Alright, I'm testing this out to see if the video stream will work. It's a new feature for the Blogger and I'm quite excited. Let me know if it bogs down your systems or if it's just like viewing other nonsense on YouTube.

Assuming you can check out the video you will soon learn that most of my videos run 2 minutes long. Originally, I had assumed that (key word assume) my camera maxed out at 2 minutes. Au contraire....definitely user error and due to a weak index finger.

Well I have learned over the past 2 years what endears me to certain countries over the another and often it comes down to music. While the memories may fade of fabulous meals, accents and daily excursions, I have found that often it is the music in the background that pieces my life together.

One of the greatest highlights of my China trip was stumbling (not in the drunken sense) into this bar to find a great Chinese band where the lead singer performed One Night in Beijing. Despite the fact we were really in Shanghai, my Shanghai sidekick, Cecile and I took in the scene. It was an obvious crowd pleaser and a little english went a long way. Blending modern and traditional song and voice, this song set the backdrop for my trip.

Let's see if it works.

Kisses, L

I didn't tell you that I'm an auntie again!

..........Michaela Grace......

..........5 June 2007..............

she was really small and born on my Grandpa's birthday which was kinda cool.

I'm feeling slightly guilty that I had prepped you for the arrival of the first niece, Hannah, that I have completely neglected her sister. Considering how partial I am to second babies and our mutual family placement/ranking, she'll be spoiled from abroad. I just bought a shirt for Michaela which reads, "No one puts baby in the corner!" Good stuff, if you're not up on your movie references that's your problem.

As for further family updates, my niece Hannah was in a cast most of June. A broken leg that apparently the family suspected due to the subtle limp, but was not detected in the docs office. Too bad she wasn't slightly older because she could have reenactment from my sister's, Mo's, childhood years. When Mo was about 3, she walked around with a walking stick/cane for like 6 weeks. I don't exactly remember the cause of such intense trauma. Mosquito bite, bruise from falling off a bike, I kicked her??? The cause escapes me, but the vision of the 3 year old sis walking with such caution and bracing herself upon the bark was priceless. I think that was the impetus for the method acting.

So this is the email I get from my sister......

Subject line: "Why are you following us?"

I open it up and here's this silly picture and the explanation that my sisters and mom were dining in King's Fish House and they looked over their shoulders to the wall beside them and there I was in that Sadie Hawkins country shirt and 5th grade look-alike photo haunting them.