am i look good?

varkenson goes for the funny.
just a little something to enjoy cheer way time in a chinese airport...

the varkenkidlets conquer the great wall at muitianyu

so, here it is. and here they are. we managed to go on the coldest day in beijing history (well, in 55 years' worth of history). cold cold cold. minus 17. celsius. don't worry - it's still warm for you folks in the midwest (that's -2 F for you).

this one was actually before we got on the wall itself. quite the view. stuning, actually.

mostly had the wall all to ourselves. too cold but for the hardiest of the t-shirt and crapolah schwag sellers. kind of like the old-time american postman...

a varken halloween

doesn't he just look so happy? joker was made to order at the fabric market. took three guys from three different stalls to decide what would look best on him.

turns out? EVERYTHING looks best on him.


couldn't find a good picture of the varkendaughter withOUT her curlers. but we spent a good month perusing the fabric market before finally choosing to be some blue powerpuff goth girl (why are they always GOTH nowadays?)

before deciding on the powerpuff girl, we were bargaining hard for the corpse bride. but no one really understood why we would want a natted up old wedding gown. and refused to charge us anything less than the perfect bride's dress.

mops or art?

clever way to utilize yesterday's laundry?
wonder if they have special ones for special rooms?
and which one is for mopping the OUTSIDE? our ayi uses the same one. think i should give her a copy of this picture?



almost as good as the money laundering picture. but more colorful.

money laundering day

let's just file this under
THINGS THAT JUST MAKE YOU WANNA GO "huh??"



huh?

tommy? chanel? prada???

this is not the sewn in labels i REALLY wanted to show - i forgot my camera when i went to the CHINESE chinese clothing market (the one where my shanghainese friend had to bring me). there, they had the sewn in labels pinned on the side of each stall. you want prada? i sew in prada. you want chanel? i sew in chanel.

here, you see all the paper labels that get clipped to the outsides of the items. you choose who makes your bag, clothes, whaddeveh... and you can sport any label you'd like. here, most people buy in the hundreds. so they can clip in their own label of choice. i only wish i could have had a better shot. i think i was just a bit shell-shocked from this visit...

book talk on the bund

so on a hazy/cloudy sunday morning the varkenkidlets headed out to M on the Bund for a book talk from a "faaaaamous author" we all love faaaaaaamous authors, right? and this one was RIGHT up varkenson's alley. PHILIP ARDAGH. he wrote such funny stuffed stoat stuff as the eddie dickens trilogy. full of death and dearth and well, let's just say it is EXACTICALLY the kind of stuff the varkenboy enjoys.

quite an intimate setting. in the "crystal room" at M on the bund. which is a whole building of "M" restaurants, nightclubs, and coffee houses??? and the annual literary festival.

they even had a little play acting - just so we could be a part of ongoing plot development. jack was a window in which other child was being thrown out of after being bitten by a pony...

and then we had to go outside to the balcony w/ the best view on the bund (it looks fabulous at night. and great in the sunshine). i don't know why we managed the only 20 minutes of the day to be out there when it was completely clouded over.

lantern festival at yu yuan garden

today is the last day of chinese new year holiday - the 15th day of the lunar new year. coincides w/ a full moon (how do they DOOOO that?) actually, that's why the new year falls on a different day every year (to ensure the full moon). some of my friends never know what day their birthday falls on without using their extra sharp mathematical skills.

and today, being the full moon - and to close out the holiday - is lantern festival. and to celebrate? well, one of the varkenkidlets got to tackle the mass of humanity at yu yuan gardens w/ the rest of her classmates.

these are the riddle lanterns. often just silly riddles like what has very large ears, a tail and a trunk. they're not as funny as one would expect. then again, i'm sure there are many things lost in translation.

these are the picture lanterns. they tell a story on each side. although, since they were up high, we really had no idea what stories they were supposed to convey. still, they were lovely to look at...

then we have the enormous "lanterns" this being the year of the rat (mouse) they tend to be awfully large. there were many of them and one would wander around a corner and there would be yet another great mouse lantern.

the new additions

meet molly and leo. well, just for now they're still molly and leo. that may change. especially if the varkendaddy gets his way - then they're both named after beligian beer. and the varkenkidlets will have none of that.

so molly is the darker one in personality and in coloring. and also the one in charge.

leo is more playful. and the people person. is constantly surprised he has a tail. molly likes the quiet dark space - which is vast and unreachable by humans - under the kitchen cabinets. we think she's quite goth.

DAILY news

this is one of the things i find so crazy about china. we subscribe to one of very few english language SCRUBBED newspapers. here's the happy new year headline.

and then in the days after when i wasn't receiving any DAILY scrubbed news (yah, the kind where they just blatantly steal from the wires but never credit anyone)? i search inside the last one i received. and in teeny tiny print (i've made it bigger for y'all) i see this.

a DAILY NEWSPAPER?

this is sooooooo china

varkendaddy almost loses his fingers...

well, not really, but we were OH-so prepared, just in case it happened. not with medical supplies, mind you, but we just prepared ourselves - MENTALLY for what it would be like to have a father with no fingers.

i mean, when you see the size of the fireworks!!! the big one was quite the cannon. we set that baby off at midnite...

especially when they're all laid out in a row - a thousand in a brick. and he's still running w/ a lit match...

no fun colors, just white. and smokey. and noisy. but then, that's all part of the fun, inn't it.

surveying the damage. i'll have y'all know - that by 8am this morning, all the carnage was swept away. time for a repeat session tonite.

plastic pearl tower

that is soooo shanghai. it's a pretty city to look at from a visitors perspective. but one of its shining glories is the pearl tower (mr varken likes to take lots of pixtures from the ground up. varkenkidlets do NOT appreciate it). pink, plastic and futuristic. the E.T. hall was closed off during our most recent visit. but we did manage to head downstairs to the museums.

everyone is waiting w/ anticipation to go inside and up up up in the plastic pearl - especially sabina. can't you tell?

jack can almost always find the mawkish (can i say that?) in every display...

and this gem? well let's just say the chinese must not think too much of western women, cuz every female in any displaying westerners always seemed to be just short of lacking an adam's apple...