Yesterday morning I went running – It felt so good!
When I came home I knew I had to give my body time to cool down since a shower
does no good if you are still pouring sweat after you get out.  So I was
doing a little dusting with my Fly Lady feather duster that I actually packed
and brought with me (would you believe it!) and from the corner of my eye I saw
something skitter across my kitchen floor.  Thinking it was a big
cockroach (they grow almost thumb-size here), I grabbed a shoe and squelched my
squeamishness and looked behind my kitchen door where I saw it go.  But I
couldn’t see a cockroach anywhere, DRAT.  I hate having nasty critters on
the loose in my house, but I looked again and then I saw it; a small brown
lizard was holding still, trying to be as invisible as possible.  Well, I
put the shoe down and got a plastic container instead and caught the lizard and
released it outside.  Yea! Happy lizard!  Happy me.  I’ve only
encountered three cockroaches since we came here.  We have worked pretty
diligently to keep things clean so the six-legged critters will stay away
(cockroaches and ants).

Blasted internet!  I
keep getting knocked offline.  It’s
making it hard to post things or do some of the other things I was hoping to do
this morning.  Now it’s back on.  It is so weird and aggravating.

Last night for our date, Mr. Hot Stuff and I got on bus 288 to see
where it went.  We noticed before that it
went past the furniture district, so out of curiosity, we got on.  Turns out, this is the slow, cheap bus to Guangzhou.  It goes there by way of “downtown” Panyu
though, which is our city.  This is good
to know; it looks like a good place to go explore.  I never, ever want to ride that bus into Guangzhou again though.  It takes forever and you linger in the
freeway fumes, especially during rush hour.  I know people say that Beijing
has bad pollution, but I find it very hard to believe it is worse than Guangzhou.  I have never seen such an incredibly dirty
city in my life.  After you go there, you
come home and if you take a washcloth and wash your arms and face, you end up
with a very grimy looking cloth.  Bleh.  More and more, I think in a year we will try
to relocate somewhere less polluted and closer to Mr. Hot Stuff’s work.  Here in Panyu/Clifford, the pollution levels are
much lower, but I think the more I can avoid going in or through Guangzhou, the happier I’ll be.

Today, the driver is taking us to METRO.  It’s a Costco-style store, where we hope to
buy an oven.  METRO is far from here and
no buses or subway trains run there.  I
don’t like the drive, but it will be nice to finally get an oven.

Miss S. and Mr. J. seem to be settling into school, in spite
of less-than-ideal conditions there.  Miss
S. is a little miffed that the school is considering introducing uniforms.  She really hates that idea.

Mr. Hot Stuff bought a Nokia fancy phone that he wanted so he could
read his emails on the way to and from work.
Turns out he paid a small fortune for a counterfeit phone that won’t do
what he wanted it to. 😦