Week 19: 8/7/05

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#FFCC80" TEXT="#080000" background="67cc8b83.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Random Things to Make You Giggle"><B>Random Things to Make You Giggle</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hong Kong Disneyland"><B>Hong Kong Disneyland</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Parkview Apartment"><B>Our Parkview Apartment</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 1: 4/3/05"><B>Week 1: 4/3/05</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 2: 4/10/05"><B>Week 2: 4/10/05</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 3: 4/17/05"><B>Week 3: 4/17/05</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 4: 4/24/05 "><B>Week 4: 4/24/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 5: 5/1/05 "><B>Week 5: 5/1/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 6: 5/8/05 "><B>Week 6: 5/8/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 7: 5/15/05 "><B>Week 7: 5/15/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 8: 5/22/05 "><B>Week 8: 5/22/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 9: 5/29/05 "><B>Week 9: 5/29/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 10: 6/5/05 "><B>Week 10: 6/5/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 11: 6/12/05 "><B>Week 11: 6/12/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 12: 6/19/05 "><B>Week 12: 6/19/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 13: 6/26/05 "><B>Week 13: 6/26/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 14: 7/3/05 "><B>Week 14: 7/3/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 15: 7/10/05 "><B>Week 15: 7/10/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 16: 7/17/05 "><B>Week 16: 7/17/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 17: 7/24/05 "><B>Week 17: 7/24/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 18: 7/31/05 "><B>Week 18: 7/31/05 </B></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f00000cc00.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Week 19: 8/7/05 </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 20: 8/14/05 "><B>Week 20: 8/14/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 21: 8/21/05 "><B>Week 21: 8/21/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 22: 8/28/05 "><B>Week 22: 8/28/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 23: 9/4/05 "><B>Week 23: 9/4/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 24: 9/11/05 "><B>Week 24: 9/11/05 </B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Week 25: 9/18/05 "><B>Week 25: 9/18/05 </B></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Australian Sunrise" ><B>Welcome to Chase family planet!</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Australian Sunrise" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >    |    </FONT> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to Chase family planet!">home</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adventures in Asia">Adventures in Asia</A>   ·   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us">Contact Us</A></div> <bR> <div> Week 19: 8/7/05 </div> <div> Howdy All!</div> <div>  </div> <div> This week we had High Heat Warnings, which are issued when the temperature hits 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher combined with humidity of 90% or higher. To those of you who are used to 90 or 100 degree weather and are thinking that you could handle it, let me just say that when you add in 90% humidity, it's like you are drinking the air. You clothes are soaked and you don't want to believe it's your perspiration, you're hoping it's just the moisture in the air that makes your hair looked like you've just stepped out of the shower. Ick. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Pain and Agony</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> In 1998 I was driving Michael's truck when some kids out joyriding in their father's car hit me, flipping the truck on it's side, hitting a street lamp and slamming it back to the street. No bones in my body were broken, and after lots of painful physical therapy, chiropractic care, and time, I'm able to do everything I was doing before the accident. However, the pain from the injury has never left, it's just melted into the background, getting much worse during times of stress and when I get really cold. Sometimes I forget about the pain, but it's always there. My stress level is pretty high these days, so my back has been nearly vocal, shouting about how bad it hurts. Here at Parkview they've just opened up a salon providing services like manicures and haircuts and massages. Hong Kong is known for it's cheap massages, but I've never been able to take advantage of them since dragging the kids along would not be conducive to relaxation, and the babysitting service is limited to the nighttime. But now that Josh is here, I thought I'd call up and book one here on site. Granted, it's more expensive here, but going anywhere else just adds to the time that I'd have to leave kids alone with Josh, so I went for it. </div> <bR> <div> I arrived on time and was led down the hall to a room by someone about the size of Mary Kate Olsen. She handed me two thimble-sized packets and said please put these on. On what, I asked. She pulled the plastic off and revealed an elastic thong with a triangle of paper attached about the size of my thumbnail and a tube of paper the width of a ladies belt with Velcro on one side. I don't recall even my honeymoon lingerie being this, well, shall we say lacking in substance? The attendant left and I could not contain my laughter as I struggled mightily to put these things on, wondering why they were even necessary, as they did more to draw attention to my flaws than disguise them. I pressed the button to alert the entire salon that I was finally ready. There was not a thing in the room to hide behind when in came Mary Kate's Asian sister again. I took a deep breath and decided in that moment that I was just not going to care one bit about the obvious differences between us, like her clothing size being negative two and my clothing... uh, totally missing. To my great relief, in walked my masseuse, a great big woman who you would imagine to be named Helga, looking like she eats three Mary Kates for an afternoon snack. She didn't speak a word of English, however, so we had to carry on a long three-way conversation about any areas Helga should focus on or avoid and what level of intensity she should use. I said between medium and heavy, and that I'm incredibly ticklish so she shouldn't be offended if I laughed. Mary Kate left and then the mauling began. If what she was doing was between medium and heavy, I'd like to see the human being who can walk out the door after asking for the heavy only! This woman was pummeling and digging away at me until tears formed in my eyes and I had to practice Lamaze breathing exercises. Right when I was about to speak up and say maybe what I meant was "light", the horrible knots that call my back their home would relax, and tingling relief would spread throughout my body. It was the weirdest thing, but the tingling made the pain worth it. She spent 45 minutes working on my back, and when she was done, she said a couple of halting words in English to me... "you, uh, back... it very.... bad. Very... not good. So, uh... like... this (knocking on the hard marble wall)". No kidding? Maybe if the marble had been steel I could have agreed! The rest of the day was amazing, after being in pain all the time for so long, when I was finally pain free it was indescribable. I felt like dancing. Later that night when I stepped into the shower I caught sight of my back in the mirrors. I had long streaks of bruises up and down either side of my spine, and giant purple spots all over my lower back. But honestly, I didn't feel the bruising since I was so busy feeling no pain from the usual knots! If I could afford it, I'd be in there every other day. But maybe we can swing every other week until we leave this place...<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Panda Bears</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> We made another trip to Ocean Park, picking up a student annual pass for Josh since it was the same cost as an adult one day ticket. I was surprised to see it was actually a bit crowded on a week day! Every other time we've gone, Saturdays included, it's a sleepy, relaxing little theme park that we have pretty much all to ourselves. This week we had to wait in an actual LINE! Shocking! We did get to see the two giant pandas who were parading about for a crowd of fans. Nathan, the sweet and sensitive boy that he is, has declared Pandas to be his new favorite animal. When I ask about his former favorites, like kitties and penguins and alligators, he matter of factly states that indeed those are his favorites too. In a smart marketing move, you can't exit any of the exhibits at Ocean Park without entering into a gift shop of some sort. And the panda gift shop is beyond compare for it's wide variety of black and white trinkets and tee shirts. Nathan walked into the gift store and professed his undying love for a particular stuffed panda who was begging Nathan to take him home. Quickly doing the math in my head and realizing that Nathan's current beside menagerie is up to six, well above Daddy's desired limit of TWO, I had a hard time saying yes, but a harder time saying no, as he reminded me about the last Panda toy he got that broke within an hour, which I'd promised to replace with a different Panda toy. So we used it as a bargaining chip to get the desired behavior out of Nathan for the remainder of the day in the blazing sun. We ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the South China Sea, filled with giant ships full of cargo and a handful of yachts out for the day. The food was good, too! And Nathan's new Panda Bear gets pride of place right on Nathan's pillow each night...<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>No Autographs, Please...</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> On Saturday, Josh, Nathan, Benjamin, and I dressed in "bright theme park attire with no non-Disney logos" and we made our way to Disneyland where one hundred employees and their families joined us in filming a twenty second clip to be used in Michael's show, <I>The Golden Mickeys</I>. We didn't have too much of a choice, as they wanted children, and the technical director happened to have two of them plus a teen on hand, so we got signed up! It was a hot, sunny day, the expected showers never came, but neither did the cloud cover that would have blocked the giant ball of fire from steam cooking all off us. Over and over again we got to be the cheering fans as everyone's favorite characters, Mickey, Minnie, and the whole gang made repeated entrances onto the red carpet. The first time my kids were excited. And then after that they were just puzzled. "We already saw Donald three times mom, why do we have to keep doing this?" Then it got downright nasty as tears broke out and mingled with the rivers of sweat coming down the kids' faces. We got a rest break and the recreation staff of the not-yet-opened Disneyland Hotel put their training to work and entertained and recreated my kids. Funny how moments before they were like melted, stringy cheese on the pavement but suddenly became more than a little animated once they had four dedicated young ladies to play with them! We went back out for a second series of shots where the tearful kids had worked their way into full rebellion with soaking wet red faces telling off all the happy adults trying to get the kids to cheer like crazy for "just one more character!". Josh had fun, the head of food services was giving him pointers on how to make sure Josh got in the shot, like tripping in front of the camera, which had all of us laughing. Finally we got a lunch break and were served DELICIOUS Chinese food which is sold at a restaurant there at Disneyland. The highlight for all of us was getting to eat with our favorite "character" in the world... Daddy! Mike surprised us by being able to take a very quick break before he had to run off to a meeting, and we eventually got escorted back out of the Park, to go home and take off our soaking, sweaty clothes. Turns out they got one wonderful shot of Benjamin close up wearing his Mickey ears and sucking his little fingers while Minnie swirled nearby, which everyone loved. As the final cut got shorter and shorter, the clip of our little actor ended up like that of so many aspiring stars, right on the cutting room floor. But don't worry, in the final cut you can see all four of us, waving like maniacs as Mickey and Minnie pull up. But don't blink! You might miss it! Just look for the only four blondes in the crowd... </div> <bR> <div> <B>Coming next week</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> The Chase's go into China! You don't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime trip, so prepare yourselves and make sure you've got your passport in hand! For now, you can come check out the photos from this week. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Happy traveling!</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#00BF00" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <B>Heather, Michael, Nathan, and Benjamin Chase</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="771" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 308 WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="4b1680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> In Hong Kong, Pizza Hut is a fancy restaurant, complete with mood lighting and fine china!</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4c2680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Hong Kong Skyline</div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 308 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4b5680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Seaview Restaurant at Ocean Park</div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4c0680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The view of the sea from the Seaview Restaurant</div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 535 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4b9680e0.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Our second trip to the <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Wong Nai Chung Reservoir Park</FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  with the paddleboats, turtles, and giant carp.</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="376"><div> <IMG SRC="4bb68e00.jpg" border=0 width="360" height="480" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The boys begged me to take their photo with this goat creature, and they actually smiled.  Wish they'd do that when I want them to...</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=2 HEIGHT= 474 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="4bd30a40.jpg" border=0 width="560" height="420" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> A view of Hong Kong Island in the background, the container port in the foreground, </div> <div> taken from Tsing Yi Island inside a building covered in bamboo scaffolding.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>