Beatrix - back higher than front

We've notice that our 9 moth old beatrix the great dane has hind quarters that are taller than her front.  

Reading online, we see that there are many great danes with different growth rates on different parts of their bodies.

http://www.danesonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47427

Not much we can do about it to change any of it as it appears to be more a part of genetics than diet. 

Some forum posts talk about it happening with some of their danes but not others.  

It appears that it also occurs with other large breeds like the mastiff.  

So,  we will appreciate her uniqueness as watch her proportions change as she gets older.

So the hanoi airport needed a water fountain ...

The hanoi airport (HAN) needed a water fountain in the international terminal.  This is the story of how it came to be.
First,  an attentive employee "Bob" noticed that people often get thirsty and installing a water fountain would be a quick and simple way to get the water that already runs in the walls of the airport to the people that need it,  a commercial quality water fountain costs less than $200 and installation can be done in 2 to 3 hours at a cost of about 2-300 dollars with plumbers licensed to work at the airport.

So Bob proposed the idea to his manager "Jim" who agreed it seemed to be a wonderfully simple and quick solution to the problem.  However Jim had been at this much longer than Bob and he knew that there was no such thing as quick and easy.... ever. So jim thought he had better get the facilities committee involved.  The idea of a water fountain was proposed to everyone in the monly committee meeting  and the coversation went something like this 
"okay team, this seems like a simple fix, so I will go ahead and ask a simple question, will people even know what it is is for?"
"What, do you mean we would have to put a sign on it?" 
"If we put a sign on it what would it even say?"
"Well, since we aren't charging for it, I think we should let everyone know that it is free"
"Wouldn't people know that it is free when they see it there?"
"We can't really just have a sign that says water, I think it should say 'Free Water'.  It is short and to the point, wait, where would we put the sign?"
"What if we put the water fountain in a cabinet and mounted the sign on the cabinet?"
"A cabinet sounds fine but is the sign going to be big enough to read?"
"We could make the cabinet wide enough that it will fit 5 to 9 cm tall letters.  That sounds easy for such a small phrase as 'Free Water'"
"We need to have two languages right? What if the cabinet gets too wide with the translation?" 
"We could just add counters to the side if it is wider than the sink part of the fountain"
"I don't want cluttered counters, I hate cluttered counters, I don't want anyone putting there luggage and stuff on the counters"
"let's just put a sticker telling people not to put luggage on the counters" 
"Or trash or kids or anything else!  AND we don't want people putting trash or anything in the sink either"
"We'll just put stickers on the counter for all of those things,  I like the type with a red circle and a slash through the middle like the no smoking sign, people really understand they are not supposed to do something when they see those"
"I agree that people know what NOT to do when they see those signs, but perhaps we should tell them that we want them to just 'keep the area clean', you know,  in addition to those cool red circle things"
"I would really like to have the uncluttered stickers on top of the counter ONLY.  Perhaps we can fit a note on the front of the cabinet, the letters can be smaller since we are only worried about people that are close seeing this message."
"You know,  I think we should change the word 'Water' to 'Drink'  they can't really take the water with them without drinking it."
"What if they don't know how to get their free drink, we better put a small note on the cabinet about how to push the button for water" 
"I think you mean 'Push the button to drink' and can we add an picture next to that note showing a person drinking?"
"Okay, what's next,  what about kids? How tall is this going to be? I thinks adults will use it most"
"Yeah but we should add a step to the front so that kids can also use it"
"That means that the adults will have to bend over to drink from it, can we update the picture to show them bent over"
"Looks like we have come up with a plan in record time, great collaboration on this.  Any other thoughts?"
"I think this fountain and the collaboration that went into this will be a great show piece for the airport, I think we can get someone to sponsor this" 
"We have an extra TV perhaps we can make this sponsorship rotate and we can sell even more ads"
"This doesn't mean we have to rethink the signs does it?"
"No, I think we can find a way to have the sign makers build a sign which incorporates space for an ad TV.
"Sounds great, I think that settles it,I will write up a memo to let Bob know his idea has been approved with a couple of improvements."

Congrats HAN on a masterful drinking fountain

Quick visa on arrival to hanoi

I bought my ticket to hanoi only 7 days before my planned arrival in hanoi.  Based on the way It went the first time I would have had to mail my passport to the vietnamese embassy and it likely would not have been back in time.  Instead I waited until 12 hours before the trip and I purchased a "Visa on arrival" from a travel agent.  I paid extra (29 instead of 19) to get the one day turn around instead of the standard two day turn around.  
I just selected the most professional modern looking site at the top of the Google search results
My first problem was that I put on my application the wrong date.  I was hurrying and miscalculated my arrival date.  I quickly emailed the support address and but they weren't open fir the day yet.  My flight took of at 6 am the next day which gave the company a full business day to respond. They had the visa by midnight and I printed out two copies.  I also printed out two application forms as recommended on the email.

I had to show the vietnam visa on arrival letter at the sandiego airport before they would allow me to board.

I filled out the application forms on the final vietnam leg.

When I showed up at noibai airport there was a counter where the person accepted from me the passport and page 1 and two of the visa letter and told me to go sit down.  He did not take two copies of the visa letter.  And he also did not take even one copy of the application form I filled out.

I started in line at 10:59 PM and was sitting down.  And I had visa in my hand at 11:20 .  They never requested the application forms that I filled out.  

They only took one of the two passport pictures and it only cost 25 USD.   I haven't added it up yet,  but I think this is the way to go over a more formal VISA through the Embassy.

Hanoi cab drivers are crazy to Americans

While most of the americans I have traveled with to Hanoi will say that cab drivers are crazy and that a cab drive was a harrowing experience.  I disagree for the most part.  It is the traffic and the seemingly unorganized flow of traffic that seems to be the most distressing.  Most cab drivers (or any drivers for that matter) are actually not crazy or erratic,  but rather doing the best they can to  get where they need to go.  I have never really understood the erratic honking though.  I think it has something to do with warning other people that you are there,  but the funny thing is that everyone knows that someone is there because there is nary a square meter without a vehicle( motor bike ,  taxi, truck, car, bicycle or pedestrian).

Tonight I found a person that really needed to be an erratic taxi cab driver with honking.  He had turrets syndrome and had a huge number of ticks.  He was constantly giving nose snorts / blows,   clicking sounds,  finger cracking and almost whiplash worthy head shakes (think violent Justin Bieber head shake on crack).   Anyway,   the horn honking appeared to b part of his Turrets and while I did not figure out what order he liked to do it,  there were long periods of time when there was no honking followed by  episodes of clicking, head shaking, nostril sounds, finger cracking fit in with random seeming honks.   I realize that this does not explain all honking,  but I know that it really fit for him,  he was a very happy person and he was excited and happy to be driving.

Narita with 45 minutes to spare

I am flying through narita - Tokyo and have a few minutes to kill so I thought I would throw out some random notes about the airport. 
When transferring through internationally it is very quick.  You do have to rescan your carryon items though.  I got to leave my shoes on, but they had a rule that said  I had to put my huge backpack into a bin.  Even though the bin was too small and all(most) other airports allow it to go through not awkwardly perched angled in a bin.
The conversion currently is $10 is about 100 yen.
Trying to read Japanese and figure out what something says even when you have some context does not work at all.
The airport has those automated walkways going only one direction. It is probably because there is not enough room for two and they all head towards the gates to possibly help people get to their gates ontime.
Toilets are wierd

You can rent a shower room

Victoria secret is here....

Luggage carts in the international terminal appears to be free and just randomly parked everywhere.