Stunning tennis victory; a curiously difficult class

My tennis partner Tai, who I pay to play with me, started showing up late and seemed to be disinterested when he played, like his mind was somewhere else. It was like having sex with someone who doesn't really want to have sex with you. (Insert your pithy comeback here.)  I threatened to withhold money, and he perked up a little. Tai is a good guy, and doesn't want to humiliate me, so he lets me win a game or two. He's that much better, which could be part of the problem regarding his motivation. On Wednesday, he let me climb out of a 3-1 hole to square our match 3-3. Then, it was obvious he was going to turn it on and give me the beating I so clearly deserved. But Tai couldn't get his mojo back on his serve. He double-faulted, and then I walloped a second serve and before you could say Millman sucks at tennis, I broke his serve to lead 4-3. Then the tennis gods smiled on me and my serve gave him trouble, and I held to lead 5-3. I was a runaway train at this point and Tai was in the dumps -- I broke his serve again to take the set 6-3.  Of course the victory comes with a few asterisks, but as Phuong says when she beats me in rock, scissors, paper: "A win is a win."  Tai could beat me 6-0 any time he chooses, but he left the door open for me. My buddy David Pratt is an even better tennis player than Tai, and he would take it easy on me at times, but I never, ever got a sniff of a victory against David.
The heat continues to be stifling and unbearable for me here. My constant sweating has resulted in some real skin difficulties. I have to shower with salt, a special lotion and regular soap three times a day. After my showers, I have to put on an expensive cream to keep cysts and rashes at a minimum. Charming, huh? I've been sitting in my air-conditioned room a lot. The heat seems to bother Joanna a little, but she's also teething. And last week she had a throat infection and fever, and was very grumpy. But she's a trooper, and is back to standing, crawling on my computer, making faces at me, and chewing my shoes. Phuong is well-adapted to the weather, of course, and won't put ice in her drinks because she says it bothers her throat. As for me, I'm barely coping with the weather here.
I saw two motorbike accidents in the past week. The first was minor. The second was a little more serious and one guy's ankle looked pretty banged up. Both accidents were on Vo Thi Sau, where I had one of my accidents.
I had a very difficult class last week, which is a rarity here. Even stranger, I've taught these students before and we seemed to get along very well. But I was gone for a few weeks in the U.S., and when I returned, this class apparently soured on me. Maybe I don't play enough games. I knew things had gone south when I asked close to 30 questions -- many from the book -- and got two responses, which weren't audible. And the questions were about movies. There were only seven students in the class, and all I saw the entire 90 minutes were the tops of their heads because they were either staring at the floor or looking into their cell phones. I asked the class what the problem was, and one student snapped: "I'm tired." I responded that as the 62-year-old father of a 10-month-old, I'm always tired. That's true but beside the point. I also told the students they should stay at home if they're tired and don't want to learn and participate. The official version from one of the students was that the class didn't understand my questions. I'm not buying that one. This is supposed to be a higher level class. Maybe the kids were collectively having a bad day. I like these guys -- they're high school to university age -- but I won't forget those 90 minutes any time soon. I've always had a problem "letting go." Poor Phuong had to hear the story about 11 times about how I downloaded five videos and created a handy-dandy vocabulary quiz for the unappreciative class, and she finally said, "I think I've got it." OK, I'll let it go now. Oh, and one more thing ...
Joanna is very close to walking, and took a few inadvertent steps the other day when she wanted a toy. She seemed to realize what she was doing and immediately flopped to her knees. She hasn't walked -- or tried to walk -- since.