White Christmas

Definitely had a white Christmas! The snow gear is out and ready for use. Kai has mastered the local hills--by now, they're so boring, he's falling asleep in the sled. Time to hit the mountain.

Nifty uses of GPS

A relative in China used his phone mounted to his dashboard to receive audio alerts about upcoming speed traps. It caught me off guard for a minute--made me feel like I was riding in KITT and David Hasselhoff was going to come to our rescue.

Anyway, pretty useful. Here's a link to a U.S. site that does the same or similar...

http://www.trapster.com/

Terrorists in training...

While in China, we found a great kids bookstore (actually, many). We brought home a near suitcase full of 'em. We also received a handfull as gifts. This one in particular is my favorite. I'm told the title is "Transportation and Weapons." In my childhood, I think the equivalent would have been called "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." The extent of my weapons training was from playing Cowboys and Indians.

Though it is it's own little book, I believe it to be just a part of a multi-volume Baby Terrorist Handbook. It covers all the basics...getaway vehicles (motorcycles, saloon cars, jeeps), disguise vehicles (firetrucks, police vans, ambulances), enemy vehicles (fighter planes, B-2 bombers, tanks) and tools of the trade (pistols, sniper guns, daggers, grenades).

The whole weapons take is one thing. But explain me the rationale behind educating young children about the differences between a shrapnel gun and a submachine gun (see picture).

Each picture includes a sample usage. For the shrapnel gun, it reads, "The bullet fired from the shrapnel gun will follow its target wherever it runs."

For the submachine gun, it reads, "Whenever your enemies hear the sound of your submachine gun, they run with fear."

Air conditioning...

Always interesting traveling to new places. They often provide creative inspiration. Here's one idea that might be great in the long term, but has to be painful in the short term.

Note the suspicious green streak on the second woman's pants.