Stick’s brother Cory is going to be shaving his head for charity, you can get the details over on Cory’s Canes Country blog.  It’s for a good cause, and I can’t wait to see how Cory looks bald. Wonder if he’ll keep the cueball head when he grows his next playoff beard?

The craziest part is that the head-shaving event is going to be held at the Hibernian Pub, which is the restaurant that inspired Stick’s Frigidarium restaurant. Apparently it has a strange effect on the Malavette boys.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Cory Goes Bald

Tweet this!

Stick is on the phone with his stepmom Char, telling her his pre-Christmas plans. “Tomorrow I’m going to bring Meg to work, and then I’m going to take the car to finish shopping and get her Christmas present.” He pauses while Char says something. “You mean, am I getting her a disco ball?” Another pause. “What? Disco balls are sparkly and round too, you know!”

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Sparkly Like A Holiday

Tweet this!

Luke started a group writing challenge to list seven things we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving. I had to go over a little, and I kind of combined some things, because an endless list — while great for me — wouldn’t make such a great post.

8 ) Caramel Apple Crack at Starbucks.

I don’t know if the Starbucks in China has this, because I was too busy slurping up all the real-bean coffee and then getting the jitters. I don’t know what’s in it, either. I asked Stick and he thinks maybe it’s sunshine and rainbows and highly addictive chemicals.

Note: This is not a paid advertisement, but if Starbucks would pay me I would totally advertise the Apple Crack. In fact, I’d even call it by its proper name.

7) Not working retail on Black Friday. It’s been years now that I haven’t BUT I still feel good waking up the day after Thanksgiving and knowing I don’t have to ring up frazzled shoppers. If you are such a shopper, be extra nice to the sales assistants. I’m also thankful for not having to shop on Black Friday.

6) Being back in the land of English bookstores. And libraries. And newspapers. And Cosmo magazine, wait, I mean all magazines. I think I have to change this one to all English printed matter.

5) Freakishly good weather here in Nascar land. I think I’ve wore a hat one morning so far.

4) Getting the gig with the Middle Earth poster. You know when internships talk about how valuable the experience is, how much you’ll learn, and all the mentoring you’ll get, and that’s why they don’t have to pay any money? This job is like that, only they pay me.

3)  My Stivison family and my Malavette family.

2) Western food. No, wait, what I really meant was Southern food. Apparently food needs a compass direction to be extra tasty. I was in Yantai and Beijing for the last two Thanksgivings, and while I wouldn’t miss my China holidays for anything, I’m excited about eating some deep-fried turkey. [not hyperbole]

1)  Stick.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Thanksgiving

Tweet this!

I don’t mean to sound like a bitter old schoolmarm, but when did it become the teacher’s job to stop lessons to provide supplies?  I remember forgetting my pen or pencil and asking to borrow one in whispers, hoping my teacher wouldn’t catch me unprepared. So usually when my teenage students announce “I don’t have a pencil” and look at me to fix that, I remind them that I’m not a pencil tree, and go on with class.

I take that back. Maybe I am a bitter old schoolmarm.

In Chinese school the other day, one of my high school boys announced that he didn’t have a pencil. I handed him a pen from the collection I have in my bag. I’ve got some one-jiao pens that must have fallen off the back of a rickshaw, and a bunch of promo pens. Stick’s stepmom Char works in elder care, and she has a seemingly endless supply of drug rep swag. The pen I happened to hand to the boy happened to be a Viagra pen.

I didn’t have any trouble getting my pen back after class, and I don’t think he’ll be asking me to provide one again.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Be Prepared

Tweet this!

When Stick’s parents first moved to North Carolina, as the second wave of the Malavette family’s southern migration (led by Stick’s brother Cory and his family), they talked about the weather all the time. Whenever we spoke to them on the phone, they’d tell us how sunny and nice it was outside. And I thought, why the weather? Are they trying to keep the conversation on neutral ground? Do they not like me? Are they British? Why this obsession with talking about the weather?

Now I get it.

It is NOVEMBER and I still don’t need a coat. For Stick, it’s T-shirt weather, but even for those of us who like having circulation in our extremities, it’s cute sweater weather. In Massachusetts, in November we’d be scraping frost off the windshield every morning and bundling up in layers of winter gear and hoping that the car will start.

If this is November weather, then maybe by December it’ll be cold enough to wear my scarf collection! Without a coat!

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

In Which I Am British, And Talk About The Weather

Tweet this!

My 1-yr-old nephew just learned how to pull the babysafe plugs out of the electrical outlets. This means careful monitoring when he’s running around, and also vague embarrassment that he can get them out faster than I can.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Hurricane Brodie

Tweet this!

I was on Sabado Gigante this weekend! Stick thinks I should probably say that “we” were on Sabado Gigante, but you can probably guess that the guy on his knee, in the Beijing duck restaurant, proposing to me is Stick. (If you don’t want to reread the story, we ran into Don Fransisco at Da Dong Roast Duck in Beijing a few months ago, and he coerced Stick into proposing on Unavision camera.) We’ve been promising to get married in regards to car insurance, but telling our friends and family not to pressure and that it’ll happen when it’s the right time.  Don Fransisco, it seems, has some pretty serious powers of persuasion.

Stick just happened to catch it as he was flipping channels, but he managed to get most of the show TiVoed, and I’ll post it the clip once I figure out how to get it off the TV, or when someone else puts it on YouTube. If you happened to see it, the couple laughing hysterically at the whole thing are our dear friends Hugo and Diana. Actually, now that I think about it… it was Hugo who wanted to go to Da Dong and Diana who recognized Don Fransisco… I kind of wonder if they set us up!

“Hey, did you watch Stick’s proposal?” I asked Char, Stick’s stepmom, when Stick’s parents came home the next day, “It’s saved under Sabado Gigante on your TiVo!”

“That little %&$#! He didn’t really propose!” Char said. “He just said ‘I want you to be my wife’… that doesn’t count!”

Related: Stick’s Sabado Gigante proposal!

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Sabado Gigante

Tweet this!

Isabelle: Auntie Meg, when are you and Uncle Stick going to get married?

Edit: Thanks all. You’re right, the correct response would have been something like “Look, Izzy! A magical fairy princess pony!”

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Dinner Conversation

Tweet this!