Rain, Golfing, and Lifestyle Games

It looks like July 2010 will be my least productive blogging month since our arrival in Jakarta.  I think that is because we're at the "been there, done that" phase.  I've already documented our life, our lifestyle, and what it is like living in Jakarta.  We're doing more of the same.

The rainy season in Jakarta, in theory, starts in November and ends in April.  We had so little rain during the rainy season, I kept asking when it started.  This year, meteorologists announced it officially ended in June, not April.  It's rained nearly every day since they made that announcement.  I think they may have it backwards.

Our company Olympics are underway again.  Last year, I participated in the golfing and bowling events.  I took first place in bowling, helping my team finish first.  My scramble partner and I placed second in the golf scramble, helping my team finish first.  Overall, my team finished in first place.  This year, my new team is expecting the same production from me.  Sunday, we had the golf event.  My scramble partner was our CFO.  I haven't played golf since our event last year, though I did take a lesson and have spent several days at the driving range.  I hit the ball very well.  Probably lowered my handicap by 10 strokes.  My partner and I finished second (I have the trophy to prove it).  The other scramble for our team finished in first, so, once again, my team won the golf event.  Now I just have to bowl well next week and I will cement my legacy.

Our daughter, like myself, is addicted to sweets.  We want to break her from that, but it's difficult when daddy is always eating a chocolate cookie or ice cream after dinner.  She also prefers watching cartoons to doing something active.  Sweets and inactivity are not good health partners.  To help with the situation, we have invented a lifestyle game.  Using a poster board, we made three columns:  Fruits and Veggies, Mental Exercise, Exercise.  Each day she eats fruits and veggies, does a learning activity (or attends school) or exercises (like riding her bike, or playing at the park), she earns a sticker in the appropriate category.  Once she has five in each category, I take her out for ice cream.  It's still early in this experiment, so we don't know yet if it is effective.

Did I mention my mother-in-law is visiting?  Yep.  One month.  This marks the third visit in 17 months.  The eighth family member visit in 17 months.  Doing the math:  17 months away from Phoenix, subtract one month for Europe and two months for living in Singapore = 14 months.  Eight visits for roughly one month each, means we've been on our own in Jakarta for a total of six months.  So why do we still miss home?