Oddball Update

Today is our final day in Thailand! Tomorrow morning we head for the airport and begin our lengthy, multi-faceted journey home. As much as Apple and I both want to get home, neither one of us wants to spend much time thinking about what we’ll have to endure to get there. At least the most taxing elements of the trip will be over with upfront — namely, the ridiculous airport-jockeying in Bangkok that will eat up almost the entirety of our Wednesday. We’ll finally fly out of Bangkok on our trans-Pacific leg tomorrow evening, and I’ve got two books and a computer loaded with Battlestar, Sopranos and Star Trek to keep me busy. With luck, though, I’ll be able to spend as much time sleeping as I did on the way here.

Once we get to Los Angeles, our remaining two flights back home are of the typical mundane variety, and our layovers are thankfully short. Our L.A. to Atlanta flight is a redeye that leaves at 12:30 a.m. Pacific Time, and then the short Atlanta to Fort Myers flight will put us home mid-morning on Thursday. Thanks to crossing the International Dateline, this near-two day affair will end up costing us only one day of actual time. Surreal.

Yesterday was the big event — my brother-in-law’s wedding. It was a very classy event, and reminded me very much of our own wedding back in ‘99. The same Thai/Chinese traditions were observed, including the opening tea ceremony in the morning, and the reception/dinner was held in the same hotel where ours was. (Except in a bigger room — as there were two large families in attendance this time!)

The part I liked best about the day’s events was the really nice “wedding video” that was shown on a big screen right before dinner. Set to music, it displayed a series of photos from the early years of both the bride and groom, pictures from the engagement ceremony earlier this month, and professional photos taken especially for the occasion. As a memento of the occasion, we got our own copy of the VCD to take home with us.

Overall, it was a very nice event, one that did the bride and groom proud, and I think everyone had a good time. Congratulations and much happiness to A and Pond!

Since tonight is our final night here, we’re going back to the Hachiban Ramen place I posted about before, because it was just so damn good. Soup noodle with roasted pork, awww yeah baby.

In other, unrelated news, last night the season finale of Battlestar Galactica aired. The shockwaves from the viewers’ reactions are still radiating across the INTARWEB as we speak, but I did my best to shut my eyes and block out the spoilerage this time. Which was tough, because I really want to see this episode, and everybody is talking about it to such a ludicrous degree…anyway, it’s on my TiVo’s hard drive now, unless of course my TiVo blew up sometime three weeks ago and we don’t yet know it. In which case, BitTorrent.

The one bit of BSG news that I did treat myself to is the fact that apparently season 4.0 will not be airing until January 2008. I think all of us will have completely forgotten what is going on by then, but if we get Universal HD at home now, at least I’ll be able to refresh my memory in glorious high def over the next few months. Apparently this scheduling change was enacted so that the show won’t be competing against telecasts of baseball, which nearly sank the ratings for season 3.0.

Fortunately, to help ease the pain, a special two-hour Battlestar movie will reportedly be airing sometime later in 2007. Set between season 3.5 and 4.0, it will largely be a “flashback episode” that tells us some of the as-yet-unknown secrets of the Battlestar Pegasus, which means more Ensign Ro, yay! Uh…that’s Michelle Forbes playing the role of Admiral Caine, for you non-TNG types.

As for where the show goes from here, Sci-Fi has just announced that they extended their season 4 order from 13 episodes to a full 22, which is great news for the fans. Will these be the last 22 hours of Battlestar? According to Ron Moore it’s entirely possible, but the decision — while imminent — has not yet been made. Regardless, the creative forces behind the show have been adamant that the series end on their own terms, not with some cliffhanger that never gets concluded due to cancellation.

Anyway, that’s about it from me. This will probably be my last post until we get home, at which point I’ll announce that we’ve arrived, and shortly thereafter, add a ton of new photos to the gallery. (Pandas!)

Categorized as Life