Qingdao, China

My daughter will be going to Qingdao, China, this summer and staying for two years. I wanted to know some things about the place she will be staying and I thought you might too.

Qingdao is located on the south facing coast of the Shandong Peninsula. It borders three prefecture-level cities, namely Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west, and Rizhao to the southwest. The city's total jurisdiction area occupies 10,654 km². The populated sections of the city are relatively flat while mountains spur up within city limits and nearby. The highest elevation in the city is 1133 m above sea level. 15.5% of the total area is highland, while the foothill, plain and lowland areas constitute 25.1%, 37.8% and 21.7%. The city has a 730.64-kilometre coastline. Five significant rivers that flow for more than 50 km can be found in the region.

Qingdao's climate is monsoon-influenced and falls on the borderline between humid subtropical (Koppen Cwa) and humid continental (Koppen Dwa). Winter is cool to cold, sometimes snowy, and windy, with temperatures hovering around freezing. Summer is generally hot and humid, but very hot days are rare. Due to its proximity to the coast and being on a peninsula, it experiences a one-month delayed spring compared to most of central China. Conversely, autumn is much milder than inland areas. The water temperature peaks at about 25C (77F) in late August, with swimming possible two months on either side.

Weather averages for Qingdao, Shandong, PRC
----------------------- Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Ave high (°F)
------------------------(37) (41) (49) (59) (69) (75) (81) (83) (78) (68) (54) (42)
Ave low (°F)
------------------------(27) (30) (37) (47) (56) (65) (72) (74) (67) (56) (44) (32)

precip(inches)-----(.39)(.47)(.61)(.94)(1.76)(2.31)(3.94)(4.17)(1.80)(.91)(.92)(.32)

I will write more later. This info is quoted from Wickipedia.

The Garage

Well, Gary, Aaron and I have worked for an hour or two on the garage. The other two have gotten more done than I have. I have mostly sorted through some boxes and re-organized them so they can be stacked along the walls.

We stopped to eat lunch and decided to watch a movie. After starting the movie, I decided it wasn't one I wanted to watch, so I have been reading blogs and writing this blog for the last hour. When the movie is finished, I suppose we'll go back out and at least straighten up the mess we've made in the garage. It's been very pleasant.

13 Thursday And Friday Thoughts

A co-worker is having plastic surgery to remove a lot of excess skin after losing lots of weight with the stomach surgery. She will be out 4 weeks.


Gary and I will have 4 days off. We are taking off Friday and there is a holiday on Monday. Yay!


When Gary raises his voice while watching sports on TV, our dog Riley thinks he's in trouble and has to be loved on to know he's okay.


After being close to 90 degrees for a day or two, today it's supposed to be around 60. Spring in Colorado.


The lady next to me is using "God" as a curse word. Sad.

Jen leaves for China on July 24.

I made stuffed shells on Sunday for lunch. Gary said it was the best thing I had made in a long time. Humph.

Gary heard something about selling a loved one's body after death to have it squashed and processed into a diamond. I think he was trying to tell me he's ready to make the sacrifice.

Gary, Aaron and I are going to meet my brother and brother-in-law and some of the kids for lunch at Castle Rock on Monday. We plan to have the larger family get together in July when Jen is home.

Gary is planning on the two of us working on cleaning out the garage this weekend. The trouble is, I had planned a different list of things to do, and it didn't include the garage. Humph!

My mother's birthday is on May 25. Memorial day used to be a time the family would get together for Mother's birthday and have a picnic. We are not as faithful to do this anymore.

The Bible says we shall return to dust. I think someone in this house (I'm at home now, not work) has already started turning. Won't someone please dust this house?!

We have to get new tires on my car. There goes the vacation money! What could be better!

The Accoutrement of My Life--a List

Cough drops
Headphones
Recordings
Voices
Coffee
Food
Kleenex
Plants
Time-Calendars
Work
Glasses (on my face)
Cooking
Dishes
TV
Books
Reading
Bible
Church
Friends
Jen
Aaron
Husband
Riley
Feeding Riley
Laughing
Crying
Talking
Worrying
Depression
Advising
Bossing
Groceries
Piano
Music
Practicing with singers
Listening
Imaging
Typing
Being nosy
Children
Teaching piano
Griping
Emailing
Blog
Vegetables
Fruit
Hamburgers
Chicken
Mexican food
Chinese food
China
Happiness
Unhappiness
Deputies
Proofreading
Medicine
Water
Cotton (for the times of our lives)
That's about it for now. What things make up your life?

Christ First

When Christ is first in a person's life (mine), it would look like this:

Eating habits will change.
Serving others will be a constant activity.
Bible reading will supersede all other reading.
Prayer for others will be a constant attitude.
People will hear words that will glorify God instead of self.
Love for others will be more noticeable to them.
Gossiping will be a cause for conviction by the Holy Spirit.
Time will be used more profitably.
There will always be a looking-out for opportunities to witness.
Sharing, helping, forgiving will all become a way of life.
Talking to the Lord about needing His help to live the way He wants will be a constant prayer.
There would be no attachment to sci-fi (most sci-fi does not exhibit a belief in the one true God. It's mostly humanistic.)

I can't do these things without the Lord's working in my life. He can't work in my life unless I ask Him to and then am willing to do as He directs. I believe if I ever truly live for the Lord, I will be a totally different person than I am today. I don't believe I have to change first on my own. I can't live like this on my own. Only God can change a heart and a soul. And it really would take a miracle.

But--we will only be perfect in Heaven. We have to live the imperfect, sometimes sad, life we have now that is hopefully growing and changing spiritually. This is done through prayer for help, reading God's word and applying it, being influenced by godly men and women, serving the Lord, and sitting under the preaching and teaching of the God's word in the local church.

Random Thoughts

My husband went to the emergency room on Friday. He had a kidney stone that caused him much pain. He passed the stone on Saturday. He's much better now.

I attended a Mother's Day salad luncheon at church on Saturday. I was responsible for the music and I was the Emcee. It was fun. My salad was a pasta salad with noodles, cucumbers, tomatoes, bacon, orange bell pepper, onions, and low-cal Italian dressing. There were 3 or 4 other pasta salads there also. Humph.

My family was generous with me and so I get to go buy some clothes for Mother's Day.

Husband grilled hamburgers on Sunday. Very good.

Jen called and Aaron conversed with me on Mother's Day. It was all good. They are good children.

The dog hurt his eye on Sunday and could hardly keep it open some of the time. This morning it was much better. So glad.

The front lawn was aerated on Saturday, but the backyard didn't get done because the machine wouldn't fit through the gate.

When Jen gets home before she leaves for China, she wants to go fishing and on a picnic in the mountains. It will be great to have her home. She will be gone two years. That's a really long time.

We missed both of our mothers on Mother's Day. They were both wonderful women. No one else prayed for me like my mother.

The Genetics of Onion Eating

My grandmother ate onions.

My mother ate onions a lot. She could take a bite out of a whole onion and enjoy it.

I love onions. Better than chocolate. There's hardly anything that isn't better when eaten with an onion--except for sweets. This is just a cross my poor husband has to bear. And my co-workers. And my son. And many other people. Onions help me to know if people are really my friends. They would avoid me if they weren't true friends.

Let Me Eat Cake

My cousin, Kay, wrote some poems she entered into the 2009 Bad Poetry Contest. I entered the contest also. Here is my bad poem.

Let Me Eat Cake

I pant
I moan
I cry
I groan.

No more cake.
Bad, bad snake.

You ate
You stuffed
You chewed
Enough.

Where's my piece
Selfish beast?
Plate licked?
Got sick?
Good. Good.

Happy me
Plumpy you.

I don't write poetry. I just quote others who do.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. ~Leonard Cohen

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. ~Kahlil Gibran

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.~Mark Strand, "Eating Poetry," Reasons for Moving, 1968

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either. ~Robert Graves, 1962 interview on BBC-TV, based on a very similar statement he overheard around 1955

Poetry is what gets lost in translation. ~Robert Frost

Imaginary gardens with real toads in them. ~Marianne Moore's definition of poetry, "Poetry," Collected Poems, 1951

A poem is never finished, only abandoned. ~Paul Valéry A Certain World, 1970, MBT p258

He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. ~George Sand, 1851

Always be a poet, even in prose. ~Charles Baudelaire, "My Heart Laid Bare," Intimate Journals, 1864

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. ~Eli Khamarov, The Shadow Zone

Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. ~Carl Sandburg, Poetry Considered

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted. ~Percy Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, 1821

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ~Plato, Ion