Show Biz!

Last summer I was in L.A., hunting stars, hoping to catch a glimpse of a famous face. A good look at Mario Lopez's dimpled left cheek was as close as I got to a run-in with stardom.

And then I came back home to East Asia, and while I'm going about my life, an opportunity arrises for me and my whole family to be in a movie. A real one. Look it up on IMDb, it's called "The Lady and the Panda," and it's a true story about the first panda to come to America in 1936 (the panda, which was only a baby, was smuggled out of China in the handbag of a prominent American named Ruth Harkness).

And it wasn't just my family who took part! A whole bunch of our besties were there too. Because the movie is being filmed exclusively over here - so as to be near the pandas - caucasian people were needed to fill their "Chicago zoo" scene and their "ship bound for New York" scene.  For a meager 500 kuai per day (which is less than $100) we hung around their mountainside filming location for two days, sleeping in rooms with no heat, and eating hardly anything but squid-flavored potato chips and boiled buns.

But we got to be in a movie!!

(Or so we think. Maybe all our scenes will be cut. In fact, probably they will).

But we're telling ourselves we get to be in a movie!!

Places, places everyone!

Back to wardrobe.

Makeup check.

Every hair in place.

Looking...good?

Looking good!

Why don't we dress our boys like this anymore??

Daniel hanging with the actors. 

Staying warm between shoots.

Alisa and I weren't exactly obeying the signs.

Passing the time.

The champion of our home school co-op was there, bringing Christmas crafts, Sunday School materials, and books to read to the children (she's nothing short of amazing).

XOXO

Daniel and I on set. A steamship station in "Shanghai."

Selfie on set.

We did a lot of sitting around. Our vintage shoes were not comfortable. (That is fake sunlight streaming in the "window")

And we took a lot of pictures between takes. 

He should have been an actor.

And the best shot of all? Are you ready for it? Children, cover your eyes...

Scout's Honor

We always knew our Eugene was cut from a very specific piece of fabric. We also knew there had to be others.

It turns out they were in Troop 2717.

That's right, we have Boy Scouts..way over here. It is a registered troop with Boy Scouts of America. I know that Scouts has changed a lot in recent years, but try to imagine Boy Scouts circa 1955 and you've got a pretty good idea what this troop is like. The boys are bowing their heads together and pledging their allegiance together just like the good ole days. Even the scouts who are not Americans stand respectfully during the Pledge of Allegiance, and even the scouts who are not Chrlstians recognize a moment of silence during prayer.

And few of them - arguably none of them - are as devoted to Scouts as Gene. He eats, sleeps, and breathes Scouts. Our son, who could not be convinced to wear a button-down shirt under any circumstances during the first 11 years of his life, now proudly sports his heavily-buttoned uniform.

Troop 2717 was given its name in reference to Proverbs 27:17 which reads, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

Like I said, this is a very special troop.

You can see in the picture above that Gene is the scribe. He takes that job very seriously, as you can imagine (if you know him).

He's always been serious, always been focused. For years he would get himself caught in a black hole of focus, from which we could hardly pull him. What he was lacking was forward motion. The carrot needed to be ever out in front of him. And there's no place like Scouts for a bounty of unachieved goals! There are more merit badges available than he could ever earn (and he is currently working on four of them simultaneously, of course). Now he can put all that focus into getting somewhere, instead of spinning his wheels until he's buried under ground.

Building a structure 6 feet off the ground with nothing but rope and bamboo.

Gene is the one with his hands on the rope a lot of the time:)

They found a very long piece of bamboo!

Gene flanked by George and Andy.

Andy celebrated his birthday on a campout.

Eugene earned the Scout rank in time for the Court of Honor ceremony two weeks ago. He was so...proud. There's no other word. He is comfortable in his own skin, which makes us very happy parents. There is nothing like watching your child come into his own.

The pack is almost as big as him:)

Early morning risers sending him off on his first Scout campout.

Court of Honor ceremony.

His fanclub (and future Scouts)

Receiving the rank of Scout.

Refreshments afterward with Reister and Josiah.

Iron sharpening iron.

Haima and The Cubs

We went to Hong Kong for the kids' eye doctor appointments, expecting a few days of good food and western style shopping. Little did we know that the entire city-nation would be boarded up (almost literally) in preparation for Typhoon Haima.

Typhoon? Really? I guess we should have checked our weather app before booking our tickets? Oops.

So with the kids' eye doctor appointments cancelled, and nothing else in the city open for business, we went for a walk in the wind. It was eerily quiet in a city where under normal conditions, one can't itch the end of one's nose without elbowing someone.

Our walk took us to the harbor, where the waves swelled and banged against the seawall and our hair whipped in circles around our heads.

We made it back to our hotel before Haima made landfall, which it did 62 miles down the coast from Hong Kong. It wasn't that exciting of a storm, after all. But the wind! I'd never felt such wind. It was awesome.

And by the next day, everything was back up and running. We visited the doctors we had gone there to see, and we took a meal at our favorite food joint, Triple O's.

Brave was wearing the above Chicago Bears T-shirt that day. I thought nothing of it. Then we passed some other Caucasian people in the street who were singing and skipping, and one of them stopped in her tracks and pointed at Brave's shirt.

"Hey! Are you from Chicago too!?" she exclaimed.

"Michigan," I apologized.

"Well, the Cubs just won the world series!" she whooped.

"What?! I didn't know!" I cheered.

"I've been following the game from here!" she said proudly, pointing to some sort of technological device on her hip. I cheered again and the woman gave a little victory dance before turning back to her companions.

So there you have it. I was in Hong Kong during a typhoon when the Cubbies won the world series for the first time in 108 years.

You never know what the winds might bring.