So, the intensity has been turned up. Last Tuesday I got word that my visa was approved! Brian and I bought a flight right away (didn't even run it by my new company, just wanted to pull the trigger), and I am flying out of LAX a week from tomorrow, on March 30th. I land in Melbourne in the morning of April 1.
We are leaving Arizona this Friday for San Diego and Brian will take me up to LA on Tuesday. The details are still being worked out, but one thing I do know is WE ARE GOING SKYDIVING on Saturday. WOOOT to the WOOOOOOT!! I am STOKED. A little nervous, but really excited.
Funny thing is, I didn't expect Brian to do it with me. He hates roller coasters, he hates all of the adrenaline kind of rides... so I assumed I would go without him. But when I was calling to put down my deposit the other day and reserve my spot, he says reluctantly, "go ahead and reserve for me too...." all rolling his eyes and acting like I'm making him go see "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" or some bullshit. I'm like, "dude, don't go if you aren't into it. It's kinda expensive, you don't like heights... no big deal." His reply? "I don't want to feel like a pussy since my wife did it and I didn't."
Ummmmm I feel like that's the wrong reason to jump out of a plane from 18,000 feet, but ok.
So we will see if he wusses out or whines the whole time or what. But I am super excited!! I just hope the dude who's going to be strapped to my back isn't on a suicide mission. :-)
As for Justin Bieber? Ok so I was watching the View today (yes, I watch the View. Yes, I know that's lame. What can I say? I'm a sucker for those ladies), and they had on Justin Bieber. And I have heard of this little dude, but didn't know what the deal was about him, just knew he was like the male Miley Cyrus where all the little teenyboppers are all about him. I wasn't really paying attention at first, but then I started listening to him in his interview. He's so polite? He's articulate! He's 16! (Who knows what kind of monster he'll be in few years, but right now he's a sweetheart) Then I heard him sing..... no wonder Usher and Justin Timberlake were fighting over signing his little ass. He's a great singer. Is it bad that I kinda want to download the song he sang on the View?
I know, I'm 32 years old and have a crush on a 16 year old... at least I haven't gotten into the Twilight bullshit.
Back to reality. Tomorrow I am opening an IRA with two 401(k) rollover accounts, going to the bank, making a Target run, and....what am I forgetting?.... oh yeah, PACKING. blahhhhhhhh
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
bday wishes
thanks to everyone for the bday wishes today... makes me feel good to know that i have such good friends all over the place! it helped make it a good day.
it was a pretty basic day, btw. i walked the boys, talked to some folks on the phone, treated myself to a mani/pedi and went out for bbq with brian and his parents... all in all, a great day!
Plans for this weekend include going to the Renaissance Festival in Apache Junction, AZ and seeing Alice in Wonderland.
(me chomping on a turkey leg at the Renaissance Festival)
as for australia, everyone keeps asking when i'm going and it's so frustrating to have the answer of "i don't know yet". I was told I had to purchase health insurance for Brian (even though he won't be in Melbourne full-time until mid-August), so I did that on Tuesday morning. The insurance company is then supposed to email me a confirmation letter for me to send to my visa agent that proves that we have paid. I guess they can't move forward with the visa until they receive that letter... and of course, i still haven't received the letter. I called the company again yesterday and they said they were backed up on requests and it might not go out for a few days.... and the agent won't give me a better idea of the timing of when my visa will get finalized until she receives that letter. And I can't buy a ticket or make any real plans until I get an estimate from her.
So I'm getting frustrated, but I talked to Andy yesterday (who's my American friend in Sydney), and he said that I'll get there soon enough and not to stress about it. Good advice I think. Anyway, so for my SD peeps, the plan is for me to fly out of LAX, probably on a Monday night or Tuesday night. So Brian and I will come out to SD on Thursday or Friday and spend the weekend hanging out with our SD friends before Brian takes me to LAX for my flight. Sooooo.... it might be the weekend of March 25th-28th, or maybe the following weekend which I think is Easter.
So I will keep you guys posted for sure!
In the meantime, I am still getting stuff together here. Made several trips to Goodwill over the last few days and continuing to separate stuff into four piles: donate, storage, ship to Australia, take to Australia now. It's all a bit overwhelming but we're plugging away!
Also, tomorrow I take all four clowns to the vet (dogs in the AM, cats in the PM...can't handle all of them at once). This is when they all get their blood drawn for rabies, call a "titre test". Assuming that everyone comes back positive (0r negative i guess...whatever, the way we want them to), tomorrow will be Day 1 of the 5 month quarantine in the US. So that puts the pets and Brian coming to Melbourne around August 8th or 9th. Not ideal, but not terrible.
That means that I will most likely only live with Dawn for about four months; hopefully she won't want to kill me by then!
On a much more important note, the Steelers. Yes, I know that it is very much the offseason, but stuff is going down. I am not happy about the Ben Roethlisberger situation, although it is interesting that he had two cop buddies with him (along with Willie Colon, who supposedly was cuttin' it up on the dance floor the whole time and didn't see "the incident"). But the cop buddy thing could be interesting: either they are F'ed because they're kicking it with an assailant (i know, awesome word!), or else it might mean that he actually didn't do shit because he cop buddies were around and wouldn't have let it happen . Anyway, it's interesting.
On a positive Steelers note, I am stoked that we are keeping Ryan Clark and that we signed back Randel El again. We need serious help in special teams, so i'm hoping Randel El will be the man for that. I am a little worried about Mike Wallace... I thought he did well last season and really might deserve the third WR spot... but I am not concerned about keeping Limas Sweed. I get a punk/wuss vibe from him, so whatevs. Update: now I am really over him, wtf??
Lastly, I just saw the premiere of Lady Gaga's 9-minute "Telephone" video, and I hate to admit that it was pretty entertaining. Her music is the kind of thing that gets stuck in my head and is catchy, but I would never go buy it.... but I still kinda like her in a wackadoodle kind of way. The video was definitely a bit nutso... but i liked it.
I also like Chelsea Handler.
I am now done being narcissistic.
(I. Me. My. I. I. Me. All. About. Me. hehe)
it was a pretty basic day, btw. i walked the boys, talked to some folks on the phone, treated myself to a mani/pedi and went out for bbq with brian and his parents... all in all, a great day!
Plans for this weekend include going to the Renaissance Festival in Apache Junction, AZ and seeing Alice in Wonderland.
(me chomping on a turkey leg at the Renaissance Festival)
as for australia, everyone keeps asking when i'm going and it's so frustrating to have the answer of "i don't know yet". I was told I had to purchase health insurance for Brian (even though he won't be in Melbourne full-time until mid-August), so I did that on Tuesday morning. The insurance company is then supposed to email me a confirmation letter for me to send to my visa agent that proves that we have paid. I guess they can't move forward with the visa until they receive that letter... and of course, i still haven't received the letter. I called the company again yesterday and they said they were backed up on requests and it might not go out for a few days.... and the agent won't give me a better idea of the timing of when my visa will get finalized until she receives that letter. And I can't buy a ticket or make any real plans until I get an estimate from her.
So I'm getting frustrated, but I talked to Andy yesterday (who's my American friend in Sydney), and he said that I'll get there soon enough and not to stress about it. Good advice I think. Anyway, so for my SD peeps, the plan is for me to fly out of LAX, probably on a Monday night or Tuesday night. So Brian and I will come out to SD on Thursday or Friday and spend the weekend hanging out with our SD friends before Brian takes me to LAX for my flight. Sooooo.... it might be the weekend of March 25th-28th, or maybe the following weekend which I think is Easter.
So I will keep you guys posted for sure!
In the meantime, I am still getting stuff together here. Made several trips to Goodwill over the last few days and continuing to separate stuff into four piles: donate, storage, ship to Australia, take to Australia now. It's all a bit overwhelming but we're plugging away!
Also, tomorrow I take all four clowns to the vet (dogs in the AM, cats in the PM...can't handle all of them at once). This is when they all get their blood drawn for rabies, call a "titre test". Assuming that everyone comes back positive (0r negative i guess...whatever, the way we want them to), tomorrow will be Day 1 of the 5 month quarantine in the US. So that puts the pets and Brian coming to Melbourne around August 8th or 9th. Not ideal, but not terrible.
That means that I will most likely only live with Dawn for about four months; hopefully she won't want to kill me by then!
On a much more important note, the Steelers. Yes, I know that it is very much the offseason, but stuff is going down. I am not happy about the Ben Roethlisberger situation, although it is interesting that he had two cop buddies with him (along with Willie Colon, who supposedly was cuttin' it up on the dance floor the whole time and didn't see "the incident"). But the cop buddy thing could be interesting: either they are F'ed because they're kicking it with an assailant (i know, awesome word!), or else it might mean that he actually didn't do shit because he cop buddies were around and wouldn't have let it happen . Anyway, it's interesting.
On a positive Steelers note, I am stoked that we are keeping Ryan Clark and that we signed back Randel El again. We need serious help in special teams, so i'm hoping Randel El will be the man for that. I am a little worried about Mike Wallace... I thought he did well last season and really might deserve the third WR spot... but I am not concerned about keeping Limas Sweed. I get a punk/wuss vibe from him, so whatevs. Update: now I am really over him, wtf??
Lastly, I just saw the premiere of Lady Gaga's 9-minute "Telephone" video, and I hate to admit that it was pretty entertaining. Her music is the kind of thing that gets stuck in my head and is catchy, but I would never go buy it.... but I still kinda like her in a wackadoodle kind of way. The video was definitely a bit nutso... but i liked it.
I also like Chelsea Handler.
I am now done being narcissistic.
(I. Me. My. I. I. Me. All. About. Me. hehe)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
slack ass
oh, i have been quite the slacker on the ol' blog.... i blame my 'rents... they were here last week and were a (great) distraction.
so yeah, it was great to see dave and linderella. they came out a week from thursday, 2/25 and left on tuesday, 3/2. They stayed with Brian's parents since we would have nothing but an air mattress to offer them after giving away all of our spare bedroom furniture! the six of us went up to prescott to Paul and Paula's place and hung out with Brian's Nana and Zeyda... it was a great time. We ate, went wine tasting, wandered around in the woods, ate, played in the snow with the doggies and ate. My idea of a good weekend....
This past week we have been finishing up our super shopping spree since everything is so freakin expensive in Aus... I am proud of myself... I have become quite the little patient bargain shopper.... I am hoping I can continue to be patient after starting work full-time again. :-) In the past, my idea of shopping went like this: "I like the outfit that mannequin has on. Do you have all of that in my size? Ok I'll take it. Yes all of it." This is not because I don't like to be frugal, it's more because I just don't have to patience to put a cute outfit together... but in my old age I am getting better. I think my fashion consultant Katie would be proud of me too. :-)
Today was a great day. Paula and Paul had a little going away/birthday open house for me this afternoon. We hung out with Bubbi and Dean, Ken, Roe and Ruth, Harold, Lisa and Taylor and the other Lisa (Von Bargen). Thanks to everyone for coming out today!
This week's agenda is to make a trip or two to Goodwill (we have a gigantic box to donate and I am starting to need the space for sorting other stuff), take the pets to the vet for their blood draw for the quarantine process, and hopefully nail down when I'm going so we can buy my ticket. I am starting to get a bit restless re: not knowing exactly when I'm supposed to go. I heard from our visa agent chick last week and she said I passed the first step, but I don't really have a frame of reference for how many more steps there are, how long they'll take, etc.
We want to go to San Diego before my flight, so the plan is to drive to SD on a Friday and then Brian drive me up to LAX most likely on a Tuesday... but I don't know if it will be two, three or more weeks! Frustrating. I want to make plans. But I got a sweet job in Australia, I need not complain.
Oh another thing Brian and I have been doing is looking at what car to buy when he finally gets to Melbourne. We want a small SUV with enough space in the back to put the pups for weekend trips, similar to what we do with our XTerra now. Right now we are most interested in the Nissan XTrail, Nissan Dualis and the Subaru Forester. Any opinions?
so yeah, it was great to see dave and linderella. they came out a week from thursday, 2/25 and left on tuesday, 3/2. They stayed with Brian's parents since we would have nothing but an air mattress to offer them after giving away all of our spare bedroom furniture! the six of us went up to prescott to Paul and Paula's place and hung out with Brian's Nana and Zeyda... it was a great time. We ate, went wine tasting, wandered around in the woods, ate, played in the snow with the doggies and ate. My idea of a good weekend....
This past week we have been finishing up our super shopping spree since everything is so freakin expensive in Aus... I am proud of myself... I have become quite the little patient bargain shopper.... I am hoping I can continue to be patient after starting work full-time again. :-) In the past, my idea of shopping went like this: "I like the outfit that mannequin has on. Do you have all of that in my size? Ok I'll take it. Yes all of it." This is not because I don't like to be frugal, it's more because I just don't have to patience to put a cute outfit together... but in my old age I am getting better. I think my fashion consultant Katie would be proud of me too. :-)
Today was a great day. Paula and Paul had a little going away/birthday open house for me this afternoon. We hung out with Bubbi and Dean, Ken, Roe and Ruth, Harold, Lisa and Taylor and the other Lisa (Von Bargen). Thanks to everyone for coming out today!
This week's agenda is to make a trip or two to Goodwill (we have a gigantic box to donate and I am starting to need the space for sorting other stuff), take the pets to the vet for their blood draw for the quarantine process, and hopefully nail down when I'm going so we can buy my ticket. I am starting to get a bit restless re: not knowing exactly when I'm supposed to go. I heard from our visa agent chick last week and she said I passed the first step, but I don't really have a frame of reference for how many more steps there are, how long they'll take, etc.
We want to go to San Diego before my flight, so the plan is to drive to SD on a Friday and then Brian drive me up to LAX most likely on a Tuesday... but I don't know if it will be two, three or more weeks! Frustrating. I want to make plans. But I got a sweet job in Australia, I need not complain.
Oh another thing Brian and I have been doing is looking at what car to buy when he finally gets to Melbourne. We want a small SUV with enough space in the back to put the pups for weekend trips, similar to what we do with our XTerra now. Right now we are most interested in the Nissan XTrail, Nissan Dualis and the Subaru Forester. Any opinions?
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