Globetrotter

We're MLS Listed!

2009-05-18T21:46:00.003-03:00

We're selling our house! Want to buy it? Updated link

No time for a real update, too much to clean and huge deadline at work is looming. I've been working my tail off and still feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Vacation will be much appreciated.

Thoughts on antibiotics, hummus, picanha, and sushi

2009-05-01T15:29:00.002-03:00

Since my last update:

I got sick. I had a bladder infection. Hurray for pharmacies that let you walk in and buy antibiotics. The pharmacist was even able to give me a shot so I was feeling better within hours.
We switched back to day shift. The transition wasn't as rough as I'd feared.
My first kindle book completed was 20,000 leagues under the sea. Did you know that refers to distance, not depth? Anyway, it's really rather dry, so I wouldn't recommend it for most people. The book's about 1/3 a cataloging of undersea species, 1/3 nautical history lessons, and 1/3 adventure.
One of the Fins showed us a Lebanese restaurant in Tres Lagoas! Why could we not have found out about that 2 months ago?! Hurray for hummus!
We went to the churrascaria one last time when Billy had a day off.
We went to the Picanha Bar one last time - it was absolutely fantastic that night. Glad Alex could come out and share a bottle of wine with us even if no one else came.
Said goodbye to Titina and Aaron. I do so hope we'll see them again! Not sure if it's more likely to happen by visiting their house in Atlanta or running into each other on the road again.
We finally left Tres Lagoas. Our maid was so sad to see us leave. (Seriously, she looked like she was going to cry - she's such a sweetie!) I'll miss her too even though we were almost entirely unable to communicate.
We had a great dinner at the fancy restaurant in the Sao Paulo airport. I highly recommend hitting them up for the dessert buffet! It's in the steak & sushi place at the far left end of the 2nd floor. Yum!
Flew 'home' to Porto Seguro. Yes, we're back in the Brisa da Praia. No we couldn't get our old room - we had to settle for the one next door :P
Trying to hit up all our favorite old restaurants is difficult with so few days in town. First night I feasted on sushi at the Japanese place by the ferry. Second night we went out for 'gnocchi on the 29th' at the place we were introduced to it. We had a terrible time finding the restaurant but it was worth it. We'd almost forgotten what it was like to have proper 'service' in a restaurant!

Tonight's our last dinner here. I'm hoping to convince Billy to go out for Italian. But he'll probably want his favorite chicken and catipury pizza one last time.

Tomorrow we leave in the afternoon for Sao Paulo. Our chances of making it are about 50-50. I hear the connect we have to take from Salvador gets canceled a lot (they send you to a hotel if they do). Good thing we don't fly out on Air France until Sunday afternoon!

I've been very busy working - I maxed out at 50 hours last week - in a desperate attempt to stay on track with my big project for oDesk. It's going pretty well (the content is great) but there's just so many pages to write! Apologies for not writing more here because I'm writing so much there...

Time to Get Away

2009-04-09T06:44:00.004-03:00

Yes, I have my Kindle. But I'll have to talk about its awesomeness another day.

I think Delta must be hurting for money. I keep getting emails from them (I'm on the newsletter list) with all kinds of crazy deals. And a couple really caught my eye. For example, now until June 15 you can get up to triple medallion qualifying miles just for flying in the higher fair classes. Take a few good long trips, and you'll be at Platinum in no time. These bonus miles only count towards you status level, you can't redeem them for free flights. The other was for up to 50,000 bonus miles for flying round trip to the UK. These bonus miles don't count towards you status level, they can only be used for free flights.

And there's nothing stopping you from taking both deals at once - so we're flying to the UK! We dropped our plans for a big Europe by rail trip in favor of trying to clean up and sell the house. But a 2 week vacation would be awesome. We've got our tickets booked, but no other plans yet.

Even better, we're squeezing some very cool free flights (and more miles) out of Billy's company. Instead of flying Sao Paulo (GRU) to New York (JFK), we flying to London (LHR). It was cheaper, so they don't mind. And that lets us book a round trip LHR-JFK-LHR and then fly home from the vacation Dublin (DUB) to Albany (ALB) (through JFK). The weirdest part is, booking GRU to LHR plus DUB to ALB is cheaper than booking GRU to LHR alone. So we won't have to buy that leg of the journey. Crazy stuff.

The itinerary:

May 3 : GRU to LHR (on Air France with a half day layover in Paris)
May 4 : Visit with our friend Oz in London for a couple days.
May 6 : LHR to JFK (on Delta, business class)
May 20 : ALB to HSV (on Delta, but the flight's too cheap for bonus points)
Go townhouse-hunting in Huntsville. Hoping to put in an offer on something - I'm still working this week
May 26 : HSV to ALB (on Delta, again too cheap for bonus)
May 31 : JFK to LHR (on Delta, business class)
June 14 : DUB to ALB (on Air France operated by Delta - we may or may not get some bonus points for this leg)

Other than trying to hit up as much of the British Isles as possible in two weeks, we have no set plans for the trip. We'll gladly accept suggestions!

Now all I have to do is complete my giant project work before the end of May. A vacation sounds like a good motivator!

What's the point of going to the club anyway?

2009-04-08T04:09:00.003-03:00

I'm not sure how going to a club usually works in the US - I've never been to one - but it's sure an elaborate process here in Brazil!

Stand in line. At about midnight.
Get past bouncer(s) there's usually 1-3 in a cluster at the door.
Go to cashier. She will need your phone number and name, and give you a card to used to track your bill.
Show card to another bouncer at inner entrance. Guys are often frisked at this point.
Hurray, you've made it into the club! Go find your friends.
Know a 'regular' or somehow finaggled your way to the VIP section? You'll now need to get past the section gatekeeper.
Want a drink? Give VIP waitress your drink card and order, or go up to the bar and wait in line to give them to a bartender.
The odds of your card and drink being returned by the same person you gave them to are about 50-50. They may even been given to you by different people.
Repeat previous step every time you want a drink. Generally, there's not any food available. It will be very loud and smokey for the remainder of your stay. The later it gets, the louder the music will be.
Want to leave? Go find and wait in the check-out line!
Give cashier your card and pay up. She will give you back your card.
Take card to the outer set of cashiers (where you checked in). They will confirm you paid in the computer, and then give you the back your card.
Take card to the cluster of bouncers at the door. One of them will scan your card and mark you as having left the building.
Now you can leave. If it's earlier than 4AM, you're obviously completely lame.

Personally, I'm interested in going to a club for one, and only one, reason: to go dancing. I've tried the here club twice so far, and failed in that objective both times.

The first time, the place was packed, but it was 'country night'. So they played techno until the band started (but no one danced), a country band was played for a few hours, and then (I'm told) the DJ came back on and people did dance. I just didn't stick around long enough.

The second time, a more generic band played. Same deal - DJ, Band, DJ. I did stick around long enough (you have to wait until after 2 for the dance party to start)- but the place was dead. It's not very fun to go dancing in a big club that's 3/4 empty. And most of them were just standing around. There were maybe 5-10 people dancing in the whole place. I know that doesn't mean I couldn't dance, but it's just not the same to dance by yourself - maybe if I'd been in a group with those 5-10 other people... but they weren't even in my section. I kinda doubt I'll bother to go again. It's nice to see everybody having a good time, but I hate paying a cover charge just to hang out in a loud, smokey room drinking.

Good news

2009-03-25T23:56:00.003-03:00

Good news: I got all of Billy's pictures!
Bad news: I got all of Billy's pictures.

It's going to take a while to figure out which ones are just duplicates I already have (most of the wedding pics, for example), then get them all sorted, tagged, and uploaded. I think most of it might be worth waiting until I get home. Then I'll have the new iPhoto to work with (hurray for facial recognition and Flickr integration) and a faster internet connection. But I'll try to get at least our recent travel stuff up sooner than that.

More good news: Aaron's on a plane to Brazil as I write. I should have my Kindle in hand by dinner tomorrow!

For those who may have assumed I was announcing we got approval to stay here for the duration, alas, but no. No word at all. Billy's pass is still only good until the 30th. He's on nights now, so I hope someone thinks to renew it for him!

Lots of photos uploaded

2009-03-21T14:51:00.002-03:00

I finally got around up loading photos again. I've got a bunch of new ones from here in Brazil, plus some from the end of the China trip. I even added what little I had from Australia. I'll have to see what I can get from Billy from the Sydney trip and upload that too.

DSCF0748.JPG [Flickr]

2009-03-21T10:24:56-07:00

faerievert posted a photo:

DSCF0747.JPG [Flickr]

2009-03-21T10:24:44-07:00

faerievert posted a photo:

DSCF0746.JPG [Flickr]

2009-03-21T10:24:33-07:00

faerievert posted a photo:

DSCF0745.JPG [Flickr]

2009-03-21T10:24:24-07:00

faerievert posted a photo:

DSCF0744.JPG [Flickr]

2009-03-21T10:24:02-07:00

faerievert posted a photo:

Permanent Address

2009-03-19T19:38:00.002-03:00

I've never understood the term 'permanent address'. Maybe that's because I've never lived in the same place for more than 5 years straight. When we bought our current permanent address, I honestly thought I'd break that record. The house was nice enough. The area was nice enough. Billy's job seemed like it would last. But it's got two big strikes against it now:

It's really inconvenient to leave behind when we travel.
I'm getting antsy.

When I decide to make a big change, it's like flicking a light switch. Sure there was lots of thought and worry and mulling over the options that went into to it, but once my mind is made up, that's it. Time to move forward full speed ahead.
In that vein, we finally made up our mind to sell the house and move this past Sunday. Ironically, that's my mom's birthday - one of the few people I know who's moved more than I have. Billy had off from work (power was out at the mill, I think). We went to a big corporate party thing, then spent the afternoon talking. I've been getting more and more annoyed with having to deal with leaving our house behind when we're away. So I finally started to entertain what is really the most logical option - moving to Huntsville so Billy's parents can keep an eye on the property and take care of the mail. I'd rather move in with my parents (in an apartment over the garage or something), but to pretend that they're really not going to move AGAIN in the next few years is just silly. I stopped believing that claim when I was in first grade. They've moved about 10 times since then. Changing my address is something I'm very familiar with - but it'd be even more of a pain when I'm not actually home most of the year.

To be perfectly honest, I'm still not that hot on the idea of moving to Huntsville. The thought of having so many relatives within a couple hour's drive totally creeps me out. I grew up seeing mom's side of the family twice a year, and dad's side of the family twice a year. The idea of having to do 'family time' on a regular basis makes my skin crawl. The fact that most of the family events are centered around children, or break down into talking about children just makes it about a zillion times worse. It's not you, it's me. Of all the possible conversation topics on earth, I would probably rank children last. For people with kids, however, it tends to rate #1. Sorry, but if that's what you're talking about, I'm really not interested in being around.On the plus side, Huntsville is a growing city with a fairly large population of young professionals. Which means at least we'd stand a decent chance of meeting some new people - people without kids who'd be willing to use some of their disposable income to participate in interesting activities with us on the rare occasions we are 'home'.

The main issue with moving though is that we can't do it so long as there's 2 trucks spread out over our basement, lawn, and garages. Which had meant that we'd stick where we were until Billy could turn it all into one truck and get rid of the extra pieces. Then we could look for a condo, and maybe buy an old mechanic's shop for Billy's toys to live in. I suppose it's only fair that if I'm compromising to move to Huntsville, Billy should to. On his end, he's actually agreed to get rid of the trucks! I agreed to let him buy a Harley to assuage the affront on his manhood that giving up this project apparently entails. But he has to buy a cheap starter bike first. After all, he doesn't have his license yet, and he doesn't really know how to ride. Better to learn on something smaller and cheaper. And on the off chance he turns out not to like motorcycles as much as he thought, we'll only be out 2 instead of 15 grand. At this point, I think I'd move anywhere Billy wanted if it meant we didn't have to bring the trucks along. I know he'll have toy cars again some day. And I'm fine with that. When that day comes, we'll have a big barn of a workshop decked out with everything he needs to make his vision come to life. I'm not fine with having projects sitting around for years that he doesn't have the time or tools to complete.

For now, we're still in Brazil - crossing our fingers that tomorrow will bring positive news about his work permit. If he doesn't get it tomorrow, I strongly suspect we'll be going home. If he does, we're here another month or two. At that point we can go home and get the house on the market as fast as possible. Most home sales in NY are in June-August. In the mean time, we're browsing the condo/townhouse/patio home market of Huntsville. Billy's parents are so excited we might move home they immediately contacted a agent to help us get info on the development we liked the looks of - townhomes for 120-150k, with 2 car garages! It sure would be handy to have a garage so we can just lock up and leave without putting the car in storage. But most places that have them are the much larger, much fancier developments. I'm not spending an extra $80k and buying a place twice the size just to have a garage. But there are a few places that meet our criteria. The question is whether any will be available when we're ready to make the move!

Of Chocomint and DSL

2009-03-12T15:06:00.002-03:00

Last night we had a great dinner out with a bunch of finnish guys, and their brazilian girlfriends. We went to the place from Valentine's day - probably the best restaurant in town. Turns out nearly the whole place was full of Andritz people, in three different big groups.

Tonight we've got plans to go over to the only other American guy's house. His Finnish girlfriend is visiting for a few days. I was discussing what to bring to the cook-out and was talking about why we live in the hotel instead of a house. One word. Internet. We'd been told there was no way to get real internet in a real house. Apparently, Robbie (the guy) has a house AND internet! Whoever lived in the house before had arranged for DSL somehow. Ugh. I could have had a real desk and a real chair and a real kitchen. It's only one more month here probably. So I doubt we'll be moving. The DSL couldn't have been easy to get if no one else has been able to figure it out.

And for some reason, Billy told me the ice cream shop had promised to make me a batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Last time we were there, we discovered they had mint syrup. So I told the gal we should try for mint chocolate chip milk shakes. Which is what we ended up having last night. A little heavy on the mint syrup (which was really a bit more spearminty than peppermint), but still pretty good.

Life's a bit dull right now

2009-03-06T00:39:00.002-03:00

I'd like to believe you've noticed I've been blogging less. It's not so much for a lack of interest in writing to you as a lack of subject matter to talk about. I prefer to talk about my travels, since I assume you find those interesting. But Tres Lagoas is, well, dull. It's a rather sleepy, hot, small, Brazilian city. It has a lot of very small restaurants, most of which serve the same stuff. It has 3 or 4 decent pizza places. They're all fine, but no one in Brazil makes pizza the way I really like. Not enough sauce, and the crust is never quite right. We keep going to the same handful of restaurants over and over. None are all that interesting. Not bad. Just not anything to write home about. We're thrilled to occasionally eat dinner someplace with real chairs. Nearly everywhere is outside on the same crappy plastic chairs. Or the even more uncomfortable wooden ones. At least the food is pretty cheap. Billy and I can easily eat for less than his allotted per diem. Breakfast is included at the hotel (a very limited buffet). Billy eats the provided lunch at the mill. I buy cereal and eat that every day. Sometimes, I steal a banana or apple and a roll from breakfast and have that instead. If I really want something larger, there's a gas station across the street with all the usual Brazilian meat-stuffed breads. Some are fried, some are baked. I bought some ketchup to keep in the hotel room in case I go get one of those.

So please don't think I'm living some sort of glamorous life down here in Brazil. Thing's weren't much more interesting for me in Porto Seguro (our last long-term stay in Brazil) - but at least my room had a tiny view of the ocean. Here I don't even have a proper window to look out of! The room's a bit of a cave. Probably more so than Australia. Only here it's too hot to leave the window and door open. There it was too cold. Even with the AC running, it's about 80 in the room during the day. I feel bad for the poor AC unit working so hard, so I leave it off whenever I can stand to. On a cloudy day I can leave it off all day. But the rainy season is over - and the cold time of year hasn't started yet. So I'll be living in a hot box a while longer. Luckily, we should be gone before the coldest time of year. When it's down to the 50s outside this place is going to be uncomfortably cold. Even if the AC unit has a heat pump, the ceiling is so high it wouldn't do us much good.

I have been working a bit more. After a rather drawn out start, I finally have the green light on my big new help center project. Between that and all the new smaller jobs that have been added to my list, I have more work than I know what to do with. It's difficult to ramp myself back up to full hours. I'll be falling short again this week. I thought I'd make it, but it turns out Billy will not be working Saturday. So I can't put in a full day. For some reason I tend to put in better work days on the weekends. Maybe because Monday feels like a deadline I need to meet? I always want to have something good waiting for the bosses when they come in on Mondays.

Most of the pictures here were taken with Billy's camera and never made it onto my computer. I'll try to remember to get those from him this weekend. Then upload them all Monday. Internet's a lot better during the day, weekdays. In the evenings, all the hotel has more guests trying to use it. On the weekends there are usually power fluctuations that knock it on and off. I think we've lost power at least once every weekend so far.

Billy's paperwork is still with the Brazilian officials. His pass is good until March 13. I do hope he has his documents by then.

I ordered my Kindle yesterday. I think it will ship Monday (super-saver shipping). I got a zippered neoprene case to protect it when not in use. The one I'd really wanted (a folding fake-leather book cover style) wasn't going to ship for a week or two. Maybe I'll get it someday, but I can't wait that long right now. I'm having the Kindle and cover shipped to mom to test out and load my books. I've saved a list of a few dozen freebies I can start with - classics like Dante and Jane Austin. Then she can ship it to Aaron in Atlanta. He's flying here at the end of March. He promised to carry it on for me. Cool electronics have a tendency to disappear from luggage. International shipping is very expensive, and I'm not sure I trust it. I'm so very grateful he agreed to bring it for me!

I've been having a bit of insomnia the past week. Hence Billy's in bed sleeping, and has been for an hour. And I'm here writing this. I think I might start dosing myself with benedryl at dinner if this keeps up.

Busy investing

2009-02-28T02:11:00.003-03:00

I've been a busy investor this past week. My roth solo 401k is finally funded and invested. I had a bit of fun buying Birkshire Hathaway and General Electric. I could have bought in for a bit less than I did, but I'm still happy to be able to buy so low. I've not gone stock-crazy though. Most of it is in mutual funds (heavy on international and small cap).

I read a fair number of personal finance blogs. Most of them have mentioned Lending Club by now. I decided to take advantage of a $25 for signing up offer. I mean, why not? Sign-up turned out to take about 2 minutes. I was expecting it to ask a lot more questions. Guess you can skip all that if you're just going to be a lender.

I went through loans today, and decided to lend my $25 of free money to an optometrist in Kentucky. This seemed appropriate, as Billy's dad's an optometrist, and I was born in Kentucky. If I decide to put some more money into Lending Club - and I do think I will - I'll stick mostly to the less risky loans. This particular one was a level D and came with about 15% interest. For comparison, an A is about 9%. But a lot less risky. These attractive returns don't come with FDIC insurance. If we invest any 'real' money, I'll be more picky about income verification, credit scores, etc.

If all goes well, you're sure to be hearing more about Lending Club in the future.

So now I'd like to offer you $50 to sign up too. You're free to withdraw the cash as soon as you complete sign-up - or invest it like I did. It's free money, so what do you have to lose? In fact, I'm a bit bummed I only got a $25 bonus when I can offer you $50!

For the record that I will get paid a small bonus for the referral. And you'll be able to refer friends too after you sign up ;) May sound a little like a pyramid scheme, but I'm not one to turn down free cash. Still, I couldn't bring myself to spam my address book about it. And I discourage you from going that route either.

On a travel-related note - our stay has been extended until at least March 13th. The paperwork is all submitted. We hope it will be sorted out before his visitor pass is up for renewal again. We really don't want to go home yet! There's not a lot of jobs going on and Billy'll drive me nuts hanging around the house while I try to work!

[Update 7/1/09] Seems they've reduced my referral bonus to $25. Bummer. It's still free money though.

Heaven is Where:

2009-02-20T11:25:00.001-03:00

Heaven is Where:
The Police are British,
The Chefs are Italian,
The Mechanics are German,
The Lovers are French
and
It's all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is Where:
The Police are German,
The Chefs are British,
The Mechanics are French,
The Lovers are Swiss
and
It's all organized by the Italians.

I couldn't find the author of this quote on Google. But I had to share it anyway.

Birthdays in Brazil

2009-02-15T14:38:00.002-03:00

Once again, Billy and I celebrated our birthdays in Brazil (Feb 7 & 13). Billy worked on his birthday, but only a half day. We went out for lunch at the Churasscaria. It was fantastic. We spent the rest of the day watching movies on my laptop. In the evening, we went to our favorite ice cream shop for petit gateauxs. They are delicious there. We were so full of delicious meat and chocolate :)

For my birthday, Billy got stuck working late. I was hoping for gnocchi at our favorite pizza place. I thought they had a list of pastas at the back of the menu. I was right that there was a section listing gnocchi. But it's only available on the 29th of the month. Some weird Italian tradition that very popular in Latin America. I'm going to go back on the 29th of March, and probably every month after that :)

Since I couldn't get my pasta (there aren't any decent Italian restaurants in this town), we got pizza. My pizza was probably the best I've tried there - Canadian bacon and pineapple. And the onions I stole off of Billy's half. Yummy. I love hawaiian pizza. We got the small size (only 2 slices each) so we could hit up the ice cream shop for cake. They have a whole cooler full of awesome cakes - and we hadn't tried any of them yet! Billy had black forest cake with black forest ice cream. I had a vanilla cake with layers of vanilla and chocolate custard and marshmallow topping. And a side of ice cream (chocolate/vanilla swirl with tiny chocolate flakes - called pavé).

We'd hoped to go to the churasscaria again on Saturday. Billy had to work at 10-4, and the place isn't open for dinner. Why, I don't know. I asked the receptionist if there were any Italian restaurants (maybe we'd just missed it). We got a recommendation and a map. As it turned out, it wasn't Italian. But it was fantastic. So we were very happy. And too full for dessert! We ate too much to turn around and stuff ourselves at the Churasscaria today. Oh well, maybe next weekend.

Kindle... are you the answer to my problem?

2009-02-12T22:58:00.002-03:00

One of the most annoying things about long trips is that I tend to have a lot of time to read... but only a limited amount of room in my luggage for books. Books are bulky and heavy. And since I try to bring books with me I like, I not only have to lug them with me, but lug them back again when the trip is over.

This has become a big problem this trip for two reasons:
(1) I didn't bring a couple dozen magazines with me like I did last year (because I canceled my subscriptions to reduce junkmail)
(2) The more I read, the more I want to read. Thereby increasing the amount I do read.

Now I'm conflicted. I love building a library of books. I normally by used paperbacks for less than $5 each. But my location independent lifestyle is not compatible with my desire to read, and keep a lot of books. (It would work just fine if I didn't mind disposing of the books along the way.)

My proposed solution: get a Kindle. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it last year. I knew Amazon had come out with an eReader. But that was about all I knew. And now the second generation device is about to start shipping. If it weren't for some blog post about the new release, this solution may not have even occurred to me! Generally speaking, second gens are way better than first gens. I don't care one bit about the 'wireless downloading' - I can't use that internationally. I already know I have to download to my PC then transfer the content. I'm speaking from a purely spatial standpoint - the Kindle would save me space and weight in my luggage. The books will (mostly) cost me more than they do from Powells, but a book I can bring with me and read is better than one I can't. Even if it's a bit more expensive. And most titles are still under $10. Older books seem to be in the $6-8 range. Some are even less. I can always ask for Amazon gift certs in lieu of physical presents.

The catch? Well, first there's the price. A brand new second gen will set me back $359! For $100 less I could pick up a used first gen. Normally, I go for the late model to save some cash (I did for this laptop, for instance), but I don't think it's worth it in this case. And I think I can mentally justify the cost as long as I use it for more than 2 years. The second problem is shipping. Amazon doesn't ship to Brazil, or anywhere else in South America for that matter. I'm guessing a combination of customs and fraud concerns. So I'm gonna have to ship to to either Billy's parents or his office, then have them ship it to us. Since his office has more experience with international shipping (and will probably already be sending us some stuff in March, assuming we stay), I think they're our best bet. But it still makes me nervous - will the package arrive with my fancy new toy?

If you have any experience with using a Kindle, or thoughts on my plan, please let me know!

25 things about me. Yes, I broke down and did it too.

2009-02-11T12:19:00.002-03:00

I don't usually participate in meme's, but I happen to like this one. And it's a nice way to get back into the swing of blogging. I know, I've been silent far too long.

1) I've lived in at least 16 towns and 19 different addresses (by 'lived' I mean was my legal address, or the place where I slept at night & received mail for at least 2 months): Louisville KY, Bowling Green KY, Mission Viejo CA, Walhalla ND, Canton NY, Bradford PA, Wilson NY (x2), Cobh IRE (x2), Rochester NY (x2), Washington DC, Owenton NY, Baldwinsville NY, Owenton KY, Ypsilanti MI, Irvine CA, Moreau NY. And that's not counting the hotels I've 'lived' in since we became semi-nomadic. I can't even imagine what it would be like to live in the same place for a decade, let alone a lifetime. To me, home is wherever I'm sleeping that night.

2) I'm a bit obsessive about tracking our personal finances. That may not be healthy, but at least I know where all our money came from, is, and is going. Do you?

3) I was Salutatorian of my high school graduating class. That means I was #2. I got to give a speech at graduation and everything. Unfortunately, I had to do so with a fever of 100+ degrees and don't really remember much from the ceremony except sitting on stage clinging to my chair hoping I wouldn't pass out. Thank you mom for forcing me to get up, drink some soup, and go, even though I felt like I was dying!

4) I had an article published on the front page of the newspaper in 1st grade. The teacher had assigned us to write journals. I HATE writing in a journal, so I asked if I could write an essay instead. I wrote about how I was going to save the world when I grew up. She was so impressed, she sent it to the newspaper. The Union, Sun & Journal is so lame they actually printed it.

5) I can't swallow pills. I take them in a bite of food, or in peanut butter like a dog. I choke on any solid floating in liquid - so I also try to avoid ice in my drinks.

6) I'm terrified of fireworks and knives - two of Billy's favorite things.

7) I'm an excellent shot. Duck hunt is the only video game I was ever good at as a kid. I impressed the range supervisor at the gun shop in Huntsville Billy took me to. I kicked Billy's ass (and most of the rest of the group) during target practice at our gun safety course. I legally own a .22, but we're away so much I've only gotten to play with it once!

8) I adore food. Eating new foods might be my favorite part of travel. Swan, Ostrich, and Guinea Pig all very tasty :) But spaghetti is still my favorite. I could eat it every day. If I'm stuck alone at the house, I'll often make a huge pot and eat that all week.

9) I may be smart, but I am incredibly lazy. I respect hard work, but hate having to do it myself. To be perfectly honest, everything I've ever excelled at has come easy for me. If it's hard or going to be a lot of work, I try to find a way out of it.

10) I'm comfortable with public speaking or in social settings where I have some 'official' capacity - but normal social gatherings make me very anxious.

11) I've never taken any illegal drugs, or any tobacco product. I didn't even drink alcohol until the end of my freshman year at RIT. Six years later I'm still a 'light weight'.

12) Caffeine does not wake me up. Therefore I've never acquired a coffee habit (saving me a ton of $$). But if you're buying, I'll drink a caramel skim latte. On the rare occasion I'm in a coffee shop, I'll usually get myself an herbal tea. Or a hot cocoa. Cheaper and yummy.

13) I like helping people. In high school, that meant feeding and hanging out with drug addicts and drop outs. In college, I kept the drunks for hurting themselves at frat parties. Now, I have to content myself with answering forum posts. I work much harder as a volunteer than as an employee. Go figure.

14) By a normal standard - people you speak with and enjoy the company of regularly - I have no friends (other than my husband, and my Mom). Moving a lot, I learned to just leave people behind. It's not that I forget the people, but it doesn't occur to me to maintain the friendship when my life moves on. If you'd like to be in touch more, just let me know.

15) I was a devoted church-goer from 4th to 12th grade just so I could be in the choir. I did it again for a while after we got married and moved to our house. I finally decided to stop being a hypocrite, but I miss the singing a lot. If I ever stop traveling, I'll have to find a community group to sing with. Or at least start attending the Unitarian services when I'm in town.

16) While on the subject of music... I grew up playing the flute. I was even in a marching band for a year. I got bored with it in high school and tried the oboe, then the bassoon, then french horn (success! my brother's cute friend gave me lessons). I stuck with the horn for 2 years, then finally quit the band and just did chorus my senior year.

17) I had my heart stopped in the hospital. I had supra ventricular tachycardia. One day it got up over 200 beats per minute and stayed there. So the hospital injected me with stuff to make it stop and reset. I got to watch it flat-line on the monitor, which was pretty cool. But it feels like an elephant jumping on your chest. They actually had to do it twice - the first dose was more like 'pause' than 'reset'.

18) An electrocardiologist later went in and zapped a few cells in my heart so #17 wouldn't happen again. Ironically, I had my heart procedure done on Valentine's Day. Since my 18th birthday was the day before, signing in to the hospital was my first official act as an adult.

19) I got a level 4 buzz cut at the end of 9th grade. I went to summer camp and everyone assumed I was a cancer patient. I would shave my head again if it wouldn't make Billy so sad.

20) I strongly dislike the sensation of falling. I'm so terrified I can't go near the edge of a cliff. But I'm not afraid of hights. Stick me in a harness and I'd be happy to walk over the edge :)

21) I am not EVER having children. I absolutely can't stand kids. I didn't even like kids when I was a kid. So at least my side of the family isn't surprised. When meeting babies, everyone's all 'don't you want to hold him/her?' I just say 'No, I can't stand babies.' Is it rude, yes, but no one tries to make me hold the baby again.

22) I don't like weather. All weather - sunny, windy, cold, hot, snowing... But I do love the sound of the rain, if not the precipitation itself.

23) I was named after my grandfather (dad's dad Jack E. Licht). He died a month before I was born. Otherwise they would have named me Laura Louise Licht!

24) My Myers-Briggs type is ENTJ. It hasn't changed since I first took the test in 7th grade. But I'm a borderline Extrovert/Introvert. I like being around people for a while, but at some point a switch flips and I just want the world to leave me alone. I also tend to be annoyingly logical and bossy.

25) I don't believe in funerals. So if you die, don't be surprised that I don't show up.

How do I love the CBD? Let me count the ways...

2009-01-09T04:52:00.002-03:00

My checking account earns a higher APY than today's 5 year CDs at most banks. 3.35%
My savings account earns an even higher APY. 3.41%
My money market account earns an even higher APY than that. 3.57%
The APY on my accounts hasn't changed since I signed up in September. You've lowered your CDs (though they're still higher than most banks). I'll understand if you have to lower the regular accounts, too. But it sure has been sweet of you to keep them up for me.
You don't charge me ATM fees, and refund fees the machine charges. I'll forgive you for currency conversion (0.2%) and cross border (0.8%) fees.
Incoming direct deposits are available faster than any other bank I've used (HSBC, GFNB, E*Trade).
Fully FDIC insured - yes even the money market account. It's only money market funds through brokerages that aren't insured.
Your web banking is easy to use - including downloading OFX files, bill pay, PDF statements, balance notifications, and transfers between CBD accounts. I'll forgive you for the lack of bank to bank transfers (you say you're working on it) and direct connect to download straight from Moneydance (you do work with Quicken Online).
Debit cards with Visa logo (and NYCE, pulse, and PLUS) for the checking and money market accounts. I'll forgive you for the lack of debit card on the savings. I've learned to live with lack of ability to set your own PIN for the debit cards - but I still think that's weird.
You let me sign up online and download the signature card to scan or fax back to you. Luckily, you accept ACH transfers to open accounts, even though they aren't available in the online banking.
More pre-addressed, post-paid deposit envelopes are just a phone call or email away.
Free checks, with free reorders if I ever need more on both the checking and money market accounts.
Really nice people, in a real bank in Kentucky answer the phone, or will return my message as soon as someone is available. Your southern charm and courteous follow-up to ensure everything was resolved to my satisfaction easily make up for your limited hours of support availability.
Your secure email system is just as good as your phone support. If fact, it's the same people.

Not so enamored with your own bank? Maybe you should give Century Bank Direct a try. http://www.centurybankdirect.com/

Disclosure: I was paid for this post by way of high interest rates on my accounts. But they would have given me those even if I wrote mean things about them (or nothing at all). ;)

Did you do your one thing?

2009-01-03T04:45:00.004-03:00

Back in October, I challenged you to do something each month for your fellow man. How many of you have done it? I'm happy to say I have. Each month, I sponsor a loan on Kiva for $25. Because I know that I won't miss the money, but they will truly appreciate it. Better than just giving to charity, Kiva helps entrepreneurs around the world using small loans. So when the people I sponsored pay up, I can reinvest that money in another project.

I chose my one thing, and I'm doing it. How about you? Here's my Kiva page so you know I put my money where my mouth is.

I'd also like to re-encourage you all to "Click to Give". Right now each of the pages has last year's stats up. 72 million cups of food for the hungry. 7577 mammograms. 989957 children given health care assistance. 522292 books. 14957 acres of land saved. 77.8 million bowls of food for shelter animals. Those are some pretty powerful mouse clicks. Now image if you'd actually participated?

Personally, I've added them all to a folder in my bookmarks bar and just use the the 'Open all in tabs' option once a day. Not as annoying as using them as homepages every time I open the browser, and more convenient than saving one site and clicking through to the rest one at a time. I'm happy to report that Chinese internet limitations have not affected my ability to click to give!

A few random thoughts as I begin the New Year

2009-01-02T04:32:00.003-03:00

I'm not even going to try to turn this into a coherent story, but there's a few things I'd like to say:

The White Swan Hotel's breakfast buffet has the best fish nuggets ever. They've got peas and corn and tiny pieces of carrot inside. Someone should really sell a product like that in the US. You don't taste the veggies, and you can't even see them when you smother the nuggets in ketchup.

There's something different about the cocoa powder in Brazil. I can easily stir it into hot milk and make tasty hot cocoa. I don't even usually bother to add sugar. Try the same thing in the US, and it doesn't work! You have to make a paste out of an inch of hot milk, then thin it out. And it takes a 50-50, or more realistically 2/3 sugar mix to get it to taste any good. What is up with that?

Something called 'rocket' is popular on pizzas and in salads around the world. Apparently, that's what everyone but the US calls Arugula.

Salad dressing, other than plain oil & vinegar, is not usually offered or available.

I will forever long for (and drool at the though of) Brazilian coxinhas and Australia meat pies.

Pizza is not the same everywhere. Luckily, most of the variations are pretty tasty -- even the seafood-based ones. But without a strong grasp of the language, you'll be stuck with whatever combinations of toppings are on the menu. There's rarely a simple build-your-own list available.

Ostrich and swan are both very tasty. Especially in a stir-fry or curry.

Restaurants in some countries (especially Australia) allow you to bring your own wine & beer. Personally, I think that's a much better system.

You're not expected or encouraged to tip service providers in most countries.

Chinese cab drivers always keep 1 RMB more than the fair unless you give exact change.

Unless your bank charges crazy international fees, it's much more cost effective to get your cash from an ATM than to do a currency exchange.

You can leave your laptop in the case going through US airport security checkpoints, as long as it's just a sleeve with nothing to obstruct the view of the x-ray machine. Zippers around the edge are OK.

Never, ever accept a ride from someone who approaches you in the airport, bus, or train station asking if you need a taxi. There's always some official place you're supposed to go to catch a cab. Unlicensed drivers might give you a good deal, or they might drop you on the edge of nowhere and steal all your stuff... or worse. It's not worth the risk.

The most important words to learn in the local language are Thank You, Yes/No, Hello/Goodbye, and "How much?" If you can master those, move on to the Numbers 1-10, the applicable variations of Good morning/Good evening/Good night, "Do you speak English?", and "Where is the toilet?" Learn more if at all possible. The more you can attempt to speak their language (even if you get it completely wrong), the nicer the people will be, and the better deals you'll get!

2008 - A Year in Review

2008-12-31T05:04:00.001-03:00

It's been quite a year! New jobs, new journeys, new goals. So what all has happened?

January

Registered on oDesk.com.
Flew to Brazil for the first time. Billy spoiled me with an upgrade to business class.
First time catching a nap in the Fast Sleep in the Sao Paulo Airport. Every airport should have one of those!
I get to know the staff of the Brisa da Praia hotel in Porto Seguro.
Introduced to the weird world of Brazilian beach club dancing. It's called Axé and the audience is supposed to dance along with the pros on stage. These were all filmed at the club called Toa Toa across the street from our hotel: the stage version, audience participation, aerobics class never looked this good, children's talent show!
Landed my first job on oDesk as a transcriptionist for $5/hr. Apparently I was the fastest typer to apply. These days there are many more qualified transcriptionists vying for work. Never actually had to do the assignment because the guy left on a business trip.
Got my first paying job on oDesk at $9/hr. Some dude wanted help revising his resume for LinkIn. He actually hired me without even performing an interview. Apparently my profile resume had impressed him. It was only a 3 hour gig, but now I had a feedback score and verifiable experience!
2-day adventure in Brazilian health care eventually got us Yellow Fever vaccinations.
First side trip to Ipatinga made me grateful for the US Interstate system.
First side trip to Vitoria got me hooked on Sushi.
At the end of the month, I spotted my dream job in the list of openings: Writing positions at oDesk. I figured it was a long shot, and went on a desperate search for decent portfolio items. I didn't have my old school work with me on my laptop, but I found some articles I did a newsletter online.

February

After a couple of interviews, I somehow landed my dream job with oDesk at $12/hr.
Sea-side churascaria (Brazilian BBQ, aka all-you-can-eat meat) for Billy's birthday.
Delicious Italian restaurant called Area along the Pasarela do Alcool in Porto Seguro for my birthday.
Finally got to pick out my own painting to bring home from a trip.
First ever proper sunburn (as in stayed red for more than a day). Apparently, 3 1/2 hours in mid-day tropical sun with no SPF is what it takes. You'd think with how pale I am I'd burn easily. But no. I'm too Italian to burn, and too German to tan. From here on out, I'm sure to apply the SPF 15 if I'll be in the sun for more than an hour. Which, frankly, doesn't happen often.

March

Back to Vitoria again.
Our house in NY FINALLY gets cable!
We fly back to NY on Copa Airlines whose business class is the same price as coach on Delta. You just have to connect through Panama, which has an awesome club room to hang out in.
Flew out to Portland, Oregon. Billy got upgraded, but I didn't!
Visited the Sealion caves along the Oregon coast.
Stayed with Billy's fraternity brother in Portland. Cooked yummy food, had fun riding free mass transit, went to an awesome dinner/movie theatre, checked out the local artists market, ate with our hands at a Moroccan restaurant with belly dancers.
My parents drove up to visit, and bring us back our dog. We listed Charlie on craigslist and interviewed several new homes. I sure he's happy with his family. He's got a mommy & daddy happy to spoil him, no children in the house to scare him, and a rambunctious new friend to make trouble with.
We cancel the cable TV & phone, leaving just the internet service, saving $55/month.
I rock. oDesk gives me a raise to $20/hr.

April

Flew back to Brazil, this time in coach on Delta. Luckily, the flight was mostly empty. So Billy got to sleep across the middle 3 seats while I attempted to curl up in the side 2. It sort of worked, but it mostly sucked.
Flew to Curitiba and hung out for a few weeks.

May

Actually did some interesting things in Curitiba, like eating at lots of yummy restaurants, going to see the Chinese circus, visiting the botanical garden, and shopping in a ridiculously expensive mall.

June

Anniversary dinner at the same Italian restaurant as my birthday.
Coral island cruise. Thank you Larry for getting Billy to take a day off of work and actually go do something!

July

Finally return from Brazil. Fly business class Copa through Panama again.
Billy buys a new digital camera in the duty free shops. Now he doesn't have to steal mine to take pictures for work!
Fly down to Alabama to meet Billy's brother's new baby girl.
I finally get to go to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.
College friend drives to our house from Boston for a short visit.
We take our friend and her boyfriend up to a party at Larry's lake house up on Champlain. Delicious burgers and the sauna are enjoyed by all.
I fly to Virginia to visit my parents.
Billy goes to Alaska on a fly-fishing trip with his dad while I'm away.

August

I see my brother for the first time in a couple years and meet his girlfriend. We all go visit Jamestown & old Williamsburg.
Buyer invites me (and only me) to interview for a copywriting job at $27/hr. I do one small project, then I'm just on call. He hasn't needed me since, but the job's still open.
Billy returns home to NY, but has to leave for Florida before I get back.
I return a few days later. Due to plane trouble, I end up flying Richmond to Laguardia to Charlotte to Albany. Then having to drive myself home at 1 in the morning. Ugh.
Billy returns from Florida
We fly to Australia on Qantas so Billy can work in Tumut for a couple weeks. Unfortunately, Delta no longer flies to Oz, so our upgrade vouchers are worthless.
I get invited to a web content gig for an AIDS Research group. I lower my bid to $23/hr. I do a few hours, then the group gets a new director and puts the project on hold. Job is still open, but there's been no more work for me.
We decide to have a proper vacation and drive Sydney, pick up tourist passes, then head straight on to the Blue Mountains.
Spend the morning hopping around town on the doubledecker tour bus, then drive down windy roads that were rather frightening in the rain to visit some very impressive caves.

September

Off to Sydney where we drop off the car and spend the week on public transport passes. Petted koalas, 'roos, and crocodiles. Climbed the harbor bridge. Visited some museums and the Olympic stadium. Saw the orchestra in the opera house. Ate delicious mediterranean food, sushi, burgers, and meat pies.
Flew back to NY on Qantas. Honestly, it's not that bad. They've got lots of entertainment on individual screens and the food's pretty good, even in coach.
Drove to Connecticut to sell Billy's car to CarMax. No point in having two cars if we're never home. No time to make a private sale that would have made us more money. Even still, we got more for it than we still owed. We got one of his credit cards to give us a 1% cash advance to pay off the loan, then banked the money from the sale at 3.57% until December. Hurray for arbitrage!
Drive up to St. Felicien, Quebec. It's a long way north. They didn't have many restaurants, so we ate more McDonald's in a week than I've had in years.
Drove back on a beautiful sunny day. It was a gorgeous drive.
I cancel my cell phone plan, but decide to add a line on Billy's parents family share, saving $35/month.

October

Still at our house in NY. I'm actually home for an entire month.
We go through all the junk in our basement, and most of the main rooms as well. We start eBaying and Craiglisting as much of it as we can. Books are up on half.com, piles of stuff are taken to the Salvation Army. We still have more to sell, donate, and Freecycle when we get another change.
I get myself a fancy new digital camera, and refurb previous generation iPods for both of us (classic for me, nano for him). And cables so we can connect our laptops to the TV to watch the shows we download.
Billy goes to visit his family in Huntsville, then goes to Vegas for a few days of Man Time with a college buddy. They're too cheap to both with strip clubs, but drop a few hundred at the shooting range playing with big guns.
Score a fun copywriting gig for a site called Crowdsourcinglinks.com at $27/hr. I don't log many hours, but it's an interesting project.
I dance and sing my heart out on stage at Rocky Horror halloween night.

November

I decline to drive all the way to middle-of-nowhere Maine with Billy. If I'll be wasting more time in transit than on location, there has to be something worth going doing.
Since Billy didn't listen when I told him I should go ahead and get my Chinese visa in October, we go through a serious hassle to secure an emergency exemption from the Embassy in Washington. Thank you next day air and visa processing services!
We leave our car in the airport for what is supposed to be a two-week trip to China.
Hurray upgrade vouchers! Maybe it's a good thing we didn't use them for Australia.
We celebrate Thanksgiving by eating the most expensive meal of our lives in the french restaurant in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China.

December

I actually gain some weight because we've been overdoing it at all the restaurants. I abandon my 'but the rest of the trip I'll probably be stuck with steamed rice and veggies' attitude.
I'm forced to go get a visa extension so I can stay in China another 30 days.
We attempt to go to Christmas Eve service, but the place is mobbed by gawkers and Chinese Christians.
Christmas Day dinner buffet is yummy, but Santa won't give us any gifts.
The manager of our favorite Italian restaurant in Guangzhou invites us to a New Year's Eve party on the rooftop deck. It's a bit chilly up there, but it was a nice way to end the year.

Upgrades rock

2008-12-29T05:19:00.002-03:00

Delta approved our upgrades for the Tokyo-Atlanta leg of our January return from China. We don't know why it took so long (business class was only about 10% full). We're using Billy's Platinum upgrade certificates just like we did on the way over here. They have to be used by February. It's nice to squeeze every last mile out of them for the super-long flight.

For the trip to Brazil, we're using miles to purchase the upgrade. Once you get a big chunk of miles in the bank, it gets easier and easier to get upgrades. On a domestic flight, Billy'll get upgraded automatically for free. If there's room, I can go with him. Internationally, we'll use his platinum certs if we have them, or cough up the miles to upgrade ourselves. The sneaky bit is, when you get to medallion level (silver, gold, platinum) you actually earn bonus points for every flight. And when you upgrade, you get the bonus points for flying in a higher class. I've made silver this year (it's recalculated annually). I'll have to check with Billy to see if he made platinum again or is being downgraded to gold.

Unfortunately, Billy earned platinum level on Delta before we realized that SkyTeam is not really the alliance we want to be part of. We're stuck with it now. When we have to fly on something outside the alliance we'll just make sure we get a really good price. Sure, we'll earn some miles in other alliances, and on independent airlines, it'll never be enough to get any of the good rewards. And once you've flown across the pacific a few times, anything less than 10 hours starts sounding like a 'short flight'. I've flown round trips to Australia, Brazil, and Ireland in coach... but I do like to avoid 'roughing it with the commoners' when I can!

Chistmas time in China

2008-12-28T03:29:00.002-03:00

It's very odd to be in China at Christmas. In a city like Guangzhou, there are decorations everywhere. Our hotel has a 3 story tree in the lobby. Most restaurant staff are wearing santa hats. I saw a tree decorated inside the entrance to one of the local elementary schools. And they're playing Christmas music everywhere. Strangely, many of the places include the religious songs like "Silent Night" "Joy to the World" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". The really odd thing is, I know that 10 years ago, most of these people probably hadn't even heard of Christmas. I read some reports about the holiday indicating that the younger generation loves having a celebration without the family obligations associated with traditional Chinese holidays. One had a quote from a 26 year old saying she'd only done Christmas about 5 times. Personally, I think they're just into the decor, because there's not much of a push for the serious American-style gift giving. Kids may get a small stocking of presents, and adults don't seem to exchange gifts at all.

For those who are wondering, here's how our Christmas Eve & Day ended went:

Christmas Eve was work as usual for Billy. He didn't come early. Everyone I work with is on Vacation, and nearly all my projects are on hold pending management approval, so I'm not working much. In my family, we always went to the candle-light Christmas eve service at church and had a lasagna for dinner. We have an Italian restaurant and a Church of Christ within walking distance, so it seemed worth a shot. Billy called on his way home and asked me to order some pizza so we could eat before we hit up the service. I didn't want to miss out on my lasagna, so I walked to the Italian place and brought us back take-out. On the plus side, I could pay by credit card (delivery boys from Papa John's only take cash). On the minus side, walking half way across the island with the pizza for Billy meant it wasn't exactly hot by the time he got to eat it. Dinner was yummy, if rushed. We thought we'd head to the service at little early (at 7 for a service scheduled for 7:15). Perhaps if we'd gone over an hour to two earlier we could have gotten a seat. The rather small sanctuary was completely full. As was a bible study/overflow room. We wondered around a bit, snapped some pictures, and left after the service started. Turns out the service was mostly in Chinese, as were most of the guests. I was disappointed to find flashing my passport was not required for entry to the church grounds. It's on the US Consulate, but the baracade had been moved back to allow free entry to the church gates. We did notice that all the Chinese in the courtyard had passports in hand. I'm not really sure how things normally work there, but I was very surprised by the turn-out. Outside the compound, the island was quickly filling with people. It seems the Chinese like to take to the streets and wonder around on Christmas Eve. The hotel is a big draw. Some were coming in to attend one of the official parties, most were just coming to take pictures with the impressive decorations. The really, really weird part is that flashing headbands and light sabers seem to play a significant part in the wondering mobs' evening. There were vendors everywhere. And these headbands didn't just light up. Most had glowing or flashing horns. So there were children running all over wearing glowing red devil horns for Christmas Eve. I kinda stalked one of the kids through the hotel trying to snap a good picture (little bugger was moving quick!). We returned to our room after giving up on church, then decided we wanted wine to drink while we watched TV. We tried to hit up a local liquor store, but it was closed. We ended up in one of the tourist shops on the way there (I doubt the place would have been open even if we hadn't stopped). We browsed and haggled for quite a while. I ended up with a pretty purple shawl and green touristy-chinese purse. Billy got a cool present for his dad. We grabbed some ice cream at a convenience store and headed home.

On Christmas Day, Billy went to work again, but got home a few hours early. We got dressed up (I even made Billy wear a tie this time) and headed to our dinner reservations. We'd booked dinner at the buffet we'd gone to before. It was basically the same as any regular night, except they had turkey with cranberry sauce at the carving station and party hats/flashing santa pins at the tables. The price was higher too -- at least it included red wine and champagne. We stuffed ourselves. Billy was very disappointed the santa wouldn't give him any presents (he just handed out little baggies of candies to the children). Oh, and before dinner we recorded the video from my last post. When we left dinner, we could see there were again lots of people walking around wearing flashing horns, though today I was seeing mostly pink, blue, and green. The vendors probably sold out of red the night before!

And no one seems to be taking down the decorations or removing the santa hats yet. I do hope they put it all away after January 1. It'll drive me nuts if they keep this up through Chinese New Year (that's in late January this year, a couple weeks after we leave).

Merry Christmas from China

2008-12-25T12:01:00.002-03:00

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China

With Love,
Billy & Jacqui Pittenger

Embedded video not working? Click this link to watch us on YouTube.

You can check out all our photos on Flickr.

Bah, humbug!

2008-12-22T03:15:00.002-03:00

It's getting that I absolutely loathe Christmas-time. I'm not Scrooge. I just think people should do things because it's the right thing to do, not because it's a 'holiday tradition'.

Things I hate about the holiday season

The sudden surge is charitable giving associated with 'the holiday spirit'
Secret Santas, family gift exchanging, and every form of 'obligatory giving'
Mall Santas (or whatever place you drag your kid to for photos and wish lists)
The spoiled rotten children who receive piles of presents
The spoiled rotten adults who are even worse than the children because they're old enough to be held accountable for their actions
The ridiculous consumerist bullsh*t of it all

Don't get me wrong. I see absolutely nothing wrong with giving presents to show you care. If I want to give you a present, I give you a present. It has nothing to do with the day on the calendar or someone being born 2000 odd years ago. Same goes for giving to charity. I have a problem with people doing these in the name of "Christmas". And it's even worse when they have the gall to do it while calling this a religious holiday. Guess what? Protestants had Santa Claus in Sunday School before they started bothering with the Nativity. Catholics always had it on the schedule, but they used it to help convert followers used to various 'pagan' solstice festivals. So basically, we've got three totally separate types of 'holidays' all being jumbled into one:

The solstice festivals that go way back, and frankly have a much better excuse for existing. The fact that days start getting longer again instead of plunging us into eternal night is actually quite important.
The 'Christ Mass' that is a truly Holy day in the Catholic tradition. Even if the exact choice of day is unrelated to the event being celebrated.
The Santa Claus x-mas that worships at the alter of consumerism.

If you want to celebrate more than one of the above holidays, go for it, but understand they're three totally separate things. So please, just realize if you're sitting around a Christmas tree giving presents in the name of Jesus, you're being a big ol' hypocrite. A true Christian wouldn't just care about his fellow man each December. And he certainly wouldn't run up credit card debt to buy unnecessary junk for his bratty children. You have the right to be a consumerist a**. And I have the right to call you on it.

A social obligation to exchange presents each year on a particular date is silly at best. Worse still is the shear quantity of crap that is exchanged. Sure, I grew up looking forward to Christmas presents under the tree each year. But we didn't get a list a mile long. And none of it was big. Even when I got older and we had more money, we never gave that many presents. And I would have been perfectly happy getting even less than I did get. Generally speaking, I think we should all be giving each other a whole lot less stuff. Why? So we'll have a whole lot less stuff! No one appreciates anything if they've got piles of junk they never use lying around. It takes up space and makes you think you need a bigger house. So not only have you wasted money on crap that isn't being used, you'll end up wasting even more money getting a bigger place to live. It's all bad for your pocket books and the environment. And it gets worse with each generation. You ought to use the money for something that's actually useful, like retirement savings or education. And that's true all 12 months of the year!

Now, the charitable giving has me torn. I strongly feel people should be giving away more to charity (the cause is your choice). And they should be doing it all year long, not just wasting those charitable dollars on creating a fantasy consumerist X-mas for someone 'in need'. No one, I repeat, none one 'needs' Christmas. But they do need a lot of other things. Food. Jobs. Education. Assistance and direction to help them provide for themselves. If you'd like to give a pile of Wiis to the children's hospital, go ahead and do it. Just not because it's Christmas. If a gift is worth giving, it's worth giving at any time of the year. If you're only giving because 'til the season', well, you're not doing it for the right reasons. That's no better than giving for the tax break. But, well, I'd still rather people were giving to charity, for any reason, than spending it on more junk for themselves or their children.

And don't even get me started on the wastefulness of most Christmas cards...

Despite this frustrated rant, there are a few parts of the holiday season that I do enjoy. None of which I'll get this year here in China (ok, there's a small chance at #1 at a foreign consulate).

Things I love about the holiday season

Candle-light Christmas Eve services. I can no longer identify myself as Christian, but as a singer I absolutely adore Christmas Cantatas. And I think singing as a group is good for everyone... even if it's just christmas carols.
Office holiday parties. Even when they're done cheaply, it's important to have a fun event with your co-workers at least once a year. But it's still silly that this is associated with Christmas!
The rare individuals who cross the bridge between holiday giving and real altruism. Now that's a Christmas miracle.
After-Christmas sales. I'm not Scrooge, but it can pay to be a cheapskate. There are some things you really do need. So you might as well buy them on sale.

Busy week, long update

2008-12-20T01:18:00.003-03:00

It's been a few days since I last posted. Here's what's happened:

I went to the Entry/Exit Admin to apply for my visa extension on Tuesday. It was successful in that they accepted my paperwork this time. I go back Tuesday morning 12/23 to pick up my passport. I do hope it contains a visa extension. Otherwise I have to go back to the hotel, pack my things, and immediately leave the country.
I tried to go shoe shopping after I was done turning in my forms. That was a big disappointment. See, the shoe district is actually a terrible place to buyer shoes. Not because it's expensive there (it's not), but because it's full of wholesalers, just like the leather district. Everything here has a district full of wholesalers. They usually have a small box of old samples you can buy. But a US ladies size 8 is not something easy to find here, even in a store that is willing to sell one pair at a time. If I try on clothes, I tend to need a large (rather than the small I wear in the US). All the cute tops are designed for someone with no chest at all. So basically, I feel like a big, fat giant at the end of a shopping trip. I'm now thankful that I don't need to buy clothes for Brazil here.
Aki headed back to Finland, so now it's just me and Billy here. That means we'll be spending less money on wine at dinner, but it also means we've lost the only person we had to hang out with.
We bought our tickets to return to NY on Jan 12. We couldn't get on the same flights we used to come over here, so we're flying from Hong Kong to Tokyo instead. We'll be driving there (there's a coach that pics people up from all the hotels) and get to spend 1 afternoon & evening in Hong Kong. That should be fun. Keep your fingers crossed we get confirmed for upgrades on the Tokyo to Atlanta flight!
On Wednesday evening, we got together with one of Billy's fraternity brothers. Turns out Ethan now works for iRobot -- the people who make the Roomba and the Scooba (and now they have a gutter cleaning robot, how cool is that?). They've got some manufacturers in this area so he was in Guangzhou for a day. He's been over a few times in the last year, and he's actually pretty good at Chinese. Limited vocabulary, but impressive pronunciation. It was nearly an hour taxi ride away (total cost, about $15 each way). How could we not go hang out?! What's the other side of the city when you've already come to the other side of the world? So we ate sushi at his hotel then went out to a street market. It was my first experience not a wholesale district. If I really needed cheap tops or handbags or jewelry or socks, I could have gotten some. I even tried on a cardigan and a jacket. Yes, the prices were good, but do I really need a pretty purple jacket right now? It would have been less than $40, but who knows when I'd ever get to wear it. Not this year anyway.
Last night we got Papa Johns delivered. Yup, they have them in China, too. They even have the garlic sauce. Got a thin crust pizza, a pasta bake, and cheesy garlic bread. It was pretty good. We'll probably order from them again. And it's nice not to have to go out to a restaurant for once. Although it turns out our favorite Italian restaurant also does delivery...

The reason I haven't posted in a few days is that I've been especially busy with work. We had a super important release of a whole new global nav over at oDesk on Thursday. The monthly newsletter and blog posts had to be coordinated with the release. Basically, I'm back to full-time work again. Now need to develop a strategy for a total help content overhaul. Near all the help content is now either obsolete, or painfully out of date. We're trying to shift to less documentation, more in-line help, and more tutorials. Which means lots of fun work for me. And I'm not saying that sarcastically, either.

Going back to the US after all

2008-12-14T22:13:00.002-03:00

Despite the apparent cost savings of flying direct to Brazil, it appears both Billy and I will be flying home between countries.

Pros

Changing out our wardrobes with stuff we already own
Possibly getting to make our dental check-ups
A visit or two to the chiropractor
A chance to go through our own mail
Billy needs to fill out some paperwork for his new life insurance policy
Billy's office needs to install some software on his computer

Cons

It will cost more
We have to fly all the way from China to Albany, then down to Brazil just a day or two later
We only have upgrade vouchers for one leg of the trip
I'll lose 4 days of work to traveling instead of just 2
No new summer wardrobe shopping spree

On the up side, it looks like we may get his company to pay for my china plane tickets after all, so the cost is less important. And the prices really aren't that bad, considering how far we're flying. The part I don't like is that we can leave China no earlier than January 11 (and more realistically the 12th), but Billy must be in Brazil by January 16. Which means two overnight intercontinental flights in one week, and each trip requires 3 legs. Ugh.

A day in the life...

2008-12-10T00:23:00.002-03:00

Here's what my average day is like here in Guangzhou.

8:30 AM: Alarm goes off. Billy has usually already been up for an hour or two showering, reading yesterday's newspaper, getting breakfast, and taking care of emails from the NY and Finland offices' 'day'. I check our various financial accounts and take care of emails. If I want to catch the CA office during 'business hours' I need to IM them first thing.
10:00 AM: Change into something halfway presentable and go to breakfast. Most days, I walk down the stairs (20 stories). The breakfast buffet is awesome. Cereals, yogurts, juices, pizza, chicken & fish nuggets, spring rolls, assorted fresh fruit, scrambled hard boiled and fried eggs, omelet bar, assorted meats, french toast, steamed veggies, fried rice noodles, oatmeal, salad fixings, nasty coldcuts, croissants, breads, muffins, dim sum. And all the coffee or tea you can drink. Luckily, this is included in our room price -- otherwise it'd be about $28/person/day. If it's a laundry day, I take that down with me and drop it off before heading to the dining room for breakfast. It goes to the closest tourist shop/laundry service (about a hundred meters from the Hotel's side entrance). Drop it off by 11 AM and they'll have it ready to pick up by 5PM. A week's laundry for the both of us costs about $10. Sending it out using the hotel's service would be more than $200. There isn't any self-service options around here.
11:15 AM: The buffet closes at 10:30, but I sit around drinking tea (which they will happily keep refilling) and reading a book until I'm confident my room will be ready. The maids come around while I'm at breakfast. I don't like to be in the room while the maids are here, although they don't technically kick me out at this hotel. The staff here is all really nice, and they all seem to know enough English to go with their job. "Housekeeping!" "May I come in?" "May I change the sheets?" Some are definitely better than others, but overall, I'd say their English skills are better than the average cleaning staff at many US hotels. When we were on the 20th floor (an 'executive level') there were 3 people involved in cleaning the room every day -- a maid, a vacuumer, and a room steward to check their work and make sure all our 'executive amenities' were in good order. Now that we've moved to the 19th floor (the executive levels are being remodeled starting next week), there only seems to be single maid involved. I doesn't make any difference to me, especially since they've brought most of the extra amenities to our new room (like better toiletries and a handy tray of office supplies).
Afternoons: I try to get my work done, read my RSS feeds, and take care of whatever else I'm trying to accomplish. Lately, that's been obsessively researching mutual funds for my new Solo 401(k) plan. We started discussing refinancing our mortgage, so I think that'll be my next research project. I eat some food I stole from the breakfast buffet (usually a hard boiled egg, a piece of chocolate pound cake, and/or some mandarin oranges) around 3:30 and finally bother to take a shower sometime between 4:30-5:30. That way I'm looking my best when I go out to dinner, and I can make less laundry by rewearing my nice shirts several times. Honestly, I've only been putting in a few hours a day of paid work lately (about 20/week). But we've got a complete site redesign in beta over at oDesk. So starting next week I'll probably be back up to 30+, and maybe even full time. I love my job, but it's extremely difficult for me to work full time hours on it all the time. When I'm on the clock, nearly all my work involves constant thinking and creating. It's fairly straightforward to just 'do' for forty hours a week. I never had any trouble with it in my old, normal jobs. But inventing new content can be very draining. It's always exciting the first few days of a new project, and still fun when the initial excitement wears off. But after half a year of 35-45 hour weeks (taking zero days off, not even weekends) I had to cut back for a while. If I want to increase my hours while I'm here in China, unfortunately I'm gonna have to start getting up earlier, even if it means getting kicked out of the room for a bit by the maids each day.
Evenings: Billy gets back sometime between 5:30-8:30 PM on weekdays (mid-afternoon on weekends). We usually head to dinner about 30 minutes later so he has a chance to shower. The hotel has half a dozen restaurants. They're all quite expensive, but they get charged to the room. We can't take advantage of that too often -- once a week at most. We do dinner with Oki (a Finnish colleague) about 5 days a week. We try to make it a mix of western and chinese restaurants. The western restaurants have all been very good so far -- especially the italian place a few blocks away. The food at the chinese restaurants is hit and miss. Like they won't have half the things on the menu available. And you never really know what you're going to get, despite the menu being in English & Chinese with pictures. But I'll talk more about our food adventures another day.
Nights: When we return to the hotel after dinner (which usually takes an hour or two), Billy and Oki sometimes have to go write up reports. Although they seem to be giving up and do that less and less. Things aren't going very well at the shop, and I hear about it over dinner, so I don't bother to hang out with them while work on it (I am invited, and there's often drinking involved -- Oki is Finnish after all). Nights they don't work, Billy tries to find something on the TV. We get HBO, so some days there's a movie on we're interested in watching. Another channel has some shows from Discovery and other random American programs like Chuck. Some days I stay on the Internet and try to get Billy to participate in my research, sometimes I do some paid work in the evening (usually when I realize there was something I forgot to do earlier), and other days I give Billy the Internet so he can take care of emails himself. If we need to call anyone in the US, it has to be done either late at night or early in the morning (8 AM in NY is 9 PM here, 8 AM here is 7 PM there). We've been staying up until 11 or 12 every night. Billy's not getting enough sleep, so we really ought to call it make that a bit earlier (6 hours is usually OK for him, so the frustration must be taking a toll).

Links for 2008-06-30 [del.icio.us]

2008-07-01T00:00:00-07:00

How to Really Become the Boss of Your Life

Links for 2008-06-26 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-27T00:00:00-07:00

Links for 2008-05-28 [del.icio.us]

2008-05-29T00:00:00-07:00

8 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Always Be An Optimist

Links for 2008-05-22 [del.icio.us]

2008-05-23T00:00:00-07:00

Gazillion Days - A History Book For Everyone
Go write your story - it's free!

Links for 2008-05-08 [del.icio.us]

2008-05-09T00:00:00-07:00

Not My Patch

Links for 2008-05-07 [del.icio.us]

2008-05-08T00:00:00-07:00

Links for 2008-05-06 [del.icio.us]

2008-05-07T00:00:00-07:00

Personal Finance 101: The Basics of Estate Planning

Globetrotter

We're MLS Listed!

Thoughts on antibiotics, hummus, picanha, and sushi

Time to Get Away

What's the point of going to the club anyway?

Good news

Lots of photos uploaded

DSCF0748.JPG [Flickr]

DSCF0747.JPG [Flickr]

DSCF0746.JPG [Flickr]

DSCF0745.JPG [Flickr]

DSCF0744.JPG [Flickr]

Permanent Address

Of Chocomint and DSL

Life's a bit dull right now

Busy investing

Heaven is Where:

Birthdays in Brazil

Kindle... are you the answer to my problem?

25 things about me. Yes, I broke down and did it too.

How do I love the CBD? Let me count the ways...

Did you do your one thing?

A few random thoughts as I begin the New Year

2008 - A Year in Review

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Upgrades rock

Chistmas time in China

Merry Christmas from China

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China

With Love,Billy & Jacqui Pittenger

Bah, humbug!

Things I hate about the holiday season

Things I love about the holiday season

Busy week, long update

Going back to the US after all

Pros

Cons

A day in the life...

Links for 2008-06-30 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-06-26 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-05-28 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-05-22 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-05-08 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-05-07 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-05-06 [del.icio.us]

With Love,
Billy & Jacqui Pittenger