Plumbers...

We have plumbers at the house today. They are fixing a pump to give us some actual water pressure on the second floor and the kitchen sink which has a leak and needs to be resealed. All I will say about this plumber is that he is a rather large Asian man (which you don't see too often) and he is wearing a pair of fabulous pink and white sneakers. (I was going to snap a picture of his sneakers, but he seems to have hidden them!)

I hit the gym (Fitness First) with Brian this morning. (He just makes me laugh and has a very similar perspective on life as I do - which provides lots of comic relief on our ride to the gym!) I got in a good workout. Spent a little time on the treadmill, rower, stair machine and then did some strength training. One-arm dumbbell snatches this morning were a bitch...and I'm sure my ass will be paying for those Bulgarian split squats tomorrow, but, I got it done.The free weight area at Fitness First is a little crowded - so it feels a bit limiting to work on some of lifts I like - cleans, clean and jerk. Plus, there's only one true squat rack. And then there's the whole math thing involved...2.2 pounds = 1 kilo...I guess I should've paid more attention during that metric unit in school.

I came home and grabbed a quick shower so the plumbers could begin work. They're cutting our water off for the next 2-3 hours - not exactly convenient and our helper, Elizabeth, was none too pleased. I haven't talked too much about Elizabeth. She's our helper/maid. (I just don't like the term maid...not sure why.) Everyone here in Malaysia seems to have domestic help - whether it's full-time or part-time. And it's VERY reasonable as far as pricing. But, I have to admit that I find it quite strange. Not that I like cleaning.

It's just strange having someone in the house all the time.(And there's this guilt thing when I see her working and I'm emailing my friends and family back in the States or writing a new blog post!)

She comes each morning around 8:30 and she leaves around 5:15 p.m. She does our laundry, all of our cleaning, she cooks if I ask, she takes care of the kids when they return from school (she even stays late and babysits if we have evening plans - like Parents' Night at school last evening). Anyways, I'm sure I'll get used to it...it's just new and different. She's absolutely lovely and does an amazing job. (The last family she worked for had 5 kids under the age of 7 - so I'm pretty sure our house seems like a piece of cake to manage.)

Let's see...I made my daily trek over to San Francisco coffee for a mocha this morning after my workout. I'm working on my "regular" status...I want to be able to walk in and they just start making my mocha for me! But, so far, I just get the polite "Good morning, ma'am. What would you like?"

(San Francisco coffee puts the cutest coffee sleeves on their to go cups)

And still the traffic lights were not working. (I know I've talked about the traffic lights not working previously, but this is a pretty big, frickin' deal! People drive like maniacs here!!!) I'm getting bolder by the day...making my way to the middle of the road and then darting the rest of the way across between cars, taxis and motorbikes. Once again, I will live to make another trek across the street for my mocha...