I found it, I just figured you'd want to edit. Of course I wrote my reply and then forgot to post for an hour because I have skills. Sorry. It's there now.

Thanks, Cass. The whole thing just gives me a headache. In fact, I'm not asleep at the moment I'm sure because I can't stop thinking about it.

(My phone auto corrected thinking to kinking. I *wish* I was kinking about something.)

Liese, that sucks beyond the telling of it.

Egad, Liese. All best wishes for your students.

Checking in again, just quickly. Went to Shanghai Zoo today. especially taken with the Chinese animals, such as the golden snub-nosed monkeys, giant salamander, mandarin ducks, Siberian tiger and Chinese alligators. (China has alligators.) And giant pandas, of course. And, there were plenty of azure-winged magpies flying around.

Dinner tonight with Biyi's relatives (again, and both Ryan and I are about ready for a quiet dinner with just the three of us). Most of it was not relaxing; but the highlight for me was after dinner. Her uncle and cousins got into a heated discussion. Biyi says they weren't arguing, but it sure looked like it to me. (I believe her, but it was indistinguishable.) It looked that way to Ryan too, who watched with growing apprehension as their voices got louder, until he'd had enough and loudly declared, "STOP! ...STOP!" And they did!

I told him afterwards that I was very proud of him.

ah ... the Power of the Cute!

In the summer, the National Zoo lets the Golden Lion Tamarins loose - they run through the trees and they use various techniques to teach them to survive in the wild; I think they're trying to repopulate them in their original habitat (Brazil?). They have radio collars, so they're not likely to get loose outside the zoo, but it's always fun to see them outside a cage.

So what are the enclosures at the Shanghai Zoo like? I imagine that Chinese zoos are very different than when I went to visit them in 1989. Plus I didn't go to Shanghai, more's the pity. But I recall they had a Persian cat. And I remember the tiger. hmm, I sense a feline theme to my memories...

So my parents want me to go on this Leuva Patidar Samaj Youth Cruise to the Bahamas over Memorial Day with, like, sixty people (ages 21-35). I'm kind of torn. On the one hand, hanging out with lots of Indian people will maybe make me feel more Indian, and maybe I will find a suitable wife and/or friend. On the other hand, I can barely deal with parties full of strangers. Yet I am kind of curious to see how I handle it and it would be a new experience, possibly miserable though it may be? I don't know.

Toddson: that rocks!

They totally weren't doing that last time I was there - - which was in the 1970s.

(My family moved away from the area in 1979.)

On the one hand--oodles of strangers.

On the other hand--the Bahamas.

Hmmmm.