Blip on the Radar

The day after we did the home pregnancy test, the doctor confirmed V was pregnant, but he couldn't find the baby. Considering how early we discovered the pregnancy, that's not a surprise - the baby was just too small.

However today, just six days later, the doctor found what he was looking for. The baby is where it's supposed to be, and we're relieved. This is the first of many hurdles we need to pass, and so far all is well.

The doctor also presented us with this, our first image of our baby. I'd like to say that this photograph has brought the pregnancy home to me and made it real, but I can't. For all I know this is an image of Chinese MiGs invading our airspace. The doctor has assured me it isn't, so I guess I'll take his word for it, but I'm not closing my mind to the possibility.

Reckless Abandon

Life is good. Between our school and my morning job at TAITRA I'm a little too busy, but oh well. Actually, TAITRA is pissing me off somewhat. Most of the students there are great, but some of them are there to get certificates without doing any work. Fine by me, but when a student takes the podium to give a presentation that they took straight of the internet, without even using any of the physical presentation skills I taught, I'm going to have something to say about it. Actually, what I said was "Ok, you don't need to finish. Please take your seat." You'd think I had just slapped them across the face, to see their reactions. It's not a very political move, but to hell with it - I'm not going to tolerate blatant cheating. If they at least went to the effort to be subtle about it! If I were allowed to fail students, I think things would be better - we could set at least some rudimentary standards. The way things stand now, however, if a student pays and shows up for at least the first half of the session, he gets his certificate. ~shrug~ I'm just glad I'm not tied to that place. If my job satisfaction were to be limited to my TAITRA experiences, I'd be be checking out the want ads hourly!

On a more personal note, Vanessa and I have decided to no longer worry about "being careful". We're ready to put our family planning into God's hands and see what happens. I think it's not as daunting a prospect as it once was. V's cycle has all the punctuality of an Italian train, so we've already had a few false alarms. The last time I was faced with the prospect of a possible pregnancy, I realized I was pretty unconcerned, which surprised us both, I think. This got us to thinking that if we want to have kids someday (we do), why not now? Will there be a better time? What are we waiting for? Since we couldn't really think of a good answer to those questions, we decided to let nature take its course. V thinks it'll take a while, but I'm telling her she's not even going to have a bikini summer. She's amused by my confidence in my virility and her fertility, both unproven, but we'll see what happens.

Men's Talk

I talk to Gustav a lot. He seems to understand the important stuff.

~sigh~

Yes, it has been another absence of months from my blog. I hope nobody has been abating their breath in anticipation of my next entry! Vanessa and I have been busy as heck with our buxiban - as you may or may not know, we sold our old school and bought a bigger one - bigger in terms of students, at least. We are now running our butts off trying to edumacate 130 students from the elementary school level right up to university. At the same time, I'm working at an almost full-time job (mornings and some afternoons) at the World Trade Centre, teaching bidness English and presentation skills to 60+ young adults every day. The morning job is pretty cool on several levels: I've already spent years teaching those kinds of subjects, so I don't have to spend too much time getting my classes ready, the students, mostly in their twenties and mainly female, are enthusiastic and a lot of fun, the extra money comes in handy, and I get to eat lunch in the World's Tallest Building every day. (Taipei 101 is connected to the WTC by an elevated walkway.)

To be honest, I feel a little stressed. Everything's great when I'm in the classroom (buxiban or morning gig), but at the times in between I've been feeling pretty tense. I'm easily irritated, and my patience (never one of my strong points) has been wearing thin. Oh well. The morning gig won't last forever, I'm guessing. There are constant rumours about making it into a full-time position, which means I'd have to give it up in order to preserve my sanity.

Hmm, so what besides the dreary details of my insignificant life could possibly interest my many readers? (Ha!) Well, this updated version of The Shining made me laugh (thanks Flicka).

Fearless

Just got back from a long weekend of camping with a lot of good people.

Gustav had a great time as always, and has discovered the joys of river swimming. The water was quite rapid, and I was really amazed at his fearlessness. Actually, it wasn't just his fearlessness that amazed me, it was his obvious joy at being able to fetch sticks from the swift waters over and over again. Add his ability to use his tail in the water as a rudder, and his webbed paws, and it is very evident that this dog has the love of water in his genes!