Time for me to put some photos in my blog.  I have no theme for these photos.  I just took them at home on this day.  They are mostly of Tony but I stuck the camera out the window a few times to get away from monolithic-Tony-as-the-subject-of-my-bloggism.

View from the Kitchen

View from the Living Room

And here's Tony...

Close ups...

A reader sent me a kind email asking me why I don't do a series called the King of Wuxi's Ankle update because the King does have the most magnificent and sublime of ankles.  I sincerely agree with the reader that the KoW's ankles are awesome and blessed, but the tableau of Internet video is too small for something that is something so big and vast.  And plus you can call me nuts and/or late-for-dinner and/or a writer of the grossest of bombasts, but I think Tony is a more profound topic for an Internet update series. 

So, without further ado, AKIC: The Original Wuxi Expat Blog proudly presents Wuxi Tony Update One Hundred Seventy Six, the latest and most historical episode of the most profound moving picture series since Sir Kenneth Clark's Civilisation.

I watched another old movie on DVD last night.  This time, the Robe starring Richard Burton and filmed in Cinemascope (the first ever).  Not a great movie but not a bad movie either.  The story of a decadent Roman who becomes involved in the crucifixion of Christ and later comes to believe that the robe Jesus wore that day was cursed is not the sort of story that they would make a movie about today.

Funny how I could only find this movie in a bin that a out-of-the-way spot in a Chinese market.

The picnic that was to be held this morning for mixed-race babies and their parents was canceled due to weather.  It rained last night.

I will be putting in some extra teaching hours on my day off.  This afternoon, I will do three classes.  Tomorrow evening, I will do another three.  With Tony, I have to do these things.

Ever wonder what the toes of His Majesty, the Liberator of Hans Island, the Restorer of Olympic Nudity, Patron of the art(?) of science fiction and fantasy, and the Inventor of Quiche are like?  I don't care, but I love to invoke his list of honorifics whenever I can.  It makes my blog posts seem longer.  And if you do care about His Magnificence's toes, I can say I have see them.  But when you look at them, you have to keep in mind his politics, which can be only classified as amoral.  Any man who likes Mitt Romney because of his and Barak Obama because of his ears, must have his toes stared at with suspicion.  But his toes are alright.  He cuts his toenails on a regular basis and there is no evidence of gangrene residing under them.

I would say that this Palin has accomplished more than Obama has, pre-presidential run speaking.  She has been a mayor and a governor and actually run things.  Is she related to the Monty Python troupe member?  Of course not!  But again, that thought was on my mind and I thought, what the hay (or hey?), mention it in this blog entry.

By the way, ever wonder where the word kowtow comes from?  Well, of course the KoW stands for the King of Wuxi.  The tow comes from the fact you have to do a lot of towing the line if you want to be the KoW's number one sycophant.

• Thanks Ma!  Thanks Pa!  Yesterday, I received one of the two care packages you sent.  Tony liked the toy phone.  I very much appreciated the Western Novels (Zane Grey) and the socks, underwear and pants.  That Reader's Digest compilation set of Canadian Pop Music artists CD was a pleasant surprise.  It was good to hear a Stomping Tom Connors and  a Gordon Lightfoot song for the first time in years.  "Farewell to Nova Scotia....."
• Yesterday morning, I had a seat on the bus.  A rare time that ever happens.
• The back half of my scooter's bumper came off Thursday night.  I was pushing the bike down a narrow set of stairs when contact with the wall pulled the bumper right off.  The bumper was loosely joined to the front bumper and had been popping out from the day of purchase.  I don't know if I need the thing anyway and maybe won't bother putting it back on.
• I did things differently Friday night.  Instead of surfing the Internet as is my habit, I watched a DVD "The Dambusters" which I found in a bin of old movies at Nan Chang Market.  The film was well-acted with what now look like crude special-effects and a politically incorrect name for a dog.  The film about a WWII British operation to bust Dams in Germany's Ruhr Industrial area shows military men as full of simple courage and valor and so is a film that wouldn't be made currently.  What a shame.  I love old movies.

Hurry and buy your Star Wars toys at McDonalds before His majesty, the King of Wuxi, China Expatdom, the liberator of Hans Island, the restorer of Nudity to the Olympics and the maker of Quiche procures them all.

Ladies and Men of Wuxi!  Lend me your eyes (and your cash at no interest, of course)!  I invite you to see the evidence, the best evidence to prove, beyond a doubt, that my wife's claims that my son Tony can walk are not exaggerated, but are in fact of a significant claim that can justly be proclaimed to all the world, or to the extent of the world that has Internet access and cares about this one child of a Wuxi, China Canadian Expat.  So, AKIC: The Wuxi Blog proudly presents Wuxi Tony Update One Hundred Seventy Five, with an Addendum.

Tony can walk but he still crawls most of the time.  Still, yesterday was an important milestone for him.  He wants to walk and he has a big smile on his face when he can take five or six steps.

I just got a text message from my wife telling me that Tony can walk, but she has not provided any details and I have not been able talk to her.  I will officially declare that Tony can walk when he ceases to crawl and he runs to greet me when I come home from work.

But I don't know what my wife means exactly.

Someone was setting off fireworks, at 500 AM THIS MORNING!, to mark the fact that they were moving into their new apartment.

Mark September 14th on your calendar!  It is the Mid Autumn Festival Holiday.

A scooterist was giving the KoW the what-for look but clearly bike boy was at fault.  The King was looking for a place to park.  The cyclist following the King was hugging the curb as well as hanging out in the King's blind spot.  So when the King made a right turn, the scooterist instead of slowing down decided to pass on the right and couldn't understand why he was getting himself cut off.  I can understand the Chinese pragmatism about traffic rules but I don't understand the maneuvers they make that are dangerous like turning into traffic without looking and not thinking to slow down when someone in front of them slows down.

There is nothing finer than a Wuxi Tony Update filmed on location in Wuxi, China.  So in honor of the South, I am proud to introduce to you, the latest episode of the greatest ever chronicle of a baby ever uploaded to the Internet,  Wuxi Tony Update Number One Hundred Seventy Four.  This episode, you will see Tony sit and then stand and crawl and then try to walk.

• Yesterday night on my ride home by electric bike, I saw another electric bicycle carrying two people and a bicycle.  The bicycle was placed in the space between the steering column and the seat.  The driver was having a hard time keeping balance.
• I saw another scooter tip over as it was carrying too many boxes of food.  I pitied the driver.
• Democrats and Leftists are besides themselves with joy because a plot to assassinate 0bama has been uncovered.  It is proof to them of something.  They would really be insufferable if 0bama was ever assassinated.  Having fantasized openly about his assassination  since 0 started his presidential campaign, the Democrats could continue to brand the Republicans as evil and not have to have serious discussions about issues.  There is nothing that scares a leftist more than the unpleasant fact that their opponents simply have different opinions and ideas about how to make the world a better place.
• Summer can't end soon enough for me.
• Last night, I couldn't find a place to park and recharge my bike.  I was able to this morning, but thankfully  I didn't the need to take the bike today.  If I did need to, I would have a problem.

That is my topic for my Speakers' Corner this afternoon.  I hope that it generates lots of conversation.  I hope for some people's sake, there aren't such places.

Summer is Winding down at our school.  Most of our summer school students are returning to their middle schools, high schools and universities.  All we have left to teach are adults and corporate customers.  I would say most of the summer school students were whiz kids.

When I am at school, I should remember to work as hard as my wife is at home with Tony.  Spending Monday daytime at home yesterday, Tony exhausted me.  The best part of the day was our afternoon nap.

In the U.S. presidential elections, the conventions are going to be held.  But I can't get FOX news on my TVU player in order to watch them.

Andreas, the German, will be moving into our neck of the woods in Wuxi soon.  I understand his stuff is already in the new apartment.

Simon and Nicole and Amy Grant go to England for two weeks.

One of my Timken students Tom has been in the hospital for a while.  I wish him a full recovery and fell sadness at not being to able to see him for the rest of the course.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Expats and Experts, Yehs and Nays, witness the trouble my wife Jenny has trying to feed Tony in the latest episode of the Wuxi Tony Update Chronicles.

My parents, Arnis and Aina Kaulins, are celebrating their 46th anniversary sometimes in the next 24 hour period.

I have two questions for them.  First, what is their secret for staying together so long?  Second, is this what I was like when I was young?

The above photos illustrate the trouble it is to try and feed Tony.  He won't sit still!

The Kaulins Family went downtown to a Nanchang Market photo studio to take portrait photos of Tony Boy to commemorate his first birthday.  Tony was a very uncooperative subject.  He refused to put on any sort of hat.  Any time a hat was on his head he quickly took it off.  He spent most of the hour-long session crying and did not stop crying till he was out of the studio and on the street.

There is still a stall in Nanchang market where you can buy old movies on DVD.  For 20 rmb, I bought Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets, Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn with Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten, The Flying Tigers starring John Wayne, The Dam Busters, The Robe starring Richard Burton and Victor Mature, and The Marx Brothers go to the Circus.

The Olympics are over.  I caught part of the closing ceremony.  I didn't watch as much of the Olympics as I hoped being busy with work and Tony so I can't really opine whether they were a success or not.  I suppose I will judge when the journalists all return home and  then state what their true feelings about the Olympics in China were.

Your majesty, the King of Wuxi I think I have a book you will like.  The basic plot is about a carrier pigeon and a helper monkey teaming up and going to a land of magic and fantasy.  Not my cup of tea, but I am sure it is down your alley.

The King of Wuxi is in love with Obama.  When I point out to his majesty all the faults of Obama like the stupid policy pronouncements Obama makes, 0bama's lack of experience and the ultimate failure of 0's idealism, the King of Wuxi couldn't care less.  The King is impressed with how Obama has run the campaign with the Internet financing model and the gimmick of text-messaging his VP choice.  But you must remember that the King worked for the Liberal Party in Canada where power outweighed policy concerns or principles.

If McCain chooses Mitt Romney as his running mate, The KoW will be conflicted.  His majesty really liked Mitt's hairdo and was willing to overlook the fact that Romney was a Mormon.  Mitt was KoW's first choice to be elected president in 2008.  But when Mitt dropped out of the Republican primaries, the KoW switched his loyalties to 0bama because of 0's floppy ears and his way of raising money using the Internet.  The cell-phone gimmick to announce Biden as his running mate made the KoW fall head-over-heels for 0.  But the KoW stills holds a flame for Mitt and believes Romney can win in 2012..... 

Watch these videos if you know what is good for you.  Not watching them, may result in your death.  This is a threat.  Other blogs may promise you sunshine and lollipops but AKIC gives you pure, unvarnished, unalterable truth and nothing but it in nice large dollops that hit you in the side of the head and wake you up.  Yes, AKIC is the blog the challenges it rare readers because I know that they can take it.  You're not goddamn wimps or wussies or wuxxies.  And if you happen to be, get out.  You are not wanted till you stick some common sense into your closed and addled-up mind.

So, rare and brave readers, AKIC, the blog that sometimes threatens its readers with death, proudly presents three of the  four latest episodes of the Wuxi Tony Update Series, the visual and the sensual aspect of the AKIC Internet Empire.  In episodes One Hundred Seventy One and One Hundred Seventy Two, you will witness the spectacle that was the party in honor of Tony's First Birthday.  In episode One Hundred Sixty Nine, you will see the countdown episode that I forgot to embed here earlier.

One of our teachers Carol is going back to Canada on Wednesday.  She will be missed by the staff and the students.

It is hard for any sane man to be happy these days.  Russia is going to get away with invading Georgia.  This man 0bama may be elected president.   And if he does not get elected, a man named McCain will be the president instead.  Only by the Dumocrats nominating such a pathetic candidate could the election of McCain look like a positive.

But if you, rare reader, want a real positive, I have this to offer: my son Tony's first birthday.  As you rare readers know, I will upload video to Youtube.  But for now, I offer you still photos of the little man enjoying himself on his special day. 

Tony's first birthday really is not so much about him as it is about my wife having survived a year with him.  While life has changed for me permanently and Tony has given me some hard moments and I have felt more tired than I have ever been, it has been a picnic for me compared to what my wife has gone through.  I haven't had to spend days on end with the little guy who, much as I love him, tests my limits and patience.  I can escape to work.  My wife, after having experienced the rigors of pregnancy and child-birth, also had a serious illness in the last year and yet was able to take care of Tony and supervise the decoration of our new apartment by herself.

The celebration of the miracle of Tony really should be a tribute to my wife Jenny who has survived a tough year.

Here she is a one year ago today.

You think she looks exhausted in that video?  The exhaustion never stopped.

By the way, retrieving this video from Youtube, I realized there was something I should have mentioned earlier.  At the tail end of Jenny's pregnancy, my cousin Gundega succumbed to breast cancer.  She died before her time.  I had been getting letters from Gundega full of advice for Jenny and her pregnancy only months before.  That recollection brings more tears to my eyes.

There is a tribute in this video to Gundega. 

This is the final video to be taken before Tony's first birthday tomorrow.