gnatweds

... why there's the awful silence on the blog?

Sorry lah, but my parents - The Sohs - are in Rochy, MN. They arrived Sunday midnight/monday morning.
Heh, maybe G thinks nothing's going on but I have been a tad bitty bit stressed out.

Even though I'm officially middle aged, there's nothing like a visit from your mom to get you cleaning up the apartment like mad - lest she casts a disparaging eye over the film of dust that's collected on some improbable crevice.
Drove Gene mad with the cleaning and packing - he has bits of everything, from books to documents to receipts ALL over the place. This obviously creates some conflict, I want to be able to see the table again, but he says that if I clean up the mess he won't be able to find stuff he *strategically* placed in the mess.
Eg: "I know that I put the document under that pile of papers, next to the nail clipper, diagonal from the bronch textbook. If you move it, I won't know where it is..."

You get the idea.

Mom and Dad are staying in the spare room while here - which means I'm getting used to sharing a bathroom with gene again. I tell ya, I'm getting spoiled, I REALLY like having my own closet and bathroom.

Heh, having own bathroom also means that I don't *ahem* have to see the mess in his bathroom and what I don't see, I don't know, and what I don't know; I don't have to clean up after ... although this has backfired on me I realise. When you erhm, *enforce* ignorance for a while, you kinda get pay back... big time. Let's just say I had to clean up gunk a colour that i never knew existed on this earth during the recent before-parents-arrive-cleaning exercise.

But having own bathroom also means that everything in there is all yours! And you can also put in touches you like... like scented soap here and hand towels there without upsetting your partner's space and barang barang. It's lurvely! And if there is a decent closet that you can walk into nearby, even better!

There are some things and concepts I'm definitely plotting and planning to bring home.

Anyway, back to mom and dad. So far (It's been two days) they've seen a bit of the town, the countryside and a casino...
Yah lah, typical Asian parents, they wanted to see the Casinos. In all truthfulness, I have no real affinity for the places. But today, I lucked out.
I put money in the $1 slot machines - not knowing that they were $1 games and relatively high value ones - and won $3 the first round. Cashed out immediately and bought a beer for $2.45 (but had to leave a dollar tip). Looked around for parents to pass them the beer but no luck. The casino was quite large. After trudging back and forth for about 25 minutes, and not finding them.
I sat down again at the same machine, fed in $20 note and on the first try won $10.
Cashed out again... so that $10 paid for... uhm... coffee we had earlier. Pathetic huh?

Eugene is lucking out with home cooked breakfasts prepared by my mom; and I have been kicked back into Sous Chef mode - ie cutting up stuff while mom - as jet lagged as she is - supervises with a keen eye and does the actual frying. I personally this is a rather tragic-comic combination of lurve, ie my poor child, let mommy do it AND complete dismay at my ability, ie my poor child, she's never going to get what being a good nonya cook is, let mommy do it.

Anyhoos, It's 1 am. Am off to bed. Expect a little more radio silence for a while from moi, but will encourage G to blog if he's not too busy. Cheers!

No blog updates

Nothing is happening man, nothing.

here's hopping it snows really hard soon.

Art: As requested, I made a snow angel.... The snow was deep enough!




We only frolicked in the snow at night, cos heh, a bit pai seh to do so in the middle of the day when everyone's looking. Made snowballs ran around sinking into the stuff and then slipped back into warm confines of the apartment and promptly shed snow everywhere on carpet hahahhahahah.

The sky spat out 8 inches of snow this morning! Cars and buses are covered with the stuff.
Sadly, I was at working while this was happening otherwise I would have been running around eating falling snowflakes.

couldn't resist the temptation to drift the car when I got back to our compound. Only thing preventing me from doing donuts is the space constraint. So far the Michelin Alpin P2 snow tires are holding up pretty well. They have to - the only ABS and traction control I have is my right foot. heh.

We're currently experiencing a snow storm - kinda cool except the roads are tres treacherous... spun this morning even though i was going REAL slow... so turned on the 4-wheel drive, and then it was fine.

But sweeping the snow off the Ford this morning was not funny. Walking through the stuff wasn't fun either - to get from parking lot to the door, had to wade through snow that was up to my calves.

Its dumping about 1-2 inches per hour at the moment and we're likely to get to something like 6 to 8 inches. The fir trees look like something right out of a snowy christmas landscape at the moment; and everything is real quiet... the cars are going reallly slow.


The view of the courtyard at St Mary's Hospital where I volunteer.

The view from the window where I sit and blog on the computer at home.

And that's what is outside the door at the moment!

Woke up to a very warm morning today

It hit 23 deg C by mid day.

Was it because I had sleep-walked through a worm hole and it was summer again? Did it mean that I could look forward to hopping on a plane and head home soon?

Noooooo, it's just the crazy weather here. In fact, come Friday, it will hit a high of 2 deg C and a low of -7. Unbelievable

So, it's off for some Asian food with the Tays....

Nov 6 has rolled around again.

We just came back from a birthday party - Dr G bent his will to organising it. Love him lots even if he can't keep secrets for long. :) (Guess i'm actually lucky that way?!!) I had fun nonetheless... Thank you G!

The Rochester-ite bunch turned out in force - and guess what? There are THREE birthdays in the group - ALL on Nov 6. Someone buy 4D! And Toto! I turn 30, TS turns 28 and Rachel... 16. *laughs* Someone was also nice enough to point out that I'm actually twice Rachel's age...

Special thanks to everyone here and abroad who helped me mark the... ahem the big 30.

But Nov 6 has actually become more meaningful now... yes its a day to *sigh* mark the years as they pass, but it has also become a day when we said "I do" and a day which I remember for the great friends who were there every step of the way to us becoming "gnat" officially.

Thinking of each and everyone of you tonight.

But most of all... even though he's just steps away watching Austin Powers on TV... am thinking of my husband today.
It seems almost surreal that we're together today. It was a long time in coming - as everyone back home can attest - but, you know what, even though it has been bloody trying, extremely challenging and incredibly patience-trying...am glad we're together today.

My nostalgia has also given me an extra fillip to take a page out of arti's book and do one of these below.

Bear with it lah! :)

I am the very proud recipient of Wy's home economics handiwork. (PS: i flunked that subject too... unlike Wylyn, I can't sew for nuts.)

Wy; who is one of my bestest pals and we've known each other forever (think Primary School) is
currently on the road to becoming an osteopath in Melb, Australia but she found some time to make me these gorgeous hard warmers from airline socks!

babe, am sure they WILL keep me warm in this cold cold country... LOVE you!!!

You made my day. Thank you!

Nat

Trick or Treat?
Well, that famous American institution - Halloween - passed us by without so much as a boo. Oh sure, the tv channels were running 2nd rate (read bad or re-runned to high heaven) horror flicks, but we didn't carve a pumpkin.

The tiny tot of a pumpkin we bought is still with us... it didn't get cut up.
Looks a bit soft now, but its hung on for more than a month now, and goshdarned it, we're going to get our 50 cent worth of decoration for a few weeks more!

It might even make it to Christmas. (PS: the ads are already starting for Christmas decor, presents etc)

We got a single treat or treater and the poor kiddy was so cold... poor thing. It's running to the minus deg C at night now... currently -8 deg C. Not factoring in wind chill.

Palmed off the candy to someone who needs it for his office. Heheheheh.

oh! Got my bite guard today. I grind my teeth - so all my dentists have said. But I didn't take it seriously till I got here. Must be the move or something cos I was biting down so hard at night that I'd wake up with pretty sore jaws. So this dentist I go see here tells me that I have been grinding so much so that my back molars are pretty much flat and I wore away the top enamel on some of them and dentine has been exposed...
Whoa...

Lucky Gene gets the Mayo Insurance thing so the cost can be recouped - almost $500 bucks! Just for consult, cleaning and this bite guard. Sheesh, healthcare is ridiculously expensive here.