Zip-lining

Stacy treated me to quite the experience in the mountains of Thailand - a 2.5 hour zip line extravaganza. There's a lot of details that I've forgotten, something like 6km of zip lines (including one zip line alone that stretched over a half mile!), 18 total zip lines, 33 platforms, 2 abseils (rappels).

High in the trees, midway through an awesome afternoon of zip lining

All this from my wife who is afraid of heights. Allegedly.

Did I mention that she's a baller? Notice, we're in the tops of the trees. Like 120ft. up. No thang for my lady.

It was excelanté.

Friend Surprise

Stacy and I ran into two of our nearest and dearest friends last week. At a Burger King in Bangkok, Thailand. Talk about random!

The story goes like this: the two of us had just finished watching a movie in the theater (one of my favorite things to do in Thailand... or any country, really) and were running down to grab a quick dinner in the 15 minutes we had before the second movie we were going to see at the same theater. Yeah, I said it - two movies back-to-back. Anyway, Eric and his wife Maggie randomly happened to be at the Burger King we randomly chose. It was hyper-exciting.

Eric and I have been great friends since 2006, and I always love spending time with him. We were at his wedding this past summer and it was a beautiful ceremony, matching his beautiful new wife.

Stacy and I are blessed to have such good friends and such random chance encounters!

Vision Check

For everyone who didn't see on Facebook, I had my vision checked in Bangkok...

Looks like I'm doing alright.

Us in Bangkok

No joking, just us from last week. Wish I had something wittier to say...

Some guys have all the luck. Those guys are me.

Earth Day

Don't say China doesn't care about the environment. I offer photographic evidence to the contrary.

Now, yes it's true, the air pollution is so visible in the picture that nothing beyond 400 yards is actually visible, but if you just focus on the foreground, it's pretty clear to see where China's priorities are. 

In living green. Even if it is a serious hazard.

Taste Test

Our friend Phil (of Phil & Julie fame, who we celebrated Christmas with this year) was in Chengdu for a few days, as were we, so we met up and tackled a question that had been weighing heavily on us all: which ice cream is better, the McDonald's chocolate sundae or the Dico's blueberry sundae?

Now, Dico's generally gets a bad wrap (and maybe for good reason, it's the bottom-of-the-barrell when it comes to fast food; the only places lower are McTucky Fried Chicken, CXLS, and other pseudo-reputable, never-before-heard-of establishments which seem to crop up in developing countries), but McDonald's doesn't exactly hold a place of high esteem in most Americans' hearts, either. So a head-to-head comparison seemed like the only logical choice.

Taste-testing. It's science.

Test the tastes we did, but the results were mixed.

I stayed loyal to the blueberry sundae, the treat Dico's used to win my heart over earlier this year, but the other two testers (Phil and Stacy) were too disgusted with Dicos' overall demeanor to give it a fair shake. Or the victory.

And so, in what might rightly be labeled the "Putting the 'Stale' in 'Stalemate' 2013 Taste Test Challenge," neither candidate was awarded outright victory. But in the process, I think everyone won...

Special

Apparently China has come out with a unique line of clothes and shoes for your "special"child. Or they don't know what this means.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" No, it's 3.

Mark it in your calendar

June 22, 2103. The O'Hare-Peterman Nuptials.

Looking forward to it, Isaac & Carl!

Deutschland Surprise

In quite possibly one of the best planned surprises ever, my best friend Will's wife Krista surprised him for his upcoming birthday by flying me to Germany to spend a week and a half with him. It was kind of incredible, and I wasn't even on the receiving end of the surprise!

This surprise came fully stocked with an Incognito-stache

As per usual, Will and I pretty much owned Europe for 11 days. Swiss Alps? Check. 700 year old wine cellar restaurant? Check. Pretzels? Check. Still fly after 18 years of friendship? Check.

Swiss Alps, no big deal

As is usually true, all the thanks for this incredible hangout time goes to Krista and Stacy, who put in the hard work of coordinating schedules and working out logistics so that "guy time" could happen.

Me, Will, Krista, and Baby Krebs (soon to be). Did I mention that
this restaurant was over 700 years old?

Happy B(eliza)ted Birthday

I was traveling back to Asia from Europe on my wonderful sister Eliza's 22nd birthday earlier this week. Obviously, I couldn't let the occasion go by without a mention.

Happy birthday, Eliza!

Post-race fab

She's a runner, y'all, what can I say?