You may have noticed some subtle changes to the look and feel of my blog.  After several years keeping things the same, I wanted to freshen things up a bit.  Xanga has all these “themes” and different ways to customize your page, but I find them difficult to use.  Plus, I have only enough HTML coding knowledge to be dangerous and not much more. 

The “christao” logo was designed by my cousin Alexandra, a talented graphic designer and illustrator.  Hopefully, you enjoy the new look.

Today is Constitution Day here in Thailand, the day when we celebrate the twenty different constitutions we have had since the start of our on-again, off-again experiment with constitutional monarchy in 1932.  The news says that we may be days away from a new government, with the Democrat Party forming a working coalition for the first time since 1995.

Here are some odds and ends:

Thanksgiving leftovers are finally finished, more than week after we celebrated.  The extra turkey was immediately frozen in smaller packages but the stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce and pecan pie lasted a long time.

I have to share with you, ever since I started Thanksgiving dinner preparations including a trial run of the cornbread stuffing and the pecan pie, I’ve been feeling very bloated.  This only cleared up after the leftovers were finished.  Could I possibly be allergic to the cornmeal and corn syrup?  I’ve never noticed such symptoms before.

Aren’t the little serving dishes cute?  I needed something that would fit in the toaster oven as we don’t have a microwave and I don’t want to heat up the big oven to reheat dinner.

Tawn was feeling a little under the weather a few days ago, so I took him to the neighborhood hospital, Samitivej.  The lobby areas are so nicely decorated and have so much natural light that I enjoyed sitting there reading a magazine while Tawn saw the doctor.  Maybe I should just walk over and use their lobby as my living room.  I’m sure they wouldn’t really notice and probably wouldn’t mind.

Left, the windows at Samitivej Hospital. 

There are many interesting things in the neighborhood.  You just have to get out and find them.  The other day we stopped at the local branch of Kasikorn Bank, right at the mouth of Thong Lor Soi 9.  To the side is a car park that is shared by several businesses and at the back of the car park is the customary spirit house. 

This spirit house, however, was a bit unconventional in its mirrored mosaic tile decorations, below.  I like to call it “disco Ganesh”.

Over the weekend, I rode my bicycle to a temple down near Sukhumvit 109.  While there, I saw this cat sitting in the sunlight on the temple steps, napping.  It seemed wholly unconcerned as the worshipers took off their shoes, stepped over and around it, and went about their religious affairs.

After the post-Thanksgiving bloated feeling, I came to realize that I don’t actually eat as much fiber and as many vegetables as I think I do.  I love veggies and I do eat oatmeal for breakfast each morning, but a lot of my lunches and dinners are mostly carbs and meat, even if the food is often Thai or Asian.

That has to change.  This week I have made a conscious effort to introduce more veggies into our diet.  For Tuesday night dinner, homemade chicken and spinach lasagna.  There’s only a single breast’s worth of chicken in this whole lasagna, the balance being made up of spinach, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms.

Accompanying the lasagna was a large salad with mixed greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, fennel, celery, kidney beans, roasted beet root, eggs, and a sprinkling of pecans.  Lightly dressed, I think this makes for a pretty healthy meal.

Now, if I can just lose ten pounds before Christmas, I’ll have plenty of room to eat all the holidays dishes I want, right?

Nights out here in the Big Mango seem to fall into the usual trio of possibilities: dinner, a movie, or dinner and a movie.  So we were excited about the opportunity to spice things up a bit when Matt and Si invited us over for board games.

Where have board games gone in my life?  I loved board games as a child and played them even through university.  But somewhere in my adult life I left board games behind, forgetting how exciting, competitive and inexpensive a night with a board game can be.

After drinks and appetizers at Matt and Si’s condo on Soi Lang Suan and a casual dinner at a Thai restaurant down the street, we returned for several rounds of Aggravation.  They have the classic version of the game which has a dark board and a symmetrical, asterisk-shaped path.  This is the same version I played for hours on end with my paternal grandparents.

Making things particularly interesting, they have two house rules: When you roll a four, you have to go backwards by that many spaces; and you play in pairs with your rolls helping your partner after you have won.

It was a fun, low-key evening and something we need to do more often.

As a former college radio DJ and a long time radio buff, I’m fascinated by audio’s ability to transport us without the use of pictures.  The past several months, in addition to my camera I have carried around a digital audio recorder.  So far I haven’t done much to edit and share the “audio postcards” I’ve collected, but I’m going to start sharing them so you can get a sense of what this country sounds like.

Since moving here more than three years ago, I’ve noticed that Thailand is a country of sounds.  Here in Khrungthep it is often very loud, with overlapping noises competing for your attention.  But beyond the sheer volume is the uniqueness of the sounds, sounds that weave together as part of the Thai life.