Happy Birthday Todd

Today Todd turned 44.  This may not seem too bad to all of our American friends and family but in China the number 4 means death.  So for Todd it means death, death.  We are hoping that is not true.  His day did start off a little rough.  His friend, Matt, forgot to pick him up at the hotel to go to the factory (he is in Harbin).  I sent him a text at midnight wishing him a Happy Birthday.  I'm guessing his phone was off so it didn't wake him up like I had hoped.  Oh well, it was the thought that counted.

I had to go meet with Cameron's teacher for his conference at 10:15.  It was a waste of time.  Of course he didn't have anything to tell me and basically just asked if I had questions.  We are just in finish mode so I had no questions.  We chatted about him returning to Canada and us returning to the States.  Why I had to have a conference for that is beyond me.  I think the second conference should be optional.  Cameron received another shining report card.  He has been talking a little in class.  I wonder where he gets that from?  My guess is he is bored that he has nothing else to do.  He completes all work plus works ahead in his workbooks and reads all day. That is bound to get boring. I reminded him to watch his talking and he apologized.  Mr. Singer said it isn't a big deal and it is just once in awhile.

After the conference I ran home instead of having Mr. Xue pick me up.  It started out fine until I turned a corner and got blasted by the wind.  Brrr.  The rest of the way home was warm, cold, warm, cold...depending on where I was and which direction I was going.  By the time I got to the apartment my ears were killing me from all the wind blowing through them.  Grabbed a drink, took a short sit down, and then had to go back to school at noon to get Cameron.  They only had a half a day and now are off until April 8th.

The kids played outside all afternoon.  The 5 boys came in to have a NERF war for awhile (an hour) until I couldn't take it anymore.  They were having a blast but they were running around all over and loud.  I finally had them clean up and they went back outside.  We also had workers here AGAIN trying to fix the air conditioning.  They were here for two hours.  When they left I understood that it was still broken.  Serena, our agent, called and asked me to please understand but since we didn't have our heat on all winter the pipes all broke.  As they were putting it back together they discovered another broken pipe.  That means they have to come back tomorrow.  My goodness this has been a long process.  Thank goodness we started it before it gets really hot in the apartment.  At one point I smelled smoke.  They were smoking out on the patio but had the doors open so it was coming in the apartment.  I shut the door which helped a little.  Then when they left they were only in the apartment about 5 minutes but it smelled like them which was not a pleasant smell.  I had to open the patio door to let "fresh" air in.  I sprayed some spray and did some laundry to make it smell better.

We talked to Todd.  He was waiting for his birthday pizza to arrive from room service.  A little while later he sent me an email.  He said after they delivered his pizza there was another knock at the door.  When he opened it they handed him a tray with a piece of cake and a card.  How nice was that?  They even gave him a candle and matches.  I'm pretty sure he didn't sing to himself. 

So nice of the Shengri La to remember Todd's birthday.

Hopefully his birthday wasn't too bad.  We have a vacation coming up so we can celebrate then.  Cameron and I watched the 3rd Harry Potter movie and then went to bed.  Cameron slept on the new couch again.  I think he likes it.