Dinny and Brian Linn

Aloha Erin

My favorite Erin story is from almost six years back when you first
got a sensible haircut (like mine).  I asked you if you'd like a story
and we wound up reading together.  I know we did the The Hobbit,
Grimm's Fairy Tales, Tintin, Momotaro, and Sherlock Holmes and several
others.  A lot of these stories were pretty scary for a five year old--
like when Bilbo meets Gollum in the dark or when he goes down the
tunnel and talks to Smaug the Dragon.  But you were always very brave
and insisted we push on and find out what would happen.  After a
while, we were reading 'grown up books' and you had learned quite a
lot about the crime, detectives, witches, goblins, thieves, and other
creatures.  Even though continue to think you were really Holmes (and
not Watson), I have to say that  reading to you was one of the best
things I have ever done.  Thank you for letting me share your life.


Here's another story:

When we started Sherlock Holmes and in the first page Watson goes into
an opium den to find a missing husband.  I had already read it before I
realized I should have changed it to a more kid-friendly scene.  Erin
says, "what's an opium den?"  I say, "its a place where people go to
smoke opium."  Erin, "Oh, what is opium."  Me, "It is a drug that they
used to give people for pain."  Erin, very matter of fact, "Then I have
probably had it.  Go on."  She never lets minor stuff get in her way.

UPDATE:


What do you think of our "new look"?   Hairstyles are different here
in Singapore, but as you can see we are making a big effort to fit
in. Brian needs to get out in the sun a bit more. You would think our
daily time in the pool at the University would brown him up a bit.

We are having a good time here, and though we look pretty lean, we
are eating all kinds of different foods.  We just got back from
Vietnam, and I admit we were a little picky there.  No weasel, snake,
boar, not even a snake-fish did we order.  Actually there wasn't too
much ordering, just grabbing what we could from the breakfast buffet,
sharing a 12-hour ride on our bus withh fourteen undergraduate
students, their teacher, and a Vietnamese guide, who had arranged for
the "boxed lunch" we devoured somewhere in the middle.  The local
ideas of "sandwich" changed as we got further and further from the
cities. Always interesting, and since we were starving, fairly
edible.  But it was fascinating, going through one tiny village after
another.  Shacks of various kinds, many with a satellite dish
attached.  At night, we could see into the big front room, and nearly
always the TV set provided the only light inside. Behind that front
room, they had one sleeping room, a tiny kitchen, and a bathroom of
sorts. The kids go to school in the morning, or in the afternoon. Not
enough teachers for a full day.  During the off times, they play in
or near the river, or help at home, driving a few cows up or down the
dusty road, feeding chickens while their parents work in the rice
paddies, or ride up and down the dusty, winding road on one of the
millions of motorbikes that cover Vietnam likes fleas on a dog--not
Teddy but some flea-bitten dog.

We are missing Clio, and sometimes the comforts of home. We miss you,
and hope you are feeling better now.  We hope you are catching all
the good wishes, warm thoughts, and love that we are beaming your way
across this amazing planet we call home.