Meet the new Xvart!

So, to explain, no we don't own two new cars. We're not that rich. :( Brian might be able to work legally at last, but he's not making that much. :)

I sold my bumblebee.

I know, I loved the car. I truly did. But I had a lot of problems with the dealership. Including one that could conceivably have lead to me suing the dealership. And the "service manager" getting pissy with me and hanging up on me because I wasn't happy with his "service" and called and made a complaint. Lets just say it was pretty ugly and to the point I didn't want to deal with them. And since smart is so new in the US, there are only 50 dealerships total to cover all of the US. But the car itself was great. And I had a friend who also loved them. And his local dealership was adding several thousands in dealer add ons... But his dealership is great. Wonderful even. So we made a deal.

He's happy and I'm happy. I'd have loved to have a smart. But I WON'T deal with the dealership.

So say hello to my new blue Elantra! To be rechristened Xvart the Second once I find out how to transfer the plates from the black Elantra. It's pretty, if anonymous, and it gets good gas mileage and will get me to and from work safely. AND it worked out to be significantly cheaper than my smart with the end of model year deals. I'm pleased with it!

More things learned from my Conference

Southwest rocks when they lose one of your bags. Unsurprisingly,
Delta sucks when they lose your husband.

It is possible to go for a conference for a week and only end up
paying for 3 dinners and 4 lunches. This will confuse your admin no
end when submitting your expense report.

When the admin in charge of booking your travel "forgets" to do so,
you can't always get reservations for the cheap conference hotel. Nor
can you always get the 'cheap' flight option. This is not your fault.
You should not have to pay the difference from what was originally
projected. You will likely have to fight accounting over it though.
But when the difference is almost $800, it's worth the fight!

No matter how many times you tell people you'll be out of work for a
week, reset your voicemail and send an email reminder, someone *will*
be ticked off they didn't know you wouldn't be here to do their
emergency samples.

If you ask nicely and smile a lot, sometimes, *sometimes* the SEM
vendors will let you play with their toys. WOHOO! Geekgasm! Or, as
Brian put it when I got back to the hotel after "Is my little geek
thrilled with getting to play with expensive new geek toys?"... If I
have the chance, I'll post a couple of the SEM's I took.

Things I've learned at my Microscopy conference so far:

Delta bites bigtime. They'll keep insisting you'll make your
connecting flight, even though that connecting flight has already left
where you were supposed to get on it...

Peacocks meow!

Another Garden Photo Dump!

New Favourite Bumpersticker

Seen on my drive in to work today:

My child is an honor student but my president is a moron

A long overdue WOHOOOOOOO

This should have been posted sooner, but we had a trip home and wanted to surprise our families with the news. I don't think anyone was waiting with baited breath, cetrainly not us...


We got our greencards!!!!!!


After eight and a half years, we finally got them. It's been a pretty hard, ugly process for us, but it's now done. At least until 5 years from now when we can apply for citizenship. :) What this means is that we're free. Free to move. Free to work for whomever we want. Free to work a second job (as a Stampin' Up demonstrator for example). Free to buy a house without 25% down (not that it's happening on LI, but I can dream). Closer to being able to adopt a child. Free to get a promotion at work. Just, generally, free.

The trip home was quite the adventure as well. We were approved on Friday the 20th. Planned to go home the next weekend, leaving on Thursday the 26th. As soon as we were approved, our old visas were no good to get us back across the US borders. So we booked the first appointment we could get with USCIS to get our passports stamped. Which was for Thursday the 26th. Packed everything up in our little bumblebee and headed to Hicksville, which is closer to NYC and has much more frequent train service. Caught the 7am train in, then the subway to the office. Waited in one line, then in the big waiting room. At 11:30 we finally were called. And the lady refused to stamp our passports! Because our cards themselves had already been ordered. Even though it could be as much as 90 days before we got them! To explain just how screwed up the process for getting a stamp in our passports actually was, I asked the officer the following:

Me: "So, just to make sure I'm clear on this. In order to have gotten our passports stamped, we would have had to have booked an appointment 4 days before we were approved and could know we would need the appointment, and would have had to have managed to be here during the 6 hour window in which your systems showed we were approved but our cards had not yet been ordered?"

Her: "Well, it sounds bad when you put it like that, but yes"

We left the USCIS office and I was totally brokenhearted. After all we went through to get the !%@$ things, they had to pull this? We cancelled the trip home, which was for my nephew's Christening (Brian and I are godparents) and also coincided with the surprise party plans for Brian's sister's 30th birthday. And we both went into work Friday. While explaining (numerous times) at work what I was doing there, friends encouraged me to go home at lunch and check the mail, just in case. I finally gave in and went.

And the cards were there!

I quickly threw everything back into the car and hurried back to work. Called Brian, had a mini celebration at work, snuck out early and we hit the road that afternoon! It was an insanely short trip home, we arrived Saturday afternoon and left at 5:30 am Monday. The original plan was to leave Sunday evening and make Buffalo to make Monday's drive shorter, but I just couldn't do it. We decided to do the drive back all in one shot on Monday. Ugh, I remember now why we don't like doing that! At least by leaving at 5:30am we only added about an hour onto our drive due to rush hour traffic. Total time back was 12.5 hours. But we made it! And we've got the cards!

Oh, and the car was awesome. No problems with comfort, and the fuel economy can't be beat. Our best tank was 52 mpg. That was distinctly with Brian driving and also with the AC on. Most of my fills ended up in the low 40's which is still nothing to sneeze at! When we hit US Customs in Buffalo, the inspector was funny about it. He asked if we had anything to declare, were we bringing anything back? Well, obviously not much, but he still had to ask! :) It was cute.

Take That!

There's a certain someone out there who complains about my cooking, and in particular that I use too much fat/oil/meat in my cooking and that it's going to kill Brian because heart problems run in his family. Me, personally, just with my cooking. There are three important facts to know here. First, the food I make when we have company over is very different from what we eat every night. It's a chance to splurge, to make something special. Secondly, yes, high cholesterol does run in Brian's family. We're watching it and taking appropriate measures. When he got his first high reading at his annual physical, we made a lot of changes to how we eat, started exercising more and paid attention. One year later, it'd gone up another 75 points. That's genetics. Not food. And thirdly, I donated blood last month. When you do, they test your cholesterol level and send you the results.


Total cholesterol: 169 mg/dL


Take that!


(For those who don't know, in order for you to have high cholesterol, you need to be over 240, and anything below 150 isn't healthy either as you're likely too low on the "good" cholesterol)

Vignettes of a busy weekend

Saturday morning on the train:
An 8 year old girl and her dad were sitting behind me. Girl asks dad "But dad, when can I start to play Dungeons and Dragons? It looks like so much fun!" Guess who I spent my ride talking to. She was thrilled that I was actually going in to run a D&D adventure for a bunch of guys. "See dad, girls really can do anything!"

Saturday afternoon during the game:
We discovered that V has never seen a real James Bond movie! The adventure itself was a full on Bond hommage and a lot of fun. V will be coming over soon for a Bond day. Hrm, Roger Moore or Sean Connery first?

Saturday evening:
JenJen called while I was running the adventure. It was her birthday and they had tickets to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. But Joey was sick and couldn't go. Was I interested in the other ticket and could I get into the city in time?

Sunday morning:
How many smartcar owners does it take to make a smart circle? Only one. The trick is getting all the others to listen to the one! The meetup was really neat, and there was a photographer there from National Geographic taking tons of photos. My bee could be in NatGeo!

Sunday evening:
Brian and I slowly discover we have joined the legions of the lobster people. Apparently 2.5 hours in the direct sunlight was too much, even through the SPF 50 sunscreen! Brian was also a little heatstroked, so we spent the evening taking care of him.

More assorted photos

Hope! This was taken after an ice storm in late spring



Roses from Jen and Joe's Wedding



My patio Christmas Tree



And getting artsy with my new(ish) camera...

Spring Garden Tour

Holy Flower Buds Batman! This is a dwarf lily from Costco and man is it a mutant... I counted more than 20 buds forming!















Anyone know what this flower is? I know it's from bulbs I planted a few years ago and they come up every year and only last a few days...

My stitching mojo's coming back!

Finally!

I just haven't been in the mood/able to stitch in months. But Friday night we put on a couple of shows we'd recorded and I pulled out the birth announcement with the neverending border. Saturday I worked on it a fair bit more. And Saturday night, I finished it! Not really, of course, 'cause it is the never ending border, but I finished all the major stitching for it. The best part was that it all lined up with itself. Phew, what a relief. Now I just need to fill in all 30+ mini-motifs and stitch the edge border... And, just for fun and a change of scenery, I did a full line across in the middle. How's that for daring? I even managed a little more on it during Sunday's gaming. Which was an absolute blast. I think Will's definitely up there on my list of favourite DM's! I'm so looking forward to Memorial Day Monday when we finish this 'honking big adventure'!

Loved the new Dr. Who (and I was so pleased to see the Ood back again) and BSG has me drooling for more and wanting the week to be over already. Now if only I could force them to run new episodes all year of that quality and never stop...

Wow. Just wow.

Two Great Weekends

In a row!

Last weekend was Brian's birthday on Friday. We both took the day off and enjoyed life, and the gorgeous weather. We slept in, saw the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie (definately a wait for the DVD, or better cable), then went to play pool at Dave and Busters. We got a call from our friends Ruth and David that they'd had a minor plan change and were now on their way over! They'd been planning on coming down to the area for Passover and had asked about cheap hotels... And our place is free!
Saturday was spent relaxing and having fun just hanging out. I feel bad that Ruth and Brian ended up doing my planting for me (my back still won't allow that), but given that the lilies are distinctly growing, I think it was a good idea. I tried to go get bloodwork done, but they'd changed the hours. Murp! I (or truthfully Dave) put the new plates on my car too! Wohoo!
We'd planned a very casual BBQ for Saturday night since Brian asked me NOT to plan a birthday party. It was also the weekend of NY Comic Con, so many of our friends were busy with that. It ended up with Brian, me, Michelle, Ruth and David. We relaxed, gamed, chatted a lot, played Wii (they brought Mario Party, which I can so see myself addicted to) and Marble Mania, which Ruth had brought as a thank you gift. It's me who owes them a thank you! I am so very much enjoying this game, and it's totally non competitive, which I appreciate. Sunday was spent calm and relaxed as well.
It's been so very long since we just had a calm, relaxing, fun weekend like that, and we needed it. It very much recharged my batteries.

This weekend was also a load of fun. We had tickets Saturday night to go see MacBeth staring Patrick Stewart with Joe, Jen, Jess and Jay. We decided we may need to change our names to "J" names too... The play was really good with phenomenal performances. In particular, the three Witches were incredible, and creepy. It was staged to be occurring at some point during a war in the early part of the 20th century and that lent an interesting twist. The dialogue was all just as Shakespeare had written it, but with the slightly modern setting. I am so very glad we went as it was such an experience.
Then, today, we had tickets to see Curtains. We've both been wanting to see it since it started last year, so I bought Brian tickets for his birthday. Shortly after I'd bought them they announced the show was closing the end of May. For anyone local, I *STRONGLY* urge you to go see it before it ends if you enjoy musicals or comedies. For this was great as both!

Yup, that's me!

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd   (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Short Update and Phenomenal Video

No, go back and watch the video.
I mean it...


So, I've been pretty sporadic in updating my blog. Life has been incredibly boring for me so far this year. I've been sick, I've been really sick, I got mostly better, and then I hurt my back and was off work for an additional two weeks. So I really haven't been doing much blog worthy. I've been doing some stitching (well, I was before I hurt my back, I still can't stitch yet from that), but I can't post update photos since it's all gift stitching. How did I get into this!?! I totally love my new car, but still won't let Brian park it sideways, much to his chagrin. I haven't even really been taking photos to post. Sorry to be so boring. I'm alive and coping, but not doing much beyond that.

As promised

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo, but Brian took it with my cell phone. It's stopped raining today, so I'll try to get a better one. I also take no blame for it being parked sideways. Brian did it and it was when I went out to yell at him that he took this photo. It does fit though! (And the black car beside it is our Elantra, so we would have been able to get out had someone parked "behind" bumblebee.) Oh, and for my European visitors who might be a little confused about my needing to "adopt" a Smart, they've only just gone on sale in the US last month. And they had thirty thousand pre-orders for them... They're going to be hard to get for a little while!

Quickest Adoption in History!!

So, remember that last blog post about talking to the dealer Tuesday night about getting on the list for an orphan Smart? Guess who called Wednesday at lunch time? I just about had a coniption fit at work being stuck there. We got all the financing in order and picked Bumblebee up last night. Photos once it stops raining (or I get the one I took with my cell phone camera).

WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Squeee!!!

Brian and I signed papers today to adopt an orphan as soon as one becomes available to us! An orphan Smart Car that is. One that will look like this:



For all we would both desperately love for it to be adoption papers for a child of our own, that can't happen for years yet. As I discovered last week, we could adopt, but we couldn't bring the child into the US for at least another 5 years because of yet another $%$!#@$ in the immigration system. You cannot bring a child into the US through adoption unless you're a citizen. So there goes that option for us. And I already knew we can't adopt a child from within the US unless we're citizens. Can I just say how sick I am of this whole mess of a system?

But I am thrilled about my Smart! We did preorder one, and are still in the wait for it. Unfortunately because we did the smart thing financially and waited to put in a deposit on it, we're waaaay down the list. The best estimate to get the one we ordered is 8 months. So we're now on the orphan list for one still in my colours and with my basic options. (Passion coupe with heated seats!! and no hideous tachometer bubbles) The one we ordered has more than that, but those are my two basic requirements. And at this rate, I'll have a significant downpayment made before we go sign for the car!

In Sadness

E. Gary Gygax has passed away. May he live eternally in gamers' hearts.

In sadness

E. Gary Gygax has passed away. May he live eternally in all gamers' hearts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_ot/obit_gygax