Our First Dragon Boat Races...

...and yea, I was actually in them. A team of about 20 people was put together under the Oak Park FCC. It was an absolutely spectacular day - sunny, clear and warm - perfect for being on the river and we didn't let the OP down.I didn't really know what to expect for the race and have to admit that I originally didn't want to participate. I am typically suspect of doing anything that might take an entire day and I have no clue what to expect. Somehow (and I think the wives planned this but they can't be that sneaky, can they?) - I was convinced once I heard that all "all of the other dad's have agreed to do it". I wonder if they were all convinced with this same line. Though they aren't from the OP, this included my Simatai parters, Joe and Eric as well as Dom, Bob, and Maryanne who all traveled with us to China. How could I resist?I am glad we decided to do this because we had a ball. It was in Ping Tom Park, along the Chicago River - an absolute gem of a park. With it's view to the skyline and frame of historic bridges and warehouses, it is kind of a dream to folks that are industrial heritage fanatics like myself.In addition to the fun we had getting together with friends, old and new, we actually won 2 heats and got to race in 3. The second race was against the Chicago 2016 staff and was really a boost to the egos of many of the "old timers" in our boat (myself included). I have to add: if the rest of Chicago displayed the sportsmanship of this team, we'd definitely get the Olympics. The were the most gracious group of people to win against that I've ever seen.

Of the 27 teams in the races, we finished in the 1st 1/2 of the field. This far exceeded my expectations and I consider it a major accomplishment for a bunch of people that, though they may have been in a boat recently, hadn't rowed one in quite some time.

Hopefully this is going to become an annual event for us. Eventually all of the races are supposed to be broadcast on SunCasTV so you should be able to watch them there by typing in "dragon boat" in the search bar after clicking "watch online". It will probably just take them a couple days to get them up.

I usually don't do this but I had to follow up with some more photos from Fran and Regina because they are so damn funny. The guy in front of me and with Ileana is Ira, our incredible Dragon Boat Captain. I heard through the grapevine that we actually came in ninth overall. This is funny on so many levels. I am still cracking up about the day and these really capture a bit more of the tenor. Enjoy

Embracing the National Pastime

We’ve been watching quite a bit of baseball these days. Maybe it’s because I’ve needed a diversion from things or maybe it’s because the Cubs and Sox are playing such great ball but whatever reason, I’ve been hooked. I have also been trying to drag Sophie along, hoping that I’ll bring her to her first game this year. I wouldn't say she's a basebal fanatic as her interest peaks and wanes, usually relative to how much she doesn’t want to go to bed.

She is all questions during the game and the questions can be pretty entertaining. “Why he wearing a mask?” “He’s the catcher and he wears it so that the ball doesn’t hit him in the face if he doesn’t catch it.” “Why he running?” “To try and catch the ball.” “So it doesn’t hit him in the face?” “Uh, sort of.” “Why he bending like that”. “So that he can pitch the ball”. This kind of banter goes on between us throughout the game. The real kicker came the other night: “Why he keep touching his penis?” Rather than get into a discussion of athletic supporters and cups, I decided not to respond to this one and just let it slide.

She doesn’t quite get the game but is starting to understand some of the major concepts about it. She equates getting a strike or an out with "losing" and anything else is "winning". So throughout the game, she constantly asks, "did he win or did he lose?" It’s a simple way of looking at the game but if it keeps her attention, and for now I’m fine with it.

Tonight we watched the Sox beat the Tigers. It was a typically awesome Sox game where they pull it out in the end. During the game, we taught Sophie how to high-five every time someone gets a hit. Since we’re in Chicago, we topped off the celebration with an Obama-bump. Well, when Jermaine Dye hit a 2 run homer to take the lead in the 8th, we did our high fives and then Sophie looked at me and called out an exasperated , “Daaad!” I had left her hangin' for the fist bump. “Sorry, I forgot.” I quickly followed up and she was o.k.
During the game, she also had a lot of questions about Tigers and Cubs and various other animals that she said didn’t belong in a ballpark but at the zoo. She seemed concerned that baseball might be dangerous with all of these wild animals running around. I tried to explain the whole mascot thing to her but I am not sure she got it. Tonight’s game was also tough for her to “get” because the Sox were wearing black. I guess most of the recent games we’ve caught have been home games. When she walked in the room, she immediately said, “You watching the Sox game?” I said, “of course”. “They wearing white?” I mentioned that the Sox were wearing black and gray. Sophie seemed dismayed, “but why aren’t they wearing white”. In lieu of explaining the home / away concept to her, I told her that their white uniforms were dirty. That seemed to suffice for an answer.

After the animal discussion, I had to ask “the question”. “So Sophie, who do you like better, the Sox or the Cubs.” She looked at me as if I was an idiot, “Daaad, the Sox”. It totally cracked me up. I am sure that there are plenty of friends who will be disgusted by her response but an equal number will think it’s cool. Either way, I hope to get more of her rationale on this answer during a future game. Maybe we’ll watch the Cubs for that discussion. The funnier part of this conversation is that Sophie, in turn, looked at Ileana and asked her the same thing. Ileana didn’t know what to say and I’m sure she didn’t want to get into a whole “we’re from New York and there are other allegiances that we argue about” discussion at this hour.

After the Sox/Cubs “discussion”, and seeing that the top of the 9th was over, Ileana told Sophie that it was time for bed. “But mom, we’ll miss the end of the game.” I just about peed myself. I’ll have to look at the schedule and see when we can get tickets to the next Sox game. I think Sophie’s ready.

Our Non Coastguard-Approved Flotation Device

It was hard to get a good pic in the pool since Sophie was constantly on the move but here are a few of her & her "fish". We were only allowed to use the fish at the hotel pool. The other pool would not allow our non-coastguard-approved-flotation-device so we were quite sad for awhile. She did warm up finally to the life vest there and had a good time with her pals. No pics of that though, not allowed :) She kept begging to go back to the other pool and use her fish so after lunch we did that for awhile.

Chinapalooza 2008

For those of you that don't know, each year our travel group gets together for a reunion. We are very fortunate to have traveled with some great families and even more fortunate that we actually like them. Though we get together with the Chicago batch of families quite often, this is typically our only chance to see many of the others. This year's festivities were hosted by three families that were our travel companions that live in the Raleigh-Durham area. Ashleigh & Michael were very generous to open their home to us all for the weekend. Having done this in the past, we truly appreciate their efforts. We flew down for the weekend and Sophie proved again what a great traveler she can be.

The girls spent a lot of time getting reacquainted on the swing set and in the jumpy house. Tons of food, particularly of the cake variety, was consumed. And the dads exchanged their vast wealth of international adoption knowledge over a few beers (there's an entire blog in here somewhere - I just need to put it all together).
Most of the photos below were taken by Sophie on the Saturday evening event. The girls really had a lot of fun with one another and everyone was willing to ham it up for photographer Sophie:
Of course, the weekend would not be complete without the group photo of all the girls. All of the girls except one, that is.