Good luck to Sean and Brian in the Ironman 70.3 Kansas on Sunday.  Stay safe and have fun.   I’ll see you in Phoenix in November.   If I hadn’t moved 10,000 miles away, you know I’d be right there with you.   Instead, I’ll do 90 minutes on the trainer in  your honor.

Here’s one of the cheapest beers I’ve found so far.  Only $12 a six pack.

Happy birthday to the middle little Stockdale.  6 is a big number when you convert it to the metric system.  I think you multiply by 9/5 and and add 32.  I never could convert these things without a Trapper.

WOW, every once in a while Mrs. Stockdale truly earns her keep.   Today she brought home a dishrack.  Now, there are various jokes we could make, so feel free to use the comments to vote for your favorite or make your own.

1.   This is about as close to housework Mrs. Stockdale has been in years.
2.   It’s the best gift Dale has received since Mrs. Stockdale forgot his birthday three years ago.
3.   How did Mrs. Stockdale even know what a dishrack looks like?
4.   If Mrs. Stockdale only occasionally ‘earns her keep’ how do we refer to her paycheck, since Dale hasn’t earned 45 cents on his own in almost seven years.

Not sure I really trust piling plates on Level 2, but it will work.

Also, I met the mailman today.  Not sure what his truck looked like, but he was here at 7:30 pm.   Perhaps they are nocturnal.

In Singapore, they both come with those silica packets inside the package.

At first, when I reached in, I thought it was a prize.  Fake tatoos, a whistle, NOPE – POISON!

If I had to pick one thing I already miss, it is Target.  If your local Target is a Super Target, you could literally shop at no other store and survive.  I’m not saying they have the best stuff, or the best prices, but they have everything a family like the Stockdales may need, or at the very least something that will do the job.  Plus, it is all in one place with ample parking as an added bonus.

So, imagine if a giant picked up an entire Target and shook it like a puzzle box.  Everything that was once nicely organized in common sense aisles and departments would now be randomly dispersed throughout the box.  Now, imagine the giant opens the puzzle box and starts randomly throwing handfuls of items in various directions.   Based on the giant’s ability to throw stuff MILES away, you now have a Target spread over a geographic region the size of a small city.  Now, imagine trying to go shopping at Target, but having to go from pile to pile to find what you want.  Welcome to shopping in Singapore!

For the last two weeks, I’ve been looking for a plastic dishrack.   I’ve looked at three separate malls and at least 20 different stores.  None of them have simple plastic dishracks.  TWO of them have these $150 fancy metal dishracks that look like they came from Williams Sonoma, but no one has a simple old plastic do-dad that I can use to let some plates dry (not even for $50).

If you want to buy an electric fan, every frickin’ store in this country sells fans.  If you need lightbulbs, Singapore has the cheapest lightbulbs I’ve ever seen.  But, if all you want is a simple plastic dishrack, you’re out of luck.  I’m sure the giant threw them somewhere, I’ve just yet to find that pile.

Mrs. Stockdale’s mother is shipping over some stuff next week.  There is a very good chance she might be going to Wal-Mart (no Targets in their part of Mississippi) and getting one to ship over.  I’m sure it will end up costing me $150 and I should have just bought the fancy one, but oh well.  If I’m willing to pay $12 for a box of cereal, is a $150 dishrack really all that out of whack?

So, the Stockdales have been in Singapore a month.  It seems like only four weeks ago that we got here.  Here’s what we looked like after we made it through customs that very first night.

All this time has gone pretty fast, but to be honest, we really haven’t done much other than work on getting settled.   That said, here are a few more pictures of the apartment.

A few hiccups getting the helper here.  Hopefully, that will get figured out this week.  Suffice to say, we are all very fortunate to be from a country where our comings and goings are not limited.  We can complain all we want about the TSA, but they are a minor inconvenience compared to the everyday practices in some parts of the world.

So, as I get rooms mostly done and free of clutter, I’ll post some pictures.

Here is the office.  Yes, that is my bike on the trainer.  There is about an 88% chance that 94% of my training for Ironman Arizona will be on that thing.  That seems like a better idea than having a cab run me over.  Mrs. Stockdale seems to agree.  At least until the helper gets here.  After she arrives, I may no longer be necessary.

Here is the master bedroom.  This is where you add another joke about my not being necessary.

Here are the pools.   There are actually four and they were a big reason we chose this apartment.   There is a big play pool that has a water slide to a small play pool.  Then there is a jucuzzi pool an a 50m lap pool.

More as I get this place presentable.

Not really much going on for the Stockdales.  Other than Mrs. Stockdale going to work, the little Stockdales and I have been getting things situated around the new digs.  Here are a couple pictures of our view.  It could be better, but it could be a lot worse.

Today, we pretty much got 97% of the place situated.  Still some odds and ends.  Tomorrow, in the daylight, I’ll talk some better pictures of ‘Casa Del Stockdale’.  Nothing on the walls yet, but they’re made out of concrete and all I brought were the fancy picture hooks from Lowe’s.  It never dawned on me I need masonry drill bits and those anchor things.  I did however bring over 4000 Q-Tips so I guess that evens it out somehow.

More to follow when I have time.