Young Frankenstein - It's alive! It's alive!

Lucky enough to score a ticket to Young Frankenstein in NY this week. As carol points out, my blog entries are full of interesting stuff. I always wish my family could be along with me on my adventures in product management, but at least I make the most of my opportunities, instead of staying in the hotel for room service like so many of my peers!

Anyway, you should book your trip to NY now if you love the theatre, mel brooks, or you enjoyed the producers. The songs are at least as good as those of the producers (except for Spring Time For Hitler, of course), and jokes are out of control.

All the gags from the movie are even more funny on stage. Memorable scenes - the library book case and the candle stick - the rotating book case - was insane. And the whole "his name was Abby....Abby Normal..." I almost died. I was scared shitless that they guy next to me would have a stroke he was laughing so hard.

It was a pretty long show - well over 2 hours - but it never dragged. I would say that it's one of the very best stage shows I've ever seen - even Spamalot had a longish part in the middle of the second.

Bathroom almost done...!

Chinese Food

I took the team in Beijing out to dinner the other night, and here are a few of the things we enjoyed. Cell phone pictures.

This is donkey. It was sliced and stirfried with pepers and other stuff. Tasted like meat. Don't really understand why you would eat donkey if you could eat something else.

This is bullfrog. It's sliced, breaded, and fried. It's like tender calamari- except they leave the bones in :-(


I don't even think this is very exotic at this point, but this is squid sliced and cooked in very spicy sauce.



This was my "international" breakfast at the hotel in Seoul - two fried eggs piled high with fried rice and Kimchi, with American-style bacon, British-style hash browns, and pork dim sum. That's abalone porridge with fresh kiwi and orange juice. It's the breakfast of champions!

Renaissance Faire 07

A very good time was had at the Renaissance Faire. We actually made costumes from things in my closet, but later in the day we felt the need to shop for some cool medieval accessories. The kids and I had fun playing games, eating, watching shows, shopping, hanging out with friends, and walking around looking at the actors. Zachary climbed the wall to the top 8 times! Siena very persistently tried to climb the difficult wall. We were blessed with perfect weather, and just the right amount of cash. Great day!

Jousting and climbing Renaissance-style

Renaissance Faire was fun!

A fun day during the Renaissance

Day off in Beijing

The Saturday flight was even more sold out than the Friday, so I ended up coming a day early. I've done many of the standard things in Beijing proper, so this time I went out to a place called "Ten passes" - named for the ten crossings of the river the road makes crossing this valley. There is also a bonus cave - which was pretty impressive in its own right.






The valley was pretty abandoned on this cool, windy day. Except for the dozens of brides (and grooms) who made the trip out to get their wedding photos taken.

Tonight I got room service - a cheese burger. I still don't really like Chinese food.

shower and tub area

Bathroom remodel progressing

Late-Summer Latest

On the way out

After a long time at home, I'm off to China and Seoul this week. I wish I could stay home longer.

Here's the view from 15H on the way out of SF.