Tawandaaaang!

This is a 3 liter beer pitcher with a tap at the bottom and an ice tube in the center. Our table of 5 went through 3 of these before leaving. They serve these at Tawandang, a German beer house with pretty much no Germans to be seen. In fact, we were almost the only gringos there. There are lots of tables of Thais eating German food and watching Thai entertainment on stage. Pat and I thoroughly enjoyed our first night out in a long time and spent most of Sunday paying for it...or at least Pat did, ha ha to Pat! The pig knuckles were quite good and my assorted mystery sausages were tasty. If you click on the picture on the right, you'll see just how any tables there are at Tawandang, and how many Thais. We sat at #35, Mr. Tony. After enjoying our food and watching a variety of short acts such as a jazz trio and Las Vegas-style showgirls, we stumbled to the parking lot to find a taxi. Taxi driver, take us to the rock club! The rock club was dead so we went to Hillary Bar II and watched a Thai rock band. Well, maybe not rock. What would you call a band that plays a set with songs from Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Pink Floyd, Beyonce, and ends with a medley of Boyz II Men? After our beers at the rock club, I thought it was a blast. It's great to hear these bands who perfectly emulate songs so popular in the west, but can't speak a word of English. They sing the right sounds, but sometimes the words just don't come out right. It's funny and impressing to watch the effort. But it's also a little mind-boggling to think about just how huge music out of England and the U.S. is! No one in the U.S. goes around singing the Thai songs I hear every day in taxis. But everyone here knows our artists from back home. We had a great night seeing what happens in the city that never sleeps during a time we're usually sleeping.

Easter was the next day and we slept in. When Sawyer woke up I let Pat sleep some more and the baby and I made some breakfast for daddy in bed. That didn't really rouse daddy so we let him sleep some more. I hid plastic Easter eggs and Sawyer had fun finding them and dropping them into his Easter basket. We just laid around all day. Some of the most fun times for me as a parent are sprawling out on the carpet and letting Sawyer "attack" me. The moment he sees me lay down he crawls over, slamming his hands down on the floor on the way, and climbs on my stomach making weird dinosaur noises and hitting me. Sometimes he throws in a kiss or two while he does this which pretty much makes me melt. Later that day we went to Big C. I don't know what the C stands for but I think it's ca ca because that's what the meat department in Big C smells like. They have bargain bins of ground beef just sitting out and you can scoop it yourself. Or your snotty kid can go digging in it, whatever you like. That's why I don't buy our meat there. We did stock up on toilet paper and stuff like that and retreated to our car afterward for a quiet, air conditioned, American music-infused ride home. What a nice thing to do every once in a while! It's great to not use a car much here, but sometimes it helps you stay sane. Our "special" Easter dinner was Mexican food. After my failed attempt to make Christmas just like home I decided to not even try anymore and just embrace what few holidays we'll have here and not conform to the norms at home.