攻让受穿开裆裤夹尿不湿bl_ましゅまろいもうとさっきゅ

Move along, move along..

Well, Mr. Ian has booked his medical appointment for his visa. Yay! We are seeing some progress and are hopefully to the very close end of it all.

Over the weekend, there was another move, closer to the office, where he would be able to not spend an hour on the road driving each way. I’ll miss hearing Jen and Hayden in the background, and the Bouncer stories.

Bouncer is too big to pack in baggage. I’ll be looking forward to seeing them, and lots more people on our next trip to the UK. 🙂

Today was a slurry of frustrating technical issues, dropped Skype calls and not-so-good connection speeds. We can still talk, so it’s not an entire loss.

Next: paperwork. Lots of silly paperwork. Then the interview.

Ever wait for a really good vacation? Multiply that feeling by 10,000, and and it might be close to the “OMG, I can’t wait another minute” feeling involved in waiting for a visa process to complete.

On the plus side, at least we knew we were letting ourselves in for something like this process. I know of a few people who’ve gotten married and then found out, when attempting to get into the US, that they have to have a spousal visa to do it.

Not pretty.

“Yes, you’ll need to go back to your country for at least 6 months, fill out your two pounds of paperwork, spend a few pesos, and wait. And wait. Get through a few hurdles and some frustration. Then, you can come back.”

Worth it in the end, though. Totally worth it.

TLK is already planning on toboggan races. “When Ian comes, and it snows, can we all go sledding?”

Sounds like a blast to me. 🙂

The song in my head

Use Somebody (love this song) 🙂

TLK’s Birthday

Today is The Little Kid’s birthday! She is sporting a new skateboard and various other things. She is happily listening to Michael Jackson (or letting ME listen to Michael Jackson while she tests out the skateboard).

We fired up the webcam so Ian could share in the gift-opening fun. This is the last time that we should have to do any of this by remote! (yay!)

Later, we are meeting 5 or 6 of her friends at a local pottery shop, where they will decorate a mug or photo frame and have it fired in a kiln for them. Several of the girls have mentioned how much they are looking forward to it.

Last night, I decorated cupcakes. I think they turned out well. I used to play with decorating cakes. I would like to take a professional class sometime. I think it would be fun.

A Personal Account

from Todd Harrison, who was in one of the Towers in the WTC on singer 11, 2001.

Clara Victorine Hinds, Rest in Peace

Clara Victorine Hinds was a talented seamstress at Windows on the World. She’d been sewing most of her life and was able to sew a wedding dress at age 14.

She met her husband, Hubert, in Trinidad, married and moved to Queens, NY, to start and raise their family.

Clara had a positive outlook on life and appreciated the beauty around her. Her husband described their 31 years of marriage as “heaven on earth”. She was the cheerleader for her children at their sporting events.

Sadly, at age 52, Mrs. Hinds was lost in the terrorist attack of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Eight years later, it is still difficult to believe the loss of life on that day. Each year, I write a memorial for a least one of the deceased, and remember the moments of that day in disbelief. There are many turning points in the course of human history. This was one of the most poignant.

According to Wikipedia: “Aside from the approximately 2,669 United States casualties, 329 foreign nationals (excluding the nineteen perpetrators) also perished in the attacks. By far the country with the largest loss of life was the United Kingdom, with 67 deaths (excluding the overseas territory of Bermuda). India had 41, South Korea had 28 and Canada and Japan had 24 each. Colombia had seventeen and Jamaica, Mexico and the Philippines had sixteen each. Australia and Germany had eleven each, while Italy had ten.”

The world changed that day.

Since then, many across the world have perished in the name of humanity and freedom. God bless them all.

Project 2996

In Memory of Darryl Taylor

Darryl Taylor, 52, was a skilled percussionist, making a living as a computer analyst at General Telecom. Mr. Taylor had recently changed careers, having obtained a bachelor’s degree in engineering 4 years before.

Mr. Taylor had a passion for latin and jazz music and played in a band on Staten Island called Cocoa Suave. He enjoyed playing timbales, congas, bongos and Bata drums.

One of the members of the band was quoted as saying, “After Darryl’s passing, anytime I hear a Latin percussionist and I hear a Latin band performing, it always touches me because I know that Darryl was one of the best.”

General Telecom‘s office had changed location to the 83rd floor of Tower 1 a year before 9-11-01. Darryl Taylor is among the missing victims of the WTC attacks.

I was able to listen to his name being read at the 2009 memorial in New York City.

Rest in Peace.

William Tieste, in Memoriam

William Tieste was an executive Vice President for Cantor Fitzgerald, working on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center.

Aside from his work, Bill enjoyed family time with his wife and two sons. He coached little league. He loved celebrating Thanksgiving because it included 4 of his favorite things: family, friends, food and football.

Bill was 52 years old when he perished in the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

One Step Closer

Our visa paperwork is in London. This is a huge step forward. From here, Ian and I will be completing paperwork, he will be given an interview at the London Embassy, a medical checkup at the embassy-approved medical doctors, and off he’ll go.

History has shown this process to take about 60 days to complete. Seems like loads more time to wait, really, but in order to get through this, I have to get the word “wait” out of my vocabulary.

What I can be doing is cleaning out my closet, so Ian has a place to put his things. TLK’s birthday is coming soon, and we’ve just finished shopping for that. The party is next weekend. Halloween… I cannot believe Halloween will be here shortly. In some ways, the year is flying by. But, in many respects, it seems to be dragging, as well.

The good news is that Ian will likely be here sometime in 大女小娟二女小妍第二部分. We have a small wedding ceremony to plan and then we’re off to do more paperwork, acclimate him to driving on the wrong side of the road, getting ID’s and other various things. But at least we’ll be together.

Time for a Meme

1. What time did you get up this morning?
5:30, but I’m going back to bed in a minute

2. How do you like your steak?
I prefer medium-rare, but I’m not picky.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
I am not sure, actually.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Friends (still), The Medium or House. Sadly, I also get somewhat involved in The Bachelor/Bachelorette, when it’s on.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
England. I love England.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Nothing yet

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
Indian or Mexican

8. What foods do you dislike?
Brussels sprouts

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
Ian’s house

10. Favorite dressing?
Depends on the day, but honey mustard, cesar, blue cheese (rarely)

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
A Hyundai Sonata

12. What are your favorite clothes?
My winter sweaters (jumpers)

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
France

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
1/2 empty, at the moment

15. Where would you want to retire?
Somewhere warm and lovely… Hawaii?

16. Favorite time of day?
The afternoon. I am asleep for most other parts. 🙂

17. Where were you born?
Peoria, Illinois, USA

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
If I had to pick something, ice hockey. I also don’t mind rugby.

19. Bird watcher?
Yes, I love birds. One morning, I spent an hour on the Internet attempting to identify a bird singing in the tree, by listening to sound files. It was a mourning dove.

20. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Can I be a “midday person”?

24. Pets?
2 dogs and a chinese fighting fish (beta)

25. Any new and exciting news that you’d like to share?
I’m getting married sometime this year. When, is a mystery, unfortunately, but I can’t wait! 🙂

26. What did you want to be when you were little?
A waitress or an astronomer. Really. I still like astronomy, but I could not be a waitress.

27. What is your best childhood memory?
Lying at the bottom of the slide, watching the clouds go by.

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
both

29. Are you married?.
soon!

30. Always wear your seat belt?
Yes.

31. Been in a car accident?
Yes, unfortunately. The last one almost totalled my car. And, no, it wasn’t my fault (I was stopped at a red light and someone careened into me.)

32. Any pet peeves?
Mean people or people who refuse to make an effort to read.

33. Favorite pizza topping?
goat cheese and spinach

34. Favorite Flower?
Ranunculus or hydrangea

35. Favorite ice cream?
oatmeal cookie dough or anything at Ted and Wally’s

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Taco Bell, I guess.

37. How many times did you fail your driver’s test?
None. I taught driver’s ed, too.

38. From whom did you get your last email?
My honey.

39. At which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
You mean, where I haven’t already?

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
Don’t recall

41. Fly much?

I did last year and once this year. You feel like you spend ages flying, when it’s international 🙂 So worth it, though.

42. Broccoli?
I like broccoli, yes.

43. What was your favorite holiday?
Going to England and spending it with Ian and his family/friends. We went to a pub to listen to live music. Have not done that in ages.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
My daughter

45. What are you listening to right now?
Nintendo DS

46. What is your favorite color?
Green

47. How many tattoos do you have?
None at all. Probably never will.

49. What time did you finish this quiz?
I’m guessing 6:23am

50. Coffee Drinker?
Yes, I drink coffee most days… at least 2 or 3 cups of it.

My Week

I won’t get into the woes of my week. It’s been awful in many ways, but as bad as things get, I try to remember they can always be worse. I have a roof over my head, food in the kitchen, my lovely daughter and my wonderful fiance. Oh, and two silly dogs who always want loads (and loads) of attention.

Thank you to all the people who have been letting me unload on them during the week, and providing good advice.

So, I found this article about making the magic last if you’ve found the right guy. Excellent tips in there. Things like this remind me that while immigration seems to take FOREVER, still, I will end up with the love of my life in the end. Thank God.

Sidenote: Do you know the longest-married couple in England have been married for 81 years?

I totally understand what some of my friends have been saying about them “feeling normal for a bit” when everything seems to be going right. I grab tightly onto any opportunity to “feel normal” during the day, because, let’s face it, there’s plenty of opportunity to be sitting around in despair. It’s being lucky enough to *not have to* that makes the difference sometimes. And then, sometimes, it’s not bad at all to sit around in despair, as long as you get a good cry out of it.

Speaking of which, I wish Hillary Clinton could see her way straight to getting her people to push our visa application out the door. Thanks so much, in advance.