Family Planning for Dogs?

Okay, a wrap-up of this last week. On Monday, John and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary. Can you believe it? Nearly a decade ago. In the afternoon, we went bowling at our locals' joint Sakura. I actually beat John in the second game-- scored an all-time personal high of 130. Yeah!

We had dinner at a new Italian restaurant (the first one we've tried in Shanghai) called Settebello. Seriously, it was the best western food we've had here. I guess the original Settebello is somewhere in Canada, but this one has the exact same menu. John had veal obussuco (frown), and I had duck tagliani. We reminisced and laughed about all our past ghetto apartments. It was weird too thinking of us in the pre-Remy and Martin days.... was too long ago.

On Tuesday, I had an interview for a personal assistant job for the executive director of a French PR firm. The interview went really well, until he discovered I was an American citizen (instead of Chinese citizen). That screwed me over. I swear, around here I'm always getting screwed over--either for my citizenship or my ethnicity. Fucking pain in the ass. Would have been interesting to work in PR. I mainly wanted the experience-- marketing/advertising/sales skills never hurt. Actually, they'd be super helpful to boosting NGO budgets. Speaking of non-profit, I start tutoring Wang Hong, the supervisor of our local salon in September. English literacy. She's really nervous about learning English, but I told her if she learned Chinese (and other dialects), English should be cake.

On Wednesday, I had my SABIC class. It went well. The last several lessons have focused more on class writing exercises. The students really like that format (vs. lecture). Of course, they're still not very participatory, but oh well. They've been slacking off lately with homework, and at first, I was offended. But Helen told me that they just don't have time outside of work to do homework. It's not me, thank goodness. Nonetheless, the director Melvin asked that I administer an exam in September. Fun!

On Thursday night, I went to the Oriented happy hour at Mint. Unlike last month's event, it was at a really nice venue off Nanjing Xi Road. John didn't want to attend, so I went with Helen. We had a great time. Met all kinds of new people, including a French dude who is fluent in Mandarin, a Dutch lady, a Brit, some CBC's (Canadian-born Chinese--who knew?), and some locals. Funny thing, the Dutch lady actually works part-time for Rainbow Consulting-- the company that wants to hire me for the Citigroup gig. She filled me in on some scoop. :)

Helen and I chatted on the way to the metro. She started asking me about Remy and Martin--if they would have puppies together. I explained that animal control centers in the US spay/neuter the adopted animals. I was surprised by her reaction: she was half-horrified, half amazed. "Family planning for dogs?" Geez, when she put it that way, it did sound rather absurd. I had to revisit the idea later on... somehow hearing it in those terms, I felt negative about it too, which was strange because I had never ever questioned spay/neuter programs for animals. Fortunately, after talking it over with John, I was reminded that these measures are necessary. It's either spay/neuter or euthanasia. Anyway, it was a funny comment from Helen.

My damn laptop's been acting up again. It randomly shuts off. I took it back to the shop, and Mr. Zhang said all the circuitry grease (?) dried up so he put more on. Hopefully that will resolve the issue. Of course, right after I picked up my laptop and left the store, it dropped out of my bike basket and got banged up. Goddamnit. It fell on its corner so all these pieces broke off. Fortunately, the damage is only cosmetic (cross my fingers!). Fucking computer. John insists that at 3.5 years, it's time for a new one. And this laptop has certainly had its share of problems. Still, I love it. I still think it's blazing fast, and generally it handles everything I want. I know, my pathetic love affair with my laptop. What can you do.

John and I recently found a new DVD store. Last few nights, we've been watching Brad. Ocean's Eleven and then River Runs Through It. As high-school as this sounds, he is just so damn hot. Sigh! John (and the rest of the world agrees).

Oh, John found a Taiwanese restaurant called Steak King. We ate there last night. It's cheap and has a really large menu with western and Chinese foods. And down a few doors, we found a dessert place with the best almond tofu ever!!

There's supposedly a pet expo in town this weekend. I think we're gonna check it out later this afternoon. Maybe find some new toys or gizmos for the pups. Have a good weekend.

Oh! This just in: I've finally convinced Bubs to join the blogging world. Give him a couple days, but after that, have at it!