Daily Report: Doin' The Shopping

Reverse of yesterday: Crappy morning for work, but reasonably good afternoon. Subway sandwich for lunch.

This evening it was out to Foodland to do the official once-a-month replenishing of my Western food supplies... always an expensive proposition.

I loaded up an entire grocery cart with salsa, Hershey's chocolate sauce, Prego spaghetti sauce, and the real wallet killer... booze. Actually, this evening's shopping spree wasn't too bad, coming in at just over 4,000 baht. Usually it is twice that.

Pui bought her own supplies as well... 30 pounds of household cleaning products, dried fish snacks, ramen, herbal tea guaranteed to make your skin beautiful, and one white, crinkly, funky pig uterus. I figure that has to be for some weird Santaria ritual, because nobody is stoopit enough to actually eat that, right? Tell me I'm right. Please.

After getting home, I sat down in front of the TV and pigged out on my new-found delicacies, including canned tamales, salsa con queso and nachos, and pistachios.

Mike stopped by and we sat and watched Star Wars Episode 6, and then one hour of the History Channel. (Modern Marvels... The technology of sea rescue. Jil's TV heaven, I admit.) UBC Cable has added some new educational channels recently called "EXP1", "EXP2", and "EXP3". These are severely hard-core edutainment channels (not that "the technology of sea rescue" isn't), and they have a great show on called "Saints and Sinners" which is a documentary devoted to the history of the papacy.

The only reason I'm getting out of bed tomorrow is to watch the next episode, I swear.

I looked into prices for flights to America today... two adults and one child. Travelocity.com is shit, quoting me almost $11,000 for the tickets. Meanwhile, Thai airways has a nonstop 17-hour flight from BKK to JFK for under $4,000 for "Superior Economy" for all 3 of us. Hell: First class on Thai Air is $11,000.

I'm hoping to put in 2 weeks this July in America with Pui and Pot. First will be 2 days in New York City, then a day in Philadelphia, then 2 days in Washington D.C., then a day in Colonial Williamsburg, then up to Bath, NY (my hometown) for various personal business (including my 20th high school reunion), with side trips to the local sights, including Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen, the wineries, and the glass museum.

First, however, is getting Pui a tourist visa to America, which is going to be halfway between a feat and a miracle.