I miss tap-water

I really miss tap-water that I can use. I can't tell you how many times I have filled up a pot, or a glass of water, and then remembered that I can't use the water that comes out of the tap. Fresh, smell-free, clear, potable water is something I definitely took for granted in Oregon!

We are having great weather here, although it's the result of horrible weather for Taiwan and southern China. It turns out that typhoons in the southern part of China and Taiwan cause heavy winds up the coast of China. Here in Shanghai, we are seeing blue skies for the first time since we've been here. These high winds clear out some of the smog and I hear from other expats that typhoon season is the only time of year that the skies clear up like this. Unfortunately, it does nothing for the heat and humidity, we're still in the 90s every day with insane humidity.

I seriously need a hobby to occupy my evenings. Without decent TV or anything besides a Shanghai tourist book to read, I need help! On our TV we get 10 channels in English, but half of them are news, 2 of them are sports (cricket, soccer, rugby, anyone?), and then we have HBO, Cinemax, and StarWorld (which is on season 2 of Sex in the City), but they are all the Asia version, which means the movies are really really old.
Joe, who has been investigating ways to get ESPN since the day we arrived, got us a satellite dish last week. It gets ESPN, but the intermittent service is bound to cause him a serious meltdown the first time he really really wants to see a game. :)

Did I mention that we have run out of band-aids in 2.5 weeks? I have two little girls who would generally (OK, definitely) be classified as prissy and I have probably only used a band-aid on either one of them twice in 4 years. But since we have been here I have used an entire box of band-aids on Gigi! She has fallen down and cracked her chin open, tripped over her sister at a party and split open her bottom lip, and fallen down while running down a driveway to greet Daniel (our driver) and split open both her top and bottom lips and got a bloody nose! It's nerve-racking every time she walks on concrete! I'm hoping this is a phase and part of this adjustment and we'll soon quit bleeding!