Yellow and Purple Poodle Dogs

It's been a long time since I last wrote mainly because I have been sick for half this month with something that seemed like pneumonia's evil cousin, but since I am not a 90 year geriatric, I am pretty sure it wasn't. But today, I feel completely healthy again, except for the periodical la duzi I get, which I think will never go away, well never go away as long as I live in China and keep eating the food here.

But two Sundays, ago while I was still sick and it probably was not a good idea, because it just made me feel worse, I decide to have American day. It started out with a nice trip to McDonald's for fries and milk shakes, then off to the baseball stadium to watch the LA Dodgers play the San Diego Padres. There was only one big name major leaguer there (Andruw Jones) and that is probably why the Dodgers ended up wining. I think they one I don't even remember now. But the thing that I do remember most is that they had cheerleaders. Cheerleaders belong in baseball as much as crying belongs in baseball. The other thing they had was these really really noise plastic sticks that have only seen at basketball games. But he they were cool. It was fun hitting people with it. The game was over all pretty enjoy able and was a great start to American day. But something was really annoying, after every foul ball, maybe because baseball is new to China, they warned the public to be aware of fly balls. Every single time. And if you ever watched baseball, there can be like 5 foul balls in a row. I could understand giving the warning like during the foul ball like, watch out its coming right for you seat 5D. But Every single time was obnoxious. But after the game, we took a cab to this new American restaurant, near the new US embassy. It's called the All Star cafe and has joined my top five restaurants especially because my number one has been kicked out of the top five, namely because I saw a rat run across the floor when I was leaving the restaurant. It make me so sad, because the food is so good. But come to think of it, it could be why I have periodical la duzi. Even though I don't think I have ever gotten sick after eating there or just not noticed because la duzi happens to me at least twice a week. Anyway back to All star cafe, they have the best milk shakes in town in my opinion, thats if you can get the right girl to make them. One has no idea what they are doing, I have been there a couple times now. But the milk shakes aren't too think which is often the problem and not to runny like you find at a lot of other restaurants. They have great chicken wing sauce and its the only place in Beijing that I have seen sweet potato fries, gotta love sweet potato fries. It was a great American Day. I need to have more of those.

Last week was my first experience with a sand storm. For obvious reasons, I have never experienced one, namely I have never lived near a desert. But the sand storms in Beijing are not as I thought, It just seems like every other polluted day in Beijing, except the air taste like sand, instead of coal. I am pretty sure that the pollution is 90 percent of the reason that had the pneumonia like thing last week. I think it was just a regular cold that mutated with the pollution and tried turn in to the ninja on me and kill me. For those of you coming to Beijing to visit me or live here, the pollution is not that bad, I am just a big baby and have the immune system of a new born.

I thought I would end with this beautiful picture of a Chinese poodle looking dog. That's the dog's natural color. A combination of pollution and inbreeding makes the dog have a purple tail and yellow ears. Ahhh, Cultural differences are so interesting.

Highlight of the Day: Seeing rain for the first time in a long time. I am pretty sure Beijing is going to have water problems so because it doesn't really precipitate here. And the government finally turning off the heat in my apartment, so maybe Audrey can come back to life and not dry up to death.