Josh:Good news: Tiff had a wonderful birthday!
Bad news: Josh forgot the camera. (Am I really my dad’s son?)
We had a great birthday celebration that weekend, a celebration which started with a small treasure hunt for Tiff based on the show “The Amazing Race”. To give you some background, not many of you know, but since our city has installed a new cable television system that requires the purchase of a box to watch TV, we no longer receive any channels on our TV. This has …

Just last weekend we made a quick visit to the capital city of Urumqi. It’s not something that we normally do because, quite frankly, we’ve never enjoyed that city. In the past it has sometimes felt like taking a trip to the state dump – and paying good money to do so! It is known all over this province as the dirtiest, most crowded city and we think that’s a modest description. Up until this point we’ve avoided traveling to Urumqi unless: 1) we need to …

I’m sure most of you haven’t been able to escape the amount of news coverage that has been given to all the problems surrounding the Olympic torch relay this last week. London, Paris, and now San Fransisco have become the global stage for regrettable “us-against-them” rallies that has the noble purpose of sending a clear-cut message. The message received, however, will most likely differ from the one intended and in the end will probably do more harm than good.
Truly it has become China against the “west”. Rest …