Saturday, November 29, 2008

Pictures!

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

Thursday, November 27, 2008

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!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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

Saturday, November 22, 2008

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!

Monday, November 17, 2008

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.

Friday, November 14, 2008

A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis

courtesy of the mint blog

Thursday, November 13, 2008

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.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Stop Junkmail!

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

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

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.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Go Vote!

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

Sunday, November 2, 2008

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.

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