watching the events. Huddled together, their saffron robes looked like they were trying to form a similar shape, but something more like a hydra with their five heads poking out.

We didn't really do anything to celebrate, but at lunch today we did order our gyoza as "pot stickers", then again as gyoza when the waitress looked at us as if to say, "What?"

Hangin' At The Black Canyon

I just love this photo of Ray. How can you not want to give him a tall double latté with a scoop of mocha chip ice cream in it?

If Starbucks actually had good coffee and served kick-ass western & thai food, along with some pretty damn tasty ice cream sundaes, then we'd be sitting there. But instead we frequent this lovely, air-conditioned and almost mosquito-free, Black Canyon Coffee shop.

Cooking With Gas

About five years ago I took a cooking class with a friend of mine's wife. She's an excellent chef and had a number of friends pestering her about where to take some casual cooking classes. Finally she broke down and bled each of us of our hard in dough. For years I've boasted about the beef wellington I made one of those fine saturday afternoons in her kitchen.

Today I tried to revisit that dream. I've talked and talked and talked about doing this, but I finally went and took a thai cooking class. There are a number of places in Chiang Mai that teach thai cooking. Thru recommendations it boiled down between two places. Thai Farm Cooking School, where they take you out and show you where all the food comes from. That one takes up much more of the day so I decided to get my feet wet first with Pad Thai Cookery School.

They start with a tour of one of the larger local markets and go thru all the herbs, fruits & vegetables used in thai cooking. Then off to their school to try putting some of those things together in pleasing ways. Hopefully to resemble something along the lines of pad thai fried noodles, spring rolls, green curry with chicken, chicken with basil leaves, ginger chicken, a variety of thai fruits, and banana in coconut cream. Mmmm... mmmm...

I've proven to myself that I can make these great thai dishes, but what it really takes in repetition to make it second nature. Night after night of toiling away in the kitchen, looking over Sow's shoulder and making sure she gets it right.

We'll Burn That Bridge When We Come To It

So if you've been to Chiang Mai, or ever read this blog, you'll probably know that Sow & Ray & I live south of the main city, a little past Got Gom market, in the part that floods just after the small bridge that's currently out. Ok, you probably didn't know about the bridge part. It's been out almost 2 months now!? And I've finally gotten fed up with it!

It started as an attempt to widen the canal that floods over in the rainy season. Which in turn meant they needed to extend the (hell, let's just rip it out altogether) bridge. They added a prefab walkway wide enough for scooters. No one reads here, especially the drivers of larger vehicles that get out and move the large "ROAD CLOSED" signs out of the way, so they can drive down just to turn back. So it should have come as no surprise to the two guys that sped down around the blind curve that that big gaping thing in the middle of the road was in fact, a hole.

After the two guys died riding off into the semi constructed bridge, some word must have come down to get things finished. Now all the guys make a point of looking like they're working on it. A few days later, they ripped down a power line while turning around one of their enormous trucks. And now, why today sucked. Those same rocket scientists busted the water main that feeds pretty much everything this side of the canal. And our internet was down almost all day too, but I probably can't blame that on them since the phone still worked. Now, it's 10:54, and I'm stinky and tired and catching up on my blog. I can only hope I don't get a Rumble In The Bronx tonight.

Aaron Tells Ray A Joke

More video. Let's see if I can't make this a habit. Here's one of me telling Ray a joke. I wish I'd kept the camera rolling cause he really started cracking up later. Who'd a thunk he'd even know what a rabbi is!?

Click the image for video. - *You'll need Quicktime 7 to play.

Geckos By The Dozen

Someone once told me that finding a gecko in your house is good luck. Like there's-a-baby-on-the-way kind of good luck. If that's true, I'd better get back to work cause that means we have a litter on the way. I find geckos in our place all the time. They like to hang out on the windows and behind the curtains. They come out at night to clear out all those pesky mosquitos.

Boy Eats Own Hand

The other day, I saw that the woman who found a finger in her Wendy's chili was sentenced to 9 years in jail.

Ray's recently discovered a finger in his mouth. Well five of them actually. He's in the process of discovering his thumb. He's figured out that whole opposable thumb trick for grabbing things, but not quite how to stick it in his mouth by itself. He seems to always get his entire hand in there instead.

Free Hat

I wanted to show off Ray's new hat. We've done the rounds. Hit all the stores. Any place that has baby stuff, we been there. Actually we found a new place we're going to tomorrow. They were closed today. but that's another story. Today's story is Ray's new hat. It's ain't store bought. Sow made it for him. She plans to add a little puff ball to the top of it, but she ran out of yarn beforehand. Ray loves it. He says it makes him feel more Russkie, then he rethought and said, "No, more Mongol actually."

Margot & Jake

Wow! Hollywood's done wonders for my dad. He's looking younger than ever. Must be that LA weather.

Ok, I'm no Star-F*cker, but that's actually Jake Gyllenhall. He's so lucky to be standing next to Margot, cause this really isn't that kind of blog. Jake heard Margot had dumped that Smith Jared guy from Sex & The City, and tried to just swoop on in. Anyhow, he begged Margot to pose with him in hope of making the front page of Chimptested.com again. Good plan my man.

They say you're always attracted to people that remind you of your parents, even people who subconsciously remind you of your parents. I'm not sure what they say about people who portray one of your parents in a major motion picture, but I'd say the chances are pretty good.

Jake's actually years younger than me. Do you think he'll get weirded out if I call him "dad"?

Rayluk Speaks

About a month or so ago I promised some new videos of Ray. I believe I may have also promised him talking as well. Now I didn't quite get him saying my name (on video at least, *he's very shy on camera), but this makes for a pretty good greeting.

Click the image for video. - *You'll need Quicktime 7 to play.

Myanmar Part Deux

I had to make another run to Mae Sai today. Needed a new stamp once again. I ended up sitting next to a pretty cool couple of guys. They mostly deal with setting up tours in this part of the world. Any trip for them is a possible write off. But it means keeping your eyes peeled to the passing scenery the whole time. Anyhow, we had a long good talk up and back. Really made the trip go by fast. So much that I hardly took any photos today. All I pulled off was this little number during a lull in conversation.



Yeah those are all pigs. Kinda reminds me of those Bonsai Kittens that were so popular a few years back. Consider yourself lucky. The last truck of pigs I saw had twice as many pigs but they were divided into thirds. Aren't their tails supposed to be curly?

Thank god I put up pics of Ray yesterday, otherwise I just wouldn't have felt right putting these up today.

Feeling Better

Yesterday I woke up feeling sick. Sour stomach. Spent the whole day in bed. Just the thought of laying down again makes my back sore. I spent most of today nursing my stomach back and rehydrating. Little water. Little apple juice. Saltines. Toast. And finally out this evening to track down some chicken soup. Mmmm... mmmm... good! Much much better now. So here's a little catching up with Ray.

Old Dog, New tricks

My dad's been watching my house for the last few months. Keeping an eye out for bills, thwarting away intruders, and spending time with my pets.

I'm particularly impressed with how he and Harry have gotten along. Years ago I bought Harry a dog house, which he's never slept in. Each day he'd try something new. Put an old pillow in there. Maybe an old shirt that still had a scent. A little bit of food. Until finally he'd got him sleeping in there.

Now if I can just get him to train my pet monkey to do this, I'll be all set!

Return Ticket

According to my ticket, today is the day I should be back in LA.

Fate would have it otherwise. We have yet to receive anything from the gov't in regards to our application and I got an email from my travel agent telling me that my flight had been cancelled.

The good news I found out is it's been replaced by a new route and a new plane. The new air bus. Non-stop from Bangkok to LAX. No more Japan leg to the commute. I guess Sow will have to wait for that bowl of Udon I've been promising her.

The new flight boasts extra room, state of the art seats with built-in on demand video. They also tell me Ray is old enough to fly as well. Then the other shoe drops. My current ticket goes belly up Feb 20th. Now I'm on a use-it-or-lose-it deadline. So there's a good chance some of you may be seeing me quite soon. I'll have a brief chance to catch up on some things, (*cough, cough, TiVO), maybe get my taxes done, and dart back.

What would you do with only a week in LA?

Over The Hill

Tomorrow Sow's mom has to go back to Korat. So we took another little trip today. It seemed like a long ride, but we were only gone about 3 hours. We were going to have a picnic at the waterfall near the bottom of Doi Suthep, when she remembered a place she'd heard about but never been too. It's just a little further than the Night Safari, but it leads you around to the backside of the mountain, where there's a little gardens and resort.

The other side of that hill is where we live.

It was really nice ride. Parts of it reminded me of driving thru the hills in the Bay Area. And the mountain did a bang-up job of keeping any smog back. If we ever decide to buy any property here, I think that might be the place. Fairly rural, but only about 10km from central Chiang Mai.

Children's Day 2549

Today is national Children's Day here in Thailand. This means nothing to Ray yet. That's cause every day is Ray Day! Except for the last two at least. I did hear he had fun with grandma while we were out cavorting around though. So what does Ray do on Children's Day? Sit around naked and contemplate the big questions like, "Why does my belly jiggle like Jello? Wait, what's Jello?"

Thai Children's Day is a huge event here. Most things are free for kids today. Movies, museums, zoos, skytrain... There are all sorts of events to draw families to. Traffic is surprisingly not bad, but the destinations are crammed. Sow and I spent Children's Day in Bangkok last year. That's when I first heard of it. It's fitting too, since late that night Ray was conceived. Now he's doing such great tricks as these:

Usually when we pick Ray up out of the crib or off the bed, he'll go into a fully arched stretch. Often this means you can't hold him straight until he's done stretching.

Who-luk?

Well another day of parental supervision down the drain. Yes, we opted for grand-parental supervision instead, and rode up to Mae Sa. It's been about a year since we've been there. We got a fairly early start and ended up timing things pretty well.

We showed up at the Monkey Farm with just a few minutes before the show began. Like I said yesterday, Sow's getting the monkey bug, unlike the bird flu, this one has no treatment course other than to get a monkey. The smaller. The cuter. The better.

Alright, they're not actually for sale, but they do train them here. They're primarily used in the south to harvest coconuts. I'd watched Sow's cousin do this himself on our wedding day and I can't believe he didn't break his skull. Instead he stood atop the palms and beat his chest. He did make us some good juice and shaved coconut from it, but I see where the monkeys come in handy.



From there we headed a bit further up the hill to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp, boasted as the most famous elephant camp in Thailand. They started in 1976 with a five elephants and now have around 70, ranging from 1 to 48 years. They do all that normal elephant stuff, like play soccer and paint. But is it art?



For only 20 baht, you can buy a bunch of bananas, a bundle of sugarcane, and a chance to feed them part of their 300 kilo daily diet.

I swear to god that seat was leaning toward elephant right before I ever got in the thing. Bless her enormous heart and even more enormous appetite for eating our bananas and taking us on a small tour of the area. Thanks Mae Ma.

Abandon Your Baby Day

Well, god bless Sow's mom. She's come to visit once again, allowing us to have a day out to ourselves. We'd joked about splitting right when she got in at 6:00 am, but I was having lots of weird dreams last night. Dreams where I'm actually trying to sleep in the dream, and somehow it managed to make me feel rather tired instead, and ended up sleeping in after all.

But promptly at 10:15 we defiantly strode out, hugging, kissing and goo-goo-ing our little boy only a few hundred times, and began a day of people asking us "Where's your baby?" We went and had breakfast out and got to sit side-by-side. We got to get haircuts at the same time. And then we got to ride out on the scooter to the Chiang Mai Night Safari to get free tickets for this evening's tram ride. A late lunch out at Yum Saap. Home to rest and get a fresh refill of our little cherub. Then back out near sunset for our tram tour of the Night Safari...



So we finally get to see the much talked about Chiang Mai Night Safari... at night! Apparently they've flown in the guys that do the Disneyland Jungle Cruise ride. I can only speculate since the whole thing was in Thai, but everyone was cracking up. I particularly liked the part where the tram stalls out and the mechanical great white shark pops up along side in the water. The parting of the red sea and the Bionic Man avalanche tunnel were also quite amazing, not to mention the t-rex that breaks thru the fence and eats all of the passengers in the first 3 rows. Now if they just had some more nocturnal animals on the tour it'd be great, er, better. I mean the night otter, the night elephant, the night vulture, and the night flamingo all made a nice turnout, but on a night safari I'd hope to see animals prowling around. Maybe it's good they didn't do too much with it I guess. It could be more exciting. The trams had a nice plexi-glass ceiling for the tigers and leopards to lay on, but also the poor misfortune of being, well, a tram, and open on both sides.



Don't get me wrong, I did in fact enjoy the Chiang Mai Night Safari. It could be much better, and I imagine it will if they ever get things finished. About a third of the pens we passed still had bulldozers and other heavy machinery in them instead of exotic wildlife. They're trying to get everything ready for a february 1st opening. They have a lot to do, and the workers aren't nocturnal so I guess they're kinda screwed.

From there we raced out for dinner and then back home to see our little boy, who apparently also has lost most of his nocturnal qualities.



*Sow's decided she wants to get a monkey. I've been lobbying for one for ages while she's poo-poo'd my efforts. Then she sees a cute little squirrel monkey at the zoo and it's all, "Can we get one!? They're so cute!"

Ray Ray's Pay Day

We've been hitting the video store a little more frequently lately. Pretty much since Daniel found those chairs I like. Our choices have been from classics like Akira Kurasawa's High & Low to such titles as Shaolin Vs. Evil Dead.

I doubt any of you have seen John Water's A Dirty Shame, but lookee here. He must be reading my blog!? He's named a main character after me. Either that or Evan's been doing some work punching up scripts. Yes, that's Johnny Knoxville as Ray Ray, driving thru traffic while getting a hummer. It's definitely one of his better films. Tasteless as ever, but with a great cast.

Mailbox

Well, you wait... and you wait... and you wait... and finally, one day, the mailman shows up and drops something in the mailbox.

You run outside, thinking you knew it would come that day. You'd thought it that morning. But then again, you imagine it arriving just about every day. But alas, it's a xmas card that's been sauntering along to meet you for about three weeks. Not sauntering quite as slowly as your wife's visa paperwork, but saunter it does. You're a little disappointed, but still, it's a pleasant surprise.

So today, over breakfast, when you picture it being slipped into the mailbox, you try not to think about it, and soon it's gone from your head. Imagine your surprise, when later, you hear a horn honk outside and a messenger on a scooter beckoning for you to sign something in his outstretched hand. In his other hand, he holds a registered letter. Your heart begins to race as you reach for the pen. And then... and then... you notice it's all addressed in Thai. You sign the X____, run inside, wake your lazy wife, frantically point at the name and ask, "Does this say Rayluk?" Your wife stares at you with that "you're so magical" look as you open the package to reveal Ray's new Thai passport.

You think about how absurd it is that you were able to have your son's new passport in your hands within 4 working days of applying for it, yet it's been 6 months and you still haven't received a visa interview date for your wife.

Feed The Kitty

I pass these cats just about everyday. I tell Sow we should have a whole litter. She tells me I'm crazy.

Happy Birthday Brian!

Well it was bound to happen. The first birthday blog of the new year.

Today's my cousin Brian's birthday. He turns, well, let me get out my abacus... I mentioned him here before, more specifically his artwork. If you didn't grow up with him, he pretty much goes by the monicker of Nicolas Caesar now.

I used to spend my summers at my aunt & uncles with him and his sister Christine. We passed the hot summer swimming races, seeing the big summer movies (Clash Of The Titans, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Return Of The Jedi, Fletch...), playing with our Star Wars action figures, and drawing pictures.

He's recently moved to Newark. Living in downtown Oakland was finally getting to be too much. I hope all my gifts make it to him. His Amazon wishlist had a Newark address listed.

Anyhow, just wanted to wish you a...



Say 'hi' to Sarah for me!

Day For Night Safari

This morning it was nice and overcast so we decided to go check out the Chaing Mai Night Safari. Yes, in-the-day-time! Of course the sun came out right as we got there.



It's still under construction, so admission is free until Feb 1st, but it means some things aren't ready yet. Like the 5 restaurants, so we didn't get a chance to see if flamingo tastes like chicken, or if giraffe tastes like horse. Sorry guys.

We only got to see the smaller pedestrian part of the zoo, which was well worth the price of admission, even if it was free. This part included a lake surrounded by a series of walkways which looked out to three small islands with two different types of gibbons. Along the shore were swans and flamingos. As it wrapped about the far side there were hippo and tortoise pens, as well as assorted leopards and other large cats. There were one set that looked like slightly oversized house cats. Striped and prowling, but fairly convincing that they might be domesticated. Until of course I bring one home and all the neighborhood cats start disappearing (*You know the one I'm talking about dad).

"I do love monkeys."



They called to each other across the water.
Really cool sounds. Next time I'll have to record it.



One of the 5 yet to open restaurants.
Can't wait to try me some gibbon!





"You love monkeys?"

I'm sure I'll head back one evening. There's a tram ride that starts around 6:30 in the evening that covers the majority of the park, which stretches up into the hills behind.

I Can Sleep Anywhere

Ray's gotten quite good at falling asleep. Sometimes it's really difficult to get him down. Other times you'll just look away for a few seconds and then he's down. I love peeking under the table and making faces at him when we go out to eat.

It used to be that he couldn't make it thru a meal without one of us having to pick him up and walk around for a while. The last time I did this, I managed to end his 5 day constipation streak just outside the window from Sow. She thought it was hilarious.

3 Months Ago...

...a beautiful baby boy was born, forever changing the path of my life.



He's grown so big so quickly. Every day I discover something new. What!? Don't believe me!? Ok. Day - 1: He's the most amazing baby I've ever seen. Day - 2: I held him for the first time. Day - 3: uh, I learn to bath and feed him. Uhm... Ok, Just read the dang blog archives for christ-sake! The point is, I feel like I've already shared so much more than 3-months with him. Sure the crying can seem to last forever, but I think it's seeing that little smile again that makes us old pals. Three more of these and we'll all be celebrating one year! You might want to bookmark this, but I'm sure it'll keep popping up...

Lesson #97: Arm-farts and gang signs.



Roll over for instant pop-out tongue action.

Thumbs-Up!

I saw Ray make his first thumbs-up today. *Yes, his little mitts are off! Sow said he's trying to get used to sucking his thumb. There's some merit to this, but I told her she was wrong anyhow. That he's half American, and every American knows the thumbs-up. It's in our blood. Keep On Trucking!

I tried taking a photo, but all I got was this. His gamer's thumb, which he was working furiously up and down in his sleep! XBox 360 here we come!

Construct This!

I was just telling someone about how the Thais use bamboo regularly on their construction sites. Now look closely. See the guy on the top of the ladder? Just what is that it's leaning up against? Yep, that's be the telephone lines! And that's an official TOT telephone repairman. No wonder my DSL is so spotty!? Check out the guy underneath for support. Seconds later he pulls out a cigarette and lights it. And yes, with two hands.

Usually what I see is more like this. Used for billboards and construction scaffolding. Some of these actually appear to be more solid than the typical metal ones you see in the states. They don't sway or rattle at all. You just see these guys shimmy up and do their work. Sometimes three or four stories up.

All Quiet On The Eastern Front

Last night was a different story. We made it down to the river to set off another lantern and watch the fireworks from the east bank. Looking across the river you could see 3 or 4 good sets of fireworks clearly. A number of the hotels had their own displays, as well as one at Tha Pae Gate, but the best was just across the river and slightly upstream, only about a 100 meters from us. You could hear and see the fire off, exploding almost overhead.

It was really loud. I'm glad we had the fore-sight to stuff a little cotton in Ray's ears, double-wrap his head in blankets, snow-cap and hood to make sure he was 100% percent unaware of any spectacular show that might be going on around him.

Today things are quiet. Really quiet. Like moost of the world (is this the only holiday we all have in common?) all the stores are closed. Of course, I'm sure the malls are open, but the roads sure are empty. Sow just wanted to stay home all day and rest. I'm not quite sure why she thought she could stay home from work. I mean, he's laying right there on the bed next to her!?