Bowling.

My wife did the blog last about homeschooling and did a fine job but it has been two weeks since I last did a blog, so this is going to be a mix of topics to bring you up to date.

DJ likes it when the dog plays ball.

DJ is talking so sweet these days and sometimes wakes in the night to talk.

DJ likes to play ball.

DJ can set-up really well now.

DJ likes it when her big sister Suzanne shares her soft chocolate chip cookies.

It's hard work being a baby. Like many of the Chinese, she will take a nap anywhere she can.

Jiamusi is hosting the provincial sporting events and they had a parade of floats and fireworks for the opening day. This is one of the floats. I don't know what sports. The tickets are too much for us even if we had time. We missed the parade and only heard the fireworks.

For the last month they have been working on remodeling a building we walk by all the time. It now looks like this.

The buildings they are constructing here started out five months ago as a muddy lot and now are eight stories tall.

Everytime we go out walking with DJ we get people stopping us wanting to see.

It was a nice day for a walk yesterday. The temperature was near 85F so it was a little warm. In the picture with Deb, DJ and Suzanne; you can see the train station in the background. The station is at the center of town and this is looking South. We live on the North side of town. Since there are only a few places to get around the tracks, we haven't explored too much of the South side of town. The ladies had been to this part of town before but it was another teacher that told us about the bowling ally just to the East of the station near this park that is across from the station.

The bowling ally only had ten lanes. When we got there at 2pm they were open but was told we had to wait until 3pm to bowl. At 2:30pm, a man showed up and turned on the lights and lanes for us to bowl. You have to pay up front for how many games you are going to bowl. It cost 6rmb or just under $1 per game. We didn't have to rent shoes even though they had some. DJ slept some, played some, bowled some, but mostly enjoyed watching us bowl. There was a young couple that came in and bowled a few games. The manager and his friends played cards and then he read the paper waiting for us to finish. When we left at 4:30pm, they locked up and went home. They keep some strange hours that we didn't see posted. The bathrooms were not kept clean. On one side of the bowling ally is an indoor pool that is no longer in use and on the other side is a gym that is no longer in use. I don't know why they are closed. You can wonder if it is because of the hours and dirty bathrooms why more people don't bowl or if it is because more people don't bowl that they keep such short hours and don't keep up with things. I think it is because bowling is a western culture thing. We still enjoyed bowling again and it was nice to see something made in USA for a change besides us. All the equipment was Brunswick. Deb bowled five games and I bowled five games for a total of around $9.

The teachers assistants and Mei were enjoying some corn after classes last night at Ivy. We don't like the corn. It is a winter corn and not very sweet. It taste like wax to us. DJ's 1st birthday is on saturday the 28th of August and we will caring some stuff to Ivy to have a little party there.

We have seen several large sunflowers around the city and this one is just outside our apartment.

I showed this video to DJ and she was very excited to have aother baby that talked the same language she did. Every time she goes by a mirrored surface she likes to wave at the baby.

Mid morning nap.