It's a Beautiful Day in this Neighborhood...

Finally got out of the house today. They plan was to take a tour of the neighborhood! First stop was to check out some 'property' that was for sale. i don't really consider it property because they were fish ponds. Who wants to buy a fish pond?

My mom was thinking about buying them and raising fish. Then she realized they would just get stolen. That happened to her father's pond when she was little. Plus, buying a pond would be ridiculous. On our way to the ponds we saw this fancy display infront of one of the houses.
Here Thao is demonstrating out to use an old school bathroom. Should have seen his wife Hong and daughter Khanh. They thought it was hysterical.
It was pretty crazy when Thao walked over to the toilet because a bunch of fish swam over and collected under him. It then occurred to me that these nasty fish are waiting for some delectable poop to fall into the water and they have been conditioned to swim under the toilet whenever someone uses it. Seriously, sick nasty. Who wants to eat a poo eating fish?
Here is your typical cow. Skinny and short. Nothing like the monster hormone injected cows my aunt has. i wonder what they tasted like...moo.
Our next stop after visiting the ponds was Thao's house. Khanh took me to her room. Had to climb this steep ladder to get to the upper level and there was her bedroom, this tiny box that i couldn't even stand up in. She didn't even have a bed! Just a rolled up mat and a mosquito net. i seriously almost cried. While i'm in my california king size sleep number bed with dual air chambers controlled with a wireless remote, this sweet girl lays on a mat one a wooden floor trapped in a mosquito net. Sniff.

But i'm sure all that will change.
On the way home we stopped by to see my Grandfather. Well, at least his ashes. This is probably the closest i've ever been to meeting him. My mom of course wouldn't get near the display. She gets all freaked out with dead people and what not. Like she wouldn't even look at this picture without freaking out.

My grandfather's box is black one with the white circle.

Next location on our outting was Lac's house. Its a very nice house and has a fancy basement with easy access to store a scooter. Personally i liked this house more than Lien's. It just flowed better. i got a nice vibe from the stairs too. Not sure what that really means or what i'm talking about but i'm just throwing it out there nonetheless.

The top of the house is pretty fancy. With a bunch of plants and crazy brick walls all over the place. Not sure what that is all about but i dig it.
From the top of the house you can see the river. All those houses one the river are apparently getting torn down and that strip of land is going to be made into a park! Woot! Better view from the house!

From Lac's roof you can see my parents house and in the distance to the right, Lien's pad.

Not sure what is going on in this photo, i believe my mom is spewing off theories of thermodynamics. Lam (the 2 yr old) is obviously taking notes. Fiver year old Bao is producing blue prints for a jet plane.
Khanh has a Vietnamese phrase book in her hand. She's so sweet, she reads it everyday and practices English with me since i don't know any Vietnamese. So far we've mostly just done "hello". But once and awhile she will asks me how i'm feeling and point out buildings in English. Huy (9 years old?) is obsessed with me. Whenever we walk somewhere he holds my hand or hugs my arm. Bao holds my hand too but only when the other two are because he likes to hop on the bandwagon like that.

This girl in green...lives a couple houses down. i forget her name but her nick name is "Iraq"...like the country. Because she's so dark. Does anyone else find this ridiculous?
Here is the demon dog Baby. Spawned from the fires of hell. Sure he looks sweet and you can't imagine him hurting anyone..that's what i thought until i went to pet him. He gets scared easily because he's pretty much blind and i found out he doesn't like to be petted if he doesn't know you. So he bit me. i think i'll live but you never know for sure.
After dinner we went out with everyone to get something 'sweet' as my mom would say. We got these crazy things. Like a crazy ass healthy snow cone. The bottom of the glass has layers of coconut, beans, lotus, and other random junx that i don't even want to know about.

When you get it you mash the crushed ice down to make a slushy of everything before consuming it. It was pretty tasty. Much better than the last one i had.
Here is the gang sitting around the kid tables. For all of us to get something to eat it cost a little over 5 bones. Pretty crazy if you ask me.
Here we have Lam again. He's an aspiring model. i believe i've mentioned that before but here i caught him in the act of posing! i call this look 'Brown Bamboo'. See what i did there? Its like 'Blue Steel' from Zoolander but i changed it! Oh man i'm so creative i can't stand it sometimes.

Overall it turned out to be a pretty good day. Hope i don't get sick.