$30 burger

This is what a S$30 burger looks like. I ordered it as a bit of a joke, but I had no idea it would be so big. It actually tasted pretty good, but the cost was definitely for the quantity, not the quality. There has got to be at least 4000 calories on that plate.



And no mater how big your lunch is, there's always room for ice cream.

Little League in Singapore

One of the great things about being part of the community that goes to the American School in Singapore is that there are always so many great activities for the kids. There are three "seasons" of sports that are run by the Singapore American Community Action Council (SACAC). Most of the activities occur at the school grounds, but they are all run by SACAC.

This spring, Jack was finally able to sign up for his first season of Little League Baseball. On top of that, the league was a bit short on coaches this year, so Jack’s dad (me, woohoo!) is lucky enough to be the coach of the 2nd and 3rd grade Pirates baseball team.

We’ve got 11 great kids on the team (when they all show up, which is rare), and everyone seems to be having a great time. Every Tuesday night, we get together at the school for a practice. We work mostly on our fundamentals, like how to throw and catch and how to swing a bat. One of the toughest parts of practice is that there is a heck of an athletic difference between a young 2nd grader and an older 3rd grader. Regardless, the kids do a pretty good job of being good teammates and working together as a team.

By far, the highlight of practice is that the kids get a chance to use “the machine.” This is a “machine pitch” league where all of the pitching is done by a pitching machine. It’s good that the kids get to see a “somewhat” consistent pitch speed so that they can improve their batting. Everyone loves getting a chance to get a few at-bats that are just like in the real game.



We’ve got a game almost every Saturday morning playing against one of the other 5 teams in the league. Please trust me when I say, “It’s hot out there.” The kids have a 1:15 hour time limit to play a 6 inning game, but they almost never last that long. After about 45 minutes in the 90deg heat, the kids are really dragging. Getting the kids to pay attention while they’re in the field is hard enough, but when they’re tired, it’s almost impossible. Most games, the coaches make a mutual decision to call it after 4 or 5 innings.

This Saturday, we played against the Athletics. We had a great first two innings scoring 9 runs and only letting up 1 run. Unfortunately, the next 3 innings weren’t as good, and we ended up losing 9 to 10.

All of the kids like to play catcher, and this game, Jack had his turn.



Jack says that he enjoys playing baseball more than any other sport he’s played this year. He’s doing extra practice on his own (if “with dad” is considered on you own) and he’s getting better every day. He went 2 for 3 against the A’s and scored a run.



Jack’s looking forward to continuing with baseball and we’re all glad he’s found a sport he enjoys.

The Mind of a Second Grader - Volume 3

Jack and Melissa chatting before bedtime.

Jack: You don't make my lunch right. You need to do it like this...
Jack proceeds to explain how a 2nd grader's lunchbox should be properly filled.

Melissa (sarcastically): Well, I guess I'm just not a very good mommy.

Jack (not quite getting the joke): pats Melissa on the head ; It's ok Mom, I still love you.

The Mysterious Taylor B

Can you find Taylor B's?

That was the big question of the past two weekends. A friend of Melissa's had mentioned to her that there was a great place called Taylor B's that had amazing deals on furniture. We had already got a quote the week before on some things that we wanted to buy, but it was pretty high. We'd been told that Taylor B's has prices that were less than half of the other places we'd been shopping, so we really wanted to take a look at what they had.

We had an idea of where they were located, but we couldn't find a website or even a yellow pages listing for this place. After a bit of hunting and a deeper internet search, we had what we thought was an address; so 2 Sundays ago, we drove over there with our friends Joe and Linda to take a look. Unfortunately, when we got there what we found was a big warehouse by the docks that looked like it was mostly abandoned. Disappointed, we just drove on and continued our day.

The next week, Melissa asked around some more and confirmed the address with a friend. Last Sunday, we made attempt number two. Sure enough, it was a warehouse (next to the one we looked at the week before) near the docks. This building actually had a different furniture store on the first floor, but not the one we were looking for.

Melissa, Jack and I wandered around the building for about 15 minutes looking for a Taylor B sign without any luck. We asked one of the salesmen at the store on the first floor if he knew where it was, but he said that he'd never heard of it. The name wasn't on the store directory and after climbing a dirty maintenance stairway and peering through the door at 3 abandoned levels of the warehouse, we decided to give up. It was really hot and Jack was hungry and moving like molasses.

When we sat in the car and turned on the A/C, I could tell Melissa was pretty disappointed, so I told her to wait with Jack while I made one last look around on my own. I ran back inside and tried looking at every level. On the 4th floor, I could see that the door on the other side leading to the opposite staircase was open, so I walked across to take a look on that side of the building too. As I walked through, the 4th floor looked like someone was either moving in or out. There were random pallets filled with various tupperware boxes of all sorts of little things that were then wrapped up in shrink wrap. There was also a old pink couch that looked like it had been left behind a few years ago.

In the opposite stairway, I went down to the bottom assuming I could get out of the building at the bottom. Of course, you know what happens when you assume..... The door was locked. I then has to walk back up the the 4th floor, across the room with the weird pallets and old pink couch and then back down to the car.

"Sorry hun. I couldn't find anything," I said.

"OK, let's just go," said Melissa. As we were driving toward the exit, we noticed for the first time that there was a security guard near the gate. "What the heck. Let me give it one more try and see if this guy knows anything before we quit."

After I knocked on his shack window to wake him up, I asked him if he'd heard of the store.

"Yeah, go to the entrance over there and then take the elevator to the 4th floor," he said.

"I was just over there. There isn't an elevator. Just stairs."

"Yes there is," he said, "on the loading dock, the big service elevator."

"OK. Thanks. I'll give it a try."

Once again, Melissa, Jack and I wander around the to back of this empty warehouse and find the huge service elevator on the loading dock. It's big enough that I could have just driven my car into it. As the door slowly rises to open on the 4th floor, I am of course greeted by....the old pink couch that I walked by twice ten minutes ago.

Crap. Here I am again.

Then, this well dressed woman appears out of nowhere. "Are you here to see the furniture?"

"Ummm...yes?" Melissa and I say.

"Right this way."

She then grabs the handle on a humongous steel door that I had just assumed was locked before. There in front of us is an entire side of the warehouse we hadn't seen before. It was jammed full of furniture and decorations and artwork for sale. There was even a small "kid corner" with toys and games where Jack immediately retreated to.

To trim down what I though was going to be a quick, short post, this place was all it was cracked up to be. The prices were 1/4 to 1/3 of what other stores are charging and they had amazing stuff. The people who own the place work there themselves and provide awesome service. I guess you can have super low prices if you sell your wares from a nasty old warehouse and don't even have a sign, let alone advertising.

We'd gone in looking for patio furniture, but they didn't have much as their latest shipment has been delayed coming out of China. Even though we didn't find what we were looking for, we still spent $1,700 on other stuff that we just couldn't pass up.

So, if you'd like to know how to get to Taylor B's....don't ask me, I'm not telling!

Joe & Liza

My brother Joe and his wife Liza came to visit us in Singapore last weekend. They are currently on their whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and passed through Singapore between Thailand and Bali. We only had one weekend to show them the town, so we kept it to the big "must see" tourist sights and dining.

We all must have put on 5 pounds in our weekend based on the way we ate. The first night we went to Little India and had fish head curry at Banana Leaf Apolo. On Saturday, we all went to Jacks kickball game and had a great time. Jack was the star of the game. He scored three runs and also made the first double play for his team of the entire season. We spent the rest of the day in Chinatown which was absolutely packed with people shopping for the Chinese New Year this coming weekend. We ended Satuday with a great dinner of Chili Crab at Jumbo Seafood and drinks at the Tippling Club.

Sunday was just a busy with Jack's birthday party that morning. The kids went on a huge "Amazing Race" and then had pizza and cake by the pool. The rest of Sunday was spent at Clarke Quay and on Orchard Road. We ended the day with dinner at Din Tai Fung.

On Monday morning, Joe and Liza flew to Bali for the last 10 days of their trip. Tomorrow (Friday) Melissa, Jack and I are flying there to meet them for 5 days over the Chinese New Year holiday weekend.

For those in The States, have fun shoveling snow. I'll be sipping umbrella drinks on a beach in Bali.

Later.

Disneyworld 2010

Just a note to let you know we're now booked at Disneyworld in Florida from the 23rd to the 30th of July. We're staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. There's already 3 other families we know that will be there at the same time as us. You should come too!

The Mind of a Second Grader - Volume 2

Jack doing his math homework last week.

"Mom, this is way to hard."

"Well, this is the homework Ms. Cuthbert assigned, so we'll just have to figure it out."

"But this is like, 3rd grader work. I just don't know what Ms. Cuthbert is thinking."