4... Maybe a 5ish...

A friend of ours has a saying: “Bad things always seem to come in threes.” Apparently Southeast Asia didn’t get the memo, because we’ve recently had 4 things (plus a 5ish) go wrong on us in the past several weeks.

Number One

We are NOT good with cameras. We’re on our fourth camera in four years. Camera #1 was left at church and never found again, camera #2 was viciously but unintentionally attacked by a flying coconut (true story) and camera #3 was trampled on while flying kites. Keeping with the tradition, camera #4 up and decided that we could no longer use the flash to take pictures. We’re not sure why, but the flash refuses to flash.

“But what about the warranty?”

Good question.

The camera is still under warranty… under an American warranty… meaning we would have to pay to have it shipped back to the US… and pay to have it shipped back to us. Not to mention the fact that we would go weeks without a camera, which might as well be decades for parents with a growing baby that does something new everyday. We can still take pictures without the flash, so we’re making do…although there is a mommy who thinks “Month 7” in the baby book just won’t look as good as the others.

Number Two

Our TV. We turned it on one night to watch a movie, only to find this:

Continuing with the half-broken/half-working theme, the TV still has sound and one little thin line of pixels going across the middle, but that’s it. Honestly, this isn’t a big deal for us TV-wise. We don’t have satellite; we’re not missing much. We download all the TV shows we want to watch from the internet because they’re all a season behind here.

What’s the deal with Sylar being a good guy all of the sudden? Also, Sharon squealed when Jim proposed to Pam… but I digress.

It IS a big deal for us movie-wise. We watch a ton of them on our DVD player. Now we’re forced to watch them on our smaller laptop screen (I know, boo hoo), but because of the, ahem, “not quite original nature” of the DVDs, they don’t always work on the laptop like they do in the DVD player.

Number Three

We got a package from Sharon’s mom last week. Along with twizzlers, kool-aid, and hair ties for Sharon who now has short hair, she sent us some bed risers. We recently moved into a much smaller house and needed to store some things under our bed. We get pretty excited about packages and we immediately put the bed risers underneath the bed. But there’s something we didn’t think about. Besides the four legs on the corners, our bed also has two additional legs in the middle to support the queen mattress. We remembered once I sat on the bed… and the middle beam snapped in half. Aduh! (the local equivalent to doh!). Now our mattress is conveniently located on the floor where we can’t put anything underneath. Nice.

Number Four

Facing a weekend of sleeping on the floor and trying IKEA for a spare bed-beam, we decided to go to a friend’s house who is out of town for a while. They live in the city (we’re about 30-45 minutes outside the city) about 10 minutes from IKEA and left us the keys so we could spend the night whenever we wished. They have satellite, air conditioning and several pools in their apartment complex so we were looking forward to a nice, relaxing, sun-soaked, pool-drenched weekend.

And then.

Our Mac.

Yes, our Mac.

It all happened so quickly. One minute talking on Skype to Sharon’s sister. The next minute desperately trying to wipe off the Raspberry Red Crystal Light seeping underneath all the keys and screen.

We thought she died.

The battery wouldn’t charge. We couldn’t open files. It looked like the Blob was taking over the screen.

The Mac guy thought the motherboard and graphics chip were damaged.

After two worrisome nights in the ICU, and a newly-cleaned interior, she pulled through with nothing more than several bright star-like dots on the edges of the screen and a non-functioning key to the right of the 0 key (the “-“ key… we’ve thankfully discovered a different way to make a -).

Number 5ish

I say “5ish” because it was just the cherry on top of the whole deal…not another broken appliance.

So after we left the MacBook at the store to get treated, we decided to put on a brave face and make the most of the rest of the weekend. We got out to the pool and spent about 15 minutes in it before a huge thunderstorm rolled through. Typical.

But not before Isaac’s Mama managed to take a few pictures (SOMETHING has to go in the babybook for this month right?)So…

That’s it.

Good story, huh?

We figure things can only get better from here.

We’ll letcha know.

Durian Donut

I’m not sure who is more crazy - Big Apple Donut Company for making a durian donut or my husband for buying said durian donut (by the way, Big Apple Donut Co. is from Jakarta, Indonesia, not NYC as they would have you believe).
The donut is shaped like the spikes on the outside of a durian. Clever.

When you order one the attendant says, “You must eat in 3 hours.”

The first time I heard this (when I asked what type of donut it was and then didn't order it when I found out) I had no clue what the lady was talking about. 3 hours? I’m sure it would take me that long to try and put one down my throat. But what? 3 hours? She answered, “The filling is made fresh and it goes bad if you don’t eat it within 3 hours.”

So the other night, my husband got a crazy hair and ordered one. After clarifying that he WOULD NOT get one of my 3 delicious chocolate donuts if the durian one was awful we proceeded. They called to the back (I’m sure where all the nasty donuts are kept) and filled one up with the pungent filling. I wonder if Krispy Kreme ever made a durian donut if they’d have a big yellow neon light, “Stinky and Fresh NOW.”

Here he is eating it. Which he did within about 20 minutes…ensuring “freshness.”Flattering. He said it was strong. He ate the whole thing, but the rest of the night if he burped he’d say, “Oh man, that tastes like that durian donut.” To which I would give a half-hearted, “Well that’s what you get.” type of merciless response.

2008 Hari Raya

This past week the month of fasting ended and the month of feasting began. The first day of celebration is the most important. For the 3rd year, we celebrated with Abang and Kakak's family. On the first day family members apologize to one another for all they've done against them in the year past and "wipe the slate clean." This year Abang and his oldest son, Mohommad, had an extra special moment when Mohommad approached his dad. 3 weeks ago Mohommad was hit by a car leaving school. He came away with just a broken arm and some pretty incredible road rash on his head, but that's about it. The whole ordeal gave them a big scare and you could tell as Abang embraced Mohommad that he knew what incredible gift he had been given in the life of his son. Instead of the usual 2 or 3 kisses on the cheek (side to side...think "Latin American") Abang gave him at least 6 or 7.
Everyone dresses up in their new coordinating outfits. It was really fun this year for Anthony and Isaac to match. Instead of getting taylor made outfits this year, we just bought ready made ones (which usually mean my, Sharon, sleeves are too short:). Isaac's outfit was the smallest we could find and we still had to get it hemmed. What a great Raya as a family of three!