Here I am, sitting down to my (very clunky and awful work borrowed laptop) on a Friday evening, marveling at how quickly yet another week has gone by.
On the work front, first of all, my laptop broke from my work trip last month, and the whole thing was essentially pulled apart by the useless technician who came to try to fix it. Now it's completely unusable because it can't be charged, and I am not certain that I managed to back up the hard drive before the charge ran out. The part takes a whopping couple of weeks to deliver (why, Dell? Why? It's just completely unacceptable). So that's been awesome.
It was otherwise a good week at work - with enough to do to make me feel busy and fulfilled, but not completely overwhelmed. I will be running a big project out of Asia for an important client commencing this month, which is exciting. It will be challenging but interesting and will likely go for a while into the new year. I also attended quite a few client meetings, lunches (got to try out a delicious Chinese restaurant I'd never been to in Causeway Bay) and even made my way to the horse races for an event at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
I did a massive overhaul/clean-up of my office, updating legal statutes and reference books, re-organizing old signing and closing sets, and unearthing nearly every stray piece of paper and every binder, which made me feel a lot
lighter. I still have to organize my precedents into folders by type,
but I'm getting there. I also updated my framed pictures, brought in a big green plant and am shopping for a new painting for my wall. I also have been trying to stand up more at my desk while working. I think it's good so far, but I definitely feel more tired by the end of the day.
On the Lola front, I can't help but delve into a ton of gushing detail. She is just insanely cute right now, and every day brings new developments and delights. I still can't get over the fact that she kisses her toy dog on the nose by touching her nose to its nose. She also kisses her favorite page (the hippo) on the pages of one of her little Baby Einstein books by touching her lips briefly to his face and licking it. She recognizes things that are mine (any article of my clothing or any of my bags) and things that are Michael's (she loves, loves, loves sorting his socks). The other day, when I came home from work, instead of rewarding me with a kiss, she leaned down and gave my black blazer a kiss. Hmmmm. She also continues to go absolutely crazy around any kind of jewelry - I think it's best if we all just stop wearing watches around her for a while....
Lola really understands a lot. If you ask her, "Lola, how do we laugh?" she will laugh! As adorable as that is, though, I don't want her laughing on command (or ever feeling that she has to) so we are not encouraging that. If you ask her, "Lola, where's the pretty baby?" she will go look for the mirror. Our helper taught her both of these - I'm not sure I condone the second one either, but I guess I'm willing to let it slide. Today, we asked Lola where the flowers were while she was having a blast tossing herself around on our big bed (it's like her personal trampoline), and she pointed at the dried lavender in the corner, knowing that "flowers" don't just apply to the one set on the dining table in the vase. During meal times we have to hide the fruit from her because if she even glimpses the bowl, she knows and then won't eat her regular meal. When it's bedtime and we call for her to "sleep," she scampers to the farthest corner of the room and tries to hide herself behind the bed (but she has not yet realized that hiding her head so she can't see us, doesn't quite mean that she has succeeded in hiding her body so that we can't see her).
Lola is also really strong. She shocked our nanny by flipping the huge foam blocks at the playroom as she pushed them in front of her. She can stand for long periods of time (though her number of steps taken remain at 4, because she is very cautious and does not want to fall). Lola has also figured out how to scoot herself down from the sofa and our bed - a bit scary even though we always have someone present watching because those are still very high up for her, but she figured out that it's much easier to get down from high places if you flip yourself onto your stomach and go feet first.
Last week Lola also figured out how to attempt to escape from her playpen by stepping on the the box that is used to store her little books. When that didn't give her sufficient height, she tried again... by flipping the box the higher way! We were absolutely floored. Now we don't put anything consisting of a firm surface or any kind of building block in the playpen for the little MacGuyver. She has figured out the power button on her musical guitar and her pretend iPhone, and the home button on Michael's iPad. Just today, she was hitting the button for Siri and saying "ma ma," to which Siri responded, "I don't know who your ma ma is." Hilarious! Dear Lord, something tells me we are going to have our hands full.
On the personal front, things have been busy and somewhat productive (I always feel like I can do more and have more to do).
I booked our Taichung accommodations for the end of the month (thank goodness, I was getting very anxious about it, especially once we realized that a lot of hotels were booked up), at a new hotel called La Vida (I hope it's as nice as it looks). Michael still has to figure out the car rental situation though...
I spent a ton of time researching schools in Hong Kong for Lola (playgroups, nursery school, kindergarden and primary - this city is absolutely crazy) because everyone keeps trying to scare me about her not having a school to attend. I put together a whole binder of schools to consider. In all fairness, though, she is so active and engaged that she does need to go to playgroup nearly every day - she gets very bored at home otherwise. What is helping us narrow the search is that we're looking for bilingual schools or schools with very strong Mandarin and English programs. After that, we will also take into account distance (as I am not in favor of having Lola commute for hours at such a young age). I plan to take her to a trial playgroup next week, and we will visit an open house for another playgroup tomorrow.
We are still in landlord hell (purgatory?) over a monstrous broken air conditioner in one of the bedrooms in our Chicago condo, that is under warranty but couldn't be fixed until we pulled apart the door frame, and then couldn't be done until the weather got warmer (which in Chicago is never) and then the part got lost and couldn't be rescheduled for repair until the part was found or re-delivered, and everyone is anxious because next week is Thanksgiving so no one wants to work. I could have avoided the whole thing entirely on the premise that it's winter and who uses their air conditioner in the winter, but then I was trying to be a good landlord and responsive to a very angry and frustrated tenant... and the 14 hour time difference is certainly not helping, either. This is probably the thing that has caused me the most anxiety this week. At one point I woke up at 3 am to pick up the phone call from the company to hear them confirm that, yep, they really couldn't find the part. The worst bit is, we know that the air conditioners will break again because the building installed a very finicky commercial kind, the massive kind that require two men and four hours to do just a routine cleaning.
I also spent a bit of time looking at a new litter of adorable cream French bulldog pictures and videos from a breeder I follow (so dangerous!) and seriously considered just going ahead and buying a puppy. Still really tempted...
To round out the week, I had a good catch up with a friend over wine and cheese and cured meats (always the best) who gifted me with some sweet and thoughtful surprise early
birthday presents.
Now I must head to bed because I have jam-packed my weekend and I am meeting a real estate agent in Central at the ungodly hour of 9:15am to do a marathon viewing of apartments...
On the work front, first of all, my laptop broke from my work trip last month, and the whole thing was essentially pulled apart by the useless technician who came to try to fix it. Now it's completely unusable because it can't be charged, and I am not certain that I managed to back up the hard drive before the charge ran out. The part takes a whopping couple of weeks to deliver (why, Dell? Why? It's just completely unacceptable). So that's been awesome.
It was otherwise a good week at work - with enough to do to make me feel busy and fulfilled, but not completely overwhelmed. I will be running a big project out of Asia for an important client commencing this month, which is exciting. It will be challenging but interesting and will likely go for a while into the new year. I also attended quite a few client meetings, lunches (got to try out a delicious Chinese restaurant I'd never been to in Causeway Bay) and even made my way to the horse races for an event at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
On the Lola front, I can't help but delve into a ton of gushing detail. She is just insanely cute right now, and every day brings new developments and delights. I still can't get over the fact that she kisses her toy dog on the nose by touching her nose to its nose. She also kisses her favorite page (the hippo) on the pages of one of her little Baby Einstein books by touching her lips briefly to his face and licking it. She recognizes things that are mine (any article of my clothing or any of my bags) and things that are Michael's (she loves, loves, loves sorting his socks). The other day, when I came home from work, instead of rewarding me with a kiss, she leaned down and gave my black blazer a kiss. Hmmmm. She also continues to go absolutely crazy around any kind of jewelry - I think it's best if we all just stop wearing watches around her for a while....
Lola really understands a lot. If you ask her, "Lola, how do we laugh?" she will laugh! As adorable as that is, though, I don't want her laughing on command (or ever feeling that she has to) so we are not encouraging that. If you ask her, "Lola, where's the pretty baby?" she will go look for the mirror. Our helper taught her both of these - I'm not sure I condone the second one either, but I guess I'm willing to let it slide. Today, we asked Lola where the flowers were while she was having a blast tossing herself around on our big bed (it's like her personal trampoline), and she pointed at the dried lavender in the corner, knowing that "flowers" don't just apply to the one set on the dining table in the vase. During meal times we have to hide the fruit from her because if she even glimpses the bowl, she knows and then won't eat her regular meal. When it's bedtime and we call for her to "sleep," she scampers to the farthest corner of the room and tries to hide herself behind the bed (but she has not yet realized that hiding her head so she can't see us, doesn't quite mean that she has succeeded in hiding her body so that we can't see her).
Lola is also really strong. She shocked our nanny by flipping the huge foam blocks at the playroom as she pushed them in front of her. She can stand for long periods of time (though her number of steps taken remain at 4, because she is very cautious and does not want to fall). Lola has also figured out how to scoot herself down from the sofa and our bed - a bit scary even though we always have someone present watching because those are still very high up for her, but she figured out that it's much easier to get down from high places if you flip yourself onto your stomach and go feet first.
Last week Lola also figured out how to attempt to escape from her playpen by stepping on the the box that is used to store her little books. When that didn't give her sufficient height, she tried again... by flipping the box the higher way! We were absolutely floored. Now we don't put anything consisting of a firm surface or any kind of building block in the playpen for the little MacGuyver. She has figured out the power button on her musical guitar and her pretend iPhone, and the home button on Michael's iPad. Just today, she was hitting the button for Siri and saying "ma ma," to which Siri responded, "I don't know who your ma ma is." Hilarious! Dear Lord, something tells me we are going to have our hands full.
On the personal front, things have been busy and somewhat productive (I always feel like I can do more and have more to do).
I booked our Taichung accommodations for the end of the month (thank goodness, I was getting very anxious about it, especially once we realized that a lot of hotels were booked up), at a new hotel called La Vida (I hope it's as nice as it looks). Michael still has to figure out the car rental situation though...
I spent a ton of time researching schools in Hong Kong for Lola (playgroups, nursery school, kindergarden and primary - this city is absolutely crazy) because everyone keeps trying to scare me about her not having a school to attend. I put together a whole binder of schools to consider. In all fairness, though, she is so active and engaged that she does need to go to playgroup nearly every day - she gets very bored at home otherwise. What is helping us narrow the search is that we're looking for bilingual schools or schools with very strong Mandarin and English programs. After that, we will also take into account distance (as I am not in favor of having Lola commute for hours at such a young age). I plan to take her to a trial playgroup next week, and we will visit an open house for another playgroup tomorrow.
We are still in landlord hell (purgatory?) over a monstrous broken air conditioner in one of the bedrooms in our Chicago condo, that is under warranty but couldn't be fixed until we pulled apart the door frame, and then couldn't be done until the weather got warmer (which in Chicago is never) and then the part got lost and couldn't be rescheduled for repair until the part was found or re-delivered, and everyone is anxious because next week is Thanksgiving so no one wants to work. I could have avoided the whole thing entirely on the premise that it's winter and who uses their air conditioner in the winter, but then I was trying to be a good landlord and responsive to a very angry and frustrated tenant... and the 14 hour time difference is certainly not helping, either. This is probably the thing that has caused me the most anxiety this week. At one point I woke up at 3 am to pick up the phone call from the company to hear them confirm that, yep, they really couldn't find the part. The worst bit is, we know that the air conditioners will break again because the building installed a very finicky commercial kind, the massive kind that require two men and four hours to do just a routine cleaning.
I also spent a bit of time looking at a new litter of adorable cream French bulldog pictures and videos from a breeder I follow (so dangerous!) and seriously considered just going ahead and buying a puppy. Still really tempted...
To round out the week, I had a good catch up with a friend over wine and cheese and cured meats (always the best) who gifted me with some sweet and thoughtful surprise early
birthday presents.Now I must head to bed because I have jam-packed my weekend and I am meeting a real estate agent in Central at the ungodly hour of 9:15am to do a marathon viewing of apartments...
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