Since I was asked to leave Kim Koi 2 -- with my two young children in tow -- for not ordering from the concession stand fast enough, our wild trio has gone to another fish/coffee place near our house. It's tucked away on a side street, and the clientele isn't as sketchy as Kim Koi 2, which is located across the street from the park. We've been here before. The coffee shop, Gosanke Koi Coffee, has waiters and waitresses and a lot more natural setting than Kim Koi with several interconnected ponds, a bridge over the largest pond, rocks and plants, and even a faux waterfall. Kim Koi 2 has narrow walkways over the water, which doesn't work for my 22-month-old son Elijah. But he requires constant monitoring no matter where we go. Both of my kids like to live on the edge, so to speak, when we go out, whether it's near water or electric or trash. Joanna was feeding the fish and touching them, and naturally her brother wanted to copy. He was fascinated by the fish but I could easily see him falling into the water, which would be nothing but bad news. Anyway, the drinks are pretty much the same at Gosanke as everywhere else in town -- milk teas and a preference for ice in the coffees. They make a nice strawberry smoothie. Prices are standard. We went to this place before, but Joanna kept getting on the edge of the rocks so we moved on. Now we're back ... with Elijah.
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My daughter Joanna can be up and down with school -- she was way up a couple of weeks ago, but lately she's not interested at all, except a little in math word problems, of all things. Well, she still loves drawing and a little painting, but academics not so much. I think she's bored and could use more social interaction. She seems to really enjoy outdoor time, which isn't easy for me since it's 97 degrees every day. But I suck it up and drink lots of water and we go on decent walks daily. Last week, we wandered all the way to Lido, which has been closed for the longest time due to Covid. The metal doors were still closed, but a man happened to be opening them and he invited Joanna and I inside. We went in, ignored the barking dogs, and had all of Lido to ourselves. The manager or owner or whatever the man is, brought me a hot coffee with condensed milk -- delicious -- and encouraged Joanna to look at the fish and river and anything else at Lido. We had a wonderful time so ... "thank you, Mr. Lido." The only bummer was the long, long walk home in the heat and a shoe that hurt my left foot.
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We've seen disappointing news online regarding my wife's waiver application to get a visa to enter the U.S. The response time has been extended, meaning we have no real idea when we'll get the ruling. It looked like we'd hear something by July, but now August or September or beyond seems possible. Wait times were 7.5 months maximum when we began this process; now they're 10.5 months. I'm not sure if the horror in Ukraine has any impact on the USCIS waiver process. Or Afghanistan,, which has become an afterthought in the wake of Vladimir Putin's Russian invasion of Ukraine. I know that USCIS delays were being attributed to Covid a while back. Speaking of which, Vietnam is now 13th highest in the world in total Covid cases with nearly 8 million and has been posting 150,000 to 190,000 new cases a day for the past week.
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A Thai kickboxing studio opened where the old Dacne (sic) Studio used to be. Joanna loves watching the instructors kick and punch the punching bags, and threatens to take lessons. The instructors smile and bow. ... I'm beating my way through Alexander Hamilton, which is over 800 pages. Nasty politics is nasty politics, whether it's 2022 or 1787. My Kindle streak is at 834 days in a row, but afternoon walks with Joanna and Elijah are taking their toll and I know I'll eventually sleep through one of my nightly reading sessions. ... The Bay Leaf Indian restaurant continues to produce amazing dishes -- I like spicey and they got it. Tikka masala and korma were outstanding last week. (I prefer chicken but my wife likes the mutton).
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