Signs and Spooky Stuff

There are signs like this all over the place. One says "Empty Talk Endangers The Nation".

Aaaagh! Where does the time go, anyhow?

Let's see...yesterday my friend Sharon and I went to Hong Kong. I really needed to get my hair done so I went to an expensive Aveda salon, thinking that SURELY they would know what to do with my hair. Hmmmmmm...yeah. I wanted the color Fabulous Stacey always makes my hair and I showed them the color on the chart. They convinced me that I needed to go darker than that or it would wash out in two weeks. Well, my hair is DARK RED now and I hate it. I almost started crying right there in the fancy-ass salon. Supposedly in two weeks it will be the color I want it to be but I'm not believing that right now. Waah.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe but they were all tricked out for Halloween. Chinese don't really get that Halloween can be fun - they make it really, really scary and gross. Not good in a restaurant to see blood and guts and horror everywhere, and I refuse to take the kids there during October. Luckily I know better than to bring them there again until after Halloween. There is no moderation here for scary - no "fun" scary like cute skeletons and witches and bats - just blood and gore and really, truly scary stuff. Sharon lived in Sweden for 14 years and she was saying that Europe is very similar to Asia in that respect. The countries that have adopted Halloween really take it overboard on creepy. Too bad. All the dusty decoration stuff they put up also makes me sneeze.

Then we went to check out a tattoo place. We had looked in China but found dirty shops that - eu - re.use.needles. Yuck and HOW SCARY IS THAT! So we looked online and found a shop that uses only new, clean needles up to U.S. standards. We stopped by there yesterday and found cool designs we want to get, and made appointments to have it done. Yippee! Sharon's getting her first tattoo on Monday and I really wish I could be there with her but I'll be otherwise occupied. Mine won't be until October 27. I'll post a picture. Actually, I probably won't post a picture because I always say stuff like that but I DON'T do it. Sorry. I am sure it will be awesome and you'll just have to trust me on that, ha ha!

Tomorrow night our dear friends from Knoxville are coming. We are so excited to show them China. We'll go to Beijing next week and see the Great Wall of China, which is truly amazing, and the Forbidden Palace, and the really famous Peking Duck Restaurant. I'll take them to the wet market and to Lowhu, that awful, harrassing market where they yell and grab and push their cheap junk aggressively. We'll take them for nails and massages and maybe even up the mountain. The girls will come to my kids' school in grade-appropriate classrooms for a day. I'm really excited about this! Hopefully I'll take a bunch of photos and post them...you can believe that if you want to.