Rob Cheng’s Blog

Only recently have I come to the conclusion that I was an alcoholic. When I worked at Gateway, I drank a minimum of 5 beers every night. Then on the weekend, I would let loose, and get really pounded. I estimate that I was drinking about 50 beers a week. I was a totally functional alcoholic. I was at work every day at 8 o’clock sharp, and I worked late most nights, plus weekends. The alcoholism had little to no effect on my job at all. The only exception was that I would talk too much when I was drunk, and to this day, I still regret some of the stupid things I said while I was drunk. But that is minor. I think we all regret stupid things we say. More »

June 29th, 2008 | Category: Health, Politics | Comments (1)

It all began way back in 1996 when I moved to Dublin Ireland to become Managing Director of Gateway’s European facility. My job required that I travel frequently back and forth between our Ireland and South Dakota. At a minimum, I was making two round trips a month between Sioux City, IA and Dublin, Ireland. Although I was not a rookie traveler, all the travel made me experience jet lag like never before. More »

December 18th, 2007 | Category: Health | Comments (2)

This is both Solange and my first child, so we have really no expectations for our kid. I think that is a good thing. Solange brought Teddy to the doctor for cradle cap, and the doctor also exclaimed that Teddy looked big for his age. This does not make sense since Solange is petite, and no one in my family is above average in size. I found a chart on the internet, and Teddy is OFF the charts! More »

September 11th, 2007 | Category: Health, Teddy | Comments (1)

Two nights ago, August 29, and 5 days before my 48th birthday, we went to the local TGI Friday’s, and the waitress carded me when I ordered a drink. I ask her how old one had to be to be carded. She responded a little defensively, “You have to look like you are over 30.” I started laughing and handed my driver’s license. She was embarrassed but it sure made my day! Man it made my month!

September 1st, 2007 | Category: Health | Comments (2)

I’ve answered the question and told the story so many times. What happened in São Paulo? I finally broke down and decided to write a photo blog of perhaps one of the strangest adventures of my life. It all started with my bachelor party, which in Portuguese, translates to Goodbye to Singleness. After 46 years of being single, I sure went out with a bang. I was really touched by all the people that visited me in the hospital. Here’s the photo blog link. More »

August 28th, 2007 | Category: Brazil, Health, Photos | Leave a comment

I made this video in celebration of Solange being pregnant. In Brazil (unlike the United States), sonograms are the standard of care. They take multiple photos of the fetus and place it all in a nice folder along with all the crucial measurements of the fetus. More importantly, you have an option to get a DVD of the sonogram. The entire procedure costs about $10, and the DVD costs another $10.

I then ripped the DVD and put it into Windows Movie Maker along with scans from her prior sonograms. Then put it to Paul Anka’s Having My Baby. I think it turned out great! More »

August 22nd, 2007 | Category: Health, Teddy, Videos | Comments (1)

As much as we had already been through with the Woman’s Wellness Clinic, the story just kept getting weirder. Solange had one more visit with the Woman’s Wellness Clinic for her post natal examination. The date was set shortly after we left the hospital. A week before the scheduled date, we received a phone call to delay the examination for one week. Then, another call to cancel the examination all together. I asked to reschedule and they informed me that someone else would be calling to reschedule. A couple of weeks go by, and no one called, and Solange was getting a little upset. More »

August 19th, 2007 | Category: Health, Politics | Comments (2)

Having lived in both Brazil and the US, it truly gives an interesting perspective in the differences between two country’s health systems. Here are some of my observations. I am going to assume that the people reading this article are familiar with the American health care system, so I will just point out the differences. More »

July 10th, 2007 | Category: Brazil, Health | Leave a comment

It was truly one crazy day at hospital for the birth of my first son, Teddy Cheng.

We went into the hospital at 11 pm on 7/2/2007. As soon as we go into the hospital, they assign a doctor to us, and they give us Dr. Forbes. I say “What?” Both Solange and I are surprised because we had been going to a place called the Women’s Wellness Clinic, and had been seeing three different female doctors, with the promise that one of them would be at the hospital during the delivery. The attending nurse goes on to explain that all three of doctors had recently left the state. Wow. Things just keep getting weirder. More »

July 8th, 2007 | Category: Health, Teddy | Comments (1)