Today was a plant and animal day. Maggie was thrilled with her new pond but it still needed something. Perhaps a live sushi bar. So, I went out in search of a pet shop toward the south end of town. I was greeted in the shop by a wonderfully helpful lady who spoke basically no English. We had a conversation made of mostly hand gestures, pictures on my phone and broken English before we decided on some goldfish for the pond. With our new friends in a bag, I headed back and we acquainted them with their new home. It's actually looking pretty wonderful. More Lilly looking pads keep popping up and the fish are looking as happy as fish look, I would guess. We spent some time with Maggie's folks before they headed home to Hua Hin. We will be meeting them shortly in the Philippines, so it won't be a long absence. We went to a restaurant and had a wonderful meal but the dessert was the main event. This adorable little family makes ice cream in their home. It was amazing. Had that old lady not already been married with kids, we may have run away together and built an ice cream empire together. Left to our lonesome for dinner, Maggie and I went back to visit the famous Stewed Pork Cowgirl at the market. It's gotten to the point that they now recognize me and know my order. So, basically I'm famous now by proxy. You can brag about knowing me to your friends. You're welcome. On the way home, Maggie headed in to do some work and I stopped at the little Papaya Salad stand near our place to get her some of that delicious stuff. While I was there, I met my new favourite old Thai Lady. Turns out, she was an English major in university and taught for years before she retired. We had a good talk about different translations. She asked me about the long beans going into the salad. "What do you call those?" she said. "Green beans," I replied. "Ah, Thauw Phuak Yau." I was a little confused. "Is that what you call Green Beans?" She nodded yes. "Long name", I said. "Long bean", she replied. I damn near killed myself laughing. Her dead pan reply, followed by a sly smile was magic. This women is a champ. To end off our night, we sat in bed and relaxed together. Watched some 30 Rock and then realized that yesterday was our anniversary. We are the worst. We laughed out loud at what giant piles of garbage we are and then appreciated finding an equally terrible person out in the world to be with. Beautiful. Tomorrow, we go and explore more Wats outside of town while continuing to be questionable people
