Sitting at SFO, headed to China for 2 years at least.

We spent the last three days in San Jose with friends.  Just about every minute of it I longed for everything to revert to its pre-recession state. Back when I gave myself the name "overworkedtiredandnumb."  We had two jobs,… Read full post »

Keeping it realistic

Flipping Out

Tonight I developed a cough.  Is there such thing as a stress cough?  Maybe my body is pre-emptively preparing for the pollution. 

This move is going to be slow torture. Tomorrow the international shipment goes out. On Monday, the rest of our stuff gets packed up and… Read full post »

Preparing for the Chinglish assault

Jimmy cleaned out his office at work yesterday in order to pack up boxes for the company to ship to his new office.  He brought home lots of goodies.  One was a book that I absolutely love, Chinglish: Found… Read full post »

Two elements regarding the Ft. Hood shooting catch my attention. (Admittedly, the investigation is in it's early stages, so some speculation is involved.)

1) A civilian cop trained in dealing with these situations ended the shooting by taking down the shooter.

2) Investigators are looking into wheth… Read full post »

I am still fighting the good fight to convert all my stuff to digital, and therefore portable, form.  Today I scanned the log book that I kept when my mother died.  The log was meant to keep track of the events that were swirling around us while we were in a… Read full post »

When I was a kid, suburban neighborhoods like the one we lived in still had a bit of that "Leave it to Beaver" feel.  Kids played in yards and ran in packs.  They organized baseball games and had special names for the various places to meet up.  There was a big… Read full post »

T minus three(-ish) weeks and counting. By Thanksgiving we will be holed up in our luxury apartment wondering what the hell we were thinking.

Using up the liquids

We can neither send the liquids (and chemicals and drugs) to China in our moving shipment nor can we store them with our… Read full post »

My first-grader, Eleanor, is learning about various forms of writing in school.  She has learned how to compose a letter and now writes several each day, to me, to her father, and to her sister.  She doesn't seem to have realized that she can write to people further away than the… Read full post »

I used to work in an isolated "research park" area where lunch options were minimal. One of the options was a pizza buffet. I think it was Pizza Hut.  Large groups of asocial techies would converge at lunch time for the buffet.

The restaurant, aiming to maximize profits, would bring… Read full post »

Shortly after takeoff on the second leg of our arduous trek home yesterday, I overheard an old couple.  Apropos of nothing I could discern, the old man suddenly asked, "What was the name of that ol' RCA Victor dog?" 

The old lady mumbled something in reply.  Not an answer.… Read full post »

We're enjoying our first overseas trip with the kids this week in Dublin, Ireland. While Jimmy is at work all day, I'm left to wander the streets, and museums, and parks with Eleanor and Hazel. I've been pleasantly surprised by the adaptability of the girls and by Eleanor's sensitivity to the… Read full post »

Years ago there was a .wav file making the rounds, viral audio in the age before the word viral was used so frequently.  I think it was a radio show skit. Someone is calling a restaurant and the DJ answers the phone and says, "Chinese Pizza, take your order." Jimmy and… Read full post »

Given that I am significantly overweight (this is my euphemism for obese), I was hoping that food would basically suck in China. No luck.

Tuesday, midway through our apartment-hunting marathon, we had lunch at a terrific and unique restaurant.  Our housing agent, Maria, took us there, helped us… Read full post »

So, by Wednesday we had reduced our living options in Dalian, China, to two choices: a new two-bedroom plus study apartment at Shama Luxe and an enormous four-bedroom seaside townhouse.  On Wednesday morning we asked to see the townhouse again, because we knew it had some serious problems that w… Read full post »

We went for the luxury apartment.  Small, but very safe. The stove sealed the deal.

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Our choice for housing comes down to two options which correspond to style of living.  The first place we saw today was a small apartment in Shama Luxe, which is a luxury "serviced" apartment building still being constructed here.  The Shama company is large and well-known. This would be th… Read full post »

We are here in Dalian, China, to look for a house or apartment to move into in November for 2 years of expat living. Before leaving, I purchased VPN accounts from two different providers: HotSpotVPN and WiTopia.  These are necessary to get around the Great Firewall of China and to access… Read full post »

I've been blogging almost a year.  Well, the blog has been an unsteady enterprise, but I've been thinking about blogging for almost a year.  And that means that I am approaching the one year anniversary of my mother's death. 

My first blog was actually supposed to be a/… Read full post »

 This is my response to the Facebook/OS challenge to take 15 minutes to list 15 books that impacted one's life.  I took much more than 15 minutes and instead of listing the books, I've given quotes from them.  The challenge to you is to name the books.  Some of the quotes… Read full post »

When I was a small child, in the early 70s, in an integrated, suburban neighborhood of Huntsville, Alabama, I lashed out in a fit of anger, calling one of the few black boys on our street a "nigger."  My parents were not shocked by my outburst of rage and cruelty.  By… Read full post »

I am a major packrat.  I have a sentimental streak combined with a librarian's sensibility.  This is a bad combination, as when we moved to Arizona a year ago and paid an enormous amount owing to my inability to throw out stuff. Books are a major weakness.  So are notes and… Read full post »

This is not my Farrah hair.  This is my brother Clay's Farrah hair.  The woman's influence extended beyond her own sex.  Vain young teenage boys loved her hair as much as her body.  And Clay always had great hair.

I like my employer.  No workplace is perfect, but I find the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff at my job nearly every day.

But I have seen some marketing campaigns that laid big honkin' eggs for our products.  Don't even ask me about Ira Pumfkin.  This week, however, they… Read full post »

I know it's lazy just to embed some videos.  But, I've heard a bit too much about young men lately.  Hell, let's hear it for old broads who can sing!

Nanci Griffith

Lucinda Williams

 Emmylou Harris

 Linda Ronstadt

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