2008 - A Year in Review

It's been quite a year! New jobs, new journeys, new goals. So what all has happened?

January

• Registered on oDesk.com.
• Flew to Brazil for the first time. Billy spoiled me with an upgrade to business class.
• First time catching a nap in the Fast Sleep in the Sao Paulo Airport. Every airport should have one of those!
• I get to know the staff of the Brisa da Praia hotel in Porto Seguro.
• Introduced to the weird world of Brazilian beach club dancing. It's called Axé and the audience is supposed to dance along with the pros on stage. These were all filmed at the club called Toa Toa across the street from our hotel: the stage version, audience participation, aerobics class never looked this good, children's talent show!
• Landed my first job on oDesk as a transcriptionist for $5/hr. Apparently I was the fastest typer to apply. These days there are many more qualified transcriptionists vying for work. Never actually had to do the assignment because the guy left on a business trip.
• Got my first paying job on oDesk at $9/hr. Some dude wanted help revising his resume for LinkIn. He actually hired me without even performing an interview. Apparently my profile resume had impressed him. It was only a 3 hour gig, but now I had a feedback score and verifiable experience!
• 2-day adventure in Brazilian health care eventually got us Yellow Fever vaccinations.
• First side trip to Ipatinga made me grateful for the US Interstate system.
• First side trip to Vitoria got me hooked on Sushi.
• At the end of the month, I spotted my dream job in the list of openings: Writing positions at oDesk. I figured it was a long shot, and went on a desperate search for decent portfolio items. I didn't have my old school work with me on my laptop, but I found some articles I did a newsletter online.

February

• After a couple of interviews, I somehow landed my dream job with oDesk at $12/hr.
• Sea-side churascaria (Brazilian BBQ, aka all-you-can-eat meat) for Billy's birthday.
• Delicious Italian restaurant called Area along the Pasarela do Alcool in Porto Seguro for my birthday.
• Finally got to pick out my own painting to bring home from a trip.
• First ever proper sunburn (as in stayed red for more than a day). Apparently, 3 1/2 hours in mid-day tropical sun with no SPF is what it takes. You'd think with how pale I am I'd burn easily. But no. I'm too Italian to burn, and too German to tan. From here on out, I'm sure to apply the SPF 15 if I'll be in the sun for more than an hour. Which, frankly, doesn't happen often.

March

• Back to Vitoria again.
• Our house in NY FINALLY gets cable!
• We fly back to NY on Copa Airlines whose business class is the same price as coach on Delta. You just have to connect through Panama, which has an awesome club room to hang out in.
• Flew out to Portland, Oregon. Billy got upgraded, but I didn't!
• Visited the Sealion caves along the Oregon coast.
• Stayed with Billy's fraternity brother in Portland. Cooked yummy food, had fun riding free mass transit, went to an awesome dinner/movie theatre, checked out the local artists market, ate with our hands at a Moroccan restaurant with belly dancers.
• My parents drove up to visit, and bring us back our dog. We listed Charlie on craigslist and interviewed several new homes. I sure he's happy with his family. He's got a mommy & daddy happy to spoil him, no children in the house to scare him, and a rambunctious new friend to make trouble with.
• We cancel the cable TV & phone, leaving just the internet service, saving $55/month.
• I rock. oDesk gives me a raise to $20/hr.

April

• Flew back to Brazil, this time in coach on Delta. Luckily, the flight was mostly empty. So Billy got to sleep across the middle 3 seats while I attempted to curl up in the side 2. It sort of worked, but it mostly sucked.
• Flew to Curitiba and hung out for a few weeks.

May

• Actually did some interesting things in Curitiba, like eating at lots of yummy restaurants, going to see the Chinese circus, visiting the botanical garden, and shopping in a ridiculously expensive mall.

June

• Anniversary dinner at the same Italian restaurant as my birthday.
• Coral island cruise. Thank you Larry for getting Billy to take a day off of work and actually go do something!

July

• Finally return from Brazil. Fly business class Copa through Panama again.
• Billy buys a new digital camera in the duty free shops. Now he doesn't have to steal mine to take pictures for work!
• Fly down to Alabama to meet Billy's brother's new baby girl.
• I finally get to go to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.
• College friend drives to our house from Boston for a short visit.
• We take our friend and her boyfriend up to a party at Larry's lake house up on Champlain. Delicious burgers and the sauna are enjoyed by all.
• I fly to Virginia to visit my parents.
• Billy goes to Alaska on a fly-fishing trip with his dad while I'm away.

August

• I see my brother for the first time in a couple years and meet his girlfriend. We all go visit Jamestown & old Williamsburg.
• Buyer invites me (and only me) to interview for a copywriting job at $27/hr. I do one small project, then I'm just on call. He hasn't needed me since, but the job's still open.
• Billy returns home to NY, but has to leave for Florida before I get back.
• I return a few days later. Due to plane trouble, I end up flying Richmond to Laguardia to Charlotte to Albany. Then having to drive myself home at 1 in the morning. Ugh.
• Billy returns from Florida
• We fly to Australia on Qantas so Billy can work in Tumut for a couple weeks. Unfortunately, Delta no longer flies to Oz, so our upgrade vouchers are worthless.
• I get invited to a web content gig for an AIDS Research group. I lower my bid to $23/hr. I do a few hours, then the group gets a new director and puts the project on hold. Job is still open, but there's been no more work for me.
• We decide to have a proper vacation and drive Sydney, pick up tourist passes, then head straight on to the Blue Mountains.
• Spend the morning hopping around town on the doubledecker tour bus, then drive down windy roads that were rather frightening in the rain to visit some very impressive caves.

September

• Off to Sydney where we drop off the car and spend the week on public transport passes. Petted koalas, 'roos, and crocodiles. Climbed the harbor bridge. Visited some museums and the Olympic stadium. Saw the orchestra in the opera house. Ate delicious mediterranean food, sushi, burgers, and meat pies.
• Flew back to NY on Qantas. Honestly, it's not that bad. They've got lots of entertainment on individual screens and the food's pretty good, even in coach.
• Drove to Connecticut to sell Billy's car to CarMax. No point in having two cars if we're never home. No time to make a private sale that would have made us more money. Even still, we got more for it than we still owed. We got one of his credit cards to give us a 1% cash advance to pay off the loan, then banked the money from the sale at 3.57% until December. Hurray for arbitrage!
• Drive up to St. Felicien, Quebec. It's a long way north. They didn't have many restaurants, so we ate more McDonald's in a week than I've had in years.
• Drove back on a beautiful sunny day. It was a gorgeous drive.
• I cancel my cell phone plan, but decide to add a line on Billy's parents family share, saving $35/month.

October

• Still at our house in NY. I'm actually home for an entire month.
• We go through all the junk in our basement, and most of the main rooms as well. We start eBaying and Craiglisting as much of it as we can. Books are up on half.com, piles of stuff are taken to the Salvation Army. We still have more to sell, donate, and Freecycle when we get another change.
• I get myself a fancy new digital camera, and refurb previous generation iPods for both of us (classic for me, nano for him). And cables so we can connect our laptops to the TV to watch the shows we download.
• Billy goes to visit his family in Huntsville, then goes to Vegas for a few days of Man Time with a college buddy. They're too cheap to both with strip clubs, but drop a few hundred at the shooting range playing with big guns.
• Score a fun copywriting gig for a site called Crowdsourcinglinks.com at $27/hr. I don't log many hours, but it's an interesting project.
• I dance and sing my heart out on stage at Rocky Horror halloween night.

November

• I decline to drive all the way to middle-of-nowhere Maine with Billy. If I'll be wasting more time in transit than on location, there has to be something worth going doing.
• Since Billy didn't listen when I told him I should go ahead and get my Chinese visa in October, we go through a serious hassle to secure an emergency exemption from the Embassy in Washington. Thank you next day air and visa processing services!
• We leave our car in the airport for what is supposed to be a two-week trip to China.
• Hurray upgrade vouchers! Maybe it's a good thing we didn't use them for Australia.
• We celebrate Thanksgiving by eating the most expensive meal of our lives in the french restaurant in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China.

December

• I actually gain some weight because we've been overdoing it at all the restaurants. I abandon my 'but the rest of the trip I'll probably be stuck with steamed rice and veggies' attitude.
• I'm forced to go get a visa extension so I can stay in China another 30 days.
• We attempt to go to Christmas Eve service, but the place is mobbed by gawkers and Chinese Christians.
• Christmas Day dinner buffet is yummy, but Santa won't give us any gifts.
• The manager of our favorite Italian restaurant in Guangzhou invites us to a New Year's Eve party on the rooftop deck. It's a bit chilly up there, but it was a nice way to end the year.

Upgrades rock

Delta approved our upgrades for the Tokyo-Atlanta leg of our January return from China. We don't know why it took so long (business class was only about 10% full). We're using Billy's Platinum upgrade certificates just like we did on the way over here. They have to be used by February. It's nice to squeeze every last mile out of them for the super-long flight.

For the trip to Brazil, we're using miles to purchase the upgrade. Once you get a big chunk of miles in the bank, it gets easier and easier to get upgrades. On a domestic flight, Billy'll get upgraded automatically for free. If there's room, I can go with him. Internationally, we'll use his platinum certs if we have them, or cough up the miles to upgrade ourselves. The sneaky bit is, when you get to medallion level (silver, gold, platinum) you actually earn bonus points for every flight. And when you upgrade, you get the bonus points for flying in a higher class. I've made silver this year (it's recalculated annually). I'll have to check with Billy to see if he made platinum again or is being downgraded to gold.

Unfortunately, Billy earned platinum level on Delta before we realized that SkyTeam is not really the alliance we want to be part of. We're stuck with it now. When we have to fly on something outside the alliance we'll just make sure we get a really good price. Sure, we'll earn some miles in other alliances, and on independent airlines, it'll never be enough to get any of the good rewards. And once you've flown across the pacific a few times, anything less than 10 hours starts sounding like a 'short flight'. I've flown round trips to Australia, Brazil, and Ireland in coach... but I do like to avoid 'roughing it with the commoners' when I can!

Chistmas time in China

It's very odd to be in China at Christmas. In a city like Guangzhou, there are decorations everywhere. Our hotel has a 3 story tree in the lobby. Most restaurant staff are wearing santa hats. I saw a tree decorated inside the entrance to one of the local elementary schools. And they're playing Christmas music everywhere. Strangely, many of the places include the religious songs like "Silent Night" "Joy to the World" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". The really odd thing is, I know that 10 years ago, most of these people probably hadn't even heard of Christmas. I read some reports about the holiday indicating that the younger generation loves having a celebration without the family obligations associated with traditional Chinese holidays. One had a quote from a 26 year old saying she'd only done Christmas about 5 times. Personally, I think they're just into the decor, because there's not much of a push for the serious American-style gift giving. Kids may get a small stocking of presents, and adults don't seem to exchange gifts at all.

For those who are wondering, here's how our Christmas Eve & Day ended went:

Christmas Eve was work as usual for Billy. He didn't come early. Everyone I work with is on Vacation, and nearly all my projects are on hold pending management approval, so I'm not working much. In my family, we always went to the candle-light Christmas eve service at church and had a lasagna for dinner. We have an Italian restaurant and a Church of Christ within walking distance, so it seemed worth a shot. Billy called on his way home and asked me to order some pizza so we could eat before we hit up the service. I didn't want to miss out on my lasagna, so I walked to the Italian place and brought us back take-out. On the plus side, I could pay by credit card (delivery boys from Papa John's only take cash). On the minus side, walking half way across the island with the pizza for Billy meant it wasn't exactly hot by the time he got to eat it. Dinner was yummy, if rushed. We thought we'd head to the service at little early (at 7 for a service scheduled for 7:15). Perhaps if we'd gone over an hour to two earlier we could have gotten a seat. The rather small sanctuary was completely full. As was a bible study/overflow room. We wondered around a bit, snapped some pictures, and left after the service started. Turns out the service was mostly in Chinese, as were most of the guests. I was disappointed to find flashing my passport was not required for entry to the church grounds. It's on the US Consulate, but the baracade had been moved back to allow free entry to the church gates. We did notice that all the Chinese in the courtyard had passports in hand. I'm not really sure how things normally work there, but I was very surprised by the turn-out. Outside the compound, the island was quickly filling with people. It seems the Chinese like to take to the streets and wonder around on Christmas Eve. The hotel is a big draw. Some were coming in to attend one of the official parties, most were just coming to take pictures with the impressive decorations. The really, really weird part is that flashing headbands and light sabers seem to play a significant part in the wondering mobs' evening. There were vendors everywhere. And these headbands didn't just light up. Most had glowing or flashing horns. So there were children running all over wearing glowing red devil horns for Christmas Eve. I kinda stalked one of the kids through the hotel trying to snap a good picture (little bugger was moving quick!). We returned to our room after giving up on church, then decided we wanted wine to drink while we watched TV. We tried to hit up a local liquor store, but it was closed. We ended up in one of the tourist shops on the way there (I doubt the place would have been open even if we hadn't stopped). We browsed and haggled for quite a while. I ended up with a pretty purple shawl and green touristy-chinese purse. Billy got a cool present for his dad. We grabbed some ice cream at a convenience store and headed home.

On Christmas Day, Billy went to work again, but got home a few hours early. We got dressed up (I even made Billy wear a tie this time) and headed to our dinner reservations. We'd booked dinner at the buffet we'd gone to before. It was basically the same as any regular night, except they had turkey with cranberry sauce at the carving station and party hats/flashing santa pins at the tables. The price was higher too -- at least it included red wine and champagne. We stuffed ourselves. Billy was very disappointed the santa wouldn't give him any presents (he just handed out little baggies of candies to the children). Oh, and before dinner we recorded the video from my last post. When we left dinner, we could see there were again lots of people walking around wearing flashing horns, though today I was seeing mostly pink, blue, and green. The vendors probably sold out of red the night before!

And no one seems to be taking down the decorations or removing the santa hats yet. I do hope they put it all away after January 1. It'll drive me nuts if they keep this up through Chinese New Year (that's in late January this year, a couple weeks after we leave).

Merry Christmas from China

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China

With Love,
Billy & Jacqui Pittenger

Embedded video not working? Click this link to watch us on YouTube.

You can check out all our photos on Flickr.

Bah, humbug!

It's getting that I absolutely loathe Christmas-time. I'm not Scrooge. I just think people should do things because it's the right thing to do, not because it's a 'holiday tradition'.

Things I hate about the holiday season

• The sudden surge is charitable giving associated with 'the holiday spirit'
• Secret Santas, family gift exchanging, and every form of 'obligatory giving'
• Mall Santas (or whatever place you drag your kid to for photos and wish lists)
• The spoiled rotten children who receive piles of presents
• The spoiled rotten adults who are even worse than the children because they're old enough to be held accountable for their actions
• The ridiculous consumerist bullsh*t of it all

Don't get me wrong. I see absolutely nothing wrong with giving presents to show you care. If I want to give you a present, I give you a present. It has nothing to do with the day on the calendar or someone being born 2000 odd years ago. Same goes for giving to charity. I have a problem with people doing these in the name of "Christmas". And it's even worse when they have the gall to do it while calling this a religious holiday. Guess what? Protestants had Santa Claus in Sunday School before they started bothering with the Nativity. Catholics always had it on the schedule, but they used it to help convert followers used to various 'pagan' solstice festivals. So basically, we've got three totally separate types of 'holidays' all being jumbled into one:

1. The solstice festivals that go way back, and frankly have a much better excuse for existing. The fact that days start getting longer again instead of plunging us into eternal night is actually quite important.
2. The 'Christ Mass' that is a truly Holy day in the Catholic tradition. Even if the exact choice of day is unrelated to the event being celebrated.
3. The Santa Claus x-mas that worships at the alter of consumerism.

If you want to celebrate more than one of the above holidays, go for it, but understand they're three totally separate things. So please, just realize if you're sitting around a Christmas tree giving presents in the name of Jesus, you're being a big ol' hypocrite. A true Christian wouldn't just care about his fellow man each December. And he certainly wouldn't run up credit card debt to buy unnecessary junk for his bratty children. You have the right to be a consumerist a**. And I have the right to call you on it.

A social obligation to exchange presents each year on a particular date is silly at best. Worse still is the shear quantity of crap that is exchanged. Sure, I grew up looking forward to Christmas presents under the tree each year. But we didn't get a list a mile long. And none of it was big. Even when I got older and we had more money, we never gave that many presents. And I would have been perfectly happy getting even less than I did get. Generally speaking, I think we should all be giving each other a whole lot less stuff. Why? So we'll have a whole lot less stuff! No one appreciates anything if they've got piles of junk they never use lying around. It takes up space and makes you think you need a bigger house. So not only have you wasted money on crap that isn't being used, you'll end up wasting even more money getting a bigger place to live. It's all bad for your pocket books and the environment. And it gets worse with each generation. You ought to use the money for something that's actually useful, like retirement savings or education. And that's true all 12 months of the year!

Now, the charitable giving has me torn. I strongly feel people should be giving away more to charity (the cause is your choice). And they should be doing it all year long, not just wasting those charitable dollars on creating a fantasy consumerist X-mas for someone 'in need'. No one, I repeat, none one 'needs' Christmas. But they do need a lot of other things. Food. Jobs. Education. Assistance and direction to help them provide for themselves. If you'd like to give a pile of Wiis to the children's hospital, go ahead and do it. Just not because it's Christmas. If a gift is worth giving, it's worth giving at any time of the year. If you're only giving because 'til the season', well, you're not doing it for the right reasons. That's no better than giving for the tax break. But, well, I'd still rather people were giving to charity, for any reason, than spending it on more junk for themselves or their children.

And don't even get me started on the wastefulness of most Christmas cards...

Despite this frustrated rant, there are a few parts of the holiday season that I do enjoy. None of which I'll get this year here in China (ok, there's a small chance at #1 at a foreign consulate).

Things I love about the holiday season

1. Candle-light Christmas Eve services. I can no longer identify myself as Christian, but as a singer I absolutely adore Christmas Cantatas. And I think singing as a group is good for everyone... even if it's just christmas carols.
2. Office holiday parties. Even when they're done cheaply, it's important to have a fun event with your co-workers at least once a year. But it's still silly that this is associated with Christmas!
3. The rare individuals who cross the bridge between holiday giving and real altruism. Now that's a Christmas miracle.
4. After-Christmas sales. I'm not Scrooge, but it can pay to be a cheapskate. There are some things you really do need. So you might as well buy them on sale.

Busy week, long update

It's been a few days since I last posted. Here's what's happened:

• I went to the Entry/Exit Admin to apply for my visa extension on Tuesday. It was successful in that they accepted my paperwork this time. I go back Tuesday morning 12/23 to pick up my passport. I do hope it contains a visa extension. Otherwise I have to go back to the hotel, pack my things, and immediately leave the country.
• I tried to go shoe shopping after I was done turning in my forms. That was a big disappointment. See, the shoe district is actually a terrible place to buyer shoes. Not because it's expensive there (it's not), but because it's full of wholesalers, just like the leather district. Everything here has a district full of wholesalers. They usually have a small box of old samples you can buy. But a US ladies size 8 is not something easy to find here, even in a store that is willing to sell one pair at a time. If I try on clothes, I tend to need a large (rather than the small I wear in the US). All the cute tops are designed for someone with no chest at all. So basically, I feel like a big, fat giant at the end of a shopping trip. I'm now thankful that I don't need to buy clothes for Brazil here.
• Aki headed back to Finland, so now it's just me and Billy here. That means we'll be spending less money on wine at dinner, but it also means we've lost the only person we had to hang out with.
• We bought our tickets to return to NY on Jan 12. We couldn't get on the same flights we used to come over here, so we're flying from Hong Kong to Tokyo instead. We'll be driving there (there's a coach that pics people up from all the hotels) and get to spend 1 afternoon & evening in Hong Kong. That should be fun. Keep your fingers crossed we get confirmed for upgrades on the Tokyo to Atlanta flight!
• On Wednesday evening, we got together with one of Billy's fraternity brothers. Turns out Ethan now works for iRobot -- the people who make the Roomba and the Scooba (and now they have a gutter cleaning robot, how cool is that?). They've got some manufacturers in this area so he was in Guangzhou for a day. He's been over a few times in the last year, and he's actually pretty good at Chinese. Limited vocabulary, but impressive pronunciation. It was nearly an hour taxi ride away (total cost, about $15 each way). How could we not go hang out?! What's the other side of the city when you've already come to the other side of the world? So we ate sushi at his hotel then went out to a street market. It was my first experience not a wholesale district. If I really needed cheap tops or handbags or jewelry or socks, I could have gotten some. I even tried on a cardigan and a jacket. Yes, the prices were good, but do I really need a pretty purple jacket right now? It would have been less than $40, but who knows when I'd ever get to wear it. Not this year anyway.
• Last night we got Papa Johns delivered. Yup, they have them in China, too. They even have the garlic sauce. Got a thin crust pizza, a pasta bake, and cheesy garlic bread. It was pretty good. We'll probably order from them again. And it's nice not to have to go out to a restaurant for once. Although it turns out our favorite Italian restaurant also does delivery...

The reason I haven't posted in a few days is that I've been especially busy with work. We had a super important release of a whole new global nav over at oDesk on Thursday. The monthly newsletter and blog posts had to be coordinated with the release. Basically, I'm back to full-time work again. Now need to develop a strategy for a total help content overhaul. Near all the help content is now either obsolete, or painfully out of date. We're trying to shift to less documentation, more in-line help, and more tutorials. Which means lots of fun work for me. And I'm not saying that sarcastically, either.

Going back to the US after all

Despite the apparent cost savings of flying direct to Brazil, it appears both Billy and I will be flying home between countries.

Pros

• Changing out our wardrobes with stuff we already own
• Possibly getting to make our dental check-ups
• A visit or two to the chiropractor
• A chance to go through our own mail
• Billy needs to fill out some paperwork for his new life insurance policy
• Billy's office needs to install some software on his computer

Cons

• It will cost more
• We have to fly all the way from China to Albany, then down to Brazil just a day or two later
• We only have upgrade vouchers for one leg of the trip
• I'll lose 4 days of work to traveling instead of just 2
• No new summer wardrobe shopping spree

On the up side, it looks like we may get his company to pay for my china plane tickets after all, so the cost is less important. And the prices really aren't that bad, considering how far we're flying. The part I don't like is that we can leave China no earlier than January 11 (and more realistically the 12th), but Billy must be in Brazil by January 16. Which means two overnight intercontinental flights in one week, and each trip requires 3 legs. Ugh.

A day in the life...

Here's what my average day is like here in Guangzhou.

8:30 AM

Alarm goes off. Billy has usually already been up for an hour or two showering, reading yesterday's newspaper, getting breakfast, and taking care of emails from the NY and Finland offices' 'day'. I check our various financial accounts and take care of emails. If I want to catch the CA office during 'business hours' I need to IM them first thing.

10:00 AM

Change into something halfway presentable and go to breakfast. Most days, I walk down the stairs (20 stories). The breakfast buffet is awesome. Cereals, yogurts, juices, pizza, chicken & fish nuggets, spring rolls, assorted fresh fruit, scrambled hard boiled and fried eggs, omelet bar, assorted meats, french toast, steamed veggies, fried rice noodles, oatmeal, salad fixings, nasty coldcuts, croissants, breads, muffins, dim sum. And all the coffee or tea you can drink. Luckily, this is included in our room price -- otherwise it'd be about $28/person/day. If it's a laundry day, I take that down with me and drop it off before heading to the dining room for breakfast. It goes to the closest tourist shop/laundry service (about a hundred meters from the Hotel's side entrance). Drop it off by 11 AM and they'll have it ready to pick up by 5PM. A week's laundry for the both of us costs about $10. Sending it out using the hotel's service would be more than $200. There isn't any self-service options around here.

11:15 AM

The buffet closes at 10:30, but I sit around drinking tea (which they will happily keep refilling) and reading a book until I'm confident my room will be ready. The maids come around while I'm at breakfast. I don't like to be in the room while the maids are here, although they don't technically kick me out at this hotel. The staff here is all really nice, and they all seem to know enough English to go with their job. "Housekeeping!" "May I come in?" "May I change the sheets?" Some are definitely better than others, but overall, I'd say their English skills are better than the average cleaning staff at many US hotels. When we were on the 20th floor (an 'executive level') there were 3 people involved in cleaning the room every day -- a maid, a vacuumer, and a room steward to check their work and make sure all our 'executive amenities' were in good order. Now that we've moved to the 19th floor (the executive levels are being remodeled starting next week), there only seems to be single maid involved. I doesn't make any difference to me, especially since they've brought most of the extra amenities to our new room (like better toiletries and a handy tray of office supplies).

Afternoons

I try to get my work done, read my RSS feeds, and take care of whatever else I'm trying to accomplish. Lately, that's been obsessively researching mutual funds for my new Solo 401(k) plan. We started discussing refinancing our mortgage, so I think that'll be my next research project. I eat some food I stole from the breakfast buffet (usually a hard boiled egg, a piece of chocolate pound cake, and/or some mandarin oranges) around 3:30 and finally bother to take a shower sometime between 4:30-5:30. That way I'm looking my best when I go out to dinner, and I can make less laundry by rewearing my nice shirts several times. Honestly, I've only been putting in a few hours a day of paid work lately (about 20/week). But we've got a complete site redesign in beta over at oDesk. So starting next week I'll probably be back up to 30+, and maybe even full time. I love my job, but it's extremely difficult for me to work full time hours on it all the time. When I'm on the clock, nearly all my work involves constant thinking and creating. It's fairly straightforward to just 'do' for forty hours a week. I never had any trouble with it in my old, normal jobs. But inventing new content can be very draining. It's always exciting the first few days of a new project, and still fun when the initial excitement wears off. But after half a year of 35-45 hour weeks (taking zero days off, not even weekends) I had to cut back for a while. If I want to increase my hours while I'm here in China, unfortunately I'm gonna have to start getting up earlier, even if it means getting kicked out of the room for a bit by the maids each day.

Evenings

Billy gets back sometime between 5:30-8:30 PM on weekdays (mid-afternoon on weekends). We usually head to dinner about 30 minutes later so he has a chance to shower. The hotel has half a dozen restaurants. They're all quite expensive, but they get charged to the room. We can't take advantage of that too often -- once a week at most. We do dinner with Oki (a Finnish colleague) about 5 days a week. We try to make it a mix of western and chinese restaurants. The western restaurants have all been very good so far -- especially the italian place a few blocks away. The food at the chinese restaurants is hit and miss. Like they won't have half the things on the menu available. And you never really know what you're going to get, despite the menu being in English & Chinese with pictures. But I'll talk more about our food adventures another day.

Nights

When we return to the hotel after dinner (which usually takes an hour or two), Billy and Oki sometimes have to go write up reports. Although they seem to be giving up and do that less and less. Things aren't going very well at the shop, and I hear about it over dinner, so I don't bother to hang out with them while work on it (I am invited, and there's often drinking involved -- Oki is Finnish after all). Nights they don't work, Billy tries to find something on the TV. We get HBO, so some days there's a movie on we're interested in watching. Another channel has some shows from Discovery and other random American programs like Chuck. Some days I stay on the Internet and try to get Billy to participate in my research, sometimes I do some paid work in the evening (usually when I realize there was something I forgot to do earlier), and other days I give Billy the Internet so he can take care of emails himself. If we need to call anyone in the US, it has to be done either late at night or early in the morning (8 AM in NY is 9 PM here, 8 AM here is 7 PM there). We've been staying up until 11 or 12 every night. Billy's not getting enough sleep, so we really ought to call it make that a bit earlier (6 hours is usually OK for him, so the frustration must be taking a toll).

Weather check

Near my house in NY:



Here in Guangzhou, China:



Next assignment in Tres Lagoas, Brazil:



Looks like we'll be skipping most of winter again! :)

Even more pics

Yes, I keep adding to my photo album. Tomorrow I'll go through and fix it up, adding captions, etc. There's even some video at the end. Sorry about the one vid being sideways -- didn't realize I couldn't turn it after I'd recorded.

// update! I moved out of picasa to YouTube and Flickr

Pics on Flickr
Vids on Youtube

More pics up!

I had to update the link because I moved stuff over to Flickr

No visa extention... yet

We went to the Exit & Entry Administration offices to try for a visa extension yesterday. We failed. Apparently, there's two ways I could do this:

1. Get a plain vanilla visa extension. I'd still be on a tourist visa, I'd still have just the one 'entry' (which I already used), and I'd have to leave 30 days after the new visa went into effect.
2. Get converted to a business visa that will allow longer stays and multiple entries. This involves a round-about tag-along wife argument and a copy of our marriage certificate.

Option 2 is what we need in the long run, but means giving the neighbors the combo to our safe, having them pull out our marriage cert, getting the cert faxed to us here at the hotel, and praying the convoluted plan works when we get back to the security officials. Right now, we're probably going to have to settle for option 1. Then give option 2 a shot at the embassy in the US next time I need to go to China.

At least I learned some things from our afternoon of Chinese Bureaucracy.

• I should always travel with a copy of our marriage certificate for occasions like this.
• If I had succeeded in getting a visa yesterday, I would have needed to leave the country on January 3rd -- so I've got to wait until after December 18 to try again.
• I should plan to go shoe shopping the day I go back to extend my visa. The opposite side of the street has at least a dozen shoe stores!

You mean I have to STAY at this luxury resort hotel...

So I'm here in China on a 30 day visa. This trip was supposed to be like 2-3 weeks. Now it looks like Billy will be here well into January. Which means:

1. I might get to spend more holidays here in China. No complaints from me. This hotel is awesome.


2. My visa will expire, and an extension will probably only get me another 30 days. The fact that even that may not be long enough is a bridge I'll cross when I get there.


3. We would probably go directly from China to Brazil for the next job. But Brazil requires an entirely different wardrobe. Clothes which are in my house in NY.

Looks like I'll be buying what I need and seeing if I can get some things (like more contact lenses) shipped. The flights Brazil would be paid for by the company, but a trip home just to change out our stuff almost certainly would not. The cheapest possible flight home from here to Albany is about $1300. We can buy or ship everything we'd need for a whole lot less than that. And I know I shouldn't be complaining about getting to go for a shopping spree. But it still seems somehow wrong.

Oh, and did I mention our hotel is around the corner from the US consulate? And they have a church there? It's totally surreal to see a Church of Christ plopped down in the middle of a Chinese city. Of course, all the tourist shops on this street sell Chrismas ornaments (including crosses) and these cool 3-D carvings of the last supper. I promise to grab some pics another day. Maybe I'll flash my passport at the Chinese guards and go through the barricade for a peek inside.

Pictures!

Pics from the White Swan Hotel
I had to update this because I switched to Flickr

Thanksgiving dinner in China

Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here in China. The hotel does know it's a holiday in the US though, so one of the restaurants was offering a themed meal option. But it was the hotel's fancy French restaurant. I have a feeling no one else bothered with it. There were only two other parties at dinner, and both of them were large groups of non-American businessmen (a mix of Chinese, European and possibly Middle-Eastern). We were definitely under-dressed for a gourmet meal served by waiters in tails and white gloves. There was even a pianist and violinist providing live music. The place was mostly empty though. So I'm sure the staff didn't really care how we dressed as long as they got some customers on a slow Thursday night!

My Thanksgiving dinner:

• Garlic Toast
  
• Water
  
• Diet Coke for me, Regular Coke for Billy
  
• Bread Basket (variety of rolls and bread sticks with butter and olive grape spread)
  
• Crawfish bisque (served in a shot glass on a ceramic flower)
  <--- Up until this point we hadn't actually ordered any food yet
  <--- Special Thanksgiving fixed course menu starts here
  
• Fruity red wine
  
• Pumpkin soup (served in a mini-pumpkin)
  
• Crab leg with black pepper breading and salad with balsamic dressing
  
• Lemon sherbet (served in a tiny bowl perched on top of an ice filled champagne flute that glowed blue from a blue light-up fake icecube)
  
• Glazed duck with black truffles and mashed potatoes
  
• Tea for me, hot cocoa for Billy
  
• Dessert platter with mini carrot cake, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, cheesecake
  
• More tea and cocoa
  
• Jelly filled chocolates served on oatmeal cookie squares
  
• Still more tea and cocoa (they keep bringing it til you make them stop)
  

We were both stuffed by the end. I liked everything except the crab, the pumpkin pie, and the chocolate cake. Billy liked everything except the crawfish bisque and the chocolate cake. The pumpkin soup and the duck were awesome.

We were there for about 2 hours, and they were serving us food and drinks the entire time. We could have stayed and they would have kept bringing us more drinks, but we were stuffed and tired. Dinner was, obviously, very expensive. Luckily, it'll go on the expense report. But I can't feel too bad about spending so much -- we deserve some sort of compensation for missing Thanksgiving at Grandma's house!

The oDesk Manifesto – Don’t settle for less than you deserve

A Manifesto for online work? Now that's something we've all been waiting for.

Can you do me a favor? Follow the link to digg this for me, please. And while you're at it, read the article to find out why oDesk is so awesome :)

read more | digg story

Heading to China

I finally get to go to China! We leave Albany tomorrow evening, spend the night in Atlanta, take a morning flight to Tokyo, then connect to Guangzhou. Billy has some upgrade vouchers for Delta, so we get to fly business class Atlanta to Tokyo (a 14 1/2 hour flight). It's not fancy lie-flat seats, but it'll still be awesome.

Here's our hotel in Guangzhou. It's called the White Swan. We should be there a couple weeks. I'm hoping when we're done in China we can take a few days for a vacation in Cambodia. I did want to go to Beijing, but it'll be cold there. I don't want to have to pack winter clothes. And Hong Kong is too expensive. So keep your fingers crossed for Angkor Wat!

Cancel the 'blank check'

"If we keep on nursing a broken system, then we can't expect to have a different result come later on. I just think we have to draw the line someplace, and the time is here.'' -- US Senator Jim Inhofe

Nice to see a Republican I actually I agree with! Full article at Tulsa World.

A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis

courtesy of the mint blog

If you were knocked into a coma, would anyone know how to pay your monthly bills?

Everyone ought to have a will to say who gets what when you die. That's not what I'm posting about, though it is related to estate planning. If you were to die, or, perhaps more importantly, become incapacitated, there needs to be someone who can step in to handle your affairs. Otherwise you'll come home to not only a pile of medical bills, but collections notices from your utilities and credit cards as well.

Someone should really have a copy of all your important info, just in case something happens to you. Preferably, you keep a copy to use as a cheat sheet of accounts if your wallet or your identy get stolen. Then a copy goes to a parent or sibling or trusted friend for safe keeping... just in case. If you had a lawyer draw up your will, they should probably have a copy of this as well.

I'm in the process to creating our emergency document. In some ways, ours in very simple. There's no children to worry about. We have very few bills. And we're lucky to have parents we can trust with the documents. But we spend a lot of time together and away from home - increasing the likelihood that we'd die or be in an accident together. So it's very important to have this document.

So how do you make one of these things? Personally, I'm opting to create a spreadsheet. I'll keep it on my computer (researching encryption options tonight) and leave a printed copy in our safe at home. Printed copies will also be mailed to each set of parents. Filling it all in is time consuming, but not very difficult. The hardest part was deciding what all to include.

So what is included? A lot of important info:

• Account numbers, contact info, and PINs for utilities, insurance, banks, investments, credit cards, and loans.
  
• Asset information like car VINs and gun serial numbers
  
• Personal data like birth date, SSN, drivers license, and passport number.
  
• Professional contacts for your lawyer, accountant, boss, etc.
  
• Personal contacts like family, friends, and neighbors you want informed if something happens to you.
  
• Log in info for all your important online accounts including URL, userID, password, security question, etc.
  

I'll delete all the data and post the skeleton document I create when I'm done with it. It's based, roughly, on a PDF estate planning guide I got from T Rowe Price. You can download that here. You can fill out the info in the file and then print it out to paper or a new, non-editable PDF. But you can't fill out the form and save the data in it to edit later. I wanted something a bit more customized, and something that could be saved electronically for future edits, so I opted to make my own spreadsheet instead. But that PDF is great all own it's own.

Be very careful about where you store all this personal data. It's an identity theft goldmine. So keep it encrypted and locked away. Don't email it, only give out printed copies, and make sure the people you give it to will keep it in a secure location - like a bolted down safe or safety deposit box.

Stop Junkmail!

I'm at war against junk mail. My latest weapon? http://www.proquo.com

How could you vote for that!?

Come on, you just read about my trip to see Rocky Horror. Like I'd actually be backing McCain. That ain't my problem.

How can people vote to ban gay marriage!? Marriage as a legal entity should not be discriminatory. I completely agree that churchs or individuals can decline to perform same sex wedding ceremonies -- but to outright ban them via constitutional amendment? That just doesn't make sense. Is that not the very definition of discrimination? It's only been a few decades since there were laws against interracial couples. Any whisper that those were a good idea would be political suicide. But to vocally oppose the union and accompanying legal rights of two people who want to be married, simply because they both have F's or M's on their drivers licenses is somehow OK?

You know what though? Politicians do all sorts of things I don't agree with - that a lot of people don't agree with. Like pork barrel spending and bail-out bills and abusing free postage privileges. So I don't blame them for this mess. It's the bigoted regular citizens who voted these bans into law as ballot measures that make me sick. I was so happy last night to see America actually had the nerve to elect Obama. But I can't enjoy that victory knowing that millions of people had their civil rights voted away on the very same night.

Go Vote!

It's election day in the USA. Get your vote on!

For the record...

Yes, I went to go see Rocky Horror at the Spa Little Theatre in Saratoga Springs. It was nothing like it should have been, but I had a pretty good time. I showed up a little early and spent some time talking to Billy on my cell in the parking lot thinking maybe I'm in the wrong place. Everyone was walking into the building wearing normal clothes or normal Halloween costumes. Luckily, I was wearing a full-length coat, so I didn't look like a total freak. When I got off the phone, I went up to the building.

It took a couple minutes to get up the courage to walk inside - finally someone was wearing thigh-high stockings - I would not be the sluttiest dressed person in the building! I paid my $5 but decided I would not take off my coat or stay unless I found someone, anyone, wearing a corset. I tried the left entrance to the theatre. No luck. Showtime was 10PM. I'd give it 'til then at least. I walked around in the lobby for a bit. Then I tried the other door to the theatre. Success! I see a man in fishnets and a corset! I immediately went up and introduced myself. Sadly, he was the only one to be appropriately dressed for the evening. But he was hanging out with aforementioned girl in thigh high stockings (with red slip dress) and a woman in a corset (though it was more of a witch costume).

On the up side, I now had people to stand around with, even if I can't remember their names now (I so should have written them down when I got home). It turns out this was a movie screening (without accompanying stage show) that had been thrown together pretty last minute (by the man in the corset's wife, go figure). There had been very little advertising. So all things considered, it turned out to be a pretty good turnout. About half the audience were 'virgins' but there were several outspoken individuals leading the audience participation. Fire, liquids, and greasy materials were not permitted, but rice was thrown.

Seeing as how this was a theatre with a screen set up on the stage, anyone who wanted to get up on stage was permitted to. There was no one up there for the first part of the show - though the audience loudly sang along with the first few songs. Then it was time warp time. I'd say about a dozen people got up on stage. Seeing as how I was now on stage with the man in the corset, it shouldn't be surprising that he starting acting out Riff Raff's part. I did a bit of Magenta so he had someone to work with. Everyone got pretty into the dance number - even the people down in the seats. But when it got to Columbia's solo, I discovered a line or two in that no one else on stage was singing anymore. I had been at far stage left, but everyone to the right of me had moved out of the way and was crouching down clapping or pounding the stage with their fists. Some of them waived me over to center stage. I realize most people don't know the words to that section, but I was still a bit surprised to suddenly be the focus of attention. Which also obligated me to attempt to tapdance (thank you lessons I took in second grade!). I must say it was pretty cool actually being up on stage and applauded. And a bit weird having lots of cameras flashing at me.

The man in the corset did a bit of strutting to sweet transvestite, but most of the show did not involve stage presence. However, when Hot Patootie came on, a guy who'd dressed as sid vicious for Halloween took the stage. That's close enough to Eddie for this audience. I'd done Columbia once, and I couldn't resist giving it a second round (this dude was audience participation ringleader and new all the moves). I can't believe how pumped the audience got about our little swing number. I can't say I really new what I was doing, but that's not as important in partner dancing - you just go where the guy leads. Thankfully, he was giving me instructions for when to spin during the footwork, and where to swing my legs during the lifts. I'd say we actually did a pretty good job. I'm sure somewhere on the internet there are now all sorts of pictures of me up on that stage. But I can't say any of them are embarrassing. I'm pretty proud of my performances. I wasn't in any risk of bouncing out of my top and I was smart enough to wear shorts under my dress.

The second half of the movie was a lot mellower, although a few people did take the stage for the floor show. I didn't feel like going up again, but was happy to see girl in the thigh high stocking work up the nerve to go do Janet. Sid/Eddie cracked the audience up doing Columbia when he realized neither I nor anyone else had gone up to do the part.

I didn't bring my camera with me (I didn't want to bring a purse and was afraid of losing it). But it's not like I could have taken pictures of myself on stage anyway. At the end of the night everyone just kind of left, so I didn't get a chance to exchange email addresses to get copies of pictures like I'd planned. I attempted to take a few pictures of myself when I came home. Here's one that kind of turned out so you can see my outfit.

To Rocky or not to Rocky? That is the question.

I'm stuck home alone on Halloween. Seeing as how I have no friends to hang out with in the Glens Falls area, I'm pretty bummed. I love Halloween parties and getting dressed up. But that doesn't work when you've got no where to go.

Yesterday I heard an ad on the radio that the Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing in Saratoga tonight. I've seen the movie a gazillion times (I first saw it in second grade, and performed a couple songs with a group in a talent show once - at a church summer camp of all places!), but I've never been to the live show or theatre screening. I had a friend who played Frank in Niagara Falls, and they had a showing at RIT every year, but I never actually went. Something always came up.

So now I'm considering driving down to Saratoga (about 20 minutes away) to go to the show. But I won't know anyone there. I mentioned it on facebook, and a friend told me I had two options: stay home, or wear a corset and make a bunch of new friends.

The problem is, I don't have anything particularly good to wear. The only corset I have doesn't fit properly - the back criss-cross has to be tightened to the point of overlapping - and I don't own any shiny hotpants or fishnets. The corset wouldn't be much good without those anyway. So I'd have to make do with moderately gothy dress I found in the back of my closet. Paired with knee-high leather boots and gowdy jewelry I should at least be passibly dressed for the event. I'd end up spending over a hundred bucks if I went out shopping for a proper costume, so that's not an option.

Basically, I'm posting this to psych myself up to go on my own. If I tell you all I'm going, I can't just wimp out and not bother. So wish me luck!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Less than a week til election day!

Even if you're confident your favorite candidate(s) are goin to win, show up to help set a voter turn-out record. They really do keep track of those things. I don't care if you back the same candidates I do, it's still important that you take the time to cast a vote. And you should do it even if the candidate you're backing doesn't stand a chance of winning. Did you know that public funding for future campaigns is partly tied to the results of past elections? Meaning more votes for a minor candidate can help their party out next time around.

And it's not all about the Presidential election! Frankly, the President doesn't have that much power over your life (unless he sends us to war or something *cough* *cough*). Most of the real power is in the legislature. That's why representatives only have two year terms. Or you might have a high and mighty senate race this year. Those are the people who actually write and vote on the laws and taxes and rediculous bail-out bills. 

Do federal politics piss you off to the point you don't even want to think about them? Then forget about it and focus on the state and local races. Think City Council and County Coroner and Police Chief. Tuesday is about a lot more than just Obama vs. McCain!

Those of you who've never voted before may not realize that elections aren't the only thing on the ballot. You could have state ballot initiatives (if you're in Cali, vote no on prop 8!), local ordinances, and boring stuff like the library budget.

Don't know where to go to cast your vote? Look it up! www.vote411.org

Hubby's out of town for a week... and I went shopping

I took Billy to the airport yesterday. He's going to visit his family in Huntsville for a few days then out to Vegas to see a college buddy. It was a 6 AM flight, which meant getting up at 4 AM to go to the airport.

I decided to stay awake afterward to go shopping when JCPenneys opened. I had a Penny's gift card from cashing out some Discover Card cashback rewards, and a couple American Express gift cards we earned from our American Express Clear cashback rewards. I love free money. I tried a million things on that I mostly ended up hating, but came home with some great deals. My primary mission was the find a super-comfy, yet not completely dorky, travel outfit. I flew to Australia last time in my fabulous but skin-tight jeans from Brazil. That is so not happening again.

There's whole categories of clothing known as 'track suits' and 'loungewear' that I've never previously owned. I was determined, but couldn't bring myself to actually purchase an all-velour outfit. They were available in a dozen colors and 2 different styles. But I just couldn't do it. Head to toe Adidas was tempting, but was quickly ruled out by super-scratchy seams on the inside of the jacket.

My requirements were fairly straightforward. I needed a color-coordinated three-piece outfit: a sleeveless layer, a long-sleeved layer, and long pants. The sleeved layer had to open down the front and not have a hood (for comfort and ease of taking on and off in-flight). The shell had to have a self-contained bra or be designed in such a way that my bra straps would not be showing. The pants had to make my ass look good (this concession must be made so Billy doesn't wine about me buying new clothes).

I ended up with a torquoise shell and a torquoise/marine blue/gray pants and jacket. It's all super comfy, not trendy enough to make me look like one of those girls I can't stand, but still more presentable than just wearing pajamas.

A gal don't spend 4 hours in JCP and just come home with a track suit though! I got a new wallet ($5), couple of lovely necklaces (buy one, get one), a full-length black/white houndstooth plaid skirt that is absolutely gorgeous, a black blouse because I own maybe 1 shirt that would go with aforementioned skirt, a pair of denim capris (for $2!!!), plus a dress and a cardigan that I'm going to return. The dress is cute, but it turned out to be $30 when I looked at the receipt (more than I'd expected) and the cardigan just looks dumb - it was in my bag when I realized it was 1 PM and had to check out (or I wouldn't get my doorbuster deals) - I'd tried it on, but not seem myself in a mirror. I'll return them tomorrow afternoon. Free money spending spree over, I'm now back in spend-thrift mode and probably won't be able to convince myself to buy anything in their place. Except maybe a different dress or other fun summer clothes on better sale. Looks like we're heading back to Australia and Brazil - winter here means it's summer there!

Doing the hundred

So far so good on hundred pushups challenge take #2. And this time I've got Billy doing it too! Of course, he's a lot stronger than me, so he got to start on week 3. I'm also not cheating  this time. Before I was doing the required pushups over the course of an evening. Now I'm doing them with as little time between sets as possible - so far never more than 5 minutes.

Click here to follow my progress on the pushups logger.

Do you click to give?

Why not?

Bookmark these sites and click every day! FYI - If you use Firefox, you can save multiple tabs to open as your 'homepage'. So just add one or all of these along with whatever you usually use. Personally, I've added them all to a folder in my bookmarks bar and just use the the 'Open all in tabs' option.

And since it's October thebreastcancersite.com is running a special challenge. If users click to fund 500 mamograms, one of their sponsors will kick in an additional 200.

It's here!

I've got my shiny new camera and I still love it. It really is tiny. The little camera bag it came with is a lot nicer than I expected and the 2 gig SD card seems to work just fine.

Isn't shipment tracking awesome?

I got shipping confirmation from Newegg.com. My camera has shipped. I've lucked out that it's coming from New Jersey. So even the free UPS ground shipping should have it here tomorrow.

I bought it!

I ordered my Z100fd today. And I got a fantastic deal on it! Check it out on Newegg.com.

What's even better than that? I found a coupon code for $10 more dollars off! Here's the info if you wanna grab one for yourself.

Coupon Code: EMCBABHAJ
Expires: 10/23/2008

So that's a total of only $119.99 for the camera, plus a bonus SD card and case. No tax, no shipping :) The only downside it's only available in silver.

What everyone would do one small thing every month?

I have never experienced poverty first-hand. We always had food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our head. A lot of that food was bought in bulk, many of the clothes were from Ames (think Walmart, but junkier), and the houses were sometimes fixer-uppers. We didn't have cable until I was in high school. We ate at a restaurant about 10 times a year. But we were always comfortable. I learned to live with less, for which I am eternally grateful. If you grow up being given a bunch of stuff, you start to think that stuff is necessary. I know better. And I know that if I live frugally, I'll have more money available to help others.

But I've witnessed more poverty than I'd like to admit. Friends' whose families who couldn't afford to heat their homes. Who didn't own enough clothing to wear something different each day of the week. Whose parents were laid off or went bankrupt. I've helped give Christmas to food pantry kids who wouldn't have had anything under the tree or on the table.

And now I've been to Brazil. I grew up the country. I was fairly accustomed to run down shacks and trailers. But there you'll see true subsistence farmers with houses made of mud and salvaged metal and plastic. They are poor, but most of them are really living quite well off the land. No luxuries, mind you, but you don't need to heat or insulate your house in Brazil. You can live with a small field, some fruit trees, a few chickens, and some goats or cows. If I were to be plopped somewhere in the world with nothing, I would want to be there.

This article is not about subsistence farmers. They are making a life for themselves that might not be at yours or my standard of living. But that doesn't make it a bad life. It may technically be poverty, but world can't sustain it's full population of humans my standard of living. Personally, I think that's a huge problem and can't stand that people keep having children knowing that, but I digress.

This article is also not about the professional panhandling children in Porto Seguro. We were there so long we began to be recognized by them, and left alone. Those children who who huddled up to form a game plan on the side street, then affected a pitiful posture and sad eyes to ask for money from easy targets. For them, it was a game, it was a job, it was in fact a way to ensure they didn't fall into poverty. But I know they weren't going hungry. I happily offered one a whole boiled potato from our large dinner platter. He tried for money again, and then for the meat. I gave him the potato. But a few feet away he tripped on a chair and dropped it. He hadn't even taken a bit yet and he did not pick it up to eat it before moving on his next target. That boy was not going hungry.

The biggest problem is in the cities. The folk who can't farm or build a mud hut. The ones not organized enough to profit from a panhandling racket. The disfigured and mostly blind girl shooed away from my dinner table in Vitoria. I am so sad that she was gone before I could give her our left-overs. I will always regret not running after her with them. The children in Curitiba wearing ragged t-shirts and shorts in 40 degree (F) weather. They were walking home through the very fancy neighborhood where our hotel was, probably from an afternoon of begging in one of the nicer parks. You could tell from the way they walked when they didn't see anyone around that they weren't faking it. They didn't have any shoes and the stone sidewalks were rough, cold, and wet. We don't like to give money to beggars, but we are happy to give them food. We bought these two dinner at a food stand outside the mall. They waited with excited anticipation for about 10 minutes for a meal that cost about $1 a piece. You could tell from the way they ate it that it was probably more calories than they usually got in a week.

There are too many lost souls in cities all over the world. Living in gutters. Scavenging trash for food and shelter and clothing. Unable to afford the education that might better their situation.

But what can you do about it? Honestly, not that much. But you can do some small things to ease the suffering just a little. Donate your old clothes and other household items you don't need. Give them to a group that will pass them on directly to those in need, or someplace like the Salvation Army/Goodwill who resells them - offering both an inexpensive shopping option to people in need and raising money for other programs to help those who cannot even afford thrift-store prices. You can give to your local food pantry. You can give school supplies to a school or children's orgainzation. You can give time or money to any organization that helps the truly needy in your community.

You can also give to a group like Kiva.org to make small loans to people all over the world. Those loans help people succeed and pull themselves out of poverty. The key there is that they are loans - the people are expected to pay them back. This is not some hand-out, it's assistance to improve a business or person so they can provide for themselves.

Is there anything you could give today? An extra can from your pantry, or pair of pants from your closet? Would you really miss $10 that could feed a family for a day or more? Walk around your house today and find something to give. Then do it again next week or next month. And again. And again. Make it a habit and do it for the rest of your life. You won't miss the stuff. Just think how many people you could help. Dare your friends to try it, too. How many people could you help together? What if it wasn't just you and me and our friends. What everyone would do one small thing every month? Imagine what a difference that would make. Now stop imagining and make it happen!

I looked up the wrong camera

That's NOT the camera I liked. I was playing with a Z200fd - the newer model. Which is, of course, more expensive. I could have sworn the sign at Best Buy said it was $199 - but I just called and they said it's $299.

**Update** There's a bright side to this! I just went through all the specs on Fujifilm's website. And there's really only three differences between the new and old model. The new one is 10MP instead of 8MP, a blog setting that will automatically resize for the web, and it has a fancy new self-time mode that knows to look for a certain number of faces, or faces in a certain position. I almost never use time mode, I don't mind resizing on my computer, and let's face it, you'll only see the difference between 8 and 10 MP at poster size. The old one has all other shooting modes - I'm an especially big fan of the dual mode that takes the same pic with and without flash with one click and museum mode that turns off the flash and the sounds effects.

Finepix Z100fd

I love this camera!



If I'm still in love later this week, I'll place an order for it and an 8 Gig SDHC card. I think I'll go for the reddish-brown color. The black/white looks cool, but would probably just get really dirty.

Shopping for a digital camera

My old digital camera was sold on eBay this morning (for $62 - yippee). So it's time to get around to buyer a new one. I'm going to play with cameras at Best Buy and Ritz Cameras tonight. Unfortunately, the ones I really one are from Sony and Olympus - neither of which use regular SD cards. Ugh! Since we don't want to deal with two sets of cards, I have to get one that uses the kind our other cameras have used. 

Any suggestions? I want something tiny, but with as much zoom as possible. I don't think I'd be able to stand anything less than 5x. I figure I'll play with them in the store, then shop online for the best price. And I'll pick up a high capacity HD while I'm at it.

Purging feels good

Finally, we've sorted through all the junk in the basement. We're selling most of it. It's in two big piles - one for eBay, one for Craigslist. Billy's in charge of posting and selling the stuff. If it were up to me, we'd donate it all and get it done with. There is a small donate pile, and a pile of kids stuff to give to our niece. She's too small for it now, but it's not like we need children's books and stuffed animals!

Click here to check out our stuff on eBay!

The bummer is we still need to finish the office. Maybe we'll attack that later this week after the rest of the stuff has been posted. When we finish that, I'll give my pile of random school supplies (notebooks, paper, binders, etc.) to some sort of organization that deals with that kind of stuff. My flute and all the practice books that go with it will be given to one of our local schools. The thing is, the flute's kind of broken (~$20 repair). Do I get it fixed before donate it, or just let the music teacher take care of it? They can probably do the repair themselves - maybe I'll just ask if that's the case and pay to have it fixed if they can't do it.

Testing Ecto

Now I'm testing Ecto, another blog software. Let's see how well it handles adding a picture. Mars Edit is prettier, but I think I like Ecto better.

Now here's a fun feature - an Amazon inserter. Here's the book I'm currently reading:

"Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern" (Anne McCaffrey)

New URL

I've moved my blog to http://blog.smallworldcommunication.com

I think I've set up the redirects correctly so that old bookmarks won't break. But I can't guarantee it.

Consider this phase one of actually creating a professional website!

Are you a cardmember? Then vote!

Can I live without a cell phone?

OK, I'm obviously not going to die without a cell phone. I don't use one at all when I'm out of the country (international roaming charges suck). But it's really handy when I am home. Like yesterday I was at the grocery store and Billy called to ask me to pick something up. Or when I was on my way to parents and I called Billy from the parking lot to tell him where I'd parked (since he'd be flying back and picking up the car).

I've bought a Skype In number to be a contact number for banks and things. Call it and you get me on my computer as long as I'm logged into Skype. If I'm not logged in, it's got a voicemail box to hold my messages. And it doesn't matter where I am in the world, it's still only $30 per year to have the number (and about another $30 per year to make unlimited calls to the US on Skype Out). Like I said, when I'm out of the country, I don't use my cell at all.

So I'm definitely dropping our family plan with AT&T. But I hesitate to be totally without a cell phone. Prepaid seems like it might be the way to go. I could get away with that for $100, or even less if I'm not in the states much. But I'm tempted to just send my brother or in-laws $120/year to add me to a family plan. Which depends on whether I want to be on Verizon or AT&T.

I'm going to cancel service as soon as our contract is up (end of September). I'm pretty sure I'll break down and get a new one one way or the other before the end of the year.

I'm not a very good blogger

I stopped updating again. Oops. We finished up our time in Tumut earlier than expected. So we took a week's vacation in Sydney. It was amazing. I refer you to my husband's blog for details. If you go to Sydney I highly recommend Featherdale Wildlife Park, the BridgeWalk, buying SeeSydney passes with public transport passes, and sitting in the choir loft to watch the orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.

We came home for a week, then went to St Felicien in northern Quebec. It's a long pretty drive (about 8 hours straight north). No touristy stuff this trip - we'll have to get to the zoo and fromageries next time. Now we're back in NY for at least a week. Billy's taking off to work on his trucks. It'll time to get it in show-shape...but he should be able to at least get it down to a single truck by the end of the year. We're trying to get rid of all our extra stuff. Not only do we get some cash and clear the clutter, but it'll make it so much easier to move out. It'd be so much easier to just have a little apartment where we didn't have to worry about maintenance so much.

And I have to restart my push-ups challenge. I took too long of a break to pick up where I left off. I only lasted a few more days after my last post. I got a really nasty flu and was out of commission for a full week and still recovering on vacation. Once we were back I'd totally forgotten. But I've remembered and I'm restarting tomorrow (too tired and full to properly take the challenge tonight).

In Australia

I'm in Australia now. It's a bit colder than I expected. I knew it was supposed to be 30s-60s but I was hoping for more of the upper half of that range. The hotel is essentially not insulated, and we just have little AC/Heat units in the rooms. It took a few days, but I've finally gotten those figured out and the room to stay a reasonable temperature. Unfortunately, the room is like a cave. The bedroom has a glass brick window, the living room has a big picture window. On a sunny day, I can leave the curtains off the bedroom window to let in some warmth/light, but the but picture window has to stay covered. The glass just sucks all the warm out of the room otherwise. And it's not like I have a view. The big window just looks at the other side of the hallway our room is on. Even on a sunny day there's no direct sunshine, so I'd just have a view of a gray wall. So the curtains remain shut, and I live in a cave with no sense of whether it's night or day.

I'm pretty settled in now. But I'm totally off my 'forced activity' schedule. I haven't done a yoga session or completed a day of my pushups training since I got here. I did the first two sets of pushups for week 3 day 3 yesterday. They were killing me. I could only make it half way through the set and had to let my knees down to take a breather. I took too many days off. I think I'll go back to taking a daily yoga break (or a walk outside when it's nice). But I'm not giving up on the pushups.

Flying to Australia August 9

You know the weirdest thing about flying to Australia from NY? You lose a whole day. We're going to leave Saturday evening around 7PM from JFK. We'll be flying west, so the night will just go on and on and on until we arrive in Sydney on Monday morning. I WILL NOT STEP FOOT ON PLANET EARTH THE ENTIRE DAY OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, 2008!!! Isn't that crazy? It's bad enough that you can't get to China today - you can only get there tomorrow. But you can't even get to Australia tomorrow - you can only get there the day after that! It takes 29 hours to get from JFK to Sydney then to connect to Wagga Wagga, NSW. Yes, we have to fly to a place named Wagga Wagga. Then it's a short car drive (on the LEFT hand side of the road) to our hotel in Tumut.

On the plus side, the tickets weren't as expensive as I'd thought they'd be. I got my round trip for $2300. Yes that's an expensive plane ticket, but it is to the totally opposite side of the globe.

Billy's got us booked for a King Suite at theAshton. I emailed them a couple days ago confirming they have broadband internet available in the rooms. Hurray for companies that actually answer their emails. The response was exactly well-written, but at least it was prompt. We're booked through late September, figuring 4-5 weeks for the project at Visy, then another week or two for us to have a proper vacation together before we fly back (only takes 24 hours to fly back east to JFK).

I'm super excited to go to Australia, though the logistics of working with my office people in California will be a pain. I played with the world clock for a bit, and it looks like 8AM in Sydney is 3PM in San Francisco. So as long as I work first thing in the morning I can talk to people on live chats. Most of the conference calls are in the afternoon PST, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. In Brazil, no one was available until noon or 1PM my time, which was fine by me. But I guess I can manage to be a morning person for a few weeks.

Chicos, Mama Mia, and Tamut

I went out with Mom today. oDesk.com where I work went down for a bit due to a nasty attack, so it was a good day for it. I got to visit the hospital gift shop where she volunteers, then headed over to New Town to see Momma Mia. We had time before the movie, so we walked around the shops. I love Chicos! Not only is it Tax Free weekend here in Virginia, but they had a serious clearance sale. Everything we got was from the 50% off racks - and that's 50% off of the already marked down sale price.

The original prices for what I bought were:
$42 + 36 + 58 + 68 + 32 + 32 + 32 = $300
The prices I paid:
$10 + 10 + 15 + 20 + 8 + 8 + 8 = $79

I was so in love with the one shirt I bought before the movie, I went back to get it in two more colors after the movie (I got it first in Heather Grey, then Ocean Teal and Optic White - I fought the urge to get the black as well). I also ended up getting a pair of white jeans when we went back. They were the most expensive item, and mom ended up getting a pair for herself. I've never owned white pants before, but after all the time I spent in them in the store finding the right size and style me, and then mom, I'm getting used to them. It was the same pair of pants, but it came in three lengths, and three cuts, and weird special sizes (I was thrilled to end up in a 00 - that's one step below the size chart I linked to).

Momma Mia is a fun movie. I bet the stage show is a riot. The movie was super cheesy - but it must have been super fun for all those actors to film. Besides, how seriously can you take a movie that's based on a broadway show that's based on a bunch of Abba songs!

Billy made it back to Anchorage today. So I finally got to talk to him again. That was a nice surprise - I didn't think I'd hear from him until tomorrow. Apparently I read the itinerary wrong. I was right about him getting back to the house of the 4th. But he'll leave again on the 5th, and I get back the 6th, so I won't see him til he gets back from Pensacola. And then we may have only a day (or less) before going to Australia! I went Googling and it seems that the two main hotels have internet I'll be able to use. I emailed them to ask for sure. The trip is only 3-4 weeks, a little short for me to all the way to the other side of the world, but I REALLY want to go to Australia. If I go or not depends on what the flight costs when Billy's able to book it (probably on the 4th).

Here's where we'd be going:


View Larger Map

Started Week 3

I took the exhaustion test that follows hundred push-ups week two yesterday. I struggled through to 23. Week three looks a lot harder than week two was, but I guess I'll never make it to a hundred if I don't kick it up a notch. On the plus side, my score not only qualified me to continue the training, but it keep me in the 'middle column' - so I don't feel like too much of a wimp. I've done my 20, 15, 15, and 13 while getting ready for bed. I still have to do at least 20 more before I can curl up to read the next chapter of my book.

I'm my way through the entire Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. I read the first book years ago, but never got any of the others. I don't like spending money on books. Grandma gave me some of her other books - including the Brain & Brawn Ship, Crystal Singer, and Talent series.

But then I went to Powells while we were in Portland in March. That place is amazing! All the used and new books are mixed up on the shelves, and it's the biggest book store I've ever seen. And they had two of the Pern books on clearance. One was the first book in the series if you put them chronologically. I brought it to Brazil, so Billy ended up reading it too - and liked it. So my anniversary present this year was going onto Powells online to order the entire rest of the series. I got 16 books for $78.49. All but one of the books was available as a used paperback. Shipping is free if you order that much. I was so ridiculously excited that Billy let me buy them all. I was sure he'd think I was crazy, or just say no to the idea (we can both be rather stingy about buying things). But I did get a good deal, and I'll get more enjoyment out of them than the jewelry he would have bought otherwise.

Coming home from Brazil was like a mini-Christmas for us opening the packages we'd received while we were gone. The Powells box was definitely my favorite (ok, second favorite - our mortgage company unexpectedly refunded us $900 from escrow overpayment but that's not 'fun' to unwrap in quite the same way). I'd say only half of the books look like someone actually read them, and only one or two have any noticeable wear and tear from the previous owner (I'm talking a few dog-eared pages and creases in the spine, but still very good condition).

On the advice of Wikipedia, I've opted to read the rest of the book in the order they were written. I immediately dug out the first book I had read more than a decade ago (yes, I still had it, because that was one of the few book I'd bought back then instead of borrowing from the library). It was read flying to and from Huntsville. I'm 3/4 done with the second, and have the third here with me in Virginia. I'm trying to leave some to read on the planes home, or I might have finished them both by now.

NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!!!

Take the hundred push-ups challenge!

I'm taking the challenge. Are you? I missed a couple days with being sick, but I've got my strength back now and I'm back on track. Today I'm doing Week 2 Day 2. I'll fess up - on my initial challenge I could only do 8 proper push-ups. I was so mad; I was sure I could do at least 10. I could do 10 in a row a few months ago, last time I'd tried.

I did 11 before I wrote this post. I did 9 before I wrote "I was so mad..." I did another 7 just before I wrote this sentence. I've still another 7 to do in a few minutes, and at least another 10 after that. I find it a bit easier if I do stuff in between. Sometimes I get caught up and it's another before I remember to do the next set. But the point is I'm doing them!

Trying this again

I had intended this to be sort of a travel blog, telling you about all the cool stuff I was doing on my travels. Well, it turned out I wasn't actually DOING much, and hence had nothing interesting to write about.

So I'm going to refocus a bit, and try to make this updates about what's going on with me in general. But first, a quick travel recap to get you up to speed:

• The Chinese circus was awesome.
  
• We left Curitiba shortly after my last post and stayed in Brazil until our Visas were expiring in early/mid-July.
  
• We flew back on Copa through Panama (because business class on Copa is as cheap as coach on Delta).
  
• We got 1 whole day at home to run a million errands.
  
• We spent about 5 days in Huntsville, Alabama visiting Billy's family.
  
• I finally got to go to the Space and Rocket Center!
  
• I met my new niece, helped her father (Billy's brother) start a Roth IRA, got together with most of his family (handed out our christmas presents!) and reconfirmed that I absolutely cannot stand children and will never them. It's not your fault little Beka - I just hate kids in general and am a strong supporter of VHE for environmental reasons.
  
• Copulate, don't populate! Birth control is cheaper than children. /end rant, resuming story
  
• We were back in the house in NY for a few days, and had friends visit from Boston and went to a party at a lake house up on Champlain.
  
• Billy flew to Alaska to go fly fishing with his dad. He'll return the 4th, get 2 cavities filled the next morning, and fly out to work in Florida that afternoon. He should be back the 9th.
  
• I left a couple days later to visit my parents in Virginia while he's away. The days in between were miserable because my anemia came back with a vengeance. Note to self - taking a multi-vitamin every day is essential when your diet is in flux due to travel and an irregular schedule.
  
• I'm in Virginia until the 6th (we may leave for Australia on the 10th).
  

I'm getting sick but I have fabulous jeans

Today billy went back to Ipatinga. I stayed in Curitiba. Good thing too - his hotel is having internet issues. He'll be back friday. Unfortunately, I also started feeling sick today. Last week billy had a little bit of a cold. Now I either finally caught it, or picked up a 'free gift' while out shopping. I'm sneezy with a scratchy throat. I bought some tea and I'm hoping for the best. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't get any worse.
I did end up going out to search for jeans. The closest shopping center was, as I expected, a bust. Then there turned out to be a mall 4x the size a block away. Most of those stores are even more expensive. I found one that was walmart cheap, but the jeans that fit were hideous. Sort of looked like I'd leaned against purplish brown paint. And this is supposed to be fashionable? Even for less than $20 I couldn't convince myself to buy them. Finally, I did find a store that had less than $100 jeans. They also had a huge selection - probably 20 different styles, and at least 10 pairs of each style. The other stores often only had 5 styles with 1-2 pairs per size. Even the ones that had more styles rarely had them available in all the sizes, and most of the styles were way to 'fashionable' for me to ever really wear. Shiny silver paint smears. Tapered legs so tight it felt like a compression wrap on my calf. Large plastic decorative stones. Weirdly placed, non-functional buckles. And then there's just the fact that most of the ones left simply didn't fit. I did end up buying 3 pairs at a lovely store that turned out to offer free tailoring! I have a rechid time getting any pants to fit normally so this was a miracle to me. That's why I bought 3 instead of 1. Yes, they were more expensive than I would have liked. And yes, all the jeans here are painted on in a way that will REQUIRE me not to gain any weight back. I consider that motivation and I love these jeans. I had to go back the next day to pick them up. It felt like christmas. And now I won't need new jeans for a few years.

Let's see, what else has happened? We went to the local craft market this weekend with a guy from billy's office and his wife. It was a lot like the one in Portland. Then they took us out to the largest restaurant in Brazil. It serves THOUSANDS of people every Sunday. And it's italian. Go figure. They have to do it all family style and there's no menu - you eat whatever they bring to your table. Chicken wings, friend chicken thighs, chicken livers (actually quite tasty), potato salad, rice, lettuce salad on the table and a rotation of pastas brought by the servers. Very brazilian-italian (as opposed to 'real' or 'italian-american'). But it was still a pretty good selection and very tasty.

Oh yeah, and the Chinese National Circus is coming to town. We go to see them Sunday :)

Brrrrrrrrrrr

Curitiba isn't nearly as warm as Porto Seguro. Perhaps it's because we're hundreds of miles further south and not on the beach anymore. Plus, we're headed into winter in the southern hemisphere. So we're talking 50-60 degrees and rainy. I packed for ~80 degrees and sunny. I'm having serious wardrobe issues. So I finally broke down and had to get a sweater. I bought a nice zip up cardigan, a super soft long sleeve T and a thin turtleneck sweater. If desparate, I can layer all three together. But I still only have one pair of long pants. And to think I almost didn't even bring those! I also only have 1 pair of non-sandals along. It looks like we'll be here for at least another week or two, so I'm going to buy a pair of pants and possibly a pair of shoes. We've got plenty of room in the suitcases this time, but our budget can't handle me going back to the stores I bought the tops at. I had to try really hard not to spend a total fortune on clothes. As it was, my total was about $200. Ouch... If I spend $200 on cloths, I usually get at least 5-6 things. I'm not cheap, but I'm frugal. I'm going to try to find a less fashionable store for the other ones. The neighborhood we're in is way too high class for me to even try again.

I like Curitiba

We flew to Curitiba without incident on Saturday morning. Having to fly out at 4 in the morning is a pain, but I did get a little sleep on the plane. We had a bit of a scare I guess in the Sao Paulo airport. Our flight had to leave from the international departures area because it was going to Argentina after our stop in Curitiba, Brazil. Billy's visa doesn't permit reentry, so we were concerned about having to go through the customs/immigration control desks. But they're not idiots and when we showed them our tickets to Curitiba we got waived through - no passport check or stamping required.

Our hotel here in Curitiba is the Mercure. It's very nice. I'll post some pictures later. We have a two-room suite. The first room has a kitchen area (microwave, mini fridge, counter w/ mini sink, cabinet & drawer with 2 each of plates, cups, mugs, saucers, bowls, knives, forks, and spoons), a desk/table, a couch, and a smallish (maybe 19") flat screen TV on the wall. And a door to our balcony :) The second room (there's a closing door in between) has the bed, closet, and bathroom. I like almost everything about this room better than the Brisa da praia, except the bathroom is smaller, the air conditioner is in the bedroom so it doesn't cool the living room much, and there's even less storage space (even though it's a bigger room).

When we got here, they gave us a room on the 13th floor. That's the top one with rooms on it. The 14th floor has the gym, squash court, saunas, and pool. We unpacked and went for a walk around the neighborhood. It's a rather fancy area with fashionable shops and restaurants. We ended up at a less trendy but actually open at 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon restaurant. It was basically a diner, but they served cocktails :) I had a fantastic drink - strawberries and apple chunks with a bit of vodka. With a cinnamon stick for a stirrer. Basically, it was more of a fruit salad in a cup than a drink. When we came back after our late lunch we took a nap. I got up again around 6:30 PM and fiddled on the internet for a while. At 8 I went and woke billy up so we could get dinner. We went to a Cuban restaurant we'd seen in the afternoon. It was very good.

Unfortunately, when we came back, our toilet wasn't working. It wasn't flushing very well before we left, but maintenance was going to come check it out in the morning. It was essentially non-functional upon our return so we had to change rooms. Having a toilet is kind of an important part of staying in a hotel. So I had to pack everything back up and billy went to try and explain the situation to the front desk, Brazilian dictionary in hand. Luckily, the guy at the desk spoke English pretty well and quickly got us a new room. The one he'd chosen was a two-level suite instead of a side-by-side . Billy had stayed in one of those last time, and as cool as it sounds, he didn't want to deal with our big heavy suitcases on tiny spiral staircase that leads to the bedroom. So the guy rebooked us again into a room exactly like our first one but on the 8th floor. We unpacked again and went to bed.

Sunday we slept in, then went for a walk around the area after breakfast. We went through a pretty park and down a long pedestrian only shopping street. Everything was closed except the drug stores and lunch counters. There was a fair number of people out walking around though (it was beautiful out). We stopped by the grocery store on the way back to try and figure out what to stock our kitchen with. But we didn't have any money with us, so we have to go back tonight to buy some breakfast and lunch food. We went out for a late lunch again, but headed the wrong direction to find any restaurants open at lunch. We wondered a bit trying to circle around to the area we'd walked around in the morning. We ended up finding a bakery that was open. They had fantastic displays of desserts, but a few lunch items too. We each got a chicken pie thing called an empada and then discovered they had a buffet in the back. So billy got some quiche too, and we picked out tiny pieces of a bunch of desserts to split. It's all very tasty. I'll probably go over for a lunch or breakfast buffet a few more times. You can either pay by weight or a flat rate. On the way back we discovered that the office billy needs to go to for work is actually on the same block as the hotel. We can see it from our balcony (jut not the side with the logo on it). So billy can walk to work instead of dealing with a car.

I worked most of the rest of the afternoon. There's a variety of ethic restaurants around here - cuban, chinese, swiss, german, portuguese, italian, and american. We went to the american one last night. It's a fancy burger joint called Mustant Sally. I saw some people eating these amazing looking chili cheese fries, so I decided to get a chili wrap instead of a burger. Billy had a burger sampler platter with five tiny burgers. We will definitely go back. The burgers were amazing. As in seriously the best burgers we've ever had. And the dessert - WOW - it was an apple tart served in a hot skillet with a huge scoop of icecream. Then they pour thin camamel sauce over the top at the table. It boils when it reaches the skillet. It was amazing. We resisted the urge to order a second one.