Monday

Here's weekend recap. Friday, after excellent Italian food, Sunshine spotted the King diamonds on the Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai Street sidewalk near where the pet kitten vendors squat during daylight. This completes the hand started last Tuesday.* The House's solid red spread, hearts over diamonds, lose to my pair of Queens. That's five in a row, bro, meaning I'm not only on a righteous winning streak, but I've almost found a deck's worth of cards just sitting in the streets. On Saturday we took down all the Christmas trees and stuff. Normally, I would have left them longer, but the intrusion of holiday decorating has stymied my ability to put the final touches on the moving-in process. I needed to remove the trees and things from around the living room so I could then move the furniture around that room instead. I was growing claustrophobic with unpacked items still lying around everywhere. After undecorating, the apartment started looking a little bigger again. Saturday evening and Sunday, I managed to get most of the remaining unpacking-related chore completed, making it look bigger still. Saigon is doing the opposite: extravagant Christmas decorations are being systematically converted into Tet displays. Potted red trees hung with golden lunar New Year ornaments are cropping-up in area doorways. Santas, polar bears, and wadded cotton snow are being removed from festive grottoes to be replaced with whatever's appropriate next. Saturday afternoon we visited Diamond Shopping Center to adjust the fit of Sunshine's watchband. During the requisite coffee break, we were able to watch the kids practicing at the Youth Center next door. I often watch uniformed students playing soccer on the tiny field there; but today they were practicing in two-kid teams, pacing back and forth on a giant ball while wearing full lion costumes. [Cavin]