Today was a busy day. We had friends over for breakfast. We went to a flower and craft market. We shopped for stone lions for outside our door. We went by a friend's house to drop off a gift. We put gasoline in the car. We went for a family walk. None of these things sound particularly interesting, but as we live in China, each has its own Chinese characteristics.

At the flower and craft market, we bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers for a friend who is recovering from surgery. The flowers contained small roses and large lilies of several varieties and they were all arranged in a large glass vase. Total for the purchase: 70 rmb, a little more than $10. The boys, of course, attracted much attention. We priced some lions at this market. 40 cm stone lions were priced at 900 rmb. We ventured across the rode... literally, across the street, no further, to a small local shop where the same size lions were priced at 550 rmb. A difference of more than $50 USD. We haven't bought any yet but want to before we move frm here.

I took a picture of the sign at the gas station to show a typical situation at a station here. The sign is in dissaray. The prices have gone up as they have in the US. There is a marked entrance and exit to the station and an attendant direction traffic, yet people still go in and out the wrong way. Gasoline has to be pumped by an attendant. Usually, our driver gets the tank filled for us while he waits for Huck to finish school.

We decided it would be a nice idea to go for a family walk after dinner. It's nice to get out, spend some time together, and the kids like to get ice cream or popsicles from the clubhouse. So we went out. The above picture is before our walk. The humidity was as high as I have ever felt, it was incredible. We walked to the clubhouse, bought the ice cream and a few other groceries and took the long way home. On the way, we spotted dozens of spiders like the one above. They are quite large, about an inch to an inch and a half. I hope they eat the mosquitos that are everywhere. No matter what we do, they get into the house and bite us at night.

So, we ended our day with showers for everyone. The pollution, combined with the humidity, make is so spending more than a few minutes outside makes you dirty enough to need to bathe. It was a day we could taste the pollution in the air. Thank goodness for our cool, clean house with air filters.