Visit from China

My step-dad, who lives in China, is here visiting until Thursday. He has been living in China since September of 1996. He is the manufacturing/sourcing/quality control liaison for Lowe Alpine Systems, makers of rugged outdoor-wear, climbing equipment and backpacks. As such, he travels extensively in Asia, visiting factories, etc.

He always has hours of interesting stories to tell us about life in Asia and his travels. A lot of the stories are such that one would think you'd read about in a newspaper or see on the nightly news, but because of the communist government censorship, the information is prevented from being reported. And if it is reported, God help the poor journalist who dared to think it news fit to print/broadcast. I imagine their newspapers must be similar to National Enquirer and TV news broadcasts like watching E Extra or Entertainment Tonight...because what else is there to talk about if not what is actually going on?

For example, I recently heard another report on NPR about food safety in China. One of the subjects was a Beijing street-side food vendor that was making "bbq pork dumplings" mainly out of cardboard. He would find used cardboard in dumpsters or on the street, chop it up, put it in a vat with some solvents to soften it up and reduce it to a pulpy soup, then he added the bbq spices and a little bit of pork...and voila!..the cheap stuffing for his dumplings. This guy, when pursued by the Chinese journalist, not only admitted his recipe, but showed the journalist how it was done. He has pictures and audio recordings.

I asked my step-dad whether he had heard that story. Indeed, it was the talk of the nation...except not why you would expect. He said the government arrested the journalist for publishing lies. He is still in jail and they will not release him until he swears he made the whole thing up. Everybody believes the story, except the government.

Also, as you may have heard on the news (I did), China recently had some hefty flooding due to torrential rain. Local residents to the flooded area, which is quite massive, report hundreds of people missing and/or dead. The government has censored the information, and is not searching for the missing and/or dead. Sheds a new light on FEMA, don't it?

God bless America.

Grand Opening, ER

Since Camp Bow Wow opened, life has been in overdrive. While I have been able to establish somewhat of a "work" routine (I work two regular Camp shifts per week), I still spend nearly every waking moment marketing or thinking about marketing. Our Grand Opening party is August 25, for which I'm in charge of planning and orchestrating. Newspaper ads have been running in the Tribune since July 20 and radio spots on K99 (99.1 FM), TRI 102.4 FM and another station begin Monday.

For the record, the newspaper ad money has been wasted. We've gotten a measurable zero response from the ads. Apparently, no one reads the newspaper anymore, unless it's online where the paper advertisements aren't posted. We are hoping for a much better response from radio. Otherwise, ALL of our current customers have found us via the Internet and word-of-mouth. Consequently, I've spent hours trying to optimize our website and Internet presence without paying a service to do it for me. As they say, time is money, so this time investment on my part had better pay off.

For the Grand Opening party, K99 will be doing an onsite live-broadcast remote. We'll also have several vendors with booths, including Weld County Humane Society, Second Chance Rescue, Canidae dog food, Greeley Chamber of Commerce, Qdoba, IntaJuice and some others. We'll be doing facility tours as well as running a doggy photo booth (get your picture taken with your dog) and a doggy "bobbing for hotdogs" pool. Whew! Please send me your prayers and positive energy that we'll have hundreds of people and great response.

If you're reading this and within 4 hours of Greeley, I expect you to come. No whiny excuses like "I don't have a dog," or "I don't even live in the state." Unacceptable. You should be there to support me.

MAX
Where does little Max fit into all this? Well, he's been logging in a lot of grandma and daddy time. As a result, it seems to me that he has grown up overnight. He is doing all sorts of new and crazy things...like learning by observation how to flush the toilet, turn on/off the computer, open/close and turn on/off the dish washer, point the TV remote at the TV and change stations/volume, etc. Tomorrow he will be driving the car.

He also understands nearly everything you say to him, except with the selective hearing filter he inherited from his father. So, while he immediately responds to "let's go for a walk," "time to take a bath," and "do you want some ice cream," he completely ignores "no," "get out of the dog food bowl," and "time to pick up your toys." Hmmmm.

FINGER INJURY
Yes, LaDawn, you heard right. Max logged in his first trip to the ER a few weeks ago. We were at Camp and I was working in the back while Adrian was in the lobby checking email and surfing the 'Net. Max was crawling around in a gated area (under the close supervision of his dad) and found the only thing available in which to stick his finger...the 3"X3" metal fan mounted in the lobby desk to exhaust the heat from the computer. Imagine a CuisineArt chopping blade.

Luckily, it didn't chop his finger clean off, but it did slice a gory swath of skin and nail from the top of his left index finger. I won't bore you with the ER trip details, as I'm sure you can imagine the chaos, screaming and tears (both his and mine).