Heading to Shanghai, Weekend of October 20th, 2006

Our first venture in China outside of Beijing had a very inauspicious beginning. Five minutes before leaving for the airport, as I was washing some dishes, the pipes beneath the sink decided to fall apart. Because I was wearing the rather thick slippers shown in the picture, I did not feel the water gushing out from under the sink. By the time I looked down there was a nice layer covering the entire kitchen floor. When we were done cleaning twenty-five minutes later Stacey and I ran out the door, hailed a cab and rushed to the airport, making it just in time. Notice how the pipes in the photo are not exactly connected? You've gotta love China. (As a follow up, after we returned from Shanghai and had a maintenance person fix the sink, it broke again two days later, gushing water over the floor...again, making us repeat the mopping and cleaning...again.)