Caitlynne's softball team continues to remain unbeaten in the Northern Bangkok Baseball and Softball League as they won both of their games yesterday. A lot of the girls on her team also play on the school volleyball/soccer/tennis teams and there are often schedule conflicts between those sports and the softball games. Kevin is never quite sure who is going to show up or if he will even have enough to field a team. However, somehow it always works out and the team comes up with a win. Given that softball is a new sport for Caitlynne (playing) and Kevin (coaching), it is great that the team is doing so well. They are a really nice group of girls - Kevin was a little concerned about the age spread (6th grade through 12th grade) but everyone gets along and the older and more experienced players help the younger girls. They are all very encouraging and supportive of each other.
Christopher's team won their first game (14-12) but they lost their second game (4-3) in extra innings yesterday. The loss was to the same team that they lost to last week in extra innings but his team did not melt down this week and lost by only one run. A lot of his friends (and about six of his travel team teammates) were on the other team so it was fun to watch them interact (and talk trash) during the game. The travel team has been busy with getting their last few weeks of practices in before they head to Australia for the SouthEast Asia tournament. For the tournament, Christopher will play third base as well as pitch and, right now, he is slotted in as the 2nd or 3rd hitter. Hopefully, his streak of great hitting will continue and he will get to keep that spot.
While Kevin and Christopher are in Australia, Caitlynne and I are going to hop over to Singapore with a friend of hers and the friend's mum (they are Australian) to see "Wicked" (and do a little shopping). The flights between Bangkok and Singapore are incredibly inexpensive and it is a short flight so we will take a long weekend (Friday off) and have a nice escape. Caitlynne saw "Wicked" at the Kennedy Center this summer with her Aunt Janice but I heard that it is definitely a show that you can see again. I might try to read the book (if there even is one???) just so I have some idea as to what is going on. We went to Singapore in 2006 and really liked the city. It was clean and easy to get around and the people were very friendly. And, the shopping is AMAZING!
A few people have asked me if PeePorn is still cooking for us as I haven't posted photos of her dishes for a while. Well, she is but, sadly, we had to re-work our menu in January. As much as we LOVE Thai food, we got to the point where we could not eat it 4 or 5 nights a week. In addition to eating the Thai food that PeePorn was cooking for us each night, Kevin has Thai food at his office every day for lunch. If I am out with friends or want to pick up something quick for lunch, I will grab something Thai. We didn't "pace" ourselves and I think we had an overload on Thai food! So, while Thai food is is delicious and PeePorn's cooking is incredibly good, we needed to scale back on how much of it we were eating. After all, we have 2 1/2 more years to continue to enjoy the Thai cuisine... The plan now is that PeePorn cooks a full "Thai" meal for us just once or twice a week. The others nights she either makes something "Western" or makes a fruit plate and a green salad for us and I grill/bake chicken, beef or fish to accompany that. It has worked out very well so far. At first, I think PeePorn thought we didn't like her cooking but now that we have been doing it for a while it doesn't seem to bother her anymore. She makes delicious salads...
and nice fruit plates...
Since she doesn't have to spend so much time preparing a full meal, she really tries to find new and different fruits for us to try and fancies up her salads as much as she can. If she adds some kind of protein to the salad, we will just have fruit and the salad.
Food related... a few weeks ago, friends of ours asked us to join a dinner club. I was very keen on the idea (Kevin, maybe not so much) and offered to host the first dinner, which was last night. I probably should have looked at the calendar before offering to host because trying to prepare dinner for 8 people in between double header baseball and softball games was a bit of a stretch! Anyway, we had such a great time with everyone and dinner was delicious. One couple was made bacon wrapped water-chestnuts, an artichoke dip and veggies & hummus for our nibblies. Another couple brought the salad. I made four loaves of french baguette (which, thank goodness, turned out perfectly!), potatoes au gratin and (my absolute favorite) baked chicken and zucchini in a tangy tomato sauce. Another couple brought a delicious homemade carrot cake for dessert. We went through several bottles of Australian red wine and finished off the evening with coffee and Grand Marnier. Yum. The only glitch of the night was that my oven is very tiny (think "Barbie Bake With Me") and there was not enough room for the pans with the potatoes and the chicken & zucchini to fit in properly so I had to keep shuffling things around. The potatoes were a little soupy (but tasted fine) and I think that was because of the tight squeeze in the oven.
Christopher has his first volleyball game tomorrow but it is an away game at a school on the very south side of downtown so I will not go. I am going to the Babies Home tomorrow and will meet my new baby so something for me to look forward to on a Monday!
Have a great Sunday!
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