Poorly installed air conditioner nearly falls from on high

The bedroom air conditioner in our house almost fell to the floor last week. The unit was poorly mounted above a picture window -- the installers used anchors and screws that weren't big enough and strong enough to support the air conditioner.. It didn't actually fall, but literally hung by threads of the screws. Our 21-month-old daughter Joanna sometimes plays under that air conditioner and looks out the picture window, and the outcome could have been tragic if circumstances were slightly different. Thank God they weren't. The air conditioner, which we purchased at Nguyen Kim in Bien Hoa, works quite well. The installation by store employees didn't work so well, and that's not acceptable. There are no reasons and no excuses for substandard work like this, especially in a house with a baby. I've had issues with substandard work in the United States, Peru, and even Poland. But these issues involved internet, computers and other stuff that wasn't life-threatening. Because of sloppy work, a falling air conditioner could have killed a small child.

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Joanna was quite sick this past week with some sort of stomach virus. She didn't have any energy and was rather cranky. She didn't eat and had diarrhea. We took her to the clinic because we don't have a baby doctor -- I guess that's how it works here -- and the doctor there said a lot of kids in town had the same problem. After three days of medicine, she's back to normal. A little leaner and meaner, but back to normal. I downloaded The Very Hungry Caterpillar video for her when she was sick, and now she's obsessed with it. She'll make a slurping/eating noise to signify that she wants to see the video. She's been walking around the house making slurping/eating noises for a week. Funny kid. I teach six mornings a week, but on Sunday, or when the private students don't show up, Joanna and I walk to a little coffee house nearby. The heat wears her down, which is a good thing because she'll take a nap and go to bed at night instead of playing under falling air conditioners.

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I have nice private students, but my favorite student "Sam" (her nickname) is making remarkable progress. She reads slowly and clearly, expresses herself very well,  and has improved her pronunciation dramatically. And Sam approves of my use of American phonics rather than using the  so-called international phonetic system. American phonics uses the 26 letters of the alphabet, sometimes with symbols above the letters, to create phonemes that represent sound to teach pronunciation, while international phonics uses many symbols that are not among the 26 letters of the alphabet to represent sound (for example: ɖ ŋ æ ʌ) ... There's nothing wrong with the international system, and perhaps it's more precise than American phonics. But to me, the international system is like teaching and learning another alphabet (credit to Chris Larsen for that reasoning). I prefer keeping things simple for my students, and maybe I'm Mr. Lazy (Sam's nickname for me). But I can teach my EFL/ESL students to pronounce any words in the English language, even  choir and squirrels. I guarantee I can improve the speaking and pronunciation of my students because of American phonics. Really, speaking well is what it's all about.

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We're shipping lots of documents to our lawyer in Cleveland. We're applying for an interview to get a spousal visa for Phuong.We know we won't get the visa, but we're hoping to find why, in God's name, Phuong has a lifetime ban from entering the U.S.

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I blew a 3-1 lead and lost 3-6 to Phuong in tennis on Tuesday.