Daily Report: Ping Pong and Peter Piper's Pickles

No new news on the work situation. But the fact is that in the end, I only care about the money I earn there. Cutting my hours to part time — to "less than 40" — when it was only recently that I ever worked remotely close to 40 hours per week at this job... well, I guess it doesn't make sense to get maudlin. Thanks to everybody who commented or sent e-mails though.

Epril has hired an English tutor, who is coming for a 2-hour class 3 days per week. She had some fun doing tongue twisters for her first class. I suppose it's true that Epril doesn't speak English as well as some of the other wives in our social circle... but I never really felt it impacted on our ability to communicate or understand each other (other than the need to repeat things as if I am hard of hearing), which is all that really matters to me. Besides, my comparison of English skills is not that of Epril to my friend's wives, but to that of the 3 girlfriends I had in Thailand... and there is no comparison.

I do sometimes engage in some good-humored teasing of Epril's accent ("bedsheets" comes out "bitch shits") though, and I think I get under her skin occasionally with that. But I do it only by laughing about what has been mispronounced, saying it wrong myself once or twice, and then offering the correct way of saying it.

My house has been adopted by a little family of mice. Tyson doesn't have what it takes to catch them. I don't particularly mind the mice: They are cute, bee-bopping along the floor like little brown ping-pong balls gone astray. I have a home populated with geckos and occasional palmetto bugs (thanks Mom for giving me a proper name), why not add two or three mice? I can't imagine that they would be so much more pestiferous as compared to the normal flora and fauna that can be found already in the nooks and crannies of this house.

Susan's boyfriend, Jans (like "yawns"), arrived back in Jasaan today from The Netherlands for a 4-week visit. He is sleeping in my TV room. He's a nice fellow, much younger than me... and better looking too. We're going to have a family party at one of the pool resorts on Sunday. I need to get in touch with Ron S., Jans' cousin, who also lives here in Jasaan, to invite him and his family.