max seems to enjoy climbing into the bathtub; i guess it is cooler and there is a little water to play in. the funny thing is he can get in but he can't get out by himself very easily. so we hear him start barking when he wants out. we thought it was funny to leave him in there for awhile; he finally managed to get out.
here is a video of him after a walk outside (not even a particularly strenuous walk):
Shen Rong and Matthew doing some bonding tonight. They are both much better than me at Chinese chess.
-Elias
the weather has been pretty great in shanghai the last week or so. i am guessing it is mostly due to some tropical storms in the area. temperatures were nice, but mostly it just gave us a week of great skies and sunsets. too bad in could only see them from my office window. this was from our balcony last night. we don't get these kind of skies very often.
LOW-FLYING, QUICK-MOVING CLOUDS: I haven't long to live.
TREETOPS, ROUNDED AND ROUGH: That's probably true.
LOW-FLYING, QUICK-MOVING CLOUDS: I won't even make it to the sea. I can already see where I'll end.
TREETOPS, ROUNDED AND ROUGH: I don't know what to tell you.
LOW-FLYING, QUICK-MOVING CLOUDS: But the thing is, I really love moving like this, though I know I won't even make it.
TREETOPS, ROUNDED AND ROUGH: There are advantages to flight.
LOW-FLYING, QUICK-MOVING CLOUDS: But thought is its unfitting companion.
"The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water", Dave Eggers, How We Are Hungry
We turned on our air conditioner on June 22 this year. June 22 is technically the first day of summer, I guess. There is no going back now. Once you have a taste of it, you can't turn it off until some time in September. Technology is a wonderful thing. I am know obsessively making sure all doors are closed so as to ensure none of the cool air escapes. And there is just something about walking from the sweaty kitchen or bathroom into a nice chilled living room - it makes you really appreciate the A/C, and i guess it is cheaper to just cool the room you are hanging out it.
we bought a hot pad-type thing at the Best Buy in Shanghai (it just opened a few weeks, the first in China) so that we could do homemade hot pot. it has worked great. we had some great hot pot the last two nights. i was never a huge hot pot fan, but it is pretty good when you can choose some really good stuff to cook in it (and that soup is so good).
i am trying out this new media-player type thing. i guess its not fully launched yet.
Just wanted to thank everyone that we got to see and hang out with while we were in the States. Thank all you guys for coming to the party, even though we didn't get to talk to anyone for very long. Shen Rong enjoyed the trip, and we both had a lot of fun in New York City. I think both of our favorite time was watching the sunset from the top of the Rockefeller Center. 
Hope to get the chance to see all of our US friends/family more in the future. 
