Cousin Kate Saved The Day

Before the updated adventures from Beavercreek, Ohio I'll update you on David's Chinese adventures.

David is now in the city of Chang Zhao. The above picture was his seat (not bad, second row from at a huge room of delegates from around the world) I thought David was done dealing with annoying "government lady" (aka G.L.) but I was wrong. G.L. has been making David absolutely crazy and saying the absolutely stupidest things to the Chinese officials. This woman has pretty much been an embarrassment so the following story is priceless. But, first I would like to clear up exactly the role of these extra travel companions for David.

As I previously mentioned, David is traveling with two others who are not a part of David's place of employment. David's role in going to China is meeting with Chinese government officials and executives of company's to try get business expansions, etc to move to the Western New York area. His visit happened to correspond with a conference in Chang Zhao of sister cities (which Buffalo is one of) This is how the extra travel partners come into the equation. They were solely there for this conference.

So an update on "G.L." is that here she is, somewhat representing Buffalo, and come to find out that she didn't even know we have a subway in Buffalo!! Also, someone asked G.L. about how the mayoral race in Buffalo went. She told the person that the mayor won the primary race but "we'll see how the second part goes".....ugh, doesn't she know that the mayor of Buffalo is running unopposed?!?!?! Also, she was talking about another "sister city" of Rockville, Illinois.....and she pronounced the "s" in Illinois!! duh! Furthermore, G.L. was discussing her housekeeper at some banquet dinner. Here she is talking to people that are lucky to living in even 1,000 square feet....and she is talking about her housekeeper! Basically, David's take on this is that G.L. the prototype of the rude American so David pretty much cringes anytime she is around. David swears he will never again travel with anyone that doesn't work with him again. But the funniest thing is that at the banquet, the Chinese began toasting everyone and everything under the sun again. As I previously mentioned, it is considered offensive to not drink with them. One might say, yeah, but how could they expect a woman to drink along with the men?? But, keep in mind, it is a man's world in China so, if you are going to send a woman to do a man's job..........G.L. ended up getting sick......priceless!

As for us, Madeline had a wonderful two hour nap yesterday. When she awoke, Chris and Kate were home from school. Chris is good with Madeline but Kate and Madeline are two peas in a pod. Kate was absolutely wonderful playing with her younger cousin and totally was okay having a shadow follow her. They played wonderfully together and gave Mama-Dirtyfoot a much needed break. Also, after dinner, my sister Margaret took us me and the girl to her work place. Margaret is an occupational therapist and her office the office is closed on Fridays. We were able to go in and the girls were able to play in all of the therapy equipment (see video below). It was like there own private playground. The girls played so hard and Mama and Margaret got tired just watching them. Madeline pretty much conked out right after we got back to my sister's house. Another quiet evening for the grown-ups, we conked out early too! Are we getting old?

Today we had a girls' afternoon. Margaret, Kate, Madeline and I kept busy by heading out to shop, out to lunch, and to the Boonshoft Children's Museum in Dayton, Ohio (the picture of the ring is Madeline's souvenir from the museum). After the children's museum, we met up with my my brother-in-law to watch my nephew Chris run at his cross country meet. Afterwards, we enjoyed a dinner out at a Mexican restaurant. During all of this, Kate once again was wonderful. She played so nicely with her younger cousin and was so patient with her sidekick that looks p to her so much. As you can imagine, it did not take long for Madeline to conk out when we got back. Presently, Mark, Margaret and I are having another quiet evening. We are chillin' out, sipping a drink and watching scary ghost encounter stories on TV. Until tomorrow....