it's been a long time....

it's been such a long time since i touched this blog...well, now i have four blogs, so it's kinda difficult to update all of them regularly. since this blog is for me to rant (because i can't rant in my usual blog because mom and dad can read it), now i'm going to rant.

but about what? ummmmmmmmmm, actually my life has been pretty simple. i've been eating and sleeping well...too well, actually. i go to bed around mignight and get up around 9. the wather has been great, too hot some days, but i certainly don't mind that. maddie the mad dog is such a sweetheart. it's so nice to spend time with her although she can be a pain in the you-know-what sometimes with her excessive barking and licking. but hey, when you look into those eyes, you just give in.

ummmmmmmmmm...what else can i try to rant about? my father-in-law i guess. he's still the pain in the you-know-what to many people the same way he's been for over 60 something years i think. boy, can anybody be more negative than him? the quiet moment of the day that marianne can enjoy is in the morning before he starts to 'move' around. that involves yelling for marianne and making his list of things for other people to do for the day. i guess he thinks that if he doesn't tell them what to do, they can't figure out for themselves and the house will fall apart. and it has to be done HIS way. oh no, don't even try to suggest that there's a better way of doing things. it's MY way and MY way only. i really don't know how marianne does it. the kids have certainly been affected by his behaviors. and the saddest part is he doesn't even know what he has done. do this, do that. that should take about 5 minutes with no effort at all. uh, yea if you don't have to do it yourself, i guess that shouldn't take any time. huh, all right. i should stop. at least he's always nice to me...but if he said anything about my dried fish (ปลาเค็ม) being an 'acquired' taste again, i'm gonne tell him 'hey, if you can eat kimchee with pizza and cornbread, you're getting there too." yes, he's been eating kimchee for dinner everyday and with EVERYthing.

ok, i hope talking about my father in law like this is not going to bring me bad karma. at least it's better than saying something bad directly to him, right?

Our Mad Dog

On Saturday, Lori dropped Maddie (AKA the Mad Dog) off at the hotel so that she could spend the night getting reaccquainted with mommy and daddy again. It was great. She's grown at least two inches taller during the past three weeks we hadn't seen her, but she's still our sweetheart baby.

She definitely looks more like a dog, not a puppy anymore. Lori said she could grow another inch, but she's already big for a female Belgian Turveren.

Maddie drooling by the bed....Why?

Ah-hah, Daddy is eating chips and chees dip!!

A good place to eat?

We've been in Webster, NY for over two weeks now. I've been trying to find a good place to eat although I can cook at the hotel. (We're staying in a studio equipped with a small kitchen. The room is actually bigger than Chris' apartment in Hawaii.) I've asked Karen, the hotel cleaning lady, what restaurants are good around here, and she told me "Applebee's". ummmmmmmmm....We didn't go there. Then two days ago, we wanted to have pizza for dinner, so Chris asked the she-male at the office (oh yea, (s)he's pretty scary-looking.) which pizza places are good because there are quite a few around. She told Chis she always got her pizza from Pizza Hut (which we like to call "Pizza Slut" from a t-shirt we saw in Bangkok). ummmmmmmmmmmmmm...we decided to try a local place nearby. It was pretty good like any pizzas are.

We also went to an Italian restaurant by the bay (without anyone's suggestions) last Saturday. The food was good. The portion was HUGE!! We got two big meals out of it.

The Coup

As much as I wanted to see the Thai PM out of his chair, I hate to see military tanks rolling around bangkok and armed soldiers everywhere. It's the sight I didn't expect to see again in my lifetime. I remember seeing something like this once when I was a kid and once again 12 years ago. The last time it happened, it didn't end pretty. Too much blood was shed, and I was old enough to remember it.

I just hope they do what they promise to do. Return power to the people. Thailand's politics will never get better. There will always be corruption, but at least let the people decide.

Before Fall comes....

Fall is in the air. I'm really looking forward to the foliage, but not the cold weather.

Trucking

Chris started hauling all the trailers out to the job site in Webster, NY last week. Driving there hauling stuff takes 7 hours and coming back takes 6 hours. I've been going with him every trip, and we're very familiar with the route now. The job itself will start next Monday, so it means we'll start staying at the 20-year-old Days Inn in Rochester on Sunday night. Not something I really look forward to as I'm sure the hotel is not very nice. Oh well, at least we'll get to be by ourselves.

Some pictures from this past weekend at John's. It was a fun and relaxing time that I felt like I haven't had in a while.

Green Card Approved!

My green card was finally approved after I had to send in additional documents twice to clear off my 2-year residence in Thailand after I left Hawaii. How long did the whole process take? About 7 and a half months. Other people's take about 3. I still don't know why the interviewing agent failed to see in my passport that I didn't leave the country except for the 5 days in Amsterdam before I came here last October. Bureaucratic crap I guess.

Anyhow, the actual green card should be in a the mail within three weeks. I hope I'll have it before we go to New York next month. Then we can definitely go to Canada. :-)