Shocking, simply shocking!

Probably as shocking to our dear readers as the sight of Janny playing wedding dress-up is the sight of her c-o-o-k-i-n-g. (Hmphf! As if putting an Amy's Organic frozen dinner doesn't qualify as "cooking"!) By contrast, completely unsurprising, of course, is Dan's comfort in the kitchen, as is evident from his expert wielding of a knife in the Duong kitchen. Hand skin burning and raw from capsacin (sp?), we briefly lamented our assigned task of making carrot-flower, chili-pepper-tree, and cucumber-palm-leaf garnishes, but then Dan noted that things could have been worse: Hien's father and another unidentified relative were making and rubber-banding mylar frills to the ends of chicken legs! :O

Flanking the Americans is the birthday girl herself on the left and her sister, Thuy (Dan's friend Bobby's wife), on the right. Dozens of party photos precede and follow these--every member of the family, singularly and collectively, had to pose with me, me and Dan, me, Dan and Hien, and with every other family member. And lest you think that photo sets are limited to weddings, you should know that two photographers, Hien's brother-in-law and another unidentified family member, spent 10 minutes (really! I videotaped a minute!) arranging and rearranging Hien's birthday gifts around her cake. Only when it was *just* right, was the cake-and-gift-haul scene digitally memorialized.

And finally, because you asked, that's a photo of the "quick cook" that Hien threw together to fortify us for our mad dash to gate 16. Sauteed greens and garlic, a fish -and-vegetable stew, fried fish that gives new meaning to "fried fish". Where's a damned fork when you need one?!

(Special note to Chelsea: First, I just ran to my bungalow while pix were uploading and think I may have committed toad-icide. Second, an enormous (actual enormity, not merely perceived enormity) grasshopper just pogo-ed from my shoulder to my laptop screen to my hair. Yes, I drew unwanted attention to myself--and the snickers of a little British girl at the next table--as a result.)

(Special note to Rick: Your brother and I manifestly did *not* forget your birthday and I tried, without success, to call. Can I avail myself of the I-was-traveling-outside-the-country birthday-extension rule?