I just received an email from my parents telling me that it is minus 50 degrees Celsius in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.  Of course, it is probably still warmer in their house than it is in my Wuxi apartment.

Here is another video of  Wuxi Snow 2008 that I have uploaded to Youtube.

I walked to Carrefour Baoli this morning.  The wife and I made a shopping plan for today where I would do my shopping in the morning and she would do her shopping in the afternoon.  This way, we could relieve each other of the burden of having to try and carry Tony around in the cold weather.  I will look after Tony when she does her shopping.

Carrefour was tolerable this morning for crowds.

I of course took photos and videos on my walk to Carrefour.  Here they are:

In the background of this photo, you can see the snowy hills.  As I was saying in the previous blog entry, it is sunny and clear today.

I took the photo below at about 700 AM.

I took the photo of the intersection of Wu Ai and Renmin roads from the 21st floor lobby of my apartment building:

This downtown canal is freezing up.

This was taken in the downtown park near Chang an temple.

In the same park, these old-timers were doing some stretching.

There are fallen branches all over the city.

• It is cold and clear this morning as I look out our window.  Of course, it also means it is cold in the apartment.  I am going to have to blog with gloves on.
• Here is Wuxi Tony Update #22: 

• My morning routine: get up and put all the heaters on in the bathroom and then wait thirty minutes.
• Wuxi Snow #3:

• Word is another big dump of snow is coming on Friday.
• Tony made history today at KFC.  He sat in a high chair for the first time.  Here he is with his proud mother.

• Of course I took video of this to put on youtube.
• Here are pictures of snow on the tops of buildings in the Wuxi New District.

• Why was I in the WND? you ask.  I had the honor of being able to visit the King of Wuxi and his consort Steph.  Here she is below with the Toner.

• I think she looks very good in that photo.  By the way, she does a good job helping expats find homes in Wuxi.  You can see her web site here.
• Here is a controversial photo for you. 

• I suppose it is okay to show babies without their pants on.
• The final four in the U.S. presidential election disappoint me to no end.  You have John McLame, Hilarious, Obamanation and Mitt Rommel.  Of the bunch, I have to hope for Mitt.  But it looks like McLame will take it.  I still can't understand why Rudy G didn't take it.  He had the best policies of any of the serious contenders for the presidency.  If McCain wins, there will be no talk of policy.  It will the old man against the women or the youngster.  F***ing pathetic. 

Wuxi Snow #2

It is the weekend at the Kaulins household.  The Kaulins family will be going the the Royal household this afternoon.

But first we have to go to B&Q.

It was Stewart Dingle's birthday so I gave him a big kiss.  I wonder when Patterson's birthday is.

McCain is going to win the Florida Primary.  Shhhiiiitttt!

• I have been told that many of the public schools are closed in Wuxi today.  Our school isn't.  So I have had two middle school students come to our school because their normal school is closed.  Students would never do that in Canada.
• I just saw this.  Some Street Food places are operating today. even in the slushy conditions, and people are eating at them.

• Here is the most amazing sight of all in my world: the Toner.  Here is Tony update #21:

• I hear that Stewart from the Blue Bar is celebrating his 50th birthday.  I am amazed that he is so young.  I thought he was 56!  Happy Birthday Mister Dingle!
• Here is a video of Wuxi snow.  I can't embed it for some unexplained reason.

The talk in Wuxi is of the snow.  Here are more photos taken over the last 24 hours.

Photos taken on Zhongshan Road.

Photos taken at the Wu Ai Jia Yuan apartment complex:

Photos taken Renmin Road:

In the U.S. presidential election, the talk is now that it will be Obama versus Romney.

Instead of photos of snow, here is a picture of Rudy G: the man I hope will be the next president of the United States.

• The school closes at 1700 today.  Traffic is horrible everywhere in the city.
• I wish I had my camera.  I saw a snow clearing brigade:  men with shovels marching in files of two lead by a man carrying a large red flag.
• The wife wants me to go to Carrefour to buy water.  I think she is crazy.

• It snowed last night.  After I got up this morning, I looked out the window and saw that it was the same as yesterday.
• I was up early this morning to buy vegetables from a nearby market.  The old folks were buying lots and lots of cabbage.  On the walk there, the streets were slushy.  A lot of pedestrians were using their umbrellas.  If the temperature goes below zero it will be very interesting in Wuxi to say the least because the slush is being packed into the pavement and becoming solid and ice-like.
• Last night on the way home from work, I nearly slipped and fell about seven times.
• The traffic is lighter than usual this morning in Wuxi but it seems that there are more horns being used.  The drivers here seem to think that using horns in hazardous or busy situations will solve the problem.
• I finished watching the third season of the Wire over the weekend.  It didn't run out of the ideas.  It was high quality TV viewing.
• I played with the Toner for two hours last night and the night before.  He is becoming more and more interested in all sorts of things.  He is almost able to sit unaided.  He can lay and his stomach, and give watchers a big smile.  He can roll over in two seconds flat if he puts his mind to it.  He can grab things with both his hands.  He can transfer things from hand to hand.
• Yesterday there were few cancellations at School.  The trainers had a very busy afternoon.  I taught four classes in a row.  Leo did five in a row.
• You always have to watch for drivers making right turns as you cross the street.  Because they are in a car, many of these people think they can do what they want.  So even if he doesn't have the right of way, a right-turning driver will try to force his way through crossing pedestrians.  I often like to walk slowly in front of these drivers and make them stop.  Last night, a driver tried to do this to Leo who wouldn't give ground and so the car came into contact with Leo.  Leo quickly went to the driver's window and gave him the what-for.
• I have also heard of drivers who will accelerate as they approach a pedestrian crossing.  Bloody ignorant.

Trainers Simon and Dennis perform a skit at our school's CNY dinner.

• The wife and Toner didn't go to the dinner after all.  It was too ugly outside.  It is too bad they couldn't come because Tony had a nice CNY suit to wear.
• Here are photos from the Dinner:

We had some monks to bless the proceedings.

The Study Assistants did a show.

And here is Snowie.  She is holding a Mickey Mouse doll in CNY costume.  It is going to be the Year of the Mouse.

It is snowy on the School deck.

It is very snowy outside our apartment.

Snow, snow everywhere:

So much snow that the trees on Houxixi were breaking.

I just don't see how my wife and my Toner can make it to the CNY dinner tonight.  Look at the snow outside the church now.

• The School's CNY dinner is tonight (at the Gang Li across the street).  And it is snowing.  It is a perfectly horrible snow.  It is thick enough to stay on the ground long enough and become a slippery slush.  I wonder if my wife and my Toner are going to be able to come tonight.  Anyway, here are some photos of what I am dealing with today.

Geez Andis!  Don't you think you shouldn't be taking so many photos of the boy!

Contrary to what the photo appears to show, the Toner is not ready for the toy below.  The wife gave me shit for trying this.  Tony didn't seem so much interested in moving about as in sucking everything on the console. especially the steering wheel.

The video is below.... 

Here is the latest video of the Toner to hit Youtube:

• Now, I can blog.
• Today, I sat through two meetings, arm wrestled a female TV reporter, got videotaped having my clock cleaned at Table Tennis, mopped a kitchen flood at 630 AM, kissed my wife and asked some students what they had been in a previous life.  It was a very silly day actually.
• I am glad to get some response to my blunt comment about the Democratic Party Nominees of for President in 2008.  I wish someone could prove me wrong rather than scoff.  The Democrats' default belief is that the Republicans are racist.  I used to think that myself but I came to the realization that the Republicans are over that sort of thing and that the Democrats haven't quite escaped their own particular prejudices - one being that you need the power of the state to help certain groups of people and that these people could not survive if the Democrats took care of them.  Here, Christopher Hitchens makes a better case than I ever could the irony of the Democrats trying to transcend something while at the same time using that something as a reason to vote for them.  I see no difference between Hilary, Obama and the previous sleds to have received the Democrat's nomination like John Kerry, Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis and George McGovern. 
• On my way to work, I was about to pass between a street garbage can and a vending cart when I had to suddenly give way to a man on a scooter who evidently thought it was quicker to ride in the pedestrian path than on the path designated for his mode of transportation.

It is a busy day.  I got meetings, a speakers' corner and a TV spot for the Olympics.  It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't feeling a little under the weather.  This morning, I had to be up early to mop the kitchen floor as our drinking water machine leaked.

But it could be worse.

• It is my afternoon to be with the Toner as my wife goes out and experiences some freedom.  So while she is shopping at Houxixi, her boys will be having fun.
• Right now, the Toner is asleep so I can make this blog entry.
• Last night, I went through the boxes packed with DVDs and pulled out some Bugs Bunny and Kenneth Clark's Civilisation.  Tony was not much interested in Bugs Bunny so far.
• I don't know why everyone hates Fox News!  I am watching it and I love it!  A good balance of views to be had.
• Obama said some good things about Reagan.  Now, there is an article linking Hilary and Margaret Thatcher.
• What is going on in the world markets?
• If Obama is not elected president will that prove that America would never elect a black man president?  If Hilary is not elected president does that mean that America would never elect a woman president?  I don't think so.  I would say that if they elected either of these persons President it would indicate that these is a desperate urge on the part of many Americans to elect women or blacks; and thus an inability to be colour-blind.  I don't think either of these two candidates is qualified to be president and the only reason that they could well be elected is because of their not being white men.