Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day.  We have teams out in the field so I went into work in the moring, but pretty much took the rest of the day off.  If it weren't for all of the US Embassy personnel in our apartment complex, I would probably have just gone into work and liesurely accomplished a lot of the things that have been on the back-burner for a while. Unfortunately, any time there is a US-only holiday and I am at work, invevitably there will be at least one person from the embassy asking Diep where I am. Then I catch hell because I wasn't at home during the holiday.  This happens a lot when the embassy is closed for a Vietnamese holiday.  Diep seems to think I should get Vietnamese holidays off, which I don't.

Anyway, our day was pretty full.  Diep and I hit the tennis ball around before Megan went to school and then I took off for the office to see what was going on for the day.  When I got back, we took off for the Metro (which is similar to COSCO) and requires a membership card.  Diep lost her card in HCMC and needed some support to convince the management to issue her a new card.  Good news is that she got a new card, bad news is that it was hotter than hell when we rode the 30 minutes to and from the store on the motorbike.  After the store, we went to eat at Thai Express (fast food Thai restaurant in the center of town) and then stopped off at a local spa for a foot massage.

Megan was home from school shortly after we got back.  If you are feeling sorry for Megan because she didn't get the day off, don't. She will be off for the summer in no time - last day on 11 June - and she gets plenty of breaks anyway.

Megan and two of her friends were invited to make a few episodes of English-speaking lessons for a local television company this last Sunday.  All in all, it seemed to be pretty educational and fun for her.  Diep was extremely concerned that the company was using her talents without pay;  I personally figure it is some experience she gains and lets her get a feel for whether she would ever want to do something like that for real.

Not much time left before I get really busy.  In less than three weeks I go to Hawaii for some computer training and shortly after that I come back to the States on home leave.  I have a feeling it is all going to be a blur.

Today ended with an electrical storm to the south of Hanoi. I captured a little on my flip video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsDBBb2V4j8&feature=player_embedded

Touch and go

Things were touch and go there for a day after I got back from Danang.  Diep was mad at me for not being there for her on her birthday, even though I told her in advance that I would be gone.  Also, not that I am playing the tit-for-tat game here, but she has been in Saigon for my birthday for the last two years.  Anyway, she told me how much she hated me for a day and then got over it.

I find myself at work this Sunday because of some network issues.  I will try to coordinate with our higher headquarters to resolve them, but I was hoping just to come in to get a good workout.  I guess work has the priority.  Hopefully there will be a little time left over for the workout.

Diep goes to Saigon tomorrow and I will head to Nghe An Province.  Megan will get her first chance at being home alone for a night.  This should be exciting for her... I think she is big enough to handle a night by herself.  I am most worried that she will stay up too late on the internet.  I trust her, though, and figure everything will work out just fine. 

Getting back to normal...

That whole thing that happened Sunday was so weird.  The guy who started the little tet-a-tet, no doubt, has been emboldened by his soon departure from this post.  As much of a rock (as in stupid, not hard) as he is, I can't help but to think he was trying to pull me into a battle where he could take my emails and set them in front of his replacement to show him what an asshole I am.  Just the thought of that is enough to temper me in my future dealings.  I handled the last round fairly well by bowing out and stating the audience was too large to be "kidding" around like we were.  I must have shamed him to some degree because he wouldn't even look me in the eye yesterday...  Anyway, I am well over it and now I am moving on with the "thousand" things I have to do before I head to the US on vacation.

I leave for Danang tomorrow and things will start picking up very quickly from there.  Things will culminate with the end of the field activity toward the end of June and just after that I will head for Hawaii to take a Security + training course.  After looking into the course and the exam, I figure I could proably just study my book and take the exam here in Vietnam at a vendor school, but that wouldn't be much fun.  If I have to recertify or even if I have to take another exam, i.e. Network +, I might just do the book study and take the exam straight up.  That is all dependent on how easy or hard the exam is this time around.  Anyway, whether I pass the exam or not, I head back to the U.S. just a few days after that.  Three days of much needed vacation!

I talked to Dad today.  He seems to be doing well... except for the brace he has on his foot from a partially torn tendon.  I asked him whether the doctor would get mad about all the grease and oil he has on it (from working on his cars) when he goes back to get a check up.  He said for the $175 he paid for the brace, he doesn't give a shit what the doctor says.  You go Dad!

Diep's birthday is on 20 May.  I will be in Danang, but I have already promised to do something for her birthday when I get back.  That would be Friday night... or we might put it off until Saturday.

That is about it for now.  After I wrote what I did at the top of this blog, I find myself wondering if anyone other than my sister reads this thing.  It could prove to be uncomfortable if it is a bigger audience than I think... Oh well!

Arghh...

This weekend started out pretty good. On Saturday, Megan and I went out to the office to start our 3D model project.  The weather was crappy, but we had a pretty good father/daughter session.

After we got home, we all went out to eat and had a good lunch at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants.  After that, Megan rode her bicycle to a friends house for a sleepover, and Diep and I spent some time together.  Since Megan stayed overnight, Diep and I had the morning to ourselves as well. 

Everything went fine until this afternoon and then the bottom fell out of my weekend.  First of all, Diep got this wild hair up her ass about me being able to access her computer.  First of all, I want to say that I just as soon not have access to her computer, but I have to fix things from time to time - not to mention the oft times she calls me over to help her accomplish some task on it.  Anyway, it started small when her friend sent her a facebook invitation.  She couldn't figure out why she couldn't see the pictures of other members that she knew that were embedded in the invitation.  I explained to her that FB was blocked in Vietnam and that was why the pictures wouldn't download.  I also said that I can't even use it right now.  Apparently, she didn't believe me and got mad at my perceived deception.  I saw the writing on the wall and just got up from the table and went to the office... my place of solice.

So while I am at the office going over my emails that I got on Saturday, I see that a certain member of my office that I have had disputes with in the past, decided to send a barb at me in the guise good office humor.  He attacked my Vietnamese language ability which is pretty laughable since there aren't too many people that can do my job as well as I can.  Even funnier is that he can't speak any Vietnamese to know one way or the other.  There were a couple of back and forths, as he was responding from his PDA, when I realized that there were other unintended recipients on the CC line, and I just stopped.  I probably would have just blown it off in the first place, but I was a little pissed off about the domestic situation and wasn't feeling like taking it from work and home.  No doubt I will have to deal with this tomorrow morning.  It just kills me because I have intentionally handled this guy with kid gloves because of an alleged disrespect that I started.  In fact, I never said the thing I was accused of saying to disrespect this guy, but he doesn't believe me and has had this chip on his shoulder ever since.

I guess life is just like this sometimes. Things could be worse I guess... When I got home Diep was already over it.

Friday... finally!

I guess Friday as a subject for a blog is fairly ubiquitous.  That makes it pretty boring as well, I suppose.  I tend not to pay too much attention to Friday as a day of the week because I often work through the weekends, though at a lesser pace than throughout the week.  Nevertheless, there were a couple of days in this past week that just dragged on, making this Friday a little more worthy of note to me than usual.

I am not sure what the weekend holds in store yet, but I am hoping to get a little father - daughter time in.  What weekend I get, I enjoy, but there are times that lull along and I am hoping to make some time with Megan to go to my office.

Detachment Two Office Building

My plan is to make a 3D model of the office I work in using the free modeling software from Google called Sketchup.  I had seen Sketchup before and even downloaded it, but at the time I held no special interest in it.  Recently, however, I was reacquainted with it and think it could be really neat in modeling the building I work in, which is very unique and probably dates back into the late 1800s or early 1900s.  I want to do it to scale, so I will need to measure all of the sides and angles.  I plan on starting with the basics and adding details to it over time... and it could take a while.  Anyway, I think it could be educational for Megan and give us time together.  I think I will be able to do this fairly easily because gathering the data will be very similar to what I used to do as a party chief on a survey crew. Whether Megan sticks with it or not, I plan on finishing the model.  As a matter of fact, this could be very educational for me and give me some skills I have been interested in getting for a long time now.  Not wanting to drag this on too long, I took an Engineering Graphics course during my very brief college experience at the University of South Alabama.  I enjoyed it immensely and wonder if it wasn't my true calling.  Life is cruel, however, and I am definitely too old to be changing career paths at this stage in my life.

If you are interested in seeing what Google Sketchup does, just do a google search on it.  If you want to see some really cool models on the WWW, open Google Earth and check on the 3D Buildings icon in the layers section in the left hand pane.  There are 3D models in just about every major city in the world.  And, if you want to learn sketchup, there are some really good training videos on the sketchup page.

Mother's Day 2010

So, when I came home on Friday, things went back to normal.  Not sure where the craziness came from, nor do I know where it went, but for now it is gone. And for that I am thankful.

Saturday and Sunday went by quickly.  I have been working a lot, so having both days off was quite a luxury.  I had told Diep we would go wherever she wanted to eat on Sunday for Mother's Day, but she picked a restaurant that we eat at fairly regularly on the weekend, the Quan An Ngon (translated "Delicious Restaurant"):

Diep and Megan on Mother's Day - 2010

Roasted bird on the plate

The food was good, as usual, but the weather has gotten dramatically hotter in the past two weeks, making it hard to eat comfortably in this outdoor restaurant.  Maybe it was just me, because the restaurant was crowded and no one else seemed to have a problem (except Megan).

Megan and I were going to give Diep a piece of jewelry for Mother's Day, but we are bad at picking out the specific keepsake she would like, so we just gave her money to buy a piece that she likes.  This may seem impersonal, but it is better than getting her something she doesn't want... and she seemed okay with it.

Today, I have to give two briefings to visiting military groups.  I haven't done this in a long time because both of our leaders at the moment really enjoy doing this.  Unfortunately, they both went to Danang to see the advance team into the country, leaving me to do the task. I don't mind doing it, I suppose, but it was funny having the deputy tell me how to do it, considering I had been doing it so regularly for the 6 years before he showed up.  Anyway, the briefing will get in the way of any other productivity I may have had planned earlier.

Dilemma

Somehow, after I got back from the trip to Saigon I got in the doghouse.  Regrettably, I don't even know how this time. I know when... exactly when, but I am having trouble figuring out how I fell from grace. It started when Diep was telling me that she had met with her Filippino friend earlier in the day, and it was also related to a chance encounter I had when I was in Saigon:

I had told Diep how I was approached by two Filippinas near the market and they had asked me about my Tevas.  I expressed to Diep that I was sure that they were up to some no good and were using a "chance encounter" to work some scam.  I told the women I had bought them at a specific department store in Saigon, and when they asked, I told them I worked for the US Embassy.  Their enthusiasm for making friends dropped instantly and they departed.  Anyway, just a couple of days later, according to a local paper some Filippinas were arrested in Saigon for scamming a Japanese guy by luring him back to their apartment and talking him into playing cards for money.

So, back to why Diep got mad.  She told me she had told her friends that I liked to flaunt my money and how I was lucky to have escaped the scam artists in Saigon.  I got defensive about her accusations and, apparently, I got loud in my defense.  Immediately after that, Diep was very angry at me and has been ever since.  At least it is the good kind of angry where she isn't talking to me.  I handle cold war tactics much better than nuclear holocaust.  I can hold out for days under these conditions... actually, these battles I come out as the victor.

The dilemma is that Mother's Day is on Sunday and I want to do something nice for Diep.  I just don't know if she will be talking to me by then for me to be nice.  Oh well.

Saigon - Part 4

Brothers 3 and 4

After visiting 5's house, we went back to Saigon.  There, we did what the people in Saigon call "nhau" with Brother 3 and Brother 4. Both of these brothers were with the revolutionary forces, better known as VC, and went to the north after "reunification".  Both of these guys are old enough to be called "uncle" but because Diep's father was the uncle of these two guys, she calls them older brother.  Actually the youngest one is like 76 years old.  The guy on my far right in the picture is an old comrade of Brother 4 and he is 79 years old. I like 4, and met him before Megan was born at his daughter's wedding.  I also envy him his age, in that he has reached the point in life that he can wear PJ's all day long and no one will say anything to him about it. 4 actually owns the restaurant we went to and he had his own special blend of medicinal moonshine that he shared with the group.  Apparently, this blend included goat testes along with a myriad of other "performance enhancing" ingredients.  I personally could have done without it. Before the end of the night, everyone exchanged phone numbers, and I am sure I will be getting a call in the not too distant future.  I took quite a few pictures during our day trip and I plan on developing some to give to all of Diep's relatives.

Uncle 3 and Diep's Mother

So, that was essentially my 30th of April, 2010.  The following day, we went out to Diep's house to see her mother.  We then visited some maternal relatives, but the day was tame in comparison to the day before.  We took a short ride from Diep's mother's place to Uncle 3's house.  Uncle 3 has asthma and cataracts, but he is a pretty nice guy.  He wanted us to have a small drinking session, but even if I were inclined, I believe his wife would have stopped it before it even got started, giving Uncle's general state of health.

That is pretty much the end of my trip to Saigon. Diep and I went out to one of her friend's bars that evening, but we didn't do much else.

Saigon - Part 3

Brother 10 and wife

Apologies for the short post yesterday.  My internet connection wasn't working well at home and I was busy at work, so I didn't have much time to write.  Anyway, after visiting 7's house, we took off for Brother 10's house.  10 was an ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam Nam) soldier, supporting the southern regime and he got his legs blown off by a mine.  He was one of the friendliest guys of the bunch and seems to get around fine without the legs, though the recent stroke had numbed his left arm. His wife was a great woman and very charming.

As you can see by me sweating in the photo, things were starting to heat up.  We then left Brother 10's house for Brother 5's house which was a little motorbike drive away.  We hopped on the bikes and came to the edge of Brother 5's property where we had to negotiate a bridge path over a small canal.  As you can see by the video accessed through the link, it was not as easy to get across as one might think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0vLCoUpDis

I didn't get it on video, but I went in as well.  The sides of the canal were very slick, and though I took it slow, I slid my foot to a soft spot and just went down.  Fortunately, I understood my abilities and had emptied my pockets before hand.

We had some fresh boiled crabs and shrimp at Brother 5's house and then left on a small boat to avoid the canal again.  Back on the road, we headed back for the city.

On the boat leaving 5's house

Saigon - Part 2

Sister 7's house

So after visiting Sister 3's house, we walked along a small trail to Sister 7's house.  7's son is a couple of months older than I am (photo) and appears to live with his wife and sister at Sister 7's house.  Her son works at the hospital where Brother 3 was a director and according to Diep, he is a doctor.  I was still in good spirits at this time, but this was still early in the day and I figured this was our last stop before heading back to Saigon... 

My Trip to Saigon 29 April - 2 May (part 1)

35th Death Anniversary Gathering on 30 April 2010

On the evening of 28 April I traveled to Saigon to meet Diep and Megan who had went ahead because Megan was on a scheduled week holiday from school.  This time in Saigon was a little different for me because I spent more time with Diep's family than I usually do... not particularly because I wanted to.

On 30 April Diep, Megan and I went to Can Giuoc Town in Long An Province.  From the town, we took a small ferry across a river towards a cluster of properties that belong to Diep's relatives, to gather together to mourn the loss of her cousin's husband.  The gathering isn't really mourning as much as it is tradition and custom for animists.  I don't recall anyone actually talking about the man who died, and I spent most of my time trying to figure out who was who.  This gathering, in Vietnamese, is called a "Dam Gio" and mostly entails drinking and eating.  Without Diep and Megan there to watch me, I would have been sucked into the drinking part until I was as loud and beligerent as the rest of these guys.  The drink of choice was a local brand of "ruou de", better known as moonshine from the parts I am from.  This was just the beginning of the day...

Megan's Fall in Saigon

I just got back from Saigon this evening and have lots to blog about.  In the meantime, this is a little taste of what went on during the trip.  This little clip has a background beginning with me teasing Megan about signing up for the long jump on a recent sports day at her school... enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBkQAvzFgz4